My Date with Jakarta

Ondel-ondel Betawi, the Jakarta traditional giant doll. They are one of the icons of Jakarta.

I’m leaving this city in two days and yet it still giving me surprise. After the antiquities, I was actually in doubt about going home or continue my photo hunting at national monument. It was quite hot today in Jakarta but after the surprise from the world police marching band parade, then completed my mission to shoot some pictures of antiquities at Jalan Surabaya, I don’t really care that I didn’t wear my motorbike mask during the trip. I know I’ll go dark but again I was too happy to cover my face.

So, yes, I set my mind to go to the national monument park to take some pictures. There, again, I saw flock of people. Hundreds of motorbike filled the parking lot. I hardly find a shady location to put my bike. Oh well, I’m getting darker anyway.

Parking the bike was not a problem at all. The only problem was that you have to walk a bit far to reach the entrance while tens of street hawkers with their sumptuous goods were calling you along the path in reaching the gate. Again, my heart said, “what’s going on here? Normally, not too many street hawkers here, especially they sell traditional Betawi foods which usually exist during Jakarta’s anniversary.

Traditional hawkers food	Fresh cold mangos to cure the heat

Too many people inside the park. Families with children from around Indonesia, I can tell from their accent and dialect when they spoke. They were doing picnic and stuff. My purpose is to shoot the monument with the grand Istiqlal mosque behind it. That’s all. No more, I said to myself because I can’t stand the heat.

So, I shot some pictures of traditional Betawi dolls called “Ondel-ondel”. Then I walked into the shadow of the trees to cool myself while looking at the street merchant selling traditional children toys. I couldn’t get the mosque behind the monument and that I have to walk further, closer to the monument. Then I saw tents with loud music. I was wondering what it was. I feel lazy to walk because of the heat but then  I said “oh well, I’m here, so why don’t I go and check what the tents are”.

Traditional Betawi costumes

As I came closer I realized that the tents were part of the city occasion to celebrate “Lebaran Betawi” or Islamic celebration in Betawi tradition. Betawi is the name of original tribe who lives in Jakarta long time ago. And this is their tradition to celebrate the occasion. In this park, there are six pavilions which represented six districts in Jakarta (Kepulauan Seribu, East, West, North, South, and Central) and each pavilion gave away free food.

Oh la la free food!

Nobody wants to miss it. There are also a sample house of Jakarta legendary hero, Si Pitung, and also some traditional show. People dressed in traditional Betawi clothes and there were also traditional music Marawis and Batavian traditional orchestra,Tanjidor.

Our new famous governor, Mr. Jokowi

One surprise was I got the chance to meet the famous new governor of Jakarta, Mr. Joko Widodo or also known as Jokowi. Haha! It’s a struggle to take his picture as I must fight and pushed with the other old “colleagues”, the journalists. I felt like I was in a duty to make news report and to take pictures. I guess I miss my old job as journalist. To close the photo hunting session, I treat myself a traditional ice which I used to eat when I was a child. It is called Es Goyang or literally means Shaking Ice in english, is traditional hawker food in Jakarta. It was called this way since they shake the cart to make this kind of ice.

Es Goyang, my favorie ice when I was a child.

My date with Jakarta was over and I realized that despite of many problems that this country is facing of, I saw there are still many smiling faces around me today. It doesn’t have to be in a fancy restaurant or big mall, just over the shady trees, friends and families enjoying Sunday morning.

Well, Jakarta, not always have negative things. It is crowded, yes, but, if you can see in a positive point of view, this city really is beautiful and the good thing is all of these attractions are for free. Well, readers, I hope you had a blast Sunday too!

Antiquities to sell, Antiquities to buy

Antique lamps at Jalan Surabaya, Jakarta

A die-hard fan of antiquities? If you’re in or are planning to visit Jakarta, be sure to make your time to visit Jalan Surabaya or Surabaya Street. The street is renowned for its antiques merchants. Located at central Jakarta, it is easy to find. Just go to Cikini train station and before you reached the station take the right and go straight and you will meet two different ways. Take the left and voila! Tens of antiques store stand in line, offering any weird, old, antiques stuff from around the world.

Most of the store sells things like wooden statue, handcraft, antique silver spoon, old gramophone, old lamps, suitcases, even they have an old diving suit from the 30’s made in USA, or a clock from Victoria station in London.

Unique!

I’ve always wanted to go to this street because I love antiques but since I don’t have enough money, pictures are fine for me. Oh, if you need extra baggage, by the end of this street you can find stores that sell suitcases in a cheap price yet antique. This street is one of main tourist destination in Jakarta, for those who have passion in antiquities.

