Good Bye, Jakarta

The J-town, the big city that I have never wanted to live in. I just didn’t think it’s the right place for me. Well, under one or two personal circumstances, I decided to move in. Entered this city with all the promises, the trust, the happiness that I thought will last forever (shoot! I feel stupid now :D), the first 2 months were as sweet as honey. Then that storm was striking me so hard right to the head. I didn’t know how to describe this one. Another surprise, I had to deal with a cheater on my own, the one thing that I mostly avoid in my life. Well, I could say that my life was over at that time. I wasn’t as strong as I thought. I thought that I was independent enough, none. I thought that I was logical enough, failed. I thought that I trust the right person, totally wrong! At that time, I felt that i learn nothing for my whole life, I felt stupid.

It wasn’t easy for me, definitely not easy. Facing the fact that I gave up everything, my dream, my believe, my money, and any other things, it turned out that I had nothing. Nothing. Not even a friend.

Well, I felt sad, betrayed, cheated, alright. Then what? Until when? A thought has came through my mind, that this is the risk I had chosen. No matter how hard I defend myself, no matter how strong I blame someone, this is my risk. And I had to deal with it, there’s no other choices. No matter how pushy I tried to find the answer of ‘why this is happening to me’ or ‘what did you do behind me’, I realize that I would never get the answer when the time is not right. I had my sad moment, yes. But I also have a life to deal with. I just need to accept it, stop asking, forgive myself, and re-arrange my future plan. I can simply smile or laugh about it now, but those 3 recovery months were tough. Very tough, I couldn’t walk or run, I crawled. Thank you my homeboys for always be there for me, supporting me, eventhough we’re miles away.

In the other hand, Jakarta has filled me with working environment. I started my career as a recruiter & administration in a multinational company. I’m pretty content recalling that I have passed that rough time without affecting my professional life. Beside providing new experiences, my job has been becoming my getaway where I could put aside all the hatred and angry feeling that definitely unhealthy for me. I’m so grateful for the best colleagues in Appco. 1 year and 3 months together with you all has coloured my life and bring it to a new level. Thank you Jakarta for making me tough, teaching me about how to value trust, training me to be communicative, and of course, conveying new perceptions. Although I have no any plan yet to come back and stay, I think I’ll still be around to transit, like usual. But for now, all I can say is goodbye.

"I'm a young soul in this very strange world, hoping I could learn a bit bout what is true and fake. But why all this hate try to communicate, finding trust and love is not always easy to make" Yael Naim - New Soul

So Long, Kuala Lumpur

3 years of having ‘quality time’ with Kuala Lumpur, you are officially my 2nd home. You nurtured me very well to be independent, to understand deeply about friendship and family, about trust, about tough times, and of course about believing in myself.

You have welcomed me with open arms since the first time. And you’ve never stopped giving me new experiences since then. You have taken the most important role in shaping identity that I’ve been looking for this whole time.

I came from a small town to a big city. Without knowing a single person. All the way by myself, when I was 18 yo. You know what happened? I was homesick. I thought I’d be feeling homesick after 3 months staying or so. No. Right at the time I was landed in KL and got into my dorm, I felt homesick right away. I just realized the stupid move I took, when I was thousand miles away from my family. I was not ready. Then I remembered what my mom said, “If you get lost, ask.” I still could recall those 30 minutes of homesick-ness. Then I took a deep breath, I knew that I could not just sit down and feel homesick, I should do something. I came out from my room, hang out in the livingroom, met a fellow Indonesian, and another Indonesian, and some international students, we had dinner at the downtown, came back to my dorm and found my Korean house-mates. The next thing I knew, I was hanging out with new friends in new places everyday.

But, it’s only the beginning, only the introduction. Among those fun times, I have bestfriends who always kept my feet back on the ground. Felix and Dita. My second family. There are no words could describe and reveal what we had been through together. KL and two of them will never ever be separated. They are reminding me of family, love, unconditional support, unlimited care, discussions, projects, dinners, laughters, disagreements, they are both my brother & sister, part of my heart. We were not always together, we had our own lives, but we always be there whenever we needed each other. I dont know, our relationship was just special. And it still does. We are apart in 3 different places, doing our things, missing each other, yet still connected closely.

