Flying Back to Melbourne

It's time to go back to Melbourne, it's the end of my vacation. Time flies too fast, I didn't realise that it's been a month.

Here I am, sitting in Oldtown Kopitiam in the airport again. It means that I'm leaving the country.
It's been the place to wait for my flight these past two years. I like coffees and starbucks but they don't have nice meals like in oldtown, only sandwiches, if any.

I love Malaysian food too, so it's two bird with one stone. And they have free wifi! Just perfect, eh?

Tous les Jours

Japan was lovely, but I have to face the reality to come back to my Birthland, Indonesia!
I used to hate this country a lot. But studying abroad and plenty of travelling had opened my eyes to accept most of the things.

What I love about Jakarta, the capital city is the hustle bustle that won't let you get bored of the city. Stores are open throughout the day till night too!

I tried a French-themed bakery, Tous les Jours, which means All the Time. It was pretty good and I love the presentation and concept, really appealing!

I love the authentic design of classic French with a twist of modernism around the vicinity of the bakery. If you are sitting down in the cafe area, you will be able to smell the freshly baked bread and pastries, absolutely lovely!

They also have Bonne Mamman, my favourite brand of jams! It is really a must-try brand! I couldn't use other brands since I put these jams on my toast!

I tried this chocolate pastry and an iced cappucinno. Overall it was good, they even provided sugar syrup if you love your coffee sweet (even though it was already terribly sweet). Loved the crunch of the pastry and on the chocolate!

This bakery is going to be one year old soon (as it is celebrating it), and I think it is doing pretty well. Hopefully it will maintain the quality (or even improve it) when I return to Indonesia after my study.

Indonesians and Two Phones

Indonesians tend to have two phones: 1 Blackberry and 1 Android/iPhone.

A Blackberry is almost a 'must' for Indonesians. It is said that Indonesia is the country that gives the highest revenue for RIM since almost every single Indonesian own one.

Blackberry gives the convenience of communication with BBM. You just need to subscribe for the Blackberry Internet Service and you'll get unlimited data service.

But that's all for Blackberry. That's why we want other phones, yet we can't give up or choose one. So ee ended up with two phones.

Last Month of Interlude

Ok, been so long since my last post. I admit I have been procrastinating enough to not post anything in the last month.

Let's see the checklist of what I have done around....

1. an IELTS test, which I didn't pass the 8 all band obviously, otherwise I would have posted it sooner.
2. Indonesia and Malaysia, I put up 4 kg and of all those 2-3 kg is from one week in Malaysia.
3. Catch up with my friends in Indonesia.
4. Back to Melbourne and wanting to catch up with all friends.

Is that all? Perhaps, I can't recall anything else at the moment.

So it has been 6 months since my graduation and I have yet to find a suitable job for me and no PR application. It sounded so bad now that I put it this way. But I have applied for Master degree since about 3 months ago, since then I didn't really look for a job and just go with the flow, which felt really good.

Yup, it has been a short (or maybe a long one?) interlude, let's call it a gap (half) year before study. I learnt a lot from it. And I made new resolutions as well! Maybe it's too late to make resolutions in mid year like this, but surely it's better than nothing. The trigger for these resolutions are, surprise surprise, from Indonesia and Malaysia. I realised how stagnant the growth in Australia is and how significant changes took places in other countries. Of course I'm partly aware of the changes as we read newspapers, but it was merely like reading a fairy tale at that time.

Now that I realise that the world is broader than I think, I opened my mind and decided to let myself go with the flow, the good one obviously. I decided to study hard while looking for a more suitable part time job and will go to China to study Chinese. I will also do a backpacking or study language in Europe. And the good thing is, my father is willing to support me, both financially and mentally, for my grand Europe trip!

Oh, and I also decided to go home a lot on my semester breaks. Not that I want to avoid work and not that I don't want the money, I do love money! But I realised that while I'm young, I want to travel a lot, there are places that I have yet to visit, even in Indonesia.

SO! I'll be going back to Indonesia for 2 months from either December or January, and I will travel a lot! My family is planning for a trip to Japan! Can't be more excited than this! I wish I can see Hokkaido this time. Tours will usually take 2 weeks and I want to extend for another 2 weeks to do a backpack around Japan! Or maybe visit my cousin in South Korea for a week as well? Well, possibilities are unlimited at the moment. For now, I want my next holiday to be spent in Japan and in Indonesia (around Maluku or Sulawesi perhaps).

That's all for now.

Indo So Far with Approaching Melbourne

As you all know (or not), I went back to Indonesia for 3 weeks!
I am still in Indonesia, spending my last few days before flying back to Melbourne.
I just realised that I have not finished my culinary tour yet, there are still more to eat in my list, just for Jogjakarta!

One answer to that problem here, and this answer is not solving but just on checking why 3 weeks is not enough, is that I spent 1 week out of my 3 weeks in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I shopped a lot, ate a lot and saw a lot. I spent about RM2000 there, equal to almost AUD700. If only I stayed in city centre, I would have spent MUCH more! But to cut costs, I stayed in my sister's apartment, yay me for not paying any accommodation.

My luggage now is filled with FOOD! And of course I got some souvenirs but they are not to be compared with the number of FOOD in my suitcase, hah! There are still places I want to visit and food I want to eat, but I know that my time will be up and all I want to do is spending my remaining time for my family.

My holiday was a short one and I might not be coming back to Indonesia for the next few years as I need to build up my leave for months in Europe. <3 Oh and I am planning to go backpacking to Japan too! Ah, so much in my travel list.

I will post more about my culinary trip, and pictures of course, when I get back to Melbourne.

And for now, ciao!

Going Home

Hi, I'm going home today. :)
Going home as in back to Indonesia.

I'll stay at Jakarta for about a week before flying back to my hometown and I'll be in Indonesia for a month.

Hope it's going to be a pleasant trip and joyful holiday for me.

Ciao