Settling Down, Part Three

I liked today, again,

And these past three weeks or so.

I've been bragging much about how Jakarta had improved in here and there, making my life easier. Well apparently it's not only the tangible outer atmosphere that has shifted. It's myself, and my surrounding too, that gave a big portion of happiness to... Myself.

Lots of things happened to me recently. And it was like boom boom boom, so fast, I even forgot to breathe. My jobs were crazy. My fast-paced activities came and went away before me. Yet somehow, I managed to get myself in the zone.

Zone of life I've always imagined I'd live.

Sweat

It's always my major weakness. But I knew I've put off enough. So I did some friendly sports I can always tolerate doing. Swim, with my family; walk, like really far - most people find my walking habit crazy, but that's the only way I exercise! - and jog, not that typical mini run at some tracks near my house, but more to real jogging at one of the city central park.

Simple exercises. Yes. But for me, for this lazy ass bastard, pulling off those movements are considered pretty cool. And if only I can keep doing this, well, it's a wonderful life I'm really living.

Nightout

Gone are my clubbing days—that's not the type of nightout I'm talking about. Well, I'm actually still eager for that, but it has become one of those mere "nice to do" activities which I'm okay not doing. So my newer type of nightout consisted of something like going to a themed dinner, a pasta night one, and having a long talk with strangers, enjoying beer—I mean, ROOT beer, conducting some ambitious discussions, dining Thai food, going on a night lone ride, visiting street fairs, picking up some random eateries by the street, having a big grilling dinner, attending musical shows, completed with a late eat at downtown hub afterwards. My city pretty much never sleeps either so, these kinds of nightout never seem to be a bad idea.

People

Well I don't know why, but recently life seems to be generous enough to me in the sense of sending great (new) people throughout my days. Old ones getting closer, new ones making me grateful of being a human: a constant mentor, helpful locals, like-minded stranger, friends for life, new friends, new co-workers—hm. 'New', co-workers?

Work

Some of you might know that I'm a proud freelancer. I work from home, doing the job I proudly claimed after returning from Japan—and some other job in film industry. When I'm pretty much sick of just staying at home, I bring my laptop out and chill at some cafe. Needless to say, it's a really nice routine. People I share my work stories with are always jealous of me not having to go to an office.

But then again, I realized I need to progress. I need to learn more, in which I need to make mistakes and have got to have a next-to-me superior I can always take lessons from. Plus, working from home is not always beautiful. The boredom and the stress you can't share with anybody else (like an office team, for instance) can sometimes be unbearable.

Therefore once again,

After all my on-and-off habit,

I'm employed one more time.

And this time I'm convincing myself not to go anywhere else, unless it's for the master degree. I've explored enough, and this company I'm now working at, is too hard to get and too big to ditch.

See, even the random restaurant I chose off the street told me to work hard.

So.

Jakarta has decided to transform, with all those elements I fond of. And I, without myself knowing it, has been slowly immersed to the life in the capital.

I think, I THINK, this is

My real "Settle Down"

Settling Down, Part Two

I liked today, again.

Just when I thought making the most of living life in this city could only be done during weekend, I had a wonderful Thursday instead. Well, no wonder, because it was a holiday. But still!

The holiday was of the commemoration of Prophet Muhammad ascension. As a religious man, the presence of this day gave me an ultra inner peace. Everyday's a holiday for me -as I'm a freelancer who works from home- but when this day came, I felt that exact joy felt by people who works and having a long weekend.

On the very same day, my cousin's held his wife's shower at his house, which is just steps away from mine. I got to dress in koko suit, got exposed to the verses, met my relatives and of course, had that typical family reunion pleasure.

What made it even better was because I planned to catch Europe on Screen again. This time, it was a spontaneous call and I was to go alone. This plan ignited such awesome mood since the time I woke up in the morning. And nature decided to conspire.

Rain

I usually hate this thing. But today, the rain was of that nicer type. It was somewhat slowly pouring shower, rather than a drenching waterfall-like one—a kind of rain in which my tiny umbrella can handle. The chills, the breeze, I felt like I was in the middle of a tropical rain forest, riding an elephant having the freshest day of my life.

Ride

Of course the elephant of my Jakarta rain forest, is TransJakarta buses. I originally didn't expect much for today's buses because, one, it was raining, and two, it was TransJakarta. You don't expect much for TransJakarta, and that's the tips. But surprisingly, my ride that day was enjoyable. Passengers were civilized. Ambiance was hectic-less -everybody seemed to be in the mood to be the prophet's best ummah. It took less than an hour to downtown Jakarta, making it so suitable for spontaneous decisions.

