Sunday, July 22, 2012
MasterChef Indonesia & The Dark Knight Rises
Hello peeps, how are you doing? I'm writing this in the middle of watching MasterChef Indonesia. It's kinda on a half an hour break now (I'm not so sure how long) in anticipation of the breaking of fast in Indonesia west timezone. I am currently in love with MasterChef Indonesia. I found out about it coincidentally actually. It's the second season now and I didn't watch the first season and I didn't even know that it exists. So 2 weeks ago, I happened to be going through the Indonesian tv channels and as I tuned in to RCTI, I saw MasterChef Indonesia and what got me attracted straight away was one of the judges, Chef Juna. Coincidentally also, I happened to read an article about him some day before so I kinda had heard of him. He was seriously handsome and I think he's the hottest Indonesian man alive now! I can even get over the fact of the tattoos all over his body :P I remember texting my mom straight away telling her that he's so handsome and to tune in to RCTI :P I couldn't believe I only know this guy exists now :P I think his criticism is as deadly as his smile, but today I think I've decided that his smile is deadlier. So as I jumped half way into that first episode, I realized that the show was pretty good. Last week episodes were good as well for a tv programme but then I have to say that the cooking was bad. Last week some of the things that they had to make were gado-gado and kue lapis. They were to be judged on presentation skills. All the presentations sucks but one person. More disappointing than that, looking at their gado-gado, I may not even want to eat it, they didn't look nice :( I have high expectation as gado-gado is the only way I would ever eat vegetables whole heartedly. Then the kue lapis challenge was rather a disappointment as well. I know it's not easy to do it but I think most of them performed terribly. The example was around 3 cm high and some of them came out with like half of that height. It was so bad that I think if they bring it to the sellers in the traditional market where these would be in abundant, noone would want to sell it. So the cooking was bad, I think they did worse than MasterChef Australia Kids. However I think the show was pretty good, even though I was pretty turned off with the first elimination of the top 20 yesterday. The girls were so drama mama and they cried like mad. They are pretty young but still ... I would have expected more maturity.The way the show feels to me is totally Indonesian, which made realize how wonderful and strange it is that just by watching these characters you just feel a certain bond, you just feel like you can relate with them or the situation, like you know certain people in your world that behave or think that way or share certain characters like the contestants. I don't know if I am describing this well. Simply put, I feel Indonesia watching it and it's great to feel that way :) So the cooking was not so good, I seriously hope it will get better. We are only in week 3, so hopefully they will get better and better. I am already kinda love and somewhat don't care about certain contestants and it's one of the main ingredient for a good reality tv programme - the contestants should captivate the audience and make them care for them. I still wonder though why most of them are in the 20s, because this makes for many emotional, not level-headed youngsters. On the other side of the contestant are the judges. Now, Chef Juna has kinda been marked as the mean one. He's not as screamy as Gordon Ramsay and thank God he's way hotter but still it's such a turn off that my dear cousin dislikes him despite of me being absolutely sure that this is the type of guy my cousin likes :P Comparing to the early days of American Idol, when you have Simon Cowell as the mean one and then you have the nice Paula Abdul and the middle ground Randy Jackson, apparently there's a better formula for that. That is when all the judges can be snappy as well. We have Chef Juna whom so far I felt has been strict and playful at the same time. He has this evil laugh when he feels like the contestants gonna screw up. Then we have the pretty Chef Marinka who can dish some pretty ouch comment, so don't get fooled by her cuteness. Then we have Chef Degan who's more like the silent killer. He looks fatherly, soft spoken, but darn he's also a no bullshit kinda person. This also makes me need to comment on the God damn brainless contestants. They've been told many times that unnecessary garnish are food cost and week after week, some of them still do that mistake. It's amazing that the chefs didn't just scream at them :P Overall though, I think all the judges are actually pretty nice. Yes the comments can cut but if you see them as teachers and bosses, they're actually pretty normal. They're not doing it for the show or for kinda showing up their authority, they're doing it because they want all of them to do right, more in a teacher role. Anyway it's so interesting that I wonder how the first season was like. Chef Degan is replacing one of the judges in season 1, so I really wonder how the dynamic was like back then. I am loving it a lot and though it's not easy keeping up with its schedule every Saturday and Sunday and with my time difference, I do try to do it and when the Sunday episode ends, I cannot wait for next weekend :P It's heartening that there's something with a quality kind of entertainment in Indonesian tv. My only criticism are on the quality of the contestant and the cooking and hopefully as this season continues and as this programme continues, it will get better and better :) Also hopefully future contestants will be ones with more bones and less drama :P
So today, I am back to the cinema. It's been awhile. I went to watch The Dark Knight Rises. I am never a fan of the Batman movies because I feel they are very heavy and serious. However I also feel that many superheroes movies can be pretty shallow and I guess that's the reason I gave The Amazing Spider-Man a miss and chose The Dark Knight Rises. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. I think it's the best of the trilogy and I love it a lot. Its long running time was really testing on my bladder though. In fact there were so many people running in and out during the movie and they annoyed me a lot. Watching it in light of the shooting in America did kinda make me feel rather uneasy at the beginning. Not that I was afraid that the same thing would happen in Singapore, it's just I felt retrospective on the incident. It's reported that shooting began around 20 minutes into the movie, coinciding with a shooting scene in the movie and for the early part of the movie, I did kinda pay attention to where roughly it happened. Sigh, crazy people in America. It's always mind boggling for me that people in America can get guns easily. I guess that's the price of liberty. Anyways as the movie progressed, one of the good sign was that I found myself liking Christian Bale. He didn't come across as pretty likable for me in the previous Batman movies. Then there was Michael Caine, the butler, who got me teary eyed even from the beginning of the movie. He's a really good actor. Overall the story did make me wonder and got pretty confused on the logic of the bad guy, Bane. I had some questions that kinda got answered immediately after I thought of it. As the movie was reaching its climax, I was thinking that Marion Cotillard's character was so unnecessary and I did wonder that how come she had time to change her clothes when she was a hostage. Apparently she was part of the twist of the movie. A twist that made this movie great because I totally didn't expect it. Then coming into this movie, I was actually kinda expecting that Batman would die because of an interview Anne Hathaway did with David Letterman recently. So watching the supposedly death scene, I was thinking, well that doesn't mean he's dead, he could well be alive. Well let's just say that I am glad that the movie ends the way it is :) It's a really good one, at least that's what I think. I do not know what the hard core fans will say :)
:) eKa @ 8:43:00 PM • 0 comments
Saturday, July 07, 2012
Jodoh is the Indonesian word which means soulmate or "the one". However in Indonesian, this word can be used to say something is fated to be and this word is also used for other things not related to love and even for trivial things. At least that's what I, my family, and friends do. I think other Indonesians use the word the same way too. Example of things that Indonesians may use "jodoh" for are things like house, work, car, friends and for trivial things like when you went early to the nasi lemak stall before the queue was long and you saw that there were many fried eggs but when you got there you were not allowed to buy it even though the person before you could buy it, because what were left were already reserved by someone who called for it. So in this case, we could say the fried egg is nggak jodoh (not fated) with you. Yes, even in english to use the word fate in relation to a fried egg is overly dramatic. I remember one time Gascoigne was stunned that I used that word when we were just a few minutes late to a book store and it's already closed. For the malay-speaking him, the word "jodoh" is strictly for soulmate.So what's with all this "jodoh" talk. This was the post that I had been thinking and wanting to write for sometime but I couldn't. Remember of the wait I mentioned in the last post? Well due to that, I wasn't sure how things were going. However this week, I finally got answers. Let's just say that I am ending a chapter of my life and opening a new one. It feels like it's fated or as the Indonesians would say that despite all the processes and steps which felt uncertain at times, this finally comes back to me, so it's really "jodoh". I mentioned before that I've been in Singapore for 12 years now, I went from a dragon year to a dragon year again. I'm completing a cycle of the chinese calendar and I don't know what fate brings me, but as I go to the beginning of a new cycle or ending the previous one, I am also coming back to the place where I started here in Singapore. As usual, I am filled with fear and anxiety about what will come to me. People around me are excited for me and I guess many are relieved that it works out for me. I, myself, have to admit that I feel pretty relieved 'cause feeling rejected is perhaps the second worst feeling after worry or being afraid for me. I really hope that all will work out well. I guess I will be reading a lot the words of encouragement that my cousin, Marlisa, penned for me. Also, I guess I will be playing Jesus Takes The Wheel (Danny Gokey's version) and Buka Semangat Baru a lot. Also I think I will be praying a lot. I think or I hope all the fear which I am having right now will just tire me out and when the time comes, I will just feel numb. Please God help me.
