24 Hours In Jakarta

Unlike my friend Jimmy who could spend three weeks in Singapore as a tourist even though he had come here time and again, I never enjoyed staying too long when visiting familiar places. I just liked being there, having a glimpse of it, tasting the food and meeting friends. After that I'd move on, heading to another destination or going back home. This is why I'm also the type that's fine for a day trip or a short getaway.

This trip to Jakarta was also no exception. On this occasion, I never planned to be there for more than 24 hours. I'd land there at 7:05am and leave the city at 6:40am on the following day. That'd be sufficient. The only twist this round was the place I'd be visiting. Helen suggested that I should come to Gading Serpong instead. I had never been there before, so I took up the offer. It would be fun be see some place new with a bunch of old friends.

Together with Susan, my old buddy Ceng Pang picked me up at the airport. It had been a while since I experienced that. Normally it was always free and easy for me, so it felt odd, as if I was some important person that required such a service, haha. But on the other hand, it was very nice of them to do so. So off we went from airport to Alam Sutera.

Yours truly, with Susan, Helen, Henny, Ceng Pang and Hardy.

You might have recalled the name Alam Sutera from some of my writings, most notably was the one about the salted egg fish ball. Yes, we headed to the eatery owned by Hardy and Henny, a lovely couple. A hot fish ball soup for breakfast would be ideal and I loved it. And our time there only got better after Hardy joined us after his Strava time!

About my friend Hardy, I had to say that I admired his hard work. He had come a long away and made a good progress, from doing things all by himself to developing some sort of system so that he could free himself for another business expansion. He owned a second stall at Sarinah, a shopping centre in Jakarta's CBD area (he used to have four, but he let go the other two during COVID-19) and now he planned to do franchise. From his recent trip to Surabaya, he also thought of making bottled chilli sauce (and it turned out that I was there just in time for the unveiling). A very forward-thinking person!

From left: Ceng Pang, Ajon, Helen, Mariany, Henny, Susan, AW, Anthony, Hardy, BL and family.

So we hung out there while more and more friends coming to join us. There were Helen, Ajon, Mariany, whom I hadn't met for a really long while. Then AW and BL also came. So did Tuty, who just arrived in Jakarta. As we chit-chatted, we also ordered curry rice and kwe kia theng, the Pontianak food that made us. We were at Hardy's for half a day before Helen suggested that we should go singing instead.

It was raining, but it didn't stop us. We left Alam Sutera and for the first time ever, I entered Gading Serpong. To be frank, the whole Serpong thing was kind of confusing for the uninitiated. There was also another town called BSD City, formerly known as Bumi Serpong Damai and it happened to be about 12 KM away from where I was now. Gading Serpong looked rather grand and impressive especially at night, I'd say.

And the fun began at Inul Vizta...

We had so much fun at Inul Vizta. Even though we sang English and Chinese songs, it was mainly the old Indonesian songs that got us up and danced. Sentimental reasons, I guess. We knew how it felt when songs like Chrisye's Anak Sekolah was playing. Both the music and lyrics meant something for us because we went through high school. Also worth mentioning here was Susan, our time keeper, who often pressed the next button after the second chorus of the song, haha.

For dinner, we went to Rumah Kayu, a restaurant with lesehan style. Lesehan is a Javanese word that could be translated as sitting on a floor. Food was all right. For someone who hadn't eaten Indonesian food for so long, anything cooked with MSG would be acceptable. It was here that Alvin and Junaidi came to meet us as well, but not before they lost their way and ended up at another restaurant called Kayu Kayu.

Dinner at Rumah Kayu...

And that day ended with a bang! Since they had been talking about Holywings the whole day, Cicilia made a call that we should visit the one next to KFC. Because Susan and I wore sandals, I told them that if we couldn't enter Holywings, we'd go for chicken wings instead. But, lo and behold, there we were, enjoying our beers. That lasted for a short while, until the band started playing. I was immediately reminded again why I always preferred a pub for drinks. I could barely hear anything because the music was so loud! 

