Taiwan

你好...

It’s been a long time that I haven’t written a blog since last year. A lot of things happened for sure. Too many things, too many stories I had experienced since 2010. In short, my decision in 2010 to pursue a master degree in Taiwan instead of career at Bank of Tokyo in Jakarta, had changed my life. Some people might be disappointed with my decision. Working at one of the biggest bank by assets in the world should secure my future and career. However, I have a bigger picture of my future. There are some dreams that I wanted to reach since I graduated from Bachelor degree. And working is not the option. I always wanted to see the world. Study abroad perhaps the most reasonable purpose to see, experience and gain knowledge from different country when working abroad is rather more difficult unless you are willing to do a labor job. Right after I graduated, I tried to apply for a scholarship to study for a master degree in Japan. I don’t know why, but at the time I was very confidence that I would get the scholarship. And well… I didn’t get the scholarship. Thereafter, I tried again in the following year, but still with the same result. Japan with its Monbukagakusho Program was not the only country I was trying to go. I have tried Australia (ADS), Netherland (Nuffic), Europe (Erasmus Mundus), Germany (DAAD) and some other scholarship to study abroad provided by Indonesian government (Depkominfo and DIKTI). Well, when my hope was deteriorated, I got an information about studying in Taiwan. I didn’t expect much even though I saw an opportunity to get a scholarship either from the university or Taiwanese government. And….. it started to be a big hope as soon as I socialize with a lot of foreigners from Couchsurfing. I felt it to be exciting and enriching my life. And then, I was gambled a little bit when I faced a decision whether to accept or dump the offer from Bank of Tokyo while I haven’t been accepted yet in National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan, and al thought they could accept me, I was not sure about the scholarship. In the end, sacrifices are equal with the gain. 1 week after I dumped the offer from Bank of Tokyo, I got an acceptance letter from National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan, with the scholarship. So…. Here I am, now, in Taiwan for more than 2 years. About 2 months after my official graduation date, I got a job in Taipei :) and probably another year in Taiwan…..

Last Moment in Bali

“Brusshhh..brumb….” it is slightly echoing  in my ear. The noises keep me away from the crowd, stress, and daily activity. It comes soft to my ear and gently whisper where I am. As soon as I gain my consciousness, the warm feeling inside stretch my lips into a smile. The fresh air is telling me to go outside but the blanket smother me and manipulate my mind to go back to sleep. The same noises suddenly change into another lullaby. “This is the sea-wave,” I was talking to my mind. “Ahhh…it’s been 5 days I am in Bali with my girlfriend and her friend. In a perfect place called Bungalow which is located in Tabanan beach. We live in an exotic bamboo house facing the beach and surrounded by banana tree. The place is far away from the crowd. It is approximately 6 hours from Denpasar, the capital of Bali.

“Ilmanko.. wake up.. wake up… see the beautiful sunshine. Let’s go outside,” my girlfriend nudges on me and woke me up from my second sleep. I was too lazy to wake up, but as the curtain open and sunshine coming through the window, it forced me to wake up and jump out of the bed. My girlfriend is an active person and very passionate about traveling. She is a woman in need of affiliation. Easily touch, full of emotion and sometimes meticulous. Compare to me, I am more passive, thinking logically, look emotionless but cheerful. Her friend is somehow similar with me; she is ‘motovidlo’ (a generic term in Slovak to point somebody with slows motoric). However, her friend is a very nice and smart girl. Three of us have been traveling in Bali for 4 days and finally we need to prepare ourselves fly from Bali to China through Singapore and Macau.

“This is the scooter key,” I said to the man who rent us the scooter. “Ok, you guys can take a bus from here to Denpasar and continue with taxi,” said the man. “Ok, no worries, thank you for the scooter.” Yeah, we were traveling in Bali with scooter, and only one scooter. 3 people in a scooter? That’s insane! Well, when you have no better option with limited budget, you need to take a risk. On the first day, we were traveling to Pura Besakih, a Hindus temple located in Karangasem County. It is about 80 km from our place. We knew that it is against the law to ride the scooter by 3 people. And I knew that we are going to have a problem if the police caught us. Therefore, we came up with this strategy. If I saw a police from the far, then I will stop and tell my girlfriend to jump out of the scooter. That strategy seems work. Moreover, I believed that there would be no police patrol on the street. In fact, finally I realized that in touristic island, they are doing more. We were so happy riding the scooter, but not until we arrived in a big roundabouts. I couldn’t see the police as the road was climbing. When I said “jump” to my girlfriend, it was too late and the police dragged us to their post not far away. My girlfriend was exploded when the police fined us with Rp.50,000 around US$5.5. She was crying, complaining and started to hate Bali! I was trying to relief her, and gradually she can understand. After this incident, we change our strategy. Instead of taking the bus, we were more adventurous! My girlfriend decided to hitchhike! She is an experience hitchhiker. She eventually managed to hitchhike a big truck until Karangasem County! We were following the truck with the scooter by then. All that crazy stuff in the morning was nothing compare to what happened on the evening. On the way back to our Bungalow, we cannot hitchhike anymore as it was getting dark. No other options than going back home with 3 people in a scooter. If you never experience riding a scooter in 3 people, that’s good. And don’t ever want to try it! This is especially if you have a long destination. We were sharing middle size scooter seat into 1/3 tiny part of it. The first 3 hours was ok for me, even though it was raining. Another 3 hours, it was torturing! It was such a pain in the ass. And guess what? We were riding scooter in total for 8 hours!!! I was almost screaming in the end of the ride, but keep it cool with Craig David’s “Insomnia” in my head.

Well, our first day was crazy but not so bad for the second day. We met a girl from Canada who is happened to stay at the same Bungalow. On the second day, we didn’t have any trouble for transportation. The girl was renting a scooter as well; therefore my girlfriend’s friend can go with her. We decided to go to Kuta beach in Denpasar. Everything was fine until I realized that we missed each other. Me and my girlfriend was thinking everything’s going to be fine and that was true, as later on we met them healthy in the Bungalow. The second day was amazing for us. Me and my girlfriend were having so much fun playing in Kuta beach as well as Nusa Dua beach. She had that exotic feeling from Bali as well as romantic. The ocean wave was high and calling us to jump in. The sun was bright and warm. The sand was very warm as well. The crowds were breaking apart and mostly populated in the downtown. The beach was quiet but loud enough to carve our memories.

We were outside of the bungalow complex with our backpack and hand bag and then cross a nicely pave small road in front of our bungalow complex. Al though the man suggest us to take a bus from the Bungalow, it seems it’s going to take an hour or two to wait for the bus. Suddenly we saw a police mini truck park nearby Bungalow complex and just about to leave. Of course this is like an exogenous phenomenon, giving an idea to the hitchhikers. Interestingly, the policemen allow us to go with them until the roundabout! Yes, the roundabout where we were caught by them! There is another funny thing about the roundabout and the police. On the 4^th day in Bali, we came back to our Bungalow in the midnight. I believed there would be no more police at this late night. However, I need to convince myself twice that we were in touristic place. The policemen are always around the town. On that night luckily I saw them from far away, and I managed telling my girlfriend to jump out of the scooter. I was confidence! But I should know that the policemen are not stupid. They stopped me and they knew that my girlfriend was with me. The worst was, they were the policemen who caught us on our first day in Bali. They completely knew anything about me. I was ready to pick up my wallet and spent some more money. Fortunately, the policemen just let us go. The main reason remains a mystery, but I thought it was because we look so damn poor.

After we arrived at the roundabout, we took a bus to go to bus station in Denpasar. We stopped by at Padang’s restaurant and continue on to the airport with public transportation. We were arguing before we took a public transportation to the airport. My girlfriend was insisting to try hitchhiking, her friend try to be rational to take a taxi, and I suggest them just to take the public transportation. We were arguing for 10-15 minutes until I was really upset and drag them all to the public transportation. I didn’t want us spending time for small things. Every day was challenging in Bali, although the beauty will not fade away from our memory. The first day was with policemen, exhausting and horrible journey. The second day, we missed each other. The third day, we were struggling in finding the cheapest available hotel in Denpasar after we realized that we were too exhausted to go back to our Bungalow. The fourth day, again! We were missing each other. That time it was even more terrible as my girlfriend was separated from us and she didn’t bring anything with her, not even a penny. I had enough with all of those adventurous situations. I hoped our last day in Bali would be at peace. Yet, since we were in the public transportation, we cannot stay in peace. We were so nervous because there was a long traffic jam on the way to the airport. We were kind of relief after the driver made an initiative to jump into pedestrian walk and made our journey as if in Rally Dakar! Eventually we arrived at the airport on time, two hours before our departure. We were so happy and thinking about souvenir to buy. We entered one souvenir shop on the airport and spent a lot of time there. We start to be panicked when we realized there were 20 minutes left to go for check in. We were rushing to our airline counter, running like crazy. We were so glad that it wasn’t that far from the souvenir shop. Finally we reach at the airline counter and telling in a hurry that we wanted to check in. Suddenly the officer of the airline told us that we were in a wrong counter! We were in domestic flight counter and we need to move to international flight counter! We were extremely panicked; we were running out like crazy! By the time we arrived at the international flight counter, it was 5 minutes late for check in. 

