Author: rike jokanan

Me, now here

Pose!

Learning, Poetic, Those People
Pose as you love to.
Life gives one chance for one name.
Breathe in and breathe out.

my friend in his funny pose 😂

I can’t thank enough to him for informing me about the “Da Vinci Alive Bangkok”

he said “Rike, I’ll go with you if my boyfriend goes to his class”

Thank you, Bank!

Epic Dinner

Learning, Map It!
Today's dinner of a dreamer
Looks like a dream
Tastes like a dream
Smells like a dream
Sounds like a dream
But feels real
At a table for one
Of epic dinner.

—

Today’s dinner was way beyond my expectation especially the size. The taste was still as predicted as Thai food to be yet the vibe where I enjoyed my dinner was so relaxing that everything became good!

Let me show you today’s epic dinner.

In fact I surpassed the word gluttony. Please forgive me for being so greedy yet not finishing the order.

Next time better (better means eat more???) 🙃

💕

namprikapik muang kung: mackerel, deep fried eggplant, omelett cubes plus all the raw vegetable (some leaves like coriander leaves and others i know not, long bean, cucumber, small eggplant) and the shrimp paste sauce

❣️❣️❣️

fabulous💕

miang krob bai mara: deep fried bitter gourd leaves❣️❣️❣️

kaeng leang: spicy herb vegetable soup with prawns

butterfly pea leaves tea❣️❣️❣️

this… is… the pinnacle! i thought it was a warm drink as a gift — lucky i asked: it was to wash my hand 😂😂😂

and so i did

it smelled good yet my hand is coloured now 😂😂😂

One Hot Day Out

Learning, Map It!

It is very hot in Bangkok but I really want to sit down meditating before praying in a place where people pray. A place of praying is one of best places as in that area human beings are willingly connecting themselves with power beyond their own, God’s or whatever they call the power is.

I went to Wat Pathum Wanaram Rachaworawihan near the hotel and it really is a serene spot among this busy city.

This hot day out has turned to a serene cool within.

Thank you❣️

in bloom

ready to bloom

Wat Pathum Wanaram Rachaworawihan

wherever i go, i won’t miss — i won’t iss praying (my own way), it can be in mosque, shrine, temple, church, meditation center, hotel room, where.ever i feel my heart is showing me a space ♥️ — praying hall of Wat Pathum Wanaram Rachaworawihan

wherever i go, i won’t miss eating — lunch before temple 💕

Da Vinci Alive Bangkok

Learning, Map It!

Lucky to be in Bangkok this time with the “Da Vinci Alive Bangkok”–

I thought Mona Lisa painting was big until seeing it with my very eyes; this one is the replica displayed in “Da Vinci Alive Bangkok”

back in 2017 in Paris, I didn’t even have the energy to walk nearer — maybe next visit, Mona Lisa ❣️

Fresh

Learning, Map It!, Poetic
Best local delight's
Bangkok's 7-Eleven's.
Fresh presentation--

—

this is what’s fabulous about Thailand, not pictured are grilled banana, etc, etc, done for dinner!!! 💋💋💋

International Jazz Day

Learning

Jazz didn’t simply come to me. My beloved sister contaminated me with jazz through time. When I was 14, she was a 17 yo girl crazy about music through cassettes (ahhh…. do 17 yo nowadays know what cassettes are).

The weird jazz up to acceptable jazz were played by her daily….

Now I am enjoying it when life sounds so messy and dry.

Thanks, Mbak Yuda. You are loved!

Happy International Jazz Day!

Bengawan Solo aka Solo River where my placenta was “floated away”

Twins

Learning, Poetic
There are twins in life
Where mirror is concluded,
Balance is guarded.

—

my most worn twins — one pair is 6 years old, the other is 4; wait until both are uncomfortable to retire 😍

this time a room with twin bed is chosen, not because i stay with someone but i want to experience a different type of room — the same design, just the bed is different 👍🏽

the Twin Towers across the 38th floor

Burnt Hair

Learning, Those People

Here is the long wait!

Here is the curiosity potion!

Here is the Burnt Hair!

😁

a message sent to me on Apr 24 when I was in my mother’s house, from a shipping company – could not recall what I purchased as not much shopping these days

today I picked it up when arriving home – what is it, what is it, said I curiously

ahhh!!! I purchased Elon Musk’s perfume, the Burnt Hair on Oct 14, 2022

the longest wait of a PO to be shipped in my life 😂

it is almost like burnt hair smell – maybe this is the smell of Elon Musk’s burnt hair 😂

does it worth the wait? hmmm…. for my curiosity yes, not for my olfactory system 😹

at least I have his product, not Tesla though 😎

Preference

Learning, life, Poetic, This Person
It's a preferred life,
Not a perfect one. Not much,
And she's fine.

—

45R is one of my preferred brands (doesn’t mean i buy a lot of its products though) – its good material is preferred, its most designs are not as they are to me “very foreign” ☺️

Navigated

Learning, Poetic
She's navigated
By stars that cluster in shapes.
They're glowing maps.