Car Free Day Jakarta

The parade on car free day

Life is unexpected. I was planning to shot some places in Jakarta today but end up with loads of fun stuffs and nice objects. Since last night I crate my route for photo hunting around Jakarta. My first choice was the Hotel Indonesia round, it is right at the city center. From there I planned to walk through the pedestrian to the Monumen Nasional (National Monument) or famous by the name “Monas”.

So, I woke up at 5 AM and couldn’t back to sleep, my mind goes wildly thinking of how fun my solo photo hunting will be. Since my sister works on Sunday and her office is located near my destination, I offer her a ride. We were at the junction when we saw flock of people in the main street. It’s Car Free day! I just remember that now every Sunday, from 6 am to 9 am, the main street is blocked, no cars or buses are allowed to pass through so people can enjoy walking or bike riding inside the main streetline.

Alright, I’ve set my mind to shoot some picture of this car free day. I parked my motorbike and walk through the street, then I heard loud drumming voice, and what a surprise a group of Korean police marching band from Seoul were passing by. Behind them was the group from NYPD marching band. People flocked and walked along their side, taking pictures. I was wondering what was going on then I saw that they were parading for the world police marching band festival. There were five groups from five countries from all over the world. Wow, lucky me!

Indonesian Police Academy Marching Band

The Seoul Metro police group was quite interesting with their traditional clothes and attraction. The NYPD group has groovy kind of melody, and the last but got the most warm welcome was our own group from Indonesian Police Academy. They were numerous and were in a large group and the attraction was awesome! Hmm, my eyes were never got me wrong about men in uniform. Since a long time ago, for me, men in uniform really are cool!

The parade was over after the groups went round at the city center. So, I walked back to where I parked my motorbike while taking some pictures of the heart of the city. My next destination is Surabaya Street where you can find hundreds of antiquities in myriads of antique store…

Honestly, when I was still living in Jakarta, I never wanted to go to join the car free day but now, I realized that it’s a fun thing to do at Sunday morning.

A.L.I.F: Plus One

Alhamdulillah It’s Friday and Alhamdulillah in this blissful Friday, I add another year in my journey to the end. I’ve been living these many years and yet, how The Almighty gave His blessing still surprises me. It’s not about my half one but it’s about how God had given me another year to breathe to see my homeland, my family, to see how the community grew and to see within myself how my Iman has been tested many times this year.

This milestone was a bit different and once again I saw how Allah Azza wa Jalla gave me many surprises today. For some people, birthday celebrations are often done with partying, well, thank God, my parents never teach me that. I mean, how can I waste my money to throw a party to celebrate the age-adding while in Egypt, lots of people are fighting for their life?

That’s why I was super happy today that I finally got a chance to celebrate it in my own way.

My first gift was the ability to breath, to open my eyes in normal way, in short, Alhamdulillah I am physically healthy despite of the unstoppable runny nose due to influenza.

My second gift was my intention to do the jumuah mass prayer and celebrating it with hundreds of people, really came true. This is the interesting part.

Long march in front of American Embassy in Jakarta, 16 August 2013 to protest the conflict in Egypt.

This morning I saw on my twitter account that there will be an long march by many muslim organizations in Jakarta as a form to protest of what happened in Egypt. The hashtag #prayforegypt filled my twitter account’s timeline. They said that the action will be held not only in Jakarta but altogether at the same time all over Indonesia.

The more I scrolled down the more I found the reason of why we, Indonesian, should stand up for the Egyptian. It’s not only that we’re muslim but I found out the fact about our independence, which will step on its 68^th year by tomorrow on August 17^th 2013. In fact, Egypt was the first country that giving their recognition for our Independence in 1945. So, in short, Indonesia owe Egypt.

So, I decided to do jumuah prayer at Istiqlal Mosque in Central Jakarta. I thought that it will be an ordinary jumuah prayer but indeed it’s not. It was a bit special, not only our vice president was also present but also because the Imam read Qunut Al-Nazila at the second raka’ah and then performed Salatu janaza ‘ala al-gha’ibin for those who lost their lives due to conflict in Egypt. Everybody was in silence, some were in tearfull.

After the prayer, everybody gathered at the parking lot of the mosque, preparing for the long march. At first, I was hesitated (I got terrible headache since the morning) because I was alone while others came in groups. But when I saw their spirit while walking, yelling “Allahu Akbar!” in an extreme heat (oh yeah,  and Jakarta was quite boiling today), I just can’t stand still.

