Last sunset

Watching the last sunset in 2012 from the lowest land in the world, Dead Sea, Jordan.

Location: Winter Valley Warwick Resort, Jordan.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE!

St. George Greek Orthodox Basilica.

Looking at this mosaic from St. George Greek Orthodox Basilica, Madaba, could only makes one wants to stay home and makes love to art.

Christmas Dinner

In the name of Christmas, we had to go to a little village outside Zurich for the dinner. :)

It was a little bit difficult to find the address but we managed to be there on time. The other accomplishment was that I successfully emptied two plates of main course. Christmas comes once a year, so yeah, grab the chance to be fat before trying hard to loose the weight next year.

Photographs courtesy of Frau Lehmann-Kodrat.

To the jungle, to the jungle.. right where the wild things don't mingle.

It had been awhile since I had a good time doing things I liked most. It was not that I sometimes had a bad time doing it but more like I didn't have enough time to do it. Those things one had to do to pay the bills, or those things one had to do to get things that paid the bills, and well, domestic life was tough.

Red is the only way to play

Sunday hiking with Peter

Krzysztof does Japanese

Being in Ko Samui island with heaps of Japanese tourists, Krzys couldn't help himself not to be one.

Summer is always here

A hot day on the beach of The Tongsai Bay, Ko Samui. 

THERE ONCE LIVED A WOMAN WHO TRIED TO KILL HER NEIGHBOUR'S BABY.*

The woman you see here is my friend, Ruth.

* a novel by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya.

Une histoire d'amour

We meet by chance; love by choice.
Just a stone's throw is happiness.
After your kisses, I rejoice.
Forever goodbye loneliness.


Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Come sit next to me...

Sometimes you just need to sit down, relax, and enjoy the sunshine.

There's no such thing as sun stroke or too much sun.

Vitamin D is good.

I NEED A NEW MAC.

No way! I was totally offended when I tried to update my Mac to OS X Mountain Lion and this pops up. It was like screaming on my face "Get a new Mac!"

I like this old MacBook Air as it has been with me for so long, loyal more than anything/ anyone one could stand in a kind of one way relationship. I know I take more than I give; all those years spent learning economics are worth it. This picture below is from August 2008 when I visited Ve and others in Jakarta. The Mac, just like its owner, pretty much looks the same until now.

Anyway, if I were to buy a new Mac, the money might go to MacBook Pro with retina display as it seems tough enough for the hard job it would do in the future, yes I would enslave it well with some Adobes, iWork, and iWeb; although, I still have a soft spot for the MacBook Air line and the new 11" looks like a good travel companion one could ever ask for.

Time will tell. Right now, I am keeping this old thing.

Little SA

I was cleaning up my desk drawer just to find this old picture. I think you better not mess around with me.

She did it!

My little sister finished her master course way faster than me.

But that does not really mean that boys only know how to self-destruct themselves, does it?

Aroe Eilanden

These are the photographs of the Islanders from Aru Islands circa 1960s. On the top are the people who received some influence from the Dutch, clothing wise.

This is the island where I come from.

Of course, today, people look different as they are no longer Dutch colony and the islands are no longer remote, easily reached by PELNI ships.

Tugu Hotel Lombok

I and Ve arrived in Lombok on Saturday morning. 

There was a driver sent by Tugu Hotel Lombok to pick us up. It took some time to get to this resort because it's located quite far away from the city centre. When you were here, you would just love to enjoy the serene atmosphere it offered. You would definitely find the peace you were looking for, here.

It took even some minutes to drive from the entrance gate to the lobby.

We stayed in this little house with a fish pond in the front yard (it's a good Feng Shui, my mom would say) and an access to the beach in the back yard. There was a cute little bath tub and a couple of showers.

The bridge to the Bale Kokok Pletok, where they served breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Many wooden handicrafts were watching me when I passed by. I could only hope that they were not alive when it was dark.

That was one rather good size swimming pool, right near by the restaurant. Quite fancy thinking that you might swim for a short time before you had your breakfast. 

My superb lunch: Ayam Taliwang; a must try when you are in Lombok. 

Oh, I almost forget to mention that every afternoon was a good high tea time. There were many traditional cakes/ sweets for you to have with your tea. Or coffee. 

Last dinner; the set dinner menu we had at Hening Swarga Temple. 

I told you, we had the access to the beach. And a little swimming pool... for skinny dipping, perhaps.

The view to the Bale Kokok Pletok from the Sire beach. 

Ve did not quite pose like an amateur model, did he?

This is a perfect place if you want to break free from your stressful daily life. You would appreciate the nature more than before, loosen up your social skills perhaps, and balancing everything.
Although I myself don't live under pressure, I also would love to be here again for the love of heaven.

Peace

I do not know much where one goes or what one does to get a piece of peace in mind. 

However, I want you to be here. 

Look at the blue sky; feel the white sand. 

Holding my hand.

Location: Beach of Sire, Lombok.

Tugu Hotel Bali

My friend Ve was a seasoned travel writer.

He was scheduled to do couple articles about Tugu Hotel chains, the one in Bali and in Lombok, when I happened to fly back to Indonesia. As his Schatzi had extra work and could not be with him, I tagged along.

It could be quite miserable if you were in these fancy hotels alone; located far away from the crowded city centres, better to spend the quiet getaway with a friend. ;)

The room we had was on the upstairs, quite spacious. It was obviously one big bed room with extra space for a working desk, one huge bath tub, one toilet, and one shower with a huge woman to surprise you everytime you want to shower. The WiFi was available in the room for free of charge.

We had a private dinner on the beach. The weather was a bit windy and the night was dark but it was meant to be like that. We had to use our senses other than the sight.

It was too dark, I could not get a decent picture of the food but but below is the dessert. We had to be blindfolded by the waiter, tried whatever it was in the boxes, and guessed what was it as part of the game. 

We leave the next morning by boat to Lombok. I could not wait to try the bath before being in that warmth bed.