This is also different from the last time I did this and I guess it's a good thing it's this way. I do wish I could have some time for myself but alas it's not to be, which makes me think maybe it's time to stop asking and just accept things as it is now. It's time to pay my due for all the blessing I have been receiving without working much for it ... perhaps. Speaking of the last time I did this and also perhaps in relation to the last post when I kinda talked about how some things need to happen so that other things can happen, well not much relation actually but I couldn't help thinking that perhaps things need to be aligned for me in some way for things to happen. Yeah it still doesn't make sense as I wrote that. It's just my random brain got me thinking that the last time I did this, Mr. N was my french teacher. He's my teacher again now. However the past few weeks, he was away on a holiday and that's when I had to endure the excruciating wait. Then last week, we finally had class with him again and this Monday I got my news. I remembered telling LM, he's like my lucky star :P which made me wonder how this gonna play out in the future because I am planning to stop attending class regularly this year. Well, I guess he'll be the first to say, "yay! I'm lucky for you but I'm sure you gonna do fine in the future" :)
Speaking of french class. Today me and XF and Phil signed up for DELF preparatory class which gonna takes place every friday evening starting 17 August. I don't know how my brain gonna work from 7 to 9 pm but since I am fearful about the exam, I think I really have to take this class. Phil failed his and he's redoing it, so it's pretty scary. It seemed we'll be getting Mr. V. I was actually kinda hoping it would be Mr. C (well perhaps a tiny bit). As discussed with XF, it's a love and hate relationship with Mr. C but I know he would whip us good. Oh well, let's just take things one step at a time. On other news, this coming week seem to gonna be pretty social. It's weird that when I am social, it becomes very social and when I'm not, it's like I'm always in my cave. Oshie is coming to town for something and we planned to meet for lunch sometime earlier next week. Then Starfish chatted with me a bit yesterday. Man! perhaps it's been 4 years since I last talked or saw him and so we're planning dinner with some of the peeps on Friday in people's favourite place Tambuah Mas. I am so glad of my achievement in making all of them like this place :D We do miss tahu telor :P Hope people will come, seriously why do they have to be so difficult? Anyway the fasting month will start soon, so it may get difficult to meet with Starfish and Gascoigne. So yeah, it'll be nice to meet all of them.
Nothing much else to say about life, same old same old. Watching Opera Van Java Awards now but the connection is not so good :( after which I think I'll be watching Indonesian Idol finale. I got hooked into it last week but I didn't watch it from beginning to end. Watching it, I have to say that the production of it is pretty awesome, especially when I think of Singapore Idol. The finale is between these 2 girls, 10 years apart from each other. Like American idol, most of the winner have been boys. In fact I think this is the first girls final. I think I am rooting for Regina, the older of the 2. I think she's very likable and no doubt the girl has some pipes :) I don't know what time result will be out though. The thing about Indonesian, it's like now people don't even try to be on time and hide the "jam karet" (rubber time) mentality. TV programmes often don't start on the time they supposed to and it changes every day, it could be 8 pm one day, and 8:15, 8:05, 8:10 the next day and so on. As for Indonesian idol last week, that live show ran pretty long, I don't know how they did it and how they had the energy to do it (was it 4 hours?). I have a 1 hour difference so it's hard for me when they end pretty late but I think even for Indonesian standard the late ending can be hard too especially since Indonesians generally start the day super early. Alright then, hope you guys have a great weekend and a great week ahead. Oh yeah, Jakarta is having a governor election next week. It seems to be pretty exciting. Too bad Jakartans living oversea don't get to vote. Okay peeps, take care! Ciao!
:) eKa @ 10:00:00 PM • 0 comments
Saturday, June 30, 2012
I Demand To Know What This All Mean
Hello peeps. It's been awhile since I last wrote. It's not like there weren't things that I didn't want to say. Well yeah nothing interesting happened in my life but I did have moments which got me having a soliloquy in my head. I guess in those moments, I just let the moments pass without straight away going to blogger and publish what I thought and as those moments passed, I found myself not wanting to talk about the situation anymore or not feeling that the situation was worth talking about the first time around. It's like taking a step back after the initial reaction to something and not feeling so strongly about what happened anymore after some time. I guess that's what it is. I'm not sure if it's a good thing to bottle up that much sentiments in but this blog is always about what half that bottle contains.My last post talked about a decision that I had to make. Well let's just say that the situation is evolving and at this point, I'm not sure where it's going. There's a lot of waiting and things that I don't understand that I feel like shouting, "I demand to know what this all mean". You see, the dreamy side of me likes to find reason or connection in something. Like, oh this meant to happen because of this and that. However such connection or impact of something in life will be hard to discern because only God has the full picture of anything. They say the flapping wings of a butterfly can cause a hurricane in other part of the world, but for the person who sees that butterfly flapping its wings, it takes a whole lot of imagination to link that to a hurricane somewhere. Okay, perhaps in this day and age, just a google search. I guess the self-centered me try to rationalize what happens in relation to me when instead it's perhaps about other people, not me.
It's like last week, I got a flu that just didn't go away despite of me self-medicating myself dilligently and another thing which was more serious that brought me down really bad :( Anyway, so on Monday I had to march myself to the doctor and so on the way there, wiping my nose, I wanted to scream, "I demand to know what this all mean". Side note: that happened after I wanted to scream "I hate this place" when I was in the toilet (I truly hate that toilet). So there were many questions that could run in my head, but that was what I had. Perhaps it wasn't about me, perhaps I had to be at the train at a particular time to infect someone else and so I was needed to start the chain of events. Perhaps also it was needed for me so that I could share a moment with Max when he kindly cleaned up the mess I created when I spilled my soup that I hadn't had the chance to eat all over the table and floor. Man! I wanted to cry there and then because life was just sucky at that moment and because he was there being so kind and all, I didn't. So I guess there were just that kind of things which you may not realize the effects of something you did or just by being present. However I guess the not knowing what all those things mean kinda drives me crazy. I guess it's most felt in a difficult situation. You kinda want to be comforted that there's a greater reason for what's happening, that this needs to happen for something in the future but that chain of events will be never ending and as I said, it may not be about you. Anyways, I am thankful for antibiotic this week. It totally helped me with the other thing which I didn't mention to my doctor because I was just in a denial about having to face it, but I am better now in that area so thank God.
