Seoul: 1. The day when the first snow fell

in gyeongbokgung palace

I've always been living in a tropical country, and I've always thought that snow is beautiful even I'd never seen it before.

It was my very first day in seoul, at first I suppossed to go to Seogwipo, Jeju, but because there was no cheap flight, we (me and my friends) decided to stay one day at Seoul.

It was winter in Seoul, below zero degree, the weather sliced my skin, my throat and lips were dry, my legs and palms were frozen and stiff. I was not used to this, I thought

I've always thought that winter was very wonderful, the land would be covered in a snow blanket and people wearing beautiful coats, cute beanies, colorful scarfs everywhere. Yeah, my thoughts were true but I could not concentrate anymore because of the cold weather.

At that time I remember, we just entered the national folk museum. I sighed, finally it was warm. I glanced out the glass door and people were rushing out inside the museum.

It was cold but when the first snow fell,
All the colds were gone, my brain was screaming, my lips stretched wide from ear to ear, like a child given the toy she always wanted, like a doctor finding a new medicine, like astronout who first landed at moon, me and my friends rushed outside full of euphoria. we laughed, mouth awed, trying to catch the snowflakes, taking photos as many as possible.

Call me 'alay' or whatever but that was an honest feeling I felt
and once again, winter was beautiful with people who loves you, with stranger, with or without beautiful coat, everything was so overwhelming at that time.

Dear seoul, Dear winter
this is me being honest to you
I felt fuzzy and warm rained by your snowflakes

let me visit again to hug you, maybe in a different season

to all travelers, cheers!
xoxo
ega

Time trip before going home

I often think that life was all about rush, adventure, spontanity, fun, and things like that.

Today, at class, the almighty time who was always moving forward and left me behind, showing 13.00 tattoed on its body. The lecturer was explaining things in alienesse language that I learned but not able to comprehend, yet. I was sleepy, bored, and stuck.

I looked at my left, Ili was listening to the alienesse explanation about pediatric diseases, sometimes she wrote anything important that was not in the book, but her eyes looked tired, sleepy, still, she listened. That was Ili.

I looked at my right, Tari, she was putting out from her bag, her earphone, and connected it to her turquoise cashed iPhone. One minute passed, she already listening to music that were mute to the other. Sometimes she put her head on the table, and tried hard not to fall asleep. That was Tari.

Beside Tari, there, sit Peni. She listened to the front as the lecturer was explaining and taking notes. She was bored I could tell, and sleepy, well we were all sleepy. She played with osa’s phone I did not know what she did and sometimes she talked to Tari, or Jumi right beside her. That was Peni.

Jumi, sit between Peni and, I did not know I did not remember, may be dijah, maybe manda, she put her head on the table. Closing her eyes for a minute or two while the alienesse language still playing in the background. After a while she raised again her head and tried hard again to listen. That was Jumi.

And there were Manda and Dijah sitting beside Jumi, eyes full, and focus. I guessed they spoke the alienesse language. Attention to the slides presented and sometimes talking to each other.  They were Dijah and Manda.

It was enough. I felt relaxed and content, though it was not an extreme heavy happy feeling but it was enough. It was enough to sit between them and be around them. I felt content eventhough I did not understand the alienese language taught, though I was the foolest. I lived in that moment, and I wish I could immortalized it. And for me now that life was not all about rush, adventure, spontanity, fun, and things like that again. It was about being content, being enough, being relaxed, and grateful to the time, to God, to anything around you, to anyone around you.

From PA class 2 october 2012

Trust~

One thing that I learned from travelers before me, one thing that I always agree, one thing that I love traveling so much

“Ketika kamu tidak bisa belajar apapun dalam perjalanan yang kamu lakukan maka kamu tidak lebih dari sekedar turis, perjalanmu, semua itu sia-sia”

There are some who say “It’s about the journey, not the destination” 

Last week, I went on a trip, not far, I went to Jakarta. It is only one-hour-flight from my home. However, the lesson I got from this trip was sangat berharga, totally priceless. 

I learned a lot about trust, believe, faith, whatever you might call it. Trust was something we could easily got, it could be easily forgotten, It could be easily destroyed but, it was also hard to get, It was also hard to be forgotten, It was also hard to be destroyed. It was a double-edged sword.

I trusted someone, but that someone backstabbed me, like a fool I was fooled, if it even made sense. Was money so important, more important than people in general? Why were we, human, were slaved by money? We were the one who was powerful, we were the one who made the money to become this powerful so that it could fooled us. That someone was the example of it.

Not just ‘that someone’, there were also people who took trust for granted, Y, was the example whose trust was took for granted. She was fooled by someone who sold her a ticket, but it turned out the ticket was fake. How could someone live like that?

Up until now, I still did not understand the power of money, that it even could made us turned against our own kind. I lived in society where people always did good things, respect other people, live in manner, but after that trip, I realized that the world was not that clean, It happened around us, people disregarding other people because of money, because last time I checked it only happened on TV screen, but I was wrong, so wrong.

May be I was still young, I still save in my litle box, living in good society and environment, with good people. But I now realized that we could not just trust other people without questioning, without being alert. Then after that I wondered who were people I could trust?

