Jordan- Day 1

List of places:
- Ajloun Castle
- Jerash the Roman Ruins

I arrived in Jordan at around 10am after a 10 hours flight from Jakarta. The weather in Amman was a bit chill, but with a bright sunshine. I got the visa on arrival with only 20JD and a kind agent that help to queue and talk to the immigration officer. First impression of Amman: so far so good...

This impression apparently continued through out the day. 

Our driver, Mohammad (a big kind guy) brought us to Ajloun Castle. It is located slightly outside Amman. The castle itself looks just like a typical castle. The special thing about it is the location being on the higher ground. And therefore you can have a clear view of the town surrounding and also the hills surrounding the castle. You can tell the ground is not flat. There's a lot of evidence of the existence of natural processes in the area. This is confirmed by the sight of geology expert (or at least looks like one) from Germany on top of the castle roof. They carried a geology map with them and kept pointing at the specific hills.

The interior of the castle feels like a maze. There's always an opening from many direction towards something else. And we also experienced that people there are very very nice, especially the girls. They always say hello and hi to us. 

This is a special coffee that we tried. Its coffee with cardamom. Very strong cardamom, I might say. It was hardly taste like coffee, more like a herbal drink. Very sweet with a strong fragrance as well.
They add the cardamom from the top of the pot/jug. 





Our second destination was Jerash. What can I say about Jerash? Hrmm let me think... Jerash is just AMAZING. The Romans are just AMAZING. Why? I had a very low expectation on Jerash. I thought Jerash would look like a typical ruins with series of columns on top of a meadow. Yeah, my bad that I didn't do a deep research before hand. Jerash is actually a large complex of Roman ruins. It's like the whole city.

The temples is Jerash focus on Diana/ Artemis, and the give of fertility. There are 2 main temples there, one for Artemis, and the other is for Zeus. The temple for Artemis look very much grander than the rest, with a perfect 7x7 steps to show coherence and perfection in landscape design. Now we can only see 25% of the original Jerash (that's what our guide told us). But, if we come back in 50 years time, we can see the whole Jerash rise once again. cool eh..

About the Romans, they have precision in building technology. The water system is Jerash is so advance. Not only the water system amused me.., the other would be the amphitheater. The Romans built it with precise calculation that the sound system can work perfectly until now, without a single electricity.

 Showing people praying on the field during the afternoon pray time

Something OLD

Behind dusts and all other things in the house, I found a bit of splash of color. This is the old work of mine. Might have aged for more than 10 years now. I really think that I should start to paint again and find my signature. --- hopefully this splash won't be just a cocacola reaction for me---

Little Mischief's and Friends

Little Mischief feels like going to the woodland and playing with some autumn leaves. I remember my first autumn experience was really fun. I buried my self in the mount of dried leaves. I like maple tree the most. Maple has distinctive leave shape and color. It can go from yellow to bright red.

Little Mischief doesn't know how to swim. Nevertheless, she loves swimming with the fish, especially to meet her friend, mr. whale shark in the Philippines. 
Where as the elephant loves to do sun tanning. The elephant can lie down on top the mr. whale shark's body for the whole noon.

Perfect Campus Town

If you ask me about the coolest campus town I've known, I will definitely say Cambridge without a doubt. It's not that I've been to many campus town, but Cambridge is just mesmerising. There is a river pass through the town with lots of boats. The river is pretty shallow, and therefore the method of passing the canal is through punting. It looks easy and romantic and relaxing... Guess what!! It's not. I tried, and I lost the stick for so many time. 

Beside the river and the punting, the public life in Cambridge is superb. People just sitting out, enjoying the good weather and (mediocre) English food with beer, how can life be better than that :) The ambiance of the town is good, it has enough balance of nice touristy and local feeling. And of course it has this aristocracy atmosphere all the way.

Street Art in Berlin

Does street art consider as a vandalism act? Or does it actually help to voice people's mind and beautify the city? Whatever it is, Berlin is Berlin because of these street arts. Once you are there, you will feel the hipness, the energy, and the fun of Berlin life. 

I can say almost everything in Berlin is very relaxing and casual. People bike everywhere (including me.. yes me), well .. not as much as in The Netherlands.. but it's equally good. The casual life in Berlin is shown through the hot spot for the youngsters. My friends and I visited this bar that looks like the ruin of post WWII. You can probably see holes from the bullet shot. The other thing that amazed me was the bars hopping activity. People just carry their drinks and start walking from one bar to another. 

Little Mischief Strikes.. again...

This time little mischief spends more time with her friends. A quality time in cooking, bathing (the thing that she hates), picnicking... And she also acknowledge that the elephant is her friend, not just a chubby accessory.

I Love You, Papa

Happy 60th birthday, papa.. :)

Today is 22-02-2012 and it's my dad's birthday. If you like the number 2.., then you'll like today. hehehe... You know, number 2 is unique and fun. It's the only prime even number. Anyway.., enough about the number. On my dad's birthday, it happened that my dad is fasting. At the same time, it's on Ash Wednesday too.. so I'm abstaining too. And therefore, there was no big celebration what so ever, even tho it's his big six zero. We were celebrating it in a very simple way but intimate. Just 4 of us- my dad, mom, me, and my cousin Andre. It was good.. we had a lot of things to talk about.


As in for me..., I'm simply thankful for having a father like my dad. Someone that I can looked up as he is wise, liberal, and very patient. Ou not to forget, a good listener too. So.. here's for you, dad.. Cheers for you.. and Happy Birthday.. I wish you all the best in all !!!