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.
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.
Aside from teaching, I also partner with my brother in running a business. The DNArtworks provides many solutions from graphic design, videography, social media, as well as websites and applications. As for the latter, I help him on software development side, bringing Informatika Unpar graduates and lead them in making high quality websites and apps. In celebrating the 10th birthday, DNArtworks team went for a 4 days trip to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
The team from Bandung departed at 5AM, taking about 3 hour bus ride to Soekarno-Hatta International Airport terminal 2. We arrived much earlier than expected, so we spent a few hours waiting at a dim sum restaurant.
About an hour later, Jakarta team arrived as well, and we performed flight check-in. One guy from Jakarta, DP, left his passport at home. Luckily his wife helped delivering his passport on time. What a lovely wife.
We cleared Indonesia immigration early, to have an easy lunch before taking the flight. Some of us bought power plug adapters, which turned out not very useful because the plugs in Vietnam are similar to ones in Indonesia. It is understandable, though, because the information on the internet is not very clear. I downloaded a few movies to my laptop for in-flight entertainment. One of which was Grave of The Fireflies (火垂るの墓). It’s a movie from Studio Ghibli, but you can easily find the full recording in YouTube since it’s a very old movie. H told me he didn’t dare to watch it because it would make him cry. I am proud to say that did not cry, but it was indeed a very saddening movie.
The flight from Jakarta city took about 3 hours. When we landed in Ho Chi Minh city at 16.40, it was raining hard. We spent maybe up to two hours in the airports before being transported to the hotel. Some of us bought local sim cards, while others bought Vietnam Dong (the currency) bills. After check in, we walked to Propaganda Bistro. I ordered Bánh mì, a local delicacy made of baguette, vegetables, and meat. Did you notice the diacritic in “a” and “i”? You will see further in this story, that the Vietnam language really loves to use diacritics.
We then walked back to our hotel, but stopped at a nearby minimarket. I brought mineral water and a can of beer. Surprisingly, alcoholic drinks are very cheap here. A can of Heineken costs only VND 20.000 (IDR 16.500 / USD 1).
The next morning, we had an early breakfast at 6.30. I liked the hotel’s breakfast since they provide a lot of fresh vegetables options. We then took a chartered bus to Cu Chi Tunnel historical site (Khu di tích lịch sử Địa đạo Củ Chi), about an hour from the city. Our tour guide explained that most of tourists visiting Ho Chi Minh city would also visit this site. En route to the site, I noticed several interesting facts about Vietnam, compared to Indonesia:
People drive on the right side, unlike in Indonesia (left side)
There are a lot of motorcycles on the road. Interestingly, there’s no significant air pollution visually. Not sure why until now.
The helmets are not of SNI (Standar Nasional Indonesia) standard. Ears are uncovered.
People love to sit down on a short chair, just outside their stores.
We arrived at Cu Chi Tunnel site around 8.30. The tour guide were very happy about it, because we arrived relatively earlier than outher tourists, so he could explain and give demonstrations to us easily without being disrupted with other tourist groups. I was very impressed with the experience here:
It was very well organized. For example, our guide explained about how Vietnam soldier used to hide in a small hole, while a local staff was demonstrating it. That same staff was also ready to demonstrate the same thing for other guide of another group when needed.
The Vietnamese, or at least our guide, were very proud of their history. They were very proud of how they could fight successfully against the United States soldiers using simple but smart techniques. For example, they built underground tunnels and live there to avoid detection. When they cook, the smoke was discharged from several holes instead of only one, also to avoid detection.
I learned Vietnam history in a single trip. Ho Chi Minh city was formerly called as Saigon. After the fall of Saigon in 1975, it was then named after Mr. Ho Chi Minh, the first president of Vietnam. That’s why the city is called “Ho Chi Minh City” instead of just “Ho Chi Minh”. Saigon, on the other hand, was known for a brand of local beer “Bia Saigon”, when I visited this place.
A few hours later, we took another bus ride to a garment factory. It was not very interesting there, and and some rooms we were not allowed to take pictures, so I could not tell much about the activities there.
Another bus trip, and we arrived at a small harbor next to Mekong River. We took a motorboat to a small island for lunch. Afterwards, we were transported to another small island to see people living in a village (or, kampong, as the Singaporeans call it). Fresh tropical fruits were served and accompanied with local music for entertainment. We also took a golf cart for a tour around the island, as well as taking the traditional sampan (small boat) along the river.
