Uniquely Pontianak

If you asked any Malay speaking foreigners from Southeast Asia, they would normally tell you that Pontianak is a female ghost rather than a city in Indonesia. The capital city of West Kalimantan is not exactly known as a tourist destination. When there was an overseas friend or two tagging along for a visit, apart from the Equator Monument, it was kind of hard for me to think of any other sightseeing spot in town.

For locals like us, eating is pretty much the only consolation that never fails us. Famous local delicacies include varieties of fried kway teow (beef, pork and economical), porridges (chicken, pork and fish) crab meat noodles (with vinegar as the integral part of the seasoning) or the so-called chicken rice, a messy affair with sticky soup poured on top of the rice that actually has more pork than chicken.

Do take note that while we'll tell you those dishes taste legendary, they may feel so-so only for foreign taste buds. I started to realize this when I worked in Jakarta and noticed that I could only find Pontianak cuisines at certain corners of the city. I was finally convinced when I moved to Singapore, where only Padang rice and East Javanese food are popular enough to represent Indonesia cuisines here.

I tend to think that, perhaps it was due to the fact that we grew up with Pontianak culinary, we ended up believing it as the greatest cuisines on earth. Others, unfortunately, may not think so. However, that's not to say that we don't have anything decent. We do have some, but none is worth mentioning more than this one. I've traveled the world far enough to recognize that the one cuisine that is uniquely Pontianak and easy enough to be imported (but sadly under promoted), one that can sit proudly on the table side by side with other domestic and foreign dishes, is the local delicacy called hekeng.

The name came from the Teochew dialect and the lack of English translation only goes to show that it must have been isolated for too long that it could have been an ancient art of cooking unknown by many, waiting to be reintroduced to the world again. Hekeng looks like its famous cousin, ngo hiang (and it even has a Wikipedia page while hekeng doesn't), but it has an elongated oval shape as it is usually sliced in such a manner before being served.

I had a chance to see how hekeng was made when I worked at Kartika Hotel in Pontianak. I was multitasking back then, so I would drive back the prawn (and other cooking ingredients) from the wet market and helped to peel off the prawn shell. A chef would grind the prawn at least twice. The output would be poured onto the chopping board, where the chef would chop it repeatedly with two cleavers, one on each hand (imagine a guy doing the drum rolls), resulting in a very fine minced meat. After that, the head chef would come in to finish the job. It'd be mixed together with salt and some other seasoning, eggs and flour until it looked like dough (no lard was used so that it could be served as halal food). He would fill the tofu skin with it and wrap it up, then his assistant would line them up for steaming process. The hekeng was steamed until half done, then it was ready to be deep fried. Alternatively, hekeng could be put into the freezer if it wasn't served immediately.

That's how hekeng is made. It doesn't look too difficult, though the preparation can be a nightmare. Some people from my generation have picked up this culinary skill. Wiwi made us proud by recreating the magic in Malaysia and sharing the good food with her friends. Agustini already went commercial some time back and I think bought from her once. For those who are keen but don't know where to find it, Ah Long has been selling it since, no pun intended, a long time ago.

How does it taste like? Hekeng is best eaten while it's hot, because the skin will be crispy and the meat is deliciously tender, especially when it is cut into smaller pieces with a proportional size. It tastes heavenly when it is eaten together with the condiment that is specially created for it: kit iu (directly translated as lime oil), a sweet sour sauce made of lime and sugar, boiled and stirred until it becomes sticky. For me, it is always as personal as a reminder of the place where I came from, with all the good times from childhood coming back every time I bite it. Love it!

Ngo Hiang vs. Hekeng
Photo credit: Yen Darren

Yang Unik Dari Pontianak

Jika anda bertanya kepada orang asing di kawasan Asia Tenggara yang bisa berbahasa Melayu, yang biasanya terpikirkan oleh mereka begitu nama Pontianak disebut adalah hantu wanita. Tidak banyak yang tahu tentang kota di Indonesia yang bernama Pontianak. Ibukota Kalimantan Barat ini memang tidak terkenal sebagai kota wisata. Ketika ada teman luar negeri yang ikut mengunjungi Pontianak, Tugu Khatulistiwa adalah satu-satunya tempat tujuan turis yang saya tahu. 

Bagi kebanyakan warga Pontianak, makan adalah satu-satunya hiburan. Menu favorit antara lain adalah aneka kwetiau goreng, mulai dari kwetiau ekonomis tanpa daging, kwetiau sapi atau kwetiau babi, beragam bubur (ayam, babi dan ikan), yammie (dengan cuka sebagai salah satu bumbu wajib) atau nasi ayam yang becek karena kuah kental yang disiramkan ke atas nasi yang sebenarnya memiliki lebih banyak daging babi daripada ayam. 

