Italian Ice Cream

When I was a kid, I couldn't remember a day without an ice cream. Every single day, my Dad used to buy ice cream for me and my brothers and we could choose whatever we wanted... a single coup, double, tripple, anything. Yes, he was a big ice cream lover and he trained us to be one.

There was an ice cream parlor in the center of Jakarta where he used to take us. It's called "Ragusa - Italian Ice Cream", located at Jalan Veteran. I still remember, every time Dad said, "Let's go to Ragusa", me and my brothers were jumping around happily! Why? Because the ice cream was sooooo good!!!

We usually went there on Sundays. Sitting at the back seat of Dad's red cabriolet citroen car on a sunny Sunday, I couldn't wait to taste the soft and delicate Italian ice cream. Sunday was definitely the best day of the week for me :).

Vanilla flavour was my favorite. It melted right away in my tongue. Mmmm.. yum! I wonder why it tasted so good and delicate? Other ice cream could never beat its taste, I thought. And I still remember Dad could eat a lot of them. Different flavors in a big portion, too! While I was happy enough with my kid size ice cream... I had a small tummy anyway ;) hehehe...

Ragusa was my favorite place back then and it definitely has a sweet memory of my childhood time. It still exists until now, at the exact location, next to a fancy restaurant named Dapur Babah. One day, after dinner with a friend at Dapur Babah, we walked down the street and passed it. "Hey, let's buy some ice cream at Ragusa!", I said. I felt for having a nostalgic moment that night and suddenly got all excited coz I hadn't eaten Ragusa Ice Cream for years!!!

Entering Ragusa, the oldest ice cream parlor in Jakarta that was founded in 1932, I was a bit disappointed. The place was so much different with what I had imagined. It used to be the fanciest ice cream parlor in town. But now... the place looked like an abandoned old restaurant back from the Dutch colonial era, with some black and white photos on the wall, showing the progression of the family business.

I ate the vanilla and chocolate ice cream as soon as the waiter served it. But.... hey, wait a minute... "It doesn't taste the same!! This ice cream doesn't taste as good as it used to!!!" I was so disappointed. I was wondering why... ??
Still confused, I asked my friend whether she felt the same way. She nodded.

Why my favorite ice cream doesn't taste as good as it used to?

Then I realized, as I grow older, I've tasted ice cream from all those popular brands, such Ben & Jerry's, Haagen Dazs, Baskin-Robbins, Gelatissimo, etc... I even had a chance to taste real gelato ice cream in Italy when I was on holidays (yes, it was the best ice cream I've ever had!!! and for that reason, I kept on going to a gelato shop 3 times per day.. for two weeks!!) :D. So, with all these 'tour de ice cream', no wonder that my childhood's fave one is no longer yummy. Even though, the original recipe of the famous Ragusa Italian Ice Cream remains the same. It is me who has changed.

And it scares me. I hope I won't change that much so that I could still appreciate things that I used to adore or like and also appreciate the simplest thing in life... just like I want to appreciate a simple taste of a homemade-old fashioned-original ice cream , even though I know it doesn't taste as extravaganza as the other ice cream out there...

ps: photo of Ragusa by umarkhatab

A Sweet Fruit

In a conversation about life, Dalai Lama says:

"Take the example of a person who likes to eat sweet things, but doesn't like sour things. Then there is a certain kind of fruit that this person enjoys. That fruit may be mostly sweet, but it may also have a little bit of sourness in it. That person continues to enjoy the fruit, they don't stop eating it because it has a little sour taste. If they want to continue to enjoy eating that fruit, they have to accept the little bit of sourness in it. You can't separate the sweet from the sour in that piece of fruit, it is always going to be mixed".

(quoted from a book titled "The Art of Happiness At Work" by His Holiness The Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler, M.D)

I, too, like to eat sweet things and don't like sour things. And the Dalai Lama was right, as a big fan of "Mangga Harumanis" (a type of mango from Indonesia), I would continue eating the mango even though sometimes it has a little bit of sourness in it.
As for life, I always wanted my life to be perfect and smooth. (hey, who doesn't want it?). Unfortunately, just like the "Mangga Harumanis", even though 80% of them are sweet, there is still 20% of sourness in them, in which, I just have to swallow it.