On other more common me in life, the last movies I watched were The Dictator and Madagascar 3. The Dictator had its shares of boobs and penis. The humour is crude, typical Sacha Baron Cohen, but in a twisted way I found him to be pretty brilliant in his humour :P As for Madagascar 3, I wasn't that excited to watch it but since YeeMaggio asked me out, I thought alright. For the first time, I realized that the penguins were so cool and they're the coolest characters there. So intelligent and capable. They're totally my favourite characters of the gank now. By the way, Spider-Man 3 is on tv now and my God, James Franco is so handsome!
I've also finished reading The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, the book I mentioned in the last post. I did pretty good, I finished it in less than 1 month. I like it so much that I even slowed down the last few pages because I didn't want it to end. It's a really nice book and I found myself so captivated and it got me thinking that the last time I was this absorbed was with Harry Potter. I didn't like the ending much but I will always respect how the authors want their stories to end. There's 1 mention of Indonesia in the book when the author was describing how the shadows in one of the circus tent is like the shadow puppet show in Indonesia. I was glad that she used the Indonesian reference for this when perhaps there are other countries which have similar culture, or claim to be the original country of that culture ;) Anyway when I saw that word, it was like a bonus and it felt that it's like fate this book came my way. Yeah, I am dramatic that way. So I hope they'll make a movie out of this book and I kinda believe they will. I even has some ideas on who the actors should be. One of the characters I like the most is Marco and since he's british, I thought Matthew Lewis who played Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter movies will be perfect for it. Well perhaps he's too young for it but since he's so handsome now, I think he'll be kinda good for it. Then I was also thinking Hugh Laurie for the role of Prospero the Enchanter. Then Hero Fiennes-Tiffin who played child Voldemort can be Bailey. Then Lost's Sayid can be Chandresh. Poppet and Widget will be hard. I thought the girl in the animated movie Brave is what Poppet will be like. The other main character other than Marco, Celia, is rather hard to cast for me :P I think Chloë Moretz perhaps can fit that character, if not perhaps she can do Isobel, but she is very very young. Anyways, really looking forward for the movie.
So I got myself a new book today. Went to Kinokuniya. I actually had a hard time deciding on a book. I found a book Jaipong Dancer which drew me because it's a non-Indonesian who wrote about this Indonesian culture. So that's admirable. In the end, I settled with Lord of the Flies by William Golding who once won the Nobel prize in literature. I have to say that factor was a real draw in getting the book. I hope it's good, well I guess it will be. I can only hope it's my taste and I'll like it.
I don't think I have written anything interesting though this post has been running long. As I said, nothing interesting happened in my life. I can only hope that things will get better for me and be more beautifu. Even so I think I am taking the more pessimistic and defensive approach in things, I normally pray so that God will protect me and shield me from bad things. I hope that is not the case for you and your life is going gloriously awesome. Take care peeps. Buonanotte!
:) eKa @ 9:52:00 PM • 0 comments
Saturday, June 09, 2012
I'm not having a relaxing weekend this week. I have to make a decision and it's a very hard one. Before I elaborate more (as much as I can elaborate here), let's go through certain things in my head.My french class has been one of the things in my week that I like the most. Yeah waking up and heading out to class on a Saturday morning still is kinda hard, especially when days like this morning when it rained. However, it's the place where I feel I can be the most me in my week. We talk about stuff and I get to ask myself how I feel about things. So a few weeks ago, me and XF registered ourselves for the next and last class, advanced 8. I can't believe we reach this state. I started 3 years ago. I remembered it quite clearly because I attended my beginner class for a few weeks on a friday evening and I skipped class to go on my first trip to Italy. So anyway, we have passed 3 years, and it's crazy. I did have some thoughts on what I want to do after I finish this whole thing. Of course there were other classes you can take to improve the fluency of your french which I have to admit that unfortunately I don't have. I was always thinking that I will take a break and go back to Italian class for 1-2 sessions to make sure they don't disappear and after that see what I want to do with my french education. Then it's somewhat decided that me and XF and now FL too, we would take DELF preparatory class so that we can take the DELF exam in December. My thought on that was like, wow December? So I will still be (have to still be) in Singapore in December? This is just the year, the year when I really question my whole existence in this country.
Come July 2, 2012, I would have been in this country for 12 years and that's a long time. It's one cycle of the Chinese calendar. I went from a dragon year to another dragon year. You can't help thinking what you have done (achieved) in that span of 12 years and the state of where you are now. I have had the opportunity to do quite a lot (according to me) in my 12 years here. Some of the major accomplishment are that I learn 2 new languages and I crossed many things in my life list. Then of course I also see the things that I haven't done, especially compared to my peers, those friends back from schools. As much as I am missing stuff, like the husband and the kids, I realize that I wouldn't have done all the things that I managed to do like the travelling if I have had them. So in a way, it's the give and take in your life, the one that perhaps God realizes more suited for me, hence certain things fall the way it falls. Then comes the ultimate question of, are you happy? Doesn't happily ever after come on a day to day basis? Well today, yesterday, and the weeks, and the months before, I haven't been pretty happy in life :( This leads to the argument people make, then change your life, get away from the things that make you unhappy or do not make you happy and just be happy. Do note that a thing may not bring you happiness but it does not necessarily make you unhappy, get it? Something can just make you feel nothing, it doesn't bring you happiness. Something can make you unhappy, it just sucks. Writing that, now I am thinking how best to describe how I feel. I guess things don't bring me happiness, hence I feel nothing and over prolong exposure of this feeling nothing, I start to feel unhappy because I feel life shouldn't be like this, I feel like my life can be filled with more things, meaningful things.
So with that, certain things seem to be clear regarding to the decision that I have to make this weekend. However, then it turns out there's 1 thing that makes this decision not as easy as I thought it would be. The more time I have to think about this over and over, the more I have a hard time to choose A over B. This is despite of my cousin, Marlisa, having written really nice, logical, encouraging words of advice. It struck me as very disappointing that it is not easy for me, that despite of the obvious unhappiness that I feel, I was willing to sacrifice my happiness for something else which people throughout history have said does not bring happiness. Of course perhaps there's the additional reason that I'm just being a chicken, scared of the change. I told my mom that I may have the courage to travel somewhere alone, but certain things just scare me a lot. There is the right decision and I know what that is and I cannot believe my soul is having a hard time to do what is right. Then there's the rationalization that perhaps it's not a decision to be made now, that it's not the time yet. I don't know about this because I prayed and God gives me this decision to make. I feel God is asking me, what is important Eka? Again, I am rather embarrassed that the answer is not an easy one. I feel very very torn. Right now, I feel like I'm tilting to the wrong side. I do not know what will happen to me if I decide on the wrong one. I wonder what kind of consequences from God that I have to endure later in the future, though I believe regardless of what happen God will never abandon me. I am scared. However, feeling scared means that you're doubting that God has your back. I believe the phrase, If God brings you to it, He will bring you through it. I also believe following in what God lays for you can only lead you to wonderful things. So this inclination to this dark side make me feel even more guilty. I do not know if I will have clarity on this. I don't think this is something that I can ask God to make clear for me, I feel this is the time when God asks me what is the right thing Eka? This is something that I have to choose on my own :(
Okay, so that's my weekend dilemma. On my boring life, as usual I went to the cinema. The last 2 movies I watched was What to Expect When You're Expecting and Snow White & the Huntsman. I thought What to Expect When You're Expecting was boring, this is despite of Chris Rock is in it and the handsome Rodrigo Santoro who drew me to the cinema. I didn't like Snow White & the Huntsman much as well. I thought the story was not so good. Despite of the handsome guy, Snow White is paired with the huntsman, that's just awful. I did like the forest scene though because it was beautiful. Reviews have been talking about how good Charlize Theron in it. Everytime I saw her, I kinda see Katherine Heigl. I think they really look alike. Even when I first saw the trailer for Prometheus, I thought it was Katherine Heigl.
