After Singapore

I would walk 500 miles and I would walk 500 more

Author: pascal

Krung Thep Trip for The 40’s

In 2025 me and my high school friends were in our 40 years of existence on earth, and we planned for a trip together to Bangkok. I was very keen to join, but not without challenges. First, most of us booked for 3 night stay in Bangkok. I wished I could join the full experience, but I had to teach onsite class in Bandung on the first day. Then, wife of one of our friend was detected pregnant, so he had to stay home. Lastly, another friend had plumbing issues at home and a mother to be taken care of. That left only 6 of us who joined the trip.

Luckily the material for the class on that day was not so much, so I could end the class early and ran to the train station. I took a Whoosh high speed train trip to Halim, while monitoring the traffic in Jakarta. And, my work. I was still disappointed that I could not take a leave that day and had to work while traveling, replying to WhatsApp messages and e-mails.

Me taking the feeder train, with its signature green seat.

About the traffic, taking a shuttle bus from Halim to airport was easier, but with the risk of stuck in traffic. I ended up taking the city trains with 2 transits, just like fellow Jakartans. I stayed overnight at a budget hotel near the airport, to take a short rest before taking the flight to Bangkok next morning. This hotel had an interesting room, where the wash basin was installed outside the bathroom, probably due to space limitation.

View inside the hotel room.

I intended to wake up at 3 AM and take the free shuttle to airport at 4 AM, but the reception suggested me to be ready at the airport 3 hours before take off, so I moved the plan earlier by an hour. The hotel provided bread and coffee for breakfast, enough to prevent masuk angin (common cold), before the actual breakfast that I have pre-ordered for inflight meal. At the airport, check-in was much smoother than I (and the reception) thought. So there I waited 2,5 hours before boarding, alternating between laying on the couch, watching downloaded movie and charging my phone.

Situation at the apron in the morning.

The plane took off on time. On board the flight, I had this chicken lasagna with spinach. It looked significantly uglier than the one shown in the menu book, but hey, it’s a healthy meal. It has to be ugly. In this meal, they also gave not 1, not 2, but 3 paper napkins! I did not really need it but keep them in my pocket in case I needed it later.

Chicken lasagna and spinach.

To my surprise, they also sold beers on board. I know premium airlines serve beers or wine, but before this flight, I’ve never seen a budget airline sells alcoholic beverages before (probably to prevent misbehavior from the passengers). The flight attendant told me that the beer they have is not chilled, and she asked me if I want a cup of ice instead. I said yes, and she served me both. Here I also learned that if you pour the beer into the cup inflight, it foams easily (in my case, it overflowed and spilled onto the table), probably because of the air pressure. Fortunately, I have the, you guessed it, 3 paper napkins that I kept!

The plane landed on time as well. The Thailand immigration had this interesting LCD screen, where after the officer scan your password, it greets you and give some instructions (like putting your fingers on the scanner) in localized language (Bahasa Indonesia in my case). After immigration was cleared, I ran to the train station. I ran because most of the walkway to the station was air-conditioned and I wanted to make the most of my time in Bangkok, in the city. What I noticed is that in many places, they have this kind of altar, showing and respecting the Thailand queen.

I took the Red Line train to city, continued with car ride with a ride-hailing service to ICONSIAM, a large shopping mall inside the city, next to a river. There I met my friends, who have been in Bangkok from the day before. We had lunch at SOOKSIAM (large) food court and took a group photo, with pictures of our friends who could not come. I ordered Pad Thai for lunch. It was supposed to be a just regular meal, but it tasted wonderful, probably because I finally had the meal in its home country. J bought roasted pork for sharing.

We also went to a supermarket inside ICONSIAM, where I bought some snacks to bring home to Indonesia. Local supermarkets have always been my choice when buying stuffs overseas to bring home. Items sold at souvenir shops are usually purchasable online or even within my hometown, while local biscuits, instant coffee, etc, can only be found in local shops abroad. We then split up. Some of us were looking for running shoes, while others were looking for suitcases. I just walked around the mall, then joined E for a foot massage, across the street. While crossing the street, I noticed a large rainbow LGBTQ+ symbol printed along the crossing bridge. What is considered controversial in many countries, here in Bangkok they seem to live in peace. I also noticed some café selling cannabis, as it is (at the time of this post writing) legal here.

LGBTQ+ Pride.

Foot massage. Lovely lady.

We then gathered around in the shopping mall, and took a ride back to hotel. I finally could drop my suitcase, that I have been carrying from the airport. We then took a group photo, as a memory that we have lived up to 40. We also talked about life, and I was happy to hear that my friends, who have been in Bangkok from the previous day, brought their laptops and worked as well on the first day. So I guess, it’s a common problem for us, breadwinners in our 40’s. The hotel also somehow decorated our room with birthday decoration and gave us cakes.

Group photo in the hotel room.

As E is a Marriott hotel chain member, we were entitled to have a few beers and snacks for free at the rooftop bar. We enjoyed the sunset together and took another group photo. The weather was terrific, less hot and humid compared to Singapore, and the air was less polluted than Jakarta and Bandung.

Another group photo, on the rooftop.

At night, we had dinner at Somboon Seafood. It was a Chinese food restaurant with local touch. One of their specialties was the Fried Curry Crab Meat, which was fabolous. In most of the crab menu here in Bangkok have the shells already removed, making it very easy to consume.

After dinner, we walked through the Patpong Night Market, as well as the red light district. Along the way, many adult bars were offering us their services, from normal ladies to gay bars. I noticed that in the gay bars, the gigolos were dressed to look like Korean guys.

The red light district, where one of the sales offered us to get in his bar.

We also had a drink in bar with sexy ladies inside.

