Last Weekend, we set out again to try another spa resort called MesaStila (previously known as Losari Spa Retreat and Coffee Plantation), located in Magelang, central java.

When we arrive at Mesastila, we were welcomed with fresh air, green sight literally everywhere and historical Colonial-era feel, combine with Javanese traditional antiques touches down to the bits. It was almost like going back in time if not for the 5-star modern facilities.

Since it was already lunch time, we went straight to the dining area. They only serve healthy food here, but oh my, they were good food. I ordered, almond & grilled mushroom salad for appetizer, honey grilled prawn (with red rice) for the main course, and warm chocolate cake (low fat, no flour!) with vanilla icecream for dessert. No sugary drinks available.

After lunch, we went to villa that was definitely bigger than my whole apartment. Like in other part of the resort, It was decorated with traditional Javanese style, which i don’t usually dig, but i think they did a superb job combining bit & pieces to make the villa feel modern & warm at the same time.

And the bathroom! oh i won’t mind spending hours here at all.

After we stop taking pictures like crazy, we took a nap and being waken at 3 pm for our spa appointment. I tried the dry body massage plus scalp treatment using traditional Chinese techniques.

We were then offered hot drinks and snack for refreshment before we went to the Hammam Bath, which is Turkish style sauna. We tried to be inside the Hammam as long as we could, but since the sauna is so much hard core than the usually sauna, we only lasted for maybe 10 minutes?

Going out from the hammam bath all smokey, hot & out of breath, we were told to soak our body in a cold water pool. I think there is something about this mixture of super hot & cold bath that turn down the brain activity to its most relaxing state.

The dinner was equally good, we ate slowly & talk for hours. I think they intentionally prolong the timing in between appetizer-main course-dessert so we slow down our eating & take time to really enjoy the ambiance and the food. During the meal, we were greeted by the manager, and were asked not to use mobile phone in public area. I had no problem with that i think, but some people i know *salsa-uhuk-bella* are inseparable with their gadget hihihi

The next morning, after a sound, blissful sleep, we joined the yoga class, followed by big breakfast.

Before we head home that noon, we went of the coffee plantation tour, where we receive educational information about coffee, from the varieties of the coffee, how it was harvested, and how it was processed into coffee powder. Of course we did the coffee tasting (robusta kind), it was strong & smell good, just the way i like it^^

Berhubung saya & hubby sudah eneg ke mall, akhirnya weekend kemarin kita memutuskan mencoba pergi ke tempat baru (apapun, kemanapun, selain ke mall) yang tidak terlalu jauh dari jakarta. Setelah browsing-browsing dan tanya rekomendasi tempat ke teman-teman, kita memutuskan untuk ke Sentul!

Ternyata di sentul ada obyek wisata yang tersembunyi ditengah perbukitan sentul, di daerah Gunung Pancar, Citeurep, Kabupaten Bogor; yaitu Hot Spring alias pemandian air panas alami. Hot Spring sentul punya keunikan tersendiri karena tidak bau belerang tetapi konon mengandung mineral aktif dan tetap bermanfaat untuk pengobatan.

Cara untuk mencapai hot spring tersebut melalui mobil pribadi adalah lewat tol jagorawi kemudian keluar di gerbang tol sentul kemudian tinggal mengikuti jalan saja menuju Desa Babakan Madang. Dari sini ikut papan petunjuk menuju area gunung pancar.

Memasuki Taman Wisata Alam Gunung Pancar pengunjung diharuskan membayar tanda masuk Rp1.000/orang, mobil Rp2.000. Selepas pintu masuk Taman Wisata Alam Gunung Pancar menuju lokasi wisata air panas kita disuguhi pemandangan alam hutan pinus yang terasa segar di mata. Jadi berasa harus foto-foto deh pokoknya^^

Di pintu masuk Taman Wisata Alam Gunung Pancar, kami diberitahu bahwa ada 2 site untuk hotspring disini. Site pertama ada pemandian umum (campur banyak orang), harga lebih murah, dan jalanan menuju site beraspal dan lancar. Site kedua dikelola swasta, namanya Giritirta Hot Spring Resort & Spa, harganya lebih mahal, namun lebih private, tetapi jalanan kesana hanya ditimbun batu, dan susah dilewati.

