Middle Eastern Adventure - Organising

After months of planning finally we booked our tickets yesterday. Middle East here we come.

Background: One of our undergraduate best friend decided to get married in Lebanon. The wedding planning takes quite a bit of times with plans to do a bachelor party in Indonesia (now cancelled). Then we thought... "Hmm since we are gong to fly all the way to the middle east, we might as well travel" and so we did. There was some discussion on whether we go before or after the wedding. Since Melanie and I has to be back in indo by the 6th and Jason can only leave after the 18th and have to be back before the 8th with Billy is still pending. We decided to do travelling before the wedding.

Where are we going? We have booked our ticket. Mel and I are going from Jakarta - Dubai - Morocco - Lebanon - Jakarta. We are going to meet Jason in Dubai. Then go together to Morocco to travel a bit and then off to Lebanon to celebrate Hani's big day before going back to Jakarta to celebrate Eky and Frida's wedding. Guest how much Im spending on planet ticket?? AUD1781 flying with Etihad. Its really good. I love Jakarta. If you think that is expensive. Jason's Itinerary is Melbourne - Dubai - Morocco - Lebanon - Melbourne and it cost double the price AUD3400. That is why I'm so happy.

But Morocco is not part of the Middle East? I know... but nevertheless it has a big number of Arab populations. And they speak Arabic. So I just combine it. Or should I change the title to Arab Adventure?

What about Visa? Well Morocco is great. Indonesian citizen need not a visa. Cant say the same thing for Malaysia. Lebanon is a bit stricter as there is no visa on arrival. We are going to apply tomorrow. UAE visa is really expensive and really hard to obtain. We will probably ask the hotel we are going to stay in to organise the visa for us. Its going to cost USD150 per person.

You mentioned Hotel, where are you guys staying? While its still tentative and ideally I want to spend one night at the Burj in Dubai, but for USD1500/night I'd rather be spending it on some other things, we've decided to go on a shoestring. Rush Inn Hotel is the first one on the list. But expedia said that it has cockroaches... Doesnt worry me but it might worry Jason and Mel.

What now? Well. we are going to obtain all the visas tomorrow. so I will write again once I get the visa and talk about all the different methods of visa in respective countries

Olfactics

Greetings once again fellow bloggers.

For those of you who hasnt find out, I now host my blog at mohammadariawan.info. However the original idea of that blog is that it will contain more serious stuff compared to this one. (although none currently present at the moment) Anyway lets get started.

Olfactics or Olfactory refers to the sense of smelling. Scientists are still figuring out how these sensations are produced in the brain and there are still a number of competing theories. All I can say is that they'll work it out one day. However this blog post isn't about something boring like that, It is about my top 3 favourite smells.

3. Melbourne Summer Night.

Melbourne Sun

There is something in the air during Melbourne summer. Especially when the day was really hot. I have an opinion as to the cause of this smell, and it goes like this:

• Melbourne's extremely high temperature is causing all the pavements and all building bricks to get really hot.
• This also cause people who are walking outside in the heat of the sun to sweat.
• Some of these sweat drips to the roads/pavements.
• Melbourne temperature is very high and dry, thus this will immediately evaporate
• At night the sudden change of temperature makes these gas condense and we can then smell it.

My conclusion from these overly simplistic and without scientific reasoning is that the smell occurs from sweat artifact condensation. :)

As gross as it might sound ( For those of you who hasnt realised the above explanation was made up on the spot). It does actually smell nice. Amazingly you can only get this smell during summer time in Melbourne. Jakarta has a hot temperature as well, but for some reason I never get the smell.

2. Rain Falling on road

Rain Falling on Road

I think many of you will agree with me on this one. It is really nice. There is, however, some of you who thinks that rain falling on soil is a better smell.  I personally think that the difference is so subtle that it is not worth putting on a separate heading.

A similar smell under a similar condition can also be found in Jakarta. I think the smell is more apparent in Jakarta I don't know why. as for the pseudo-science explanation as to why it happens.

• Car and other vehicles creates CO2 in the air while operating. Thus carbon is everywhere in the air.
• Rain comes and washed down all the carbon down to the road.
• The smell is actually carbon and water mixed together
• Correct Me If Im wrong isnt it HCO3 and O3 is ozone? Could be ozone as well then.

Now in order to test this... Shouldnt I get the same kind of smell if I put water on charcoal? Please do try and let me know

1. Freshly Mowed lawn

Freshly Mowed Lawn

Isn't this simply the best smell. Its amazing how car perfume or home perfume companies havent tried to recreate this smell. Out of 3 people I asked all 3 of them agrees with me.