Around 9.00 PM, We stepped into one of the bar. This bar exhibits Muay Thai fights starting from 10.30 PM regularly, but before that, it showed girls in bikini dancing around poles. A sign was posted on the wall to remind that guests are not allowed to touch the girls. An auntie (older lady) with normal clothes accompanied us to our seat and sat with us. A few moments later, one of the bikini girl approached us and tried to start small talk with me. Not until 5 minutes later she ran out of questions and asked me straight: “Would you like to buy me a drink?”. I said sorry no, and she just left us. I felt a bit awkward there, so I avoided eye contact with any specific girl there, jumping from one girl to another. I also felt that when I started looking into their eyes, they tried to look at me as well and start a nonverbal conversation. I only knew later that it’s common for them to try to lure the guests into buying them drinks, which in turn giving them commission. That also explains why the ladies who danced in front of us was not very excited, because we didn’t really care about making conversations with them. Around 9.45, we left the bar and went back to the hotel.

Back in the hotel, I was too tired that night and I slept not long after shower.

In the morning, we had light breakfast in the hotel, then took another ride to Big C Supercenter. Inside there was a large department store, comparable to Giant or Carrefour chain in other parts of Southeast Asia. I brought some another snacks to bring home. What’s interesting was that there’s a pedestrian bridge that connect that building, Central World and Platinum Fashion Mall. We walked up to Platinum.

A view from the pedestrian bridge.

I took a short tour in Platinum, then walked back with Jerry to Big C, to sit in ChaTraMue Brand cafe. In Indonesia, you may have seen ChaTraMue from their Thai Tea leaves product. In this café, they sell various derivatives of their tea. I tried the Thai tea ice cream, which tasted really nice.

Thai Tea Ice Cream.

After everyone was happy shopping, we had our lunch at Thong Smith, inside Central World. They served delicious Thai boat noodles. The food was delicious, but it was served in a normal bowl, instead of boat-shaped bowl like what we saw the day before at SOOKSIAM. However, after a bit of googling, it turned out that historically the word “boat” refers to the watercraft that traversed Bangkok’s canals and sold the noodle, not the bowl.

Lunch at Thong Smith.

The pedestrian bridge turned out to be connecting more than just those three buildings. It also spans to other destinations as well. We walked to Siam Paragon, and had Omelette Crab from Here-Hai, a Michelin star certified food chain, as well as Pad Thai from Thipsamai, another award winning food chain. Some of my friend said that the Pad Thai was the best so far, but I favored the Pad Thai I had in SOOKSIAM more, probably because it was my first local food in Bangkok.

Situation at the Siam Paragon Food Court.

After that, some of us took another ride at the hotel while the rest walked around. In hotel, we took a break, and did our own businesses. J went for a Saturday mass, some others played billiard and some went for another Thai massage. I used the hotel fitness center for a treadmill run. The fitness center was small but the equipments were relatively well maintained.

In the evening, we walked to Northeast restaurant for dinner, as suggested by the billiard lady. It didn’t disappoint us. The food was nice, and it was roughly half price of the Somboon. My friends noticed that half of the customers were South Koreans. Even as if you look below in the photo, the TV were showing Korean pop music videos.

Dinner at Northeast.

After dinner, we walked back to the hotel, took another break, then walked again to Vertigo rooftop bar. This was my first time dining on a high-rise building rooftop bar and the view was stunning. We were afraid at first because the reservation e-mail said that they reserve the right to put a minimum charge of ~2.000 THB (1 million IDR) per person. Fortunately that didn’t happen, probably because it was not so crowded above.

View from the Vertigo rooftop bar.

After the expensive view, we walked back to the hotel, but stopped by 7-Eleven to buy some snacks. Forget the red-light district, sexy ladies and expensive alcoholic beverages. We jokingly considered this action as the biggest sin of our trip: to consume junk food late at night.

Closing the night with worst sin for 40s uncles.

The next morning was our last day for most of us in Bangkok. We took the last group photo, before I, J and E traveled to Don Mueang Airport. I and J flew home, E took another bus to Pattaya, while the rest were either taking later flights or go home the next day. We planned for another trip in our 45’s, probably to Hongkong or Kuala Lumpur.

Last full group photo in Bangkok.

Still taking the last chance in the plane to take photo.

By the way, Krung Thep (Maha Nakhon) is the official name for Bangkok inside Thailand.

June 9, 2025
The Sidji Hotel 10th Anniversary and About Batik

Early 2025, I received an invitation to attend the 10th anniversary of The Sidji Hotel Pekalongan. For gentlemen, dress code for the party was Batik Pekalongan (for ladies:batik encim). Not just a batik, but specifically the Pekalongan batik. One may think that all batik are the same, but they are not! I know this because I visited Museum Batik Pekalongan once. I was taught that batik Pekalongan has certain characteristics that make it different compared to other batik. However, I completely forgot on what are the differences. Therefore, I did some research on that. My sources were from the internet and not everything on the internet is true, hence take the explanation here with a grain of salt.

Research on Batik

From its color, Pekalongan batik uses bright colors, whereas other batik usually comes in safer colors like brown or dark blue.

From what’s drawn on it, Pekalongan batik uses pictures of animals and plants instead of simple patterns. Just like shown in the following picture.

Birds and flowers pattern, as shown in walls of The Sidji Hotel.

Then there is the Jlamprang pattern, which has the philosophy of connecting the two worlds: the gods and the humans. This pattern is used frequently by the officials to represent the town, as it can be seen in the walls of a newly renovated market and the toll gate of this town.

Jlamprang Pattern, as it is shown on the walls of newly renovated Banjarsari Market.

The Liong motive, that shows Chinese dragons are also commonly used.

The Liong Pattern, as shown in the wall of The Sidji Hotel aisles.

There are many more variants of Pekalongan batik, such as the Buketan, as popularized by a Dutch Eliza van Zuylen; or Hokokai, which named after Japan-formed association that influenced the pattern.

I looked for a batik that matches the above descriptions in Bandung, and my choice fell to a batik shirt that’s symmetrical, containing dominantly light blue and brown color, and the parang (coral) pattern. May or may not be the Pekalongan batik style, but it looks nice.

Me wearing the Batik that I chose.

Pekalongan Trip

Then, came the day for driving to Bandung. In the morning, I spent some time at the local SAMSAT, to pay my 5-yearly vehicle tax. It was very crowded because the government just had this campaign of annulling the penalty for not paying the tax from earlier years. I spent half an hour just to queue for photocopying the documents, then decided just to resume on later days as I needed to get ready for the trip. Of course, as a person who always pay the tax on time, I got very upset about this.

