Early 2025, I received an invitation to attend the 10th anniversary of The Sidji Hotel Pekalongan. For gentlemen, dress code for the party was Batik Pekalongan (for ladies:batik encim). Not just a batik, but specifically the Pekalongan batik. One may think that all batik are the same, but they are not! I know this because I visited Museum Batik Pekalongan once. I was taught that batik Pekalongan has certain characteristics that make it different compared to other batik. However, I completely forgot on what are the differences. Therefore, I did some research on that. My sources were from the internet and not everything on the internet is true, hence take the explanation here with a grain of salt.
Research on Batik
From its color, Pekalongan batik uses bright colors, whereas other batik usually comes in safer colors like brown or dark blue.
From what’s drawn on it, Pekalongan batik uses pictures of animals and plants instead of simple patterns. Just like shown in the following picture.
Birds and flowers pattern, as shown in walls of The Sidji Hotel.
Then there is the Jlamprang pattern, which has the philosophy of connecting the two worlds: the gods and the humans. This pattern is used frequently by the officials to represent the town, as it can be seen in the walls of a newly renovated market and the toll gate of this town.
Jlamprang Pattern, as it is shown on the walls of newly renovated Banjarsari Market.
The Liong motive, that shows Chinese dragons are also commonly used.
The Liong Pattern, as shown in the wall of The Sidji Hotel aisles.
There are many more variants of Pekalongan batik, such as the Buketan, as popularized by a Dutch Eliza van Zuylen; or Hokokai, which named after Japan-formed association that influenced the pattern.
I looked for a batik that matches the above descriptions in Bandung, and my choice fell to a batik shirt that’s symmetrical, containing dominantly light blue and brown color, and the parang (coral) pattern. May or may not be the Pekalongan batik style, but it looks nice.
Me wearing the Batik that I chose.
Pekalongan Trip
Then, came the day for driving to Bandung. In the morning, I spent some time at the local SAMSAT, to pay my 5-yearly vehicle tax. It was very crowded because the government just had this campaign of annulling the penalty for not paying the tax from earlier years. I spent half an hour just to queue for photocopying the documents, then decided just to resume on later days as I needed to get ready for the trip. Of course, as a person who always pay the tax on time, I got very upset about this.
The parking in SAMSAT was so full I had to park next to a rice field.
I filled up my gas tank and took a break at home, while waiting the kids to finish their school. At around 13.00, we departed from home. It was raining cats and dogs en route, and we stopped for lunch midway. We arrived at the hotel somewhere around 17.30
Most of the invited guests were already there, and many of us brought snacks. I ate many of them. Y wanted to give proper nutrition to the kids so we ordered meals from Nostalgia restaurant. The kids didn’t really like the food so I finished them. Around 8 PM, the kids started swimming but I was too tired to accompany them. Y kindly took care of them while I went back to my room to sleep.
In the morning, F took us for a walk around the town. Many interesting spots when we walked.
A sign that says “forbidden to litter” and “someone was mind-controlled by ghost yesterday”.A temple that is located side-by-side with a church.Stopped by a Nasi Gudeg hawker along the way.
After walking, we did the aerobic dance led by local instructor. Then, proper breakfast at the hotel. In the afternoon, Y and her mom wandered the town for oleh-oleh (gifts) while I sat by the pool while the kids were swimming. We then took a rest in the hotel room.
Around 17.00, the celebration event started. Everyone were in their batik, and we took pictures at various places in the hotel.
The event started with a surprise visit from a loyal guest from abroad M, which successfully made the master of ceremony (Sidji staff) cry a little. M, who planned to stay in Sidji for only two weeks in October 2024, extended her stay for up to four months, thanks to the warm welcome and friendship with the Sidji staffs. Then, remarks from the management, followed by video presentation of the hotel history and testimonies from various guests. There were also a moment to remember one contributor to Sidji who passed away during COVID-19, as well as appreciation to loyal staffs, including who joined Sidji from when the hotel building was still under construction.
Distinguished Sidji Staffs posing with the management.
What admired me is that, during the celebration, Sidji staffs were prompt to serve the guests, even though that it’s their birthday. What a true professionalism! Later that night, when the guests were fully fed, they had their own celebrations by singing Laskar Pelangi song, having pictures at the photo booth, and dancing to the dangdut music.
I then went back to my room to rest, as the next day I and my son D had to wake up early for Palm Sunday mass. D was feeling unwell, probably too tired of the fun he had that day.
Palm Sunday
The next day, I has a simple breakfast in the morning, and drove to nearby St. Peter Church. I was actually too lazy to go, but it was compulsory for my son D to attend the holy week masses, as he was taking the first communion class. The mass was supposed to start 7.00, but it was preceded with a parade from Pius school nearby, hence delayed for half an hour. Palm Sunday is actually a remembrance of Jesus riding a donkey and paraded through the street of Jerusalem. We waited at the church yard, before the parade arrived.
