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.
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.
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.
In 2020, COVID-19 hit the world. It was deadly mostly to people with comorbidity or senior citizens, including my grandfather of 100 years old. Due to safety reasons, he was quickly cremated and his remain was kept in a columbarium. Fast forward to 2023, COVID-19 was largely under control and there was plan to take the remain and bury it properly, in the same grave as his wife in Bekasi. The burial process involves proper praying ceremony with close family members, just like a regular wake.
When I heard the news from my cousin Reza, I was really excited to come and join, since it was also a chance to meet my relatives that I have not met for some time. I initially planned to travel alone using intercity train service. However, the train to Bekasi only run at certain times, and none of the times allowed me to arrive at the graveyard on time for burial. I then decided to drive myself. Driving round trip in one day would be too exhausting for me (I’m older now and I have two children fighting each other every time when they are not sleeping). Therefore I planned a one night stay at a hotel nearby. Since the kids did not have to go to school and my in-law agreed to take care of them, I asked my wife to come along. And finally, since I had an overnight stay planned, I also planned to visit my mother’s tomb a well.
Long story short, I headed out from home at 6 in the morning with my wife, to take a breakfast at a nearby yumcha restaurant. They had this promotion of free drink for each meal purchased. The kopi was really nice, plus it was served in this fancy classic cup.
Breakfast
At 7 AM, we drove to Pondok Ranggon to visit my mother’s tomb. We met Pak D, the person in charge of taking care of the tomb. We also paid him the yearly maintenance fee. Since three of my mother’s siblings were buried at the same graveyard, we also visited and prayed for them.
Graveyard
From Pondok Ranggon, we drove again to Pereng, the graveyard for my grandfather in Bekasi. We were slighly late, but still in time for the procession. Most of the relatives were there, but some others could not come due to incompatibilities. In Chinese culture, there is a belief that if people with certain Chinese zodiac signs are not compatible with the deceased, bad luck may come.
The altar
Around 11.30, the procession started. A monk lead us in chanting to deliver my grandfather spirit. Fresh food were served on the altar, while fake paper money and clothes made of paper were burned with the hope that the deceased can use them in his afterlife.
Right after procession ended, rain poured hard. We waited until the rain eased, then said goodbye to each other. Most of them went back home, while I and my wife drove to Cikarang to spend the night there. I chose Cikarang because it’s not too far from Bekasi, halfway back to Bandung, and close to Meikarta.
In case you didn’t know, Meikarta was an ambitious real estate project in Cikarang area. It was mentioned in the news recently because they could not deliver the promised units to its customers. Honestly, I found their TV ad fishy since the beginning, reminding me of Terminator’s Skynet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7psCeH5kKw
There was not much to see there (in Meikarta). Our hotel however, is located more of at the Lippo Cikarang area. It is more of an industrial complex (that are marked with thick yellow cells, if you play Sim City), where many factories were built around that area. When we arrived, we saw what looked like a Korean chatting with the security guard. A tourist, we thought.
We then checked in, took a shower (we were drenched in rain) and take a good nap, before heading out in the evening for dinner. The food in the hotel were relatively expensive, so we walked out a bit and had dinner at a simple Indonesian restaurant.
The next morning, we had early breakfast at 6 AM. It turned out that 90% of the guests eating breakfast were Koreans! Most of them bought their safety helmets, a sign that they work in civil engineering and their employers provided this hotel for their residency during their work in Cikarang. Even the hotel served a Korean menu. At 7 AM, we drove back to Bandung, as I had to work again.
This is the finale of the long weekends series. As a summary, my last few weekends were quite eventful, and this last trip(s) should end the saga.
Prolog
It all started back on Sunday morning, 9th of January 2022. It was just a regular Sunday, with me checking my personal e-mails. A surprise e-mail came from DK, a long time friend. He was about to get married in Singapore, and I was invited! I and DK were two of the four Indonesians selected to participate in the 2003 International Olympiad in Informatics, representing Indonesia. Unfortunately, due to visa problem, we didn’t make it to the international event. I was in third senior high that year, so I moved on and entered university. DK on the other side, was in junior high so he had a few more chances in the following years. He did grab three silver medals on his three years of subsequent participations. He also continued study in SU, and with fellow friends founded T, one of the largest online travel agents in Indonesia. He then left T and built another startup company in Singapore. Pictured on the left (in desktop; above in mobile) are me, DK, and another friend RS when we met some time in 2007.
I lived in Bandung, and since pandemic began direct flights between Bandung and Singapore stopped serving. I was wishing that it would resume on August, the wedding day. However, up to one month before my flight there was no sign that the flights will resume. Therefore, with help of my wife Y, I bought the ticket. We bought the 6 days 5 nights flight+hotel package through T, one of the largest online travel agents in Indonesia. There seemed to be a bug in such platform, that made me pay less than half of the actual price.
The math doesn’t seem to work out well here
I did try to resolve this out, but company policy seemed to block my way. I tried to understand the breakdown of each component, but it was the company’s secret recipe (see below). I also tried to contact the support, but as with other large companies, in most cases they would connect you to a bot. A bot did check my receipt and she confirmed that all invoices have been fully paid and I was ready to go. I know that I could have reported a bug, but it was too much of a hassle and it’s more fun to write in a blog (and get better deal).
Unfortunately, as Flight + Hotel is a collection of deals provided by our partners, we cannot give you separate invoices or price details for individual flight and hotel booking. However, you can rest assured that you will get a better deal by booking Flight + Hotel compared to booking flight and hotel separately.
T Help Center
Bogor, FLS2N Province Selection
Just a few days before my flight, I had to go to Bogor to support the FLS2N Province Selection event, in which you may have read in my previous post, Long Weekends part 3. I drove to Jakarta along with H, since I would be bringing two large suitcases to Singapore. On third day, I left the event early and had G replaced me in such event. I stayed one night at my parents’ house in Bintaro, and went to airport in the next morning.
Singapore, Day 1: Arriving
I was really excited the second I stepped into the airport. This was my first time flying after many years. Also, this time I was alone, allowing some time to meet more friends and acquaintances in Singapore. My wife Y kindly gave me the visa to go to Singapore and leave her with the kids.
Some rules on flying have changed compared to the years before, most likely due to pandemic. Passengers were no longer required to “turn off all electronic devices during take-off and landing”. We were just asked to not use them during take-off and landing, and set them to airplane mode during the whole flight (though wi-fi can be separately turned on to access in-flight entertainment). There was also a reminder to take off your face mask before wearing oxygen mask in case of pressure drop.
While waiting on the plane, I read some chapters of a book formerly owned by a legendary professor in my university, Professor Benny Suprapto. He passed away a few years before, and the family donated many of his books to the university, which I picked one.
