And I am Superman. (I’m sorry, let’s get to the point…)

Honestly, in Payangan we do not have much points of interest if compared to other towns in Bali, let’s say Ubud, which is the neighbouring city of Payangan. We don’t even have fiber optic internet yet, due to lack of demand. In 2010, our population was only estimated to be at 41, 164 people.

However, small towns like ours do have their own strong suits. I mean, with a name like ‘place for the gods’, it’s quite neat for starters.

Place for the gods

The word Payangan came from the word Parahyangan, which means ‘place for the gods’. In the history, there was this guy called Rsi Markandeya, a Hindu priest, who did his pilgrimage all the way from Jawa to Bali. In his journey, he built many holy places (parahyangan) to worship the gods. To honour his journey, the place is called Parahayangan, which soon turned into Payangan probably to make it easier for people to pronounce.

In the past, Payangan was very well known as the source of lychee. We used to have a lot of lychee trees, including those in front of my parents’ house. According to my father, lychees from Payangan were very good and sweet as the seeds were imported directly from China. They were gifts from Chinese immigrants to the King of Payangan. However, it has changed a lot these days – we have not much lychee trees anymore. Which is sad, because, who doesn’t love lychees?

However, you can’t beat the scenery in my city. Payangan has this wonderful scenery of paddy fields – large, green ones. Easy on the eyes. It has become such a big advantage to the tourism industry as some of big hotels located in Payangan are built around the paddy fields to use them as the point interest. Payangan, as you can see, is not as famous as Ubud, so the amount of tourists who flock here (I am not sure if flock is the right word) are not as much and specifically come because they already know of Payangan.

Another thing is due to obscurity of Payangan, these hotels would publish their location as Ubud, instead of Payangan. I am sad and feel this is unfair because one, it is misleading to the tourists and two, because Payangan by itself is a beautiful city with its own places of interest, so we should be able to magnify those.

The weather in Payangan used to be chilly, although not as cold as the temperature in Kintamani. However due to the climate change, after 2010 onwards, Payangan’s temperature could reach 28 C or even more. It feels quite stuffed and humid, like we are in Denpasar now.

Food I grew up with

It wouldn’t be complete to talk about one’s city without mentioning its staple food!

As for me, Balinese rice porridge is my favourite breakfast. There is this stall near my house that sells the most delicious Balinese rice porridge ever, one that I had been frequenting since childhood. What we usually have in the porridge are shredded chicken, roasted coconut, wild ginger, lime and scallions. It is the best comfort food one could have.

What’s special about Balinese rice porridge is that it is placed inside one big piece of banana leaf. There is no need to use a spoon while eating Balinese porridge, as another banana leaf is rolled to form a spoon!

My second favourite is  a snack called Laklak. They are some sort of pancakes made of sticky rice flour, mixed with coconut milk and the extract of suji leaves, smothered with brown sugar. Laklak is best eaten with hot tea during the evening.

Another one of my favourite is called Nasi Jinggo. Often sold in the night market near my place (the night market is called Pasar Senggol Payangan) Nasi Jinggo is made of fist of steamed rice coupled with slices of tempe, shredded chicken, noodles, tasty shredded coconut, and unbeatable spicy sauce (sambal) and all this is covered with banana leaves. Most Balinese waroeng (stalls) sell Nasi Jinggo, but what makes it special is the quality of sambal each stall makes.

The illustration above should be able to explain the ingredients inside every Nasi Jinggo packet.

Remote working life

Remote working in Payangan is not exactly easy if you don’t have your own Internet connection at home. There are no cafes or restaurants that offer wifi connection much, as we are a small town with modest population.

However, if you are up for co-working, the nearest town that can offer that would be Ubud. It is about 10 km, which would take about 20 minutes away from Payangan. There will be loads of cafes and restaurants offering wifi connection, as well as this nice co-working space called Hubud.

It also isn’t easy to buy computer stuff in Payangan. The nearest city that would offer loads of computer stuff with its own mall, perhaps, will be in Denpasar. Hence I prefer to shop my computer gadgets online. It does come with one disadvantage still thought – delivery services like JNE and TIKI do not deliver to my town. They only deliver all the way till Ubud. So what I do is I would let them to drop my delivery at a relatives’ place in Ubud, and I would go pick up from there.

Will you come?

Well, that’s a glimpse about my town, Payangan. Although a lot of things here make you struggle more than living in the big cities, Payangan does have a lot of its own advantages – quiet nights, beautiful scenery, happy, genuine people, so it will not matter where I go I would always take pride in this place for its beauty and calmness.

If you are ever in the area, let me know and I will show you around!

The post A City of Our Own VIII : Payangan appeared first on Stampede: the strategic design & technology company.