We left around 10:30pm at night, with Ceng Pang driving Cicilia back to Karawang, a town that was roughly about 97 KM away from Hollywings! I followed HRR, another childhood friend, to Yello Hotel in Jakarta. It was midnight when I reached there, but showering was a must! Then I dozed off while watching the Wolf of Wall Street, the movie that was only available on Netflix Indonesia (was watching it half way before I left Bali in early May).  

The last round at Holywings.

The next morning, before sunrise, I checked out and took a cab to Gambir Station to catch the train to Bandung. The train was clean and quite comfortable. It was punctual as well, so true to the original schedule, I was in Jakarta for less than 24 hours! After two years of living in the time of corona, it was fun to hang out with old friends again. A time well-spent! 

24 Jam Di Jakarta 

Berbeda dengan teman saya Jimmy yang bisa berlibur tiga minggu di Singapura meskipun sudah sering ke sini, saya jarang berlama-lama di tempat yang sering saya kunjungi. Saya lebih suka mampir sejenak untuk menikmati suasananya sambil makan dan bertemu teman. Setelah itu saya pun lanjut ke tempat lain atau kembali ke Singapura. Ini alasannya kenapa saya bisa menikmati kunjungan singkat sehari atau akhir pekan di negara tetangga, misalnya ke Johor Bahru atau Batam. 

Liburan ke Jakarta kali ini bisa dikatakan serupa. Pada kesempatan ini, saya akan menghabiskan waktu sekitar 24 jam di Jakarta. Saya mendarat pukul 7:05 pagi dan berangkat ke Bandung pada hari berikutnya jam 6:40 pagi. Itu sudah cukup bagi saya. Akan tetapi kali ini beda tempat tujuannya. Helen menyarankan agar saya mengunjungi Gading Serpong. Berhubung saya tidak pernah mampir sebelumnya, saya pun setuju. Pasti seru rasanya ke tempat baru bersama teman-teman. 

Ceng Pang, teman lama dari sejak SD, datang menjemput bersama Susan. Sudah lama saya tidak dijemput di bandara dan biasanya saya berangkat sendiri ke kota, jadi agak janggal juga rasanya mendapat perlakuan khusus, hehe. Akan tetapi teman-teman memang baik sampai rela bangun pagi untuk menjemput. Dari bandara, mobil pun meluncur ke Alam Sutera.

Bersama Susan, Helen, Henny, Ceng Pang dan Hardy.

Anda mungkin pernah membaca nama Alam Sutera dari tulisan saya yang sebelumnya, terutama yang berkisah tentang bakso ikan telur asin. Ya, kita menuju ke tempat makan Hardy dan Henny, pasangan suami-istri yang juga teman satu SMA. Semangkok sup bakso ikan untuk sarapan pagi memang sedap rasanya. Dan suasana kian semarak saat Hardy bergabung setelah selesai Strava. 

Harus saya katakan bahwa saya mengagumi kerja keras Hardy. Dia sudah maju pesat dibandingkan terakhir kali saya ke sana di tahun 2018. Dia tak lagi mengerjakan semuanya sendiri, tetapi kini memiliki sistem sehingga dia mempunyai waktu untuk mengerjakan hal lain. Dia juga memiliki satu kios di Sarinah (dulu bahkan sampai ada empat, namun tutup ketika COVID-19 melanda). Belajar dari pengalaman, sekarang dia mau fokus di franchise. Dari kunjungannya ke Surabaya, dia pun mulai memproduksi sambal cabe yang dibotolkan. Saya dan teman-teman yang hadir pun mendapat kesempatan pertama untuk menjajal produk ini. Singkat kata, sungguh Hardy adalah seorang yang berpandangan maju!

Dari kiri: Ceng Pang, Ajon, Helen, Mariany, Henny, Susan, AW, Anthony, Hardy, BL dan keluarga.