Menarik untuk dicatat bahwa meskipun orang Pontianak akan mengatakan bahwa makanan di sana tiada duanya, rasanya mungkin hanya biasa-biasa saja bagi orang asing. Saya mulai menyadari hal ini ketika saya bekerja di Jakarta, dimana masakan Pontianak hanya bisa ditemukan di beberapa sudut kota. Saya menjadi sepenuhnya yakin ketika saya pindah ke Singapura, karena hanya nasi Padang dan masakan Jawa Timur yang cukup populer untuk mewakili Indonesia di sini. 

Saya cenderung berpikir, mungkin karena kita tumbuh dewasa dengan kuliner Pontianak, sehingga kita akhirnya percaya itu adalah masakan terenak di dunia. Orang lain belum tentu berpikir seperti itu. Tapi itu tidak lantas berarti bahwa Pontianak tidak mempunyai sesuatu yang patut untuk dibanggakan. Ada beberapa, tentunya, tapi hanya yang satu ini yang pantas untuk disebut dalam kesempatan ini. Saya sudah berkelana cukup jauh ke berbagai tempat di dunia ini untuk bisa menarik kesimpulan bahwa satu-satunya makanan yang unik dari Pontianak dan mudah untuk dibawa ke mana-mana (tapi sayangnya jarang dipromosikan) dan juga satu-satunya masakan yang layak dihidangkan berdampingan dengan masakan lain, baik domestik maupun negara lain, adalah hekeng. 

Nama hekeng berasal dari bahasa Tiociu. Absennya terjemahan dalam Bahasa Inggris menunjukkan bahwa menu ini sudah terisolir sekian lama, bahkan mungkin sudah menjadi resep kuno yang tidak banyak diketahui orang di luar Pontianak, dan hekeng menanti untuk diperkenalkan lagi pada dunia. Hekeng memiliki penampilan seperti ngo hiang, sepupunya yang lebih terkenal (dan memiliki halaman Wikipedia sedangkan hekeng tidak ada), namun hekeng memiliki bentuk lonjong yang agak memanjang karena pola irisannya sebelum disajikan. 

Ketika saya bekerja di Hotel Kartika Pontianak, saya memiliki kesempatan untuk menyaksikan bagaimana hekeng dibuat. Sebagai sopir, saya membawa pulang udang dan bahan makanan yang dibeli di Pasar Flamboyan. Setelah itu, terutama di saat ada pesta pernikahan, saya kadang turut serta mengupas udang. Hasilnya kemudian akan digiling minimal dua kali oleh koki, kemudian diperhalus lagi dengan cincangan pisau daging. Begitu siap, koki utama akan mencampurkan bumbu, telur dan tepung dan mengaduknya dengan tangan sampai terlihat seperti adonan (minyak babi tidak dipakai di sini karena restoran menyajikannya sebagai menu halal). Daging udang ini kemudian dituangkan di atas kulit tahu dan dibentuk seperti batangan, kemudian dikukus sampai setengah matang. Sesudah ini, hekeng bisa digoreng atau dimasukkan ke kulkas bila tidak perlu dihidangkan langsung.  

Begitulah cara hekeng dibuat. Sepertinya tidak terlalu sulit, tetapi persiapannya cukup memakan waktu. Beberapa teman dari generasi saya telah berhasil menguasai teknik masakan ini. Wiwi membuat kita bangga dengan menciptakan kembali citra rasa ini di Malaysia dan membagikannya kepada teman-temannya. Agustini juga sudah berjualan hekeng sejak beberapa tahun silam dan saya pernah membeli darinya. Untuk mereka yang sempat mampir ke Pontianak tapi tidak tahu di mana membelinya, A Long telah menjual hekeng sejak lama dan yang berminat bisa mampir ke sana. 

Bagaimana sesungguhnya rasa dari hekeng? Gorengan ini paling enak dimakan selagi panas karena akan terasa renyah, terutama bila dipotong dalam ukuran yang tidak terlalu tipis. Hekeng akan terasa tiada duanya ketika dimakan bersama kit iu atau minyak jeruk nipis, saus asam manis yang terbuat dari jeruk nipis dan gula yang direbus dan diaduk sampai kental. Secara pribadi, hekeng terasa seperti mengingatkan saya kembali akan tempat di mana saya berasal, di mana masa kecil terasa terulang kembali di kala saya menikmatinya...

Setelah dikukus, sebelum digoreng.
Photo: Yen Darren

The King Of Comedy

There are people and things in life that have special places in your heart, thanks to the good times they brought. I, for one, have that imaginary pedestal for the pantheon of the all-time greats. Some, such as the Beatles and Bruce Lee, you already know. I had also written about the King of Monsters and the King of Pop. Then of course we, too, have the King of Comedy.