Couchsurfing Experience

Now it's time for a couple from France

This year 2010 looks like a year with couchsurfing for me. I got a lot of things from couchsurfing. New life, new experience, new adventure, new friends and new knowledge. Almost every month that we got a guest from outside Indonesia. From many different countries. It's really fun. Many things that I learnt, especially the language. Well, I have told you that previously I already had a guest from Spain, Sweden, Thailand, Swiss, Argentine, and Belgium. Still in the month of April, after a couple from Belgium, I hosted another couple. And this time from French. Really interesting. Always different country.

The first time I met them was in my internet cafe. Well...as usual... it was Pandu who received the couchrequest, then he asked me to do the job. They came to Pandu's house with a cab on their first day in Bandung and fortunately the driver was dumb enough and made them lost. Luckily, they met a good guy who willing to help them, accompany them nearer to Pandu's house, although still not in Pandu's house yet. Well, in short, they finally found Pandu's house through the second cab. After having several conversation and relaxing a little bit in Pandu's house, they came to my internet cafe. It happened to I was on duty and wasn't free enough to accompany them. This is why Pandu brought them to my internet cafe, instead of me who come to his place. Well, the time they went to my internet cafe was late in the evening. It was almost midnight. So, it was like they were accompanying me being an operator. That night we knew that they must be starving, then we recommend them to eat 'pecel lele'... hehehe... it was really funny because they never had things like that before and they had to eat it directly with hands. So, maybe around 1 am, I finished my job and closed my internet cafe. Then I brought the couples to my house. We had very few conversation as both of them really tired, so I just showed them places in my house, like bathroom, my bedroom, their bedroom, and so on. Afterwards, I say goodnight and see you tomorrow.

Before we go any further, let me introduce them more specifics. The man names is Jo and the woman is Chloe. They both are younger than me but still above 20. Jo can speak a little bit of bahasa, even sundanese.. hehe.. while Chloe, she looks pretty and kindhearted girl. She also looks really delicate, but later I knew that she is a really tough girl. Both of them are fluent in speaking french.. the hell yeah.. they are from french, from La Rochelle. Like Jeff and Sandra, that morning, Chloe wake up earlier than Jo. When I look at her, she always reminds me with a french movie, Emily. Well, she doesn't look like her, but, somehow her appearance fill me that way. Chloe wakes up and then go to the bathroom, cleaning herself and prepare for the day....meanwhile, her boyfriend, still sleeping in the other room quietly. It's really funny. Based on my experience hosting people, I always find the same case. Travelers guy always seems to be very lazy and always wake up late, while woman travelers, they are really punctual, neat and clean, always wake up early. Even some of them wake up earlier than me and woke me up.. hehehe...So..... that day we decided to travel to the volcanoes, Tangkuban Perahu Mt. I forgot the exact time when we went there, but accompany them traveling to Tangkuban Perahu was an experience. I mean... we had been went to the volcanoes for many times, almost every time we had a guest, we took them there. But each guest always had their own story. Like this one, with Chloe and Jo, we try another way to go to the top of the mountain. And damn, it spent more than an hour hiking. We were sweating a lot, especially Pandu, but Chloe, wow she is marvelous, she wasn't looking tired and sweating at all. Another interesting things with them was, we saw the black monkey 'lutung' in the jungle around the volcanoes, which is hardly to see. Ahh.. and then there was this funny things when traveling to the volcanoes. Well... it was already evening when we finished our exploration in the volcanoes and it was already dark. No more public transportation that can took us from the top of the mountain until down to the big road. We had no choice but walking. But suddenly, we had a good idea... why not trying to hitchhike? So....we knew that people wont give a damn to local travelers who trying to hitchhike their cars. Hence, we put our beloved guest in the front line to wave their hands calling the car that passing by. And..... oh lala... it works.. hehehe. There was this family car, a nice one that stop and offered us a ride. Wahhh.. we were very lucky, then we hitchhike their car until the city. It was really fun. It was my first experience on hitchhiking.

Chloe and Jo, they stay only for 2 days, but they have their own story for us. They traveled only to Tangkuban Perahu in Bandung, and in the following days after Tangkuban Perahu, they went to Batu Karas, in Pangandaran. Hope to see both of you again, somewhere, someday...

Couchsurfing Experience

I hosted another couple.. this time from Belgium!

Ok.. let’s continue our journey. Not long after an angel visited my house there comes another guest. This time it’s a couple from Belgium. Well, the guest actually asked a couch to Ika, who is a couchsurfer from Bandung as well, but then Ika asked a help to Pandu to host them. And you know.. when there is a couchrequest to Pandu, in the end he will notified about it to me. Hehehe… especially this guest is a couple. So, Pandu then asked me to host them in my house. I still remember, it was in the evening of Friday. Pandu has told me that the guest will arrived in Bandung from Medan in the evening. So I just passed Pandu’s house before I went to my internet café and suddenly Pandu came out from his house and shouted at me…”ilman..ilman…” wow… looks like the guest really has arrived at his house. Then Pandu asked me to come inside his house and introduced the guest to me. The guys name is Jeff and the woman’s name is Sandra. The woman looks fashionable and beautiful. Worth enough to make me forgot about my angel for a second. What awakes me is the fact that she has been taken. Well.. after the short introduction, I have to go to my internet café to work until 3 pm.

Then… maybe Pandu has got no more idea to make a conversation with them, so he took his guest to my internet café at 2 pm. I really loved when Pandu took them to my internet café as it helps promoting my internet café. People will start to think… “Oh my GOD that internet café always full with Caucasian.. Sounds interesting there…it’s an international place” hehehe…. So, what we did in my internet café was just having more conversation and learning some bad words in Dutch and Flemish. Potverdieken! That’s the word that I still remember until now. Finally it’s 3 pm, then another operator, which is my employee, took over my place and I can go home. Then all of us went to my house and planning for next things to do. We were all a little bit exhausted so we just spent some time in my house for relaxing and chitchat. Me and Pandu asking them about their destination in Bandung, and they said they had none. So, on that afternoon we just recommend them for sightseeing our historical building in Bandung which is located in the downtown. They were agreed then Pandu asked me if he needs to go home for a while to prepare everything and will be back soon. While waiting for Pandu, I teached them to play OHU. Yesss.. OHU.. it’s a mathematic game, play with the cards. The rule is simple, we just have to find out a solution for a number that based on 6 cards times with 10 and added with the value of the cards on top of the deck. The highest number must be 71 and the lowest number must be 61. The value of the cards itself based on its number while J, Q, and K has value of 10, while Ace can be 11 or 1. So there are 6 cards on the table and we should find out the numbers by added, subtract, multiply or divide all 6 cards value. The one who find out the answer should say OHU! Well… I played this game with Sandra and Jeff. Even though they seem not enjoying the game so much, but it was a good game for killing the time. They had to think and for the first time it took quite a lot of time to finally get the answer. But I see that Jeff has a potential. He learnt it quickly and at least always found out the answer. Ahhh.. finally I knew why he was that gorgeous. He is working in a bank in Belgium and is a manager. After several times playing the game, Pandu comes. Then all of us were preparing to go to the downtown to see the historical building.

Well.. well..well… we arrived at downtown pretty late.. it was afternoon. Around 5.30 pm. What we do is only turning around the downtown, seeing Asia-Africa buildings and then goes to Masjid. Yeah, however, even when I hosted a guest, if it comes to praying times, I will take it as my number one priority. So, while they were waiting for me and Pandu praying, we told them to taste “Es Cingcau”. Hufff… looks like they were boring because not so many things that appealing. Then, we decided to take them to “Paris Van Java” to watch a movie. At first we want them to see an India movie, but then Jeff looks like unhappy with it, so then we choose to watch a Greek mythology story which is I forgot the name of the movies. Ahhh.. this movie was so so.. nothing special for me but worth enough to kill the time. After all movie things finished, we wanted to take them to our special place, a cheap restaurant but yet good enough to introduce our traditional food and the scenery of Bandung at night. So we had to go to Pandu’s place first to take his and mine motorbike, because it needs a vehicle to go there. No public transportation can reach the place and taking a cab would be killing us. It would be damn expensive. Then, when I was finally at home willing to take my motorbike, suddenly an old friend of mine, a friend from high school, calling me. He was asking me if I were available that night. He wanted to meet me. Then I said, sorry, I was having a guest from Belgium and we were about to go to ‘Punclut’ . So if you don’t mind coming with us, you can meet me, I said. Then, unpredictably he said, ok… I’ll come to your house 15 minutes later. Wow.. ..that was so good as this old friend of mine was bringing his own car. So we were able hitchhike his car. His name is Yudi and he is working on a bank as an IT staff. Yes, it was like he said, he comes like 15-20 minutes after calling me. Then I took him to Pandu’s place to pick our guest. Aftrewards, we went to Punclut. And that was the end of that day.