On a more interesting thing, I've been listening to Nina Zilli's albums and they're great. I kinda love her now. I have also finished 2 books since March. I finished Ronggeng Dukuh Paruk by Ahmad Tohari, a book my dear friends back home got me for my birthday. The book which inspired the Indonesian movie, Sang Penari. I love the book so much perhaps because I haven't read any Indonesian book for a long long time. I just love reading the whole Indonesian words and being reminded of the vocabulary of the language. I love the narrative and the descriptive of the book, which I found to be very beautiful when the writer was describing a scene. The story didn't end quite happily but I am pretty satisfied with it, more satisfied than the ending of the movie. I hope to read more Indonesian books in the future, I think I should get one everytime I go home. After that I read Plum Spooky, a book Ms. J got me for my birthday as well. I finished this book faster, I think because of the bigger font size. After finishing it, I realize how I love this whole reading thing. It was a habit which I did a lot when I was young and which I abandoned in my teenager days. So last week after class, I decided to go to Kinokuniya to get a new book. The things I love from these 2 books is how the stories move, so I was looking for something like that instead of my usual style of picking a book in which I wanted something meaningful. Going around, I kinda stumbled into The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern and I decided it should be my next book. Still, I hesitated and I walked around and decided that perhaps I should settle on a more "meaningful" one, Sophie's World. This was a book that I never managed to start when Gaby had it during our NUS days, so I thought I should really read it now. I took the book, went back to the shelf where The Night Circus was located just to see it one last time and at the last minute I thought, no, I'm gonna choose The Night Circus instead. Perhaps because it seemed less serious than Sophie's World, it seemed more fun, the black cover looked chic, and the title has the word circus in it. Dad loves the circus (I think). In my younger days, we have gone to the circus, because dad brought us there, I think because he wanted to see it. I didn't even know where we were, what we were doing until the show started and it was something that I was glad to have experienced in my childhood. I went to those traditional circuses (plural for circus is circuses?), when the last performance was the animal show with the lions and tigers. They would put up cages around the ring to protect the audiences. These days with the whole animal rights thing, this kinda circus is kinda frowned upon (I think). Well I do think animals are better off in their own habitat, but still I am glad to have such experience in life. Anyways, the book is amazing and I love it so much!!! I reach the state where I do want to read the pages more and more because I want to know where all these pieces lead into and at the same time (like how I feel with Harry Potter books), I want to slow down so that this book will last longer for me. I've reached more than 100 pages since last week. It's really really good and I can see it as a movie. In fact, when I read it, I play the scene in my head. This book is written like jigsaw pieces which are going to come together and make sense, I hope :) I love how this book is structured as well, with short sections which allow me to pause and continue rather easily. So with this new found love with books and stories, I feel like setting a goal to complete 5 books this year. This is my 3rd one and we're in the middle of the year, so I think it's rather possible to reach 5 before 2013. Ronggeng Dukuh Paruk has an orange cover (I removed the cover that shows the film characters because I thought it's rather embarrassing when people see me read a book with a couple on it in the train), Plum Spooky has a blue-purple cover, The Night Circus has a black cover, so I think following the theme, my next book should have a strong color theme in the cover. We'll see :) Okay, that's pretty much it with life peeps. I wish I will be able to sleep because I haven't really :( Take care! Hope your days are more glorious than mine :)
:) eKa @ 10:11:00 PM • 1 comments
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Hello peeps. Singapore's very hot these days and I feel like dying :( It's crazy, I can't really deal with it. I have a feeling I fare better with colder weather than a hot one. So anyway, what have I been doing in Singapore these days? Well what do I do in Singapore usually? It's pretty much always filled with movies and let me just tell you about the movies that I managed to watch since the last time I wrote.I watched Dark Shadows with la Gioia last week. I wouldn't have watched the movie if not for Johnny Depp. I didn't find the trailer to be interesting and indeed I think it's not a very entertaining movie. I think Johnny Depp is a good actor as usual. He's pretty weird especially with all the roles he's been chosing. I wish he would do something normal like a romantic comedy. Just to see him normal, you know. I thought Eva Green was gorgeous. Her witch-vampire sex scene with Johnny Depp was weird :P I really can't say much about the movie. I didn't like it much. I guess it's just not really in my area of interest. The climax reminded me of Bruce Willis' dark comedy long ago, Death Becomes Her.
Next was 21 Jump Street. This one was really really good. It got me laughing a lot and it made me feel so good watching it. Jonah Hill really lost a lot of weight. If you compare him in this movie and Moneyball, the change in his body is so crazy. Channing Tatum was actually funny. I was thinking it's a good thing that he did G.I Joe before this, lest people think he can't be serious and always goofs around. The cast were great, their captain in 21 Jump Street was really funny. There's James Franco's brother there as well and he's also handsome. Their parents must have some amazing genes. I think the story was well written. It's really funny. Johnny Depp was here as well and it really showed how great of an actor he was because he's on the screen for like 5 minutes and in that 5 minutes, he really commanded the screen. They killed his character thus closing his 21 Jump Street story. I want to see a sequel but normally it's hard to make a sequel that can top the first one because what else there is to explore which can bring something totally new and different? I hope if they do it, they'll do it good.
Then on Friday, I went to watch The Raid. Alright, if you wanna follow the international title (the title that Hollywood wants it to use), it's The Raid: Redemption or in the Indonesian title, Serbuan Maut. I've been so excited about this movie when I found out about it and was wishing that it would be released commercially in Singapore. It took longer to arrive in Singapore than some other parts of the world but then it's finally out this week. It was very coincidental how I found out about this movie. If you read my posts before, you'll perhaps remember that I talked about watching the Indonesian movie, Sang Penari. I like that movie and it got me googling about Indonesian movies and I stumbled into The Raid and its raving reviews from everywhere (though Roger Ebert hates it). It came from the same people who did Merantau which was the first Indonesian movie I've ever paid money for to watch in a cinema and I watched that here in Singapore. Merantau was pretty cool but the story was pretty much in an Indonesian style, which made me roll my eyes sometime with the "sinetron" dialogs. Anyways, I still thought that that movie's actions were awesome and it's remarkable that Indonesian talents can produce that. Yeah the writer and director is not an Indonesian but considering it's made in Indonesia with Indonesian casts and crews, it's still an awesome thing. So when I heard about the The Raid being made with the same team of people, I was excited to see what they came up with and with the great reviews it's been having, I was even more excited about it.
