Another Shots From the Old Town

Actually the pictures were taken during new year. It was on the first of January. Me, Vonny, Ragil and Kiki spent the new year by taking pictures in the old town of Jakarta sorry, I mean Batavia.


We visited the old town soon after we bought our new short. So FYI, we all wore our newly bought shirts. Wakakakak.

There are many beautiful spots available for photo shoot here.....




The pictures were edited by Bang Kiki, so credit should be given to him who touched the pictures with his magic hands. Bravo Bang....


Actually I have more pictures to upload but... too many pictures will bored you, right? I am sorry for being too narcissistic. So for you who live in Jakarta, if you have sometimes, visit this place and feel the atmosphere.... :-)

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A day with Shin Matsushima Sama in Yogyakarta

It's been 4 years since my last meeting with my band mates. And one month ago, I got a news from one of them, Shin, our bassist that he wants to visit Indonesia. I was excited to meet him because there is one thing unique about him, his hair. Hahaha.
After my trip to Makassar, I decided to take two days leave to accompany him in Indonesia. I was surprised when I saw him, yeppp I was again right, shin's hair is so unique.
We decided to go to Yogyakarta by train from Gambir Stasiun. We rode on TAKSAKA train which departed at 8.45 PM and arrived Yogya at 5.25 AM (The ticket is IDR 230.000 each). Upon arrival, we head to a hostel called Bladok, it locates next to Malioboro Street, the most famous street in Yogyakarta. Shin loved his room, simple, cheap, clean and feels like home. (This is Bladok number: 0274-560452). The room cost us IDR 82.500 (excluding breakfast). After putting our luggage at Bladok Hostel, we went for Breakfast at Malioboro Street. The foods were everywhere, delicious and low cost.


Our next destination was Prambanan Temple. From Malioboro, we may use TransYogya to go to Prambanan Temple with only IDR 3000. Arriving at Prambanan Shelter, we rented rickshaw to enter the gate of Prambanan Area, the rent was only IDR 10000 for both of us. The entrance charge to Prambanan temple is USD 11 for foreigner and IDR 12.500 for domestic tourists. Shin looked so excited entering this site as we were the first visitor at that day. We took some pictures. I tried practicing my Japanese as well with Shin since I never practice my Japanese anymore. Shin talked a lot in Japanese in order to recall my Japanese vocabulary. I have to admit my Japanese gets worsen. :-(
After our excitement in Prambanan, our next plan was Shopping in Malioboro Mall. I reminded Shin to bargain the price when he is going to buy something. But it seemed that he was not interested to buy something.
So I brought him to Mirota, a big store at the edge of Malioboro street. There are plenty options there, the goods are ranging from clothes to souvenirs. Shin was happy finding this store, he bought some omiyage (souvenirs) and Batik (Indonesia's traditional clothes)
At 2, we were heading to Borobudur temple. The travel agents that we used charged us IDR 70.000 for the trip to Borobudur. We arrived in Borobudur at 3.25 PM. The entrance charge for foreigner is USD 12 and IDR 12.500 for domestic tourists. Shin was even more excited when he climbed the temple. He was so amazed with Borobudur. Although it was raining when we arrived, but it doesn't reduce his excitement. I and Shin spent the time taking pictures.
Shin said to me,"Angkor Wat yori, Borobudur ga motto ii, Cipu san". (Cipu, Borobudur is better than Angkor Wat). I felt so proud hearing this statement. While walking around Borobudur, Shin also admits that the food and lodging in Indonesia are considered cheap. He wished to come again and asked me more worthy tourist destinations.
We left Borobudur at 5.20 PM and reached Yogyakarta by 6.25 PM. It was a hectic, fun and long day. But we couldn't sleep directly because we would have dinner with one of our Saga University mates whose hometown is Yogyakarta. We had fun during our dinner. My memories were recalled. I felt I miss my classmates in Saga. Wish to have reunion with them someday.
We went to bed at 10 PM. And the day after, Shin had to leave Yogyakarta heading to Bangkok for another trip.
We just went through a fun one day trip in Yogyakarta. I wish Shin feels satisfy with the travel. I want to pay him back as he was our best host when we had a trip to Shin's hometown in Iki Island in Japan.

I will always wait my other band mates and my SPACE classmates for their coming to Indonesia. Itsu kana??

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What are your mandatory sites when you browse the internet?

I have some websites that I have to visit when I am online. Off course my Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail and FAO accounts are a must. Besides checking email, the websites that I considered mandatory to visit are:

1. Yahoo messenger. Everybody is so familiar with chat service, either YM, Gtalk, icq, MSN Messenger. I have all of those, but YM is my preference as most of my friends use YM. Besides, YM is also compatible with MSN Messenger. The chat service is also accessible using meebo and mig33 just in case your office ban chat service. So, no matter what happen, chat must goon, mustn't it?
2. Facebook. What? You don't have one. Come on, click here and make one. Facebook is also a must to open, not only because it is fun using Facebook but I found some old friends of mine in Facebook. Although I have some social network accounts such as tagged, myspace, friendster and hi5, but currently I use facebook a lot. Have you got one? If you have one, add me....