I came up with some list of who are people I could trust. 

People come and go. Some leave and only some bothered to stay, some might even disappeared. People change. Some might once friends, one blink, then they become an enemy, some did not trust you, some lied to you, some stabbed you in the back, some looked down on you, there were always people like that, but only some bothered to be friends with you, listen to you, trust you, respect you, make you their family, and love you just the way you are. It was dynamic. Because time was always move in its own accord. There would always be someone who was replaced and some who replaced.

And this is the list of people I could always trust, always be in my circle. They are in the family circle.

Mbak anti. Bapak. Ibuk. Dedek. Mbah kung. Mbah uti. Iwak. Yayuk. Cece.

Things grows and so does my circle.

Bulet. Zaq, ellin, paus, jumik, peni, tarjo, ilay, dini, nay, manda, dijah, Blora, vlad, aliy

And people outside the circle that has amazed me with their thought, and make me trust them, the special circle

Vidy (the one who always tell good stories and always think a lot of things, share me your bravery and boldness, I envy you)

Kevin (the one who is always humble when taught me about lesson at school, For me, dari semua orang pinter di angkatan Kevin adalah guru terbaik dengan bahasa manusia yang mudah dimengerti, there is no arrogancy in his voice when he taught us and way too good sense of humor)

Bang Nico (I don’t know why, but you are a good person, way too good)
  
and lastly
  "You know who"

Thank you to ‘that someone’ who fooled me once, I learned a lot for you. Thank you Jakarta for being the destination in this journey. One more thing about traveling, It’s always about the people.

“People who shows that they are bad people is better, at least you can defend yourself when they attack, than people who is bad but pretend to be good, then Dang!, they stab you in the back” (from trip to Jakarta, 23 September 2012)

reunion, High school never ends

Al Madinah Al munawarah I: pastel and hot, candle like

The next morning I woke up, I saw through the hotel’s window the smear of orange colored sky blurring my vision reflecting on the pastel colored building. Here at Madinah the buildings’ color were mostly pastel, such as white, maroon,  creme, or light brown. 

At eight in the morning, we decided to stroll around Al masjed- Al Nabawi , I realized that the masjed was very big and gorgeous. The architecture inside was beautiful, the domes were able to be opened and showed the sky, this often happened at night, so beautiful. The art wasn’t just over, inside the rhaudah, the Rasulullah’s cemetery, there were more beautiful design. There is something special about this masjed, From Abu Hurairah ra from the Prophet said "Prayer in my masjed is better than a thousand prayers in other mosques except the Masjid-Haram" (Bukhari). So yeah the reward is a thousand times the usual reward from the usual shalat.  

One more thing for female, to enter the masjed you are not allowed to bring cell phone or camera so the staff will check you. But, I successfully hid my cell so I made to get in with it :p

Inside rhaudah there were the cemetery of Abu bakar, umar, and rasulullah himself. Rhaudah it self is the home of rasulullah when he was still alive. He was buried in aisyah’s room, one of his wives, the one he loved the most.

You can see outside there was green dome, its the sign of rhaudah. How to enter rhaudah? I’m a girl so I could only tell you the story from the female entry, Rhaudah is located in the male section of the Masjed so female has to wait for the staff to clear the way to rhaudah from the male so we can enter it. Female must enter gate 25 to enter rhaudah so if you enter from a different gate you have to look for the gate 25. The time to enter rhaudah from the info I know is after shalat fajr, after shalat dzuhur, and after shalat isya.

The staff will gather you based on the country you are from, Indonesia sign for the melayu people. It is basically consisting of Asian people, Africa, Iran, etc. They only have sign for country which have big moslem population so people who are from country like China, Korea, United states, they don’t usually gather you, so you can enter individually. The staffs will hold the signs which said your country on it, for melayu people you can look for the group of people who wear rukuh, cause most people who wear it basically melayu people, most of them are Indonesian or Malaysian. Here you’ll feel the brotherhood of people who have the same race as yours :)

After that you just need to follow the staff order. Getting there and do shalat there is not practically easy, you have to wait and look for a space to do that and the space of rhaudah is so small so we have to fight to get some space to do the shalat.

Asallamualaika ya Rasulullah, that was said over and over when I was walking to the rhaudah. The feeling is like waiting for your long lost lover in the train station, I don’t know why but everytime I go there, the tears in my eyes are always force its way to fall down. Sentimental, isn’t it? I miss him, I miss Rasulullah.

Ps: English is not my language, so for the engrish above bear with it.

cheers!

Al Madinah- Al Munawarah | Prologue: Hopes up or hopes down?

Early in the journey, I always thought that this journey would be hard, with no playing times, straight praying, under the heated weather the country is famous of. Well, I’m no holy saint, I’m too used to being on a journey with leisure option and purpose where I could relax my mind and have fun, so I thought this would be hard on me  because this journey was kind of different. The Umroh I took part wasn’t organized by travel and tour agent, I did it with Ammanatul Ummah, an Islamic boarding school also an organization in the Islamic educational area. The fact that it wasn’t organized by travel and tour agent made it look more saddening because there was no Turkey, no Mesir, to go to, like my mom’s previous Umroh. 

