Fig and Olive

I’ve been to Turkey before, and the Istanbul itinerary was pretty much the same: Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Bosphorus Cruise, Topkapi Palace, DolmabahcePalace, Belly Dancing show  and of course some Bazaar. After the 3^rd time round in the last 3 years, I finally get bored – kinda predicted now.

So, I also have visited Egyptian Bazaar thrice (called so ‘cos it used to sell goods from Egypt during Ottoman Empire). But this time, the local tour-leader was quite persistent to lead us to his acquaintances’ shops. I was quite annoyed by that he did that. He led us to away from the Bazaar’s entrance and go from a side gate near New Mosque. I couldn’t separate from the group, the bazaar is huge, I just don’t want to go missing in the midst of spices and Turkish delight; the shops all looked the same to me. So, I followed the group walking towards New Mosque, to the left side of bazaar. And guess what?! It was a heaven place for me, we crossed a flowers’ market. So many plants and flowers there. I started to pay attention for the way, I thought “I need to come back to look at those plants and flowers”

Here is the emergency map, in case you want to visit this market. Pics are taken from here, here and here. 

I was too busy with the plants that I forgot to take any picture. Who cares about pictures when you are in plants haven?

L-R: New Mosque, Flower Market, Egyptian Bazaar

Luckily, to my surprise, one of my group members  is a green-freak too and he accompanied me to check out the plants there. The sellers were nice too; I guess not many tourist visits their stalls. So, we both fell in love with olives trees, so we decided to get one for each. And we saw some black fig tree, and we got a couple of it too. I was so happy!!!  (though, now I kinda regret not getting the famous Turkey pomegranate tree >.<)

They are doing fine now. Here are their pictures, taken today.

Olive

Fig

I also got some tulip bulbs. I shared it with Mr.ES and Ling. I hope they are doing well on their side; cos mine is definitely failing here. 

How I smuggle it, is my own secret. Won’t reveal it here. I am totally proud of my mischievous act!

Desert Dress Code

On my recent trip to UAE, a friend of mine complained about “why are those Arabic women dress up like that? Why are they so fanatic about their religion? Why are they willing to cover up?”

What she meant was “why are those women wear hijab?” (or in Indonesia we call it jilbab). Hijab is headscarf used by Moslem women to cover up their hair, in accordance to their religion.

Arabic women take a step further, they usually wear all-black loose dress plus a long headscarf to cover up their hair and neck; and for some, they even put a veil on their face.

Most people think they are fanatic. But personally, I have different opinion.

If you’ve been to the dessert, you’ll understand why they dress up that way. You would be so thankful to have such dress-code when a sandstorm is a regular occurrence.

I've only spent a few hours in the dessert, and trust me, hijab would be very useful. And I understand why they need to put veil on their face. Apart from saving you from the scorching sun;  the desert sands are so fine, as fine as dust, but still very annoying to have in on your hair, your eyes, folds of your shirts, inside your socks and shoes…  and guess what, sometimes they get into your mouth too. It’s horror!!!
Cos I saw some camel dump some dung and soon the sand blowed and transferred the feces-contaminated sands into your mouth (you can feel the grit in your mouth. Ugh!).  By that time, I would slip on the full-attire plus a burqa happily, seriously!

See??!! Now can you get the idea why they need to dress up that way? Even the Arabic guys wear loose clothing and cover up their hair too. (and guess what, the black rope on their head isn't just for decoration, in the past it was used to tied up their camel too)

As the religion spread, so does the fashion sense. Isn’t that what happening in the world naturally?

Dress code can look ridiculous sometimes; it depends on how you see it. Our fashion sense really depends and influenced by our culture and society.

Come to think of it…

• If Moslem was founded in Indonesia, they might have different costumes, maybe kebaya and beskap?
• Or if Buddha was born in Arabic country, monks nowadays would have different robes rather than the Indian-insipred wrap around?
• And if those  Pontifical Swiss Guard of Vatican City were in Indonesia, they’ll  be mocked for such an Joker costumes.

So, what’s so odd about one’s fashion sense? Absolutely nothing. Look from different point of view, then you’ll even understand why Superman need to wear his underwear outside.

PS: Though some people criticize, I always think I look good wearing a headscarf. 

3 calm and peaceful days

There're been a lot of thing happened since my last post. But it seems nothing matters much now, maybe it's the effect of the retreat that I joined last week in Taiwan.

So, I’ll just talk about the retreat.

It was a Zen Meditation Retreat, introduced by a family-friend. I think he intended to invite my parents instead of me, but my folks were busy, so I took their place. I didn't know what to expect at first, well... I never really prepare anything; I just go with the flow.