I had planned to meet my two friends AY and AQ that evening. However, after landed and received internet signal, came a message from AQ, telling me that his daughter just got COVID and for sure AQ would not be able to meet us. Shortly after, AY called me asking to reschedule the meeting to lunch time (about an hour after I landed). He just had a daughter so meeting me during the day would be much easier than the family time at night. I took a taxi to the hotel, drop my luggages, and took another taxi to Kent Ridge MRT, which was located next to National University Hospital.
It was nice to meet AY again. Aside that he treated me for lunch, I was also amazed for his discipline following his vegetarian diet. We both had Kimchi fried rice for lunch. My fried rice was complete with chicken, but his portion was strictly without meat.
My mind also went to the past, when the company used to treat us for lunch. To cater both the vegetarian diet for Indians and halal food for Muslims, our boss used to take us to a Chinese vegetarian restaurant and our Indian friends (not AY, though) jokingly complained that the Chinese vegetarian meals taste were bland. It’s true, though. The Chinese tried to make fake meat using flour, making the taste very bland.
Me and AY
After meeting AY, I went back to hotel and picked up my dirty clothes. I had some dirty clothes from my stay in Bogor, and this first day I tried to survey for a laundry that I could use to wash my clothes in the next few days.
After careful selection, my choice fell for Oasis Laundry in Achorpoint. Anchorpoint was a small shopping mall located near my former rented room when I stayed in Singapore 10 years before. It costed $5 and 30 minutes to wash the clothes and another $6 and 60 minutes to dry them.
While waiting the laundry, I had my dinner as well as visiting the area of my former neighbourhood. It was located at Tanglin Halt, one of the oldest area in Singapore. When I visited this time, the area was already “en-bloc”ed. It means that the government collectively take over the houses and demolish the area, to built a newer residence area. In Singapore, one does not simply own a flat. Government rented them for normally 99 years. Usually, before rent is due, government will en-bloc the flats and offer the resident a new one with heavily reduced price.
Singapore, Day 2
The next day, I woke up very early. I had a daily alarm at 5AM, but in Singapore that means 4AM Jakarta time! The hotel I stayed in Pasir Panjang did not provide breakfast. By the way, the hotel itself was an old and very simple hotel. It was located far from the town and it seemed that there was not many guests lately, so they closed the restaurant. However, the hotel was a perfect fit for me: inexpensive, provided stable hot water, air-conditioned, etc. The only downside is that the (CRT) TV only had one channel: Vasantham, a Tamil-speaking channel. I don’t speak Tamil.
The simple hotel room
The bright side of it, was that the hotel was very close to a coffee shop that opens early in the morning, namely the Habibi. I went there before the sun rose, and had a very nice, long-awaited, kopi (Singapore coffee with milk – find out what’s so special about Singapore coffee in my previous post). On my way back to hotel, I also took a picture of my hotel facade, because the block number 404, has special meaning for web developers. 404 is the status code for “page not found” when one tries to access a certain web page.
Nice hot kopi.Habibi Cafe (picture taken a few days after)The hotel I stayed
After the sun rose, I took a bus and stopped near the entrance of Kent Ridge Park. I wanted to recreate the photos I took 10 years before when I lived here. The result was quite fascinating and I posted it to my Instagram account. At the end of the trip, I had my brunch at Prince George Park Residence canteen, inside the NUS (National University of Singapore) area. It was the traditional Singaporean breakfast: a kaya+butter toast, half-boiled eggs, and coffee with milk. I replaced the condensed milk with evaporated milk to reduce sugar intake.
Traditional breakfast set
I also stopped by the NUS co-op, a store that sells many university or science themed gifts. I found some interesting items to buy, but decided to gave them a little thought for a few days before buying.
Near the co-op, there was an exhibition “We are NUS”, where you can take a picture with paintings of several NUS people, and have the picture sent to your e-mail.
We are NUS
I traveled again, to Vista mall near Buona Vista MRT, to meet my other friend, AS. Before meeting him, I had a team zoom meeting at 11AM Jakarta time, which converted to 12 noon Singapore time. It was difficult to get a decent internet, even inside Pizza Hut restaurant (where I had to pay more for a food that I could also get back in Indonesia).
An hour later, AS came and we had a talk at a nearby Indian restaurant. We didn’t take picture together but I did take a picture of my food. Yummy. AS was a friend from high school. I remember the time when we connected cheap remote-controlled car to a parallel port in an old 486 computer. By adjusting the value of certain memory locations in the computer, we could control the voltage of the port and in turn told the car to move forward, backward, left, and right, by the keyboard presses. Newer computers could not do this, likely because of lower voltages and protocols required to control the voltage. We won 2nd place at a competition.
Indian meal
I went back to the hotel and take a rest, before going out again in the evening, to meet my friends at Vivo City.
While waiting my friends to come, I walked around Vivo City to look for some gifts to bring home. One of my target was the Lego Vespa, a miniature of Vespa 125. It was promoted in Vespa Indonesia website, but unfortunately not officially sold in Indonesia. I found one at Bricks World, with a price tag of S$165. Also, I had to give some thoughts before actually buying it.
A few minutes later, my friends E, H, and HO came. Two of them had kids, so I felt honored that they walked the extra mile to leave their kids at home to meet me. We had dinner at a Korean restaurant and talked about many things. These friends were one of my special friends in Singapore. When I first visited Singapore, I was alone from Indonesia to meet my employer. A day before my first working day, I visited office to do some paperworks, without knowing any other Indonesians. On my way back from office, I unexpectedly met these group of ITB alumni, wanting to go that office too. One in the group was A, which I known earlier from a competition. So I was introduced with the rest (including E, H, and HO), and they became my first good friends in my four years life in Singapore.
Me with my first friends in SingaporeSome of the crazy stuffs we did back then
After an hour talking inside the Korean restaurant, we felt that we sat too long there, so we paid the bill (well, my friends actually forbid me to pay, and they paid for our dinner). I assumed that they had to go home, to take care of the kids. I was wrong though; they already asked their spouses to take care of the kids! It turned out that by having me visited them to Singapore, it’s also a chance for them to meet each other, since it’s difficult to meet even when everyone lives in the same city. We moved to Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf cafe. After a few minutes chatting, I started to feel sleepy. Lucky that I could buy an espresso shot to help me awake. After a long nice chat, we waved goodbye and went back to our own life.
Singapore, Day 3
The next morning, I took another breakfast at Habibi. This time, Masala Thosai. Also known as Masala Dosa in India, this meal had a special meaning for me. When I had my internship in Bangalore, India, this was my favorite meal, mostly due to its price. It was very cheap that when converted to Rupiah it was Rp4.000 (S$0.4). Price was important because when I lived in Bangalore, I only brought limited amount of money, and my stipend was paid only after I went back home. The price now, of course, will be much more expensive than that.