The parking in SAMSAT was so full I had to park next to a rice field.

I filled up my gas tank and took a break at home, while waiting the kids to finish their school. At around 13.00, we departed from home. It was raining cats and dogs en route, and we stopped for lunch midway. We arrived at the hotel somewhere around 17.30

Most of the invited guests were already there, and many of us brought snacks. I ate many of them. Y wanted to give proper nutrition to the kids so we ordered meals from Nostalgia restaurant. The kids didn’t really like the food so I finished them. Around 8 PM, the kids started swimming but I was too tired to accompany them. Y kindly took care of them while I went back to my room to sleep.

In the morning, F took us for a walk around the town. Many interesting spots when we walked.

A sign that says “forbidden to litter” and “someone was mind-controlled by ghost yesterday”.

A temple that is located side-by-side with a church.

Stopped by a Nasi Gudeg hawker along the way.

After walking, we did the aerobic dance led by local instructor. Then, proper breakfast at the hotel. In the afternoon, Y and her mom wandered the town for oleh-oleh (gifts) while I sat by the pool while the kids were swimming. We then took a rest in the hotel room.

Around 17.00, the celebration event started. Everyone were in their batik, and we took pictures at various places in the hotel.

The event started with a surprise visit from a loyal guest from abroad M, which successfully made the master of ceremony (Sidji staff) cry a little. M, who planned to stay in Sidji for only two weeks in October 2024, extended her stay for up to four months, thanks to the warm welcome and friendship with the Sidji staffs. Then, remarks from the management, followed by video presentation of the hotel history and testimonies from various guests. There were also a moment to remember one contributor to Sidji who passed away during COVID-19, as well as appreciation to loyal staffs, including who joined Sidji from when the hotel building was still under construction.

Distinguished Sidji Staffs posing with the management.

What admired me is that, during the celebration, Sidji staffs were prompt to serve the guests, even though that it’s their birthday. What a true professionalism! Later that night, when the guests were fully fed, they had their own celebrations by singing Laskar Pelangi song, having pictures at the photo booth, and dancing to the dangdut music.

I then went back to my room to rest, as the next day I and my son D had to wake up early for Palm Sunday mass. D was feeling unwell, probably too tired of the fun he had that day.

Palm Sunday

The next day, I has a simple breakfast in the morning, and drove to nearby St. Peter Church. I was actually too lazy to go, but it was compulsory for my son D to attend the holy week masses, as he was taking the first communion class. The mass was supposed to start 7.00, but it was preceded with a parade from Pius school nearby, hence delayed for half an hour. Palm Sunday is actually a remembrance of Jesus riding a donkey and paraded through the street of Jerusalem. We waited at the church yard, before the parade arrived.

After the mass, there were remarks from vice mayor of Pekalongan, urging the resident to start separating their trashes into three groups: organic, recyclable, and non-recyclable (or something along that line). This was due to the trash crisis, where the government were having difficulties in processing the existing trashes. D looked for the priest for his signature (as a proof that he attended the mass).

When we came back to the hotel, breakfast was almost closed, but we managed to get one. Around 11.00, we cleared our room, checked out, said goodbye, and drove back to Bandung for another 3,5 hours.

Family Picture Taken on The Last Day Before Going Home

April 15, 2025
Lebaran Holiday 2025

One can safely say that Idulfitri is the most awaited holiday in Indonesia, a Muslim majority country. However, it’s not a holiday for Muslims only. During 1,5 weeks of the holiday season (also called as Lebaran), people in the country seem to just stop working and spend their time to go back to their hometown or simply relaxing. Just like the Chinese New Year for the Chinese majority country. This year Lebaran also coincides with Cheng Beng, the time of the year for Chinese visiting the grave of their ancestors. Hence the main purpose of my trip this time.

I drove with my family to Cibubur Junction in the morning, and reached there at about 10AM, just in time the shopping mall opened. My parents took MRT and LRT from their home in Bintaro, and reached Harjamukti LRT Station around 11.30. We then drove to Pondok Ranggon Cemetery to visit my mother’s tomb. Surprisingly there was heavy traffic on the road towards the cemetery. It turned out that the Muslims also visit their ancestors for the Lebaran holiday.

Photo booth at Harjamukti LRT Station

I drove back to the shopping mall to pick up my kids and my wife Y. We then drove to Sunter area, where my grandmother just opened a Nasi Campur restaurant called Nasi Campur HK. We were served abundant portion of delicious Nasi Campur, and we chatted a lot.

After which, we visited another relative, my aunt W and her family. We recalled many memories of when I was a child. My mom was close to aunt W and we spent a lot of time together, usually for holiday in the Puncak highland. W’s house is interesting. Her husband K keeps and maintains old furniture and electronics instead of buying new ones. W’s daughter J took a picture of us together.

Family Picture

We then drove to Sunlake Hotel, where most of us took a rest and I did some work on with my laptop. I and my family spent 2 nights in the hotel while my parents joined the first night only.

At night we went out for dinner. We planned to have dinner at my uncle K’s coffee shop in Kelapa Gading (see Coffee, Bento, Running and Wedding). Turned out information in Google was not so accurate and it was closed when we arrived. Uncle K was very kind to receive us even when the coffee shop was closed, and he served some paos for us. We were full afterwards and didn’t go for another dinner.

The night went through and we were well rested.

In the morning, my son D woke up at 6 AM, and we headed to restaurant for breakfast with my parents. My dad has a spare phone that he wanted to use as a backup device. He offered D to transfer as many videos as possible from his main phone to the backup phone using bluetooth, with payment of Rp1.000 per video. D managed to transfer 50 photos. The breakfast choices at the hotel was very generous, specifically with Indian food in the menu every day.

The kids then went swimming, my parents took a cab and KRL back home, while I went for team zoom meeting an hour before noon. Just a few minutes before noon, Y called me, informing that a shuttle from the hotel was ready to drop us to the nearest LRT station. Just a few days before I read that the LRT Jakarta ran a campaign where you can visit 6 of their stations to collect stamps, and exchange them with souvenirs.

