Note: Since I am feeling tired of doing research and making a guide, I’d rather pour out some random thoughts I have from the past weeks. Welcome to my mind and enjoy the absurdity and silliness

BURNOUT

For some reason I don’t understand yet, my brain has stopped working this week, twice. The most reasonable explanation is I feel burnout from all the tedious tasks the past month. Maybe that’s the cause. But honestly, I don’t like it as I usually feel the need to be productive every day, and suddenly I can’t concentrate on work nor my writing project. Aargh, that’s very annoying…I then tried to work at the co-working space in my apartment. My new desk is facing a window, from there I could see the trees and nice houses. But the thing I cherish the most from this new working desk setting is the gleaming sun. Like now, I am absorbing the warm sunlight. It feels good on my skin, not too hot, after the heavy rainfalls a few hours ago. I’ve been imagining finding a place like this in Bali where I could writing & working surrounded by nature. There won’t be any distractions from traffic nor people as I’ve been feeling frequently in Jakarta.

I thought I have found that perfect place last month when I stayed in Ubud. I had purposely chosen Ubud as I wanted to recreate the beautiful memories I had in Hanoi. During my life in Hanoi, Vietnam, what I did most of the time was just sitting in a cafe or restaurant to read, write, dine, or people watching. It felt so peaceful, life went by so slowly, nothing interrupting my daydreaming and contemplating activity. Hanoi’s life was indeed full of beautiful memories. There are some painful memories too but it has faded away. The Hanoi ghost has been stopped following me.

Hence I went to Ubud. It’s a nice small town located in the uplands of Central Bali, thus the air is cooler and the town itself looks greener than Southern Bali. The center of Ubud is very doable for walking, something I’ve been longing for as I barely can do that in the Big Durian. Ubud is definitely a peaceful and nice town, but somehow I feel it’s too quiet for me, let alone with the recent lockdown policy, there were fewer people in town. I do love spending time by myself but sometimes I need to socialize. All my friends who live in Bali live either in Denpasar or Canggu. So, yeah that’s where I am heading to.

EARTH OR WATER ACTIVITIES ?

It’s true that I sometimes travel to escape from something, but that’s not the case with my last trip to Ubud. I went there purely because I wanted to experience a peaceful life in a small town, so does the next trip to Canggu. I had been imagining living in a small villa/ hotel with a pool, close to nature but also not too far from the entertainment center. On some days I would go to a cafe for working/ writing/ reading/, while on the other days I would work from home. One thing I need to do is taking benefit from living close to nature. I shouldn’t forget to run on the beach in the morning or join a yoga or painting class. Been living here for quite a long, I do miss the sense of adventure. As an earth person, outdoor activities in land are the things I after. Maybe I could ask some friends or people to join me on a hiking trip to Central Bali, or to the East to enjoy the small fishing village. I am not keen on water activities but if I have time and chance, maybe I could go sailing to other islands as well. Watching people do kite surfing as I’d seen once in Gili T would be nice.

THE GREEK TRAGEDY

This one is completely different with the other thoughts I had this past week. So, I just finished reading Kafka on The Shore, the 3rd Murakami’s novel I’ve been reading of. Magical realism is something new for me, as I usually rejecting this genre since it’s too surreal for me. But somehow, I became pretty curious to figure out how the story ends. The characters were pretty interesting, and one of them was quoting Greek mythology for a few times. On one of chapter, Oshima told Kafka that every human were initially had created with four arms, four legs, and a head with two faces.

As Plato puts it:

“According to Greek mythology, humans were originally created with four arms, four legs and a head with two faces. Fearing their power, Zeus split them into two separate parts, condemning them to spend their lives in search of their other halves.”

Their physical nature would feel a burning desire to be completed with the physical nature of the other sex, and their soul alike would yearn for their soul’s other half to be complete, their soulmate. And according to the myth, when these two halves find each other, there will be a silent understanding of one another, they will feel joined and exist with each other in unison and will know no greater joy than that.

Whether the soulmate story is purely a myth or there is some truth in it, we may never know. I find this story is very beautiful.

Curious about my adventures in Europe and America ?. You can click the following links to see my traveling videos that have aired on Net TV :

1. Desa Hallstatt, Desa dengan Arsitektur Klasik di Pinggir Danau
2. Imutnya Park Guell, Dunia Fantasi Ala Gaudi di Barcelona
3. Ada Turki Mini di Bosnia Herzegovina
4. Nyobain Makanan Khas Bosnia, Kaya Rasa dan Pasti Halal
5. The Bean, Seni Kontemporer yang Ada di Film – film Hollywood

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