Diposting oleh Unknown on Senin, 18 April 2011
Sapi Malas will be in Perth this Easter. Undaunted by negative remarks like ‘but there’s nothing there’ or ‘It’s Australia’s black hole’ , I will prove them naysayers wrong. You can have fun in Perth, I’m sure. Watch this space for my report of “The City of Light” (wait, isn’t it for Paris?) and the 8th Most Livable City in The Economist’s 2010 list. Cheers mate!
Diposting oleh Unknown on Minggu, 10 April 2011
Traveling is fast becoming affordable. Budget airlines, internet discounts for accommodation, WikiTravel. There’s no more reason not to travel independently. I’m not trying to discredit tour and travel company here but seriously, independent traveling has been the one and only way to travel for me although that’s not the case for the majority of Indonesian. It is still difficult to spot an Indonesian backpacker abroad who came not with a bus but the signs are there. More and more of my 20something peers are going out. Inspiring blogs like The Naked Traveler or Ransel Kecil helps with the case as well as the increasing amount of guide books made by Indonesian for Indonesian available on the market.
I’m not claiming myself a die hard traveler nor an experienced one at that. I get lost all the time, for one. That doesn’t stop me. Being actively involved in Bali’s CouchSurfing scene also plunge me further into the addictive world of traveling. Wanderlust is in the air. And now we have AirAsia, the official carrier of backpackers across Asia. Let me brag a bit in this paragraph about my victoriously cheap tickets that will bring me to travel this year. I’ll be in Perth this Easter for a mere 90 USD. I’ll be in Penang the month after that, eating my heart out for 70 USD then off I’ll go to Singapore on June, right on time for the SALE (I won’t tell you how much I got the tickets for this trip because I’m afraid you’ll get frustrated and chew your shopper’s feet off). And to close the year of living ludicrously, I will be off with my darling, recently traveling addicted Mother to Vietnam on July for a mere 100 USD for the two of us. Returns. I’m unashamedly a cheap shit for travel.
As a financially struggling 20something self-employed sourcing agent/interior designer/writer, traveling for me is still a luxury as also for most of the population in Indonesia. We have basic needs that are much more important to fulfill than being lost in Prague. We’ve been taught at school that human being needs three vital things to survive: sandang (clothes), pangan (food), papan (home). I’d like to redefine it now. There’s the fourth need, an abstract but the most important of all need: the need to learn. When you cease learning, you basically stop living and none of those three needs will do you any good.
I learned about life from my travel experiences. I even learned more about myself when I’m out there getting lost and trying to read a map in a country where English is not known, then any other time in my life. It is such a shame that gap year or backpacking is not known as a rite of passage in Indonesia. I could very well imagine how good it would have been for a generation of Mummy’s Little Boys and Daddy’s Little Girls that now might have been stuck in a convenient marriage and thoughtless breeding that will drive this country into its sure population explosion. I bet my cheap tickets that you who loves to travel as much as me, an Indonesian, in your twenties or thirties and in the state of unmarried, has been in this position of being asked by a concerned Auntie: “Why do you spend all your money traveling instead of settling down, find a nice husband (or wife)?”
How could you describe to that Nosy Auntie the beautiful, liberating, vibrant jitter, lurching in your stomach when you first arrived in a strange destination, not yet unknown by you? How could you tell her the joy of meeting perfect stranger and when you’re lucky, made a lifetime connection and memory with them? How could you explain it to her that occasionally there will be times when you found a part of yourself that you didn’t even know exist, that so appealing and true and real? I guess you just can’t. You could try but she will gives you that look that says it all: this kid is hopeless. Hopefully, she’ll leave it at that.
Diposting oleh Unknown on Selasa, 05 April 2011
You think when you’ve reached your twenties, you’d be more sophisticated, worldly and knowing. Well, you just can’t be more wrong. Twenties are just an extension of your teenage years except that you own more money. Insecurities, social acceptance, peer pressure all of them are still there, those old mean bastards. It might be even more dangerous since in your twenties you have a lot more points to prove and much more ambition. Yes, I can get a raise and promotion next month. Yes, I can totally buy that (put any one word designer’s name here) handbag even if it cost me four months salary. Yes, God is my witness, I’ll be married by 27.
Back to the alcohol thingy, I spent this beautiful Saturday being drunk. I missed a late brunch by the river and a good wonderful company, because I’m too hammered to even wake up from my bed. I don’t think I’ve ever been this drunk before although there were few close calls. I’m not a party animal or those hipsters who thinks being tipsy and slurred are the way to go. There is nothing mildly cute or graceful in being drunk. Last night, I was simply having a good time and got a bit carried away. I had two fantastic, fun loving girls with me and a really sweet guy as the designated driver since we all knew deep down, the three fantastic, fun loving girls (yes, I counted myself in) would be three raving intoxicated girls as the night grew old. Fast forward to around 3 a.m, one was having a serious make out session with a toilet bowl (yes, missy I know you’d be reading this) and another two was taking over the dance floor. Then we went home. It was a beautiful misty morning as we passed few determined joggers, market shopping housewives and high school students on the way.
I was quite sober when I reached home but by the time I woke up after an urgent phone call (BRUNCH! WAKE UP!), a deep unsettling nausea hits me and the next thing I know, I was on the toilet floor, throwing up everything I swallowed the night before. I never knew our body don’t digest vodka that well. To make things worse, the nausea didn’t come in one big tsunami so I can just get it done. Oh no, they came in ripples. Six sickening and horrifying ripples which was the very reason why your parents told you not to get drunk. It is now 20.52 laptop time, when I’m writing this in a much better state and finally able to hold food in my belly.
I learned my lesson today. It cost me a splendid Saturday. As God as my witness, I’ll never be drunk again. Ever.