They divided the acts at some places in Jakarta. They gathered since 6 am in the morning at University of Indonesia and marched down to central Jakarta by 9 am. We gathered at 13.00 after the jumuah prayer at Istiqlal Mosque, Jakarta. Our first stop was the American Embassy and continued to our presidential house. Meanwhile, other group held their act in front of Egyptian embassy in Jakarta.

Swarm of hundreds of people gathered in front of the American Embassy, as the sun climbed up higher, i saw more people, young, old even family with children came to join the oration. I was forcing myself to get a good pictures, so I tried my best to make my way to the front. It’s hard to move, not even a single step since there were hundreds of them. It was even harder to breathe out, so I need to calm myself for not faint out. After quite a struggle to make my way and to catch some air, I manage to get out from the swarm. It’s good to be able to breathe.

I was catching my breathe when I heard someone called my name and it turned out to be a long time friend from the university. Not only that, when I moved to where the wall of police officers to take the flag carriers from the front, someone also called my name, “is it Eka, right?” and it turned out to be two friends from my junior highschool whom I haven’t seen for many many years and they still recognize me among hundreds of people.

To tell you the truth, I was happy to have all these experience. It’s always nice to tie back the silaturrahim with old friends who are in the same idea with us. It’s unexpected. Two months ago, I was quite sure that I will celebrate my birthday in the mountain, but how human made plan and how we can only make plan but the executor is not us and Allah Azza wa Jalla has changed all my plan and here I am today, in a swarm of people, joining protest, all by my own.

Funny how everything in life doesn’t always go your way. In short, today August 16th 2013 was dedicated not for me but for Egypt. May the conflict ends soon. Innallaha ma’ana.

Jazakallah khair.

Ramadan Kareem

Alhamdulillah, the holy month of Ramadan has stepped its foot on the third day. This year’s Ramadan is different for me. Personally, I’m both happy and sad. Happy because Allah still gave me a chance to meet the holy month (I don’t know whether I will still be alive to meet Ramadan next year) and at least to do sawm (fasting) for three days, in syaa Allah.

But, what I miss the most is the togetherness with my family. We eat together in the same table. My father usually gives a short sermon before eating or we usually listen to the short sermon from the TV while waiting for Adzan maghrib.

Or, in our tradition by sharing our food with others or during our family gathering at my uncle’s house and then we perform Tarawih altogether. But what I miss the most is the tarawih prayer with my father as the imam. For me, no Imam who recites the surahs of the Quran divinely like him. Unfortunately, this year I won’t be able to hear his recital.

I miss those moments of togetherness. Indeed, the month of Ramadan for me is a month of sharing, a month full of forgiveness, where everybody do everything with ikhlas. This year, it’s not about the long hour of fasting, for me to be not with persons that you love and care is the hardest moment.

However, I should thank Allah for every test that He gave me this year. Ramadan Kareem to all muslim in the world. May Allah accept all of our good deed and answer all of our du’a in this Ramadan.

Jazakallah khair.

Forgive and Forget

People come and go, they said.

Some people often take others for granted. Sometimes we see things as if they’re always be there and therefore sometimes we don’t know how precious they are until they’re gone.

I’ve tried not to be sentimental during the past weekend. I’ve tried to be strong. I’ve tried to hold up the tears when I saw other cried but I think I can’t hold it last night. I finally shed the tears I’ve been holding on since last week. I can’t hold it when I came to two of my best friend’s room and saw them packing their things.

They finished their studies. They have graduated and today they’re leaving for good. It’s the fourth sentimental goodbye I had this year. Four goodbyes and 5 friends who had graduated and left/is leaving. I know people come and go but to part with people whom you share your moments with for most of the times, people whom you have debate, discussion with, people who shared your tears, angers, smiles, jokes, and laughters, it is not easy.

One of them told me, “I don’t wanna make friends anymore in the future because it hurts when it comes to say goodbye to them again”. Unfortunately, making friends is inevitable.

We had problems, we fought, but then I remember all the good things they’ve done to me when I was at the lowest point of my life. These are the things I will never forget. Then, I realized that when you valued someone sincerely as a person important in your life, you always forgive. Problems come and go but what most important is how to develop ourselves to be able to forgive and forget. God is the All Forgiver and as He creates us, how come we,  human, can’t forgive each other?”

I learned from my best friends. Good friends you can find them everywhere but sincerity is the thing that differs good friends from best friends.

I just read about greatest sin in Islam and among them is to cut the relatives/relationship  (silaturrahim) and since Ramadan is only five days away, I would like to ask forgiveness to all my relatives and to all my friends for all the wrong things that I’ve done. Pure heart and pure intention to start the training in a one full month, in sya Allah.

Jazakallah khair.

