After Singapore

I would walk 500 miles and I would walk 500 more

Category: indonesia

The Amazing Races

Justin Bieber Fans at Soekarno Hatta

There are two ways to react to disturbances in your travel. One is to curse, of course. The other one is to enjoy it as a challenge, as the people in the Amazing Race game. This easter, I went for a short trip to Indonesia and had an opportunity to appreciate that fact. For this trip, I took a flight from Singapore to Jakarta, continued with a intercity (mini)bus to Bandung, spent one night there, another intercity bus to Jakarta, spent another night, and back to Singapore.

My first challenge started when I landed in Jakarta. It was to arrive in Bandung as fast as possible to, you know, meet my girlfriend. After touchdown at around 10.30 in the morning, I rushed to find the earliest bus that depart to Bandung. Unfortunately the first bus was already full and the next departure would be two hours later. I then decided to take a “premium” bus, in which each passenger will be delivered to their final destination, instead of the bus terminal. That day was a public holiday adjacent to normal weekend, therefore as predicted the traffic was awful. Even worse, I was unlucky to be the last person to be delivered, after wandering around Bandung and the suburbs. In total, I spent 5 hours on the road! I admit that I failed on my first challenge. Anyhow I was lucky that my girlfriend was understanding enough for my lateness.

The second challenge was when I was about to leave Bandung. My plan was to take another intercity bus bound for Jakarta at 3PM, expecting to arrive Jakarta 3 hours later, so I could catch the Easter eve mass at 7PM. I reserved a cab by phone for 2PM; 1 hour before is more than enough, I thought; which proven to be wrong. I started to worry when the cab company called 20 minutes before 2, saying that they haven’t found a free cab for me. At 2 sharp, they called again, informing the same news. Therefore, I went for plan B: take the infamous Bandung public transport angkot. I had to take the angkot to train station, and transfer to either another angkot or flag a cab there. Quite a pessimistic idea, but there was still hope. Another unfortunate event, after few kilometers the angkot did what is known as ngetem: the driver stopped and wait for another passenger to get in, with the hope of getting more money from more passengers. Based on my 4 years experience in Bandung as a student, this ngetem ceremony could take at least 15 minutes, while the time was already 2.20. I then alight and tried to flag a cab passing by, with no luck. Most drivers were reluctant as the bus terminal is located at a heavy traffic area. I spent about 10 minutes trying to flag a cab with no luck. Finally, it’s time for plan C…

While looking for a cab, I spotted a Damri bus stop, while the bus was there waiting for passengers. To be honest, though I’m a regular angkot user, I have never taken a Damri bus in Bandung before. What caught my attention was the sign on the bus front window, saying that the next stop is Pasteur, which is very close to the bus terminal I was heading to. The driver was not there yet, so I confirmed with a lady who sat at the front seat. She said it’s possible to alight at the terminal, but I had to tell the driver beforehand. After 15 minutes of waiting, the bus finally started to move. It was obvious that I will miss the 3PM intercity bus, but I still had hope for the next one at 4PM. When I told my girlfriend about my decision to take Damri bus, her response was a suprise and a simple and clear “awas copet” (watch out for thieves). Given the bus condition, it seemed very prone to criminal activities, after all. Thank God all my valuables including my self were save. The official price for one trip is IDR 5,000 (SGD 1), and you’re entitled to a receipt as a proof of payment. As instructed by the lady, I told the driver to stop at the intercity bus terminal. I really looked like “a new guy in town”, so the driver joked me that the price to stop at the terminal is 50,000 (in a half-serious tone). I joked him back with a question “could you remove one zero for me?” with a smile. I didn’t want to assume anything about him, but finally I gave him only IDR 5,000, the official price (I didn’t get a receipt after all). Well Mr. Driver, if you read this post, I did it for your own good.

I was late for the 3PM bus, and the 4PM bus is full. The best option I could take was to put myself into the 4PM waiting list. It was very anxious, as my name was not called even as late as 5 minutes after 4. Luckily some passenger didn’t show up at the terminal, and the seat was given up to me. I arrived 3 hours later at the Jakarta terminal, and I rushed to take a cab to get to the church. As the distance to the church was not too far, the driver asked to pay a fixed price instead of using the distance meter. I accepted it, but really regret it later. It’s not that the price was too expensive, but somehow I indirectly helped the driver to corrupt his employer money.

The rest of the journey was not very eventful, though. It was more of spending quality time with my family, and resting my body after the adventurous trip to Bandung.