Kami memutuskan meluncur ke arah Giritirta. Ternyata jalanannya parah benar! ditambah dengan kondisi hujan yang membuat jalanan berlumpur dan licin, mobil grand livina 1500cc matic have no chance at all, apalagi yang pake mobil sedan.

Untungnya, kami sudah dibekali nomer telpon jasa antar jemput fasilitas dari Giritirta (PP Rp 50rb) oleh petugas loket gunung pacar, just in case kalau mobil ga bisa lewat katanya. Kami pun mencari tempat parkir, dan tunggu dijemput. Jaraknya sih tidak jauh, tapi siap-siap aja terguncang-guncang di mobil selama 10-15 menit. Lega rasanya waktu sudah tiba.

Karena terletak di lembah yang terisolasi membuat resort Giritirta indah dan tenang. Dengan membayar 50.000 perorang/jam kami mendapat private onsen, lengkap dengan gazebonya dan sudah termasuk welcome juice, handuk, dan perlengkapan mandi. Tidak lupa kami memesan makanan yang wajib dipesan saat ada di kampung: nasi goreng & pisang goreng! untuk diaantar ke gazebo kami

Mengikuti saran mas-mas nya, rendam kaki saja dulu untuk beberapa menit pertama sebelum berendam total supaya tidak pusing akibat perubahan suhu mendadak.

Overall, tempat ini sangat memuaskan karena bagus & bersih, dengan suasana yang hening dan jauh dari aktifitas kota, walaupun cuma berendam sejam, jelas bisa menghilangkan stress. Apalagi setelah berendam, kulit jadi terasa lebih halus & mulus ^^

Dalam perjalanan pulangnya, mengikuti saran dari penduduk setempat, kami singgah untuk kuliner di Sate Kiloan PSK. (Entah apa kepanjangan dari PSK ini ^^’, mudah-mudahan saja bukan yang saya pikirkan). Sampai di lokasi, tempatnya sangat ramai, tampaknya memang favorit kuliner setempat.

Walaupun namanya sate kiloan, tapi bisa kok memesan 1/4kg (12 tusuk), kami pun memesan 1/4kg sate kambing + tongseng kambing. Rasanya? mmmm…makyusss!

So he set off to travel the world to understand better what is it that makes people happy? and finding, if possible, the recipe of happiness, to help him treating his unhappy patients.

Hector compile a list of the lessons he learn about happiness:
Lesson 1: Making Comparison Can Spoil Your Happiness
Lesson 2: Happiness often comes when least expected
Lesson 3: Many people see happiness only in their future
Lesson 4: Many people think that happiness comes from having more power & money
Lesson 5: Sometimes happiness is not knowing the whole story
Lesson 6: Happiness is a long walk in beautiful, unfamiliar mountains
Lesson 7: It’s a mistake to think that happiness is the goal
Lesson 8: Happiness is being with the people you love
Lesson 8b: Unhappiness is being separated with the people you love
Lesson 9: Happiness is knowing your family lacks for nothing
Lesson 10: Happiness is doing a job you love
Lesson 11: Happiness is having a home & garden of your own
Lesson 12: It’s harder to be happy in a country run by bad people
Lesson 13: Happiness is feeling useful to others
Lesson 14: Happiness is to be loved for exactly who you are
Lesson 15: Happiness comes when you feel truly alive
Lesson 16: Happiness is knowing how to celebrate
Lesson 17: Happiness is caring about the happiness of those you love
Lesson 18: The sun and the sea makes everybody happy

The book is written in such a simple style, as if the author was speaking to a child. Yet you soon find yourself reading about prostitution, globalization and death, as Hector attempts to uncover what makes people happy (or unhappy) around the world.