We then headed back to the mainland, where we took another bus trip back to the city. The traffic was bad, so it took a few hours. At around 7 PM, we arrived at a restaurant called Ngon. Upon entering the building, a picture of James Bond movie where the protagonist enters a crowded restaurant in the Middle East setting. Though they serve Vietnam food, the interior is Arabian style, with red paint dominating the walls.
The next morning, we went to the Saigon Post Office. It still serves its purpose as a postal service, but also host of many souvenir shops. I bought some souvenirs there to bring back home.
We then walked to Tân Định Church, another iconic landmark of Ho Chi Minh City. Unfortunately it was closed when we arrived, so we could only took a picture from the outside. En route, we also stopped by a café that sells egg coffee. It is a coffee that -instead of milk to make foam- uses egg.
Then, it was free time for everyone until dawn. Some of us went back to the post office to buy another souvenirs, some went to a local market to get another souvenirs, while myself had a Bánh mì for lunch then went back to hotel. I chose to take a rest since I still had an open wound on my leg and I’ve got all my souvenirs.
In the evening, we had dinner in cruise ship. We could aboard the ship around 6.30 PM, and buffet dinners were served shortly. Dinner experience itself was not so good. There were not a lot of space for us to sit and the food was so-so.
At around 7.30, the cruise sailed, spending about an hour along the Sai Gon River. The view was very nice and relaxing.
We went back to hotel and take a rest, before heading back to Indonesia the next day. And that wrapped our journey to Ho Chi Minh City.
I am a proud alumnus of SMA Kanisius, a boys-only high school. Every year the alumni association held a reunion. I rarely participated in such event, but this year somehow I had a chance to do that. The idea was to bring my son D with me, also as a chance to introduce him to such school.
For a train that departed at 6.10 AM, I took a taxi from home at 4.30. My wife and son complained that it was too early, but I’d rather have a peace of mind. The train arrived at Gambir around 9 AM. We took a TransJakarta bus to Monas, continued to Bundaran HI, and took an MRT trip to Blok M Plaza.
There, I met my parents. We spent a few minutes in Taman Literasi Martha C. Tiahahu, a literacy-themed public park. There were a small library as well as children playing area. A (relatively expensive) cafés were also available there.
After playing, we walked to Claypot Popo. I knew this place from previous trip to Jakarta (see Off-The-Grid Wedding), and my dad indeed like it. D didn’t really like the menu, but he (as before) was very interested to see the kitchen.
After lunch, we took another MRT ride to Bundaran HI station, followed by taxi ride to the high school. I met many of my old friends, as well as new friends (as we were in the same batch but never in the same class). D met new friends and played simple soccer game.
I met many friends, too. Most of them were my classmates when I studied in this school. It’s fun to meet them again. Some of them became doctors, some founded successful startups, some enjoying normal life with family.
Around 16.30, D already complained that he wanted to rest. I said goodbye to some of my friends and headed to Sofyan Hotel, where I would stay a night before heading back to Bandung the next day.
We took a rest at the hotel, and headed out again for dinner. D wanted to take a Commuter Line trip, so we took a trip to Jayakarta station, looking out for Pontianak food at Jalan Pangeran Jayakarta. The food was relatively expensive for a road side food stall, but the value for money was quite okay.
After dinner, we took a bajaj ride back to the station, and another Commuter Line ride back to the hotel.
The next day, D woke me up early in the morning. I offered him to swim in the hotel, but the swimming pool was too small and nobody beside him was swimming there (it’s 5.45 in the morning!), so he got bored instantly. We took another Commuter Line trip to Jakarta Kota, for a nice breakfast in Glodok area.
Around 9 AM, my friend Paul arrived. He is also an SMA Kanisius alumnus, but couldn’t make it to the reunion the day before. We took a walk from hotel to a nearby café “Dua Nyonya”. I joked that one Nyonya (madam) is already exhausting. 6 pieces of fritters cost IDR 57.000 but the place was really nice for a chat in the morning. D helped to take a photo of us together.
We checked out, then Paul drove us to the train station. En route, he also showed me several nice places around the Cikini area. A nice tour in the morning.
As you may have known from this blog, I spent a fairly amount of time in Singapore, and its culture has a special place in my heart. One of the many things I miss is the Singapore kopi (coffee) and kopitiam (coffee shop).
In Singapore (and Malaysia), kopi is actually not a plain coffee. It is coffee with condensed milk. When I moved back to Indonesia, I tried to satisfy the need for nostalgia with Nescafe instant coffee and local condensed milk. As time goes by, I realized that it was not the same. Then I used real ground coffee, making the taste richer and more original.
