In Wanderlogue

A Mediterranean Memento

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A Mediterranean Memento

Jakarta, 31/10. It was midnight in the middle of a workweek. Felt quite nice to finally lay on my side of the bed, fingers scrolling mindlessly across my glaring phone screen amid the dimmed light of the bedroom as my husband was already asleep. I had surrendered to the algorithm that put me in the never-ending loop of irrelevant streams of content when a notification popped up.

A French local train app, delivering a message of traffic reduction in Occitanie. I didn’t even remember I had the app installed.

It has been a few days now after my return to Jakarta, following a little over a month of travelling around France and its vicinity. Mainly for work in the city of Montpellier, although it wouldn’t have been me if I hadn’t purposefully crammed a few short leisure getaways in between and at the end.

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In Wanderlogue

7 Petra Tips You Truly Need but Nobody Tells You About

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7 Petra Tips You Truly Need but Nobody Tells You About

Just like everyone else who travelled to Jordan, I absolutely had to put Petra as one of my major destinations. I spent one and a half days in Wadi Musa where Petra is located, which I believe is proper enough to get the best out of the whole complex – if you know how.

Frankly, I came a little unprepared because the vacation was squeezed between two separate business trips. Hence, I did not manage to research any tips about exploring the site prior to the travel. That, however, led me to asking around extensively instead; from fellow tourists that I met there, the tourism office staff in Petra, to a couple of Petra local guides who were keen on helping me probably simply because they felt bad for this tiny Asian lady travelling alone. Those, in addition to experiencing all the strenuous walk and hike myself, made me come up with these tips I think people should know about to make the best out of their Petra experience.

So, if you are like me, or even on a shorter visit, or basically just want to make your trip as effective as possible, this will be the article for you to read on!

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In Thoughtful Enlightenment, Wanderlogue

Serendipitous Solitude in Sài Gòn (2023)

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Serendipitous Solitude in Sài Gòn (2023)

The day was early when I made my way to the “pink church,” which wasn’t far from where I stayed. I hadn’t made any specific itinerary, so it was rather an impromptu trip. The only particular reason why I picked a place of worship as my first destination was because of its supposedly flashy, curiously unusual appearance for a religious building, which happened to be in the shade typical of one of those Wes Anderson movies.

As I walked southeast, I noticed that there weren’t as many pharmacies as on the northwest side of the road. It was the night before when I made my first attempt to explore the area to find some bottled water and stuff to snack on, when I noticed that the northwest was basically overrun by pharmacies, which to my surprise existed literally in every other house on the street. I reckoned it was probably the byproduct of the pandemic. I had to turn around, walked in the other direction and passed the hostel again until I finally came across a FamilyMart, like a luminous shrine in the middle of a chaotic street market that reminded me of bits of my hometown.

In the morning, the messy street market seemed to feel a little more welcoming. It was still overrun by people, still ever-lively, but felt more bearable for passersby when under the sun.

Then the rosy-looking building, Tan Dinh Church, emerged on the right-hand side of the street. Almost commanding the entire crowded, grayish street to pay attention to her unmissable, grand, almost jaunty facade.

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In Wanderlogue

Satellites of the Skies & Sunrise in Wadi Rum, Jordan (2022)

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Satellites of the Skies & Sunrise in Wadi Rum, Jordan (2022)

The Satellites

It was around 4 AM when I woke up in that modest but properly decorated tent. We were in the middle of a desert, kilometres away from the next nearest accommodation.

By “we,” I mean myself and the landlord’s sibling – just the two of us amid that vast nothingness. He was supposed to be sleeping in one of the other tents, although I wasn’t sure if he was really there, or which tent exactly, in case I needed help with something. All I felt was aloneness.

How could I not? There were zero signals on my phone, whether for regular calls or the internet. I started regretting having paid a ton of money for the SIM card, since for the next couple of days, I wouldn’t be able to use it anyway. With no handy source of entertainment available and the disconnect from the outside world, it felt like the world was on pause. The quietness was particularly the most deafening.

Yes, in that desert, each of the accommodations was spaced out pretty far from each other that you probably won’t be able to spot your neighbouring hostels from where you are staying. My mother would’ve freaked out hearing that I slept in the middle of nowhere all by myself, and having a foreign man nearby that did not even speak any of my languages wouldn’t have helped my case. It’s a good thing I spared these details from her.

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In Life on the Equator

Travel, Work, & Life Recap: Late 2022 to Early 2023

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Travel, Work, & Life Recap: Late 2022 to Early 2023

In the past few months, I had tried to sit quietly and start writing again, which all led to multiple failed attempts. It wasn’t even an effort to write something worth posting publicly – just anything in general. Whether it’s in my laptop’s drive that will never see the light of day, or in my phone’s Notes app, let alone this blog. I was always either in the middle of something that required a lot of attention, or was never really in the right mindset to pour my thoughts and heart out even though what I did most of the time were thinking and feeling.

So this is me, attempting once again. In the days leading to Eid Al-Fitr, where naturally my desire to do work has diminished significantly and I probably couldn’t be bothered to catch up with things I know I eventually will do post-Eid, so one of the few things I could do to avoid feeling like a complete trash is to be back writing again. Here’s me sitting down in a rented apartment I just moved into around three weeks ago, still in the heart of the city I have never been a fan of despite all the positive thoughts I’m trying to “delude” myself with i.e., South Jakarta, with my husband.

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In Life on the Equator, Overcasted Mind

Does work-life balance only work as a lump sum?

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Does work-life balance only work as a lump sum?

The past few months, I have been nothing but swamped with work. Particularly since my return to Jakarta following my one-month vacation in May. My life has been revolving around my job and that only. And it has been a roller coaster of various moods and emotions, from tired to proud to drained to elated too. I did get a lot of things done and achieved, thankfully, but at what expense?

I have not talked properly to my closest friends in weeks – even months for some. My sibling is working on his undergraduate thesis, in a field that is somewhat close to my career, yet I could only pop in to check on his progress and help him polish his presentation or thesis draft every once in a while. Working from Jakarta again after two years of living in my hometown also means much less time to be with my four-legged furry kids, i.e., adorable pet cats. Things are also loosening with some of the people I met during and had kind of regularly talked to following my UK vacation, since the time zone difference itself has even been a challenge from the start.

Even little, seemingly-overlooked privileges such as going to bed when you feel that your body needs to rest without the crippling anxiety about not finishing your to-do list for the day yet, taking the time to scroll aimlessly on your Grab/Gojek/Shopee app to choose which food for lunch and supper today without guilt, enjoying a long shower with your favourite fragrance of body wash without worrying about having to immediately jump onto the next things on your calendar, or watching a couple of episodes of silly, wacky TV series just for the sake of it have become luxuries I am not always able to afford.

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