This simple yet charming & insightful book truly put smile on my face^^

Invictus (Latin for “Unconquered”) is a poem referred to several times in the movie. It becomes the central inspirational gift from Mandela, to Springbok rugby team captain François (played by Matt Damon) before the Rugby World Cup 1995.

Invictus, by William Ernest Henley (1849–1903).

Out of the night that covers me, black as the pit from pole to pole
I thanks whatever gods may be, for my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance, I have not winced nor cried aloud
Under the bludgeonings of fate, my head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears, looms but the horror of the shade
and yet, the menace of the years finds, and shall find me, unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate, how charged with punishment the scroll
I am the master of my fate - I am the captain of my soul.

Guess that didn’t work out.

And there’s the fantasy novel i want to write but never get around to it. But well, for me this is the hardest one, and deep down i didn’t really expect myself to get around to it the first time. Maybe that was the problem.

So anyway, i decided i’m not having a new resolution in the year of 2011. instead I’m going to recycle my 2010 resolution, trying to achieve last year undone resolution, and as for the thing i did accomplished, i will try to do it better, in bigger ways.

How green is it really to recycle a resolution? ^^’

Yang saya terima cukup banyak untuk membuat saya mengerenyit.

Tagihan handphone (saya & J masing-masing menggunakan indosat matrix & esia) biasanya langsung mendarat di t4 sampah setelah dicek sekilas, karena untuk pembayaran toh sudah menggunakan layanan autopay dari kartukredit. Begitu pula dengan laporan-laporan bulanan dari perusahaan asuransi. Ini belum termasuk billing-billing kartu kredit dengan setumpuk katalog promosi masing-masing.

Sebenarnya sudah terpikir dari dulu untuk mengecek jika dari masing-masing perusahaan telekomunikasi & perbankan diatas jika mereka bisa mengirimkan tagihan-tagihan dalam bentuk e-statement atau online billing, tapi alasannya selalu sama. Lupa! Sibuk! No Time!

So today I make time.

• Indosat Matrix punya layanan Billing on Mail dimana tagihan bulanan akan dikirim ke email. Untuk registrasi, infonya bisa dibaca disini
  
• Esia juga punya layanan billing yang dikirim via email, namun informasinya tidak tercantum di website esia. Untuk registrasi layanan ini bisa telpon ke *990 lewat Hp Esia Anda.
• Prudential juga bisa request untuk info polis via email/SMS lewat Prudential Customer Line 021-2995 8999

Sukses terdaftar yay! Secara keseluruhan cukup mudah untuk mendaftar billing via email ini as long as you know where to go.

Semoga bulan depan saya sudah bisa nyampah lebih sedikit^^

It was around 8pm when we first set foot outside the HongKong airport and the first thing we noticed was the weather. It was quite chilly! maybe around 17 Celsius or less, and i immediately remember that i only pack my summer clothing (Don’t even ask why it didn’t occur to me to check the weather before packing). Good thing it wasn’t winter at the time.

We went to the bus locket just outside the airport door to purchased 2 bus tickets to the city. I forget how much it cost, but it was a lot cheaper than taxi fee. We waited for around 15 minutes for the bus. I asked the bus driver if he know where is the closest bus stop to our our hotel at Wan Chai area, i even show him the location of the hotel at map I’m holding but he just murmur something, wave his hand and ask me to  sit down in Cantonese. Oh well, we’ll just ride along then and figure things out on the go.

When the bus is entering the city (although we don’t know which part of city or what street exactly), boy you’ll know! the buildings along the street ensemble a perfect example of east meet west, all those lights, the restaurants! Oh the restaurants along the busy street was wonderful, it was exactly the classic small, Chinese restaurant that i imagine i will find in Hong Kong, and there must be hundreds if not thousand of them next to each other along with other shops.
Since we don’t know where the bus is going nor the bus stop closest to our hotel, i decided that we should get off the bus and have late dinner first at one of those restaurants. Dragging our luggage, we enter the first restaurant we found from the bus stop, and ordered house specialty of HongKong barbeque pork with rice and half-cooked pan fried egg on top and wonton noodle! In short, it was heavenly.