Snap Night

Living in a close-knit neighborhood brings you lots of advantages (well, only if your neighbors are cool, calm, and friendly lol). Life in a student residential is a little bit boring especially when your one and only entertainment goes on and off. Yes, internet is our one and only entertainment. You can tell it when it went off during the weekend. Normally, nobody out during the night but when the internet went off, suddenly your neighbor will knock your door and suddenly you end up sitting on the balcony, chatting with them in hours or other possibility (if you and your neighbor have the same passion) is doing a night photo walk. This is what happened with me last night.

preparing our second model	Snap night ganaa

We were having coffee and chatting while killing our boring nigh time since the internet went down, when I suddenly got an idea of taking picture of what we were doing. It was nothing in purpose. I’m NOT a photographer, neither a PRO, I just LOVE taking pictures.

OK, then suddenly my neighbors suggested to have some photo walk at the university. Well, the campus is only five minutes by foot, so, why not?, I said to myself. So, the four of us decided to had a small photo session with me as the person behind the camera, while the other three pose as models-slash-crews.

I just realize that I like our small group since we’re not just taking photo or it’s just me who always think about which angles are best for each person but we discuss, cooperate, and correct each other of which angles or which position is best for each person. In our small team, we elaborate and brainstorm new ideas. I’d prefer to do photo shoot session like this rather than having someone telling “hey, take my photo, made some good pictures for me” (oh wow, hello, I’m not a machine). These kind of things only making me losing my “photo appetite” since I am TOLD to take photo not because I WANT to take photo and trust me I hate to be told what to do. Anyway, my photos are born for the relationship with me, my camera and my brain not with other’s command (not idea but command).

We’re not a pro but when you are used to a teamwork, that will train yourself to listen not only to your own ego and trust me, it works for any aspect in this life since we live in a society.

So, our night snap session ended with their first payment as models: hot chocolate! 😀

Gosh, I love my models! 😉

Hot chocolate treat for everyone!

 

Photos are up at manusiajaket

Moving Out

Big step of our life is to move out from one place to another, from one reality to another reality.

In our life, people come and go, as a good friend told me once. When moving from a place for a temporal moment, we often think that “oh it’s only for two weeks, oh it’s only for two months, oh it’s only for two years”. It seems temporal but then after living in one place for quite a time, I realized that those temporal moments are part of my life.

We made friends, we shared lots of moments. Bad and worst moments. Not only that but also those moments that somehow we can define them as “the greatest moments” of our lives.

I’ve seen many goodbyes this year. They reminds me that “Hey, you, you shouldn’t stay at one place, prepare to move out”, and it happened. The day where I moved out from the house where I’ve been living in for almost 2 years. They said I need to change the house since they will renovate the whole things. So, I moved in one day. Yes, moving out in a hurry is a thing that I less expected.

In short term, I packed my things in one day. It was tiring when also lots of things happened during the process. It’s a test again. Anyway, when it was finished, I started to remember things. How these things reminds me to be always prepare, for what? For the worst in life. When the staff came in sudden, unexpectedly at early morning, then told me to move by the next day while I got so many stuff to bring with me, then I saw the things I bought for all these two years, I started to think: “How on earth I got so many stuffs like these? What for? Why, now, I want to throw them all and bring only stuffs I need? Why I got so many things like these? I must move to another home and I don’t want to bring these stuffs, I don’t need them but there are stuffs I can’t leave”

I started to think and think and think while my stuffs were scattered around. “What are you thinking, eka? You only live here temporally, this is not your house, you must always be prepare to move out someday”. A voice inside me kept telling me these words.

Then, I remember death.

Death comes suddenly. You don’t have time to pack your stuff. You don’t have time to pick which one to bring it with you. Since you know you will be questioned about what you have done in your life, you don’t have time to erase all the bad things you’ve done to yourself and to others. You only have your “Iman ( الإيمان)”.

This moving-out-in-a-hurry thing, it’s like a death simulation for me. How Allah reminds me that all my belongings in this world are not mine. The house where I’m living in is not mine. The money I own to buy things are not mine. Even friends and family, I don’t own them though I used the term “my friends, my family” which means grammatically I own them, but no, they’re not mine. Someday when the soul was taken from the body, I realized there is nothing I can do for them.

When death approaches you, there’s nothing you can do but to obey. In the end, there’s no word I can say but Alhamdulillah. I guess it’s time for preparing ourselves since we never know when the real thing will come.

Jazakallahu khairan

The Grom Disaster

“Today was excited! It was a pleasure to pass the day with you guys, we really had fun but not for the Grom, u.u”

Gustavo replied my sms by the end of the day. Well, yes, the day was really fun for us except the Grom Disaster, I called it that way.