Morning…….. wow… it seems my guest still sleeping, except Sandra. Yes, Pandu was requesting me to host the guest as it would be a little bit hectic for them to stay at his place. Feeling that the sunshine was almost high, Sandra then tries to waking up Jeff. And it works, although needed 5 minutes to smack him and wake up.. hehe. So, on that day, we were planning to go to the train station to buy a ticket for both of them to Yogyakarta for the following day. And then, afterwards, we would like to join in CS Bandung gathering. It was around 12 pm that finally we were able to catch up with other member of CS in a gathering. We met up at “Gedung Sate”. And there were quite a lot of member that participated in the gathering. The gathering itself has a theme of culinary. So the planed of the event was to try several food in different places in Bandung. Of course the good one and the unique one. All of us were having a good time. Especially Pandu. You know what… Pandu was appointed as a contact person for the event. So it was like anytime and anywhere that he always seeing holding his cell phone, texting a message. He looks really busy. And yes, afterwards, Pandu writes his feeling about being a contact person in his blog. And the way he described it was really funny.. hehehe. On that day I was really happy and would like to join in with the event until the end. But as describe in my previous story about couchsurfing experience, on that day, I was also texting a message with Sara and there was a chance to meet her again in Indonesia for the last time. I was never felt that crazy of wanting to see a woman like I did that day. Then in the middle of culinary, it was around 7 pm, I say goodbye to all member that attend the event and asked a help to Pandu, to take care the guest. And then I hurriedly back home to pack my things and preparing to go to Jakarta to meet Sara. Well….at 9 pm I was at the pool of a shuttle bus and I was ready to go to Jakarta. In the end, the guest from Belgium was sleeping at Pandu’s house, leaving a funny story. Where Pandu realize that western mostly sleeping without clothes put on, only wearing pants. And he also realize that why some beautiful girls didn’t want to be snap by a camera while they were sleeping.

INTERMEZO

Three maskepret and drama queen....

After talking several times about my experiences with couchsurfing, now I want to talk about my best friends. They are the people whom I spent most of my times with, in this past 2 years. Never imagine that I will have a friends like them who gave me another sensation of lifes. Makes my life more colorful, cheerful and outstanding. I learnt a lot of things from them. Especially in the subject of 'how to having fun.' They are people who care about others more than me. They are socialize and have fun. Things that I used to think as wasting of time. Thanks to them that I can be more flexible and have more confidence. Well, well, well....let's stop this lame courtasey. I will introduce each of them to you.

Dompret

Hmm... he is the tough one. The first time I met this guy was in a live gathering presented by local television about an english premier league match between Chelsea fc vs Manchester United 2006/ 2007. That time I was already a member of Chelsea Indonesia Supporters Club (CISC). The live gathering itself invited CISC members from Bandung to mow. Our members that time wasn't much. Not even more than the crowd in a bus. This initiate us to promote our community and bring new people to the live gathering. A friend of mine whose nick name's really funny, Dulir, brought 2 people to the live gathering. They are his friends from his campus in the same major with him. One guy named Resa and the other guy named Ferry. Both of them joining CISC afterwards. The introduction was short. We haven't shared anything, but I got a feeling that we would met a lot. Time goes by and we frequently meet. Resa was occasionally comes to our gathering but Ferry, he is much more often, even when Dulir wasn't in Bandung anymore. Well, I still remember the time when me, Dulir, Ferry and Resa try to make a live gathering for Champions League match between Chelsea and Liverpool and we got attendance which is only the four of us gathering. That time CISC Bandung hasn't been so popular as to days, because facebook wasn't yet popular. There is also the time when I had to coordinate everything by myself as Ferry suddenly disappear and later I knew that it was all because of a girl. When he was healed already, he started to look very anxious in making CISC Bandung becomes a really big community. He sometimes pissed me off when he wasn't so patient or force me in doing something in a hurry. But all in all he is a caring person, potentially becoming a good leader and willing to sacrifice himself for friends. Thanks to him, I experienced a lot of new things and made me more confidence in talking about the world. He knows how to have fun and is really good at sharing it. Because of him I presently like doing karaoke things and enjoy going to the club. Well, it is something that the old me never ever touch. I knew him longer than the other two of my best friends here. But we were intensely meet up and having fun together after the two of them joining forces. When the 4 of us gathering, it's like a complete team... yeah a karaoke team....

Sampret

Hey dude.. should I write something about you here??? Hmm.. ok...I'll write it as you request it. Aahahaa...hmm...Samuel Ronaldo Simanjuntak... later I called him Sampret which has the same meaning as Dompret, Ferry's nick name. It was after a long time that I absent in having a live gathering at our hideout, Reneo Bridge. I came to the place and I see a lot of new faces that I didn't recognize. They said they are our new members. I was happy because that time, our members was increasing and looks more blended into one community. All thanks to Ferry who spent a lot of times and effort in doing so. I put a lot of respect for him for making this. Something that I hardly achieved. So, Reneo Bridge becoming more crowded than before and in the end of the match I should introduce myself to the new lads. Anyway, there even a girls that hang out with us, which means we had new members which is female. In the end of our live gathering, there is usually a documentation for the event. And the one who doing the things is anybody who bring cameras, and it used to be me. But that night, there is this guy who stand up and acting like a professional photographer. He snapped everything. He even command us in making a line for photos and we enjoy it. This guy is Ronald. First time I met him I don't feel any kind of chemistry or something that impressed me other than his camera and the way he speak, which is very soft. Until then, one day, this guy joining our trip to Jakarta for a scene of television show about football supporters. As we ride on the same transportation in whole day and of course we laugh and shared together, we became a little bit close. I felt that this guy is very interesting, easy going and know how to have fun. On our way back home to Bandung, we played truth or dare with Ferry, Oki and Dhiar which is also members of CISC Bandung. From the game, I knew that Ronald wasn't the nice guy that we imagined.. hehehe.. He has a lot of dark story which is very interesting and amazed us. The fact that he has changed a lot was amazed us more. This is the side of him which is I respect a lot. Other things that I like from him beside his extraordinary experiences, is his character that warmhearted. He always try to understand others feeling and really good at handling it. He is also the one that can bring a colorful and cheerful ambiance. He is party maker. He has a good communication skill thought sometimes use it in a wrong way. He has a wide social experience and good knowledge about what is currently in. Especially about music. Along with Ferry, we have been hanging around so much. Wasting time, doing stupid things and gossips.

Eno 'green tea' the drama queen

Hmmm... I totally forgot, when and where the first time I met her. But it must be in Reneo Bridge, when she was with Ferry. Our introduction was so so. Nothing impressed and we never had a long conversation. Until one day, I arrange a time to hang out and watching movies with CISC members. I was expecting many members to come but then, one by one cancel the invitation. It was only Ronald and Ferry that is attend. Then we decided not to watch movies, just hang out until the place close. So, when we should go away from the place as they are about to close it, I hang out for a while with Ronald, taking pictures at the place, while Ferry went somewhere else to pick up Eno. We thought that Ferry would just pick her and send her home. But suddenly he rang Ronalds phone and asked us to go for a karaoke as Eno wished for it. Because we got nothing to do, so we granted her wish. We booked a karaoke room for 3 hours. And yup... it was how we started. From that moment of life that unite us until today. I personally having so much fun that night. Singing, shouting, growling, jumping and dancing. So much fun. From that night we found our first karaoke anthem. It is YMCA from Village People. Later I knew that it was gay's anthem... hehee.. well.. who cares? The song was fun anyway. Then for several times, we used to call ourself by the name of YMCA. Recently, our karaoke song anthem has been changed. Now our song is I know you want me (Calle Ocho) by Pitbull. The song has a nice beat, make you stand up and move your body and hips. Well... all of this happiness wont be realize without Eno's will. Among us, she is probably the one that love karaoke the most. Eno is amazing girl that will stand up for friendship. She surprised us with beautiful present for our birthday. Each of us given a memorable unique photograph with unique frame. It was amazing. She is the first who gave me that kind of birthday present. Thank you sis. We love you!

Couchsurfing Experience

I hosted an angel! jajajaja.......

Ok... now we have arrived to the fourth story of my couchsurfing experiences. And this one is the most memorable experiences from coucsurfing, even in my life. The guest came in the right time, when a big cloud approach me, gloomy day as my daily blanket and boredom is everyday breakfast. I am alive but not motivated. Too many failure. Least problems but hard to be solved. Happiness come and goes just like money in my pocket. Hasn't been able to reach your dream is somehow frustrating. Finding an alternative but still it didn't satisfy you. That was what I felt most of the time. Until then she came. The guest, her presence is like flower in my garden, sunshine after the rain, oasis in the sahara, make my days more colorful, somehow motivated and living like in wonderland.