I knew that the movie was gonna be violent. At the beginning of it, I was actually covering my eyes during the execution scene by the bad guy. I was sitting next to 2 guys and I think they may wonder why the hell I was there if I was going to cover my eyes. Seriously though, if it hasn't been an Indonesian movie, I wouldn't have gone to watch a movie in this genre with a lot of brutal fighting scenes. So anyway, I got rather desensitized as the movie went on that I didn't cover my eyes anymore. It was pretty gory at times but I do have to say it wasn't something which was given a lot of emphasis in. Well at least that's how I felt or perhaps as I said I was desensitized as the movie progressed. I thought the movie was good. It wasn't as fast moving as I expected it to be and in fact there were more dialog than I imagined to be. I guess from reading the so many reviews, I was building how the movie was going to be in my head. I didn't really get the story actually, it's weird :D Being in Singapore, I had the movie with an english subtitle but the subtitle didn't really match the Indonesian dialog. It was useful though because sometime I felt they spoke really fast or were kinda mumbling that I didn't really get what they're saying. Yeah, I know it's a worrying sign being Indonesian and not getting Indonesian completely. By the way my thought was proven true that Indonesian by nature don't really curse. We don't have a particular word to curse, as such for every "fuck" in the english subtitle, it was normally replaced with "anjing" which means dog. I guess even to curse in Indonesian, we go pretty mild. There are other things that Indonesian don't really say, for example hearing the Indonesian translation for "I love you" sounded really weird :P I'm really not sure Indonesian would seriously say "aku cinta kamu" for "I love you" :P Regardless, the movie was pretty cool, I actually want to watch it again to watch the action scenes again. They were fast and cool. I thought the best one was between the main villain fighter, Mad Dog, and the Sergeant, Jaka. I like Jaka actually because he was this nice decent leader. He reminded me of Daniel Mananta but too bad his character had to die :( Oh seeing him in the squad made me think of one thing that's not really Indonesian. I think it's pretty much non-existent to see Indonesian chinese in the army or any defence squad. I wonder if there are really Indonesian chinese in this position. I can talk about the whole cultural political reasoning behind it but I don't really want to go into that now. Back to the movie, I thought the fight scene was very cool because Mad Dog was much smaller than Jaka and so for me it was an impressive fight. Oh one thing that was true to Indonesian were the thugs. They could really come in small size and wield machetes crazily :P They're scary that way. It was well made and I wonder how they're going to top this in the sequel, especially with many of the people dead. I am looking forward for the sequel. There's news about a Hollywood remake and I hope it really happens. I will look forward to watching that one too :P
Today I watched The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (for the elderly and beautiful) and I like it. The premise of the movie was very interesting and the actors were of course these experienced wonderful famous British actors and they're amazing. I think Judi Dench was great and cute in her own way :) There's something about the travelling and the adventure that these people were having and the uncertainty they're feeling especially when they left England for India that was very relatable to me. Travelling to new places and to the unknown is always scary and it was really commendable and an inspiration that these people were brave enough to just go out and leave their world and explore a new world 'cause when you're in their age, you are perhaps longing for stability and predictable and relaxing things more than ever :P Well doesn't that what retirement mean? Anyway I think it's a nice movie. I like it though I have a feeling it's not for everyone. Some people may find it boring. I guess it's a matter of taste. I found Dark Shadows rather boring myself. Watching the movie, it kinda emphasizes my suspicion that I think India is more chaotic and crazier than Indonesia. Anyways, there was one part in the movie which I wonder if it reflects what it's like really in India. Dev Patel's character was shown making out with his girlfriend in the public and even having sex. I'm not saying that all Indians do not have sex outside marriage but I felt it's not as common and as easy as the movie made it appear to be. Well perhaps I'm too critical in this. I also wonder if the Indians really speak English that way, putting "most" before everything, like most definitely, most beautifully, most wonderfully :P One line that caught my attention ever since from the trailer was, everything will be all right in the end ... if it's not all right then it's not the end. It's like something that we have to keep on telling ourselves, isn't it? To keep the faith strong that all will be alright and fine.
So that's the movies I've watched recently. Except for Dark Shadows, I watched the rest of the movies on my own. I'm just in a real anti social mood now. I really don't feel like watching the movies with people though perhaps there are some in my world who are interested. I also don't feel like being asked for a movie and in the end having to be the one booking the tickets. I guess I find people to be quite boring these days. None really can come up with interesting conversation. So I would rather not spend some hours of my life wasting away hearing to boring stuff though of course as life is, I cannot help it many of the time :( These days, I am really most calm when I am in my room alone and be able to do my own things and not having to listen or answer to anyone. Life is not really a happy one for me right now and it's very hard for me to deal with it or to be more correct live in it. So as much as I can, I would just want to remove all unnecessary things which do not add to my happiness. None of this people actually bring something interesting or at least intellectual to my brain. If you argue, how about the comfort of friendship? Well yeah, not feeling that much as well. At the very least, I would appreciate intellectual, mind enlightening conversation but all I often got are people and their self centered issue :( I have issue too you know and did you hear me talk about it? No, because you are so absorbed in all the unimportant things in your life, even the tiny things. Ah I get all negative now. So I guess I'm gonna stop. Hope you guys have a great week ahead. Take care peeps!
:) eKa @ 9:27:00 PM • 0 comments
Saturday, May 05, 2012
As promised, I will write about my reflection of my trip to Turkey. This will also be the last post about the trip. For a complete collection of the photo, you can go here. I am sure there's some sort of saying that you should go out and see the world and expand your horizon and learn more about you and the world. You know something along that line. Well my trip to Turkey had been one that was akin to having my system shocked, especially in how muslims can be. As mentioned before, I didn't know much about this country before I left. I couldn't even point it in a map. I didn't have any expectation about the country in relation to that being a country with the majority of muslim population. I guess coming from Indonesia, it's not a big deal. It wasn't even something that registered in my head, that I was going to a country where the majority of the population is muslims. It only somewhat came to me when I was on the plane from Istanbul to Kayseri. The plane was still at a low altitute that I could see the city and the things that stood out was the minarets. They really stood out amidst all the concretes and high buildings and it dawned on me that yes this is a country where Islam has a great influence on the life of the people. It wasn't a cause for worry or anything. If there's anything, perhaps there's a feeling that I'm going somewhere where I will be familiar with some things. That thought proved to be kinda wrong.What happened was many moments of being shocked, flabbergasted, stunned, and at lost of words with how Islam is in Turkey. What with the vineyards, the presence of alcohol everywhere, and the lax rule in the mosque. Some of the words that came to my mind that an Indonesian would use to express the shock were: ya Allah, Masha'Allah, and Astaghfirullah :P By the way, I felt that Indonesian would often say Masha'Allah when they want to say Oh my God for something that is shocking even for a rather negative situation but from my googling, I'm not sure if it's the right usage. Back to the topic, if one would say the Islam in Indonesia is a moderate Islam then I would say the Islam in Turkey is a liberal Islam. It was something totally unexpected for me. Not that I was expecting a strict country but I didn't expect to see this. Take the drinking part for example. There are Indonesian muslims who drink but I believe only a small percentage would do it openly. In Turkey, it was like the norm. You go to a restaurant and you'll see people having wine or raki with their meal. By the way raki and the Efes beer are 2 things which I was really curious about but I didn't try any of them :( Back in Indonesia for Chinese New Year this year, I was surprised that the Padang restaurant, which Dewi took us to, sell beer. I wondered if there were muslims who would openly order that and drink it in the restaurant. When I told my cousin about this, she said perhaps it's only haram when people get drunk. I told mom about it and she said something along the line, oh it's good that they're not fanatic. The hotel guy I talked to said, it's because Turkey is a secular country so noone can force anyone to be religious. Well I don't find that argument to be satisfying. In Indonesia too, noone can force you to be religious though there is the annoying anarchist Islamic Defender Front (FPI) who's very judgemental and intolerant about eveything. Even them is not actually reflective or supported by the majority of Indonesian muslims. Oh just in case you don't know, Indonesia is not a muslim country. Islam does not dictate our law. We are the country with the biggest muslim population. So even though it takes me longer time to type that than to just say a muslim country, I do it because I think it's imperative to get this correct. It's important for me because I'm not a muslim and obviously I don't want to live in a country where the law is based on Islam. I just don't think that's fair for the non-muslims and I am thankful that Indonesia's foundation states clearly that we believe in God, not just a particular God.