3. Blogspot. I love writing, my personal experience, my thought and my funny stories in a blog. Besides, blogwalking is also fun. Reading others experiences and share comments with other bloggers is another advantage of having blog. I personally have two blogs, in Indonesian and in English. I have some favorite blogs and I always check them everyday to see their recent updates and if possible give comments.


4. Plurk. What is plurk? Plurk is a space to post a status, a comment , a statement which will be responded by other Plurkers. It's my new toy, introduced by my office mates. Plurk post should not be more than 160 characters, with many unique smileys availabke. Plurk introduces Karma system. The more friends and responses you have, the higher Karma you get. The Higher the Karma, the more plurk facilities (icon) you may use. Wanna tray it? Click here.
   

Those are my mandatory sites. HOw about you? .

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What if......

What if a person who is inexperience doing photo session is asked by his photographer friend to do the photo shoot . I experienced it once and I won't tell you how it feels. you may just see these results. Off course these pictures have been edited, and I told you that the editing part is a lot harder than the photo session itself as the model my friend used in this photo shoot is really not talented. :p






I never feel that the result will be this good, hahaha. Anyway thanks for the pictures, dude.

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New Year (sigh)

On 31 December, I left my apartment heading to Kiki's house. There were me, Vonny, Kiki and Ragil in the car. We plan to hang around till dawn. Yeah some list of places have been noted but before that we have to go to Kiki's house to pick some stuffs. we imagined that this new year will be a fun new year for us. We kept talking in the car on the way to Kiki's house about the places that we were going to visit.

But then, DAMN!!. It was traffic all the way to Kiki's house. We spent almost two and a half hours in the traffic to get to Kiki's house (sigh). We arrived finally at 10 pm. Then we decided to leave the house by 11 pm. Before 11 pm, we had our dinner and spent one hour in Kiki's room. Me and Vonny laid down on the bed. And when I woke up, I heard adzan from the mosque nearby. I saw my mobile and it shown 4:45 am. I found Kiki and Vonny snored next to me.

(SIGH)

We missed the new year party, we didn't hang out, indeed, we spent our new year sleeping till dawn.

What a pathetic new year.

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My fun pathetic birthday

I celebrated my birthday last week. At first I wanted to celebrate it in the office with my office mates but then I got an assignment to go to Pekanbaru, Sumatera. Hmmmm, then I should move to plan B.
My plan B was ordering TIRAMISU for my mates in the office while I am away. Then I told Seven Grain (a bakery that made my cake) to write "Happy Seventeenth Birthday" on the top of the cake. I smiled when I imagine what my friends would say when they see the writing on the cake.
In the middle of my meeting in Pekanbaru, I got a call from my office mates to congratulate my "seventeenth" birthday, They say that I am grow enough as I turn to seventeen. They added that being seventeen means I may have an ID card, driving license and start chasing girl, hahahaha.
It was also fun because all my colleagues in Pekanbaru sang Happy Birthday to me although it was my first time meeting them.
I thought that day is an unforgettable birthday. After finish my meeting, Me, Surya, Mary and Bu Umi went to airport to head back to Jakarta. Our flight was planned at 7 pm. Since there was no more place to visit in Pekanbaru, we decided to go to airport a bit earlier. By 4 pm, we reached airport and had beverages. At 5 pm, we entered the airport to check in. It was fine until we got the news that our plane was delayed until 10 PM. WHAT???? My temper was a bit high at that time because I planned to continue my journey to Ciawi when I arrived at Jakarta (My next duty was in Ciawi).
So I calmed down after a while, then decided to access internet using SUrya's modem. I felt it was a really long wait and was a good way to celebrate my birthday.
Moral of the story: My first half birthday was OK but my second birthday was DISASTER.... A real unforgettable birthday.
P.S. Thanks to you who sent me "a happy birthday" greeting at morning time when I was still sleeping.
P.S again: In fact I am not really 17, hahahah. Guess how old I am?

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Job job job

I have a new daily routine now, checking and applying for vacancies. I am still working as translator now, but I think it's not wrong to look for a better job while I am still young, fresh, energetic and spirit full (sounds a bit narcissistic, doesn't it?). I don't undermine the job as translator, I just want more challenge. I was inspired by my friends who left the office cos they got better offers (it means salary off course).

Looking for a job is never easy. I received many vacancy information on daily basis, but just few of them fit my qualification. So I have submitted some application letters but so far I just get one call for an interview. Most of the vacancies require the incumbent to be positioned outside Jakarta while I am looking for a job which can make stay in Jakarta. I can't leave Jakarta for the time being due to some personal stupid reasons (secret reasons)

Amid my job hunting frustration, I get many support from many friends who have left my office. Wish I could have a better one. I keep trying. Wish me luck....

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