I had to be independent, working my ass off to survive. Survive in college and survive in the environment. Nothing had come easy on me. However, thank God I was surrounded with great friends who were like my own families.Well, I believe that a strong relationship is built through hard times. Therefore, thank you for letting me learn in the last 3 years, for all the precious experiences, for all the sweet memories, and for the great families I have found. So long KL, you are definitely a part of my life.

"I'm a new soul I came to this strange world, hoping I could learn a bit about how to give and take. But since I came here, felt the joy and the fear, finding myself making every possible mistake" Yael Naim - New Soul

See You, Semarang

A place I proudly called a hometown. I shall thank you for being my playground, a place for me to grow, a place for me to experience bitterness, a place for me to  find best friends, a place that introduced me to a beautiful thing called love, the first place that creates me for whatever I am today. To start the journey of my life with my grandparents, I was fully getting everybody’s attention towards me for being the ‘last child’. Everything is there, everything is ready for me. When a mother/father is not there for her/his child, she/he tends to find the substitute of her/his presence by pampering the child. Well, I know it now. I was innocencely happy back then J

Being a teenager was not easy for me, maybe it’s the hardest part of my life. A naive young lady came to town, she had to face the real life. Understanding that her life was not perfect at all, creating a rebellious soul filled with hatred, she believed that life has been being unfair to her. I could laugh it up now, but before, I was seriously angry about it. I tried everything new to me, I did everything I want, I wanted revenge. So many possibilities of me being damage, but you, yes you Semarang, you and your nature (I believe) kept saving me, you wrapped me with good people, you introduced me to wonderful people, they are closed to my heart, and they do until now.

High school was the vital stage of my life in shaping character. Being more aware of what I do, what I say, what I think, who I want to befriend with, etc. Experiencing ‘sense of belonging’ in terms of love life, I could say that high school mostly coloured with romance and friendship. However, I used to dream high and brave in taking risk. I decided to continue study abroad. Leaving all families, bestfriends and boyfriend with their sweet memories. Bravely (yet still naive) stepping out from this country all alone.

Being a kid who never lived with parents, I was unintentionally shaped to be independent under my mother’s watch. And yes, I have decided to move out to find new experiences. But I believe that you’ll be taking care my loved ones, thus I will always coming back to you, Semarang. It’s never a goodbye, so I’ll say “See you..”

“Round my hometown, memories are fresh. Round my hometown, oh the people I’ve met are the wonders of my world” Adele – Hometown Glory 

Teluk Kiluan, Lampung, Indonesia

I just had an over-island trip with my boyfriend to Lampung. It’s a province in the southern part of Sumatera. We didn’t really organise our trip, actually we decided a week before the New Year’s Eve. With the consideration that G is working in Bandung and me myself is living in Jakarta so it could be said that we are kind of bored to hang out around Jakarta-Bandung, but in the other hand we have no much time to spend on a very long vacation. And because I’ve never been stepping in any Sumatera land before, so the nearest part of Sumatera just popped out in mind.

Our first thought was to reach Krakatoa Mountain, one of the famous local active mountains. Like I mentioned earlier that we had no much time (Friday afternoon – Sunday) and based on some reference, we had Teluk Kiluan as our main destination. I will be more focusing on how to get there and how much did we spend based on the route we took. Overall, Kiluan is a beautiful & interesting place to visit. However, personally speaking, it doesn’t worth the amount of cost & effort that we have to spend.

We started our journey on Friday, 30 December 2011 evening from HI Roundabout (Bundaran HI) because I work nearby. First, we were heading to KAMPUNG RAMBUTAN bus station, where every bus departs. But because of my colleague, Shela suggestion to get the bus from SLIPI JAYA (most of the busses from Kampung Rambutan pass this point) so there we were. To give you an idea, SLIPI JAYA is somewhat an office blocks with a small department store (if I’m not mistaken) and it’s nearby the toll gate, and a lot of people were lining by the sidewalk to get their bus. We waited for 10 minutes until we found our bus to MERAK SEAPORT. From what I heard, we can use “ARIMBI” bus but the fact was, we just grab any bus that passes by. It was an economic bus but with Air Conditioner (AC) with the cost of IDR 17.000/person and it took us to MERAK in 2.5 hours.

