Flooding...flooding...flooding...

"Mum, flooding out side!"... said the boy who sat behind me on the bus.
Flooding in Ngawi, East Java

Semarang, a place to visit and to eat

An old picture

The 23rd – 25th generation, just above mine!

Tourism impact in Bali: Local vs. international visitors

Bali is such an exotic paradise to the eyes of the world. Lots of visitors from Australia, America, Europe, Japan, Taiwan, and many other countries, come to Bali for their holiday, honeymoon, business, or even for the international class conference.

As majority of Balinese people earns for living in tourism sector, I notice that there’s an interesting phenomenon in the behaviour among locals especially the ones who are mainly involved in tourism industries. For those who work in a highly competitive touristy place, they tend to prioritize their service to tourists who can pay more to them. So, they always tend to be “nicer” to tourists who hold yen or dollar in their hands. Local visitors seem to be the second class guests that deserve secondary services.

My friend who’s a Singaporean told me that when she was in Bali, her friend and she had queued for a table for a half hour in a very popular restaurant in Seminyak. But the staff let the other caucasian guests to come in without having to queue first. She could not understand why the queuing system was so crap, or was it because that she looks like a local, thus she didn’t deserved to be prioritized for the table. Well, from what she told me, I myself was not really sure, either the staff was a bit picky for the dollar holder guests, or could be that those groups might have booked the table before they came.

Another “interesting” thing that you might find out is the price deviation within a place for dinning. In a certain touristy area, a restaurant might provide different price lists for the same menu. They have an image that Japanese guests generally have more financial ability to spend their money for food. Thus, menus written in Japanese usually follow the standard of yen price, which appears to be the most expensive one compared to menu price written in other currencies. But yes, you’ll be surprised that they do have menu written in different languages with prices that have been “adapted”.Well, certainly it’s more beneficial for the local as they get cheaper prices, but, of course with the standard “local” service which is totally different from the “international” one in term of their hospitality.

Well, what I’ve exposed here doesn’t intend to discredit the popular image of the great hospitality of local Balinese. As a matter of fact, Balinese people naturally are very friendly. This you still can see in the remote area in Bali where local villagers are really willing to talk and curious to make friend with you, no matter you are dollar holders, caucasians, locals, or whatever your performance and background are.

Again, what I’m trying to point out here is not about a racial issue, but simply showing the impact of tourism among locals, especially the doers of tourism industries which seems to have a behavioral alteration of their attitude. Interesting phenomenon, isn’t it!

Astrology Revised: New Zodiac Sign

The new zodiac sign, Ophiuchus-the serpent bearer, is incorporated due to "precession", the corrected position of the sun within constellation boundaries. So...just recheck your zodiac sign again. (Ref: The real solar zodiac)
Aries (19 April - 13 May)
Taurus (14 May - 19 June)
Gemini (20 June - 20 July)
Cancer (21 July - 9 August)
Leo (10 August - 15 September)
Virgo (16 September - 30 October)
Libra (31 October - 22 November)
Scorpio (23 November - 29 November)
*Ophiucus (30 November - 17 December)*
Sagittarius (18 December - 18 January)
Capricorn (19 January - 15 February)
Aquarius (16 February - 11 March)
Pisces (12 March - 18 April)

Ref: Ophiuchus, the serpent bearer

Special thanks to Bihlie for the critical comment

What a big day today

Early morning I’ve already got a call from my friend telling me that Arief, a friend at JCU, got married here in Tuban. Most of my Indonesian JCU friends came there to attend the weeding. Nice reunion, I think! But, I can’t attend it as I had to go to Surabaya under my boss’s instruction.

My boss and I were at the same car to Surabaya. Hmm… I worried too much if it’d be an awkward situation like running out of topic of conversation. Apparently, my boss was very talk-active. I felt comfortable to have conversation with him. We talked more about human behaviour, a very interesting topic that challenged my own knowledge and interpretation. Good talk good time, indeed.

At night, I met my old friends in an unpredictable situation. Thirteen years ago, we still played music together. Then I just met them again on the wedding hall. Thanks to their smart performance on the stage. Otherwise, I won’t be so sure if I could recognize them. What has happened today, to me, did not always come all the time. It did make me excited and surprised. Well, I’m thankful on that… and I’m looking forward to having another day like this again ;-)

Good Friends

I wish that my life could always be surrounded with my best friends. Well, this is just my ideal thought. Yet, I still realize that there’s nothing perfectly ideal as what I expect in this real world.

I’ve been thinking about this since the past couple weeks of my stay in Tuban. At least, what it’s in my mind may explain why dealing with people in the working place seems to be tougher than at school.