Maybe I have to put this words million times in my couchsurfing experiences, 'as usual, I received a text message from Pandu'......well.. he is the only source that I have. Since we hosted Agus, everytime he had a guest, he must have contacted me. That time on his sms he said that there will be a guest from Argentina, a female guest. Just heard the country where she came from made me really excited. We had a guest from Spain, Thailand, Sweden and Switzerland, and none from Argentina or any latino's country. Hosted different guest from different countries is like collecting different stamps from different countries.. well..hmmm... I mean.. have something precious from different locations. Really interesting. We can learn about their country, cultures and people at the same time. Another things beside the country where she came from, the fact that she is a female is an added value. It would be our first female guest. I was hilarious and really curious. On the arrival days, Pandu told me that he is still busy in the afternoon, and this made him unable to pick up his guest from the train station. He also asked me to be able to host this guest to stay in my house. Pandu finding trouble in hosting a female guest to stay in his house... and that is why. Then Pandu gave me her number. He had told the guest that he would not be able to pick her. Instead of him, there would be me who pick her. About three hours before she arrived in Bandung, she told me that the train would be aarived around 4.30 pm. Then I said ok, I would be there on time. But then, I was calculating the time period from Jakarta to Bandung, by train. Usually it will take around 3.5 hours. So, I was procrastinating my time to pick her. By the time I should pick her at around 4.15 pm, the weather was raining, so I procrastinate more. Then I was shocked that on 4.30 pm I got an SMS from her that says she already there, wearing pink tops. Damn,, I was realy shy and then straightly looking for an excuse. I said to her that I was on my way to pick her but then stuck on the way, because of the rain. The truth is I still at my place, procrastinating. Then I sraightly turn on my motorbike and with the speed of light, I went to the train station. I arrived at train station at 4.45 pm. And then I just went to the north gate to look for her. Damn, I couldn't see her. I never knew how she look, but I knew that she would be the only caucasians who is waiting for me. She must be easily spotted. I was panicked, and then I called her. The time I called her, I saw a girl with pink tops sitting on the floor, near mini market on the north gate. From far away she looks like a lady, I mean mature woman, around 30's. Then She pick her phone as well... ahh.. that must be her. The guest. Then I approached her. I already knew her name from Pandu. Her name is Sara, which is reminds me with Sara Tancredi from famous serial television Prison Break. When I see her closely, she trully reminds me with Sara Tancredi. And she is really beautiful. She is not a tall girl like I imagine about a caucasians. Just few centimeters shorter than me. And it made her perfect. Her body is ideal. Not fat nor thin. She has beautiful hair. It was blonde when I met her, but recently I knew that her original hair is black. But it doesn't matter. She has sharp nose and beautiful eyes. But the most that I like from her is her smile. It's warmhearted. And from close, she isn't look like a lady. She looks like a teenager, around 18 or maybe 20. Yeah.. ok... maybe she is around 22 years old. Well... I was shocked to find out that she was 25 the time I met her. And in 2010 She is gonna be 26. Since the very first time I met her, I have falling in love. She leaves a really good first impression on me. The smile that I can never forget.

I came to Indonesia referred by a friend in Australia, she says. Indonesia has many different cultures and beautiful landscape. So, what is your plan in Bandung I asked. I have no idea she said. Hmm.. ok... back then, before I picked her, we had several conversation by SMS and I figured out that she like dances. Maybe during her stay I will bring her to 'Saung Angklung Mang Udjo'. Sounds like a perfect plan. Sadly, by the time the plan should be run, I was not able to accompany her...hiks... later I will tell you why. The weather on that afternoon is gloomy and rainy. The rain only stop for a while and by the time I drove Sara in my motorbike way to my home, it was raining again. I should force Sara to put a jacket on her to keep her away from getting wet. She only wear tops, and she might catch a cold. That's worried me. I asked her several times wether we should stop for a while waiting for the rain or getting wet along the way and arrived at home. And she always replied with..'it's up to you'. So... I drove my motorbike fast. I want to arrive at home as soon as possible. I don't want my guest catch a cold.

Finally, we arrived at my home savely. And I have imagined that we would taken shower first and then have more conversation. Out there is still raining but inside my home, it is warm. All that cozy things was around my head and neverthought that only need a few minutes to crush it. My garage was locked and also my back door. Damn !!! I called my mom and yes... she said they left home about one hour ago. Shit !!! What should I do? I can't leave a beautiful girl carrying a carrier getting wet and have to wait for hours just to surfed my couch. I turned my brain up side down... and in the end I have to break my own house. DOONG....I succeded broke my garage and we were able to go inside. We were all wet and glad to be at home. I took her to a room that gonna be her bed room. It is my brothers bed room. He is currently working in Saudi Arabia. So everytime I had a guest from couchsurfing, I always asked them to stay there. It's not a fancy bed room, but I think suffice and comfortable enough for living. Near my brothers room, there is praying room. Here we have a lot of family pictures and big picture of Masjidil Haram. Sara started to make a conversation about the pictures. She is asking about my family and also about Masjidil Haram, Hajj and Saudi Arabia. She never been to Saudi Arabia, but she had been to Egypt. That's really cool. Before we had more conversation, I asked her to go for shower, because she looks all wet but I think I am the one who need the most for taking shower. I haven't taken shower since the morning. And I was all wet. About a half an hour later, we were all fresh and feel cozy. I bring her downstair to have some food a long with having conversation. Unfortunately, there were nothing in my dining room, only some fruits that was left. Well only this fruit that I can offered to her, 'Konyal'. Hmm.. I don't know the name in english and I just gave it to her. Well it was her first time to see the fruit. So she doesn't know the name either. I was happy that she loves it. Then we sit and started telling stories. I was really curious with her traveling experiences. I asked her a lot of things and found out that she had traveled to many countries. She is a bachelor from communication science, journalism, and she had lived in New Zeland for about 8 months. Save some money there for traveling. From her I knew that in Australia and New Zeland we are able to apply for working holiday visa. Wow... that's very interesting. The salary is good enough and even some easy job is paid better than what enginers do in Indonesia. I like listening to her story. Open my mind and motivates me. Usually I always get nervous everytime I had a conversation with beautiful girl or girl that I admire. But with Sara, I don't know, I feel relax, not nervous at all, very comfortable. And she is beautiful. They are who said she isn't, is not a man or might be blind. In the middle of conversation, my stomach started shouting. And I think it must be the same with her. I told her that we would go to 'punclut' for dinner, after my parents arrived at home. I said that we would have traditional food with traditional way of eating. Suddenly, my front door was knocked. I was curious what kind of guest that coming to my house in the middle of the night. Very impolite! When I open the door.... ahhh.... it's Pandu...I'm happy that you finally come dude, although a litle bit disrupting a romance between me and Sara.. hehehe...

Pandu came and we started to make more conversation. I bet he was surprised that Sara gave her a kiss on a cheek as a greet... heehe.We were talking like not knowing the time. Well we don't need to know about the time, coz we only need my parents coming home and the rain out there stop falling from the sky. And finally, about 1 hour after pandu arrived at my house, my parents coming home. They bring foods and welcoming Sara. They bring local foods that called 'martabak'. I love this food. I offered the food to Sara. She eat it but seems not enjoying it. Well, afterwards I knew that she likes spicy food. Hmmm.... very interesting. When the rain started to stop falling from the sky, we prepared ourself to go to punclut. Pandu said he wanted to went back home first to take his motorbike. So Sara and me have to wait for him for couple of minutes. While we were waiting for him, my family started interrogated Sara hehee... Just like me, it was our first time that we had a female guest staying at my house. So I see that my family is also curious about her. And I am happy that Sara seems not bothered at all with our generousity hehe... She even look enjoying it.

The weather that night was really cold. Well, almost all day long we had a pouring rain. I had to bring a thick sweater to warm up my body. I was worried about Sara, because She only brings a plain jacket. But the fact that she looks warm and cozy relieved me. We arrived at punclut late in the night. It was already few people left at the restaurant. And it makes it perfect. Before we order and eat some food, I had to explained the kind of food that offered by the restaurant. The food is just put outside to be seen by the customer. And the customer should pick the foods they like and the chef will cook it afterwards. I take my plate and started to pick my choices. Sara had no idea at all so I had to recommend her. Hehehe.. this is it... an opportunity to show her my generousity. I offered her 'pete' yes.. the vegetables that I told you before. Without any prejudice, she takes it. She was curious with all the foods, then she was asking almost all kind of foods that was served there. Then She choice some foods that I myself never try it before. We had a lot of foods and all thanks to Sara .. hehe. We had a hot chilli there that I don't even dare to take it much. But Sara.. she is amazing.. wether she doesn't know that it is really spicy or she realy loves spicy stuff. I saw Pandu sweat a lot when he takes it. He looks like a guy who had heavy exercises combine with running for more that 10 km. He really sweat a lot. Ahhh... it was a good dinner. First, I was really starving, and second there was a beautiful lady who like spicy food that having dinner with me. The food that fills our stomach until its limit made us feel comfortable to stay a little bit longer in the restaurant. We were telling stories about our traveling experiences. Pandu started to tell a story about his bad experience in Saudi Arabia, which is almost the same with my experiece. I added that Sara should be aware when she traveled to middle east. I said that people there was difficult and hard. Some are really rough, but some are really kind. Neverthought that Sara actually had a bad experience as well dealing with arabians. It is when she was in Egypt. I can't tell you the story as this might upset her hehehe.... Sara had a lot of stories. Range from Europe, Asean, Australia, New Zeland and of course Argentina. She also told us how bad she wanted to travel to India. And it is her next destination after Indonesia. I was amazed as she had so many experiences. She learns her life from one country to another. No wonder she became a tough, open minded, charming, respectful and kindhearted girl. That night we also arrange some plan for tomorrow and the following days. That night I had to tell them that I couldn't accompany them traveling in Bandung, because I had to go to Jakarta to apply a scholarship for master degree in Taiwan. I was realy upset because I couldn't delay any longer to apply for it, as it was already in a deadline. But I told Sara that she could stay in my house as I would be in Jakarta only during the day. I said that in the night I would have been in Bandung again. So she need not to worry. Finish with everything and started to get so sleepy, we decided to went home. I told Pandu to just came to my house to pick Sara for tomorrow activities as I would go to Jakarta very early in the morning. The time I arrived at home, everybody was already sleeping so we need to sneak and step calmly. I accompany Sara to her bedroom and say goodnight. I was so sleepy as well, brushed my teeth, washed my hand and feet and then went to my bedroom. Have a nice sleep....

