Another Victoria's Secrets

It had been weeks since my cousins Angel and Lauren went back to Jakarta, but life in Bali still feels differently than before. First, I have Hizkia around. Then, I had my friend Marinno who came with his friend Sonny who were thinking of expanding their business to Bali. From Marinno we were introduced to Willy, another Bandung person who already moved to Bali for 3 months now.

Then from Willy, the network expands. He brought his friend Aditya Tirto to our group and the next day we met up again, only this time it's us who joined his circle, introduced to Daniel, Dita and another girl. We played pool at The Deck, Jl. Petitenget, and chilled till 2 a.m. and continued hanging out at Sunny 16 at Fontana Hotel, Jl. Dewi Sri. There we were introduced to Aditya Nugraha, Elwa and Nat.

Since that night on, it's like having a new close friends all of a sudden. I fit in them easily and naturally and it feels really good to have friends like them. They hang out at Kopi Kultur at Little Tree, Sunset Road, a lot so I think it's gonna be my new hang out place, too. They have quite a big community here in Bali and have a Poem Night once a month. Kind of cool, right?


Last Tuesday I was invited to Kérastase Initialiste product launching at Rob Peetoom Hairspa in the morning and Rob Peetoom Magazine launching party at night. I came with Zora, my neighbor, and met a lot of people from my 'previous' life; international clubbers of Seminyak, Bali. It was fun to meet them all, but for me, my new group of friends are more fun to hang out with.

The next day was Dewi's last day in Bali. She was leaving for London and Holland for--maybe--ever, so we all gathered at her house, along with her mom and big brother, Wisnu, and her best friends Killa and Muty. I helped her mom packed the stuff while she was in the salon, and at 4 p.m. she left to the airport, and so her new life started. I feel so happy for her, that she could make her dream come true all by her own effort. She is one of the tough women I know.
One good friend goes, many new ones come. Such a blessing!

My cousins Angelika and Loren had already back to their home in Jakarta. That left me here with Hizkia and his girlfriend Saphira, who came the day Angel and Loren went home. We spent these last days together and also with my kost neighbors: Ana, Risty, Baim and Zora. But what most fun was that I got a new ride.


I found this folding bicycle at Rodalink store at Jl. Teuku Umar and fell in love with this Polygon Urbano 3.0 since the first sight. It has some plus points than the other folding bikes I saw before: it's pretty easy to fold and unfold (see the video below), pretty light for me to carry up and down the stairs by myself (my room is at second floor and I park it in my room) and looks pretty nice with me on it, tho not as lovely as a Brompton*. And the color is silver, which I much prefer.


I tried riding on it in the store and I apparently needed some time to adapt with biking again since maybe almost two decades (I almost never touched any bicycle since living in Bandung) so I brought it to Sanur and had some fun pedaling by the shore. Sanur is really a great place for cycling while in my area (Kerobokan) is pretty much crowded and the roads are very much uncomfortable because there are no sidewalks (the roads end straight to gutters at each side) and other vehicles are mostly speeding up in here.


Anyway, I am legally entering the commuter world now, in disguise on trying to burn more calories everyday rather than sitting sweetly on the scooter to get me anywhere. I really need to work out and I hope this new ride would help me get fitter. Thankfully I live in Bali, where pollution and traffic are less hectic than in Jakarta or Bandung--oh, I'm contributing on polluting less now by biking. Thank God for this bike, I'm superlovin' it!


*) Brompton is agreed to be the best folding bike in the world.

I still have my cousins staying at my place now, and tonight Lauren, the middle sibling, came to join us. Last Thursday, Hizkia, Angel and I went to Ubud by a rental car and we visited some galleries and museum. We first stopped by Tony Raka Art Gallery, then spent another hour at Neka Museum. We visited Gaya gallery and had a very delicious gelato ice cream there.

Om Aries Santiko caught up with us and we had some chat at Cinta Grill to talk about painters in Ubud that Hizkia wants to meet. After that we had some walk around Monkey Forest street to window shopping till 9 p.m. We went back to Denpasar and had late nasi liwet and nasi gudeg dinner at Jl. Imam Bonjol.


My cousins and I spent all Friday noon at room and plan things and watched the sunset together with Baim and Zora at Petitenget beach. Later that night we (me, my cousins and Ana) chilled at Seminyak beach at La Plancha area and had urgent supper after midnight at Circle K Petitenget. It was a really tiring day but very fun indeed.


Today we (with Ana and Zora) went to Seminyak Square and met Dewi there. We then moved to Beachwalk and spent time till 5 p.m. at the mall. We then went to Legian beach and watched sunset there. We met my old beach boy friend, Nyoman, who offered us seats. Baim caught up with us and later we had dinner together at Gong Corner.

But before dinner, Hizkia, Angel and I went to airport by two bikes to fetch Lauren first. Now the siblings are complete and I am so happy to have them here in my tiny room tho it's gonna be so packed. Family is such a blessing to me. Anyway, I wish you all a great summer holiday, too!

More great pics to check on  instagram 
and facebook album.

I went back to Jakarta again last Monday because I had a flu since Thursday before and it didn't get better. I decided that spending time resting with a mother at home would be much better than bed resting alone at my place with no nutrition from the food I had to buy myself. So I flew back to Jakarta and met my family, which was a great getaway for me.

I had my brother stayed over at home also on Monday night and went together on Tuesday morning for his driving license thing and spent the next days with cousins and aunts and grandma came over to see Mom's new home. It was really great to meet family and spend time with them, because after all the friends and acquaintances, family are the ones who love you the way you are.

On Thursday Mom and I went to Thamrin to pick up my sister at her office by 6p.m., then we drove to east to my brother's kost place (that was kind of hard to find because none of us were familiar with the area) to surprise him at his birthday. He didn't have any plan or party to celebrate himself turning 28, so we made one for him. Gladly he liked it so much.




We had dinner together at Gading Walk in Kelapa Gading which was the closest entertaining area from his place, then had some tea at Kopitiam. It was not much, but this was one of the rare moments of our family to gather with complete members. We cherish the moment more than ever now that we all live by ourselves.


I came back to Bali last Saturday with my cousins Angelika and Hizkia along with their father, Om Hari, by Citilink and we all had a fun day at Uluwatu yesterday. It was another great time I had this week, for it had been almost a decade now that we could have an adventure in nature on Uluwatu cliffs, like the days I always had with Dad on holidays. Family really matters to me, although it never is perfect, but at least I have one. Thank God.

More great pics to check on  instagram
and facebook album.

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