The name is Stephen Chow. I first saw him on TV3, a Malaysian TV channel, when I was in primary school. It was an old Cantonese drama series and Chow was portraying this underdog character. I liked him immediately, for he was unusually funny. Then I realized that he also acted in several movies that were shown in the cinema. That was when my Stephen Chow cinematic experience really began, and it started with All's Well, End's Well, where he acted as the youngest brother of Raymond Wong and Leslie Cheung.

Chow was funny in that movie, alright, but he had to share the screen time with others. It was the next one, Royal Tramp, that established him as my all time favorite. He was Wai Siu-bo and his character knew no kungfu, so what he did to survive the ancient China throughout the whole movie was to talk his way thru. His antics, his expression, his nonsense and the way he laughed were totally unseen in 1992, so it was extremely hilarious. I didn't really understand Chinese (yes, in Pontianak, it was screened in Chinese instead of Cantonese) and had to rely on subtitle, but Chow was so engaging that I couldn't help it but laughing all the way.

The Laser Disc era came not long afterwards and I had my chances to catch the movies that I missed or wasn't shown in theaters. I remember watching My Hero only to find out that it wasn't a comedy. It was weird to see the funny man acting seriously, like it was so out of character for him to do so. I eventually realized that he actually started as a quite serious film actor, so with the exception of some movies such as Dragon Fight (which was more of a Jet Li movie with Stephen Chow in it), I naturally skipped his earlier flicks.

From the left: CJ7; Tricky Brains; Justice, My Foot!; The Lucky Guy; Out of the Dark; The God of Cookery.

As the 90s was flooded with Stephen Chow movies, you either liked him or hated him. I was always fond of comedy, so with nonstop hits such as the God of Gamblers series, Flirting Scholar, King of Beggars and many more, Stephen Chow was my hero. It was actually an odd choice, considering that many of my friends would prefer the so-called good looking ones, such as Andy Lau or any of the Four Heavenly Kings, but to me, Chow was simply the best. I remember how happy I was when I managed to find Out of the Dark, a rather rare Stephen Chow movie, and I cycled back that night to my grandfather's house with one hand carrying the Laser Disc, a very bulky item for one who rode a racing bike! We also had good memories watching a couple of movies at Endrico's house, most notably the God of Cookery (the scenes where he was beaten up by 18 Luohans were classic!) and the Lucky Guy (the floor sweeper who transformed into an idiotic looking Bruce Lee was memorable).

Chow was also the main reason why I bought Tangan Dewa, a Hong Kong manhua series that was translated into Bahasa Indonesia. To be able to see all these stars appeared together was pretty much unthinkable, so the manhua was an absolute godsend, though as it progressed, the quality of the story actually deteriorated over time, haha. Nevertheless, I must have been inspired by it that I wrote my own fan fiction many years later. I called it Hong Kong Heroes, with Stephen Chow as one of the main leads (Andy Lau, Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Chow Yun Fat were also in the story). It was as good as compiling the best elements of their movies into a book, while pitting our heroes against the Hollywood actors, with Stephen Chow using his card rubbing technique in the final showdown. But of course I had to mention his famous sleight of hand, didn't I?

The admirable thing about Stephen Chow was, he didn't stay where he was. As I grew older, his movie grew deeper, too. I tend to think that the turning point was the God of Cookery. It actually had a rather dark theme, but it was cleverly sugarcoated with comedy. His next attempt as both director and screenwriter, the King of Comedy, went to show that he was halfway there. By the time Shaolin Soccer arrived, it felt like, for the first time, a Stephen Chow movie. The result was really something that only Stephen Chow could think of and do. The comical story that combined soccer and kungfu was a stroke of genius. The CGI was brought in, not to compete with Hollywood, but to enhance the storytelling. At the same time, he still played the naive loser that we all knew and loved, with jokes that made us laugh so hard that some could really end up crying those happy tears. Just when I thought that would be his best film ever, he brought it to another level with Kungfu Hustle. That would be his ultimate masterpiece. It didn't shy away from introducing everything Chinese to the world, but at the same time, it was universal enough to be accepted by the non-Asian audience.

Asian Hero 2003.
Image by: time.com

Sadly, that would be the last time he acted as the main character. The next one, CJ7, still featured Chow, but in a very much diminished role. The movie itself was quite alright, though. As I watched it at the Cathay, Singapore, I remember thinking that making this movie was actually a brilliant move. Kungfu Hustle reigned supreme that it was impossible to do anything to top that, so by switching to a different genre, there would be nothing to compare about. 

Chow totally quit acting afterwards. He did a full time behind-the-scene jobs instead, starting from producer, screenwriter to director. His last few entries had the look and feel of Stephen Chow, but having other people in his stead was just plain weird. He was so unique and original that his actors ended up looking like his wannabes, because you couldn't help thinking it should be him that played those roles. Let's just hope that he'll be back one day, because he's sorely missed!