Anyway, my point is, muslims all over the world follow the same teaching right so why does the Islam in Turkey seem so different. I know that I only spent 1 week plus there so my perception of it is totally not deep. However, from the general view that I got it just seemed so liberal. I actually had something like a faith crisis eventhough I'm not a muslim :P It's just like my whole understanding about what being a muslim is was turned upside down by seeing the muslim Turks. I wonder if among the country with a lot muslims, they see Turkey as some sort of pariah. I was thinking that if an Indonesian girl says to her Haji parents that she has a Turkish boyfriend, will the parents actually be worried thinking they're not true muslims? Anyway, at first it felt really refreshing and liberating for me. I like the fact that people don't get judged for what they do. In Indonesia, it often gets pretty suffocating, example: an Indonesian celebrity in a bikini in Bali was in the news and be judged for revealing her body. I don't believe in forcing people to be religious. I don't believe in removing all temptation so that people can be religious. I think people with a strong faith will keep their faith even when all around them are against it. So for organization like FPI to come off so strong in removing things they feel is un-Islamic feels so wrong for me. Even if they can make a pious muslim out of it but it may not be effective when the person is somewhere out there where there are more temptations. The world is not small and if we're going to close ourselves and be against everyone who's not in the same faith as us, what would we be, North Korea?
As the my trip continued, that feeling of wishing that the Islamic society in Indonesia could take the chill pill and be not so restrictive kinda tempered a bit. I don't know what it was, perhaps it's the fact that I am Asian (generally we're known to be more conservative, no?), the fact that I am Indonesian Chinese (with a family who's conservative), the fact that my 11-year Christian education successfully shaped my view on things, or the fact that I am an Indonesian. When I read about secular country, many of them try to ensure there's no excessive showing of religious belief by people. In getting to know more about secular countries, I googled here and there to get answers for some of my questions. I stumbled into Laïcité and I had a mix feeling about it. After around 11 years in a Christian school, I went to a government high school which accepts everyone. If Laïcité had been imposed then my life in that school wouldn't have been too hard for me on my first year. My first year, especially my first week was tough. I didn't know if I could survive my 3-year stay there. I went from a Christian school where we started our day with prayer, singing hymns, and reading the bible to a government school where Islam is everywhere. At the door of the classrooms and the whiteboard, there's arabic caligraphy with verses from the Quran. Some teachers come in to class and instead of saying good morning or so, they'll say "assalamualaikum" where the only response to that is the other arabic verse. Do they care that there are non-muslims in the class? No. Do they care if perhaps the non-muslims feel uncomfortable? No. Perhaps they secretly hope we see the light and convert. So that was hard for me to swallow and digest. My first year in my high school was rough but then I managed to deal with it and get to know my wonderful muslim classmates who I was able to talk to, who let me read their notes or books from the religion classes, and who are generally really nice people and do not like me less just because I am not a muslim. So when I think about them and I think about the other side of Laïcité, then I see the negative side of it. It it's imposed on the country, my school would be free of all religious items, we may not even have a musholla in the school, but it would also mean that my female classmates who would like to wear their headscarf to school would be denied of that. Then I think it's a violation of their human rights to exercise their belief. I'm also not sure I like the idea that sermons given in the mosques have to be approved by the government. While it's good that it can prevent extremism but it's also a form of censorship, isn't it? Especially if the sermons may criticize certain government's policy or officials. It just feels like instead of splitting the government and religion, it's like the government has a way in controlling the religion. So I am not sure if that kind of secularity is right.
Again I don't know, maybe it's all the facts that I mentioned earlier, but there's something about being religious in Indonesia that I treasure. Religion is infused in our lives in all aspects. We often start and end things with prayers. Religion is in the curriculum. It's everywhere though perhaps the most visible sign is Islam. As much as I do roll my eyes if some muslim organizations say something is bad or release a fatwa for something they think is bad, I do have to say some of them are not totally rejected by the non-muslims. Don't watch Lady Gaga's concert? Why, though the churches don't come out on tv to say it, I think it was perhaps mentioned during Sunday service. Even the South Korean Christians will agree with this. Stop all the raunchy songs with explicit lyrics for example. I do agree on this because imagine the horror if I have to explain the song "Jupe likes 69 the best" to ... my parents? Oh my God! So in a way, I agree with certain suggestion and advice on making our society morally sound. I just don't agree on it being too restrictive, suffocating, and most importantly have to be done in such a violent hostile way. Then of course the issue comes on who should be on the moral authority in the country and I guess that's the hard issue with the different groups. I guess for Indonesia, I just don't want Islam to be the only voice in the country, ignoring the minority. I am sure what the muslims clerics think as proper or not are the same sentiment shared by the priest and pastors in churches, the Budhist monks, and the Hindus leaders in Bali, so we are not so different.
I guess, at the end of my trip, I didn't come out of it thinking that secularity in Turkey is a totally awesome idea and Indonesia sucks. We're just different and I would like to know more about Islam in Turkey. There's so many questions that I want to ask and I would like to observe life there. I find it very very intriguing. Obviously Indonesian muslims are the not the holiest in the world but when I see the Turks, sometime it's like there's no trace in them that they're muslims. It sounds so bad writing that but really. I heard people saying this country is more Europe than Asia and it's so true. So I guess because it's not so visible, I would really like to know how it's really like behind the screen, for example what is it like in the family. Do they pray together? Are they okay with their kids marrying a non-muslim? So many questions to ask and it's very personal and so of course I can't just start shooting away on the Turks that I just met. I left the country with a lot of unsatisfied curiousity and the desire to know more. It's a country that I unexpectedly love. It is so different and yet there's a familiarity to it for me. There are things like the unexpected comfort I felt hearing adzan because it reminded me of home. Of course there's also the awesome experience. It's a country that I would really really love to visit again. I am thankful to God for this chance and I hope He'll be kind enough to grant me the chance again in the future :)
On other personal reflection. Well there's the unimportant one like right now I can actually eat cereal with milk :P There's something about white milk that made me not be able to take it. So I never ate cereal but I started on this trip and I found myself not hating it. I actually think warm milk with cereal is really nice. I have even bought cereals here in Singapore and ate them. I still don't think I can drink a glass of white milk but I think this change in me is a good thing :) I also realize that I have awesome organizational skill. I will never doubt that I have it. Awesome is perhaps open to discussion but I realize I am so much better than some people. I realize that I can be a person someone can rely on but I found myself not being able to rely on anyone easily. It's a rather hard thing to do because I will always question the methods and not have much believe when someone's methods differ from mine. Perhaps it's an OCD thing, I don't know. I also realize that there can be someone messier than me, oh my! Then I guess most importantly, I realize what kind of characters I need in a person whom I want to spend my life with. Perhaps I haven't gotten the full picture but to be able to see certain details of it I guess is important and enlightening. I know what I can stand and cannot stand and I know how I am and what I need in a partner. Maybe when I can see more and more details in it, I will finally meet my guy? *fingers crossed* If there's one thing that doesn't change is patience. Even more so, I realize how it's very very hard for me to be sincere in doing things for a group when I feel the other group members are not as contributive. Perhaps it's selfishness, perhaps it's individuality, perhaps it's simply being a bad person. I just cannot be all sincere and happy about it. I keep on thinking if I have to do this on my own and can do this on my own, why do I need all these people? Maybe it's simply being a bad person, that I want someone who can bring something to the table to be in the team. It sounds so Singaporean actually. Darn this country has crept into me, aarrgggh!
