Bali – goofydreamer

What I Had Lately

November 24, 2025by Azis AbdulLeave a Comment

These past two weeks, I learned a lot about not taking small things for granted. Things I have every day that seem like nothing because most of the time I ignore them as a blessing. A simple and quiet morning, breathing effortlessly after waking up, a normal taste bud, no allergies to food, a healthy body, having a job and earning money, etc, etc. Those are all invisible, yet a big blessing for life.

Lying on the blue bed in the private ward for four days last week with terrible malaria was a nightmare. I had the same sickness before, but this time it was something else. What I mean is it was a dreeeeadful malaria which made my whole system scattered. Trembling, serious fatigue and loss of appetite were a few to mention. I was relieved and thanked God that it wasn’t cerebral malaria (God forbid – knocked on wood). When I was there, trying to kill time every night by staring at the ceiling with a needle stuck on my right hand for the IV drip, I had those thoughts about death. About things I’ll face in the grave, about those who have left me, about how it feels when the soul leaves the body, so many thoughts about those. Also in the other hand, imagining how hot pepperoni pizza would be so good to be paired with a Diet Coke with ice in the afternoon, a hearty, simple breakfast in the morning with a cup of warm chai latte, or even having a cup of cardamon tea and a slice of blueberry cheese cake with series of Netflix on Friday night, all those simple times of eating well and “live-the-moment” when I was fit as a fiddle. A thought of those past travelling moments where I stepped in different places with some special people that now all seem like my forever treasure chest of memories. All were flying in my head while I was patiently fighting to come back healthy.

If I flashback, that was the second nightmare I experienced this year. The first one was a surgery at 2 AM, an appendectomy in February. It was really an experience in itself. Trying to get to a hospital where they could do the surgery that particular night, after going to three different ones, where I ended up signing the documents with a perplexed mind and a stupid question of “Is it that serious?” to the surgeon. The grave moment that happened in the blink of an eye. Wearing a surgical gown, feeling grateful on day 3 when I finally had a bowel movement, eating only steamed broccoli, avocado, banana and other greens after being discharged, all were written in my life history of 2025. Facing the fact that I overcame everything in 6 months of recovery was something I had to be grateful for. Truly, health is wealth.

After I was discharged last Saturday from the hospital and got a week of bed rest, I learned that the only one who can take care of yourself is you. The only one who could feel your body if anything was wrong. I honestly had mixed feelings when I heard from the doctor who took care of me, who said that I had to take a serious rest for a week because I am still in the middle of preparing for a big project in early December. But I am happy that I followed because to be disobedient was not an option. Having a full week of rest to get my power back is the best choice, and I took it to prioritise what matters.

During my week off, I tried to rest very well by having enough sleep, taking meds as prescribed, and eating while trying hard to get my appetite back with some help from vitamin B complex. Having enough time to do video calls with my mom almost every day for an hour plus – I could only do it on Sunday if I don’t have work outside – was one of those things that kept me sane during the recovery. Talking about random things, from how Kyoto is and others, how it was going with our neighbours, until the missing feeling of what I have in Indonesian food. The last one is the most hurtful because this time around, I really do miss Indonesian food so badly. From the ones cooked by my mom, or those that we can call street food. I never felt this feeling so badly before, perhaps because I never travelled for 25 months, or it could be the mixture of “I am recovering from this sickness, and I really want to pay for what I missed from those horrible, tasteless hospital food” and “I really do miss my family, I miss Surabaya” sort of. There was one night when I had to open this post on “oh-so-old MacBook” of mine and lingered upon with imaginations of the taste of each dish. Damn, I am really craving Indonesian food, not even funny. I talked to my mom about when I reach home next year – fingers crossed – I promise to pamper myself with delicious Indonesian food as much as possible every single damn day. I am talking about pecel, batagor (this one I could eat every day for the rest of my life), rawon, soto ayam, Maduranese-style fried duck, rujak cingur, sate karak (I am not touching beef intestine, but this food is an exception), es campur, bakso, damn if I keep writing the list, I won’t be able to finish this post. I am really hoping that my plan to travel back next year will be smooth sailing.