We arrived in MERAK SEAPORT at 10.00PM and continued to cross to BAKAUHENI SEAPORT by ferry. The seaport opens for 24 hours so you can take ferry at any time. Honestly, the seaport was not like what I had in mind (dirty and packed) but it’s actually quite clean and has clear signage. Using “JATRA FERRY”, we departed at 11.15PM and it took 2.5 hours to arrive in BAKAUHENI. In the locket we had to pay IDR 11.500/person but once we’re on board, there were Business Room (additional IDR 5.000) and Executive Room (additional IDR 10.000). We went straight to the deck and found our seats. It was quite crowded at that time, some people were stayed on the floor. There were about 50 people on the deck, and it has a small snack bar for those who want to stay awake and sip some coffees. We took turn to sleep because one of us should keep an eye on our stuff.

We met our Couch Surfing friends, Bobby and Remy on the ferry before we got off the board. From BAKAUHENI, four of us started our journey together.  We directly looked for a bus to RAJABASA BUS STATION, nearby Lampung. We got the bus after we had waited for 15 minutes. It was an economic bus with AC that cost us IDR 22.000/person. The journey took 2.5 hours. The interesting thing about this particular journey for me personally was the “culture shock”. It was 3.00AM in the morning and everyone was tired, me myself tried to get some sleep, which I did. But I think I’ve been waking up for 5 times or so because every time the passengers got off / got on, or we passed some main points, people were shouting (or in my dictionary, screaming out loud!!!) saying the current destination “PANJANG! PANJANG!!”, “RAJABASA! RAJABASA!!”, etc. They shocked me and I didn’t get my good sleep on the way, and they scared me because well, I’m originally Javanese and it was my first time came to Sumatera where (from what I heard) people talk so loud unlike us, which is TRUE! Lol. Anyway….

We arrived in RAJABASA at 5.00AM on Saturday, 31 December 2011, and it was raining quite heavily. It was suggested that we were not getting off at the bus station itself because rumor has it that it’s not safe. But because of the rain, there we were waiting inside the station building with local people asking where are we heading to. Tips: ignore those people / agent who offers you a ride, they could be very intimidating and chasing you all the time as long as you’re still there. From here we could go straight to TELUK, GUDANG GARAM where we could find the rented car that going straight to Kiluan. But we visited another Couch Surfing friend, Delta, to have a short catch up while resting for 2 hours.

Next destination is TELUK, GUDANG GARAM. We got there by using local rented car (Angkot) colored in blue that cost us IDR 2.000/person to RAMAYANA then change to another purple angkot to TELUK, cost IDR 4.000/person. TELUK is an area, and we waited in a junction where the rented cars are standing by, you can ask the local citizens. We waited there for a quite long time, 1 hour or so. This rented car /mini-van will only take you to BAWANG, the nearest village. But we made some deal and the driver agreed to take us straight to KILUAN. Until BAWANG, it cost IDR 25.000 and to get to KILUAN you need to take Ojek. But our deal was to get us to KILUAN with cost of IDR 40.000/person. To give you an idea, the road from TELUK to KILUAN is bloody horrible! It is totally not recommended to use private car, or else you’ll regret it. From TELUK until BAWANG is tolerable, I could get some sleep. From BAWANG to KILUAN, hell no! I think only local people could pass it. I saw some private cars from Jakarta and they got stuck because the road is wrecked, holes here and there, and it was raining at that time. With our professional crazy driver, Andi, we got to KILUAN after 3 hours journey, we arrived at 3.30 PM.

We supposed to get to the other side of the island but Andi got us off in the fishermen village, where we met the local fisherman Rudi. He took us on his boat to find a place to stay but unlucky for us most of them were full because of New Year’s holiday. In the main island, where people camped out, also full. Tips: you better get to main village by Ojek/car and ask them to help you to find a place to stay, instead of renting a fishermen boat, which will cost you even more expensive. Finally, we met Rusdi and we stayed in one of his so-called new unit with 2 rooms. 1 room can fit 4 of us but Rusdi insisted that because it’s new unit so we had to rent the whole house. After a quite tense negotiation, the deal was to pay 2 rooms but if we could find some group to share the room, we only pay 1 room. 1 room cost us IDR 200.000 but he asked for the whole house, which is IDR 400.000 but we bargained down into IDR 300.000, which means IDR 75.000/person,if no one want to take the other room.