A chat with my friend on Saturday night at a cozy lounge in Singapore reminded me that life can be really sour. And when it turns sour, can we say, "No, I don't want to taste it"? I wish it can be that simple. As simple as I said NO to dark chocolate (yes, even though I have a sweet tooth, dark chocolate isn't sweet enough - for me).
Well, I think, sometimes we have the choice and the priviledge to say NO, but in some cases, unfortunately, we don't. And this is when we just have to swallow the sourness of the fruit.
C'est la vie... that's life... it comes in one package: sweet and sour :).

And the same thing applies for human being. It comes in one package: all the positive sides and a bit of 'malfunction' here and there. Nobody's perfect. Just like our life. Can't expect life to be as smooth as a Thai silk... so can't a human being be...

Part of the Ocean

A little wave, bobbing along in the ocean, having a grand old time. He's enjoying the wind and the fresh air -- until he notices the other waves in front of him, crashing against the shore.

"My God, this is terrible", the wave says. "Look what's going to happen to me!"

Then along comes another wave. It sees the first wave, looking grim, and it says to him, "Why do you look so sad?"

The first wave says, "You don't understand! We're all going to crash! All of us waves are going to be nothing! Isn't it terrible?"

The second wave says, "No, you don't understand. You're not a wave, you're part of the ocean"..

(by Mitch Albom, from his book "Tuesdays with Morrie")

Sometimes we forget that we are just a part of the ocean and we're worrying too much about things that might happen in our life. I've learned that there are things we can control and things we can't control in life. So, like the first wave, we might just have to sit back and relax. Let the universe move around us and discover the joy of surprising ourselves.

A Wise Man of Akbar

I like this story written by my fave author, Paulo Coelho, in his book titled "Like The Flowing River":

There was a wise man who moved to the city of Akbar. No one took much notice of him and his teachings were not taken up by the populace. After a time, he became the object of their mockery and their ironic comments.

One day, while he was walking down the main street in Akbar, a group of men and women began insulting him. Instead of pretending that he had not noticed, the wise man turned to them and blessed them.

One of the men said: "Are you deaf too? We call you the foulest of names and yet you respond with sweet words"

"We can each of us only offer what we have", came the wise man's reply.

:) :) :)

Hunting for "Mola-Mola" Sun Fish in Nusa Penida, Bali

"Mola-Mola" Sun Fish can be seen in Nusa Penida, Bali mostly during July - end October, so people say. Nusa Penida, located in off the southeastern corner of Bali, is about one hour boat ride from Sanur Beach. This dive site is famous for its beauty, and the "Mola-Mola" Sun Fish.. but be careful of the strong current and be ready to dive in a 21 degrees water temperature.

Our group went to Crystal Bay, where people usually see the Mola-Mola. This fhuge fish, up to 4 meters diameter, has weird shape. It usually lives in 300 meters depth, but during the season, it goes up to 30 - 40 meters to get cleaned. We had 2 dives here, the visibility was around 20 - 25 meters. The reef life was beautiful -- the corals, the fish, it felt like I walked in a garden... very nice. We dove down to 30 meters... and the dive master, Nicky, even dove deeper, tried to find the "Mola-Mola", but we weren't lucky :(.

Second attempt was also unsuccessful. "Where's it???", I asked. Maybe the Mola-Mola was too shy, so it was hiding somewhere.... :( Damnnnnn!!

Ah well... it means that I have to come back next time! Even though there was no Mola-Mola, I had great dives there. Unicorn fish, titan, trigger fish, moray eels and blue ribbon eel were some of the fish that I saw apart from the "usual suspects" - moray idols, angel fish, butterfly fish, surgeon fish, etc. The blue ribbon eel was pretty impressive. It looked tiny and cute with its fluorescent blue color and yellow on the mouth part, yet dangerous at the same time. Ouch!


Third dive, we dove in a dive site called Toya Pakeh. There was a little cave in which we could go in. My first cave dive ;). When we're inside the cave, we could actually ascend to breath some fresh air. Several bats living there. Interesting, eh? We took some pictures there before continuing our journey underwater. Due to the strong current, we had difficulties to get out of the cave. My goodness.... it was really hard. I tried to swim as fast as I could, but the current kept on pushing me back. My buddy also had a hard time. She got carried several meters back and hit the walls of the cave. Both of us are skinny, so it's pretty easy to get carried away by the strong current! :P hehehe.. When I finally got out of the cave, my buddy was still inside with the dive master. She was still struggling. And guess what, even us, who were waiting at the mouth of the cave, had to hold on to rocks to be able to stay at the same spot! Geez!!