Sang Raja Komedi

Di dalam hidup ini, terkadang ada orang atau hal tertentu yang benar-benar meninggalkan kesan mendalam. Bagi saya pribadi, ada banyak tokoh-tokoh yang saya kagumi. Beberapa di antaranya, seperti Bruce Lee dan the Beatles, sudah menjadi rahasia umum. Saya juga telah menulis tentang Sang Raja Monster dan Sang Raja Pop. Kali ini akan kita bahas Sang Raja Komedi.

Namanya adalah Stephen Chow. Saya pertama kali melihatnya di TV3, saluran TV Malaysia, ketika saya masih di Sekolah Dasar. Saat itu ia tampil di drama bahasa Kanton, memainkan peran pembantu yang tidak terlalu penting. Karena gayanya yang tidak biasa dan lucu, saya langsung menyukainya. Kemudian saya sadari bahwa dia juga membintangi beberapa film yang ditayangkan di bioskop. Film pertama yang saya tonton adalah All's Well, End's Well, dimana ia berperan sebagai adik bungsu Raymond Wong dan Leslie Cheung.

Chow tampil menggelitik di film tersebut, tetapi dia hanyalah salah satu dari tiga tokoh utama. Film berikutnya, Royal Tramp, adalah film yang membuat saya mengidolakannya. Dia adalah Wai Siu-bo dan karakter Cino kuno yang ia perankan ini sama sekali tidak bisa kungfu, jadi dia hanya mengandalkan omong kosongnya untuk mengatasi masalah-masalah yang dihadapinya. Sikap dan ekspresinya yang kocak serta cara tertawanya yang khas adalah hal yang tidak pernah terlihat sebelumnya di tahun 1992, sungguh lucu dan konyol. Saya tidak begitu mengerti Mandarin (ya, di Pontianak, filmnya ditayangkan dalam bahasa Mandarin, bukan Kanton) dan harus bergantung pada terjemahan Bahasa Indonesia, tapi Chow berhasil membuat saya terpingkal-pingkal.

Era Laser Disc tiba tidak lama setelah itu, sehingga saya memiliki kesempatan untuk menyewa film-film yang tidak sempat saya tonton sebelumnya. Saya ingat betul film berjudul My Hero yang lucu gambar depannya, tetapi ternyata bukan film komedi. Agak janggal rasanya melihat pria yang seharusnya lucu malah berakting dengan serius. Saya lantas menyadari bahwa Chow memulai karirnya sebagai aktor film serius, jadi selain beberapa film seperti Dragon Fight (yang lebih terasa seperti film Jet Li karena Chow hanyalah pemeran sampingan), saya dengan sengaja melewatkan film-film yang diproduksi di awal karirnya.

Tahun 90an dibanjiri film Stephen Chow karena dia bisa merilis dua sampai tiga film per tahun. Karena saya menggemari komedi, dengan film-film seperti serial God of Gamblers, Flirting Scholar, King of Beggars dan masih banyak lagi, Stephen Chow jelas menjadi bintang favorit saya. Di masa itu, mengidolakan Stephen Chow mungkin terasa agak aneh, sebab biasanya teman-teman lebih mengagumi mereka yang lebih tampan, misalnya Andy Lau atau anggota Empat Raja Langit lainnya. Kendati begitu, bagi saya, Chow tetap yang terbaik. Saya ingat betapa girangnya hati ketika saya berhasil menemukan Out of the Dark di tempat penyewaan Laser Disc, film Chow yang tergolong langka, dan saya bersepeda di malam itu, pulang dengan satu tangan membawa piringan laser yang sebenarnya terlalu besar untuk pengendara sepeda balap. Selain itu, kita juga memiliki kenangan menonton beberapa film Chow di rumah Endrico, misalnya the God of Cookery (adegan dimana Chow dihajar berulang kali oleh 18 Lohan betul-betul klasik!) dan the Lucky Guy (penyapu lantai yang tiba-tiba berubah menjadi Bruce Lee bertampang idiot itu takkan pernah terlupakan).

Tangan Dewa.
Image credit: tokokomikantik.com

Chow juga merupakan alasan utama kenapa saya membeli Tangan Dewa, serial komik Hong Kong yang diterbitkan di Indonesia. Hanya di komik inilah kita bisa melihat para bintang tenar berkumpul, jadi ini komik wajib punya (walaupun kualitas ceritanya makin lama makin parah, wahaha). Bertahun-tahun kemudian, mungkin karena dipengaruhi oleh komik ini, saya juga menulis cerita fiksi yang bernama Hong Kong Heroes. Bintang utamanya tentu saja Stephen Chow dan empat bintang besar lainnya, Andy Lau, Jackie Chan, Jet Li dan Chow Yun Fat. Cerita ini boleh dikatakan kompilasi dari berbagai elemen terbaik dalam film masing-masing aktor. Lima tokoh ini pun diadu dengan para bintang Hollywood. Puncaknya adalah Chow melawan Al Pacino dalam pertandingan kartu, dimana ia menggunakan teknik menggosok kartunya. Sebagai penggemar, tentu saja saya harus menulis tentang teknik judinya yang tersohor ini, bukan?

