Because life is an adventure. Because life is much more than just status and power, fame and fortune. Because life is too short to live in a box. This is my things-to-do list:
- Buy a random plane ticket and go to the destination.
- Experience zero gravity.
- Conquer Western Europe (Done: backpacking with 3 friends in 21 days to 11 cities).
- Visit a tribe and earn a tattoo.
- Get married (Done, with my girlfriend of 5 years. When it comes to love, I'm old-school).
- Visit Istanbul and physically cross from Asia to Europe.
- Visit Morocco and physically cross from Europe to Africa.
- Own all The Beatles records (in progress).
- See the Queen of England in person (Done).
- Drive a bajaj.
- Ride a fisherman's boat, as a mean of transportation (Done. It was awesome).
- Spot a 4 country border spot in the map (Done).
- See live in concert: Los Amigos Invisibles, US, Lenny Kravitz (Done), Red Hot Chili Peppers, Zap Mama (Done), Oasis, Placebo (Done), John Mayer, Incognito (Done), Stevie Wonder, Greenday (Done, the "Bullet in a bible" concert in the UK, now in DVD), Rammstein, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Slash (Done, proposed a marriage at the concert), Gogol Bordello, The Brand New Heavies (Done), FatBoySlim, Tarkan.
- Have an ear piercing (Done).
- Attend an Indian wedding, attend a Royal Wedding (Done: Yogyakarta).
- Have children (Done. A boy and a girl, the factory is now closed).
- Have a rasta haircut (Done. Hideous).
- Sleep overnight on the street (Done).
- Backpacking trips around Indonesia. And set foot in Indonesian big islands: Java (Done, of course), Sumatra (Done), Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Papua.
- Stand in international dateline, in Fijian Island of Taveuni.
- Gatecrash a stranger's wedding party.
- Score a hat-trick in a football match (Done).
- Ice fishing in a frozen river.
- Road trip from the southern part of Britain to the tip of the north (Done: Cambridge to Inverness).
- Enter the Guinness Book of Records.
- Crowd surfing.
- Visit: Rio de Janeiro, Dubai, Moscow, Vienna (Done), Barcelona, Madrid, Tokyo (Done), New York (Done), Ushuaia, Paris (Done), Florence (Done), Stockholm, Monaco (Done), Prague, Athens, Bangkok (Done), Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan, Hanoi (Done), Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Lagos, Seoul (Done), Luang Prabang, Myanmar, Amsterdam (Done), New Orleans, Shanghai (Done), Sao Paolo. The island of Socotra.
- Date a Japanese girl (Done).
- Write a best selling book.
- Take a circular journey in Busway corridor 1, Jakarta.
- Circum-navigate the globe (Done: Jakarta-Singapore-Vienna-Venice-Miami-LA-Hong Kong-Jakarta).
- Be an interview guest at a radio talk show (Done).
- Experience a life-threatening accident, and survive (Done, twice).
- See: the Northern Lights, the Sakura Garden in Japan (done).
- Eat Swiss fondue in Switzerland (Done), Pizza in Italy (Done), American burger in a small American town diner (Done), Scottish Hagis (Done), Ramen spicy level 38, Semi-live octopus in Korea (I chickened out).
- Live in London (Done).
- Visit the spot of ancient/fabled city/place of: Lydia, Babylon, Troy, Sodom and Gomorrah, Timbuktu, Jerusalem, Medina (Done), Lumbini.
- Ride a mechanical bull (Done. It wasn't a pretty sight).
- Go to World Music festival, Glastonbury festival.
- Work at the financial market (Done. Still working there).
- Reach the state of Nirvana. And then go back to real life.
- Meet: Jim Rogers, John Pilger (Done), Ha-Joon Chang, Richard Branson, Anthony Robbins, Karen Armstrong, Robert Fisk, Naomi Klein, Tony Wheeler, George Soros, Warren Buffett, Erik Reinert.
- Do: Water rafting, Scuba diving (Done), bungee jumping, skydiving, run a marathon (Done, mini marathon), ok then run a REAL marathon, Swimming with dolphins, Kayaking (Done), swimming in the Dead Sea.
- Drive up to 180km/hour.
- Become a street musician for a day.
- Take a picture with a snake hanging in my neck facing one of my biggest fear (Done. Nearly crap my pants).
- Create an organisation (Done).
- Save a life.
- Watch live: Liverpool v Man Utd, Barcelona v Real Madrid, AC Milan v Inter Milan, Glasgow Celtics v Glasgow Rangers, the FA Cup, English Premier League, Champions League match live (Done: 2007 when Man Utd thrashed AS Roma 7-1), International match (Done: Brazil v Portugal).
- Witness Liverpool FC win an English Premier League again.
- Earn a master's degree (Done).
- Watch live: All England badminton match (Done), Wimbledon match, Thai Boxing (Done), Sumo wrestling (Done), the Olympics, bull fighting.