Masala Thosai
I then traveled to NUS again, which was not very far from the hotel. I had weekly bible study with some friends through zoom. NUS on Saturday morning was not crowded at all and I could easily sit on one bench, get the free wifi, and did the zoom meeting without disturbing anyone around. After zoom, I went back to the hotel, and visited a post office nearby. I brought some children books for my friends in Singapore, and one was reserved for AQ. Since he could not meet us, I decided to send it by postal service.
I went to Bugis Street afterwards. The night before, I asked my wife what would she or the kids want for gifts from Singapore. My son asked me to buy a simple toy that he found a few years before in Bugis Street. It was an elastic water-filled ball that could be thrown to walls and stick for a while. Fortunately the shop selling such toy was still there, and I bought some for my kids and potentially their friends. S$20 for 7 balls. I also had some culinary delights at hawker center nearby, a popiah and grass jelly drink.
PopiahGrass jelly drink
I went back to the hotel, and prepared myself for DK’s wedding ceremony that evening. Dress code was cocktail. At first I thought “cocktail” refers to those colorful canned fruits usually used as ingredient for a sweet (mostly non-alcoholic in Indonesia) beverage. Lucky I did a google search and found that it actually referred to a full suit with jacket, much less colorful.
In Singapore I prefer to use public transport, even with full suit. This was actually the second time I wear a suit inside a public bus. The first time was for a wedding for another friend. The couple reminded us to be on time, so as not to disrupt the ceremony. Therefore, I departed early, and arrived early too. I was probably the first guest to arrive. DK’s sister greeted me. His face looked familiar, and I realized that I knew her husband as well. However, her husband could not come because their child was still a few months old; too young for a long trip. I also met DK’s parents, who were also special persons for me. During our olympiad preparation, our parents used to accompany us to the training venue, and they knew my parents, including my late mother.
Me with DK’s parents
As you may have seen from the picture, the wedding was held in a very beautiful place in the town, where you can see some Singapore icons: the Flyer, Art Museum, and Marina Bay Sands.
I also met several friends, old and new. AW was a founder of large game company in Indonesia. AH was in the management of a fintech company, and we met online several times to discuss potential cooperation. AK was another olympiad team member, who managed to get silver in IOI 2005. A was an international independent journalist, whom I just knew at the party. MS was a leader of a young political party for Jakarta region. K was a mutual friend but I never met him before. He also brought his cute little baby girl to the party.
Then the wedding ceremony started. It was led by a priest lady with slight Filipino accent. Not trying to be racist here, but having lived 4 years in Singapore, I started to have tendency to guess based on one’s accent where he/she comes from. The lady used chocolate truffle as ice breaker for her sermon. She mentioned that we can see truffle -the food- as an acronym T-R-U-F-F-L-E. T is for Trust, a very important ingredient for a good marriage. R is for Respect, I think. The rest of the letters were not my responsibility to remember. It’s D’s responsibility to remember them, and I may ask him again about this in 5 years.
After mingling on the rooftop, we were invited to go downstairs for dinner. Everyone had a dedicated seat for them, with a name card on top of the table. It was a fine dining set up, Italian style. Plenty of wine were served, and it actually helped me to sleep well that night.
Every guest had a dedicated seat for themSuch a small portion. You call this fine? Ang-mohs are weird
I sat on a small table of five, in a very strategic location. It was very close to the main stage where we could see the couple. I met old friends from the olympiad. Aside from AK and his wife, I also met RS and his newly-wed wife. They were expecting a baby so they tried to avoid wine and half-cooked steak (which gave some challenge to one of the servers because they offered only rare and medium one).
As the only one without a spouse in that table, I tried to make a joke about me getting a visa from my wife before going to Singapore. It took them a few seconds to understand the joke, especially because as fellow ASEAN citizens, Indonesians don’t actually need a government issued visa to enter Singapore.
Me and some old friends
After about an hour of wine and talk, I went back to the hotel and get a good rest. RS also sent me some old pictures of me, him and DK when we were much younger (which you can also see it as the first picture in this post). He did not remember when and where did we met in the picture, but I vaguely remember it’s in one of the olympiad event in a hotel in Bandung. A Google Maps search confirmed it, as in the picture we could see the roof of Hotel Savoy Homann’s Garden Restaurant.
Singapore, Day 4
The next morning, I took a stroll at nearby West Coast Park. Parks in Singapore are unique, unlike parks in other countries. They are well maintained and have lush greeneries, but you cannot escape from the concretes. In the city area you will see tall buildings on the horizon. In parks of the coastal area, there are buildings on one side, boats tankers on another.
View of boats from West Coast ParkAnother view from West Coast Park
I spent the rest of that morning doing the laundry. At 1PM, I met my former landlord CL and her husband J, who kindly treated me for lunch in the Legendary Hong Kong Dim Sum. To have a meal there, one must wait in the queue for almost an hour. This was because it was a newly opened branch, after its first branch in Jurong Point.
The dim sum was very nice, but it was even nicer to meet my former landlord. During my 4-year stay in Singapore, I lived in her flat (well actually, her mother’s) and never moved out. I stayed in a two-bedroom flat, which I occupied 1 bedroom, while her mother on the other bedroom. She (her mother) was already a senior citizen when I stayed there, and when I visited Singapore this time she was already too old that she needed constant care in a nursing home. The flat itself has been emptied because it was going to be demolished for en-bloc. It was the same flat I mentioned in day 1.
Me and my former landlord
I went back to hotel and took a rest, before heading out again to visit DK’s apartment. He invited us to his apartment for a casual dinner. When I arrived, DK was busy discussing work with his colleague. He started this new venture of making a website called Sembly, a collaboration platform. I met and talk with several new friends. NO was an investor to several startups in Jakarta. MS was the political leader that I met a day earlier. As an engineer, I didn’t know much about how political party works, and he gladly explained to us how it actually works.
Dr. W was the head of NLP (Natural Language Processing) lab in AI Singapore, but it was his knowledge of my hotel that surprised me. The hotel I stayed was actually a pretty infamous hotel, located far from the city center and far from MRT stations. However, it was close to NUS (where AI Singapore office was located) and close to two famous Indian coffee shop as well: Habibi and The Cheese Prata Shop. Dr. W explained to me that both are popular among NUS students as places for studying late at night.
I headed home probably at 9PM. I took another bus to go to my hotel and enjoyed the night. I always like taking a bus in Singapore. It is air-conditioned, comfortable, and you can easily see the surroundings en route.