It’s incomplete not to interpret my feeling of “yearning for home” without some of the food pictures I found in my iPhone gallery, which I took during my trip to Indonesia. Oh hi, it’s been 764 days since my last post on this blog :)

I hope everything is well with you guys. I wish you all good health and happiness always!

Design & Style, Travel

Corner House

October 1, 2014October 1, 2014by Azis AbdulLeave a Comment

I’m a bit late to post some of remain pictures from my very short trip to Bali. I’m trying to figure out ‘me time’ when I can enjoy a cup of coffee and pick food photographs when I was in Indonesia to be posted on this blog (a splash of food lodge on this post, I think it’s been a while, amirite?).

On my last day in Bali, I had a chance to visit Corner House in Seminyak. When I woke up that morning, I was really wanted to enjoy a proper light breakfast. I kept thinking to sit down at the airy restaurant with a cup of cappuccino and a warm croissant. I didn’t need to think twice to enjoy my morning at that newly opened restaurant-bar-interiors. Apart of the eye-catching cappuccino, the interior catched my attention, also.

I was really enjoy the vibes and quickly looking for a croissant in the menu list. I found cappuccino and fruit salad to be added on my order. To be honest, I ordered the salad for my picture purpose only cause I thought I would need colors for my picture :) yet I didn’t regret cause I always love plain yogurt and fresh fruit in a bowl. I looked around the restaurant and thought to play with my camera when I remembered that I didn’t take many photographs while in vacation. I was in the middle of ‘lemme enjoy this last breakfast without worry about picture’ and ‘keep going with camera before you leave this island’. I just wanted to enjoy every second of my time before I left in the afternoon yet I couldn’t deny that I engaged with camera and food. So, when my cappuccino, croissant and eye-catching fruit salad already on my table, I couldn’t resist to take picture before I ate them.

It was such a funny moment when my best friend, Sohib broke his fast that morning after he found my fruit salad catched his attention. In the end he ordered muesli with exotic fruit and plain yogurt with a cup of cappuccino. Another funny moment I had that morning was when a French man asked me to snap his food after he saw me became crazy with camera for twenty minutes. Now, it sounds really crazy. I quickly used my iPhone and took one picture only, haha. I just snapped one picture (number six, here), no more cause i thought it wasn’t polite to come to other people’s table and busy in front of their meal. However, he and the lady in front of him were welcome enough to converse with me (yeah well, I did wish I could speak in French that day instead of English). We had a five minutes warm conversation before I came back to my table and enjoyed my breakfast.

You see the lamb burger above was my first burger after two years (it is true!). That day was an exception to eat burger cause at least the burger wasn’t cooked in the fast food restaurant. I ordered along the orange juice for my lunch. Sohib and I came back to meet Andhi before we left that noon. I thought Andhi would wait for me for a lunch (I know you’ll think that it would be nice to snap a complete table with food scene) yet he couldn’t wait because of starving as well :P. I took my chance to linger around the restaurant to take more of interior photographs. The industrial look just awesome and plus, I found that in the upstairs the natural light was gorgeous (if I shouldn’t mention that I fell in love with that plant in that corner). I would like to come back again for a proper food snap with that gorgeous light.

P.S. Should I mention here after we met in the Corner House and came back to the hotel to pick our suitcases, we had a traffic and arrived late in the airport? When we had to run like headless chickens until we entered the gate? :P. I couldn’t even forget that totall-ridiculously-funny moment.

Travel

The Endless Bali II

February 4, 2014by Azis AbdulLeave a Comment

As usual when I open Safari on my Macbook the apple site comes first. Tonight, 9.14 pm the site just wowed me with the video created to celebrate 30th of the Mac! Wow! The video is super-duper stunning! And a thing that made me wowed again is the fact that it was created from iPhones! OMG. Find it here and you will agree why I’m among of Mac lovers :) Happy birthday Mac! Okay, now I’m trying to concentrate back to this page, trying hard enough to remind how I enjoyed Bali last year.