- Doctrine my wife to be a football fanatic (secretly ongoing).
- Visit the Guinness factory in Ireland, Whiskey factory in Scotland (Done), Vodka factory in Russia.
- Visit: New York Stock Exchange (Done), London Stock Exchange (Done), Tokyo Stock Exchange (Done), Indonesia Stock Exchange (Done), Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
- Write an article and get it published in the media (Done, The Jakarta Globe).
- Having a snow fight (Done), Sand boarding, Skiing.
- Meet a supermodel (Done. Met Claudia Schiffer in an underground club in the UK. Even got the chance to tap her in the arm, asking for a picture together).
- Laugh so hard that I pee a little (Almost, should've just went for it).
- Visit a mental institution. I repeat: visit (Done).
- Learn: play Sitar, martial art (Done), play golf (I did say "learn", not necessarily be good at it, so done), Portuguese language, Salsa dancing (Done. But already forgot).
- Win a trophy (Done), win a freakin medal (Done).
- Get a free upgrade on a plane (Done).
- Travel to a road-less-traveled place, and stay overnight in a local villager's house (Done).
- Help a revolution (a very minor contribution).
- Watch live stand up comedy show (Done, wanting for more).
- Stay up for 72 hours straight (only managed to stay up for 2 days, so far).
- Visit Johannesburg - An elderly British traveler on a flight from Zurich to London once advised me to travel all over the world, and then go to Johannesburg. Gonna do exactly that.
- See a real life whale.
- Go window shopping at Amsterdam's Red Light District (Done).
- Have a photo of me published in a magazine (Done).
- Island hopping in Phi Phi Island Thailand (Done). Visit: Comodo Island, Seychelles, Republic of Palau, Raja Ampat, Cyprus, Mykonos, Karimun Jawa, Belitung.
- Pilgrimage to Mecca (Done). Visit: Vatican (Done), Golden Temple Amritsar, Tibet. I'm sure I miss plenty of sacred places, please do help me out figuring out this list.
- Read Al Qu'ran cover to cover. Also read Bible, Torrah, Dhammapada, Guru Granth Sahib, Tibetan Book of the Dead, Vedic texts. Did I miss something? Please do let me know.
- Visit: the Serengeti national park, Victoria Falls, Greenwhich Mean Time statue (Done), Equatorial point in Pontianak Indonesia, Varanasi in the Ganges River.
- Visit the Bank of England (Done).
- See the Mona Lisa painting in Louvre, Paris (Done).
- Be a vegetarian for a week (only fail attempts so far).
- Meet a billionaire in person (Done, accidentally bump into Mohamed Al Fayed when I was in Harrods).
- Play Claire de Lune in piano.
- Ride: a helicopter, a private jet (Done), elephant ride, air balloon.
- Drive: a speed boat (Done), a go-kart (Done), an F1 car.
- Hit bulls-eye on a dart board.
- Be a front man in a band (Done).
- Stand in a 3 country border spot (Done: 3 border point between Netherlands, Belgium and Germany).
- Join the tide of Saigon's crazy rush hour (Done), Mumbai traffic madness
- Have my picture published in a financial newspaper (Done, at Bisnis Indonesia and at Investor Daily (Indonesia)).
- Visit: The Egyptian Pyramids, Pisa tower (Done), Borobudur (Done), Petra, Taj Mahal, Angkor Wat (Done), the Great Wall of China (Done), Machu pichu, Sahara Desert, The Colosseum (Done), Niagara Falls, Halong Bay (Done), Grand Canyon, the Mayan pyramids of Chichen Itza.
- Watch Liverpool FC match live (Done: Liverpool FC v Birmingham City).
- Participate in festivals: Vegetarian festival Phuket (Done), Holi Festival India, Diwali Festival (Done), Tomato fight in Bunol, running with the bulls in Pamplona, October-fest in Munich.
- Tour around Jakarta using only public transport, not an easy gig.
- Clubbing at Ibiza, Ministry of Sound London.
- Watch: All Rocky Movies (Done), all Godfathers movie (Done), Breakfast at Tiffany's, all Indiana Jones movie (Done), re-watch all Star Wars movies.
- Start a business from scratch (Done. But eventually fail).
- Shake hands with a President / Prime Minister while they're in power (Done. With Jose Ramos Horta and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on separate occasion).
- Read: Nelson Mandela's autobiography, Mahatma Gandhi's autobiography (Done), Soekarno's penyambung lidah rakyat, The Wealth of a Nation by Adam Smith, The Origins of species by Charles Darwin, The Republic by Plato (Done), Common Sense by Thomas Paine, Rihla by Ibn Batuta, Sun Tzu Art of War (Done), Cyropaedia by Xenophon.
- Have grand children.
- Making friends with people from every single country (194. Yes 194 including Palestine) (Ongoing).
- Become old and wise, and able to tell the stories from the time I was young and stupid. And then relive the stupidity.
- Live until the age of 100.
