I want to ride my bicycle...

It’s cheap, it’s total fun and it’s healthy. Try to ride that static bike on the gym, tell me the longest time you could sit there and pedaling? I found it very boring and could only last for 30 mins. Now try to get a real bike and go out in the sun. I think I could last all day!

So rather than doing the boring kinda weekend of malling, with a friend I went to Ubud at 8 AM, rented a bike and explore. If you take Jl. Suweta, you could have a nice ride in a very green environment. For about 30 minutes you will find some houses and villas, not crowded though. Then as you continue you will find endless green carpet of rice paddies both on your right and left side. Million dollar view.

If you ever want to ride a bike when you come to Bali, count me in. ;)

2 out of 3 Nusas

Lucky me I finally got a chance to visit Nusa Penida and Nusa Lembongan this weekend. There’s another Nusa, called Nusa Ceningan, but not enough time so this will happen another time.

So the five of us went to Benoa port. The boat sailed around 10 AM, headed to Nusa Penida. 30 minutes of worry for being on the sea, I considered that as an effort of getting more familiar with the sea. Of all the bad things that might happen I worried more about getting sea sick. I did check if the boat has life jacket, and surprisingly they don’t have any (how come?!!), but I guess worrying things will only prevent me from having fun and enjoying things to the max, so had to cross those thoughts out.

The picture shows the two main jobs people have in Nusa Penida. Fishing and cultivating seaweed (later dried for 2-3 days and transported to Surabaya for production of vegetarian gelatin).

It’s a rather small island, but has many potential. Many farmers dedicate their land to be planted with teak trees, I see most of them are still young, the oldest trees would be 4-5 years old. Still many years to go before harvest time. In the highest peak surprisingly we found a couple of huge wind mill. Half of the island’s electricity supply is actually powered by the wind. And of course bamboo. It would be a quick way to reforest the island, turning it to green again.

Now we didn’t spend much time in Nusa Lembongan. Only had quick late lunch there. But the view was beautiful. We went to BK, a nice restaurant. Cooking was (unfortunately) super slow, but tasted delicious (well, don’t all food tastes super delicious when you’re super hungry?). So Nusa Lembongan is still an exploring spot I need to do in the future.

favor + interest ?

Now this can be a tough question.

So I contacted 3 of my closest friends, asked them to lend me some money and what kind of term they would like to have. Well, this can be like a “test” for them if they knew that this is a way for me to find out what their reaction would be when I actually need some money. I’m not really in the position of needing extra cash, only that a friend asked me to lend her some money. Quite an amount,

One immediately OK-ed, without interest. Isn’t that a true friend or what?
One OK-ed, no comment on interest but asked the amount as liquid cash was limited.
One never came back. Maybe suspected that I was in big trouble.

So when I received this kind of request I would consider the following factors: the borrower, amount of money, and payment term. Interest would be excluded, I don’t want to start being greedy when the first intention was to help. And no collateral either, as it could be tacky.

Borrowers so far were family and friends. I don’t think I would lend money to a complete stranger. No personal connection and no trust. The only time lent to a stranger was to another staff at the office while I was still new, only later waived it when she gave birth, sort of a birthday gift for the baby. So that was an exception.

Amount can be troublesome. My father taught me that it should start with a question you have to ask yourself: how much money are you willing to lose to help this person? It may seem to be pessimistic, but I agree. If there’s a worse case scenario, that would be it, right?

So far it’s not much that can hurt my monthly expense, and yes if s/he can’t pay back I would just let it go. But recently a friend asked for quite an amount. During the phone call at the back of my head I played that number. She explained what it was for, the complete story of what happened. Then when I asked when she could repay it, she said in 2 months time. Quite some time, twice as much as I would prefer it to be. Maybe I should’ve told her that there would be interest. But I’m not familiar with being a “rente” (Indonesian for rentenir, a person who lends money with high interest/collateral. Another term would be lintah darat, meaning land leech, a tiny animal that can suck your blood dry. Got the picture??).

So I agreed to help, but only for half of the amount she asked for. She gained in period of time while I reduce the amount by half. Not an easy decision, especially when it came from a standpoint where it’s the amount that I should be prepared to lose.