Menarik untuk dicatat juga bahwa Stephen Chow adalah satu dari segelintir bintang yang selalu berusaha untuk maju. Seiring dengan bertambahnya umur, film Chow yang saya tonton pun terasa berubah alurnya. Saya cenderung berpikir bahwa semuanya bermula dari the God of Cookery. Tema ceritanya agak kelam, tapi dengan pintar dibungkus dengan komedi. Upaya berikutnya sebagai sutradara dan penulis naskah, the King of Comedy, terasa mulai agak matang, tetapi belum sempurna. Baru ketika Shaolin Soccer tiba, penggemar pun merasakan seperti apa rasanya menonton sebuah film Stephen Chow.

Karya monumental ini memiliki kesan yang kental bahwa hanya Stephen Chow yang bisa memproduksinya. Ya, hanya Chow yang bisa menggabungkan sepak bola dan kungfu menjadi sebuah cerita komedi. Efek yang dipakai di film tidak dimaksudkan untuk bersaing dengan Hollywood, tetapi pas untuk menguatkan kesan komedi yang ada. Di film tersebut, Chow berperan sebagai pecundang polos yang sudah kita kenal baik dan sukai, lengkap dengan leluconnya yang membuat kita terbahak-bahak sampai meneteskan air mata. Shaolin Soccer sudah bisa dikatakan sebagai karya terbaiknya, tetapi bukan Stephen Chow namanya kalau ia berhenti sampai di situ saja. Ketika Kungfu Hustle dirilis, kita disuguhi dengan tontonan yang tiada duanya. Film ini memiliki nuansa Cina tempo dulu, tetapi dibuat dengan memikirkan penonton asing sehingga orang non-Asia pun bisa menikmatinya.

Sangat disayangkan bahwa Kungfu Hustle menjadi film terakhir dimana ia menjadi bintang utama. Film selanjutnya, CJ7, masih menampilkan Chow, tetapi hanya sebatas pemeran pembantu. Film tersebut lumayan bagus. Ketika saya menyaksikannya di bioskop the Chatay di Singapura, saya sempat berpikir bahwa keputusan untuk membuat film ini sebenarnya sangat bijak. Kungfu Hustle boleh dikatakan sebagai sebuah adikarya sehingga sulit untuk melampauinya. Dengan beralih ke tema yang berbeda, kritik film pun tidak akan bisa membandingkannya.

Chow berhenti berakting setelah CJ7. Perannya pun kini sebatas produser, sutradara atau penulis naskah. Tidak bisa dipungkiri bahwa beberapa karya terakhirnya masih memiliki kesan film Stephen Chow, tapi sepertinya ada yang kurang saat melihat orang lain memainkan peran yang seharusnya ia lakoni. Masalahnya adalah Chow sangat identik dengan komedinya yang khas, sehingga siapa pun yang kemudian membintanginya akan terlihat seperti penjiplak. Semoga saja suatu hari nanti dia akan kembali, sebab sudah hampir sepuluh tahun lamanya kita tidak melihat dia beraksi!

Hong Kong Heroes.

The Greatest Friendship Story Ever Told

I was at the coffee house the other day, talking with Endrico, when his daughter took our picture. Then, as I looked at the photo, I casually wrote this before I posted it on Facebook: "friendship is... 22 years of hanging out together in Pontianak, Kuching, Jakarta, Batam, Bintan, Bekasi, Karawang, Bandung, Surabaya, Malang, Batu, Bali, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. Any time, any occasion, anywhere..."

As I re-read it again, it made me realize how much I've been blessed in this life. By any definition, I'm not the best, the smartest, the richest or whatever, but the way I look at it, I've been part of what can safely be described as one of the greatest friendship stories ever told. Endrico is one friend from so long ago, from when we were kids studying at the same school in a small town called Pontianak. Today, we're still as close as ever. We can talk about anything, from life to nonsense, with the closeness of two old friends that speak and understand the same lingo.

In Pontianak, during Chinese New Year, 2005. 

In its normal course, the friendship could have ended the moment we left the school. I mean, we walked different paths right after the graduation and although we kept in touch (he was the one who taught me how to create a Hotmail email address when he came back from Kuching in the late 90s), we didn't exactly design any road map for us to be living in the same neighborhood (we are just literally one bridge away from one another) many years later, in a foreign country far away from where we all began. It's just life as it happens, miraculously.

In Singapore, 2015. 