Sunset was another thing I had to see at my third day in Bali (apart of beaches for sure). If on our second day I and my sister went to Ubud, Jimbaran was the main goal we had to achieve. And RockBar was the only place we wanted to spend for golden hour. It was started with a plan to visit Warung Itali for breakfast. Warung Itali is a good place to have a meal on a budget yet do not underestimate with the food. Some people say there is nothing special with their food (well, especially if they’re serious foodies!) but with a budget, Warung Itali isn’t a bad place to explore Italian food. Many expatriates from Italy love to spend their lunch time there though. Unfortunately when we went there at 9am it hadn’t opened yet (my flatmate here told me they open by 9am on business day and I believe cause he spent almost six years in Bali!).

When I realised that we couldn’t get any breakfast at Warung Itali our plan had changed. We went straight to Tanah Lot one of well-known tourist icon located at Tabanan. On our way to Tanah Lot, I was trying to capture any single thing along the road. The morning vibe, the sunshine, the people, the air. After 20km far we arrived there and suddenly realized that my sister looked so blithesome after she woke up from her sleep (gah!). Tanah Lot offered us to feel the warm breeze and the rush of the blue ocean which was true made our day. There’s always something peaceful by seeing blue ocean and accidentally, a little memory came out on my head when I stepped at Tanah Lot again.

Such a throwback thirteen years ago when I had a vacation on my last year in junior hi school. I pretty remembered I saw many friends of mine were taking picture busily while I just stand and tried to enjoy the view and waves without a camera in my hand. I found myself too abashed to beg my friends to snap me with their camera. I couldn’t believe that year I didn’t have any chance to frame my memory through one picture. I was a poor. Then when I stepped at Tanah Lot last year I tried to drop my camera as much as I could. I chose to enjoy the breeze and the blue rather than snapped more photographs. Hope these iPhone pictures could share a little different memory from thirteen years ago.

On the picture above I was listening one of my fav song ever, Good Life, while I was sitting on the cliff and staring to the ocean.

After we spent two hours at Tanah Lot, we went back to the hotel around 1.30 pm to prepare ourselves for RockBar. By 3pm we started going to Jimbaran assuming that one hour was enough to reach there from Kuta. RockBar is located along coastline of Ayana Resort&Spa Bali. I have read on some blogs that there is always long queue starts from 4 pm due to sunset is a busiest time in RockBar. When we arrived at 4pm we were snappy to get the line. Fortunately what we were thinking before was wrong, the queue wasn’t long and we stand at front line. It is another experience to reach RockBar with the lift but unfortunately the lift was under construction made us couldn’t use it and that was meant we couldn’t enjoy the view of Rock Bar from top. If you open this site you’ll know how’s magical.

I was pulled a long face for that yet I didn’t make it such a big deal. I didn’t my mood changed just because of the lift. I was trying to concentrate myself to feel the breeze, the tranquil ocean, and the horizon when I was on the queue. It was simply amazing that my mind peacefully relaxed. Picture number two was the only iPhone snap from Ayana Resort I took before we went straight to Rock Bar.

Entering RockBar we got our seat and started to chill ourselves. Two glass of fresh juices we chose (we don’t drink!) quite made us chiller for a while. 4pm-ish the skies was so clear and the sun was still too bright even the black umbrella that we got from the usher couldn’t chill us. An hour flew, by 5pm we felt the loungish-kind-of and the golden hour we waited for finally had come. We enjoyed the ocean, the orangish shine, the breeze, the jazz, and a little snack. My friend Putri commented when I posted a picture of our snack on my Instagram. She commented why I just had fried plantain in RockBar with our beer? Ha! She was kidding me :)

Here how the sunset looked like.

It was one of the most beautiful golden hour I’ve seen in entire 2013. Sounds exaggerated yet it was true. Peaceful. Serene. When sunset went down the ambiance at Rock Bar slightly changed into cozy and lounge evening. About four hours in RockBar we ended the day with blessed.

