From Lisbon to London

(European sky at dawn, taken in July 2007)

Trip nya adalah: Rio-Lisbon-London Heathrow. Nyampe London jam 10.45 pagi. Berhubung ga punya jaket dan stok sweater terbatas, begitu nyampe London langsung belanja2 sedikit, either di Heathrow atau di deket2 King’s Cross station. Luggage bisa dititipin di locker selama belanja. Nukerin Pounds nya juga udah dilebihin supaya bisa beli jaket. Abis itu baru dengan santai2 menuju Newark. Diperkirakan nyampe sore2.

Oh well, itu RENCANA ideal-nya. Kenyataannya adalah…

Pesawat dari Rio telat nyampe Lisbon. I missed my flight yang ke London Heathrow. Keadaan di airport Lisbon kacau banget, miskin informasi dan orang2 antri panjang di mana2. Ternyata banyak pesawat TAP yang telat jadi semua connection kacau. Langsung memutuskan kalo harus bayar sendiri ga bakal naik TAP. Antri nyaris 3 jam sebelum bisa ngomong sama perwakilan nya TAP buat request ganti tiket. Abis itu harus nunggu 45 menit lagi buat dapet kepastian, itu pun ke London Gatwick, bukan Heathrow spt tiket awal. Orangnya meyakinkan kalo luggage ikut bareng aku ke Gatwick.

Sama orang TAP sebagai pengobat bete dikasih kartu telpon internasional sama voucher snack di restoran. Bete terobati dikit karena bisa nelpon Sherwood Apartment ngasih tau kalo datengnya ntar telat. Dan juga masih punya sisa pulsa dikit buat nelpon Tante Rina bentar.

On the second flight, I decided to sleep. So tired, jet lag dan capek bo ngantri berjam2, capek fisik dan capek hati. Lagian ntar kan pas di kereta ga boleh tidur, musti jagain laptop.

Arrived in London Gatwick on time. As what I’ve been afraid of, luggage ku ga ada.Hiks… my nightmare comes true. Bareng sama satu orang ibu2 (sama dari Brazil), kita complain dan submit report. Diduga keras (sama orang airport yang udah biasa ngurus ginian), luggage kita masih di Lisbon. GRR… mo marah2 sama orang TAP.

Akhirnya, there’s nothing more we can do, selain submit report dan berharap luggage bakal dikirim besok.

Aku misah sama Ibu2 itu, dan mulai naik kereta menuju Newark sekitar jam 17.50. Sebab hari udah mulai malem juga sih, takut ketinggalan kereta terakhir.

Gawat juga nih:

No jacket, it’s getting late and it’s getting very cold. It’s not possible to do shopping now due to two reasons: first, I have to catch my trains, and second, it’s Sunday; most stores are already closed.
I need to take a shower. But all my toiletries are in the luggage.
My lock cable for laptop is in the luggage.
My coveralls, boots, helmet, etc are in the luggage. And also are my handbook and my other books. How am I going to start my school tomorrow without all these things?
I haven’t rehearsed the presentation. What if my turn is tomorrow?
I haven’t read enough material for maintenance evaluation. What if we have a test tomorrow?
I don’t have the British three-pin plug. How can I charge my laptop battery?
And in confusions, I suddenly forgot the PIN for my Indonesian mobile number and now the number is blocked cause I entered the wrong PIN three times.

Ok, basically, I’m in a deep shit.

So you know what happen in the end? To get to Newark, I had to change trains twice. First time, I had 15 minutes. I found a shop that sell jacket and was running like crazy picking up jackets. I picked one without thinking much, very crazyyy!! I didn’t even know if it’s cheap or expensive, good or bad. One thing only: it so cold here, I need a jacket!! So it was 5 minutes shopping and 10 minutes half running for the next train.

(King's Cross Station, London from Wikimedia)

And then, in King’s Cross, the same thing, I found a small shop, bought soap and shampoo (without looking at the brand at all!! Hehe) and was running here and there to find the platform!
Geez, what an experience… Tapi syukurlah, terjadinya di negara yang setidaknya bahasanya aku ngerti.

Akhirnya, nyampe di Newark jam 20.30. Nelpon this contact person from Sherwood Apartment, he said he’ll meet me there in 5 minutes. Took a taxi, a bit surprised soalnya supir taksi nya ibu2 tua gitu (udah hampir nenek-nenek).

Arrived in apartment, safe and sound. Guess what, contact person (org yang tanggung jawab) sama apartemen kita namanya Reza, and yesss… he is INDONESIAN. Ya ampuun kebetulan banget!!!!