                                                   

          

We planned to snorkel but we met a local citizen who suggests us to go to GAYAU, a beach behind the hill that we can reach without using the boat, so Kemed (the owner of our place) took us there. We climbed a very tricky and slippery hill covered with forest, and the beach is in the downhill. It was an interesting beach with a quite heavy wave and we were just playing in the beach accompanied by the local children too.

We came back before dark and tired of playing by the beach, we got our dinner ready by the owner. For dinner we had to pay IDR 15.000/person. I felt asleep after cleaning myself up while the boys were hanging out in the house-deck. I woke up at 11.30PM, Bobby was down to the bed too, G & Remy still hanging out by the deck. Preparing for the countdown, we asked Remy to waken up Bobby. 10 minutes passed by, I checked Remy & Bobby down into bed, what a shame! Lol. Seated by the deck, as far as we can see, fireworks were everywhere J so HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012 beautiful people!!

Sunday, 1 January 2012 at 6.00AM, it’s time for the main attraction, DOLPHINS IN THE SEA! We had to rent a local boat by IDR 250.000 per boat that could fit 3 people. The day before we had a deal with Rudi 4 people in one boat, but Rusdi (the head of the village) insisted to use 2 boats. After another tense negotiation, the deal was 2 boats with IDR 200.000/boat that means IDR 100.000/person. If you want to rent a life-vest, you have to add IDR 15.000. The weather at the time we were there is not really friendly, the wind was very strong, which made a quite heavy wave. In the middle of the sea, not everybody could see the dolphins. Lucky for G and I, we got so many dolphins swim around our boat, not like Bobby and Remy who didn’t see much. After that, we just visited some islands, took pictures, and back to our house.

G and I have planned to go back that morning because we have to work the next day, but the local citizens said that there were no any rented cars operated on that day except if we rent the car for ourselves with IDR 400.000 per car, which is pricey for us. Then we decided to snorkel nearby the main island with Rudi’s boat. The coral was not bad, and it’s quite shallow so it’s okay for those who cannot swim. After 30 minutes snorkeling around, it was raining and we decided to hang out under the tree with the other visitors. When the rain calmed down, we got on the boat and back to the house to have our lunch, another IDR 15.000/person. The fee of renting Rudi boat for 2 days was IDR 50.000, means IDR 12.500/person.

Because of the bad weather, all of us decided to go back on that day because if not, we will spend more money to stay and eat, which we think very pricey. Finally we asked Kemed and local citizens to take us to BAWANG by motorbike, cost IDR 20.000/person. Arrived in BAWANG, the junction was very quiet. After we waited for 15 minutes, there was a car passing by directed to TELUK and we just got on board happily. We were so lucky because the nice driver, Aspani, were about to go home and that was the last ride. The journey to TELUK is another heart beating trip. Moreover, his car was not as good as Andi’s and he drove slower. I think his car is as old as he is J but he’s a very good chap! We spent normal fee for this ride, IDR 25.000/person. Oh, additional information, we’ve spent 6 freaking hours because there was a bloody long jam caused by the massive visitors in one of the beach along our way down.

I asked Aspani to get us off in a rented car pool that can take us straight to BAKAUHENI. We departed from TELUK at 9.00PM by rented car (Travel) with cost of IDR 35.000/person. From BAKAUHENI we paid the same amount like before, IDR 11.500/person for the ferry to MERAK. From MERAK to JAKARTA we got the same bus like before, IDR 17.500/person. There was an interesting story in the bus, which everyone should be very cautious about this one. While G and I were asleep, he woke up and found his backpack has loosened up. And he caught with his eye some guys were opening the passengers bags, because most of them were asleep (4.00AM in the morning). G said that one of the guys was checking the passengers’ bags one by one while the others were standing by. He thought that they had checked his bag too but luckily there’s nothing was taken. Well, be careful friends if you travel at night, better you take turn if you want to sleep.

As a total, we’ve spent IDR 423.000/ person in KILUAN. And here’s G & I personal rank (1-10)

Transportation: 6.5

Food: 6.5

A place to stay: 7.5

Snorkel spot: 6.5

Overall: 6.5