However, things changed again when I bought Singapore-brand Cafe 21 instant coffee. I tasted something different that I could not find in a local ground coffee. After posting that finding on Facebook, my Singaporean friend Don opened my mind that such taste actually comes from the margarine that was used to roast the coffee. So I began searching for more, the “nanyang” coffee.
I tried the supposedly real Nanyang ground coffee, which in most cases come in bags, like the tea bags. Ah Huat Kopi O is one example. However, it somehow does not taste and smell the same. It’s just plain bland. The reason is still a mystery for me until now.
In this last occasion, I bought the Toast Box ground coffee “powder”, which does not come in bags. There is a slight nanyang aroma when I made the coffee using V60 coffee filter, but it was still far from perfect. The surprise came when I left the residue for about an hour. Just when I was about to throw the leftover away, I smell that unique aroma of the kopitiam! Therefore, my conclusion so far is: the kopitiam aroma actually comes not from freshly brewed coffee, but from the leftover coffee.
So this “Screw the French Press, we’ve got the socks” poster at most Ya Kun Kaya Toast stalls now makes very sense for me. The socks keep the leftover from the first brew, to the next, and the next, and so on!
This post is just to let you know that I am still alive. I have been occupied with a lot of activities for my startup project with my friend Budi; and other small stuffs (relocation, catechism, etc…). Unfortunately that means lower priority to maintain this blog.
And as wise men say, a picture worth a thousand words. And turned out it takes much lesser effort than writing, too 🙂 So here are 7000 words of decorations in my new house, that are gifts from friends and relatives.
A book called On a Street in Singapore, gift from my badminton friends Abhineet, Albert Quah, Albert Tjipto & his girlfriend, and Heldi
Notebook with messages and greeting cards from my ITB friends in Gemalto, along with other gifts.
A unique wall clock, gift from other ITB friends, who were with me since I moved to Singapore.
Singlish candies from my former landlord Christine, Pineaple cake from Budi, and a nice Paul Allen memoir from my brother Daniel
Swan doll made of unused cement paper from my aunt Meme, along with some decorations I bought myself.
A cross to help me feel safe. A gift from my aunt Veronica more than 5 years ago, but I still keep it until now.
Finally, a celebration to start using my new workshop! With help of my girlfriend and her family. Thanks Budi for taking the picture.
It’s hard not to miss Singapore after that four years, but the gifts helped me to remember the good (and bad) times there. I feel very grateful to have friends and relatives that gave those gifts!
And as you may notice that I’ve changed the blog title. I still hope that I can write frequently again in the future.
It will take sometime until I can post a nice article, if any. The quality of mobile internet connection is Indonesia is not as good as in Singapore, and I am practically a nomad for a few moment now. I really want to tell some interesting stories about my adaptation to the new life, but let’s see. For the moment, I have a story about my trip to Malacca, just days before I left Singapore for good. Here it is.
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My landlord gave me a very nice suggestion to spend sometime around Singapore before I left it for good. Therefore, Malacca it was. Malacca is a 4-hour journey from Singapore, depending on the traffic and immigration. As it is a small town and I didn’t have too much time to spend, I only spent a night there along with my friend Handy.
We departed from a bus terminal in Bugis, about 8 AM in the morning; thanks to my Malaccan colleague Jia Hwang who bought the ticket for me. The bus was quite nice, and we were lucky to sit in the back. About 1 hour before we reached our destination, the bus’ air conditioner system seemed had overheated, spilling fresh water every now and then in the middle seat area. On the bright side, it made people laugh of the silliness.
We reached the “Malaka Sentral” terminal about noon, but we had to take a cab to the main tourist area, about 15 minutes journey for MYR 20. We alighted near the end of Jonker Street and quickly queued up for the chicken rice ball restaurant there. It seemed quite famous among tourists, but after all it was just a chicken rice with the rice rolled into few balls.
We continued by walking along the Jonker Street (a.k.a. Jalan Hang Jebat, Chinatown), which was very interesting. Walking along that street felt like going back in time. All buildings were decorated in a Chinese 50’s era style. Being a tourist attraction street, it was quite amazing to see some unpopular buildings like a newspaper office or a mortuary over there.
We then checked in at our hotel, Baba House, located not far from the Jonker Street. Exactly as described in a Lonely Planet book, the lobby decoration was very interesting and classic, but the rooms were quite bland. However, it’s not bad at all for a MYR 145 per night rate.