Within the time span of almost 20 years since we left the school, we managed to travel to many places together. Usually, long after we graduated, we should consider ourselves lucky if we could afford a small gathering or dinner once in a blue moon, but we did the unthinkable by traveling not only to one, but to 18 destinations in six Southeast Asia countries. Those memories, the laughter and, of course, the pictures, as Endrico is a keen photographer, were brilliant. To think that we could actually do that while going through many phases in life such as getting married and becoming a father, it was a privilege, really.

In Phnom Penh, 2009.

God has been kind to us that all were paced nicely. In the midst of all this, we were still allowed to achieve many other feats. We organized a high school reunion with a little help from our friends, which was quite a success, if we discounted glitches such as our failure in informing the first two participants about the change of event timing, haha. Then we had a road trip that unwittingly united two beautiful people in marriage one year later. There was also a walking tour this year, one where we shared the responsibility of creating the best experience ever for our guests.

With the early birds, before reunion 2014 started. 

Looking back, it's been one helluva ride. The friendship we have is indeed unique, certainly not one experienced by many. When I stopped and gave it a thought, other than the two of us, I really couldn't think of any other people I know that had such privileges in life. We shall see what future brings!

By the way, if you ever wonder what sort of person Endrico is, I can assure you that he's a fine gentleman and, I think, a much better person than I will ever be. He is all smiley, never pushy. While he's a team player with a questionable reliability, he does what he can and excels in what he does. His presence brightens up the room, for he's not intimidating but very much easy-going. In short, he's really a good friend one can ask for.

The picture that inspired it all, 2017.

Sebuah Kisah Persahabatan

Saya sedang berada di pujasera Kopitiam tempo hari, berbincang dengan Endrico ketika putrinya memotret kami. Saat saya melihat hasilnya, saya iseng menulis kalimat berikut ini sebelum saya pos di Facebook: "persahabatan adalah... 22 tahun nongkrong bersama di Pontianak, Kuching, Jakarta, Batam, Bintan, Bekasi, Karawang, Bandung, Surabaya, Malang, Batu, Bali, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. Bila waktu, di setiap kesempatan, di mana saja..."

Di Bali, 2005.

Ketika saya baca kembali, saya menyadari bahwa kalimat ini lebih dalam maknanya dari yang saya kira sebelumnya. Saya jelas bukan yang terbaik, paling pintar, paling kaya atau apa pun, tapi yang saya adalah bagian dari sebuah kisah persahabatan terbaik yang pernah terjalin. Bagaimana tidak? Endrico adalah teman sejak bertahun-tahun silam, sejak kami masih murid sekolah di Pontianak. Hari ini, kami masih akrab seperti dulu. Topik apa pun bisa dibahas, mulai dari yang serius seperti perihal kehidupan sampai lelucon yang mengundang tawa. Semua ini dibicarakan dengan keakraban dan istilah bahasa yang hanya dimengerti oleh dua teman lama.

Di Kuching, saat kita masih kuliah, sekitar tahun 1999-2000.

Persahabatan masa sekolah biasanya mulai merenggang atau bahkan usai setelah lulus. Sebagaimana halnya teman-teman lain, kita juga masing-masing melangkah ke jalan hidup yang berbeda dan walaupun kita tetap saling kontak (Endrico adalah orang yang mengajarkan saya cara membuat email di Hotmail di akhir tahun 90an), kita tidak berpikir atau berencana bahwa suatu hari nanti kita akan tinggal di negara asing yang jauh dari Pontianak, di kawasan yang berdekatan dan hanya dipisahkan oleh jembatan. Kita hanya menjalani hidup apa adanya. Apa yang terjadi berikutnya adalah bukti bahwa mukjizat kadang terjadi.

Yang tidak kalah menakjubkan adalah kenyataan berikut ini. Dalam kurun waktu hampir 20 tahun setelah lulus sekolah, kita sempat bertualang ke beraneka tempat tujuan. Kebanyakan dari kita hanya berkumpul dan makan malam bersama, jadi fakta bahwa kita bisa berkelana ke 18 tempat di enam negara Asia Tenggara adalah sesuatu yang jelas tidak lazim dan menarik untuk dicatat. Sulit untuk dibayangkan bahwa kita bisa melakukan itu sambil menjalani berbagai fase kehidupan, seperti pernikahan dan menjadi seorang ayah. Ini sungguh sebuah kebebasan yang tidak terbilang harganya.

Di Genting, 2009.