So, that was the last dive of the day. Pretty interesting. We dove around 45 minutes, swimming around til suddenly in one spot the temperature dropped. It was pretty chill. If 20 degrees was already cold for me, I couldn't imagine diving in winter time... must be freezing like hell!!!

Anyway, my dive trip in Bali was lovely. Bali certainly has the natural beauty, not only the beaches, but also the life hidden beneath the deep blue water. One can enjoy varied fish species, colorful hard and soft coral species, walls as well as shipwrecks. And, if you're lucky, you might bump into "Mola-Mola" the Giant Sun Fish! ;) I'll keep my fingers crossed for you... :)

note: the "Mola-Mola" picture was taken by Coppertane.

Wreck, Muck and Night Dives in Tulamben, Bali

Mid August is a popular season to go to Bali, the Island of Gods, as we called it. (Bali is in Indonesia, by the way... in case you don't know) :)

Why? For party animals, there are a lot of big parties going on in the week of 17th, because August 17th is Indonesian Independence Day. A lot of big clubs, named the Double Six, Ku De Ta, the Ocean Beach Club, etc throw parties presenting big DJs, international and the top notch Indonesian DJs. But this time, I decided to go to Bali not for partying.... instead I went scuba-diving! Wooohoooo...

I went with a group of divers organized by Bali Marine Sports . First day, we went to Tulamben. It took us 2.5 hours drive from Kuta/Seminyak. The most popular dive site in Tulamben is the USS LIBERTY wreck. It's a 120 meter long shipwreck from the US World War II. Back in those days, in 1942, the ship was supposed to cross the Lombok Strait from Australia to The Philippines, but it was torpedoed by the Japanese submarine.

In 1963, the Gunung Agung volcano was erupted and it pushed the wreck to its current location -- 30 meters from the Tulamben shore. Divers can enjoy the beauty of this huge wreck and the reef life starting from 2.5 meters down to 29 meters.

Since it's a popular dive site and a high season, there were a lot of divers diving when we were there. Too many, I would say. In the low season, people said that we could see a school of barracudas, jackfish, etc. Lots of big fish as well. But, my first dive in this wreck wasn't that amazing. Probably the divers scared the fish away. I "only" saw the usual suspects: numbers of bumphead fish -- big ones :), moray idols, batfish, goat fish, numbers of lion fish (also big ones... gosh they're pretty!), parrotfish, etc.

Unsatisfied of our first dive in the wreck, we moved to Seraya for the second and third dives. Seraya is located about 5 minutes drive from the Liberty site wreck. It's a perfect dive site for those who are into underwater photography and not many people know about this new site, which is great ;). From my previous (and limited) diving experiences, I didn't really enjoy muck diving as I barely could see those tiny animals hiding in the sand (yes, my eyes weren't attracted to those tiny creatures, I was more into big fish :p...).

Having said that, the dives in Seraya has changed my point of view. Muck dive is very interesting as one can see many different types of shrimps and other tiny little colorful creatures underwater! It has openened my eyes that shrimps were not just shrimps... there are different types of them and all of them are very unique and colorful. Nice!!

I was amazed to see harlequeen, mantis, nudibranch, etc. They're amazingly cute... love 'em! And oh, I finally saw morray eels! Gosh, they looked evilish!!

I had a great time in Seraya, even though the water was getting colder on the third dive. Even my dive master was shivering!! :D

The water was vey clear, too... the visibility was around 20 - 25 meters.

It was getting dark and it's supposed to be full moon. I remember my friend once suggested to do the night dive at the Liberty Wreck in Tulamben in full moon. So, I thought, "Why not doing it now since I'm already here anyway?" I asked the dive master whether it was possible to go back to the wreck and do the night dive. He said, "Sure!" Ahhh.. YESSS!!! HIGH FIVE!!! :D

Walking down to the shore nervously, I remember the anxiety of my first night dive experience in which I didn't really enjoy. It was 7.30pm already and yes, it was full moon. I said to the dive master, "Bli (that's how we call a Balinesse guy. It means: brother), would you please hold my hand when we dive later coz I'm a bit scared" :D hihihi... He was just nodding.