It’s simply because at school, I just interacted with someone whom I’d considered to be good to be my friend, and the rest, I wasn’t really bothered. But in the working place, I have no choice to interact with every staff within a shared space, eventhough I don’t like the person.

The funny thing is that my first impression about someone is used to be wrong. I thought…hmm… this person can not be my friend, but in the end we’re such a close friend. Or the other way round, in the beginning we were too pushy to became a good friend, but then after all, we just became “hi and passing by” friend.

No one to blame; it just goes with time and natural selection

A and B are two individuals who just come into a new place. They haven’t had friends yet. Then A and B start to get to know each other, often have chitchat, then decide to do something together. After sometimes, they know that they don’t have similar preferences. Then as time goes by, each of them has their new friends; eventually A hangs out more with A’s new friends, B also enjoys more to be with B’s new friends. Sometimes, if by chance A meets B, then they just say hi, talk only one or two sentences, then… ok, see you, I gtg now. They don’t seem to be bothered with that changing, both of them realize on that, and they are just ok, as they know that this situation is better for both of them...

吃海螺必须要小心

我以前写一篇文章关于“丰富的早餐”说我姨和我早上吃海螺之后感觉不舒服。我们觉得可能海螺对肚子太凉，所以肚子应该不可以太空。
最近，我告诉我的中国老师这件事儿。她说，海螺本来有毒。就是白色的一部分最近离它的孔，这部分就不应该吃的。吃了太多你就重毒了，所以感觉不舒服，头或者眼睛感觉很重。
总的说来，吃海螺时，注意白色的部分，别吃那部分。这样对身体比较安全。

Airport

My memory suddenly takes me back to Bali airport long long time ago. Indeed, I have a deep scratch in my memory about that airport. A memory back to the time when I was very little, even just before my brother was born.

Lili was my favorite aunty. She always accompanied me to play at home. I really liked her. She’s very pretty. She used to give me chocolates, cheese, toys, and other knick knack. She used to visit our family in OZ. So when she left, I felt like losing my good friend to play with, even I still remember how sad I was when she was not around. That’s why I used to be extremely excited to wait for her in the airport when she got back.

Once, she was going to go to OZ again, my dad, mum, and I went to the airport together with her to wish her a safe trip. At that time, Bali airport had public access, not exclusively for the one who had a ticket. So, we can get in to the second floor and sat down on the terrace. From there, I can see my aunty walking toward the plane. I screamed out loud calling her name. She saw me and gave me a good bye gesture, I replied it excitedly. When her plane took off, I was still screaming “good bye aunty…good bye aunty…”

Then it became like a regular activity to me, to ask my dad to go to the airport just to see the plane taking off, and as usual, I still screamed “good bye aunty… good bye aunty…” eventhough that was not her plane. Sounds silly, but that’s the feeling of the little me missing her.

Since then, I really loved to watch planes. I even remembered how I cried in private hearing the plane accident in the airport. I remember my dad and I went to the location to see the poor plane.

Couple years later, my aunty moved permanently to OZ. So, I really hoped that one day, my family can fly there together to visit her. But then we never made it, as she already passed away***

The beginning of 2004, it was my first time to fly to OZ as I got a grant to pursue my study there. My dad, mum, and brother took me to the airport, to wish me a good safe trip. Well, that was my last time I saw my dad, inside the international departure section. That was my last memory seeing him alive***

Recently I flew pretty often. There’s always an excitement being in different airports, expecting what the new life adventure will be outside the airport. Yeap… looking forward to new adventures from inside the airport, but also reminding me backward to the time I was in the airport for the person I love.

Aweto, a parasitic fungi

Regarding my writing on Aweto, the winter insect summer herb (冬虫夏草), here I got further information about it.

It is actually a parasitic symbiosis between ascomycete fungi (species Cordyceps sinensis) and caterpillars, the host.

"When infected by C. sinensis, the bug's entire body cavity is filled by the fungus mycelium, killing the host, and the caterpillars die near the tops of their burrows." (wikipedia, 2007)

"When the caterpillar dies the fungus produces a stalked fruiting body that produces spores. The spores are spread in the wind to the next generation of caterpillars. Uninfected caterpillars pupate into relatively large primitive moths." (caterpillar fungus, 1998)

Thus, the infected host will definitely be dead. It is not a cyclic life stage as what I thought before. Since this fungi attacks hosts during summer, that’s why the Chinese called it “the winter worm summer grass” 冬虫夏草 (dōng chóng xià cǎo).