After the mass, there were remarks from vice mayor of Pekalongan, urging the resident to start separating their trashes into three groups: organic, recyclable, and non-recyclable (or something along that line). This was due to the trash crisis, where the government were having difficulties in processing the existing trashes. D looked for the priest for his signature (as a proof that he attended the mass).
When we came back to the hotel, breakfast was almost closed, but we managed to get one. Around 11.00, we cleared our room, checked out, said goodbye, and drove back to Bandung for another 3,5 hours.
Family Picture Taken on The Last Day Before Going Home
One can safely say that Idulfitri is the most awaited holiday in Indonesia, a Muslim majority country. However, it’s not a holiday for Muslims only. During 1,5 weeks of the holiday season (also called as Lebaran), people in the country seem to just stop working and spend their time to go back to their hometown or simply relaxing. Just like the Chinese New Year for the Chinese majority country. This year Lebaran also coincides with Cheng Beng, the time of the year for Chinese visiting the grave of their ancestors. Hence the main purpose of my trip this time.
I drove with my family to Cibubur Junction in the morning, and reached there at about 10AM, just in time the shopping mall opened. My parents took MRT and LRT from their home in Bintaro, and reached Harjamukti LRT Station around 11.30. We then drove to Pondok Ranggon Cemetery to visit my mother’s tomb. Surprisingly there was heavy traffic on the road towards the cemetery. It turned out that the Muslims also visit their ancestors for the Lebaran holiday.
Photo booth at Harjamukti LRT Station
I drove back to the shopping mall to pick up my kids and my wife Y. We then drove to Sunter area, where my grandmother just opened a Nasi Campur restaurant called Nasi Campur HK. We were served abundant portion of delicious Nasi Campur, and we chatted a lot.
After which, we visited another relative, my aunt W and her family. We recalled many memories of when I was a child. My mom was close to aunt W and we spent a lot of time together, usually for holiday in the Puncak highland. W’s house is interesting. Her husband K keeps and maintains old furniture and electronics instead of buying new ones. W’s daughter J took a picture of us together.
Family Picture
We then drove to Sunlake Hotel, where most of us took a rest and I did some work on with my laptop. I and my family spent 2 nights in the hotel while my parents joined the first night only.
At night we went out for dinner. We planned to have dinner at my uncle K’s coffee shop in Kelapa Gading (see Coffee, Bento, Running and Wedding). Turned out information in Google was not so accurate and it was closed when we arrived. Uncle K was very kind to receive us even when the coffee shop was closed, and he served some paos for us. We were full afterwards and didn’t go for another dinner.
The night went through and we were well rested.
In the morning, my son D woke up at 6 AM, and we headed to restaurant for breakfast with my parents. My dad has a spare phone that he wanted to use as a backup device. He offered D to transfer as many videos as possible from his main phone to the backup phone using bluetooth, with payment of Rp1.000 per video. D managed to transfer 50 photos. The breakfast choices at the hotel was very generous, specifically with Indian food in the menu every day.
The kids then went swimming, my parents took a cab and KRL back home, while I went for team zoom meeting an hour before noon. Just a few minutes before noon, Y called me, informing that a shuttle from the hotel was ready to drop us to the nearest LRT station. Just a few days before I read that the LRT Jakarta ran a campaign where you can visit 6 of their stations to collect stamps, and exchange them with souvenirs.
Shuttle to MKG
Upon reaching the station we were slightly disappointed to know that the souvenir for the day were fully claimed. However, we could come the next day in the morning to try again. We then had a lunch at MKG shopping mall that was (almost) connected to the station.
We went back to the hotel afterwards. The kids swam again, while I and Y exercised at the gym. In the evening we planned to have dinner in a seafood restaurant nearby, but again, it was closed. We went for dimsum instead at Kong restaurant. We asked the kids to slept early that night. Because we went back to LRT Station early in the morning the next day, fully prepared!
We drove to Velodrome at 5.30, parked our car there, and walked to Velodrome LRT station. Beside four of us, there were also two people hunting for the merchandise. The staff explained us that with the paper she just gave to us, we had to stop at each of the 6 stations, tap out, get stamped, and tap in. One trip costs Rp5.000, so we had to fork out Rp30.000 per person. She also needed to take picture of us, for documentation purposes. Unfortunately most of the pictures were taken in portrait mode, hence some parts are cropped in weird places here.
Starting with empty stampsHalfway done
The whole journey itself took about 2 hours. But the kids were happy and we discovered interesting spots. One of which was the Pegangsaan Dua station, that serves as LRT car parking space as well.
Tree of giftsFinally done, with the merchandises
We drove back to hotel and had breakfast. A few hours left before checkout, we played at the hotel’s playground and exercised at the gym. About 11.30 AM, we checked out and drove back to Bandung.
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.
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.
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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.