So, what happened is i arrived in Taipei; picked up by a friend. And the next day i was sent to the Zen center. I didn’t even know where it is in Taiwan... somewhere near Taipei... Hahaha

The class was very relaxing, the Zen master was so patient and he was teaching it right from the very basic: how to sit properly!!!  The monks and nuns are very helpful. I know some of the basic of meditation before, I never really try to do it; always have an impression that it is something very hard to do. 

But at there, they were teaching us slowly, bits by bits, and one step at a moment and adding it up on progress. It suddenly doesn’t seem to be so scary at all; it actually seems do-able, even for a commoner like us.

The retreat was quite packed, we had morning call at 5am and finished up at 10pm; we had some chanting class, listen to some dvd – sermon by Master ShengYen, meditation class, work out, and of course: meals. It was all vegetarian meals, and amazingly they tasted so nice; you’d feel like giving up meat is a piece of cake. Hahaha. In fact, there were cakes and tidbits prepared for us whole day. What a relaxing retreat!

But if you are going to ask me, what do I get from the retreat... 

All I can say is I get a 3 calm and peaceful days. That’s all.

I know many other participants may say they saw lights; some saw visions, some can play with the energy that flows in the body; some even get out-of-body experience...

I didn’t get any of it; I don’t even want to know about what they experienced. 

I am pretty content with my result: 3 calm and peaceful days.

I have joined the 3-days DDM Zen Meditation Retreat - this was the 6th gen. (法鼓山第6屆自我超越禪修)   If you ever wanna join such retreat. Check this website out: http://www.dharmadrum.org/

Green Orange Beauty

One of the beauty living in the country-side is that I can see many plants and insects.
I found this cute fella yesterday when I was checking my snake-skin fruit plants.
She was happily munching its leaves there.
Isn't it odd? The leaves are hard and doesn't seems juicy at all, but she loves it.
Munch munch munch...
Anyone know what kind of caterpillar is this?

Mr. Eunuch?

Could this be just an error made by computer-generated-translation service?
This article from our national airline magazine has translated the-unnecessary-to-be-translated word: one's name ( He happened to be a Vice Governor!)
The name is Muslim Kasim, and translated in to English as: Muslim Eunuch.  EUNUCH???!!!

This could be just an innocent mistranslation by machine.
But then why the village's name: Dusun Gajah Mati is not translated as The Village of Dead Elephants?
^_^ Maybe the interpreter took extra effort to explicate one's sexual state? Hahaha

Passionfruit - Acidity and Sugar Content

There are a few kinds of passionfruit in Indonesia: orange-skinned and purple-skinned.

Usually the purple-skinned ones are unsuitable for table-fruit due to its extreme acidity; usually it's mixed with sugar to make syrup.

But what we have here is a purple-skinned passionfruit, with the aromatic smell, orange/red flesh, but still with high sugar content (ard 20 Brix). Making this variety to be a perfect table fruit. Just cut it, and enjoy :)

The picture below is to show how to check the acidity on our passionfruit. Just dip the indicator-paper in the juice, wait around 30seconds, see the colour changes, and check against the colour on the indicator box. Here my passionfruit's acidity is around pH 3-4 :)

Universal pH indicator

Bought another toy :) - Universal pH indicator to check the acidity of my fruits.

The combination of sugar and acid in a fruit is very very important.

Spider and a Lotus Bloom

Yesterday was the first day of Lotus Bloom, I saw a tiny green spider hiding inside the almost-bloomed lotus flower.
Took my camera, and he gave me a few cute poses.

This is the first lotus bloom at my garden. I planted it from a seed a year ago, finally, she gave me some flowers (see the video slide!!!)

And the Spider says "Good night, I wanna stay inside the bloom tonight"

KumQuats

Here is the picture of our garden's kumquat.
It's funny, it has more rind rather than the juice vesicles; yet still quite sweet (10 Brix) with a bit of citrus oil zing.
Mostly people preserve in heavy sugar syrup, but we like to eat it as it is
They look pretty, don't they?

Lotus Seeds

My quest for hunting lotus seeds been going very slow... All I got is the ones that I collected nearby here. And they have been growing well, but I want more varieties!!! Hahahha

I really want the Thai version which are more plump and fleshy-er than what I currently have.

Ling has been helping me by asking some monks to get me some seeds. 

Here they are, the monk got me 5 packages of lotus (no clue about variety and colour)... seems like all are "still" pink ones. They are now being soaked. We'll see how it sprouts :)