April 30, 2011
Batam Island, Indonesia

This Christmas holiday, I spent one night in Batam for transit to Jakarta. Reason? Just for adventure. There is actually not much tourist attraction in Batam, as told by my friend. One spot that may stand out would be Nongsapura, an upscale resorts area Northeast of Batam. Staying there will cost me at least S$200 per night, so I decided to stay at a cheaper area instead, but take a peek of Nongsapura by getting a ferry to the Nongsapura terminal instead of the usual Batam Center terminal.

There is no ferry going to Nongsapura that departs from the usual departure point Harbourfront. Instead, I had to go to Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal, which I stupidly mistaken with the Changi Point Ferry Terminal. Assuming that I would go to the latter, I took a train to Pasir Ris station, and planned to continue my journey using a bus. Luckily, when I was there I had difficulties finding the correct bus stop, hence I took a cab instead. The driver knew that ferries to Batam only departs from Tanah Merah, not Changi Point Ferry Terminal. If I really took a bus, it would be too late for me.

The trip to Batam’s Nongsapura takes about an hour, including boarding and leaving the ship. Nongsa terminal is located inside a small gulf, and upon reaching it, I saw two different views on each side. On my left side, there were upscale resorts, just what I was looking forward to see here. However, on my right side was a poor rural area, where people bathing in sea water, not for fun but because it’s much cheaper for them to do so. The terminal itself is pretty well decorated in with a tropical island theme. However, there were only one immigration officer to serve us, so it took sometime to clear the queue. On this trip, I stayed on a budget hotel, namely the SkyView hotel. It is located quite far from the terminal, so the only reasonable way to get there is by cab. The terminal itself is pretty remote, and the nearby resorts usually have their own shuttle bus to pick up tourists. Therefore I was left with the only option to take a cab for a whopping price of IDR 100.000.

I reached the hotel about 5.30 PM, and as it was Christmas Eve, I started to walk around to look for a church to attend the Christmas Eve mass. The hotel receptionist recommended me a Batak-themed church, about 500 metres from the hotel. So I walked there and asked the schedule to the lady that stay there. However, she recommended me to go to another church instead, for the mass will be held using a traditional language that I will not understand. She recommended a church in Nagoya called “Immanuel”, which is not within walking distance from the hotel. Hence I took a taxi there, with another expensive price of IDR 30.000.

Close to the church was a shopping mall “Nagoya Hill”, so I went there after the mass was ended. I took a pizza for dinner, and paid a visit to a bookstore. One magazine about tourism in Batam attracted me, as one article featured in the front page was about “budget hotels in Batam”. There was no price tag, so I just took it and proceeded to the cashier to pay. To my biggest surprise, the magazine costed IDR 50.000. I would have no problem to pay for a good magazine, but the value did not seem to worth for that magazine (for comparison, FHM Singapore costs SGD 6 or IDR 42.000). Hence I cancelled my purchase for the magazine. My trip back to hotel was also surprising: another IDR 50.000 for a cab ride back. Fixed price.

The next day, I spent the morning jogging around the hotel area. It was not so nice as there were thrashes and some of them were burned causing me to inhale the smoke. After taking a shower, I went for the second time to Nagoya, but since I was not in a hurry, this time I asked the receptionist for a public transport to go there. She recommended an angkot (minibus) with her estimate price of IDR 6.000. I believe she just gave me a worst case number, since I really looked like a tourist. Turned out the driver only charged me IDR 3.000 for a one way trip. Different with angkots in Bandung, these angkots in Batam has a sliding door at the passenger deck that should be closed during the trip. When I was about to help a lady to close the door when she boarded the minibus, she said “no need, it will close automatically”, and reaffirmed by the driver. And she was right, when the minibus started to descend, gravity helped the door to close automatically. Clever!

Just as told by my friend, there was not much to see in Batam, and that includes Nagoya. Probably one that could be interesting is the Pasar (market) Nagoya area. At one street, there were many people selling various kind of kripik (crackers) and asinan (fruits drenched in vinegar). Another street has series of Singapore style hawker centres, while some of them serves only Chinese vegetarian food. I had my brunch on one of the non-vegetarian hawker center, and turned out they also sell tea and coffee in Singapore term: teh for tea with milk or teh-o for tea without milk. There was also a building named “Batam Lucky Plaza” which sells mostly mobile phones and jewelleries. As I walked around, many people calling me “friend” to offer a cab or an ojek (motorcycle-cab). After about an hour, I returned back to my hotel to pack my things, as I would fly to Jakarta at 13.40 PM.

