See you later, Jakarta!

Today is my last day living and working in Jakarta. I'm leaving for Singapore tomorrow morning.

Oh, also, my working permit has been issued.

YAAAAY!

I'm super nervous though. Although I gotta say I handle it much better than I thought. I thought I would break down on my last day at the office. I really love it there. My bosses and co-workers are amazing. We all have gotten close. But the opportunity in Singapore is too good to pass up. I owe it to myself to try.

Thankfully they understand and they have been very supportive. Big boss sat me down for a talk, told me about his own international lawyering experience (So cool! He's Australian, graduated and started working in Sydney, moved to Hongkong, then Singapore, and finally resided in Jakarta where he became an international partner), and gave me these valuable tips:

1. Don't let anyone treat you like a paralegal/assistant/strictly Indonesian law interpreter
   
2. Go home if you are not involved in any important transactions
   
3. If anyone treats you like a 2nd class citizen, throw a punch
   

I love that guy. He, a few other partners, and associates also told me whenever I want to go back, the door is always open.

That made me cry.

My practice group threw me a farewell dinner and made me a huge banner filled with sweet messages. All I can say is: wherever I go, they're surely irreplaceable.


Fingers crossed that my co-workers in Singapore are nice too. Here's to a new beginning!

Ready to Rumble

Bags are packed (60 kilos worth of stuff).

Current office desk is cleaned.

Pending assignments are assigned.

Farewell note to partners and fellow associates is written.

3 more days...

Let's have some fun, Singapore!*

Obvious Touristy Marina Bay Sands Photo, Courtesy of Nashe

*Oh and before we have all the fun in the world, can my working permit please be issued IMMEDIATELY? I'm freaking out here.**

**Speaking of working permit, I think it's refreshing that someone in the Ministry of Manpower asked my soon-to-be office on why my bachelor of law certificate is in Indonesian language. Last time I checked, I didn't go to a law school in Suriname.

Smile of the Day

You get what you give!

I think it's not a secret how much I love reading travel websites.

If fund is not an issue, I definitely will venture to far, exotic places all the time. Capturing pretty sights. See what the locals do daily. Writing it all up for people to read. However since I am a regular person, I have to save up like everyone else to do so while thinking of what place to go next. This changes all the time. Hence reading travel websites.

There are things that annoy me when I read them though. One of them is visitors from all over the world who visit Asia (South East Asia particularly) and complain that they lose things or how unsafe it is, when they actually pick shitty budget hotels/guesthouses/backpacker places to stay.

Look I get it, traveling is expensive. People want to stay longer at places because you have all these touristy popular places to see. But what do they expect from a room/place less than 30 bucks a night? An in-room deposit? A security? A nicer surrounding area where no shady people lurk in corners and probably plot to snatch your backpack/cellphone/whatever?

A lot of countries in South East Asia are developed, but a lot of their residents may be not THAT developed. There are still poor people everywhere and they may not be as educated as us. Not this justifies what they do (believe me, I had the 'pleasure' of losing my bag and its entire content, passport included, last June when a thief on a bike just snatched it out and I felt like I wanted to die) but this should make people be more careful and take preventive measures, such as NOT STAYING AT SHITTY UNSAFE PLACES, especially if it causes them to generalize the whole country (and probably the whole region) when something bad happens to them.

Last night I was googling Cambodia and read reviews where one of the tourists complained on how ghetto and unsafe Phnom Penh is. Well to be honest, it is one of the least developed places in the whole South East Asia region, but still I wanted to laugh when I read that he stayed at a 25 bucks/night hostel. He also complained about the less than clean water, sellers who hassled him to purchase souvenirs, and the nasty smell of the sewer. He then had the NERVE to say he couldn't expect anything from South East Asia and the whole region is pretty much poor.

Pretty interesting thing to say when you just visit one country and are too cheap to stay in one of the safer, nicer, odor free places (you can get a more than decent room in most 5 stars hotels in Phnom Penh for less than 100 bucks!).

I had the urge to personally email him, called him something nasty (cheap ignorant d*ckhead?), and told him if he took the time to travel outside of Cambodia to the South East Asian neighboring capital cities, he would see that a lot of them are probably way more modern, vibrant, and interesting than wherever it is he is from. Jakarta? Modern. Bangkok? Flashy and not at all like what people see in Hangover 2 where they only shot the slums. KL? Pretty. Saigon? Fun. And don't get me started on how Singapore trumps most of the capital cities in the WORLD in terms of modern technology and architecture, most likely one of the cleanest and safest too.

Anyway, in my opinion, people shouldn't expect all the countries they visit to be super clean, safe, and modern like the way they think a place is supposed to be. Beside, all the cities and towns in the world must have those shadier, less safe and less pretty places right? Plus, shouldn't a person be aware on how their destination is like before he or she decides to go there? With google and endless travel websites, everything is so easy to make necessary preparation.

So that guy, shouldn't he know from the very beginning that he visited Cambodia and read up on it? Did he expect Cambodia to be like, I don't know, The Carribbean? Shouldn't he expect the less fortunate but happy people (and hope that he does not meet any weird characters e.g. street thieves), exotic language, streets full of cyclos and motorbikes, crowded markets, hot platters of local food, and gorgeous temples? Those are part of the charm. That's exactly what makes a lot of people, including me, want to go there, to see a place absolutely different from where we live.