Shuttle to MKG

Upon reaching the station we were slightly disappointed to know that the souvenir for the day were fully claimed. However, we could come the next day in the morning to try again. We then had a lunch at MKG shopping mall that was (almost) connected to the station.

We went back to the hotel afterwards. The kids swam again, while I and Y exercised at the gym. In the evening we planned to have dinner in a seafood restaurant nearby, but again, it was closed. We went for dimsum instead at Kong restaurant. We asked the kids to slept early that night. Because we went back to LRT Station early in the morning the next day, fully prepared!

We drove to Velodrome at 5.30, parked our car there, and walked to Velodrome LRT station. Beside four of us, there were also two people hunting for the merchandise. The staff explained us that with the paper she just gave to us, we had to stop at each of the 6 stations, tap out, get stamped, and tap in. One trip costs Rp5.000, so we had to fork out Rp30.000 per person. She also needed to take picture of us, for documentation purposes. Unfortunately most of the pictures were taken in portrait mode, hence some parts are cropped in weird places here.

Starting with empty stamps

Halfway done

The whole journey itself took about 2 hours. But the kids were happy and we discovered interesting spots. One of which was the Pegangsaan Dua station, that serves as LRT car parking space as well.

Tree of gifts

Finally done, with the merchandises

We drove back to hotel and had breakfast. A few hours left before checkout, we played at the hotel’s playground and exercised at the gym. About 11.30 AM, we checked out and drove back to Bandung.

At home I took picture with the merchandises.

April 4, 2025
My Journey of Faith in Bandung Diocese (and the Bishop)

Disclaimer: this post is biased towards the Roman Catholic religion and Christianity. However, I promise you: no marketing.

At the time of this post writing, I have spent 13 years in Bandung. 13 years is also about the time I have officially become a Roman Catholic, despite being follower of Jesus from even before. Just recently I reached an importance milestone in my faith journey, hence this post.

2012: Baptism

When I moved to Bandung in 2012, I spared no time for preparing to marry my current wife, Yunnie. Under that circumstance, one prerequisite for me was being baptized. For an adult to be baptized in Catholic, one must undergo weekly classes for one year, with almost no absences. The problem was, that one year course would have just half-completed on January 2013, my wedding day. Pak Stefanus, my teacher, gave me an exception: I was allowed to be baptized mid-journey (to fulfill the requirement for the marriage), but I had to promise to complete the course like everyone else in the same class. I kept my promise.

Me being baptized by Father Rudi Behind me is Mrs. Fei Lan as my godmother, and Pak Stefanus.

A few years later, my mom-in-law got baptized, followed by my wife Yunnie (you read it right, her mom graduated first).

2014: The Kowalskis

When I first came to Bandung, I had a dream like many other fresh graduates: becoming rich from a technological startup. I created KIRI (now at https://projectkiri.id) to help people navigating Bandung using angkot (public minibus). It didn’t really took off financially, despite being still alive today and some number of users using it (and reporting to me when it’s down). However, the most interesting thing was from there I got to know another important persons in my life: The Kowalskis (https://gokowalskis.com/).

The husband, Waldemar Kowalski, used my KIRI app and submitted a feedback through our feedback form. At first I looked down on it because at that time some alay Indonesians tend to use bule (westerner) name as an alias to look cool. It turned out that Waldemar was an actual westerner, a pastor, as well as an experienced engineer. We agreed to meet at Miss Bee Providore café in Bandung, along with our wives. Waldemar and his wife Rosemarie asked us what we want to be prayed upon, and we answered: a child. At that time we had difficulties in getting a child. We then prayed together to God.

Not a year later, Yunnie became pregnant and long story short we had D, as pictured below. I still do weekly zoom with Waldemar and some other friends for bible study.

From left to right: K, Waldemar, Yunnie, me, D, and Rosemarie.

2018: Confirmation, and First Encounter with Bishop

In 2018, I and Yunnie received the confirmation sacrament. I was tasked to create a video about the class journey, and here it is below. The music for this was titled “Hidup Ini Adalah Kesempatan” which translates to “This Life is a Chance (To Serve God)”, and turned out to give strong impact for me in the upcoming years.

From there, I knew Fenmeos, another faithful Catholic who was also an engineer. It was also the first time I stood close to the bishop, Mgr. (Monsignor) Anton.

Pictured below is Yunnie (and little P in her belly) being confirmed by the bishop. I could not find the picture of me with during this ceremony, but I swear that I was there too, also confirmed.

2022: Heading The IT Bureau

In 2019-2020, COVID-19 pandemic started and everyone worked from home. Late 2021, Pak Wisnu, the current Head of IT Bureau in Diocese of Bandung of that time contacted me. He was looking for his successor. Out of several persons he offered, only me who was courageous enough to take the role, so he passed the baton to me. It was an unpaid position (despite later I was paid with something else great), but life was good at that time. I have double job and working in IT and higher education sector was one of the most flexible jobs to do from home. I gathered the team members, and some of us risked against COVID-19 to attend the inauguration. One of the team was Fenmeos, whom I knew during the confirmation process earlier. Mgr. Anton himself did the inauguration. In his speech, he thanked us for our willingness to serve, but also reminded us to not leave our family behind.

Group Picture of the buerau members and Mgr. Anton.

From left to right: Aldo, Sam, Fenmeos, and me.

I enjoyed my first few months of serving the Diocese. Having about 1-2 year working from home, going back and forth to the Diocese office and meeting people was fun. I also enjoyed solving problems one step at a time.

One of my priorities at that time was upgrading the SIMU (Sistem Informasi Manajemen Umat), the database system for parishioners of the Bandung Diocese. The SIMU system was built a few years ago, but infrastructure-wise it was not so well-maintained. The most visible symptom was the label “Not Secure” when the app was opened in modern web browsers, due to the lack of HTTPS certificate. Easy to solve for engineers, but it turned out to be more than a technical issue. We needed a professional and a contract to work on that. We also had to collaborate between the Diocese, owner of the server, and web developer. For that, we also needed an active MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) and an MoA (Memorandum of Agreement), which turned out to be expired at that time. I talked with several people, lobbied several people, learned the Roman Catholic organization structure, reminded people, and then finally made it work.