On current life news. Life has started to go back to it's depressive state. I try not to think about it much. My dad is rather unwell now. I'm not sure if it's worse or actually better than what my family try it to make it sound. I get mix signals. Anyway dad is having some tests done and hopefully we'll get a definitive course of action soon. I have to say that for the first time, I feel that my safety net is going to disappear. Especially after hearing my brother talked about the uncertainty on his future plan since dad is unwell now. It brings another thought into my mind. Things that I should really see if it's feasible to do. Then this week, I had some sort of a clash with Max. It burdened my mind so and another enlightenment came that I have to have my kids be brought up in an environment where we believe in God and have the fear of God. I had been reprimanded for allegedly forcing my belief on other people but I am what I am, what I believe and I believe in living my life a certain way and I want this for my future generations. Anyway, let's just say I am very disappointed with Max and it perhaps changed our relationship a bit. I feel I've lost all ability to be all friendly with him. We'll see. I feel like arguing because I somehow care about him that I would like him to live his life in a good way. If I don't care, then I wouldn't care about what he does. All people can say, including him, is I'm not seeing that he has his freedom to choose how to live his life. You know it's like seeing someone going to the river with a boat with holes. We all know the boat have holes. Me, I will scream my best and try to not let that person go to the river with that boat. Some people argue it's their choice, so let it be. I can't do that. If I think someone (I care) is making a mistake, I tell them. Again people argue that my definition of a mistake is different, people have a right, etc. Whatever.
I've also done the normal stuff here in Singapore. Watched The Avengers with Ms. J yesterday. As a moral support for her, we watched it in 3D Imax. I wasn't as blown away as her. I guess it's just the mental state right now that I need more things to interest me. I like Robert Downey Jr a lot though. While the movie had some cheesy lines especially coming from Samuel L Jackson's character, it did have some funny moments. Who knew that the Hulk would actually be a very important character and one of the funniest? I also didn't expect that Captain America would be the one in a leader role. Well I didn't watch his movie. I didn't watch Thor either. I just reached the state where I kinda had enough of superheroes movie. I watched this because of how I like Robert Downey Jr :P Oh I have to say that the Robyn from How I Met Your Mother was so skinny in this movie, it's crazy. I also have to say that even with Captain America and Thor which Ms. J likes a lot, I am next drawn to Jeremy Renner. Perhaps it was also boosted by his Mission Impossible's performance but he just exuded coolness :P Well I guess that's it about life peeps. Hope you guys have a great life ahead :)
:) eKa @ 1:52:00 PM • 0 comments
Monday, April 30, 2012
The next day was our last day in Istanbul. We were due to leave after midnight so we pretty much had the whole day to spend. It was a bit tricky because we were to check out before noon. I have to say the timing of the flight was rather inconvenient but that was the way it went. I guess you can always pay for another night if you want to enjoy the rest of the day relaxing or napping in your hotel room but that's not what we did. The plan for the day was to go to Basilica Cistern and take a Bosphorus tour. Since we had so much time to kill, I thought we should take the full bosphorus tour which departs at 13:35 and be back at 18:35. Since my source was googling, I wasn't actually sure if the information I got was correct but still I thought we could just start the day late. Maybe it was our body clock but we didn't start the day late. I think we finished our check out even before 10. The hotel was nice, they gave us 2 packs of coffee as presents :) We left our luggages with them and they told us that our pick up time for the airport was 09:30 pm. So much time to kill. So first, it's a walk to the pier. We could actually walk there. It was a nice sunshiny day, very cooling, a really great day to be spent outside. Found the Bosphorus Pier and saw the schedule and my googling was right, so we got our tickets at 25 TL each. Oh I have to say that there are private tours which arrange for a tour of the bosphorus but I wasn't really sure what they offer exactly and they always come at a higher price, so I thought this one was not bad.Since that was like only 10 am something, we had so much time to kill. We crossed the street and visited 2 mosques and the spice bazaar. The hotel lady who talked to us the day before told us to see these 2 mosques which she found to be more beautiful than the blue mosque :P Well it was really less touristy and it made me rather nervous about going in. However just like the blue mosque, it's also open for tourists. We followed a small group going in. Since there weren't many tourists, they don't provide plastic bag, you just put your shoes on the racks, which is fine. The first one we went to was Yeni Camii or the New Mosque. Again it's pretty. The dome had this nice design with a color palette like one you can find in a baby's room. Maybe because it's something really new for me, but I really enjoyed and was in awe seeing how pretty the mosques were.
In the airport, the check-in was quite maddening. Turkish airline counters were handling check in for all their flights and the queue was rather crazy. I thought it's pretty amazing that our luggages didn't get mixed up. The sorting mechanism inside there must be awesome. Anyway check-in done, we did some shopping to finish our last lira. Saw many Indonesians and as guessed there were many Indonesians on the plane. Apparently the plane's last destination was Jakarta. Unlike the flight in, this flight out was filled with Indonesians from a church group. I couldn't get much information about what they were doing there though. From the accent it seemed they're javanese. Anyway, God was kind to me. After the bad flight in, He let the seat next to me empty *yay* I was actually pretty sleepy and tired that I actually managed to sleep after dinner. I just went into a fetal position and lied on the 2 seats I had. Who knew that with my size, I could actually make myself quite compact. I didn't know how long I slept but I really slept. I didn't remember someone pulling down my window. I also didn't remember hearing the Kenny G section in the playlist I made of Al Jarreau + George Benson, Kenny G, and Chris Botti. Must be all the walk and hike and the way over our bed time that made me be able to sleep. So in all, I only watched 2 movies in this flight, Flipped (which was good) and Hanna (which I thought was so so). We arrived in Singapore at 04:30 pm something. I actually packed some Burger King first for dinnner before taking the taxi. Arrived to an empty flat *thank God* but then Max came when I was having my dinner. He came to get some socks. I was pretty tired and not so chatty at that time but we did talk a bit. He was quite impressed that I took a hot air balloon ride. I told him that was my 30th birthday present and for my 29th birthday present, I took myself to Barcelona. He said all that was good and for my 31st birthday present, I should get a guy!!! *cue eyes rolling* It really felt like normalcy talking to him. That was the reality. Holiday was ending and real life began again. Darn, as I wrote those lines, I get pretty depressed :( Oh well. So that was the story of my last day in Turkey. As promised, I'll write one last post to reflect about the Turkey experience. Hope to get it out soon. Thank you so much if you've been reading everything :)
:) eKa @ 9:43:00 PM • 0 comments
Sunday, April 29, 2012