Well, the following days I woke up early in the morning which is not used to be. I had to traveled to Jakarta, by train. The destination is Taiwan Economic and Trade Office (TETO) in Artha Graha Building. I had prepared all the documents that I need to apply for the scholarship. Well, unfortunately, the time I arrived at TETO and met with assign person, he told me that I need to attached school application form along with the scholarship form. Oh damn!!! I haven't applied to any master degree in Taiwan. Not even once. Then I rushed to find an internet cafe for browsing and searching for appropriate university that offered my desire major for master degree. Short stories, I had to spent my evening time in internet cafe to prepare all needed documents along with attached documents. During my time working with the things, I can't stop thinking about Sara. I miss her. I really want to finish my time in Jakarta fastly and hurriedly back to Bandung. Well, in the end, I finished all the things in Jakarta in the afternoon. And it was like a faith that I had to arrived in Bandung late in the night. The train that I was taken were delayed for about 1 hour. I arrived in Bandung at around 10 pm. And I was lucky to still be able to find a public transportation. I went back home and wanted to hear a story from Sara about her trip that day in Bandung with Pandu and his friends. I was wondering what she was doing in my house, maybe she had gone to sleep. I arrived at home and find out that she hasn't back home yet. Wow......hmm.. maybe she stays with Pandu while waiting for me to come home. So, I just take off my cellphone and charge it. Oh yup, I should tell you that my cellphone was out of batery since I was in Jakarta. So in the time, I couldn't have a contact with anybody. Then when I turned it on, I found out several messages from my parents, Pandu and Sara. Wow.. Sara... yeah.. she was asking where I am. Hmm.. it's not good to make a woman waiting an answer from a guy. Then I straightly called her and asked her where she is. I have watched movies and now I am with Pandu in his house she said. Ok, I will come to Pandu's house to pick you I said. After the conversations ended, I was taking a bath, praying and rushed to Pandu's house. The time I arrived at his house, I saw them outside and about to go to my house. I saw Sara and I say hi. She smiles and it melts me. She was wearing a helmet and a jacket. Looks really cute. And I still can not forget the way she smiles that night. So, I take her walking to my house. Along the way, I was asking about her trip that day. She said that she went to my university (wow) and then to Saung Angklung Mang Udjo and watched India movies, '3 idiots'. She added that tomorrow she had planned to visit the volcanoes 'Tangkubah Perahu” very early in the morning. She said that I should be ready to go around 7 am. This means that I should wake up at least at 6 am. From the way she spoke, I saw that she was worried that I couldn't wake up at 6 am. Then I reply, 'Ok, in case of I overslept, could you please wake me up in the morning?' And then she says ok. Finally we arrived at home. I suggest her to take shower before she goes to sleep. She was nodded, so I should prepare a hot water for her. Ahhh.. it was like serving a princess. Love it. Hehehe.... well.. boiling hot waters taking a lot of times. To keep her away from getting bore, I saw her some card tricks. Some succeded but some not. Damn! I'm sucks.... and I neverthought that she actually had one. A card tricks which is really simple but succesfully tricked me. About 15 minutes later, the hot water was ready then I prepared everything. That's the end of that day.

'Morning......' that's what she said when we met near the stairways to my room. I was totally asleep and woke up several minutes before 6 am. I was even late to pray in the morning and that's horrible. Moreover, Sara was about waking me up from my beautiful dream. Everytime I wake up in the morning, the first thing that comes in my mind is praying. I am moslem and early in the morning we should pray. We called it 'shalat shubuh.' And that's what I did in that morning, even it's a little bit late. After praying, suddenly I got a called from Pandu. He said that his friend looks like unable to accompany us to Tangkuban Perahu. Then he added, probably, we couldn't went to Tangkuban Perahu in the time that we had arranged. He wanted to look for subtitutes for his friend. So he asked me to delay our treking time to Tangkuban Perahu for several hours. Heard this news from Pandu, I hurriedly went to Sara's bedroom and talk about it. Glad that she's got no problem with it, so I just asked her to have breakfast while waiting for Pandu. That morning, my mom prepared 'bacang' and steam banana for breakfast. I don't know if she likes it or not, but I hope she can enjoy the breakfast. Well.....Pandu was really slow, so I decided to turn on the tv and play japanese movie' 20th century boys.' Sara got no choices other than accompany me watching the movies. She was sitting on a couch that nearly resamble the logo of couchsurfing.org. I sat in another couch, next to her couch. My couch is bigger than hers, so I started to lay my legs and then my whole body on the couch. Without notice, I had fallen asleep until Pandu came to my house. He came and then I noticed that Sara was sleeping as well. She looks really beautiful even in sleeping mode. Then an idea came across my mind. I told Pandu to snap her picture sleeping in a couch. This gonna be a good pictures. A really good one. An icon of couchsurfing. Hehehehe.... I am very happy that we succeded and she didn't realized or awake because of it. While waiting for her to awake from her beautiful dream, I feel my eyes a little bit heavy, so I take another time to sleep. The time I awake, She already gone from the couch, and Pandu said she was checking an email on my computers.Hmmm.... not long after I awake, all of us gathered in dining room and talked about the plan to Tangkuban Perahu. Pandu said that none of his friends were able to come to Tangkuban Perahu with us. And then I added that my motorbike was used by my brother. So the best transportation that was availabe for us is public transportation.

It was a really slow trip to Tangkuban Perahu. By motorbike, approximately it takes only 1 hour to arrive in the mountain. But using a public transportation, it nearly consume more than 2 hours to arrive. Well, we got no choice, so we only need to enjoy the trip. Along our trip to the mountain, we had a lot of chit chat. We even play a games. It was truth or dare. Ever heard about it? Well basicly it's about choosing beetwen saying the truth about question that was asked by your opponent or doing something that your opponent desire on you. It's like a punishment after loosing playing a game. So the game itself that we played is words game. Each of us given 5 seconds to speak the words that based on our opponent last 2 words. For example if my opponent says 'animal' and then I should think a word that started with 'al'... welll for example I can say 'alien'.. then the person next to me should make a word started with 'en.' and so on... and so on... until we got someone who can not find a word. The game was really good to kill the time. Moreover we had truth or dare baked on the game. It's really interesting. Pandu lost a lot and he choose to speak the truth. From this game I found out that he had an increadible love story.. hehehe....I wasn't win the game all the time. There was the time that I can not find the words anymore, so I should choose beetwen truth or dare. I choose to speak the truth and Sara make a question for me. She asked me about my most embarasing moment in my life. Hmmm... it's difficult, I should think about it for a while, but then I got it. It was when I was in Junior Highschool. One day when I was at school, I can not hold anymore to take a pee, then I rushed to the bathroom in my school. There are 5 bathrooms and it is mixed. Boys or girls use the same bathroom. I can not hold it anymore so I just randomly open one of the door. I was surprised to find out a girl was taking a pee there and about to scream. I can't see her face clearly because I was so surprised and also ashame. Of course without much thinking I shut the door. After that accident, I can't stop thinking about who is the girl. I hoped it wasn't a friend of mine that attend the same class as me. Unfortunately it was. The following days, a friend of mine, a girl, who sit in front of me, move to sit in another table, far from me. I don't understand why, because her mates is still sitting in the same table she used to be. I never find the truth, but it seems the girl in the bathroom that I seen was that girl. Hehehe... well... that's my embarasing moment in my life. After telling this story, I asked Sara wether he had it or not. Amazingly she had one. And her story was really funny and never ever saw something like that before. She told us about her experience when she was drove back to her home with her friends with his cars. During her way back home, she smoke some cigarettes. Unexpectadly, some ash from her smoke drop to her clothes. She didn't realize about it until she felt warm and her clothes got burned. Ahahaha.. so silly.... she told me that she was really embarassed. Of course it did. Well... we keep telling story from one to another until we finally arrived at Tangkuban Perahu. We were having so much fun for our trip.