He and a lot of ignorant people just like him should really shut up.

On Boyfriend's Birthday and Shooting Things

I just came back from a week leave for my boyfriend's birthday
.

It was a really chilled week. During his working days, I mostly chilled watching TV or read books at his place, shopped, and walked around. The latter two activities can be such a challenge because my Vietnamese vocabulary is shamefully limited. The only sentence I can say correctly up until now is "em thich mông bự", which is the equivalent of "I like big butt".

I was wondering if I said it to a local, they would lead me straight to a prostitution area in downtown Saigon.

Ahem, anyhoo...

Quan likes my gift, which is a watch. I've been wanting to get him a serious lawyer's watch, you know, that compliments his everyday suits and tie. After all the lunch breaks window shopping and comparing items in the nearest malls, I finally found one that is classy but not too much. For his birthday celebration, we went out with his friends for a barbecue and drinks.

Later in the week, we went to a countryside around two hours outside of the city to shoot guns that apparently were used during Vietnam war. I was pretty scared when I got there, coming from a country where gun possession is definitely prohibited and almost no one I know ever comes close to even holding one (beside my grandparents, great grandparents and their friends who fought the Dutch before Indonesian independence day, of course). The sound of the shots were crazy and the guns are almost as big as me. Quan and his friend were having a ball trying some of them to shoot the targets then he looked at me and said I should try it.

At first I said no.

He assured me it would be okay. Although the gun might bounce back a little after I shoot.

I shook my head like a little baby.

He pouted.

Oh well let's just say I'm a sucker for that pout. And I'm curious. So I tried shooting two different guns.

Here is one of the hilarious videos:



And this is why my country will never pick me to go to war.

Have you tried shooting things?

Birthday goodness!

I'm taking the rest of the week off to visit Quan (my boyfriend). It's his birthday on Wednesday so I'm flying north today so we can do the whole "Yay! Midnight! It's your birthday!"

That's one of my favorite things about birthdays. That moment when the clock strikes 12 and whoever you're with singing happy birthday and close friends calling or tweeting birthday greetings. I'm forever 5 at heart like that.

I had been searching for a great gift and finally found it late last week. I really hope he likes it. He was so thoughtful on my birthday last September so I doubt everything I do now can even compare. Not like it's even a contest, but you know, I want him to have a memorable day since it's our first year together.

Speaking of my birthday, he took me to Singapore for a 4-day weekend. It was the Grandprix season and the city was so alive (more alive and crowded than usual). He's never really been to Singapore and there would be all these cool F1 concerts and parties that would be great to check out. Not to mention local Singaporean food? Best thing ever (well after Indonesian food, of course, but I may be so biased on this one).

Mandatory tourist picture at Marina Bay

Some highlights from the trip:

1. Watching Ludacris and LMFAO

They're some of the artists that kicked off the Grandprix weekend by performing in a massive opening party at the infamous Marina Bay Sands (Shakira, Linkin Park, Charice and many more were also scheduled to perform on the race). We went with some of my Singaporean friends who got us a spot right in front of the stage. People kept pushing us back though and we stayed in the back during LMFAO's set to prevent injuries or me letting out my barbaric Indonesian side by start throwing punches (you get fined a lot for fighting there, if I'm not mistaken.).

We had an amazing time though and Ludacris, especially, was great. Quan and I know almost all the lyrics to Ludacris' old school tracks (oh my God, are we getting OLD?) and could not stop dancing.

Luda!

2. Universal Studio Trip

Because we're 10 and we prefer getting on fun rides than looking at racers oiling their engines, which by the way sound kinky (-_-").

Anyway, we wanted to check it out. I've never been to any other Universal studios and Quan wanted to see what rides they have in the Singapore location. He ended up liking them a lot. I suspect it's because most of the rides there are rollercoasters of some kind. I'm a wuss and rollercoasters freak me out. Apparently he didn't know until this trip, when I begged to not get on both of the Battlestar Galactica rollercoasters and gripped him so tight during The Mummy ride, when you got pulled to the back and dropped a lot.

Mandatory tourist picture in front of Universal sign

Oh hai, Brendan Fraser!

3. Birthday countdown and meeting Nashe

A few hours before I turned 24, I met Nashe for seafood and drinks where she also got introduced to Quan. It's cute introducing your boy to a girl friend because we did the whole "What do you think? He's cute right?" by looking at each other instead of saying it. It's hilarious because when Nashe finally decided he's cool (which strangely happened after we did shots), she was like, "You're a nice guy, be good to her, okay?" LOL.

If Nashe reads this, thank you again for the necklace and pashmina, love.


Another highlight that I will also always remember from this trip is going to my future office in Raffles Place area, feeling nervous as hell before meeting the managing director who would break the news on whether I get my job there or not. The guy came to me with a smile and an offering letter. I remember acting all cool in front of him and everyone else in the office...but then running to Quan who's waiting for me at the park outside and screaming like a maniac. We ended up screaming like maniacs in front of a bunch of people nearby who looked at us all weirdly. Not like we care.

I can honestly say I had the best birthday this year.

And I can't wait to make his birthday special too.