What worse was, in the 18-day-travel we were advised to bring a small suitcase, cabin size, smaller than my suitcase when I travel 11 days to South Korea, only contain 3 female Ihrams, 2 dresses, and 1 pair of pajama. So be it, the sink was our washing machine.

Miraculously, the suitcase was still leaving some space. I always believe that the space left in your suitcase before you depart always contains hopes for a better come back. So hopes up, or hopes down?

Why Travelling, ga?

I don’t know, really, when or how it’s exactly started since I started dreaming to travel around the world. OH! Maybe it was in a junior-high-school-time or senior-high-school-time or, well somewhere in between J

Once you start, you can’t stop

It was in the middle of September, when I started my first travel abroad without any help from travel agent. It was a runaway project, a spontaneous decision. Though it wasn’t my first travel abroad, but it was the gate of the travel-addiction I believe infects me, totally worse than drugs. Yes, first real travel, Singapore.

Of why I was addicted, Oh that’s what I wanna share fellas, widen your eyes and ears, here we go

1.    The chase. ‘you said you dream of my face, but you don’t like me you just like the chase’ a little too late-Jojo

It’s true, It’s a little too late if I didn’t say that crazy decision and jump to that plane, even skipping the first day of class. The chase to get into the plane is what worth guys, the chase of the cheap ticket, the chase of the routes and maps, the chase of a new travel mates I never met before, the chase of something I don’t even know what, but I know it is there. The story that’s waiting.

2.    “Don’t you wanna hear the sound of all the places we could go do you fear the expression on the faces we don’t know” Second-hand serenade-Maybe

The place and the people we’ll meet, that will unconsciously widen our mind

3.    The Rush, The adrenaline, The anger, The hunger, The Cold

All the time I went abroad it was backpacking fellas, I mean it’s not including the summer English school I take at Australia that time of course it’s not backpacking, It was my greatest achievement that I’m proud of so far. Hunger is my friend when I travel, trust me I’m a big eater but it was so worth the pang in the stomach that I felt when in the last day I spent all my money to buy a real and proper meal, not just instant noodle or street food. The first snow I felt brushing my face still lingers in my skin, that time the look from all the native was like “Are you crazy? It’s snowing and you are putting a happy face there”

4.    Don’t you think our earth is mysterious?

From there, I started to think, what will happen if I stand there and just dreaming. The world is HUGE, only sitting here in this cubicle of school-Meeting the same people every day, yes it is getting dull-will just get me nowhere. Well however hard I’m trying to be smart, trust me, It’s not working hahaha. So I ended up, it’s okay to get a so-so grade but always protect your holiday (because in my lovely medical school that I attend, if you didn’t pass the standard of the minimal grade, you have to use your holiday to attend the lecture of the subject again and do the test once again)

5.    The freedom

“bahwa kita hidup dengan satu nilai kebenaran. Dalam sebuah perjalanan, ketika tak ada seorangpun mengenalnya, manusia bias lebih bebas mengekspresikan diri. Lebih leluasa menjadi dirinya sendiri. Dan kadang, batas mengekspresikan diri ini menjadi kabur. Meniadakan keberadaan orang lain””Hampir setiap hari kita idup dalam batasan yang dibuat orang lain,nilai kebenaran yang dibentuk oleh lingkungan sosial kita”

“Perjalanan memberikan kita jeda dari itu, sedikit merdeka dari batasan tadi”

-windy ariestanty, Life traveler-

Kalo singkat kata kayak kata fahril sih, tempat kita bias ber alay-alay sampe uncontrol gitu deh, secara sebagai budget traveler kita cuma modal kamera :>, atau ngepoin native yang ada disana, gimana rasanya ngobrolin mereka tanpa mereka tau apa yang kita omongin, hahaha. Atau pake boots and vedora tanpa orang-orang mandangin lo kayak lo orang paling saltum sedunia hahaha. Emanglah bener orang-orang kita itu terlalu kepo :>

6.    The plan. The overall

Travelling itu ya travelling. Travelling is travelling. No matter what style do you have. Solo travel or group travel. Independent travel, low budget whatever or even if you have the money it’s okay to go by travel agent’s help. That’s your style. Travelling is being you, really. But like what mas Alid said, for me, to go by travel agents is “nggak dapet feel nya”

7.    The place where you can put off all your nationality’s attributes and become the world’s resident, be native, so that you can call it home

Not that I am not proud of my country but, what’s the point of think this and that. To think that we are a tourist will never get me the feeling of a home, they’ll just look us differently, like some weird alien. Blend, but always remember where we came from J

Who has stayed at the airport once in the winter night? Hey, who has no idea if the hotel booked was in red district? Hey, who has the night spent in seven eleven buying instant noodle? Who has walked in the night, lost, while the quiet street was full of scary looking Indian people sitting on the grass talking and look at you with questioning look?”

There are still too many reasons I couldn’t tell with words, Fellas

kita bukan ingin menguasai dunia, kita hanya ingin mengenalnya saja

We’re not there to conquer the world, we’re just there to get to know it

For all travelers,

panenggak

check out my tumblr : the dancing shoes