Book

A nice, well-written Agatha Christie's "A Caribbean Mystery". And tranquil beats of Filous remix ran trough my earlobes. Can you imagine how serene my feeling was? Nice cold ride, sitting by the bus window, raindrops dripping next to me, music playing on my ears, plus a good reading in my hand. Get myself indulged doesn't always require expensive meals or fancy activities!

Show

Of course, on top of everything was the Europe on Screen itself. It was not the film that became the highlight of all these -although yea, the film, "Tabu", turned out to be a romantic drama I adored a lot. It was the fact that this kind of thing, shows or somewhat, being accessible to Jakartans—that was what made me so grateful about today.

You see, until recently, our main means of entertainment revolves around malls, and malls only. I really long for high quality shows or events we can easily enjoy as easy as New Yorkers wake up in a weekend morning to decide, "Oh, I think I'd love to catch The Lion King today in Broadway". The show today was in Institut Francais Indonesia, right in the heart of Jakarta. It was more like a culture space, rather than a commercial venue. And reaching the place, despite the distance, is as easy as whining. It was so awesome to be able to get out of house and ended up somewhere non-malls!

Phew.

It's not soon, I guess, but obviously, my city is transforming to the one I've been expecting. When we're reaching that stage, and I got to feel this kind of peace everytime I leave my house, I'll be totally in deep love with my hometown.

Just in front of the venue, and there it is, the central of Jakarta.
And yes we could walk, that's the best part of all!

Really.

If settling down in Jakarta this easy,

I swear I'll never again think about

Residing overseas

Hopes On

Remember my new goal for the rest of this year?

Sure you do, it's openly stated throughout my previous post.

And can you guess why I'm bringing this up now? Well, yea, because I just began accomplishing little by little, my dream of fully discovering my mother country Indonesia. It's within the hometown. But way off shore. Yes, what else but the Thousand Island.

It was a sudden call. First long weekend of May, and my initial plan was to go to Singapore. But one thing lead to another, mission to the land of lion then was aborted. On Wednesday. And I was like, fuck it--my first long weekend after started working, and I'm not going anywhere.

But God knows that this ambitious creature He created 23 years ago is, purely ambitious. So He lighted up the way, cleared up my pissed-off mind, and summoned me a calling straight from a striking island I never even heard before.

Harapan Island.

I didn't expect this view, really.

I joined an open trip. Alone, of course, as usual. And guess what. I booked my spot only two days before the departure. My whole family was like, what the hell--how could you switch destination so fast? I know I was being too selfish but hey, it's my ambition we're talking about. So off I went to the island, on Saturday morning.

Well to be honest, I took this trip for granted. I mean, what's so good about it, it's still Jakarta. Compared to Bali, Gili or worse yet, Bangka, I was pretty sure that other beaches I have been to were way better than this one. So why did you go there, a$$hole? Well I haven't been to Thousand Island before, and this could be my chance, remembering that I don't always have long weekends so I booked the tour, got on the boat, sailed 2.5 hours and...

Got my ass blown away.

I didn't believe what I saw. Crystal blue water, with yum fishes above my feet. Fresh ocean breeze lingered my way down from the boat, still mesmerized, and hypnotized me to walk deeper inside the vibrant fishing village inland. Then I started to make fool of myself because I been underestimating Harapan.

First impression rocked, second impression stunned. The tour guide brought me and my newly assembled group of strangers -which I'll tell you more about on the next post- to two snorkeling spots. And to be honest, again, underwater charm on both islands were almost as good as Menjangan's. So I was like, next time, I'll just go here instead of dragging my poor soul all the way up to the northwest of Bali. But still, Menjangan stays on top of my list.

My point is, I just didn't expect the island to be this sick. Well Harapan is like one of the northernmost island of Thousand Island regency so no wonder if it's still damn clean but, still, I didn't expect this to slam me that hard in my face. And it's not just the underwater scene only. The beaches, the island forest, the dock, the village, oh Lord everything! I liked every single thing I saw there and felt much of a grateful because I picked out Harapan as my first experience in Thousand Island, making me super curious about the other mysteries it has in other islands.

Seconds after I arrived at home, I thought I wouldn't suffer my signature post-holiday syndrome I always felt in each of my abroad trip. Well why should I, the trip was still within my hometown.

But then I was all wrong.
It's been a week, and I haven't moved on.

Because apparently, no matter where I travel, no matter how long the trip is, I'll end up sitting there on the verge of my bed, thinking of all the things I did during my wonderful journey, unique people I met, and so on, and so on.