P.S. I’ll try to end this post as soon as possible, will manage my me-time for the last one, Bali Part III.

Travel

The Endless Bali I

December 28, 2013by Azis Abdul2 Comments

Phew! Finally I could find my leisure time to share this post to you, too late to be posted I know but better than never right?. Okay, I won’t talk about how’s popular Bali on this earth (universe knew already! :P) though sharing my four-days-quick-jaunt in Bali is my little pleasure for this blog. I think :). It’s been almost four months all pictures for this post stayed inside my hardisk, I was too busy to gather them and write about this (If I don’t want you to call me lazy!).

Bali as I knew is endless. Coastal, mountains, diverse tourist attractions, excellent food by international and local restaurants, sophisticated art forms, and the culture plus friendliness of the local people, everything is there. Renowned as the Best Island in the world by Travel+Leisure magazine in 2010 was a little acknowledgment for Bali, the goddess island.

My quick jaunt to Bali almost didn’t happen. I was thinking to skip it for another year cause I wanted to spend my last seven days in my house. As I knew, my 30 days in Indonesia was too short to be enjoyed, though. I was too busy among random things, from attending friend’s gathering, handling some administrative requirements for my parents (excited for that gift! :)), shopping (annual-shopping I think :P), and many more. Spending a week left in the house was my plan before, but Ruli, my best friend reminded me that I would be regret if I didn’t go anywhere while I was in Indonesia, he meant outside city. I said I did cause I had a plan before to have a little traveling at least I could feel a thing called vacation. Singapore and Hong Kong were on my list before cause I do not need visa to travel there but as I said, those random things really chopped my time.

Then I started back thinking about Bali. Four days, and I went with my sister. We took flight from Surabaya on 23rd August by 9am from Surabaya and landed by 11am in Bali. Let me say my jaunt was three days cause we spent our first day mostly inside our hotel (I was quite tired that day and decided to start walking around near our hotel). We stayed in a little yet nice and comfortable hotel in Kuta. We started walking around Kuta at 4 pm and visited Beachwalk to take a peek to that mall. We took coffee and pastries at Rollas Coffee&Tea and enjoyed our late- noon-convo there. I made a call to hire a car for the next day and finally found that we would go to Ubud!. We passed Kuta beach to see sunset that day, sadly the sunset wasn’t dramatic enough to be wowed and in the evening, we walked through the Kuta street and felt the evening vibe back to our hotel. iPhone pictures from our first day.

The next day Ubud was our destination outside Kuta. We left our hotel from 9am and went straight away to get our breakfast. We were so excited visiting Bebek Bengil ‘Tepi Sawah’ and had no regret to wait 40 minutes until the restaurant was ‘really’ open. My sister was waiting in the rustic gazebo while I was busy exploring around the rice field. The scenery of the rice field was stunningly green while the Balinese instrument was melodious in the air, pretty much made our morning. So calm, refreshing, and oh the food, we had no doubt to say that Bebek Bengil was on our must-eat food in Bali. The food was too heavy for breakfast :P (at least for me) nonetheless the crispy duck, various sambals and the Balinese satay were too-yummy indeed.

After breakfast we went to Monkey Forest (to see monkeys? :P) and spent like an hour before we continued our day in Ubud to Pura Tirta Empu. No picture to be attached from Monkey Forest even though I took some (no deliberate pics, sorry :P). Visiting Pura Tirta Empul, a Hindu temple in Tampak Siring was more interesting than Monkey Forest. Tirta Empul is well-known as a place where the Balinese have come to bathe in the sacred waters for healing and spiritual merit. Some pictures taken with iPhone and NEX from Tirta Empul visit. Oh I heart the detail of the building around the temple.

Our driver suggested to pass Kintamani for a second before we went back to hotel. Enjoying the blues there was appeased. The weather was so cold and windy, and oh now I feel regret I didn’t stop at Luwak coffee shop along there (pfft!). Just an iPhone picture for Kintamani.