We reached the mountain, but still needs extra time to reach the summit. We don't have much time, so we try to find out the fastest way to go there. If we walk until the summit, it can take more than 1 hour to go. And it's not good. While we were thinking about it, suddenly a group of motorbike club passing by. Ahhh... this is it. We can hitchike. Then I try to put Sara in the front so they will be thrill to pick us to the summit. They stop their motorbike, and I thought I was successful. But soon I was dissapointed, because they left us. Damn!!! They don't have a sense for beautiful girl..... They are idiots. And then we were thinking again. Suddenly there were a mini bus that usually has a passenger who had difficulties for going up to the summit and go back. I don't know if we were lucky or not. This mini bus were willing to take us to the summit and bring us back afterwards. But he charge us a lot. I forgot the exact amount but it was almost Rp. 200.000,- in total. We were fuck up, but we got no choice. So... we take this mini bus and go to the summit with it. Ahhh... finally we can show her the volcanoes. By the time we arrived at the summit, it was already 4 pm. The place will close at 5 pm. So in the meaning time, we couldn't reach any further. Ahh... that was sucks... In the summit we were only taking pictures, walking around and eat some food. I don't think she satisfied enough. Fortunately, on our way back to the bottom, we met this place guradian. And it was like almost everytime we went to Tangkuban Perahu, we met this person. He feel pity for us as we can not go any further to the summit. Then I was came up with the idea to go to another crater which is located nearly in the bottom of the mountain. The guard says I can not go there without a guide. But then I said, no problems, I mean.. I don't need a guide, I already know this place. The guard insist then he asked another guard to accompany us. He said that it was dangerous to go alone, because it was already dark. He added that we should just gave the guide some money for cigarettes. Ahhh ok, I said. I guess it was not much. So, we go down there with an unofficial guide. The way to this crater was quite rough and still natural. Probably it takes us more than half an hour to finally arrived at the crater. Before we arrived at the crater, the guide told us to buy some eggs, to be boiled in the crater. Yessss, we can boil an egg in the crater. The crater itself believed as the source of hotspring in Ciater, next city from the volcanoes. Fyuhhh... finally we arrived at the crater. Really exhausted. But it's worth. We can put our legs in one of existed pools which has hot waters. It was really relaxing. Feels really comfortable. Put our legs into the water and then massage it slowly. Ohhh... it feels really good. In a while, we were also cover some parts of our legs with muds. Yes.. mud. The volcanoes mud believed can smoothing your skin. And suddenly my legs skin is whiter than Sara's. Ahahaha... joke joke.. no way that it would be. Her skin is really white, just like any other caucasians. Oh yup, we were also did not forget to boil the eggs. It was delicious but also weird at the same time. Well, we end up at around 5.30 pm. Then from the crater we should walk for more than 500 meters to reach our transportation. Hmmm.. it was dark already and the surroundings seem so creepy. But it was fine. Pretty girl was next to me. Hehehe... Along the way, we were talking about many things. And when we were very close to the street, there were another guys who joined the party. I guessed they were another guardian. And it seems so. Suddenly, Pandu gave me her phone and show me a text message which says, 'after this, we are going to be robbed.' He asked me to show it to Sara. Sara read it and suddenly she got stiff. She looks like hiding everything valueable from her bag. I said nothing to her, because I knew what Pandu means by robbed was charging too much. I thought Sara understand it as well, but she actually interpreted it in it's true meaning. After several minutes and we were really close to the street, Sara asked me about what Pandu means by 'robbed'. Is it for charging too much or really going to rob us, she asked. Then I say, it is for charging us too much. Suddenly she feel relieved and holds my shoulder and laugh. Wowow... yeah.. as I said before, I thought she already understand it, but actually it was the opposite. Welll.... I thought we could pay the guide for only Rp.20.000,- or Rp.50.000,- for the highest. In fact, we should pay him for Rp.100.000,-. Damn.... it sucks...It was irritating. I want to argue him, but I saw Pandu looks really calm, so I guess I don't need to argue anymore. So we paid this guide for Rp.100.000,-. Knew that we paid him a lot, the driver that take us wanted to take a part. He raised the price that has been settle before. Oh come on... we were really fuck up, but as I said before, we got no choice, it was dark already, far away from town and the mini bus is the only transportation. No way that we would going back home by walking until downtown. Then, as I said before, for the transportation in Tangkuban Perahu only, we end up spending approximately Rp.200.000,-. Ckckckckk.... They got us.

From the trip to Tangkuban Perahu, We planned to hang out at karaoke clubs. Yeah, to sing a song. Sara said she is not good at all at singing, but she will go with us. Before going to the karaoke clubs, we went back home to clean up ourselves. In my way back home, I stopped at my internet cafe for a while. Yesss, I wanted to make Sara as my most wanted user of the month... hehehee.. sound silly but.. it's not everyday that I had a beautiful caucasians girl. Hehehe...In my house, we were having dinner before cleaning ourselves. Not very long after dinner, Pandu already arrived in my house and ready for next round. Hehehe... Well, that day was her last day in Bandung. The following days, She was going to Yogyakarta. That's why I think I need to make a lot of memories with her, before she go. To make it more fun, I told Pandu to call some CS friends to come up with us sing a song. I myself invite my best CISC friends, Ronald to join in. So it was Anggie who finally accompany us sing a song. We had to pick her in 'Monumen Nasional.' Ahh... it's cool, because Ronald was also asked to be pick at UNPAD, which is really close to Monumen Nasional. Then, it was 5 persons in total who wants to scream, yell, sing, etc, etc. We were arrived at 11 pm and it was already full. We should be waiting until 12 to get the room. Then we choose to wait rather than looking for another place to sing a song. Hmmm.. we got this small room that is fit for 4 persons. Ahh..damn... but it's better than not at all.

Pandu came as the first person who singing. He sang a song from Queen titled 'Don't stop me now.' So much energy and really fun. I like it. All of us in the end sing at least one song, except Sara. All of us really curious and wanted to hear her voice. We made a lot of efforts, but it came to a waste. Hmmm.. she was insist that she can not sing. Ok, no problem, at least I hope she can enjoy having fun with us. In last minutes, we play cale ocho, pitbull, 'I know you want me.' I knew that Sara knew this song and I like this song very much. We played it and we started to dance and sing. Including Sara. Yeah... when I have this karaoke things with my friends, we always put cale ocho for the final song. The song has a nice beat, nice music video and make you stand up and move your hips. It is a song for having fun with friends. Love it.

The time passing by so fast. It was already 2 am. Ronald wanted us to take pictures at braga's heritage building such as Asia Africa's conference building before we leave. Sara will only follow me She will come to take pictures if I say yes, but I think she need a little bit rest because at 8 am she should leave Bandung to Yogyakarta by train. Then politely I refused Ronald's offered, I said that we need to take a rest after spending almost whole day treking to Tangkuban Perahu. Then before we leave, Sara says goodbye to Pandu and Anggie as well as Ronald, as tomorrow she should leaves Bandung early in the morning and wont see them anymore. It was really sad, especially for me and Pandu. We were taking pictures for a while for the last time and then I took her to my house to take a rest. We were really exhausted. It was a long day and I hope Sara enjoy it. Before I went to sleep, I told Sara to wake me up, in case I oversleep. Goodnight Sara.

I wake up at around 5 am, I take a pray and then checking her room. Ah, her room is still dark, so perhaps she is still sleeping. Well we had more times before 8 am, so I shouldn't wake her. After that, I sit on my couch near my bedrooms, and then slowly lay my body and sleeping again. 'Ilman...Ilman....,' I heard that voices in my ears and I woke up from my sleep. Ahh.. it was Sara. Hmmm.. I was embrassed that finally she had to waking me up. Then I asked her wether she was ready or not. Almost, she replied. I prepared everything and she was also preparing her things. When we were ready, we were gathering in my dining rooms. We have small breakfast before we go. There were my mom who still at home. She said she will leave at around 8.30 am to her campus. Well, my mom is a lecturer. She heard that Sara gonna leave Bandung that morning, then she offered her a hitchike. Sara looks embarassed but I think she would feel impolite to refuse it. Then my mom drove us to the train station. I myself feel embarassed as I still not be able to drive a car and has got no licence for driving a cars. When we arrived at train station, my mom warned me not to take so much time, because she had to went back home prepared everything for her work. So I hurriedly take Sara into the train station. I don't want Sara to miss the train. I accompany her until passenger chairs near the railways where the train will stop at. I couldn't say anything other than goodbye. It was so sad. I said to her that I am gonna miss her. And she told me the same. Then we hug each other. Before I go, I gave her a bracelet. I said to her to keep the bracelet and the bracelet means to remind her about me. After that, I leaved. I went to my cars and we went back home. During my way back home, I got an SMS from Sara, she told me that I was all great and she gonna miss me. I was really pleased and the more I am gonna miss her. When I arrived at home, I went to my bedroom and sleep again. But before that I should struggle to finally able to sleep againts my head that fills with Sara.