And guess what, the night dive was amazing!!! The visibility was around 25 - 30 meters, it was very clear. There were not many divers, I reckoned there were only 7 divers, including me and the dive master in that site. It was very quiet.. a bit scary, but the beauty of the underwater reef life at night made me overwhelmed. Now I know why people love night dive! The corals look more colorful and bright. One can see night creatures in which one can't see on the day time. Those shrimps, lobsters, octopus, etc are wide awake and walking around lively. So nice. I also saw lots of big bumperhead fish sleeping... :)) and in one of the spots, there was a bluespotted sting ray laying and his eyes were shining so bright, too!

And finally, I saw three stone fish!!! Huurraayyy... Every time I see pictures of stone fish in fish books, I always wonder when will I see them. And finally, I saw not only one, but three or four of them! They were hiding under a coral. I didn't notice them if the dive master didn't tell me. .

We dove down to 25 meters depth for about 45 minutes. It wasn't too dark that night, probably because of the full moon ;) and the wreck looked amazing with the moonlight shining from above. It was indeed the best dive of the day... :)

Seeing Feather Starfish in Tioman Island, Malaysia

Have you seen a feather starfish swimming elegantly under the sea? I felt lucky to have a chance seeing it! Yayyy… At first I thought it was a plant, but my dive master said that it’s actually a fish. It swam from one spot to another, “flying” beautifully like a feather in Renggis, one of the dive sites in Tioman Island, Malaysia…

My July’s dive trip went a bit unexpected. Leaving from Singapore on Friday at 7pm by bus, I didn’t expect that it would be such a long and a pain in the arse (excuse my words) journey. The bus reached Mersing at about midnight, but we had to wait for the tide almost for an hour. So, there we were… a bunch of tired divers, scattered around the waiting room of a small jetty station in the middle of the night, hoping that we could hop on the boat as soon as possible. I didn’t even have the appetite to joke around. I just wanted to get to the resort then sleep… But, the pain hasn’t ended yet. Wait until you saw what kind of boat that we ride in. It wasn’t a speed boat… instead, it was a slow and old boat in which you could smell the fume once you get in. Plus the roaring sound of the machine that was so noisy making you almost impossible to sleep, unless you turned on your ipod to the maximum volume. Perfect, I thought.

I stayed at the bow of the boat. There were several mattresses for passengers to crash in. Those mattresses looked like a barrack for soldiers. It was far from the image of a dream holiday trip… but I think I have to experience it at least once in my life, so that I wouldn’t take it for granted next time I go on holidays. All those luxury, clean and easy transportations aren’t always there! Hee hee.. “It’s a suicide dive trip”, as a friend said a few days before the trip. Still we did it, anyway.

The trip from Mersing to Tioman Island usually takes around 2.5 hours on speed boat, but our group reached the Island Reef Resort at 4am something. So, one could imagine how slow the boat was, eh? It took us 3.5 to 4 hours instead! *sigh*. I crashed in to bed right away as we all had to wake up at 8am for breakfast and am not a big fan of waking up early in the morning…especially not when I just go to bed at 4.30am!

As I was doing the PADI’s advanced open water dive course, there were several dives that I had to do: boat dive, underwater navigation, deep dive, drift dive and night dive. Plus, one leisure dive as a start.

If you asked me, “Which one was the most interesting part of doing the advanced dive course?”. Then I would say, “Night dive”. It was a hell of different experience! Everything was dark (yeah, of course! Daaa…) and pitched black… what we saw was only the light from the torch. Too bad the visibility wasn’t that good in the Genting House Reef site, so it was even harder to observe the reef life. There were some red dots shining from the corals… was wondering what they were. Apparently, there were the shrimps’ eyes!!! Amazing, eh? It reminded me of cats’ eyes that shine in the night time. Apart from observing those shrimps, I didn’t really see that much animals down there. I was so nervous that I would be separated from my buddy. So, my eyes were fixed looking at her from behind! Hahahaha… It didn’t feel comfortable at all. The darkness, the unclear water, the dim of the torch -- all these stuff made me anxious.

