Picture of February 2009

On our recent trip to Borobudur, I realized that many pictures that I took were mostly the temple as a whole. But I was fascinated to see the pictures that some friends took showing off the details of this monument.

Some details on the carving that tells the story of Mahabharata and Ramayana.

An experimental photography.

Thank you Melissa Mattingly, Dana Crawford and Abbie for the beautiful pictures!

Perubahan?

Sudah lebih dari tiga minggu ini hujan terus bertamu di Salatiga, tetapi cuaca sepertinya sedikit berubah beberapa hari ini. Sinar matahari sepertinya tidak malu lagi menampakkan dirinya. Walaupun aku menikmati hujan yang hadir setiap hari tetapi kunjungan sinar matahari itu membawa sedikit kehangatan ditengah dinginnya hawa yang menyelimuti kota ini.

Saat aku berpikir tentang perubahan seringkali aku merasa takut dan khawatir. Aku menyadari bahwa perubahan akan selalu terjadi baik dalam kehidupanku maupun kehidupan orang-orang di sekitarku. Hal yang tidak bisa dihindari itu sering mendorong seseorang seperti berada di suatu tempat asing yang tertutup oleh kabut. Secara alamiah, manusia akan sekuat tenaganya membangun benteng sehingga ia terlindungi dari kekuatan perubahan. Walaupun begitu, sekuat apapun benteng yang dibangun tidak akan bisa menahan laju perubahan itu.

Dalam perenunganku, tidak ada hal lain yang aku bisa lakukan selain bersiap-siap terhadap datangnya perubahan. Memulai kerelaan untuk membuka pintu hati dan jendela pikiran adalah hal yang bijaksana sehingga aku bisa memandang lebih luas lagi dunia ini. Tetapi saat terlintas dalam pikiranku tentang akibat dari perubahan itu, hatiku mulai ciut. Aku tidak akan pernah tahu apa yang akan terjadi selanjutnya.

Mungkin Tuhan memakai ketidaktahuan itu sebagai cara supaya manusia-manusia yang kurang beriman dan kurang bernyali seperti aku ini bisa bersandar sepenuhnya kepada Dia. Seperti saat kita berjalan di tempat asing yang diselimuti kabut, satu-satunya hal yang diperlukan adalah nyala lampu yang cukup untuk menembus kabut itu. Aku percaya, walaupun aku tidak sering memakainya, bahwa Tuhan memberikan Buku Kehidupan dan Belahan Jiwa-Nya sebagai terang untuk menerangi jalanku. Sehingga dengan percaya diri aku bisa melangkah menuju ke tempat tujuanku.

Dalam hatiku aku bertanya-tanya lagi, siapkah aku terhadap perubahan itu? Saat aku memandang keluar jendela, kulihat mendung berarak-arak datang menutupi sinar matahari yang sedang menari-nari menebarkan pesona kehangatannya. Bersamaan dengan awan kelabu itu, kudengar deru angin yang datang membawa rasa dingin saat menyentuh kulitku. Mungkin aku tidak akan pernah bisa menjawab pertanyaan itu. Tetapi satu hal yang pasti aku bisa selalu memakai Buku Kehidupan dan Belahan Jiwa Tuhan sebagai terangku.

January 2009 Picture of the Month

I've always thought from the very beginning that the picture of this month would be the ones from our trip to Bali. Well, I found pictures that represent the hightlights of this adventure.

I stole this picture from Abbie's file as I looked through all the pictures she took in Bali. The picture was taken on Sanur beach at 5ish in the morning on the first sunrise of 2009.

I took quite a lot of pictures when we were on the Hidden Beach but it turned out not so good. Thankfully, Peco took almost the same amount of pictures of scenery but with way better quality and angle. He climbed up to the rock and sat there while taking pictures of the surrounding.

Bali 08-09 Part 3

Day 10 - The last day in Bali was the saddest day of our lives. Got to end the holiday/away-from-the-real-life life. We stopped by at the tattoo's parlor for Daniel to get his clan's tattoo. It was a good one.

All stuff were packed and we're ready to leave the hotel. On our way back home, Abbie joined us on our ride on the bus replacing Daniel who flew back to Ponti.

We got to the ferry dock just before sunset. The sun went down as we got in to the ferry as if that's the way of him saying goodbye to us.

This may be the best trip to Bali I've ever had. As soon as the holiday ended, we started to think about coming back to Bali again and stopping by in Gilis. I hope and pray that we'll make it that way!

Bali 08-09 New Year '09

Kuta Beach - We celebrated New Year with friends from Salatiga, Papua and South Africa. It was a whole lot of fun! Go to http://secondhandcheese.blogspot.com/ or http://www.travelblog.org/fred.php?id=365789 for a better description about how fun it was. :) We had New Year's dinner party at Queen's Tandoor, a superb Indian restaurant in Seminyak section. And we spent midnigt right on the Kuta beach with thousands of people. It was loud, busy, crowded, hot but it was an experience that I didn't want to miss.

