Trip
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Life Update—Kind of
Winter in Huanglong Scenic Area, Sichuan For the umpteenth time, I have to use the phrase of “It’s been a while since the last time I was writing here…” because, again, for the umpteenth time, I’ve been keeping this blog away from a new post since almost a year ago. “Business” has always been the excuse, but this time it was slightly different. Initially, I was planning to make my second post about Vietnam in June 2024 following the first edition, but my life was turning topsy-turvy in the mid of 2024. From being promoted to new a position, stationed for a new project—all while I still have to juggle…
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Saigon, Da Nang, and Vietnamese Hospitality
When I arrived in Ho Chi Minh City a.k.a. Saigon, the first thing that came into my mind was that the city was radiating the same vibes as those of the Indian city of Mumbai. It is something that I cannot really put my finger on, but that was a different story for another time. In this first chapter of a series of my very first visit to Vietnam—and will surely not be the last, I will talk about the trip in general, why I had chosen the country, and why I have made the decision to be coming back despite only be coming home from there a few weeks ago.…
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Ipoh, Again
The first time I went to Ipoh was at the end of October 2021. Since then, I haven’t been there again. At least until October 2023. After almost two years of not coming to the British colonial city, I finally decided to pay it a second visit. Firstly because I needed to finish my annual leave as I still had a lot of them—eight before the year ended; and secondly because in October I was distressed and I think I needed to somehow distract myself from the sadness. Not that I didn’t acknowledge my feelings, no, but I think it is better to just being sad somewhere else far away…
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Port Dickson, Finally!
Is it “Teluk” or “Telok”? When I came to Malaysia for the first time back in January 2019, one of my bucket lists here is to visit every Malaysian states. Until earlier this year, in chronological order, I have been to KL, Selangor (these two are like “automatic entry”. YKWIM), Melaka, Penang, Pahang, Perak, and Johor. Among these states, however, there was one that is “pretty near” and yet I hadn’t been able to visit; and that was Negeri Sembilan. One of the reasons is that—or it is maybe just my excuse—unlike Melaka, Penang, or Johor, which are relatively farther from KL, Negeri Sembilan does not have as much as…
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Hiking—After a While
At the “pondok”. Exhausted, but happy. I’m not a morning person. The only time I was willing to wake up at around 5 AM was either to catch a morning flight or was when I was working an early morning shift of 7 AM—two years ago. I’m not a hiker either. I can count the number of hikes I have done in my four-and-a-half-year in Malaysia with just one hand—three; and the last solid hiking trip that I did was, again, two years ago, in September 2021. So when the WeCare Team announced that their hiking trip initiative finally turned into reality, I knew I had to register myself even…
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Fate Took Me to India and to Many More Places
For a lazy person like Ari Cipta Gunawan, little did he know that most of his, if not entire, life would change in the month of June 2017. Because from that moment on, he would be experiencing something that you would call “an adventure”—or so he thinks. It was all started with a thesis defence which ended quite satisfactorily despite being spiced up by some drama, up to the point where he had to choose between stick to this new job he had just acquired or sacrificing that to get something that was still uncertain. He chose the latter and he was, is, not disappointed. In June 2017, right after…