But mostly, thinking about the hope I just saw.
Hope that Indonesia's potentials will roar in no time.
Hope that this trip will ignite me to explore even more.
Hope that in 15 years, I'll finish my world travel and say,

"You're the best trip ever, Indonesia"

Enjoy Jakarta?

Last weekend I got a guest from Germany.

He was cool, dead curious about Jakarta culturally, metropolitan-y, everything. He stayed with two other locals before me, and it made me kinda worried if those people had shown him all of Jakarta already and I got nothing left to show. But when he mentioned that he hadn't gone to Kota Tua and Pelabuhan Sunda Kelapa, my faith was restored.

So we went there. By TransJakarta -of course, I didn't want to risk my ass driving down to the old town by my own car and got stuck in our infamous tourist traps. It was a nice ride, because surprisingly, there was no crucial traffic jam. And we made to Kota Tua just in time.

It was super crowded. But, okay. It's always been the beauty of Kota Tua. And he's got the chance to see how locals spend their weekend visiting a public fair right?

The square was fine. Human statues, vintage bikes, nice as usual although he was not that interested in those. But when it comes to culinary, he was super eager to try everything. I didn't want to take the risk of giving random street shit for his European tummy so I played safe and introduced him to sop buah instead. And it was a crazy hot day anyway, so the ice dish was a splendid decision.

That's the square. About the museums, well, gotta say, what the hell Government!? I decided to enter the most popular one, Fatahillah Museum, and it turned out to be a ten minutes walk of shame with him because, WHAT THE HELL!?

The building was a delight, indeed, it has always been so adorable for me since my first visit eight years ago. But I just never thought that the inside of it, oh wow, indescribable. I just got home from Hong Kong and Macau, with all those stunning museums they have which never made me stop mesmerizing the stories they told in each building. But when I came inside my very own museum, WITH AN INTERNATIONAL GUEST, shit man, it broke my heart.

Overall museum route was scrambled. The collections were disorganized. There are plenty of corners with nothing to display, it was a major waste of space! The stories were in both Bahasa and English tho, but they made it really unappealing with long words and boring approach, I'm 1000% sure no one has actually ever finished reading even one description.

We got out, wrapped our visit in Kota Tua and hushed to Pelabuhan Sunda Kelapa, on foot. Well this was pretty challenging for me, as I never been there before. From what I saw in online forum and my friend's photo showcases, the port seemed beautiful.

The way from Kota Tua to the port, however, was not beautiful at all. Dusty, full of trucks, I had plans to take a bike from the old town there, and I thanked God beyond compare for me cancelling that stupid plan. After the entrance -which I didn't expect to pay- and strolling down local residences, we finally reached the seaside port.

To sum things up, it was quiet nice. Not as beautiful as the pictures showed me tho, but yaa, not disappointing. But of course there was something not nice happened in there that made me brought this story up for posting, right? Yes, it was the local scam.

I really hated it. Right before we entered the port gate, somebody came to us, nicely, claiming himself as a tour guide for Pelabuhan Sunda Kelapa. He started all this preach and nonsense bullshit about how he could show us around, take us to the far end of the port by his motorbike, get us inside one of the small boats and finally, to the bigger boats so we could feel how it is like, sailing on Batavia water. All of those, with ONLY USD20.

The guy then began talking to me in Bahasa, saying that the price covered both of us so I didn't need to pay. And what I was super pissed off about was, when he said that 20 bucks was nothing for my bule friend. "He's got money", that asshole supposed, "so this is a super great deal". Well, great deal for you, not for my friend. And definitely not for me either, because if I said yes to pay the price, I would surely let my German guest down.

Of course I made my friend sure that the price was not worth it. Then we rejected the offer, strolled down the port on our own and still could enjoy it anyway. Well, although, apparently, annoying offers were also shouted by literally every boat crew inside the area. The port has been a source of scam, for I don't know how long.

Crazy huh?

I mean, even for locals, Jakarta's tourism suck! Big time! Thank God my friend was with me that day. How if he was not? And how about any other tourists that have no local friends to accompany them visiting those places?

What a shame, really. This is simply why I never recommend my worldwide friends to visit Jakarta for its culture or history. It sucks. Would be better if they're visiting for the clubs, hangout cafes and eating places, because hell yeah Jakarta's even better than Kuala Lumpur and Manila for that.

Mich und mein Deutsch Freund, Robert

But then,

If visitors couldn't see our old stories

Just because the places are pure scam lairs,

Would it still be called 'Enjoy Jakarta'?