In 2 December 2022, a day after my birthday, we had this MoA signing ceremony between Father Samong (Curia Secretary) and Dr. Nugraheni (Dean of Faculty of Science & Technology, Unpar). It was during one of the worst time of the pandemic. In the picture below, A was joining through Zoom because he was infected with COVID-19 and in isolation.

MoA Signing Ceremony Between The Bandung Diocese and FTIS Unpar.

2023-2024: Keeping The Engine Running

Then, COVID-19 gradually faded away. It was a joy for most people. Frankly speaking, not much for me. During the pandemic, I could go to the Diocese office once a week. When it faded away, The paid job required me to go to the office more often, hence I had less time for the Diocese. Also, as I networked with more people in the Diocese, they invited me to join their different (offline) activities. Part of me said that I would love to help, but the other part said that I have limited time and energy. I also wanted to spend quality time with my own family, and even alone time of myself.

I am glad that I have Aldo and his wife Magda, who kept the engine running. He helped me continuing the SIMU progress. I still attended to some offline events. I am also glad that within the Diocese office there was Pak Black, Mas Yoseph, and Mas Yogi who were avid administrators of SIMU.

Situation of The SIMU Training, led by Pak Black.

Aside from the IT stuffs, 2024 were also eventful for the Catholics in Indonesia. The Pope visited Indonesia and held a mass in Gelora Bung Karno stadium Jakarta. For some people, it’s a war on the (free) ticket. I was actually entitled for a ticket thanks to my position in the Diocese. However, I regretfully did not take it as I had so many homeworks at work, aside from my responsibilities of taking care of the two kids. We did not have a maid or nanny, hence the responsibility was completely on us.

However, in 2024 I participated in a fundraising event that converted kilometers in running, walking, and cycling, to money for a cause. Our team was not the highest earner, but I managed to get a prize of Jam Tangan Paus (Pope’s watch). The Casio watch worn by the Pope during his visit to Indonesia became viral because it was so simple and inexpensive, and people compared it to watches used by some lavish religious leaders.

Me holding the prize of Casio watch, next to Father Tri holding his own prize.

Late 2024, there were preparation for new period of comittee. I decided to formally stop serving for the Diocese, and handed over to a younger generation. Aldo, who helped me since 2022, agreed to be the next Head of IT. Aldo built his team, and I submitted the names to the Diocese. I collected the old team and the new team in an informal breakfast at Jalan Braga.

Sam, Magda, Aldo, Fenmeos, Vania, Prof. Vero, Lydia, and me.

January 2025: A Month of Blessings

Somehow in early 2025, I and my family had many encounters with Mgr. Anton.

My son D, filled with confidence, volunteered himself to serve in the World Child Mission Day mass in the Bandung Cathedral, led by Mgr. Anton himself. Long story short, below is him giving the offering to Mgr. Anton, screen captured from Bandung Diocese Youtube channel.

D giving the offering to Mgr. Anton.

After the mass ended, Mgr. Anton walked around and Y asked him to take a picture with our daughter P. I was reluctant to be in the picture at first, but Yunnie insisted. So here it is: Mgr. Anton, P, and me.

Mgr. Anton and P, with me in the background.

The culmination happened on 24 January, during the inauguration event of the new committee. The new members were inaugurated and it was said that some of the former members would be given a certificate of appreciation from Mgr. Anton. I registered for the event and attended. Again in his speech, Mgr. Anton reminded the new members to be fair in time and focus between serving God and the family.

To my surprise, 4 people as representatives were called to go forward and personally receive the certificate from Mgr. Anton himself, and my name was there! I walked upfront, still shaking, but very grateful. Especially because Mgr. Anton himself looked me in the eye and said “Terima kasih, Pak Pascal!” (thank you, Pascal). This was much nicer than that time when I shook hand with one of Indonesia vice president, but what he did was look at his staff and asked “who are these guys, again?”.

Mgr. Anton giving the certificate to me. As you can see in the picture, I am wearing the Jam Tangan Paus. And same shirt as when I was in the picture earlier with Mgr. Anton and my daughter.

Close up of The Certificate of Appreciation.

Epilog

What happens after this for me? I still owe some unfinished projects with the Diocese, and will continue working on that with the new team. However, I will focus more on my family, especially that my son D will be taking the first communion classes for the next 6 months.

Also coincidentally in today’s bible study with Waldemar and friends, we studied 1 Corinthians 12. We talked about how different people receives different gifts from God, and the importance of making use of those gift for the greater good.

About the new team, it is even stronger than before. Let us pray for them to serve well. For the greater glory of God, or in latin: Ad maiorem Dei gloriam.

New members of the team. Photo by Prof. Vero.

I jokingly posed a handover of leadership to Aldo.

January 25, 2025
Jatiluhur Valley & Resort

One sign of getting old is to prefer staying at home rather than going out. This fact seemed to apply to me, in which this Christmas I found more happiness at home. However, I was obliged to take my family out (because it was school holiday!), and one night stay out of town sounded nice too. Long story short, we decided to go to Jatiluhur Valley & Resort (JVR), a hotel located next to the Jatiluhur Reservoir. So here we go.

We drove to Purwakarta about 8.30am in the morning. It was a short journey from Bandung thanks to the toll road. Exited at KM 64, we drove to the Purwakarta town first and had brunch at Hutan Jati Cafe & Gelato. It had a very interesting concept: a small forest inside the city. Purwakarta is rather hot and humid, so even under the greeneries it was still hot. Fortunately they also provided indoor airconditioned area. It also became a perfect ambience when it started raining outside.

We waited for the rain to eae then drove to JVR. I tried to take a shortcut as suggested by Google Maps, and had to drove through a very narrow road.

The road that led to JVR ascended and descended, and surrounded by greeneries, so it feels out of town. We arrived around 12 noon, and it was not the time yet for check in. The kids spent about an hour playing in the indoor playground, making friends with another guest who were checking out. After they got bored, we drove to Istora. It’s part of the JVR but closer to the reservoir and had better view.