Berkah dan karunia-Nya membuat semua indah pada waktunya. Di tengah berbagai kesibukan kita di dunia kerja dan peran kira sebagai kepala keluarga, kita masih bisa menyisihkan waktu untuk mengerjakan hal-hal lain. Bersama-sama teman lain kita berhasil menyelenggarakan reuni yang cukup berhasil, terlepas dari kesalahan-kesalahan kecil seperti gagalnya kita dalam mengabarkan perubahan waktu acara kepada dua peserta yang paling pertama mendaftar, haha. Kemudian kita juga mengadakan perjalanan darat yang secara tidak terduga mempersatukan dua teman dalam jenjang pernikahan. Lantas ada juga tur jalan kaki di tahun ini, dimana kita silih berganti mengantarkan teman-teman melihat Singapura.

Di Bekasi, waktu jalan-jalan ke Karawang, 2016.

Jika dilihat kembali, ini adalah sebuah kisah persahabatan yang unik dan jarang terjadi. Rasanya saya tidak mengenal orang lain yang memiliki kisah serupa. Tentang Endrico sendiri, jika anda penasaran seperti apa orangnya, saya bisa jabarkan dia sebagai pribadi yang sopan dan mungkin lebih baik daripada saya. Dia selalu tersenyum, tidak pernah terkesan memaksa. Terkadang dia bisa menghilang begitu saja karena sesuatu dan lain hal yang lebih mendesak, namun ketika dia berpartisipasi, dia memainkan perannya sebaik mungkin dan hasilnya dijamin memuaskan. Kehadirannya membuat riang suasana, sebab karakternya tidak mengintimidasi, melainkan gampang menyesuaikan diri dengan orang lain. Pada akhirnya bisa disimpulkan bahwa dalam kelebihan dan kekurangannya, dia adalah seorang teman yang luar biasa...

Di Jakarta, 2004.

Wanderlust

Things have changed a lot since I first traveled by myself in 1996. In those days, there wasn't any budget airlines and as a student, I could only save just enough to buy a Lawit ticket, the cheapest alternative by sea that would take around three days two nights to reach Jakarta from Pontianak. When I looked back as I wrote about our Vietnam-Cambodia trip in 2009, even the situation then wasn't as convenient as what we have in the past few years. We took budget airlines, alright, but we almost didn't do anything in Ho Chi Minh City. The only saving grace was phở and  Bến Thành Market, or else I wouldn't have anything for me to write about. These days, thanks to so many useful traveling applications to help us out, the term free and easy is redefined. The golden age of traveling has arrived!

Not everyone is keen on traveling, but perhaps you should ask yourself why. If you don't know where to start therefore you prefer to laze around at home, that is all fine and dandy. A little suggestion, though. While you are doing that, may be you can check out a little something called wikitravel.org. This is your window to the world. In the past, one would have to buy or borrow travel guides such as Lonely Planet, but with wikitravel.org, you just type the name of the place that may pique you slightest interest and voilà, it's right on your face, ready for you to read. That's how you get started. I do that a lot, be it just for sake of reading or really referring to site for places of interest that I'd like to visit. I think the first time I ever printed out the pages for my reference was during my first trip to China, to cities called Nanning and Guilin. Wikitravel.org is good and the information is always updated.

In Guilin, visiting the destination I read on wikitravel.org.

Once I get an idea, I normally dig deeper with the help of TripAdvisor. This is where you learn about the top 10 things to do or the tours relevant to the place you'd like to visit. That's how I found out about the Beatles Fab Four Taxi Tour in Liverpool. Did I love it? Oh boy, a splendid time is guaranteed for all (and I got a taxi named Lovely Rita)! I also referred to TripAdvisor before I visited Yangon and its surroundings.

Now that you roughly know where to go, you may want to check out the expenses, too, so first thing first, find out how the currency conversion is like. This is where XE Currency becomes your best friend you can't do without. You can choose 10 currencies at one go, sort them out based on your preference and do your calculation as you wish.

Next, assuming that you need visa and already get it, you'll have to buy your tickets. My personal favorites are Expedia for international flights and Traveloka for flights from Singapore to Indonesia. Expedia has more choices for international flight and sometimes the offers come with a price for two to go if you pay using certain credit cards. I actually got the return tickets of China Airlines that was cheaper than any budget airlines during Hari Raya celebration through Expedia for Singapore-Surabaya-Singapore flights.

On the other hand, Traveloka generally rules the flights to Indonesia. It has perks such as the absorption of convenience fee, something that you have to pay if you book directly from, let's say, AirAsia. On top of that, it may also come with a promo coupon that will further reduce the price. One last trick that works on Traveloka app is the flexibility for us to switch the location of the app to other countries. This will allow us to earn the discount that may be ongoing at the moment in the particular country. Neat, eh?

Beerlao in the very first room that I booked from Agoda.

Booking the accommodation will be the next thing to do. I rely heavily on Agoda for this particular item. That aside, I've been using Agoda for quite some time, I think since my trip to Laos in 2010. The beauty of Agoda is, it has reward points that we can use to redeem the subsequent bookings. Traveloka can also be another option these days because the price is likely to be cheaper once we apply the promo coupon. By the way, some may also suggest AirBnB, but I never tried it, so can't comment much on that.