City bus

Read this cartoon yesterday in Kompas and it sure brought fond and not so fond memories of being in a over crowded public transportation. May it be buses, mikrolet, angkot. Satire cartoon. May seem funny, but in reality it’s sad. I think I’ve experienced all the things that portrayed in it.

Let’s see..
Standing at the door, I guess it felt better because at least I could feel the wind
Harassed by tukang ngamen (street musician)
Harassed by other passenger
Mugged (I was more worried with the possibility of the rusty nail clipper would cause if it cut my neck, so I snapped my necklace and handed it to him)
Caught a thief (proudest moment)
Struggled my way out from the bus (shrink yourself!)
And of course feeling totally relieved when finally reach my destination and out from the hot, stinky and packed bus

The good old days? Not quite. But it just concern me that after that many years it’s still like this and no intention whatsoever from the government to improve it. Oh well, that’s the struggle in surviving the big city.

Good luck!

Been sick the past 2 days. Same illness the last time. Masuk angin. What would be the English word for it, the medical term? No idea. In wind? Silly. Sort of flu, I guess. Major headache, achy body, feeling cold while the temperature outside was normal. Well I did the entire necessary thing I had to do; now feeling much better although still a bit weak.

I really need to plan my weekend better. Especially for 3 days holiday like now. I was going to Geger beach with some friends on Friday if I didn’t get sick and had to stay in all day. Boy my boss is very lucky. Does he realize that for past 2 years I’ve never been sick that I have to stay home? The only time was I could only work half day, but back to the office the next day. Well nah, I think I am the lucky one. Hehehe..

Today I feel much better (thank God), but think I still have to take it easy. Don’t want to get all too excited, even canceled the idea of going to the gym. Slow down. Relax. Went out for lunch with a friend and just enjoyed the ride with her while she finished her errands. The island’s back to its summer heat. Really hot. I can imagine the beach area would be packed during long weekend like this. Better to avoid it for another week.

good Friday

As Max Lucado wrote on his book ‘When God Whispers Your Name’, I think this would be the best quote for Easter..

I’ve never been surprised by God’s judgment, but I’m still stunned by his grace..

Twice is already too much

Have you ever had the experience when something bad happened and your heart told you to do something but you ignored it and later regretted it? Have you ever had similar experience twice?

This related to street accident. The first occurrence happened around 3 weeks ago. I was on my way to a friend’s house. It was starting to get dark, I just passed one traffic light, not so busy street but in a bottle neck street I adjusted with the cars came in from the left. Then I saw a motorbike tried to pass me from the right. It was quite a wide road only divided by two continuous line, which means you cannot pass. The biker went quick, but very soon (but not soon enough) he noticed a man standing in the middle of the road trying to get across. The man lifted one leg tried to avoid the bike, the bike slipped to the right and the next thing I saw he was lying on the street not moving.

Should I stop? Should I stop? Should I stop?

I didn’t stop. A friend waredn me, “Well, you might have good intention, but sometime people would thought you stopped and helped because you feel responsible. So starting from being good Samaritan you’ll end up being a convict.” Yes, I’ve heard such stories, but if you have faith God will protect you right?

So should I say I failed the test?

Then yesterday as I was driving to the office, just about 5 mins from the office I saw a group of motorbikes on one side, and among the people was a colleague. I instantly sms-ed him but no reply (later found out he was out of credit). Figured things wesr taken care of because many people was already there I drove away. After a while I called that colleague what happened, apparently another colleague was hit by a motorbike (again?!). He waited there until someone came with a car and took him to the hospital.

Should I say I failed test #2?

Batak rulez!

Hehee.. sorry if you don’t understand, go watch Nagabonar. It’s very amusing seeing how batak men are correctly pictured in this movie. For non-batak women, I would recommend they watch it so they could get a good idea of how batak men are. Not very charming, huh? Well, I’ve nothing against them. Everybody has their good side and bad side, no matter what their roots are. I do remember that my dad’s batak, so are my bros.

Only one question, if Nagabonar is batak, what is his family name (marga)??
Bah!