It was hot outside so a few minutes before two we drove back to JVR main building for check in. After checked in we realized that the lobby was on 3rd floor, and to get to our room we had to take the elevator down to the 2nd floor. We rented two rooms, with connecting door. We complained that one of the room smelled cigarette (despite warning of Rp1.000.000 fine for smoking), and the housekeeping helped us by spraying some air freshener. Y wanted to spend alone time in the room but the kids were bored, so I took them to play in the outdoor playground area.

Around 4.30pm, we drove out to find a restaurant for early dinner. I craved for meal at traditional restaurant and we chose RM (Rumah Makan / Restaurant) Teh Titin, just a stone throw away from another restaurant RM Teh Pipin. The nostalgia of having meal in a traditional restaurant served well, but the experience there were not so nice. Just after the grilled fish were served, several flies came around and bugged us. The mango juice were a bit rotten, and the asam manis (sweet and sour) squid was too spicy.

We headed back to hotel to rest. The hotel held a nobar (nonton bareng / watch movie together) event at 7pm, but we were too tired and watched the classic Shaolin Soccer movie in the room instead. I slept early that night, to wake up early at 4.15 AM in the morning and prepared for morning run.

I ran to JVR Istora area, but my main purpose was to catch the sunrise. The sunrise sun was not very visible because the west side of the Istora was largely covered by trees. But still, the view was beautiful there.

I came back to my room afterwards, waiting for the others to be ready for breakfast at 8 AM. Breakfast was at the pool side, and the kids requested to swim. However, we deemed that the pool was not clean enough for swimming so we skipped.

After breakfast, we walked down the hill for about 1 km to see axis deers, in a small preservation area. Along the way we picked up some leaves to feed them. However, the security guard forbid us to feed the deers with such leaves, as he deemed it to “hot”. In Chinese culture, aculturated to Indonesia, food are categorized as “cold” and “hot”. Hot foods are known to cause “inner heat” (panas dalam) that may cause illnesses like sore throat.

We then walked back up the hill to the hotel. Surprisingly it was easier to climb up the road than to walk down. We then took a shower and checked out from the hotel.

On our way home, just before entering the toll road, we had lunch at RM Ciganea. With about the same price to RM Teh Titin, we had better experience here. It was the first time our family tasted Sate Maranggi, beef satay that grilled with basic sweet and savory spices. Y, who didn’t really like beef, seemed to like it. We brought some more to give the kids’ grandma at home.

December 24, 2024
YouTube video and DivX format for Car Media Player
Some cars, like mine, have a video player that can only play specific DivX videos (a.k.a. old format). It doesn’t play YouTube videos.

Of course it is illegal to easily download YouTube videos using yt-dlp, you need to pay premium and watch in their proprietary app or website. Even when you download it, what you get is the cryptic webm format that is not easily playable.

It is possible though, to convert the video you have downloaded to such DivX format using this command (original source here and here):
```
ffmpeg -i input-file.webm -c:v mpeg4 -q:v 5 -tag:v DIVX -s 720x576 -c:a libmp3lame -q:a 5 -ac 2 -ar 44100 -filter:v fps=25 output-file.avi
```
Or, if you don’t care about DivX format, it is also possible to convert to the usual mp4 format:
```
ffmpeg -i input-file.webm output-file.mp4
```
Therefore, if you did the things I explained above, you may break the law in your country. You have been warned.
December 7, 2024
DNArtworks Trip to Kuala Lumpur

It was almost Indonesia’s 2024 Independence celebration day when the DNArtworks team went for company outing to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Bandung team took the earliest Whoosh trip to Halim, followed by taxi ride to Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. At the airport, we had a light breakfast, then joined the rest of the team.

We had plenty of free time before boarding the plane around 10.40. We took Malaysia Airline, a full-service airline. I usually flew budget, so upon entering the plane I asked the flight attendant whether we would get a full meal or just snack. One attendant couldn’t hold his laugh to my question. He joked that it’s dependant of my flight. Even after was seated I received no explicit answer whether it’s a full meal or just snack. When the meal was served, it was finally clear that it’s a full meal, complete with fruits and bread & butter. When we arrived at Kuala Lumpur, that same flight attendant jokingly asked me again whether I enjoyed the meal. Well, I did. It’s quite a nice meal.

Two minivans picked us up at the airport and drove us to the hotel. The journey took about an hour. We checked in, drop our bags, and walked again towards Jalan Alor. It was raining on and off when we walked.

At Jalan Alor, we split up into different groups. Except maybe me. I dined alone, picking a Vietnam Bánh mì after feeling nostalgic to the trip to Vietnam. It was raining hard shortly after, so I spent a few minutes staying there until the rain eased. I tried stinky tofu and giant squid satay, but it was not very extraordinary. We walked back to the hotel afterwards, with sightseeing of Lot 10 shopping mall and Don Don Donki.

In the morning the next day, we had breakfast at the hotel, Lloyd’s Inn. It was a delicious and relatively healthy breakfast, with oatmeals and fresh fruits in the menu. Some seats were facing outside, giving a nice morning view, despite in the middle of city.

At 8am we gathered around at the ground lobby, and took the minivans that brought us to Awana SkyCentral. From the SkyCentral, we took a gondola towards Genting Highlands. The weather was perfect for our journey. The haze gave us a cooling and calming effect while riding the gondola.

When we were approaching Genting Highlands station around 10am, it was still hazy, so the visual experience was amazing, as you can see in the video of us approaching the terminal. However some of our friends who were afraid of heights didn’t really enjoy the trip.

About half an hour journey, we arrived at the SkyAvenue shopping mall. We originally planned to walked around the SkyAvenue shopping mall, but since SkyWorlds theme park was just opened, we decided to enter the theme park first.

Pictured before this is the situation inside “Independence Day: Defiance” ride. For me this was the best ride I have ever had. It was a 4D simulator ride, where you sit in a seat that moves according to the movie. Moreover, in this ride, the three rows of seats were stacked vertically during the show and the screen was large enough to make you feel that you were exactly inside the fictional world.

Upon walking around the park, I saw a huge building having a partial burnt effect I found out later that it was actually burnt during an incident. An online article from astro Awani confirmed it.

One nice feature of the park was the existence of mobile app and the integrations. From the app, we can see estimated waiting time of each ride, helping us picking the next ride to have. Our team also bought a photo taking package, where we could request official photographers took pictures of app, and delivered nicely to the app.