Outside the Jonker Street, the town was influenced by Portuguese culture. There were classic buildings like churches and fort remains. The well-known Stadyhus is the central of the surrounding buildings: Christ Church, Windmill, etc… We climbed up the hill a bit to see the St. Paul Church. Plenty of tombstones were planted there, remembering the names of several Portuguese lived in the past. Just nearby, there were some Malay Sultanate museums and the Cheng Ho museum.
An uncle selling fried potato at Jonker Street
The sun was almost set when we went back to Jonker Street. Interestingly, that street was closed for vehicles and transformed into a night market, similar to those in Lau Pa Sat. We rested a while in our hotel, and out again, this time to the infamous satay celup restaurant, Capitol Satay, about 15 minutes walking from the Jonker Street. We were a bit late, so we had to queue for more than an hour for a seat. On the same street with the Capitol, there were 2 more satay celup restaurant with almost no visitors. They were selling alternative value propositions, like “Why pay 90 cents in Capitol, while our satay is 60 cents only” or “We have 40 years experience!”.
The queue was paid off when we started to dine there. The menu was simple: you pick several uncooked meats or vegetables in wooden sticks, then you cook it yourself in a bowl of peanut sauce. However, it was somehow very interesting and quite delicious, too. While we were eating, we heard all staffs were talking in Javanese. It turned out that the owner of the stall was from Java and had become a Malaysian resident.
After dinner, we headed to the Maritime Museum, not far from Jonker Street. Unfortunately it only opens during the day, so we only spent the time outside, taking pictures of the massive ship that acts as the museum.
Goodbye!
On the next day, we spent morning time by walking to the Fort Santiago, which is well known for photo taking spot. It is the remains of a fort that was built also by the Portuguese. The place was nice but not exceptional, perhaps because we had seen St. Paul Church the day before.
Before going back to the hotel I stopped by a shop selling cendol. The interesting thing about this chendol is the cup. It was made of thick paper, and equipped with the handle; also made with paper. The patented paper handle was made strong enough to hold a full cup of the drink.
For lunch, my friend Handy had the infamous peranakan laksa, while I chose the safer side by ordering a normal noodle (I had bad experiences with spicy food).
It was then time to go home. We had to go back to Malaka Sentral to take the bus back to Singapore. We would like to try the public bus there, but it was too crowded hence too risky for my weak knee. We then decided to just take another cab anyway. Few minutes before 2 PM, we were already in the bus heading for Singapore; ending our short journey to Malaka.
This is part two of the story. You can read the first part here.
Pekalongan Station
After spending quality time in Singapore, It was time to go back to Indonesia. I went to Bandung with my girlfriend using an AirAsia flight. Still having euphoria from the celebration, I spent a bit more of money by booking the hot seat at the front row. I felt lucky as the one seat beside me was empty, so I had some extra room. Until a guy from the back seat came in and took the seat. Fortunately, he agreed to move back after I convinced him that the seat is for hot seat passengers only. When the plane landed at Bandung, I realized one more benefit from the hot seat purchase, which is a faster waiting time at the immigration checks. There were only 2 officers on duty, hence arriving later at the gate contributed significant amount of waiting time.
I spent two nights in Bandung, and at the third day was the time for another trip to Pekalongan. It is a small town in Central Java, where my parents once lived their childhood. It is well known as Batik producer, but as I found out it’s also a heaven for seafood lover, thanks to its proximity to the ocean and low living cost. When I was younger, my dad used to take me there by car. We usually spent 1 to 3 days on the road. Not the whole day of course, but we tended to stop and stay overnight in the towns we passed by to enjoy them. This time, the ritual didn’t seem to be feasible anymore and the best option was to take a train!
About 7.30 in the morning, both of us boarded the train to Pekalongan. Unlike the years before, the Bandung-Pekalongan train this time took a much longer route by catching up the rail from Jakarta on the northern side. This means huge maintenance cost saving for the company, and longer journey time for the passengers (but on the brighter side, more scenery to see!). We arrived in Pekalongan about 2 PM, having only about five minutes to alight as the train was scheduled to go again to Semarang
After meeting the rest of the Singapore team (my parents, brother and his girlfriend), I freshened up by taking the legendary Es Teler at Jalan Dr. Cipto, followed by another desert es duren (durian syrup with ice). At late afternoon, we spent some time at the beach. It was not as clean as Sentosa beach, but at least there were not so much tankers there. In the evening, we went to a restaurant near the beach to have a big seafood dinner. For less than S$ 10 per person, we had grilled fishes, whole squids (more than just the rings), salad, and kangkungs (water spinach).