Conclusion

Ferries from Singapore operates daily with a ticket price of around SGD 30, destined to Nongsapura and Batam Center (among other terminals, too), but the latter is recommended. Staying in SkyView hotel costs a mere IDR 160.000 per night for a standard room, but a superior room for IDR 180.000 seems to be a better bargain, with bigger room and 21″ TV (standard one is 14″). I would recommend to take public transport whenever possible, as cabs are very very expensive (however in the evening, it’s probably better to pay more rather to risk your safety). From the SkyView, it takes about 15 minutes to the city center Nagoya. There were also hotels at Nagoya, but they are generally more expensive.

January 8, 2011
Indonesia Trip (Part 1)

The immigration officer laughed at me for a while, then she got busy again serving another passengers. Yes, I was there in the Singapore immigration, at the automated clearance gate to be exact. My friend just told me recently that as a Singapore permanent resident, I have the priviledge to pass the immigration gate through the automated clearance using my travel document and thumbprint. Yet what I should have learnt is that travel document means passport, not an ID card. I stupidly put my ID card into the small gap in the machine which supposed to be inserted with the first page only of my passport. And so I cried for help to get the card out the only officer there, but she was too busy checking other passengers passport and had no time for silly mistake like what I just did. Luckily after some tries I managed to let it out myself. Phew!

Then I had some subs for dinner and grab a cup of coffee while waiting for the boarding call inside the transit area. Did I tell you that I was going to take a flight back to Jakarta for vacation? It has been a long time since I had a night flight like this. The passengers seem to be tired, including me (that’s why I bought some coffee). In the plane, I sat in a 3-seat row, taking the one closest to the window. The middle seat was empty, and at the aisle side, an ang moh (western people) in his 30s looked extrememly restless and exhausted. Sometimes he put his head on the front seat, trying to be able to sleep. At another other time he murmured himself. Poor him. I was more or less exhausted as he did, with exams and deadlines in the past days. But I decided to smile, since it was all over, and my holiday was about to begin!

We jumped time to when I have landed in Jakarta. My brother was to pick me up at the airport, so I tried to call him. Yet after several desperate tries, I’ve given up. Everytime I call a number, I could only hear a prerecorded voice “Sorry, you cannot make a call at the moment. Please contact the customer service!” But the problem is, I couldn’t even call the customer service, with the same message! Luckily I found a small phone café*. So I made a phone call to my brother’s mobile. I was surprised with the bill. It was 8,500 IDR (1.5 SGD) for one minute connection! But I had no choice anyway (later I found out that I couldn’t call because I have activated the call barring feature – very clever).

The first few days in Jakarta was well spent with family and old friends. On the day before christmas, I and my brother spent the day watching local movie “Sang Pemimpi” (lit. The Dreamer). It tells a story of a young boy from remote village and his struggle to get scholarship in France. In the evening, we attended a christmas eve mass in a local church of where I usually attended the mass before I left to Singapore. But there’s something different now compared to previous years masses. After the mass has ended, I could still see people shaking hands and greet each other, but there were also some people stucked to their mobile phones. I saw a couple where the husband typed something (must be christmas greetings) into his Blackberry, while his wife struggling to type into her Blackberry at the right hand, and and iPhone on the left. Too bad. For myself, I spent the time asking my brother to take my picture with the christmas tree there.

At the christmas day, we came back to the same church to watch a play starred by local teenagers. It was about a poor mother who tries to teach her son for becoming a rich person in a wrong way. Spiced with some jokes along the story, it gave a very good message that one needs to work, not merely looking for shortcuts to obtain wealth.

The next day, I spent my time with my friends from high school. The last time we met was 5 years back on our trip to Bali. Unfortunately time only allowed me to meet them during the day, which was used to play futsal. We were playing against one of our friend’s younger brother and his friends. They were in their 20’s, and the age difference was more than enough to make us exhausted playing against them. Luckily I and my family spent the evening attending a wedding ceremony of a relative (which for me simply means free dinner), enough to recharge the energy.

On my last day in Jakarta, I spent morning time to buy some sport shirts. Followed by another futsal game, but this time with friends from church. It was 2PM, and the sun shone the the brightest. It really exhausted me again. In the evening, I and my brother attended a Sunday mass, followed by dinner of Sundanese food with family.