Some of us exited the park with the hope of having a good lunch at the shopping mall, but the meals there were generally expensive, so they came back inside the park and had lunch there. I joined them and ordered a vegetarian fried rice. We then walked around the mall a little bit more then took the gondola down, to Genting Highland Premium Outlets. I had meals at food court, long chat with my brother, and oleh-oleh hunting. The food court only accepted cashless payment, and my OCBC debit card came to the rescue.

It was a longer minivan trip back to the city as we had traffic jams here and there. I was quite exhausted that night, so a local Indian hawker nearby the hotel became my choice for dinner. I had a nice roti (also known as prata in singapore) and thosai (a.k.a. dosa in India) for dinner.

The next day was the day for a walk in the city and free time. We started our journey by walking to Tun Razak Exchange (TRX) MRT station. The station was recently went viral because Apple has just opened a flagship store inside the TRX building. Samsung responded by buying the naming right for the MRT station, naming the station as Samsung Galaxy station.

We bought a single trip ticket. The single trip ticket was different compared to other MRTs I have ever tried. It was in form of a plastic coin instead of card. It turned out that in the exit gate, the coin was expected to be returned by plunging it to the machine, just like in the old arcade games.

We alighted at Ampang Park station, then took a walk to the Petronas Twin Towers. Along the way I saw a grafitti of hatred to three specific countries. Not sure why, but as a computer nerd I could say that the writer had a mixed up between Korea and Japan. If you don’t get the joke, see this Wikipedia article.

We took pictures in front of Twin Towers and walked around the KLCC shopping mall. Inside, there was the Cold Storage, a supermarket chain. Since it was a tourist area, the supermarket also sells plenty of souvenirs. Next to the KLCC building, there was the KLCC public park, a perfect place for jogging or simple stroll along the park.

For lunch, we stopped by Nasi Kandar Pelita, a relatively famous chain of local food. They had this huge fish head curry in the menu. The food was good, but somewhat too oily.

Just after I finished lunch, I received a direct message from a long time friend from high school, N. He noticed my instagram stories and told me that he was in Kuala Lumpur as well. We then made appointment to meet, and it was a perfect occassion for the free time of the company outing.

N picked me up around 4pm, and drove me to a place called SS2, west of Kuala Lumpur. We had a nice dinner of Pan Mee, followed by some durians.

In case you didn’t know, durian is a fruit mostly famous in Southeast Asia. It’s a very sweet fruit, but have a distinct smell that makes half population of the world hate it. Here in SS2, was the first time that I saw durian tasting served as the commodity for tourist attraction. Many different types of durians were sold, either for takeaway or dine in. I originally thought that the Musang King variant is the, well, king. But N told me that Black Thorne is another contender. However, just like coffee, different variants of durian give different unique tastes and each people have their own preferences.

N then drove me back to the hotel. Though the food was great, it was the insipiring conversation with him that I enjoyed the most. N is a cancer survior, and before this I only knew the story from his facebook posts.

What I didn’t know, was that he finished a thriathlon before, and diagnosed with the cancer just two months after. It started with a regular check of his pain on the knee to just make sure everything was allright, but ended up that something was not right. This “something is not right” surprise also happened to me when I did a check on swelling of my right knee, that ended up with surgery (see this post). Long story short, when the doctor confirmed his illness, he rushed back home from Kuala Lumpur to Indonesia, just a few days before countries closed their borders to COVID-19 pandemic. After many chemotherapies and tranplant, he survived.

On the last hours before going home, I still had ringgit coins in my pocket. Therefore I took the time in the morning to have another roti and kopi at a hawker nearby.

We then packed things up and took the minivan trip to the airport. I have plenty of free time at the Malaysia airport but maybe not when I am back in Indonesia. Therefore, the story ends here. Thanks for reading this far.

August 18, 2024
Public Transit Trip with The Kids

With my status as an employee as well as running a family business, I don’t that much of holiday. Especially after COVID-19 pandemic, December is the time for my mostly Christian employees to take leave, hence I have to back them up. However, I had a few days before 2024 to go with the kids to Jakarta to visit my parents. I am blessed with the kids who have strong interests with public transport, hence not really costly in terms of carbon footprint (costly in monetary value, though).

We started our journey with the Feeder train that brought us from Bandung station to Padalarang Station.

In Padalarang station, we waited about an hour before the high speed trains arrived. The train only stopped for less than 5 minutes to board passengers.

The kids really loved it, though it was not like an ordinary train trip. It was a smooth ride unlike regular trains, and you can’t really feel the speed except by looking at the informational running text.

We then arrived at Halim high speed train station. It was interconnected to the LRT station, with about 500m covered walking distance. The LRT station felt hotter, or maybe just my feeling because they put several large fans there. There was no driver on board the train, all controlled from the command center.

After arriving at Dukuh Atas, we had a small snack then continue our journey with Commuter Line train and Airport Line train. The Airport Line train final destination was at the Soekarno-Hatta airport, but we could alight one station before, where my dad picked us up.

Dad picked us up and we visited mum’s clinic, where Desmond got one of his teeth extracted. He was scared so we offered him a lunch at Bornga, a rather lavish restaurant. After deliberate consideration, he agreed.

In the evening, Daniel went by and the kids were playing games together.

The next day, we started our journey by taking a cab to Bintaro Xchange shopping mall. This mall has an underground connection to the Commuter Line. We took another Commuter Line, followed by TransJakarta bus and MRT to get a lunch and sightseeing.

We stopped at Blok M MRT station, and took a lunch at Lucky Chin, an American-Chinese restaurant I knew from a tweet. Their meal package included fortune cookie, whose message was more suitable for adults (“If you’re feeling adventorous, go for it!”).

We took a Blue Bird cab for our way back home. The next day, we went back to Bandung by taking a regular (Argo Parahyangan) 3-hour train to Bandung.

April 27, 2024
Coffee, Bento, Running and Wedding

You may have known from my previous post Visiting The Dead that I have a relatively big extended family. This time one of them got married in Kelapa Gading area, Jakarta. I was happy because it’s also served as an excuse to leave the kids with their Popo (grandmother) and have me and my wife Y travel to Jakarta without the menaces.