I will be living here with three other girls from my company. They are from Algeria, Angola, and Mexico.

I pray that everything will be ok tomorrow in school. No test, no presentation, no practicals, just lectures the whole day (am crossing my fingers for this!!)
Mudah2an luggage nyampe (kalo engga, gawat abis!)
Hopefully I’ll meet nice people here, have a good experience, and can do well in the school.

My Weekend in Bandung

Berangkat dari Jakarta hari Jumat jam 10.00an naik X-trans dari Pondok Indah. Pengalaman pertama naik travel ke Bandung. Jalanan lumayan macet, yang harusnya nyampe Bandung sekitar 12.30, akhirnya jadi mulur hampir 2 jam. Dari tempat pemberhentian di daerah Cihampelas, aku langsung ke Parijs van Java; meeting point pertama kita. Iya, rencana hari ini kita-kita mau ketemuan dulu sebelum acara reuni-an besok.

Tempat nongkrong pertama: KFC. Di sini kita cuma mesen French fries ama minum. Ada Mim, Senna, Irene, Agung, Iki, ama aku. Ga lama, kita pindah ke BMC, mo nungguin Badri sekeluarga dateng sekalian minum2. Sekitar jam 4an, Badri, Ratih, dan Rafa dateng. Iiii… anaknya Badri lucu deh… matanya belok, pipinya tembem… mirip Ratih (untunglah :P *jokin*).

Sambil ngobrol-ngobrol, kita mengatur rencana buat malemnya. Rencananya kita pengen makan-makan di daerah Dago atas situ. Aku udah lama banget ga ke sana. (vielleicht mehr als 4 Jahren). Sekalian, pengen juga ya, ngeliat langit berbintang dan bukit-bukit... kekekekk...

Sekitar jam 5an, Iki, Agung, Irene, dan Badri sekeluarga cabut. Mia, Senna ama aku terus lanjut jalan-jalan di Parijs van Java. Nemenin Mia beli taplak batik, terus belanja di Carrefour (ya ampuuuuuunn... Carrefour ramenyaaaaa....) Setelah round-round ga jelas, akhirnya kita bertiga nongkrong lagi, kali ini di Gelato Bar. Minum kopi sambil nungguin Iki datang menjemput. Seru juga ngeliat Senna mempraktekkan ilmu Planning-nya. *Uhm… jadi bottleneck-nya ada di siapa?* hehe… :)

Malemnya kita makan di The View. Ada Indri sekeluarga (i.e. Indri, Ari, Teteh, Bapak, Mamah, and the 7-month-old baby on her tummy); Ada Kupret, Dewa, Eka yang baru dateng jauh-jauh dari Duri; Ada Agung, Irene, Iki, Senna, Mim, dan aku. Banyak bangetttt… senangnya bisa ngumpul sebanyak ini…
*Anisong!! Wish you were there too!!* :)

Pengumuman penting: Kupret akhirnya me-release tanggal!!!

Setelah puas ngobrol dan foto-foto, kita pun cabut dari restoran. Tapi, semangat foto-foto masih tinggi. Terlebih Eka yang udah siap dengan tripod dan cameranya yang canggih (LCD-nya bisa diputer 180°, sangat cocok untuk foto-foto narcissist). On the way up, kita ngeliat air terjun buatan yang bagus banget. Pas pulangnya, kita memutuskan buat foto-foto di sana. Sayangnya pas nyampe sana, yahh… airnya udah dimatiin… jadi tinggal batu-batunya doang :( Mungkin karena udah malem kali ya… But, the show must go on… Kita sih tetep foto-foto dengan latar belakang batu-batu tidak jelas… :P

Dari sana, kita lanjut ke The Peak. Di sini rombongan udah berkurang. Indri sekeluarga dan Agung-Irene udah pulang duluan. Jalan menuju The Peak tu jauuuuh banget. Nanjak, dan musti masuk-masuk ke dalem. Orang yang makan di sini emang musti bener-bener niat deh. Aku baru tau, ternyata, waktu jaman kuliah dulu, temen-temenku ini sering ke parkirannya The Peak dengan tujuan melihat pemandangan. Iya, parkirannya doang... ngga makan... hihi... Berdasarkan pengakuan mereka, katanya sih mau ngeliat bintang jatuh, biar kayak di Meteor Garden :D

Jadi, kali ini kita melakukan hal yang kurang lebih sama. Sampe atas, masuk restoran cuma numpang ke kamar mandi doang, abis itu langsung menuju „best spot“ buat liat pemandangan. Bagus sih... walaupun ga ada bintang-bintang malem itu, tapi gantinya ada city lights... :P

Kita foto-foto (again ;)), dan akhirnya pulang. Nyampe rumah Mia sekitar jam 01.30an dianter Iki. Uh, I had a really great time!!! That was wonderful!