Singapore, Day 5
The next morning, I went out to Orchard area, the “Singapore” as most Indonesian tourists know. I went there to look for Lego Vespa, which I was also looking in day 2.
But first, breakfast.
Traditional breakfast set from Toast Box
Back to the Lego Vespa, I got a nice deal in Takashimaya with $159 price, 10% discount for tourists and additional 7% GST refund at the airport. However, the packages were so big, I had to rearrange the content my suitcases. Also, to try saving spaces, I did another laundry at Anchorpoint.
In the afternoon, I went out to NUS again. I had some works to do, and the hotel internet was not stable during the day. I worked at the School of Computing, and walked around to Engineering canteen and Yusof Ishak House afterwards. For dinner, I took an Indian set meal in Yusof Ishak House canteen.
Indian set meal
I then went back to the hotel to rest, after basically a whole day for myself.
Singapore, Day 6
This was my last day in Singapore, also happened to be Singapore’s national day. In the morning, I met ES and had breakfast together at The Cheese Prata Shop. We planned to meet BR as well, but he could not come because of COVID. The three of us went to the same high school, and both ES and BR were the two friends who welcomed me to Singapore when I started living here for work. I could still remember BR’s quote when I met him in 2008, “There’s not much news here in Singapore, we even imported crime news from Malaysia”.
Me with ESMe with ES and BR in 2005
Browsing through my photo collection, I also found our pictures from 2005, 17 years back! We had a dinner at Geylang that time. Geylang was known for both delicious food and as a red light district (prostitution). The next day, my friend’s aunt (a Singaporean) invited us for lunch. She casually asked me where did I go last night. I naively said Geylang, and you can only imagine the change of look in her face. “Geylang!? You should be careful there. Plenty of gangsters, etc..”.
After breakfast, I went back to the hotel to pack my stuff. It was so full of oleh-oleh (gifts), especially because I prepared several personalized gifts for some people (including those huge Lego Vespas). The suit would also take a lot of space when put inside the suitcase, so (thanks to Y’s brilliant idea) I wore them for my flight back to Jakarta. In addition, I also put some of my clothes in my backpack, because the suitcase were too full. My laptops and chargers were put in a hand-carry bag.
My flight was somewhere at 6PM, but I was all ready in the morning. I asked the hotel receptionist to help book me a taxi, but she suggested that it was not difficult and cheaper too to flag one on the street, in front of the hotel.
I tried to check in my backpack, ready to pay for some extra cost for additional weight. The check-in lady, however, insisted that I should not pay extra and bring the backpack with me to the cabin instead.
Having a lot of free time, I walked around the airport, including taking a selfie in front of the infamous HSBC Rain Vortex. Aside from that, it was just another crowded shopping mall.
I then had my last Singaporean meal in Singapore, mee rebus for lunch and barley for the drink. Mee rebus is a noodle with thick coconut milk soup.
Mee rebus
Just after lunch, I entered transit area and spent most of my time waiting for the flight there. I had one last kopi in Singapore (I promise, this is the actual last) in the food court. This food court had this cute robot that helped transporting used tray and eating utensils.
Transporter robot
About 6.30 PM local time, the plane took off for Jakarta. It was delayed for a few minutes due to national day activities, but it gave me the right moment to take this picture of beautiful sunset from the airplaine.
Sunset view from the airplane during take off
Epilog
On my way back from Jakarta to Bandung, RS sent me this screenshot of his conversation with his friend. I’m glad that I’m not the only one who knew the visa joke.
My wife drove me to UNPAR that morning. We stopped at McD for me to buy a quick and easy breakfast, and I arrived at UNPAR at 6.30. Some students and other lecturers from International Relations department arrived one by one. This was a Program Pengabdian Kepada Masyarakat (some kind of corporate social responsibility) headed by the International Relations Department in cooperation with Faculty of Information Technology and Sciences, to teach a pesantren (Islamic Boarding School) students in Sukabumi, West Java. We started our journey at 7 AM, driving all the way to Sukabumi. We had simple lunch at a Sundanese restaurant in Sukabumi, and drove again to the pesantren.
We arrived at Pesantren somewhere at 13.00. It was still in semester break, so classroom was empty, as in the room was dusty and no chair for students inside. Lucky we had many personnels to clean the room, bring the chairs, and prepared it for class. The chairs were relatively heavy since they were made from real woods, whereas modern chairs in the city are usually made from lighter materials such as plastic or aluminium.
About an hour later, students coming in one by one, and when enough people were there, Mas N started his presentation about Japanese culture and the environment. He told a story about Japan’s journey, from when the people did not care about the environment, up to the era where stuffs are reused again and again.
We took a break and then my turn to perform the workshop. I taught the students how to use WordPress app to write blog posts. It was fun yet challenging. There were no computers, but almost all students had a smartphone with internet connection (I provided free wifi, though). I asked them to download the app from Play Store and write the post using the app. I was lucky too that this event was held in July, one month after the pride month. I can’t imagine how to explain why the WordPress logo is colored rainbow, let alone the LGBT+ movement to the Islamic students. It also made me ponder, how app developers can have large influence to people in other countries.
A picture of me teaching to blog
At 17.00, activities ended. Students did their prayer and went home, and we traveled again to our hotel in town. Midway, we stopped at another restaurant and had porridge for dinner. Why porridge? It was one of a few meals that is still within the price limit enforced by the university. After dinner, most of us took rest in the hotel, while I ordered a spagethi from the hotel since a portion of porridge was not enough.
The next day, I arrived in the restaurant earliest for breakfast. Without my colleagues around, I had a coffee while writing blog posts (mostly the previous parts of this Long Weekends series). Teaching blog to the students triggered me to regularly write blog posts again, just like I did many years ago. Stay at home due to pandemic limited the ideas, and family responsibilites reduced my time to write one.
We then traveled again to the pesantren. In that morning the activity was painting on tote bags, led by Mas K. Students were asked to paint with the theme of environment, and tell a story about what they painted. I served as one of the judges, and painted one, too. We had mini games afterwards, and lunch. Lunch was served by the owner of that pesantren himself, with the most delicious gepuk (meat jerky) I have ever had.
The girls seem to buy my random explanation about the painting
At around 14.00, we waved goodbye and returned to Bandung. Traffic was much worse than when we departed, and we arrived in Bandung somewhere around 20.00. I took a taxi back home, and get a well deserved rest, before the next morning when I had to bring my kids to their first day of school.
I noticed two extremes in how my acquaintances respond to COVID-19 stay at home notice. At one end, those who stay at home as much as possible like there is zombie apocalypse. At the other end, those who think that social distancing is nonsense and COVID-19 is a conspiracy. This story is for those who goes toward the first end, to show you what is going on outside.