I still had zoom meeting with some friends in the morning, but shortly after drove to Jakarta. It was a smooth journey to Jakarta, but horrible in the Kelapa Gading area. Traffic jams delayed our trip, but we finally made to our first stop: Kedai Kopi Oke. It’s a kopitiam (coffee shop) owned by my uncle. This shop served coffee from various parts of Indonesia, but the most interesting part was that the coffee was served using a huge mokapot. Mokapot is a tool originated from Italy, normally used to make espresso. A single espresso is roughly 30ml, roughly 1/6 cup. This huge mokapot serves 2 cups, hence 12 espressos! That’s way more caffeine than deleting a production database!

A cup of cofee and a huge mokapot

We had a nice long chat, then had to say goodbye to my uncle. He gave me two angpaos (red envelope containing money) for our kids at home. It is customary for us parents of Chinese descendants, to give angpaos to the kids as symbol of good luck.

We went to the hotel and took a break. I surveyed the swimming pool, but it was drizzling outside. We preferred to stay in the room, and watched Men in Black at the cable tv provided.

At night, we went out for dinner. We walked to a nearby food court called Sagoro. It had a nice view of a river, but there were not many interesting food stalls opened. We also walked carefully, as the floor were slippery due to the rain that fell before.

We walked toward the other side and found a nice Japanese restaurant called Hanaguni. It looked upscale but the security convinced us to just look inside first without obligation to have a meal there. We went inside, took a seat, and provided with the menu. We were surprised that a bento costed around Rp200.000,-, whereas in Hokben (famous Japanese food chain in Indonesia) a bento costs roughly Rp50.000,-.

Me and Y having the dinner sets

It turned out that they had another menu, simple rice packages and pastas that have on-going promotion: buy 2 get 3 for roughly Rp100.000,-. Still more than our usual budget, but at least we got 3 portions for the same price. We came back to hotel with full stomach and called it a day.

Early morning the next day, while Y was still sleeping, I headed out for morning run. With two kids at home, it’s difficult to reserve time for morning exercise, so this was a good chance. I targeted 5 km run, but was tired enough near LRT station that I was tempted to take the LRT instead for my way back. So I took the trip, followed by motorcycle taxi (ojek online) for the last mile.

Picture of LRT coming in to the station on time.

We then prepared ourself for the main event: the wedding. It was held in Angke Restaurant, within the Mall of Indonesia complex. It was on Sunday morning so it was very crowded on the entrance. I was busy meeting people I forgot to take some pictures, as well as being in the picture.

Family picture, without me. Photo by my cousin-in-law Rina.

After an hour or two there, I drove back to Bandung, as I had to work the next day.

January 18, 2024
Whoosh Whoosh Whoosh, Yes

When the high-speed train started operating, many Indonesians were excited to try. That includes me and my parents. Therefore, I asked my parents in Jakarta to come and visit us in Bandung.

On Saturday morning, my family drove me to Tegalluar station, located at the eastern side of Bandung. We took the toll road, passed the newly built residential area “Summarecon”, and nearby the relatively famous Al-Jabbar mosque and Gelora Bandung Lautan Api stadium. I took the train to Halim station, where I would meet my parents and helped them checked in into the train. My son D was envy of me but we managed to calm him down. The Tegalluar station was relatively remote and not fully built. There were no cafés or shops opened yet. Parking space was limited, but there were many blue bird taxis waiting there, ready to drive you to the city.

Check in was smooth, and the train was on time. Despite the euphoria, taking the train itself in my opinion is nothing special. It’s just like taking MRT/LRT trip, only further. The 350km/h maximum speed can only be confirmed by looking at the running text display. If you look outside the window, there is actually not much difference compared to running 100km/h. What’s interesting yet disturbing, is that every announcement made, it ends with their slogan “Whoosh Whoosh Whoosh,… Yes!”.

At exactly 10.30 AM, I arrived in Stasiun Halim. I was hungry so I ordered two pieces of lunpias (definition) and an americano. Shortly after, my parents were also arrived at the station, and we checked in and traveled to Bandung.

We stopped at the Padalarang Station, then took a feeder train that went to the city. Transfer from high-speed train to the feeder was not so smooth, with 500 passengers (rough estimation) had to pass through 3 gates within only a few minutes.

In Bandung station, my wife Y was just in time to pick us up. We then had lunch at the Lotek Mahmud restaurant, a hidden culinary gem in Bandung. After lunch, my mom (kids’ Oma) did some shopping at a cosmetic store nearby “Toko Mahmud”, also a hidden gem. We then went to the hotel, checked in, and took some rest.

Around 4 PM, Opa was eager to walk out to find some coffee. We then walked around the hotel and had a light meal and coffee at Circle K. My daughter P was feeling unwell, probably because she was playing in the bathtub too long, and got masuk angin (cold). I went out with Oma and my dad (Opa) to have chicken rice dinner together outside at Olly Hai, inside Haji Mesri alley. The main road was very crowded, so walking was not very fun. However, it’s faster to walk than to drive because it’s a one way road, and, well, very crowded. I ta pao-ed (take away) 3 portions of food for people at the hotel.

That night P couldn’t sleep well, so did I and Y. In the early morning, D was already woken up, so I brought him to Opa and Oma‘s room. Opa wanted to walk around, so I left D at Oma‘s room, watching YouTube videos. We walked through some alleys, heading to the GOR Pajajaran (Pajajaran sport center). Despite the fact that it’s a sport center, in the morning it’s a culinary heaven. I and Opa had porridge for breakfast, and I bought steamed kuo tie (dumplings) for the others.

P was still feeling unwell, but we had to have breakfast anyway. My car was all cleaned by the hotel staff, so we drove to a nearby Rijsttafel restaurant for breakfast. After breakfast, I drove everyone back to the hotel. I and Oma continued walking to a nearby Kartika Sari snack shop. It was inside an alley but very packed with tourists.

Finally, I drove Oma and Opa back to the station, for them to take another Whoosh trip back to Jakarta.

November 27, 2023