The beach at Pekalongan
In the morning next day, we went for another culinary trip: a soto tauco (traditional spicy soup) at a small alley near the Es Teler restaurant. In the afternoon, we had another famous food from Kombor’srestaurant: chilli crab. Not really similar to the chilli crabs in Singapore, their crabs have less meat but better sauce. We tried to burn our fat afterwards at a local franchise of the Time Zone arcade center. After one hour of games, we started to get bored and went back home. Turned out that my aunt just bought a carrom discs for the table that she had had for a long time. Hence we started to spent another hour playing the game (even without precisely understanding the rules). Evening was another chance to taste various local foods in Pekalongan. We started by having swikees (frogs) cooked in various ways for dinner, followed grilled toast (yes, it was really grilled using charcoals!). As for the “dessert”, we had martabak. It was sold by a guy named Ibrahim, who we thought first came from middle east for his figure. Turned out that his father came from India.
I’ve been talking too much about food, haven’t I? Anyway, unfortunately on the third day we had to go back to our hometowns. My girlfriend went back to Bandung while I went to Jakarta along with my family. It was another train trip, but this time much faster. It only took about 4 hours of journey. In Jakarta, me and my brother spent some time to watch a live soccer game by our old friends. Finally, I took a flight back to Singapore in the evening. It felt so fast, though in the end the story worth two posts of blog.
After finishing my last semester in NUS, it was time for a long break! This time, I visited Jakarta and Bandung for about 9 days. A luxury I couldn’t get during the semester term.
First stop was Jakarta. I took a flight in the morning from Singapore, and arrived around noon. After landed, I searched for my dad who picked me up at the airport. While I was looking for him, I saw many adolescent girls looking very excited waiting for something. Out of curiosity, I asked one of them what’s happening. She answered “Super Junior is coming!” with a look that says something like “Oh my God! You really don’t know what’s happening? Are you from outer space?”. I only saw the car they rode from distance amid the hysterical fans, but didn’t see the Super Junior members. I didn’t know them beforehand, anyway.
During the 4 days in Jakarta, I didn’t really go to interesting places. I spent most of them for quality time with family and by cleaning up my stuff that I left untouched while in Singapore. One of the task was to dispose a very old 486 desktop computer (from the year 1994). It turned out to be a difficult task, even my friend who works on a project that accept old computers for donation thinks that the specification was too low. I also tried to help my dad to remove a tree stump that lies at our front yard. The root has grown so deep it threatened to spoil the the water pipe under the soil. It was a task that looked easy but turned out to be very difficult. The root was thick and had forked into many smaller ones, making it difficult to pull out. In the end, we gave up and decided to try buying a kerosene to kill it slowly instead.
On Tuesday, I went to Bandung to meet my girlfriend, but it became some kind of breaking my diet plan in a culinary trip. Most of them involved having local meals that only found in warungs and home made cooking. On one occasion we had dinner at a modern cafe located next to a mosque, making the ambiance a bit awkward during prayer times. After almost four years (when I left Bandung), this city has been getting more cramped than before.
Almost every time I went to Bandung, I spent some time to watch movie in the cinema. During this time, there was some disagreement between the government and the movie distributor, making the blockbuster movies unavailable everywhere in Indonesia (well, except at the pirated DVD stores). It was quite a pity, but on the bright side it filtered out the mainstream movies that sell by their visual effects, and leaving the good movies that focuses on the story. In the end, Source Code and Scream 4 was quite satisfying to me.
I also spent some time to visit the university where I studied for my undergraduate. There were new buildings, making me and my girlfriend lost for a few moment before finding out the department we were looking for. It was very nice to see the professors that taught me and some former colleagues (I was working part time for 2 years in the university). Things haven’t changed much but I regret that I already forgot the names of some of them. The most nostalgic part is, well, the food. After having traditional fried chicken for dinner, we went for a second round at a nearby soup stall.
On the last day, I took a train back to Jakarta, to catch up the flight in the evening. I arrived around 10.30 but had to wait about one and a half hour for my parents and brother to come. They were taking another train from Pekalongan. While waiting, I went to the nearby tourist attraction: the national monument, a.k.a. Monas. It is interesting, because while I was born and raised in Jakarta, that was only the second time I went to Monas for at least 15 years. The first time was during the elementary school study tour. I was taking several pictures for this blog when a local seller came to me and tried to speak in English with me. I replied in English, too, until he asked me where I come from and I answered “Jakarta”. He looked a bit surprised, this crazy Jakartans still want to go to Monas?
About one hour later, my parent came. We then had a quick lunch, followed by rest at home. And in the evening, I flew back to Singapore. End of trip, was surely a pleasant break
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.