After dinner, I tried to ask for direction (in English) to an waiter uncle but he just look confused. By this time i realize that most waiter/driver here doesn’t speak English at all, so i repeat the question in mandarin. He tried to be helpful by drawing me map and goes blablabla in fully explanation mode in mixture of mandarin/Cantonese. It was my turn to get confused. So we thank him politely (in Cantonese no less), and head out to look for a taxi.

In that busy street side while waiting for a taxi, i found my self full, in a foreign country with my fiancee, thousand of miles away from reality, completely and utterly happy. I remember myself thinking that this is exactly why people love traveling, it’s one kind of happiness in the world that can be bought.

We found our taxi quick enough and the taxi driver doesn’t speak English, of course, so i just showed him the name of the hotel the the street name written in Chinese character given by the information guy at the airport. I found this extremely useful.
The driver give a small nob to show that he understand where he is taking us and deliver us to the spot in less than 10 minutes. It cost around 35rb rupiah.

We stayed at Cosmopolitan Hotel located in Wan Chai area, which looks a lot like “kota lama” area in jakarta. It’s a small & hip boutique hotel, the room is rather small but very nicely designed, shiny clean with minimalist interior, just the way i like it. I booked this hotel a month earlier from booking.com with special price around Rp 650rb/night, which i believe was a very good price for hotel in HK. The price did not include breakfast and we have to walk around 10-15 minutes to reach the nearest MRT, but who need hotel food when you are in foodie paradise and those 15 minutes walk to and from MRT everyday is a good to burn up those extra holiday calories, no? Plus you got to see what local people are up to instead of just lingering around the touristic & shopping spots.

On our way out the next day to nearest MTR we walk passed suburban street, got a sim card at 7eleven, stop by at a local restaurant to have brunch, got some egg tart from a bakery and bought a bucketful of fresh green grapes and some mango confection from a local market. The market was a small outdoor one and also sell poultry, meats and all but it’s clean and not smelly. I guess i love suburban area and local market because i can pretend I’m living there, buying daily stuff, with simple local language like “please give me 1 of that” and “thank you” and the seller will replay in the same local language like you are one of them. As simple that, i felt somewhat belong. It’s impossible to have that feeling around tourist spot.

Our destination that day was Ngong Ping, a famous out of town tourist spot (kayak puncak) where supposedly we can find a lovely Ngong Ping Village and monastery with a sitting budha statue on the top of the mountain. To get there, we ride on MTR and get off at Tung Chung which was at the end of the MTR line. The station was very clean with a factory outlet mall on it. When we go outdoor, the weather turn out to be even colder here and my feet inside a thin ballet shoes were freezing! So we get inside the mall and bought a pair of stylish boot just like all HK woman seem to be wearing, before we continue our journey.

There are 2 alternatives of transportation to get to the Ngong Ping Village from Tung Chung station: by skytrail or by bus. Without hesitation we went to the skytrail locket to purchase the ticket. On our way inside the skytrail, the view were amazing although the thick fog blocked most of the view. The temperature was even lower here, i can feel my teeth grind together and even my feet was still freezing inside the warm suede boot.

We walk around the Ngong Ping village, explore the souvenir shop, watch some shows about monkey. Too bad when we were done, it was too late to visit the monastery & the giant Buddha statue because the last skytrail was only until 6pm. I was particularly bumped because i really looking forward to visit the monastery and meet some bald monks in yellow clothing. From HK tourist website i found out that if you went to the monastery around lunch time, you can actually join the monks for lunch! Veggies lunch no doubt. I heard that in the monks dining hall, no one, monks or visitor, is allowed to speak during eating time. Wow, I’m really curious of how it will tasted & feel like, eating veggies in a monastery with monks in total silence. It can be a life changing experience. I mean, i could have a changing heart about veggies, denied human nature as meat eater and turn vegetarian, or even decided to be a monk altogether. So I vowed that if i ever visit HK again, I’ll never missed this for the world.