—

remarkable aspect of manta ray behavior is their ability to navigate across vast distances

a friend who didn’t meet for quite some time met me again in Hanoi and brought me this manta ray for my bag

she said she will invite me soon to her wedding 😍

thank you❣️

About manta ray

Light upon Light

Learning, love, Poetic
I've opened curtains,
Layers of curtains
Curtains of light;
Lifting layer by layer of the dark,
Distinguishing hues in stacked of spectrums
Then
Here
You are
Converting this believing
To this knowing.
It's been
Light upon light.

—

His light is like a niche in which there is a lamp, the lamp is in a crystal, the crystal is like a shining star, lit from the oil of a blessed olive tree, located neither to the east nor the west, whose oil would almost glow, even without being touched by fire. Light upon light!….

(The Light, 35)

Learning from Tarot

Learning

I realise that I am a meaning seeker and I seek meaning in anything interested to me.

I seek meaning in the holy Books, in my own self, in nature, in literary works, in work of art and even in Tarot cards.

I don’t regret my failures of putting the right meanings to things as they’ve brought me here.

Thank you❣️

Four of Cups

⬇️

many lament over life as if they have no love ignoring a hand offering love 😁 what an irony!

thanks to my dear self who has found a pinch of self love in the journey – not perfect yet, hope it be before the end of this journey

Experience

Learning, Poetic
Nothing's right or wrong
To experience this life.
Hey! Judgement applies.

—

fish with veggies and rice paper (paper rice?) — green is always the best part in Vietnamese cuisine

not suitable for one, should invite a friend next time

not professionally, very slowly for satisfactory experience

Fresh and Unique

Learning, Poetic
I wish you a fresh air
That brings coolness in a hot day,
And lullabies me in a cold night.

I wish you a unique vibe
That loves me romantically,
And beautifies yourself naively.

—

banana flower salad — fresh and beautiful

young rice ice cream only in autumn ☺️ — unique and cool

Cảm ơn, Hanoi 🙏🏼

The Fool

Learning, Poetic, This Person
This fool
Is learning
Through
Humming and
Walking with a friend and
Greeting fun adventures and
Kissing the flowers and the air.

Hello,
Fool.
Be sweet life!

—

one of my best friends is a prominent tarot master in Ubud, whose reading always reminds me that I am The Fool — thank you, De Nov ❣️

Lost? Found!

Learning, Poetic, This Person
Losing is a sign,
A sign to either find,
Or let it go off the mind.
All is fine.

—

i lost my Airpod case with one earset in it; not panicky as losing or forgetting small things is my middle name — not in the bag, sure not at taxi as bag was never unzipped in the ride — i sent email to the hotel saying that my Airpod with one earset left was in the room — yes! it was found and safe kept — see you next month! 😂

Chair

Learning
Some people choose flowers,
Some ice cream,
Some either as the chair is the glazed pleasure,
Not what's before.

—

there is a chair behind flowers, there is a chair behind ice cream — which chair do you want to sit on?

In Javanese culture chair symbolizes status, authority, power.

The chair can also be compared with someone who gives one’s lap for sitting that symbolizes comfort, indulgence.

Seems like those two are different but both can give the same quality of life either positively or negatively.

When someone gives you comfort as if you are everything, yes you might be everything but that person at the same time is controling your status, your authority, control your power — making you a puppet graciously. Graciously at least, you said.

There is a Javanese adage “wong yen wis dipangku mesthi mati” that can mean “put someone on your lap and s/he will die”.

Pangku or pangkon is one device in Javanese script to “close”, to “kill” a “root consonant” at the end of a word. When an alphabet is followed by a pangkon device, it will turn to a closed consonant, a “dead” end.

pangkon: the Javanese alphabet that provides lap to a root consonant and closes or kills it 😍

e.g.: how “harusa”, “makana”, “minuma”, “bapaka”, “rudala” and “kusuta” are turned to “harus”, “makan”, “minum”, “bapak”, “rudal” and “kusut” by a indulging pangkon

Congratulations. You’ve got a chair. You’ve sat on a comfortable lap. You are the master of a universe. Yet remember, the chair can topple down, the lap is just a part of an individual who has mind– the master mind that governs you. You lose without truthfully winning. 💕

I see just a chair. With flowers. Or with ice cream. Or with both. Or without any. Both sweet through different senses, enticing for comfort. For just a glance. For just a sniff. For just a lick. For just a second. And then blended with a familiar taste name “just now”, a dead end before now.

A chair is a past tense adorned by a hope.

Dear, Life. Thanks much for the endless love. I need no chair except the mountain under the white cloud. I need no lap but breathing this fresh air. And how much ever I want someone or something, I will never take them from their chairs or their laps. Let them be empowered or expelled there — it is their best place. Be peaceful❣️

Let me be with those sitting on no chair but the lap of a naked soul. ❣️

Thank you, dear mother tongue. Even your Phonetics and Phonology bear insight and wisdom.

Thank you, my twisted-cum-twisting mind.

Never Matters, No More

Learning, Poetic
It doesn't matter
Wherever I am.
I can find all
The air breathed,
The water flowing,
The fire flickering,
The wind swirling,
The earth stepped on,
The night falling,
The morning rising,
The day counting
The breathing towards
What's here and now.
No destination matters
As all is about this.

—

the best is now and here