The last leg of my trip was Istanbul. As much as my time in Izmir wasn't perfect, I was actually rather sad about starting leg 3 because that meant holiday was ending and I was really not ready for it. For some reasons, mom was thinking that I was on my way home at that time. She had watched some news about Turkey and I guess she was rather uneasy about it. I don't know what she watched but I guess it was about the Syrian refugees who were moving to Turkey and obviously situation there was bad. That was the news we watched most of the time then. I guess mom was rather eager for me to go home. However to Istanbul it was. Again we took pegasus airline. There wasn't anything interesting to report on the flight. Oh, YeeMaggio's luggage was overweight that she had to open the suitcase on the spot and took out some stuff. I didn't see it actually because I was done before her. I only found out after she finished. Pegasus itself gives 16 kg of luggage allowance if I'm not mistaken. Anyways, we arrived in Istanbul. Met the person who supposed to pick us up. I remembered seeing tulips blooming by the roads and they were beautiful. The drive at the main road was smooth enough but when we reached the Sultanahmet area, it was hard. I purposely chose an area in which we could kinda walk to the blue mosque, hagia sophia, and the rest of the places nearby. So this area of Istanbul is apparently in a hilly area and it was like a maze and the streets are not wide enough for 2 cars to pass through comfortably so to navigate this area takes a lot patience and skill. I think we spent around 30 to 40 minutes in this area just to get through to our hotel. Also perhaps it's because our timing in the afternoon, hence the streets were busier. When we had to go to the airport to get home at 9pm something, it was a breeze.What mattered was we arrived at the hotel. I chose Hotellino and it was great. The staff were mostly youngsters in casual clothing. The room was big and nice. It was the nicest hotel we stayed in and it was really nice that I would love to go back and stay there again if I come back to Istanbul. It was also like on the end of a street so I think we got a bit more peace and quiet. I arrived to a news of an earthquake in Sumatra that I stopped mid sentence when I was talking to one of the staff and just tried to read the texts on the tv. It was a footage from metro tv. I think the staff was nice because I think he told the rest that I was from Indonesia. Luckily it was far from my home so all's cool. I did send mom a text. Due to the longer than expected time in the maze of Istanbul, we couldn't proceed with the plan of visiting Basilica Cistern. I would definitely get lost somewhere finding it and by the time we found it, we may not have enough time to explore it, so it had to be postponed. We opted to find dinner instead. Settled at this small restaurant but it get more crowded as we were there and I had perhaps the best meal so far. It was shish chicken and it was awesome, tender and juicy. I think I had my best meal in Turkey in Istanbul. Since I'm a fussy eater, I couldn't say I like Turkish cuisine much. The problem lies with me not them. Though I have to say that I love the dessert I had tried no matter how sweet they always came in. Perhaps that's the Indonesian genes in me that we love sweet things :P I thought that baklava was basically like a lasagna of sweet things but it was very addictive to me. Then I also like this panna cotta like dessert which I'm not sure what it's called. Then at this dinner I tried this cheese baked thingy with a surface like vermicelli thingy which of course sweet because it was doused in honey or syrup. The taste kinda reminded me of cheese martabak Bangka but it was different and I loved it a lot. I think the only dessert I didn't like was sutlac, which was the last Turkish thing I ate. It's a rice pudding and I don't know if it was the restaurant who made it that way or it's really like that but I could feel some grains of rice and that felt really wrong for me to be feeling rice that way and so I didn't enjoy it fully.
Nothing much happened that day. The next day was our so called Istanbul tour. In the morning one of the hotel owner kindly greeted us as we were waiting to be picked up. I think she greeted every guests in the morning. She's very friendly and she gave us a map and talked to us about the places to see and explore. She said, you should explore the things that you were going to see today on your own. She's perhaps right but I know that I'm not good with directions and stuff and I don't know if YeeMaggio is any good herself so that's why I chose the tour so that I would be well taken care of, so to speak :P There supposed to be 6 people in the group but 2 didn't even arrive in their hotel so it was us and this couple from Birmingham, Barbara and Richard. I admire them truly. Just as I admire parents who have toddlers and strollers in tow, I admire older travellers. Barbara is 71 and she needs walking stick to help her walk. Her husband Richard brought a foldable chair for her so that she could always sit anywhere. This physical limitation does not stop these ex-teachers from exploring the world. Last year they went to Norway to see the nothern lights. They've been to Libya some years before the revolution. Then this time they're taking a cruise which will take them to see Bulgaria and so on. Truly I admire them. I also admire them for the strong marriage they have. I can tell they care for each other a lot. I think it's obvious that Richard really loves Barbara and they have good conversation with each other. It's incredible for me to keep a marriage last that long. I did wonder how on earth the teachers' salary or retirement package can fund all these trips. It doesn't seem to be something possible in this side of the world.
First stop was the hippodrome where there are obelisks. One of the obelisk came from Egypt and I always get very fascinated that they managed to transport these giant things to places like Istanbul and Rome from Egypt! Now that I think about it, I wondered how do one make an obelisk. There's also a sculpture column that supposed to have 3 snake heads on it but none of the head is there anymore. I thought it would be cool if they were. This is the picture of the base of the obelisk from Egypt. I like this obelisk, I thought the symbols on it were very cool.
Inside the blue mosque, I thought it was beautiful. It felt like a church actually with the mosaic glass windows and the domes being decorated beautifully. As I said I've never been inside a mosque but from what I see from the tv for example, mosques in Indonesia are not like this. There's this circular low hanging light thing which you can find in all mosques in Turkey, at least in the ones I saw in Istanbul. The lighting was not so bright inside the mosque so I think you need these lights to help people when they want to read the Quran for example. The walls were adorned by ceramics and everything about it were just beautiful. Unlike a church where it's more narrow in the inside focusing on the altar, it's wider in a mosque. There's this section on the second floor which the Sultans used to do their prayers when they were still ruling. I found it interesting because I knew that by right everyone should be on the same level when they pray, everyone is the same. Obviously noone use that section anymore now. The guide was telling us that Turkey being a secular country, the Imams in the mosque who give sermons and religious guidance to the people are actually civil servants. They have to go through the whole Islamic education and then they work for the government. I don't know if this is what happens in all parts of Turkey, like even in the small villages. I don't know how I feel about this, with the Imams being under the employment of the government. Again, let's leave this for the last post.
Since we finished our day pretty early, YeeMaggio decided that we should go to Galata tower. It was one of the places that the hotel lady was recommending in the morning. From our hotel you can walk there if you want to but it's gonna be a real long walk and I was way too tired to do that. Although I think it would be fun to cross the Galata bridge. There were many people fishing there. I saw someone getting a fish. So anyway, we chose to take the tram. However, we didn't know how to do that *sigh* We got to the station near us, then we saw the machine. I wasn't sure what we supposed to buy and how much the trip was. I was pretty frustrated at that time. Along came this tourist whom I straight away asked if he spoke english. He did. I think he was American. He was with his wife and he was very kind in explaining to us how to use the machine. You put the money in and for 2 Turkish lira you get 1 jeton, which is like a plastic coin chip which you may find in a game arcade. 1 jeton is used for 1 trip, no matter how far or how near. Okay, got it, and off we went from our stop in Sirkeci to the stop across the bridge in Karakoy. I could actually saw the tower as we got off but then as we crossed the street, it disappeared from view so I didn't know which direction to walk. In times of uncertainty, follow the other tourists. So we saw some other tourists and we just followed them to what turned up to be a walk up a hill. Darn, it was difficult but I pressed on and I didn't stop at all until I reached the tower. My reasoning was, the moment I stopped, it'd be too difficult to continue and I just got madder with every step I took so with each step it was like I was lashing it out to the hill. Reaching the tower, there was this queue which was pretty long and we joined the queue. I thought it was pretty stupid to be joining a queue for something I wasn't sure what. It was the queue to go up the tower. Ticket price was 12 TL. You took a lift up and you still had to climb up a circular stairs which you know I loathe :( I wasn't enjoying it at all. Then we reached the viewing platform but the space was very narrow that people should only go in 1 direction. I thought the view was so so but you could really see Istanbul, the European and the Asian side. On the European side, you could see the blue mosque which was so identifiable with its 6 minarets and then there's Hagia Sophia and you could also see other mosques. The sun was going down at that time and I remembered a tinge of orange.
:) eKa @ 1:02:00 AM • 0 comments
bluesky.
photos.
archives.