Me and my team helped the Ministry of Education developing a simple mobile app for their World School Debating Championship 2017 event, as well as the 2018 Festival & Lomba Seni Siswa Nasional (FLS2N, or the National Art Festival and Competition for Students) online competition portal. The 2018 project was a complex and challenging one, as some provinces decided to use the classic on-site competition while other provinces decided to go online. 2020, COVID-19 came and everybody must go online. Long story short, our team was invited to Sentul, Bogor, for meeting with the committee and judges, to prepare for the part of the FLS2N and debating (LDBI & NSDC, Lomba Debat Bahasa Indonesia & National School Debating Championship) 2020 full-online competition.
My team member refused to go due to fear of COVID-19, so I as the team leader, had to go alone (I kind of miss those day when I was not a leader and can throw responsibilities to my boss). My wife was also worried and upon returning I would not be allowed to go to office before 14 days, but well, the show must go on.
I started driving to Sentul around 8 AM, and the traffic was very clear, comparable to those at 2019 Lebaran time (where most of people are outside the capital city), so that was one benefit of the stay at home policy. I arrived Sentul at 10.30, 1.5 hours earlier than schedule of registration at hotel. I spent my time at Starbucks to reply to e-mails and video call with my team. I chose Starbucks since it has the lowest risk to contract the virus, compared to other places like Dominos, KFC, or a bakmi (noodle) restaurant.
Starbucks has a pretty good policy towards COVID-19 prevention. Markers on the floor helped people who queue to keep a distance one another, all customers were scanned for fever and required to wear mask. I brought my own tumbler, and asked to put my tumbler in a plastic bag that the staff held, in a way that the staff would never have to touch my tumbler at all during the process. This ensured germs or virus from one customer does not contract to the next customer.
At 1 PM, I arrived at the hotel and registered. As I traveled alone, the staff said that I will be assigned a roommate. At this point I realized that to achieve global survival from COVID-19, people must work together. If my roommate was the conspiracy theorist like I said earlier (unfortunately he was not), I would have a much higher risk of contracted with COVID-19 even though I follow all hygiene and social distancing recommendations).
From the hotel itself, they have implemented various measures to limit spread of the virus. Mask and plastic gloves are compulsory while you are inside the restaurant, and guests are not allowed to take their food by themselves (yes, including to prevent those guests who pick the food to their plate, then change their mind and return the food to the tray). Guests are also not recommended to use the swimming pool (which some of them did, anyway). When I entered my room, the blind was largely opened, allowing sunlight to pass through at maximum level. When I closed it that evening (I don’t want to see ghosts at night), they reopened the blind next day.
As for the meeting itself, COVID-19 briefing is held at the first night. My roommate complained that it was a waste of time, but the organizer told me that such briefing is compulsory for holding the on-site meeting. During the meeting, it is not possible to 100% perform social distancing. At one time people have to open their mask and speak close to the partner for a secondary discussion. Other time, you have to lend your smartphone to your partner to show an image stored in your phone. After all, the goal of having on-site meeting is to overcome the difficulties in discussions due to social distance.
There is not much story to tell other than those, since the meeting was held for two nights only. One thing for sure, when I returned home, I decided to isolate myself from my family, to reduce the risk of spreading the virus.
Every year, our team at PT DNArtworks Komunikasi Visual spend a few days for company outing outside our city of residences. The team itself is split into Jakarta and Bandung team. While in previous years we met at our destination, this year we met at Jakarta, and flew together to Malang.
The Bandung team, seven of us, were supposed to meet at the train station in the morning. However, one member Carissa cancelled last minute, due her illness and an important life event that would happen a few weeks later. Therefore, six of us traveled to Jakarta by Train.
The guy in the back seemed to be happy to be included in the picture.
We arrived at Jakarta three hours later, and took a Blue Bird cab to our Jakarta office in the Serpong area. As usual, picking the right taxi was difficult, due to illegal taxis pushing us to use their service instead.
After arriving at the Jakarta office, we had some light discussions then headed to O! Fish restaurant chain nearby. They serve western style seafood menu, with healthy options to cater concerned millennials’ need like me. The most interesting option for me was to replace potato with quinoa seeds, a food normally consumed by body builders, at least in Indonesia. We then had a team photo.
All is full (photo by Daniel)
We spent another few hours at the office, then Bandung team headed to a hotel nearby in Alam Sutera area. We had dinner in a Manado restaurant called Sarang Oci, which was not disappointing at all. The best part of it was klapertaart for desert.
Bandung team at Sarang Oci
The next day, we checked out early at 4.30 and took another Blue Bird cab to Halim Perdana Kusuma Airport. At this point we noticed that for a group of 5 or 6 persons, it is less expensive to take a Blue Bird van compared to GrabCar 6, since Blue Bird charges the same price for small and large car. The flight from Halim Perdana Kusuma to Malang’s Abdul Rachman Saleh airport was slightly delayed but generally smooth.
Our tour guide was already there at the airport to pick us up with his minibus (commonly called by its brand: Elf). Without further delays, we went to have a simple Javanese lunch near Jawa Timur Park (Jatim Park) 3 then went to the Jatim Park 3 itself.
Jatim Park 3, the latest of the park series, is a very big area, hosting several thematic parks like The Legend Stars park, Dino Park, and Museum Musik Dunia. On our trip, we visited The Legend Stars park, which surprisingly took more than two hours to explore, even by skipping some attractions. The park mostly shows replicas of various famous people and buildings from around the world. It was clear that the park was built to cater the need of most Indonesians to get the best spots for taking pictures. Some of the replicas like President Jokowi have a very good detail and worth to appreciate.
That is not real Jokowi
After Jatim Park 3, we visited another park, that is the Museum Angkut (transportation museum). Similar to The Legend Stars park, the museum were mostly filled with replicas of various vehicles, ranging from trains, airplanes, and cars (mostly sport cars). At certain times, they presented live attractions, like the one I saw at 3.30, where they showcased 3 sport cars drifting on the road. Overall, the museum was huge as well and it will take time to explore everything, and even longer if you take pictures in different spots.
Sport cars show in Museum Angkut
We had early dinner at a bakso (meatball) warung called “De Stadium” which looked humble from the outside but turned out “famous” as it is frequently visited from celebrities around Indonesia. Just before dawn, we headed to our hotel for our first night, De’Boutique Style Hotel. We had a chat at the social area in the hotel, while tasting Malang’s Cwie Mie and Tahu Petis, then went to bed early.
Just before midnight, we woke up and checked out from the hotel. With our luggages in the van, we headed to a small town called Tumpang. From there, we transferred to three 4WD jeeps that would take us to the Bromo mountain area.