Let’s go a bit back to the time when we parted for lunch. Me and my friend, we stopped at Termini and decided to go to our first dib: the newly opened Indian Halal restaurant which we had seen earlier when we arrived in Termini.

The waiter greeted me in Arabic which I responsed with my broken Arabic: “Laa kalam arobi (I don’t speak Arabic)”. He suddenly continued with a question, “Ah, Malaysian or Indonesian?” which both of us responded, “Indonesian!” and he clapped his hand happily and pleased us to have a sit.

The waiter, a Bangladeshi, told us that he met so many Indonesians when he went to Mecca to perform Hajj, therefore he was so happy to meet us.

The restaurant was nice and had various menus from Indian curry, kebab, pasta and pizza. I’ve always wanted to taste Indian cuisine so I chose Chicken Briyani Rice while my friend chose white rice and chicken curry.

Big plate of Briyani

The curry chicken chunks

The portion was big enough. I found not only one piece of chicken but two big pieces of chicked in my briyani plate. The curry plate had three big pieces of chicken meat. The taste was good, just like what I’ve dreamed of. The curry was fantastic. I highly recommend the chicken curry in this restaurant. The price was friendly for students like us. In total we spent 18 euro including two bottle of mineral water. With the big portion, actually the menus were enough for 4 people since we couldn’t finished it that we asked the waiter to repacked it for take-away.

Gromm, Gromm!

Gromm! Gromm!

After the big lunch, we rode the metro, headed back again to Spagna where Gustavo and Silvia awaited us to show his “super mega ultra magnificent” gelato (no kidding, he really using these exaggerative terms in his daily conversation). We arrived there in a minute, and as the roman sun was getting off to his bed, more people were sitting at Piazza Spagna or Spanish Footsteps. We walked further into the alleys to found the most delightful ice cream as said by Gustavo.

Approaching the gelato bar, we saw more people came out from the alley with gelato in their hands. Okay, it’s a sign that we are near. We saw some police and guards were standing by, also some vans of Italian national TV, RAI. My heart was pounding thinking that maybe Simone was here to shoot some programs but it was not him, just a public lecture about presidential stuff by some famous politician, they said.

We arrived in a gelato bar with so many people inside. Gustavo and Silvia who are students of Political Science stood to see who is the famous politician inside while us, can’t wait again for gelato that we entered the bar directly and ordered the gelato. We were waiting for Gustavo and Silvia to catch us inside but until we got our gelato in our hands, they never came. So, we decided to go outside because maybe they were still waiting for the politician.

Then, Silvia called us from a bar not far from where we were standing licking our gelato.

and, here came the Grom Disaster.

“Eka, Henny! Why you took this gelato? This is not Grom! Grom is there” said Silvia and Gustavo while pointing a modern bar not far from where we were standing.

“Is this read as ‘Grom’??” said Gustavo pointing at the board of the bar where we bought our gelato, frustrated like a kid who failed to make a surprise to his friends.

Well, indeed, it was written “Giolitti” not “Grom”. Oops!

Since we already had our gelato in hand, there’s nothing he could do but to stand in line and ordered his gelato. After one year of waiting, finally he got out the Grom bar with his “super mega ultra fantastic” gelato. He allowed us to taste it and yes, it was fantastic. However, each gelato had its own specialty. Giolitti’s was delightful but Grom was also tasty.

We promised to taste Grom, the next time we visit Rome. Promise had been made! Promise shall be kept!

Look out for Zingari!

This is one important thing when visiting Rome: the zingari!

It means the gypsy. I didn’t mean to say all gypsies are bad but what happened today had proven me that I should be more aware of them. When we were getting back to Termini from the Mosque, a kid try to steal my stuff inside the metro. I noticed them earlier that something not right about these kids and I was not wrong at all. The boy who stood beside me was trying to distract my attention my pushing me further since the metro was packed by people.

I was left off guard a while when I saw his strange act while carrying a jacket. “It was hot in Rome, so, why are you carrying a jacket, kiddo?” I said to myself. Then I remembered video which was posted by a friend who lived in Rome about these pickpockets. I was so fortunate to have seen this video before, that I know their tricks.

The boy did the same with those in the video, I saw his hand was half inside my small bag, I grabbed my small bag immediately, he took off his hand out and I stared at him. He had no guts to see me in the face and turned to my friend beside me and played with her drinking bottle. They went off when the metro stopped at Spagna. I warned Gustavo and Silvia to never let their guard off. One important travel advice: never let yourself off guard!

We separated for a while because Gustavo and Silvia need to rest a while at their hostel and me and my friend need to grab some lunch.

And so, the next post will be about the food.