If only kita bisa ngumpul2 kayak gini sering-sering ya… That would be really great… :)

Kebun Raya Bogor

Went there with Mom, Dad, and my cousin Winda.

Tangerang

Today’s agenda: Visiting Komang and his new house in Tangerang.

Met Iki, Senna, Agung at Halte Komdak at 10 am. Took the bus to Citraland, then with busway to Kalideres. Arrived at the Kalideres terminal around 11 am. We were quite hungry already :P Senna was the worse since he didn’t have breakfast earlier. Komang picked us up at the terminal and we decided to go directly to BSD Plaza (emm not sure about the name of that shopping centre though) to get something to eat.

It took us around 40 minutes from Kalideres terminal to the shopping centre. It was my first time in Tangerang :) A lot of real estates have been and are being developed there.
On the way to the mall, these guys I was with kept discussing about investing money on a house ;)

We didn’t stay too long at the shopping centre. We just had lunch there (Iki’s treat. Thanks Iki!) and then we proceeded to our main destination: Komang’s new house.

Nice house, nice surroundings. It has two bedrooms, which is more than enough for a single man like Komang. Even though it’s not fully furnished yet, but all the basic and necessary things were there. Perhaps it needs a woman’s touch to beautify it a bit ;)

On our way back to Jakarta, the rain fell down. This time, we got off from busway at the Harmoni bus stop, and changed to another track going to Sudirman. FYI, starting Saturday (yesterday), there are seven busway lines operating in Jakarta. This is very good news.

Anyway, Iki, Senna, and I went to Plaza Semanggi. Sholat, had dinner, and had a chat before going home. Geez guys, sorry if I’d talked too much… :”>

I had a great Sunday…

Museum Fatahillah

Finally, I had the chance to try Busway. I went with Tante Tati and Om John to Stasiun Kota. First, we took a taxi from Cinere to Blok M. Then, we took the busway to Stasiun Kota. It was quite good. We had to pay Rp 3500 per person for one trip, which I find relatively cheap. The bus came quite often, probably every 2-3 minutes, and even though it was Saturday, the buses were quite full.

I think busway’s great. It took us very fast from Blok M to Stasiun Kota, with no traffic jam at all. And it was convenient too. The Air conditioner was on and people were not jammed inside. (Except that Indonesian GENTLEMEN don’t give their seats to the LADIES… Grrr!! Pissed me off!!)

Once we arrived at Stasiun Kota, we had to walk to Museum Fatahillah. The museum wasn’t far from the station, only about 5-minute walk I guess. The thing was Jakarta was very very very very hot. It absorbed almost all of my energy :( And being a pedestrian in Jakarta is like risking your health. No Zebra Cross and no pavements, plus all the dust and exhaust from cars and stinky smell from the nearby river… :(

Finally we were there, in front of the museum, dehydrated already. We drank two teh botol each, had one portion of Gado-gado for three of us (as snack) and only after that we were able to restore our energy…

(Museum Fatahillah building)

(The plaza in front of museum)

(Taken from a window at the 1st floor)

I’ve never been to the Kota district before. I’ve heard that this place is quite unique, and that it showed the older and very interesting side of Jakarta, with lots of old buildings and cafes.

The building of the museum that we went too is very old, and also unique. I like it. It was built by the Dutch in the beginning of the 18th century to be used as town hall. In front of the building there is a big plaza (like in Europe).

The museum shows historical relics, paintings, documents, furniture, ceramics, traditional costumes etc. The collections shown there was okay; but unfortunately, in my opinion, not enough information was given. But anyway, I guess the wars we had caused chaos which makes it difficult to collect pieces and get info on them. Have I mentioned that My Mom loves antique stuff? Well, she does. In the museum, I found things similar with Mom’s set of Kursi Lenong, Mom’s old bathtub, and Mom’s plates. :)

(Garden in the museum)

(Si Jagur)

There is a garden behind the museum building, and a famous cannon called “Si Jagur” is situated there. Btw, that day, the museum got help from two extra sweepers :)

From Fatahillah Museum, we walked back to the station [Jakarta was super super hottt!! :(( ] We took the bus back to Blok M. Had lunch at Bakmi GM, and took a taxi home from Pasaraya. It was a great trip. Lots of fun. :)