Disclaimer: My knowledge in chemistry is very limited. so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. Thats what the comment button down below is for :)

As this is the best. I'll get a bit scientific on the cause of this smell. (not the pseudo-science above) Amazingly these smells have been researched by a number of people. in 1993 Hatanaka in the paper "The biogeneration of green odour by green leaves and its physiological function" The smell is caused by C6 Aldehydes and C6 alcohols.

Amazingly grasses whether its cut or not constitute a great deal of source of volatile organic compound (VOC)

For more information on the science of this smell please consult this paper a neat discussion and conclusion of the whole thing

Until next time... ciao

Too Geeky or not Too Geeky

WARNING: This post may contains segmented jokes, segmented stories, names of people you have never heard before. Anyone is welcomed to read but might not get the moral (if any) of what I'm trying to deliver

Greetings... this is a special edition dedicated to my good friend Gebeng. The 27th of this month will be a special day for him. After a VERY long and hard struggle, which I happen to witness from the beginning till today. The day has finally come to ask the bride-to-be's hand in marriage. Although to tell you the truth, I have had some doubts in the middle, but you have proven me wrong. As for the cheeky remarks... I guess love can prevail even in the most adverse circumstances such as this. So congratulation to the both of you. sorry I cannot make it to the wedding so think of this post as some kind of best-man speech on behalf of the group.

This post was inspired by Eky's invitation to a game of DOTA to celebrate the end of Gebeng's bachelorhood. I thought to myself... Wow... this is a new level of geekiness, an online bachelor party, playing DOTA. Then it occurred to me we were geeks even since 9th grade. From Warhammer-the tabletop game.... to Counter Strike.... to Warcraft III... and now to DOTA. I must say we are geeks. People can argue that everyone plays that. I beg to differ... Our social life is centered around these games. The 6 of us hanging out together just to play these games. Have we ever get to be as good as those people in competition? The answer is No. We were shit at these games and we are still shit now. I hope I'm speaking for everyone here :)

Btw I have to ask this... since out of the 6 of us, only 2 singles left. Tongga and I are the only one left who can claim the prize right? Not important...

I remember one of the many conversation we have about this day. Who would get married first out of the 6 of us. Well Agung passed away. but who would have thought that Aris was the first to decide to spend his life with someone. CMIIW He's waiting for Aris Jr as well right? The second one to go was Gebeng. I must say I'm very surprised by this. After the 27th theres only 1 'mere' left who's not married (not mentioning names but you guys know who I'm talking about)... and judging by his facebook status, he's very lonely. hehehehehe

Seriously now guys... What were you thinking? Playing Dota for bachelor party? You guys are such a geek. (this is coming from a person who played dota for graduation party) hehehehe. I remember the first day Gebeng are officially in relationship with the bride-to-be. I gave an idea to the group to have a bachelor party for you :) Details are omitted to protect the individuals implicated in the project. That is the kind of bachelor party you should have. Not Dota... tsk tsk tsk. I think you should watch beauty and the geek to learn more about life outside our geeky and peaceful life. You see, Gebeng need some experience, otherwise can you imagine whats going to happen in the first night? It will be hilarious if you ask me. As Aris put it "Harus diabadikan nich malam pertamanya Gebeng"

Theres an javanese poem about this the title is malam pertama "Malam Pertama kok malu-malu, Malam kedua matikan lampu, Malam ketiga nda boleh tau". But knowing Gebeng... I dont think on his first night he'll be shy. There are definitely some leather and whip involves on his first night. Am I right? In this sense he's not too Geeky... more of a mental than a geek. Then again... his choice and I hope the girl enjoys it.

To close this... I on behalf of THE group welcomes Ms. Yayah to the group So the G6 have now become a G7 (minus 1 plus 2). I hope she wont be so judgmental towards me. and Dont worry just because you have a wife doesnt mean that Aris, Eky and I will stop bullying you. The bullying will continue for a long time in the future. :)

The almighty Toilet Paper

Greetings and welcome once again to another post by me :) Before I start, I'd like to welcome 2 new bloggers. Nelly Govinda and her strayinthoughts and Frida Yasmin's wedding preparation. This post is inspired by Jason Teen's question on twitter (@jasonteen) regarding toilet paper. It got me thinking about what is the one true and correct way of putting toilet paper roll. I always thought that one way is correct and the other is wrong UNTIL ONE DAY. I found out that one of the toilets in my house uses the other way.