Is it the end of the story? No!!! Sara had 2 weeks in Indonesia. From Bandung, she headed to Yogyakarta and after that Bali. She spent most of her times in Indonesia in Bali. One day before she should leave Indonesia, She went back to Jakarta as her airlines to India is departed from Jakarta. Well, at first I don't have any intention in meeting her again. First, I am afraid she would see me as a freak. Second, totally I would miss her more. And third, it cost a lot. But since the day she left Bandung, I always thinking about her. I think it was too short. I really hope I can meet her again very soon. Then in the meantime, I applied a job to Bank of Tokyo which reside in Jakarta. I had several test in Jakarta and I told Sara about this. And finally, I got a called that I should be in Jakarta again 2 days after the day Sara's departed from Indonesia, for a group discussion. Actually, before I got a called, I was hoping that I got a called soon from Bank of Tokyo around that week, so I had a reason to fly to Jakarta and meet Sara. This proof that GOD exist and never sleep. He will granted what ever you want. I was really happy when I got a called and the first person that I told about this was Sara. I told her that I passed the previous test and would have another test in the following week. So I said to her wether we can meet in Jakarta or not, before she leaves. She replied that she would already be in Jakarta on Saturday. Then I was really happy and started to think about going to Jakarta since saturday until the day I had a group discussion.

'Man, could you host a guest from Belgium?' That was approximately the line on a short message sent by Pandu on Thursday. Of course I can, I said. I always happy to be able to host a guest. So I accept the offer. Pandu said that his guest is a couple from Belgium and they are already in Indonesia, in Medan to be exact. The couples arrived in Bandung on friday and this time we were not pick them in train station or else, we asked them to find our home. Luckily it works. Pandu told them the directions to his house and they made it. On that friday, Pandu texting me that the couples arrived already and currently at his home. He added that the girls is really beautiful. Wow, I was really curious. Then after friday praying, when I am about to open my intert cafe, I purposely passed Pandu's house. Just in case I probably able to met the guest. Unexpectadly they were already there. Pandu shout at me when I cross his house and asked me to enter his house and introduce me to his guest. And yes, the girls is beautiful and look fashionable. Ok, I will save the story about them for a while. I will talk about them later.

While I was hosting a couples from Belgium, on Saturday I have decided that I would go to Jakarta to met her. So, since on that Saturday I have an obligation to accompany the couples, I put my time with them for a while. Luckily, on that Saturday, we are, Bandung CS community had a gathering. So I didn't find any difficulties in pleasing the guest. The gathering itself has a theme of culinary. Hence, all day long it was all about foods and eating. Very interesting and I hope the guest like it. In the middle of gathering, I told Pandu that I should go to Jakarta, so I wont be able to host the guest anymore. Pandu understand and he said that it was ok. The guest might stay at his house or at our CS friend that actually should be their host, Mrs. Ika. Then I leave them without doubt or worry. It was around 7 pm that I arrived at home. I had a quick dinner, praying and prepare everything in a hurry. I said to my parents that I would go to Jakarta that night. My parents were surprised, because it was too early. But then I said to them that I promised to meet a friend in the following days, then they can understand. I still remember, that night I book a trip to Jakarta with mini bus by 9.30 pm in one of travel agent in Bandung. I arrived at their place around 9.20 pm and I was happy because it means I wouldn't wait for a long time. Then, suddenly I received a text message from Ronald, asking me about my intention going to Jakarta to chase Sara. I said to him, yes, now I am about to go to Jakarta. Suddenly he appeared in front of me. What The Hell!!! He told me that our CISC friends were hang out at a mall nearby. We had several conversations and without notice the driver of my mini bus was calling for a missing pessanger with different destination that I choosed.After the clock show me 9.45 pm, I was curious why my mini bus hasn't been prepared at all. Then I asked the travel agent operator. He said that my bus had gone for 15 minutes ago. The driver was shouting the missing pessanger, but nobody's acknowledge it, he added. Damn!!! So it was my mini bus. I complained with the operator. I said I didn't know that it was my mini bus because the driver was shouting for different destination than mine. He replied that actually the bus will pass by my destination. The hell who would know about that. Then as apologize, the operator gave me another ride, another mini bus at 10 pm. Well I was glad that I still be able to go to Jakarta that night. I waited until 10 pm, accompany by Ronald. 5 minutes before 10 pm., Ronald went away and I prepared to go. Exactly at 10 pm., the mini bus was ready. This time I don't want to lose my ride anymore, so I rushed into the mini bus and have a sit. 5 minutes later the mini bus was ready and we were going to Jakarta.

I was really exhausted that night. As soon as the mini bus goes from Bandung, I already slept. The time I woke up was when the driver said something about the conditions of the mini bus. He said something about the air conditioner. If I wasn't mistaken, he said that the air conditioner was broken. Then he says sorry for it. But then a couple of minutes later, He says something more horrible. He said that the engine was heating up and it was not possible to continue driving the mini bus. Then he stopped the mini bus and went checking the machines. I can senses something was not right. From the very beginning, I had suspicious feeling through this driver. I don't know, I just do not like him. And thanks to this crap mini bus and horible driver, I was stuck in the middle of the night, in the middle of highway. It was still far to arrived in Jakarta and more far to go back to Bandung. I was really pissed off, because I had texting Sara that I could meet her on that night. I keep updating my current status to her and she said to inform her as soon as I already arrived in Jakarta. She was currently at Grand Hotel Kemang for party. Whaaa....heard about it I can't handle anymore my passion to arrive in Jakarta as soon as possible. Meanwhile, my mini bus driver looks really worried and busy. He keeps calling his coworkers about the problems that he had. He was yelling and shouting as I overheard that none of his friends believe in him. He keeps strugling and finally we got a little hope. He is a good driver actually his fault is only being dislike by me. Another mini bus will come to our place and take us to our destination. Anyway, while I was waiting for another mini bus to come, I met a strange guy named 'kong.' Well, you know, just heard his name already put awkwards feelings on him. His names remind me with a big primates species who has 2 legs and said the strongest amongs them that called 'King Kong.' This Kong is an employee of local oil company. He likes diving and he put a lot of efforts to be able to arrive in Jakarta that day, so he can attend a diving class in the morning. He looks like an easy going person and I bet he likes traveling. Ok, that's a little bit intermezo to introduce another victims on crap mini bus.

So, finally I arrived in Jakarta around 3 am. And ofcourse then I sent a text message to Sara immediately. I waited for several minutes but there was no answear. Ahh.. looks like the party has ended and Sara slept already. So I sent another text message but this time to my cousin. I asked him gently to pick me at mini bus pool in Blora. He is a really nice cousin, even it was already really late, He is able to make it. He was coming along with his brother. So that night I decided to take a rest and hoped that tomorrow I am able to meet her.

Around 4 am before I went to sleep, I see an SMS coming to my phone. I checked it and it was from Sara. She told me that the party just ended and she would like to meet me tomorrow. She would like to take a rest and will informed me again later. Ahhh, I see, looks like a good sign, then I sleep without worried. So, several hours later, I woke up, after I woke up for praying and sleep again. It was around 10 am. I still havn't received a message from Sara. I started to get impatient, so I sent her a text message. I asked her about his plan that day. And then she replied that she had none. So I asked her if we could meet up somewhere. After several minutes texting a message, finally we decided to meet up at 'Mal Ciputra.' She had a launch with her host in Jakarta, Melvin, and asked me to come fast, because she had no much time. She sould be in the airport around 4 pm. Luckily, I got a nice cousin. He was willing to take me to Mal Ciputra, so I found no difficulties. I was arrived in Mal Ciputra around 2 pm and I rushed to the upper floor where She is located. She said she was in a food court in the highest floor of that building. I rushed to that floor using the escalator. I guess there is no time for me to wait a lift to pick me up even it is far more easier. Then finally I arrived at the food court and searching for the most beautiful one. Ahhh.. there she is. I approach her and then calling her name. Sara... Sara... she look at me and then we hug each other. Tell you the truth, She always looks more beautiful than what we imagine about her. Then, I have a sit in the same table as her. In the table, there is Melvin and another guest of her. I don't really care much about them, so I started to talk with Sara. That time I really want to talk many things but suddenly I was in a blank. And it's more horrible as my english is limited. Damn!!! I pity myself for it. Well, I was really happy to be able to meet her again. Sadly our time is short. Sara should depart from Indonesia very soon. We then taking a taxi to go to Melvins house for a while to take Sara's belonging. After that, I thought Melvin would come along with me taking Sara to the airport, but suddenly she asked me to go alone acoompany Sara. Hmmm... ok that's not a problem and I think it's perfect... hehehe.... We then taking the same taxi and I asked the driver to take us to the airport. It was only two of us and I think it was perfect to spend last memorable moment with her. We had a lot of conversation. I told her why I cannot come to the party last night and she suggest that I should put a compain to the company. She said I should try it. Because once she ever had a bad experience with a hotel that she is gonna stay. Not very long after she put her bags and leave it, she found something strange on her room and she found that she lost some of her money that she put in her bag. Then she got angry and went to the receptionist and asked who is in charged for the hotel. She told the story like the time she experienced it. And her face expression was quite strong. I bet she looks really scary when she got angry. Hehehe......Then she told me that she finally cancel her stay on that hotel and able to get back her money for the room that she rent. But not for the money that was stolen. Well, after that, I was thinking for a while. It seems Sara was surrounded with bad luck.. hehe... she was already robbed for 2 times before it. Another story that we had was about movies. She told me about Argetina's movie that she likes. Not much Argentina's movie that attracht her, but this movie is recommended she said. She commented that the movies is like playing with our minds. Heard she talk about it, made me really curious to see the movies. The movies itself names 'Nueve Reinas.'