The jeeps that brought us to Bromo mountain area
We arrived at the viewing point around 3.30, and waited another hour to view the sunrise. While waiting, we had some hot drinks and instant noodles to warm our body. The price for the meal, though expensive, was not that bad. It was the cost of toilet usage that surprised us: IDR 5.000 for regular use and IDR 10.000 for a shower. We found out later that they cannot make a well due to the high sulphur concentration, making the water practically unusable. This made them to buy water transported from somewhere else hence make the cost higher. The view of sunrise was amazing, but however good the camera is, it will not capture the breathtaking view if you were there yourself.
Panoramic picture of sunrise in BromoPasir berbisik, a large sandy area we visited after the sunrise.
We had simple lunch at a warung nearby, then traveled another 3 hours to our next destination: Plataran Bromo. Plataran Bromo is a rather up-class hotel, which is located near the peak of Bromo. It is not too far from the spot we visited in the morning but our Elf can’t navigate through such road, hence we had to take a longer route.
Even the longer route was very nasty for our Elf. There were so many sharp turns and steep ascends, making the drive difficult and slow. We took the wrong turn twice and had to spend a few more minutes only to turn around. When we arrived at Plataran, the driver decided to just stay overnight there. He would rather sleep in his Elf rather than going back and forth such difficult route to pick us up the next day.
Our hotel complex from afar. Picture taken the day after, after cycling a few hundred meters.
The view and facilities of the hotel was actually very nice (and expensive). We had a family room with a pool, but the water was just too cold for swimming. They provided complimentary fresh fruit, which unfortunately attracted flies. Espresso machines and various tea bags were also available. Considering the price food in this hotel was just too expensive (IDR 120.000++ for a fried rice!), we started to think how to get food in this remote area.
The best option we found at that time was three of us to borrow a bicycle each (free) to cycle 2,4 km to the nearest warung we found on Google Maps that sells basic meal options. Seemed hard, but not impossible we thought. It was 3 PM, and we decided to start cycling at 4, to give time for some of us to explore the hotel area. One group went to the lobby to play billiard, another group went to the hotel-owned glasshouse. I myself stayed at the hotel to write this blog.
A few minutes later haze started to come, wind started to blow strong, and at 4 it was raining hard. I texted the group whether we wanted to continue buying food or switch to another plan. The glasshouse group replied that they were stuck inside the glasshouse due to the heavy rain. I offered them to walk there to bring some umbrellas, but when asking the reception the route to the glasshouse, he offered to pick them up with car. What a delight!
The glasshouse team was successfully rescued, and it was time for a free afternoon tea at the restaurant. We had our light snacks while discussing our alternative plan for dinner. It was too late to cycle there, since we could not take risk cycling after dawn and the strong wind didn’t look like it’s going to stop soon. There were no go/grab-food drivers available around. We also crossed out the option of borrowing the hotel’s car to buy those cheap dinner (we are Asians, we had to save our face). The tour-provided Elf was not an option too, since we didn’t to trouble our driver furthermore due to the difficult road conditions.
The team spending few hours for afternoon tea
As a backup plan, we ate more portions of the snacks provided, which ended their service at 6 PM. Then Daniel suddenly had this idea: Contact the warung’s WhatsApp number listed in Google Maps. Long story short, we managed to order the food with an ojek to deliver the food to our hotel. Daniel, Hizkia, and Eko waited at the lobby for the food to come, while the rest went back to our villa. The strong wind didn’t stop, it made scary whistling sounds and throw some small objects outdoor. Thanks to the strong foundation of the villa we stayed at, we felt very safe inside.
It took some time for the food to come. Around 8 PM, the reception called our room, saying that a courier came to bring our food, under the name Mr. Daniel, and we had to pick it up at reception. I immediately called Daniel, who were supposed to be at the lobby to wait for the driver to come. Daniel and friends picked up the food, and we had a lovely dinner. It turned out later, that people entered and left the lobby, making strong cold wind enter the lobby when the door was opened. They decided to play billiard instead in a separate room, while asking the warung to inform them when the food is about to be delivered. The warung didn’t inform them.
I slept early that night, to safe my energy after being drained the days before. I was surprised myself to know that I could sleep really well amid loud chatter from the living room, cold weather, and loud wind whistling. The bed was just too comfortable. Just like my wife said:
Price don’t lie
Pascal’s wife
Around 4.30 in the morning, I already woke up and couldn’t sleep anymore, due to sudden realization that my bedroom window (more of a glass wall, actually) points to east, and I could have a chance to see the sunrise. However, due to the clouds the sunrise was not that beautiful. I wanted to have a morning exercise, but the wind was still too strong and cold. An hour later, I decided to just go outside anyway, borrowing the bicycle and climbed to a hill just across the hotel. Even only for about 200 meters, it was an exhausting journey due to the cold winds and steep climbing.
I was glad that I was back at the hotel without passing out. After a while, I went out for breakfast with Daniel, followed by the others. There were so many options available, but I opted mostly vegetables and fruits, because I have had too many junk food the days before. We took some group pictures at the hotel, then checked out.
Group picture at the hotel lobby
Our minibus took us back to town, where we had simple lunch, then moved again to the airport. The flight was smooth, and we arrived in Jakarta earlier than expected. We waved goodbye to Jakarta team since we had to take another train trip to Bandung, which marks the end of this year outing.
The faculty I work at has a yearly schedule of paid vacation together. The last time I took part at this kind of vacation was to Singapore in 2015. Normally employees are allowed to bring family members along, but may or may not need to pay, depending on the number of employees who decide to not take the benefit. I had been absent from two years of faculty vacation because the destination was too far, which made it unsuitable for my relatively young kid.
This year, the committee chose Lakeside Glamping in Ciwidey, which was just two hours drive from Bandung. That destination made sense for me, Yun, Des and Pat to join. However, their first destination before glamping was Kawah Putih, a volcano crater just 30 minutes before the glamping area. With Pat only being 8 months old, I decided to not join the group for this first destination, because the smell of sulphur may be too much for her. Therefore, I drove my own car instead of joining the Unpar bus.
Glamping: portmanteau of glamorous and camping and describes a style of camping with amenities and, in some cases, resort-style services not usually associated with “traditional” camping.
I started the journey from home at 12 noon. The traffic was relatively nice, with occasional congestions along the way. About half an hour before reaching the glamping site, we passed through winding roads as the road was located at the side of a hill. Slightly more difficult to drive, but the view was just wonderful!
We arrived just a few minutes after 2 PM. The rest of the group was already checked in and enjoying their time at each tent. My family was allocated a family tent, along with my dean Pak Fer and his wife Bu Yan. We unpacked our luggage, took a brief of rest, then headed out to explore the glamping area. The area was hilly, costing extra energy to walk up and down, but the view was also beautiful. I had my late lunch of a portion of siomay, while Des had his snack of cup noodle. As you can guess, food was overpriced, with one cup noodle at IDR 15.000!