Problem
What is a toilet paper? Toilet paper has many functions. as can be seen in the photo, the uses ranges from picking nose, covering head from the harsh summer sun, covering sunglasses to provide an extra darkness, and also acting as a table cloth for the head, so that other things such as biscuit can be placed on the head. However the primary use of toilet paper is to clean up after doing that thing we all do in toilets (for the guys... not that!!! the other 2 things we do in toilet). This leads to the problem currently being investigated.

There are 2 ways of putting toilet paper in the holder. The first way is to have the leaf on the outside as shown by the picture below.The second one is to have the leaf in the inside as shown belowBoth picture is taken from my toilets.

Discussion
For one month I pondered and pondered. I look at how other people put their toilet paper rolls. It occurred to me that the way toilet paper is put highly reflects on the individual. I myself prefer the the leaf on the outside. I can just pull the leaf whenever I need it and the roll just roll itself. One day something happens... When you have air-con and cat in the house, be sure to note this. Since the leaf is further from the wall, the air-con makes the leaf move. Cats are naturally attracted to moving things, be they string, balls or even toes under a blanket. Now with this arrangement my cat have decided to play around with the toilet paper and created a mess. This wont happen had I put the leaf on the inside since there are less space for the leaf to move around. With limitation in the toilet paper problem, all those people who said "I can just roll it back when that happens." well guess what... I tried to do that and the result? Not as tidy as when the paper just got out of the factory.

Now, this does bother me, since there are no standard on putting toilet paper. I like standardized things. I believe that there should be a standard for everything, including how to put toilet paper rolls. So in my research I found the earliest sample of toilet paper. This is a sample of toilet paper ad from 1893. Its not the earliest, since the Chinese in 6th Century AD was the first one to use toilet paper. (according to wikipedia) However the modern shape only started in 1873. Look what I found. It seems the creator of toilet paper intended the leaf to be on the inside. and it has the explanation to why this is so. However I'm still not sure whether this is valid with the round toilet paper.

Conclusion
After a long and arduous research on how Toilet paper should be placed. I came to my own conclusion. The correct way depends on you... If you have a kid or cat, I think the leaf should be on the inside to discourage them from unrolling them. If you are a responsible adult then put the leaf on the outside. This will make it easier for you to just roll it and grab the leaf.

Appendix - Toilet paper sample and their location
Please post on flicker or picasa if you have other samples of toilet paper. I was actually waiting for one more picture but SOMEONE says that there are too many previews... so I decided to publish it now.

Hani Chahal's house, Interesting concept, I have never seen something like this before... it is a breakthrough in the toilet paper world. Well done Hani Chahal.







Evan Pratama's house, One empty and the other has something... What do people do in the toilet without toilet paper? Your guess is as good as mine...

Guling a.k.a Rolling Pillow Tutorial

The topic of discussion today is 'guling' otherwise known in the western world as 'rolling pillow' or 'dutch wife' or in Japan as dakimakura. For any of you that doesnt know what a guling is, I've put a picture of it right here. As you can see an Indonesian child is happily hugging his guling.

This topic have invited many controversy in many dinner table. For some reason or another, westerners always find it very dirty to use a guling when they are sleeping. I use a guling when I sleep and I encourage everyone to try to use a guling since it is quite comfortable. So, to contribute something to the world, I am going to make a tutorial on how to use a guling when you sleep.

A Guling
Definition: A long and slender pillow usually body length to hug and put between your legs when you sleep.

How To use: (substitute guling with a bantal (normal pillow) to practice)
1. Position yourself in a bed facing the ceiling while holding a Guling midway in your right hand and nothing in your left hand.
2. Spread your leg apart and put the guling in between your leg. It is important that the guling is put so that it resembles a third leg in between your two spreading leg.
3. Adjust the length of the guling so that the top of the guling falls just below your chest.
4. In a swift but gentle motion, keep the left side of your body stationary and rotate the right side of the body so that your face is now facing the left side. You are now in the correct position to use a guling.
5. Hug the top half of the guling. and put your leg together for extra comfort. A Perfect position will look like the picture above when viewed from the other side.

Once you are comfortable with the technique provided, you can experiment around with other positions such as:

The bantal guling Combo (right), this involves using the guling as both bantal and guling, this position usually does not involve putting the guling between your leg, because the guling is not long enough to cater for both.

The Anything goes position (left). This position is normally used when there isnt any guling available. In this position the subject usually resort to anything available that resembles a guling, In the picture the person makes use of the steps.

There you go, its not that dirty now is it? Until next time... ciao