The first sunrise of 2009

Bali 08-09 Part 1

Christmas 2008. I decided that I needed sometime off from Java and Bali seemed to be an ideal place to get away. So, James, Daniel, Peco and I planned on an adventurous trip to the island of god. Spending Christmas and New Year there was such a different and fun experience.

I am not a good writer so I believe that whatever words I wrote on this part won’t be adequate to express the excitement that we had on our Christmas break. People say that a picture san cay a million words. Since we took a lot of pictures on this trip, so I will write less and put up more pictures. I’ll let them speaks millions of words to you. ;)

On the ferry on our way to Bali

Christmas on Sanur beach 2008!

Dreamland Beach - It was a nice white sandy beach on the area of Jimbaran. The popularity f this beach grows amongst domestic tourists from year to year. It has strong waves that sucks your energy even if you just want to play with water! But it was fun.
On our way to Ubud, Peco drove and on the back were two junkies with their huge suitcase tried to look cool. Sorry for their fingers.

Ubud - Nice little village, try the Balinese suckling pig at Ibu Oka, the healthiest organic food at Sari just behind Abangan Bungalows, or an excellent Mexican food at Naughty Nuri's 2 (We were planning to eat at Naughty Nuri's 1 but all seats were taken). Take a look at Antonio Blanco's Museum, very interesting place. And when you go to Monkey Forest, read #1 rule. Don't touch the monkey's tail!
The Hidden Beach - Definitely the highlight of our trip, though it was only a short visit. For the direction on how to go to this little paradise go to http://www.baliblog.com/ It's not super difficult to find this place but you have to have extra attention finding the little sign that said "White Sandy Beach". A must to go beach for those who like a little adventure. Not much of a touristy beach with some warungs and beach chairs available for rent. Go to Warung Well Come, they have good food and good people to hang out or to talk with.

Year-end 2008

I finally get my mind down and my hands typed this so-long forgotten blog of mine. It’s 2009 and I am getting old … er. I’ve had many exciting things happened in the past few weeks. So many that confused me on how I should put them on this blog. Nevertheless, I’d like to sum-up some of the highlights of the year-end moments.

Towards end of the semester I got news that a good friend of mine/my savior cause he introduced me to the real weight-training/yoga instructor/Jogja travel companion who happened to be the most seek-after bachelor in Salatiga, left for good. What a shock! I was thinking what would my life be doing yoga and weight-lifting without him? And Salatiga without him would be like Hollywood without Brad Pitt/Hollywood without page six gossip columns! I tried to change his mind but it didn’t work. So we finally let him go to where he belongs, the great country of America. I was able to spend some time with him, travelled to Jogja and shared a lot of things about life on that trip.

Christmas time! In recent years, I’ve never really had a good relaxing Christmas time. There is always tons of work and there is always bunch of events going on that make it hard to enjoy the season. This year is no different than those past few years. But it didn’t stop me to be thankful because I had a good bite of enjoying Christmas in a different way.

I counted there were 4 different Christmas parties that I attended last year. The first one was the Solafide X-mas Party. The dress code of this year’s party was white. See the previous blog.

The second and third parties were on the same day and almost exactly at the same time. I managed to attend both of them. Peco, a good friend of mine, teaches English for some students in Salatiga. Most of his students are Moslems but as part of their appreciation and respect to Peco for teaching them English, they organized a Christmas party for him. I was there only for an hour and sadly missed the chance to hear him spoke about the meaning of Christmas. I was glad that he had the opportunity to share about it with our Moslem’s friends. For more story about this go to http://pecohicks.blogspot.com/

After Peco’s, I rushed to a Christmas dinner party hosted by my wonderful friends Shane and Lindsay. I loved the way they organized the whole things. The meal was great; we had turkey plus all the yummy American foods which I couldn’t remember what those were. We moved to the family room after dinner and had White Elephant game. The game was new to most of us but was fun to play. I got the chance to steal Mega’s present! Afterwards, we just hang out, had coffee and tea and talked about different things. It was relaxing, warm and intimate evening.


Sadly though, I wasn’t able to spend Christmas with my family this year. I decided that I wanted to getaway from Salatiga and needed some time off of everything. I went to visit my family the weekend before we left and spent a good deal of time with them. On the pictures are my nieces and nephews, plus my Mom and sister. I didn't get a chance to take pictures of all of us, cause sometimes you just didnt' know where they were. :)

It was exciting because I was able to meet up with my dear friend Mona and her hubby plus their new baby daughter as well on the same weekend. I enjoyed sharing stories with them and was able to getting to know little Maura a little bit.

My next blog would be my adventure with three other guys in a land called the Island of God.