Panoramic picture of the glamping site. Our tents on the right. Photo by Fla
Desmond was happy playing with the rabbits, and Yun was happy with selfie spots. I was happy with the fresh air. In the morning earlier, my friend Pak Wal told me a story about him walking to Dago Atas area and view the breathtaking waterfall, a “Wonderful Indonesia” type of view. Now in this site I found myself surrounded by this Wonderful Indonesia view.
Feeding the rabbit“Pinisi” boat-shaped restaurant, connected with Pinisi bridge
Before dawn (or Indonesians love to call it maghrib), we headed back to our tents and took a shower. The air was cool and the water was cold, but it was still bearable for me. After shower, we had dinner together at the Pinisi restaurant. The food was too “standard” in my opinion, probably overshadowed by the other facilities provided. The restaurant had a very nice ambiance. The deck was a perfect place to enjoy the night, while watching the sky and the stars.
Photo by Ray. Well, it’s Ray in the picture, so technically by someone else with Ray’s camera.
Even before sleeping, I was confident enough to wear short and training shirt (those shirts with small holes to allow airflow) with standard blanket to sleep. Only at 11 PM, I woke up, realised that it was not enough at all. I felt very cold, and doubled up with jeans and jacket (which were cold as well because it was not yet used). Only after an hour I felt warm enough to sleep. I woke up at 5, had a morning chat with Yun, then took a walk around the site at 6. It was interesting to note that after sunrise, it was warmer outside the tent.
We had breakfast at that same Pinisi restaurant. However, breakfast was much more luxurious compared to last night dinner. Porridge, green bean soup, coconut rice, fried noodle, toasts, are some examples. I and Des had breakfast earlier, while Yun and Pat was still sound asleep. The porridge and its condiments were separated, so I reserved a bowl of it for Pat. I then ask Pak Jan’s help to keep an eye on the bowl so the waiters would not clean them, while I walked back to my tent, waking Yun’s up and ask her to go for breakfast before the time is up.
Delicious breakfast
Des was impatient and ask me to go with him to the Golesat, a gravity powered car race. Yun just started breakfast, so we split up. At the Golesat start point, we met some of my colleagues. Pak Fer and his wife Bu Yan, Pak Rus and his wife Tante Nel were among them. Pak Fer, Bu Yan, me and Des rode the golesat down the hill. At the finish line, we were entitled a car ride back to the top, where we started. Pak Fer and Bu Yan decided to not take the car, because they wanted to walk to Teras Bintang, a spot to see the scenery, about 1 km walking distance from there. Des, who didn’t seem to understand the situation made a special bond with Bu Yan and urge her to come with him back to the starting point, potentially ruining their plan.
En route, I called Yun to see if she was interested to visit Teras Bintang as well. She was interested, so we could all had a ride to Teras Bintang using my car. At the starting point, I let Desmond play with my colleagues, while I picked Yun up and walked to the parking area. I drove my car and pick the rest at the Golesat starting point. Pak Rus and Tante Nel joined too, making it a full house.
Probably the youngest and the oldest lady in the groupDes and his favourite auntieDean, vice deans and the boy
Around 10.30, we packed our bags and prepared for checkout and lunch. Lunch was so-so, just like dinner. At 1 PM, we took a group photo and I said goodbye to the others, since I would again drive my own car. The traffic back to Bandung was significantly worse than the day before, since it was on Saturday. I already felt very sleepy that night, and that night my sleep time broke the record of 11 hours.
After a few years, I finally had a chance to visit this red dot again. This time complete with my wife Yun, two kids Des and Pat, and in-law Tan; for summer holiday. Bringing a daughter of 7 months, staying in budget hotel was no longer an option. Interestingly enough, when searching for a place to stay for family (4 adults and 1 infant), higher range hotels provides better price compared to regular ones. This is because those hotels usually have family rooms, in which booking one family room is cheaper than booking two regular rooms even in lower range ones. Our choice boiled down to Hotel Clover at 33 Jalan Sultan.
Somebody’s going to get fined here
An unfortunate incident happened on our departure from Bandung. The flight that was supposed to take off at around 4 PM was delayed up to 8 hours, because one of the earlier flight had a “runway excursion”, i.e. one of the wheels was out of course and gets stuck in the grasses. We were still lucky because the airport was convenient enough for us to rest while waiting for the delay.
Friendship was built while waiting for delay
We landed in Singapore at around 2.30 AM local time, took a taxi to hotel, checked in, then finally slept at 4 AM. This was slightly worse than our previous trip to Singapore, where I had to stay until 2 AM, because our luggages were left in our cab.
Somebody was really exhausted
I earlier promised my parent to pick them up at the airport, because they took a different flight from Jakarta and landed at 8 AM. However, due to this unexpected circumstance, I cancelled the plan and waited at the hotel instead.
Knowing I did not have to pick them up at the airport, I woke up at 8 AM. Feeling very thirsty, I went out to find some bottled water to buy. It was relatively early in the morning, hence the best bet was hawker centres, i.e. the traditional “food courts”. I managed to get 4 bottles of 650ml water for $1.4 each from a drink stall. Rather expensive, but that was the best I could get. When everybody else woke up, I realised that I need another bottled water, and food for my family’s breakfast. I found 1,500ml bottled water for $1.5 each from another drink stall. A better bargain I thought! Until I found another small shop that sells 1,500ml bottled water for $1 each, the best I could get in Singapore.
Interior of Hotel Clover 33
Later during the day, we were all ready. Des insisted on taking an MRT ride, because I have promised so since days before. We then took a walk to Bugis MRT, through the Kampong Glam’s Arab Street and the infamous Masjid Sultan. Not really a good idea especially for Desmond, who didn’t find it interesting. We walked a bit further than it should, encircling the Bugis Junction before we finally found the MRT entry. We took a ride of one station only to Lavender MRT, then took a bus back to the hotel.
Daddy and son bus ride
After a bit of rest, we headed out again, this time a bus ride to Chinatown. It was dawn when we reached there, and we bought some oleh-olehs to bring home. In Chinatown, Des insisted to have an ice cream. We wanted to film De being mocked by the infamous Turkish ice cream guy in Clarke Quay, so we headed there. Interestingly, he managed to control his anger when being mocked. We headed home afterwards, feeling exhausted.
Second day, I had an appointment at 9 AM to meet my old friend Rit, who lives in Jurong East. I was lucky my mom texted at 7, telling that my dad was about to go out to have breakfast. Otherwise, I could have overslept, due to the exhaustion from the flight delay before. I was still late. My mom and dad already gone out for breakfast when I was ready, and I could not contact them. I decided to have breakfast alone across the street, in a cafe called “Nanyang Old Coffee”. The lady, who seemed to be the manager, was very friendly. I ordered the traditional Singapore breakfast set, and it was really nice.