On the second day, we embraced our inner child in HK Disneyland! Even before arrived on the spot, you can already feel the excitement. The Disney train, with its window & hand handle shape like mickey, it was too cute! The ticket to enter HK Disneyland cost about Rp 350rb /person which was the only down moment, feeling your pocket slightly lighter. As you walk in the gate, you can almost feel like the adult in you melts into nothing and what’s left is the 10 years old you.

To Be Continued….

From my job point of view, i kind of “get it”. It’s always good to have more options connecting with your clients right? but still, i can not imagine what is so important that can not wait until i’m back in front of computer to replay the email properly, not on that crazy small bb keyboard. If it is really super important needed something to be checked right away, they can simply text me or pick up the phone and call, no?

From social point of view, this is how it goes…

Friend: “Why don’t you get yourself a blackberry already?
Me: Why should I?
Friend: “It’s not that easy to reach you”
Me: How come? I’m online on YM, Gtalk, MSN on working hours, and when i’m not online, you can reach me on my phone. What’s “not easy” about it?
Friend: “Well, sometimes you don’t pick up your phone”
Me: You can always text me or I’ll call back when i see your miscall
Friend: “We can do group chat on BB”
Me: We can do group chat on YM
Friend: “BBM!”
Me: Isn’t that just like chat?
Friend: “True, but so much more!”
Me: Yeah? Like What?
Friend: “Like pictures! on BB you can post pic to the group”
Me: Like what kind of pictures? your dinners?
Friend: “Are you being sarcastic now?”
Me: *kabur*

After having many similar conversations, i want to clear up once and for all that blackberry simply represent everything I’m not interested in, it’s just a personal opinion, no offense to people who actually love it. The design of the phone is so Yucky Corporate, and  the “connecting people” 24/7 on every level thingy is making me itchy. Nobody need to be connected THAT Much. Nobody! Or….is it just me?

Sehari-hari saya menggunakan pensil alis, eyeliner & maskara untuk membuat mata sipit saya terlihat lebih belok. Sedangkan bedak, lipstik, blush-on apalagi alas bedak rasanya a little bit too much for me - mungkin karena saya kurang ahli makenya.

Untuk varian skin care seperti cleanser, krim mata, dan terutama krim pelembab, bisa dibilang sudah merupakan ritual setiap pagi dan malam. Mengingat kita cuma punya selapis kulit for a lifetime, saya cenderung menganggap produk skin care sebagai sebuah investasi *halah*

Dengan embel2 “investasi”, pengeluaran yang menjurus ke boros pun dibenarkan dengan lapang dada hehhe. Apalagi, kalau kulit sudah terlanjur bermasalah pasti bakal repot tujuh keliling, dan uang yang dikeluarkan untuk treatment ini itu malah jauh lebih besar. Jadi lebih baik “main aman” dengan hanya menggunakan produk yang sudah terkenal dan biasanya otomatis lumayan mahal.

Namun, beberapa bulan yang lalu dikarenakan keterbatasan budget mendadak, saya sempat bingung ketika hendak berbelanja produk skin care. Brand yang biasa saya beli, sekali belanja 2-3 produk habis minimal sejuta. Iseng ngecek harga brand lain sejenis yang lebih murah, ternyata enga beda banyak dengan yang saya gunakan sekarang.
Akhirnya saya pun memutuskan mencoba merk yang mudah ditemukan di berbagai apotek & hypermarket, yang belum lama ini melakukan product re-branding dengan cukup apik. Harganya sih jelas jauh lebih murah.

Setelah menggunakan produk tersebut kira-kira 2 bulan, kulitku memang tidak berubah menjadi flawless white seperti iklannya, namun juga tidak retak, iritasi, tidak jadi kering atau berminyak dengan ekstreem & tidak mledug seperti yang dikhawatirkan. In fact, kulitku sama aja seperti sebelumnya. Keren juga punya kulit yang pengertian^^