The time goes really fast. It's like only several minutes and we arrived already in the airport. I took sara in and when I am about to accompany her more, I was block by the security guard. He said that I am only able to accompany her until first entrance. Owhhh.. it was sad. Then I was looking at her and she was also looking at me. Then She said... 'ohhh.. we have to do this again.' So we hug each other. I was really sad. I am afraid I can not see her anymore. Then I asked her wether she will come again or not. She said she can't promise anything. Then she asked me to come to Argentina to make it fair. I wasn't thinking about anything else but her, so I said 'yes, I promise.' I don't have any idea how to go there as it must be really expensive. But I just hope that Allah hear my wish and grant it in his mysterious way. When I say 'I'm promise', it wasn't just a word, but I trully mean it. I will try to find a way to go there along with praying to Allah to find me the best way and solution for my wish. Sara, I hope I can see you soon, because I miss you a lot. Yeah, we miss you a lot. Besos!

To be continue ......

Couchsurfing Experience

First couple that I hosted

Hullo... we meet again...still about experiences in hosted a travelers. Yup, I am planning to write all of the story for every travelers that I hosted. Now it's about the third time I hosted a traveler. And this time it is a couple. Yes.. they are lover.

As usual, I received a text message from Pandu about a guy from Swiss who will pass by Bandung for one day and need an accomodation. The date for his arrival is not sure yet. After several days, the guy contacted Pandu, and his arrival and the day he would stay in Bandung was at the same time with Couchsurfing International (CSI) Festival. This made Pandu really asking for the availability of me to host him. Actually I should be doing same activity with Pandu on that day, which is attending the CSI festive. Unfortunately, I had another schedule that present on the same day. I was really confused to decide which one should I attend. However, as this other activities is related with my responsibility until 5 years ahead, I perforced to choose this activities. It was a chess tournament and inauguration of new staff for Bandung Chess Association. I was one of person who will be inaugurated on that day. And I was also responsible for the chess tournament. I was one of their commette and I was also participants for the chess tournament. I played for my chess club, Makhraja. Although I wasn't play good at all... hehehe... Well... that's all explain why I couldn't attend the CSI festive. And this made me available to host a guest.

Then, Pandu told me that the guy from Swiss was actually not coming to Bandung alone. He will come with his lover he said. I was thinking for a moment, bcause I think it's hard for me to host two persons in my house at the same time. And actually I was afraid that they will force me to stay at the same room while they are not married yet. If that happened, of course my parents would not be happy. Ahhh.... I still have a friend, without much thinking I was asking Bagus if he is available to host a traveler or not. I planned to divide this couple. The guy will live with Bagus and the girl will live with me... hehe....I was expected that the girl is a hot caucasians.. hehe....so, Bagus then told me that he is available and had no problem to host a guest. Ok....the problem has solved. Then I invited Bagus to pick them at train station in the afternoon. I still remember, it was on saturday. He accepted and we went there at around 7 pm. The time we arrived at train station, they were already waiting for us at north gate. We spot them easily, because the guy from Swiss is the only caucasians there.... so... where is his girlfriend? After I say hello to him and we introduce each other, I went to bathroom for a while...The time I finished.. I saw that there is an Indonesian girl talking with Bagus and him... ahhh... so his girlfriend is Indonesian... hehehe... great!!! awesome gurl..... I approach her and introduce myself....her name is Erna.... and the Swiss guy... his name is Sven... Sven Huber........ well... we have 10 minutes chit chat and they explained that they planned to go to 'Batu Karas' the next day......therefore, both of them need to buy a ticket that night, to make sure that there is a transportation that would bring them to Batu Karas tomorrow. Then, we decided to go to bus station before having dinner. I knew that both of them were hungry. In bus station, we failed to have the tickets, because it was closed. But from the information we gathered, there would always be a bus that goes to Batu Karas in the morning. Okkk..... it's not the time to think about the tickets anymore....now we need to eat.....Sven looks really hungry and he admited. Hmmmm.... anyway.. there is this funny things, Sven brought a really big carier and he ride a motorbike, hitchiking Bagus's motorbike. In the way to bus station he said that he almost fell down because of unbalances beetwen his strengh to hold the movement of motorbike and the force of gravitation added with motorbike movement that applied in his carier. So, in the end, to keep it safe, he asked me to bring his carier in my motorbike. He asked me to put it in front of my body, because there is a slope in my motorbike which is enough for a carier. At first I refused his request, but then finally I agreed with him after hearing his explanation. Then, after everything seatled up, we went to my house first to put their belongings. The time he arrived in my house, he was impressed with pictures that put in our praying rooms. It's a picture of 'Masjidil Haram' and 'Ka'bah' during the hajj season. He asked me many things about it. He has been traveling to many countries but never been to Saudi Arabia.

We were talking for about half an hour and then we prepared to have dinner. Only one place that we would be going to.. yup...again... it's punclut... hehehe...it's just like a ritual for every guest that we had. Moreover, most of travelers or guest that we had are more interested to local food. And other good things about punclut is... they are cheap. Traditional food with cheap price. What else? Then... that night we went to punclut by motorbike. I take Erna in my motorbike while Sven with Bagus. It was cold in the night. The streets are quiet as well as the buildings. The road to punclut are climbings. Well... it's located in the hills anyway. In our way to punclut, well in fact we were already in punclut but not yet arrived in the restaurant, I got a phone call. Then I noticed that it's hard to pick up my cellphone while I was driving a motorbike. So, I just stop my motorbike for a while, just to pick up my cellphone from my pocket. After I get it, I drive my motorbike again. Ahhh... it was from Ronald. We talked for couple of minutes. He was asking about my presence for live gathering at Reneo Bridge. After he hang up the phone, I put back my cellphone into my pocket and focus on driving. But, I felt something strange around me, something is missing. My motorbike is lighter than before. The time I passed Bagus and Sven, they shouted at me. Where is Erna??? Fuck.... I didn't notice that Erna is not in my motorbike anymore. Did u left her, they said. Damn.....straightly I went back to the place where I stop my motorbike for a while. Pyuhhhh... she was there. She was laughing... what r u doing??? I was down from your motorbike while you were pick up your cellphone she said. Ahahahaha... I was laughing... and then I say sorry.... Sorry Erna.. I didn't notice that you do that. She was great !!! Even she knew that I left her, she didn't shouted or scream at all. Hehehee...... well well.. there is always funy story everytime I hosted a guest.

We arrived at the restaurant at 10 pm and then we eat a lot of food, especially Sven... hehe... we were really hungry. During our dinner, I asked Sven about his traveling experiences. And it was really impressed me. He said that he had traveled around Europe and it was done by bicycle. What??? Are you kidding me Sven??? Well.. he really did it. He had traveled to some part of Asia as well and then to Australia. He had been away from home for about 2.5 years. Just for traveling. Ckkkckkkk....... Amazing !!! Then I said, what your parents think about your activity? He replied, they support me. It is good to do the things that you like said his parents. And Sven also added that he had everything in Swiss by means a good job, good family, good life, nothing to be worries, until he got bored to all of it. Then he decided to go traveling.

After having dinner which is treat by Sven.. hehe.. thank you dude...... I said to them that I had to attend live gathering at Reneo Bridge to watch Chelsea FC match in English Premier League. I asked them to come with me as they got no choice other than following me... hehe.. I am your host dude.... then all of us went down to Reneo Bridge from Punclut. It was already full with Chelsea Indonesia Supporters Club (CISC) member... well Reneo Bridge is their hideout. We watched the match and Sven looks excited watching our expressions. He loves football, but Chelsea is not his favorite club. He told me that he had a good friends in Australia that also loves football. He said that he will recommend me for him as a host. Maybe an image that I put on Sven about how much I love Chelsea has been seatle in his mind. So there is one night, long after Sven had gone from Bandung, Chelsea had a match with Manchester United, which is known as big match. This match is like decided who will be on top of the league. It was really a good match, a good game and more importantly, Chelsea win over Manchester United. Hell Yeah !!! Fuck u Man United !!! We win 2-1. Several hours after the match finished, I got a text message in english that congratulate Chelsea for winning over Manchester United. And wow... it was from Sven.... hehehe...I am happy that he still remember me....

It was around 1 am that finally we arrived at my home. At first I would like to seperate them, but then they disagree. Hmm... ok... fortunately I had another empty bed rooms. We woke up really early in the morning, and it was great that they woke up earlier than me.Before I accompany them to bus station, they say thanks to my parents and farewell. Finally we had to say good bye to both of them, we had a great time hosted them and we promise to keep in touch. Hope both of you get along until the last, Sven and Erna....

To be continue ....