Swimming around in the 6 meters depth with a torch on my hand, I stopped for a while to look up. And I smiled. Seeing the moonlight from underwater made me overwhelmed. Somehow I felt secured and warm right away. Then suddenly, I knew that everything would be fine. I smiled again, took a deep breath from my regulator then swam away… It was kinda romantic to see the moon from down there… :) Really. Loved it.

It was actually the night dive that made me taking this course, but after doing it, I knew that day dive was so much enjoyable…despite the romantic moonlight, of course. Well, at least for me. Maybe it’s just not my cup of tea…

The deep dive was held in a site called Sawadee Wreck. We dove to 30 meters depth and the instructor asked us to write down our full name backwards. He counted it using the stop-watch and compared it to the result when we did it earlier on the boat. The exercise was to check whether one of us got narcosis. Apparently, there was one girl who was failed! She couldn’t spell her name right and was giggling instead! Oh dear…Later we found out that she had a few beers the night before. Don’t drink and dive!!
There were a school of baby barracudas, several lion fish and the other usual suspects around the wreck. I didn't really see something special apart from the feather starfish on this dive trip, however, the most important thing is that now I can dive up to 40 meters and try another night dives! Who knows I might like it next time... ;)

In terms of scenery, the Genting Beach in Tioman Island isn't that pretty. But, there's something special about this place. In one of the food stalls, there is one restaurant selling special Roti Prata called Roti Bom. It's a roti prata mixed with condensed milk and we eat it with curry sauce. Sounds weird? It does, but don't say no until you try it!!! It's really yummmmyyyyyy... :)

I even wanted to run back to the restaurant to buy some more of this yummy food, but the boat had to board soon... and one didn't want to be left behind alone in the island!!!

Don't Judge the Book by Its Cover

We know that life works in a mysterious way.
I believe that every time we meet a person, we might have to learn something from her/him.
And here what I've learned for the past few months.

I do believe in the "law of nature". I mean, if you do something good to the nature, then you'll get it back, somehow. And my last experience taught me that we shouldn't look down on people. We shouldn't underestimate them.
I know the theory pretty well, but subconsciously, I still do that sometimes.
I didn't notice it until someone did the same thing to me. And believe me, it wasn't a pleasant thing.

In the country where I come from, we have a saying that: "The smarter you are, the more down to earth you should be". I know it works the other way around in other countries. In some of the Western countries, I notice that if you're smart, then you should show it to the world. Well, each country has its own culture, right?
I can't really tell which one suits best. I think it depends on the person.
As for me, I feel more comfortable for just being calm and cool... :) ;)

Anyway, back to the lesson that I've just learned. Firstly, it becomes clear to me that I shouldn't judge people if I didn't know them very well. If one don't really know the person yet, why should one judge them?
Secondly, I shouldn't underestimate people. In life, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to notice that each person has different interests with the others. So, I should respect and appreciate other people's interests.

"Don't judge the book by its cover", it's probably the best way to say it. I remember when I was a kid, I had two childhood friends. They're the sons of my Mom's bestfriend. These two boys are brothers. The elder one was very naughty and hyperactive. The younger one was extremely calm, he barely talked. Both of them were very smart. The elder one used to tease me a lot and he wouldn't stop until I cried. Very naughty, indeed... but I liked to play with him because he was so lively and full of surprises. On the other hand, I didn't really enjoy playing with the younger one, because he was so quiet. If he came along with his Mom without his elder brother, I didn't even know what to do or what to say. So, I didn't really bother to talk to him.

Anyway, years gone by... the elder brother had to go to the United States to study. And the younger brother sometimes still came to my house with his mom. One day, I put an effort to start a conversation with him. And guess what.... he appeared to be nice and quite talkative! We could talk about everything and he could even laugh out loud. Something that I never saw before! Even his Mom was quite surprised that his younger son could chat, joke around and laugh out loud like that! :D So, since then, everytime he came by with his Mom, we always spent hours chatting, discussing, etc. I enjoyed talking to him as he's very knowledgeable. We became good friends until he left for Japan to work there.
So, I've made a mistake. I judged the book by its cover. My childhood friend whom I thought was quiet, too nerdy and as silent as a rock, appeared to be quite chatty and interesting.

And I should probably remind myself of this story every time I meet new people... A thin book doesn't necessarily have a shallow content...