A few months ago while waiting for my dinner, like many misanthropic millennials out there, I took out my phone and browsed around the Internet. A link lead me to an application form to attend TEDxUbud, which event is only limited to 300 participants. I thought, “Why not?” and filled the form up.

My dinner arrived, I stashed my phone away (because food is priority) and forgot about it.

Until a couple of weeks later, an email arrived in my inbox saying that my application has been approved!

So this is yet another why-not.  I booked my flight ticket to Bali in September and announced to the team I was going to represent Stampede at TEDxUbud. They first went “wha?” before going “yay!”

(My I’ll figure it out later was where to stay – but let’s not worry about that for now.)

Representing Stampede

I arrived and beamed when I saw my name along with my designation and Stampede, on the name tag.

If we have spoken to each other before, you would have known how proud I am of Stampede and my team based on, but not limited to, these facts:

• We are like family.
• We all work remotely since the beginning, and have found the workaround for most of the classic challenges of remote working of which many companies have been facing (i.e. communication, timezones, cultural differences, management etc.)
• As modest and relatively small as my team is, we produce great work all year round.
• We are like family.

I spent the day circling around the crowd, getting to know each other and eventually introducing Stampede amidst my incessant demands of asking them to view our website on their devices.

I hope I am not being creepy. Moving on.

When Traditions and Technology Merge

It was hard not to be inspired by all the speakers’ stories and achievements, honestly – they were all amazing.

I am a fan of design thinking and strategy, and all the possibilities design and technology could pave ways for dying traditions, so here are my two favourites.

Nancy Margried

Seven years ago, Nancy Margried and her team at Batik Fractal met with one of the most respected batik designers in the country. They told him they were able to create batik patterns using a computerised math algorithm called jBatik software. They were sure he’d be excited about their idea and wanted to collaborate, but he ended their meeting by saying that batik and technology should never go together and that Nancy and her team were insulting batik as a sacred culture.

Fast forward to 2014 and Nancy and her team have been training more than 1000 batik artisans and students throughout the country. As a result, Batik Fractal are bringing older and younger generations together to learn from each other and collaborate not only to preserve batik as a cultural icon, but also to develop an industry that supports millions of batik artisans throughout Indonesia.

Nancy is glad that seven years ago she didn’t listen when she was told that batik and technology should not come together – even if the man who told her was a batik legend.

Rizal Abdulhadi

Rizal Abdulhadi is a uniquely talented multi-instrumentalist, folk singer, and social activist from West Java, Indonesia, who has dedicated his music to struggle for real change and a more creative Indonesia and world. His latest project is called “Rasendriya”- an instrument he independently created from bamboo, combining guitar with didgeridoo and percussion. His lyrics, in both Indonesian and English, talk of travel, adventure, democracy, and opportunity.

Rizal spent over four years traveling and playing concerts through his homeland of Indonesia between the years of 2008-2012, since then traveling with his music through Singapore, Malaysia and Australia. His new album “Rizal and Rasendriya, Away” featuring his newly invented instrument and 5 musicians from Turkey, Czech Republic, Australia and Indonesia.

His energy is infectious – he simply brought the house down with his closing performance!

Those of Us In-Betweeners

On top of the inspirational talks, what I also love most about the folks attending TEDxUbud is most of them are like me – perpetually in transit between many cities.

Late 2012, after moving temporarily to London, I made a pact to myself that I would travel as much as I could and probably will not stay in one place for a long time. Because I am greedy, I also decide to work while on the move. Being in Stampede gives me the flexibility to project manage my team in any cities I’d be staying.

This concept is popularised as the term digital nomad. I am skeptical of the term, but if that is what describes my current lifestyle, I would take it any day.

About TED, TEDx and TEDxUbud

TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) is a nonprofit organisation devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Started as a four-day conference in California 30 years ago, TED has grown to support those world-changing ideas with multiple initiatives. The annual TED Conference invites the world’s leading thinkers and doers to speak for 18 minutes. Their talks are then made available, free, at TED.com.

Created in the spirit of TED’s mission, “ideas worth spreading,” the TEDx (‘x’ stands for ‘independent’) program is designed to give communities, organisations and individuals the opportunity to stimulate dialogue through TED-like experiences at the local level. To date, more than 7,000 TEDx events have taken place all around the world.

Each year TEDxUbud features amazing lineup of Indonesian and international entrepreneurs, designers, storytellers, and performers sharing their ideas with a curated audience of 300 at Fivelements in Bali, Indonesia.

(P.S: With the exception of my big grin in the second photo, the rest of photos, and some of the words are reworded from TEDxUbud 2014 Official Facebook page. Thanks!)

(P.P.S: And if you are worried that if I ever did find a place to stay, it was actually pretty sweet!)

The post TEDxUbud: Ideas Worth Spreading! appeared first on Stampede: the strategic design & technology company.