Kita bersantai di tempat Hardy sambil menanti teman-teman lain yang datang bergabung. Ada Helen, Ajon, Mariany. Sudah lama rasanya saya tidak duduk dan berbincang dengan mereka! Lantas ada pula AW, BL dan bahkan juga Tuty yang baru saja mendarat di Jakarta. Beberapa waktu kemudian, kita kembali memesan makanan, kali ini nasi kari dan kwe kia theng, makanan Pontianak yang kita santap dari sejak kecil. Setengah hari lamanya kita di sana sebelum kita lanjut karaoke. 

Walau hujan cukup deras, kita tetap meluncur ke lokasi. Dari Alam Sutera, saya memasuki Gading Serpong untuk pertama kalinya. Jujur saya katakan bahwa yang namanya Serpong ini agak membingungkan. Selain Gading Serpong, ada lagi yang namanya BSD City alias Bumi Serpong Damai yang berjarak sekitar 12 KM jauhnya. Gading Serpong sendiri merupakan kawasan yang terlihat modern dan bergelimang cahaya di malam hari. 

Dan acara dimulai di Inul Vizta...

Acara di Inul Vizta cukup heboh. Meski kita silih-berganti membawakan lagu Inggris dan Mandarin, yang membuat semua berjingkrak rata-rata adalah lagu Indonesia. Misalnya lagu Chrisye yang berjudul Anak Sekolah. Lirik dan musiknya penuh makna bagi kita yang pernah melewati masa SMA. Dan yang tak kalah pentingnya di sini adalah Susan yang bertindak sebagai operator. Supaya waktu tidak terbuang sia-sia, dia seringkali langsung berpindah ke lagu berikutnya sebelum lagu berakhir, haha. 

Untuk makan malam, kita bersantap di Rumah Kayu yang bergaya lesehan. Makanannya lumayan. Bagi orang yang sudah lama tidak mencicipi makanan Indonesia, segala sesuatu yang dimasak dengan penyedap rasa langsung terasa lezat. Alvin dan Junaidi pun datang menyusul. Setelah tersesat dan muncul di restoran lain yang bernama Kayu Kayu, akhirnya mereka berhasil menemukan Rumah Kayu. 

Makan malam di Rumah Kayu...

Dan hari itu berakhir di Holywings! Jadi nama ini sudah muncul sepanjang hari, sampai akhirnya Cicilia memutuskan bahwa kita harus ke Holywings yang ada di samping KFC. Karena Susan dan saya memakai sandal, saya berkomentar bahwa seandainya kita ditolak di Holywings, kita tunggu yang lain sambil makan chicken wings saja. Akan tetapi kita bisa masuk dan menikmati bir di sana. Kenikmatan sesaat yang segera berakhir begitu grup musik bermain di panggung. Saya jadi langsung teringat kenapa saya cenderung memilih pub sebagai tempat minum. Musiknya begitu keras di Holywings, sampai-sampai sulit untuk menyimak obrolan!

Acara akhirnya bubar jam 10:30 malam. Ceng Pang mengantar Cicilia kembali ke Karawang, kota yang berjarak 97 KM jauhnya dari Holywings! Saya sendiri menumpang di mobil HRR yang menuju ke Jakarta Kota. Kita tiba di Yello Hotel menjelang tengah malam. Selesai mandi, saya lanjut menonton the Wolf of Wall Street, film yang hanya ada di Netflix Indonesia dan telah saya tonton separuh sebelum saya bertolak dari Bali di awal Mei. 

Ronde terakhir di Holywings.

Keesokan paginya, sebelum matahari terbit, saya sudah berada di dalam taksi menuju Gambir. Beberapa saat kemudian, saya pun duduk di dalam kereta yang bersih, lumayan nyaman dan tepat waktu pula. Semuanya berlangsung sesuai jadwal. Setelah dua tahun hidup terisolasi di masa pandemi, senang rasanya bisa berkumpul bersama teman-teman lagi!