That sums my first part of my trip, where the early morning of next day, I traveled to Bandung; and the story is to be told in the 2nd part.

* locally known as “wartel”, the phone café serves similar purpose as internet café. But instead it rents, well, phone lines.

January 6, 2010
Indonesia Trip (Part 2)

(continued from http://pascalalfadian.blogspot.com/2010/01/indonesia-trip-part-1.html)

Indonesians don’t really like to take public bus for inter-city travel, unless they want to save money. Instead, private companies sell services to transport people from one city to another using minivans. Very similar concept with public buses, only better. And more expensive. Locally they are simply called travel.

I took one of this travel to go to Bandung. Departed from Jakarta at around 8.30 AM, it took a smooth 2-hour journey to Bandung. Or maybe because I fell asleep during almost the whole trip, exhausted with abundant activities in part 1. At Bandung terminal, I took a cab to go my girlfriend’s house. Unfortunately the traffic was so bad in the city. There was a festival at Braga area, and the whole street was closed, causing jams on other roads as well. Slightly delayed, but I reached there just in time for lunch.

The next few days were spent visiting shopping mall for, err, shopping. We also tried watching movie in Ciwalk Premiere, whereby we can sit in a comfortable electronic controlled recliner seat. Very similar concept with GV Gold Class, only much cheaper. The price is Rp 50,000 or $7.5 in SGD. Personally I didn’t really enjoy the lavish seat. It made me feel sleepy, and I went there to watch movie anyway, not to cuddle myself. Thanks to the non-stop puzzle in the Sherlock Holmes movie that kept me awake.

On the new year eve, we fired fireworks at the attic. Most of them are small rockets that emits whistling sounds. The attic was transformed into Baghdad-like in the night as we could see on TV during Bush’ presidency period. There was even one firework that shots 6 fireballs, each will explode in the sky. My friend enthusiastically asked me to hold the tube in my hand tightly, and point it to the sky while it shoots the fireballs. I read the instructions for a while, and found a bold text warning “DANGER! DO NOT GRAB WITH HANDS”. When I asked her whether I really should do this, her answer was “don’t trust the text, it’s wrong”. Luckily my hand managed to survive after two set of tubes. It’s only that the fireworks throw a lot of dusts, covering my face and body, forcing me to take another shower in the midnight. All in all, it was a very good experience, especially with the fact that you may not get this in Singapore, as either the SCDF* will quickly come, or your neighbour auntie yelling at you for endangering her life.

The day after new year, I went back to Jakarta. I took the same travel I used earlier. Reached Jakarta around noon, my dad and brother picked me up for lunch before going to grandpa’s house. Wanted to be quick, we stopped at a small shop selling satays and fried rice. I tried the fried rice with mix of mutton, beef and chicken meat. It contains so much sweet soya sauce, but the taste is just perfect (it’s been a long time since last time I ate food with such strong taste). Afterwards, we went to my grandpa’s house. He was very healthy in his 90s, and I am sure his diet does not include the kind of fried rice I ate earlier. Lastly, we went to pick up my mom, but it was too late to take dinner outside. So we just bought a fast food to take home.

The next day, I had to return to Singapore, with my brother again dropped me at the airport. There was an automated check in machine for AirAsia flights, so I bothered to give a try. Unfortunately the machine didn’t respond at the stage of sliding my passport. Seems that I have bad luck with travel documents (see part 1), and the queue for normal check-in was too long already, so I decided it is best to join the queue and use old fashioned way.

At the immigration gate, I was slightly delayed by the tax officer. In Indonesia, we have a special tax of Rp 1,000,000 (+/- 150 SGD) for Indonesian nationals going abroad. An exception for professionals working outside Indonesia for more than 183 days like me, with a proof of passport and work visa. Unfortunately, I’ve just renewed my password recently, and the officer argued that the new passport didn’t have enough information to show that I have spent for more than 6 months abroad. He asked for my old passport, which unfortunately I have put in my checked baggage. After some arguments, he asked me to go to the immigration office for “special treatment”. So I went there, and lucky for me that the officer at the office gave me the clearance without even a single question. Moral of the story: either you bring your old passport for the first 6 months of new passport, or, try to stay away from unfriendly officers.

The rest of the journey is interestingly normal. I took the on-time flight, arrived on-time, and clear the automated gate easily (this time I knew what document to insert!). And so I arrived back in the on-time-country, Singapore!

* Singapore Civil Defence Force

January 6, 2010