A Home For My Thoughts

Accidentally normal moment Let's imagine you're going to Sanur with me, and you have only 50K Rupiah to spend there. What would you do? Is 50K enough for that? 50K rupiah is about hmmm $3-$4 I guess. Well... let's find out!  Alright, since I drive my own scooter, so I need to spend 2K for parking fee at the beach. 2K is nothing. Then I'll leave my scooter and start to wander around the beach.  Low-profile Sanur is actually a lovely place to spend some time in. It may not be something fancy or hype like beach clubs in Canggu area, but... at least you'll spend way less here lol.  Alright, shall we start from the 5K lumpiyang for a simple breakfast? This is a real gem. It tastes better in the morning because it still piping hot! The sellers are everywhere. They usually start to sell around 7am. They come from many places, not only from Sanur. Some from Karangasem, some from Gianyar. Pretty far. Oh btw, there are also some sellers who come every afternoon so it's al...

Offering Before I moved to Bali, I told my husband that I wouldn't even think about it. At that time I was thinking about the salary of working in Bali because I thought there were not much of big companies like in Jakarta or Surabaya. Lol yea that's kind of true but there are a lot more international companies here lol. I fooled myself. I mean, the minimum wage of Bali is way less than Surabaya. Almost half of Surabaya while the living cost here seems expensive. I thought so. Well, obviously I was wrong. You can read the prices in Bali  here . Another reason I didn't want to move to Bali is that it is "BALI". Foreigners don't even know Indonesia but they know Bali. I don't fancy popular stuff that much.  Sanur. My regular. Can you spot Agung Mt? We visited Bali pretty often before moving here. Not to experience those fancy club-hopping lifestyles, but the small villages and how people live here. Slowly but sure, I started to love the energy here. I tried ...

Of course, I always look PRETTY ridiculous in H's camera. What did I do with that pose actually? 😲 Are you... looking for this kind of post as my husband did? LOL I mean, I live in Bali and we're still LDR for almost 5 years now (or maybe 7 if we count it from the day we became a couple). So when he asked me about how expensive/cheap is living in Bali, he doesn't really believe me. LOL. Then he will send me some blog posts about living costs in Bali from a foreign perspective and ask me to cross-check them.  So here let me tell you how much does it cost to have a normal life in Bali.  Btw, I am Indonesian. I moved to Bali from Java to find my balance. Long story short, I found what I was looking for in Bali. I don't have fancy life hopping from one beach club to another. I am a homebody so obviously, I spend more money on making my house comfortable, instead of spending money on clubbing or fancy eating.  Of course, I still have some fancy eating out or doing fancy thi...

Artotel Beach Club yang nggak pernah sepi Pandemi udah lebih dari setahun dan masih aja nggak tau ini kita kapan bakalan usai. Gw tinggal di Bali dan gw tau gimana setahun setengah ini geliat pariwisata yang hidup segan matipun tak mau. Lingkungan gw lebih ke arah Sanur jadi gw tau gimana ngeliat sepinya Sanur di awal pandemi hingga sedikit ramainya Sanur saat ini.  3 bulan awal pandemi, hampir semua tutup. Sepi mamring kalo kata orang Jawa. Jalan kaki aja cuma mentok bertiga. Bahkan ada yang berendam di pantai pun masih pakai masker. Sepi banget. BANGET. Jadi kalau gw keluar rumah buat jalan-jalan pasti ke Sanur karena sepi dan ngerasa aman aja sih. Nggak bergerombol.  Memasuki masa 3-6 bulan pandemi, hotel-hotel mulai membuka sistem sewa jangka panjang. Harganya? Tutup mata deh, saking hancurnya. Hotel yang biasanya seminggu 7 juta, ini bisa sebulan 7 juta. Ada juga yang sewanya 3juta/bulan dan bener-bener di hotel bintang 4. Sewa dibikin mingguan dan bulanan. Saat itu masih...

Ini waktu galungan-kuningan di Ubud. Pertama kali tau dari temen gw yang udah hijrah ke Singaraja duluan. Dia bilang dia ada tambahan sekitar belasan libur lokal. Lho kok bisa? Orang Bali banyak kegiatan upacara dan hari rayanya. Bali punya kalender sendiri yang beda dengan kalender nasional, jadi udah bisa dipastikan mereka punya kalender Bali di tempat masing-masing. Dulu sering kaget kok hampir tiap hari ada aja upacara. Upacara ini keliatan beda dari kegiatan sembayang sehari-hari karena biasanya kalau sembayang harian bisa aja pake baju biasa, tinggal pakai selendang aja. Tapi kalau hari raya atau hari penting lainnya mereka pasti pakai kebaya lengkap dan bagus-bagus.  Meskipun hitam, mereka punya agenda sendiri. Yang libur lokal ditandai dengan lingkaran merah. Gimana gw nggak demen ngeliatnya? Bagus-bagus banget kebayanya. Selain itu, persembahannya juga istimewa. Pasti gede, bukan canang kecil yang harian itu. Seru banget liat lalu lalang orang berangkat ke Pura atau kemana...

Inget nggak kemarenan yang heboh banget langit birunya Jakarta? Hal itu bikin gw nyadar sesuatu, Bali langitnya nggak pernah nggak biru hey! Kadang kita  take it for granted  aja kan, karena diliatin tiap hari gitu. Trus gw jadi inget pertama kali tinggal di Bali yang gw beli adalah kacamata hitam. Silaunya bukan main, tapi langitnya birunya maksimal.  Gw tinggal di Denpasar yang bisa dibilang jarang hujan. Ujan aja sekadar ciprat-cipratin air aja deh biasanya. Tapi akhir-akhir ini ujannya lebih sering dan lebih deres. Mungkin bumi sedang membaik atau apa gw nggak paham deh. Tapi, abis ujan deres begitu, langit langsung balik lagi jadi biru. Seolah tidak terjadi apa-apa begitu.  Pernah tahun lalu hujan sampai banjir di kantor. Kantor nggak pernah banjir, baru kali itu. Bener-bener deres banget, banjir. Setelah satu jam, teriknya bukan main eh. Langit jadi biru lagi.  Seringkali ketika gw sedih atau agak bosen gitu, gw tinggal keluar aja nengok ke atas. Yang gw u...