I and my parents started the long journey to Jurong East at 8, but miscalculated the journey time hence late by half an hour. Rit family still welcomed us happily, and his wife served us home cooked Indian sweets and savoury snacks, the best I had after a long time. I forgot all the names, but one resembles the Indonesian potato perkedel. Among all topics we chatted, one being how expensive the cost of school for young children in Singapore, especially for foreigners.
We headed back to hotel with a Grab ride, prepared the rest of the group (Yun, Tan, and Des), then headed again towards Commonwealth, where I promised to meet my former landlord (an old lady / auntie) and her daughter Chr. I had created a special bond with her family, with her being my only landlord during my past four year stay in Singapore. On the opposite side, I first rented the room with a friend Ron at this house. However after a few months Ron moved out, leaving me as the only tenant.
A picture of me and my landlords, 8 years ago
We stopped at Tiong Bahru for lunch, with the plan to visit auntie‘s house afterwards. Just like before, I thought I still knew Singapore and I was wrong. We were late by an hour, because I chose bus instead of MRT. We were still happy to meet each other. They kindly served us some finger foods, but the best part was durian, a fruit that tastes like heaven for some people, but smell like a toilet for others.
A picture of me and my landlords, after 8 years
When I lived in Singapore, these kids did not exist
After this small reunion, we headed back to hotel, but en route stopped at Orchard. I decided that we stop at the beginning of Orchard Road, with the hope that we could explore the whole street. However, we spent more time than we should at the first shop Isetan, and finally had dinner there and went back to the hotel directly.
Third day, my parents’ flight was at 8 AM, hence I woke up at 6 to take them to the airport (at this rate, I could wake up at 5 the next day). My dad had a little problem with the automated immigration, but after little talk with real human, the problem was solved. After being ensured that they had no other problem, I took an MRT heading to Bukit Batok Presbyterian Church, a church that I used to visit several times when I worked in Singapore before. I was again late, but still managed to be there for the mass. I also met an acquaintance Lun, who gave me a tour of the church.
Mass at Bukit Batok Presbyterian Church
After church, I took a bus to Bukit Batok MRT, where I met my old friend Han. Han promised to visit us at the hotel, but it was a coincidence that he visited another church that was nearby, so we took the MRT together to my hotel. We had a nice long chat along the way. Near the hotel, we bought some Indian food, bungkus (take away); and had them in my room.
Han needed to go back afterwards, since he have family to take care. Upon leaving, I also left the hotel with him, bringing dirty clothes to wash at a nearby laundry. Thanks to Google, I found this 24-hour self-service laundry, that operates when you pay the $5-$15 fee using $1 coins. I had saved several coins to use in this laundry. However, it turned out that they had changed the policy, that they no longer used $1 coins, but a special non-refundable coin that only works for their machine.
We also met Ron and his wife Tin at Bugis Junction. If you remember, Ron was my roommate before, when I lived in Singapore. He also came with Pau, his partner in business. It was unexpected, but we had a short business talk on this occasion. It was an interesting talk, but I had to cut short because I owed my family a quality holiday time, which was partly lost due to the flight delay incident.
We then went to Garden By The Bay, trying to get a view of the light show that started at 7.45 PM. For this summer holiday, the light show was themed “Toy Story”, which also served as an advertisement for an upcoming movie with the same name. It was an astonishing view, indeed. However, since it was on Sunday, it was very crowded there. After the show we wanted to get a taxi back to the hotel but the queue was too long. We took a bus instead. followed by MRT. Des was already too tired, that I had to carry him around.
Just before the show
Upon reaching the hotel, it was late in the night. Me and Yun rushed to Golden Mile Food Complex, to buy food for ourselves. Not many stalls were still opened, but we managed to get a portion of satay, fried rice, and noodle. To our surprise, Des was still awake when we got back at the hotel. That was a good news, because he could still had his dinner before sleeping. While preparing to sleep, I asked everyone to not wake me up in the morning, and let my body wakes up naturally.
Fourth day was the nice and easy day. I woke up significantly later, so do the others. We planned to go to both the National Gallery and Merlion Park. As the weather was good, we decided to visit Merlion first. However, upon reaching there, Des found River Cruise boats sprawling around the river and asked us to ride one of them. We cancelled our plan to the gallery and rode the boat instead. We stopped at Clarke Quay and had lunch there.
View from the boat
On this fourth day, Des’ interest for MRT ride has gone, and he preferred bus instead. Therefore, after lunch we went all the way to National University of Singapore by bus, with 45 minutes bus ride to Kent Ridge Terminal. From the terminal, we took the internal shuttle bus to visit the department where I studied before, that is The School of Computing (SoC). It didn’t change much since I left 8 years before. From SoC, we walked to Central Library and took another bus to Clementi MRT station.
Son of an alumnus
Tan craved for durian, after she had one at my landlord’s house. I remember Chr told us to not buy from a rather touristy spots, but rather from traditional markets. I still remember people selling durians around Clementi MRT, next to Fairprice supermarket and just across the street from the Clementi sport center. The durian seller was no longer there, but after a walk further towards the neighbourhood centre, we found one that sells $50 for 3 portions of durian. It didn’t disappoint us, the durians were very sweet. We went back to our hotel afterwards.
Somebody found heaven on earth
On the last day, I spent some time in the morning for a run. I used to run regularly when I lived in Singapore. I ran half regularly when Des was born. Now with 2 kids, I almost never run regularly. This morning was a good opportunity to remember the old days and be healthy. One thing nice about Singapore is that the government has built so called “park connectors” which is a very good spot for running. I ran along the Kallang river, with the beautiful view of the national stadium and Golden Mile complex.
That is the Kallang Stadium
After running, I joined the others, preparing our checkout from the hotel. We planned to visit Jewel Changi before flying back to Bandung. However, thanks to the kids and the many oleh-olehs that need to be packed, we ran out of time and cancelled that plan. We even had to have lunch in a rather upscale restaurant inside the airport, because it was the only choice given the time constraint. It costed a whopping $51 for three portions of food and drink, but on the bright side, we managed to get one coupon of Changi Millionare draw.
Unlike the earlier flight, this return flight was not delayed too long, and we arrived in Bandung well before dawn. I was happy about this trip, but learn one thing: traveling with kids is so much different compared to flying alone. Getting prepared in the morning, airport check-in process, as well as exploring the city takes at least twice amount of time than traveling alone. There were so many places I failed to visit and so many other friends I failed to meet, but still grateful for this wonderful time out.