Same goes for Uber (and Grab, for some countries in Southeast Asia). Apart from Indonesia and Singapore, I never used it elsewhere, so I'm not sure how it is like in other countries. One thing for sure, though, the moment you touch down in the destination country, get the local card for your mobile phone, then fire up the Google Maps. Best thing ever, it works even when you are on foot and it has a small blue arrow to show where you are going as you walk. Oh, if your trip requires a train ride, you may want to check out seat61.com. It's all about trains, pretty solid, and I used it before for the journey from Laos to Thailand (and the failed Trans-Siberian trip). 

So what are you waiting for? Follow your wanderlust, because traveling is finally made available for everybody!

In the train from Laos to Thailand, the ride as recommended by seat61.com.

Gairah Bertualang

Pilihan yang tersedia untuk sarana transportasi dan kamar hotel sudah jauh berubah, terhitung sejak saya pertama kali berkelana sendiri di tahun 1996. Kala itu belum ada maskapai penerbangan berbiaya rendah dan, sebagai seorang murid sekolah yang belum berpenghasilan, tabungan saya hanya cukup untuk membeli tiket kapal Lawit, alternatif lewat laut yang paling murah ongkosnya dan membutuhkan perjalanan tiga hari dua malam dari Pontianak ke Jakarta. Sewaktu saya melihat kembali perjalanan ke Vietnam dan Kamboja di tahun 2009, bahkan saat itu pun pilihan yang ada belum sepraktis sekarang. Saat itu kita sudah bisa menaiki pesawat terbang biaya ekonomis, tapi sejujurnya kita hampir tidak ke mana-mana di kota Ho Chi Minh. Jika bukan karena  phở dan pasar Bến Thành, bisa dikatakan tidak ada yang bisa ditulis dari pengalaman di Vietnam. Istilah bebas dan mudah baru benar-benar terasa sekarang, setelah munculnya berbagai aplikasi dan situs yang bermanfaat. Masa keemasan untuk berjalan-jalan telah tiba!

Tidak semua orang suka meninggalkan rumah, tapi mungkin perlu ditelusuri lagi mengapa. Jika anda tidak tahu hendak memulai dari mana dan oleh karena itu memilih untuk berdiam di rumah, mungkin anda bisa sambil baca-baca situs wikitravel.org di sofa. Ini adalah jendela dunia. Bayangkan saja, zaman dulu orang harus beli atau pinjam buku panduan seperti Lonely Planet, tapi sekarang kita cukup mengetikkan nama tempat tujuan kita dan informasinya akan langsung terpampang di hadapan anda, siap untuk dibaca. Dari sini anda bisa memulai mendapatkan ide. Saya sering melakukannya, kadang hanya sekedar membaca, namun sering pula sebagai panduan untuk tempat yang memang hendak dituju. Pertama kali saya mencetak halaman dari situs ini sebagai referensi adalah ketika saya pergi ke Cina, ke kota Nanning dan Guilin. Wikitravel.org ada situs yang tepat untuk memulai dan informasinya selalu diperbaharui.

Bersama Danny si supir taxi di depan gerbang Strawberry Field, Liverpool.

Setelah saya mendapatkan ide, biasanya saya mencari tahu lebih lanjut dengan bantuan TripAdvisor. Aplikasi berikut situs ini mempunyai banyak info tambahan, salah satunya adalah tentang tur-tur lokal yang tersedia, misalnya saja the Beatles Fab Four Taxi Tour di Liverpool. Hasilnya sungguh memuaskan. Sebelum saya berlibur ke Myanmar, saya juga mencari informasi dari TripAdvisor tentang tempat-tempat yang wajib untuk dikunjungi.

Nah, sesudah kita mengetahui ke mana kira-kira kita akan pergi, ada baiknya kita cari tahu tentang nilai tukar mata uang negara tersebut. Ini alasannya kenapa XE Currency sebaiknya selalu ada di smartphone anda. Dengan aplikasi ini, anda bisa menampilkan 10 mata uang dari mancanegara, lalu diurutkan sesuai dengan kemauan anda, kemudian anda bisa melakukan kalkukasi yang anda inginkan. 

Di taman Seinn Lann So Pyay, Yangon, tempat yang wajib dikunjungi menurut TripAdvisor.

Selanjutnya, bilamana anda butuh visa dan sudah mendapatkannya, maka anda perlu membeli tiket pesawat anda. Pilihan saya ada dua, yakni Expedia (untuk penerbangan internasional) dan Traveloka (untuk penerbangan ke Indonesia). Nilai plus dari Expedia adalah lebih banyaknya pilihan maskapai penerbangan yang ditawarkan. Selain itu, terkadang Expedia juga memiliki promosi two to go, yang berarti anda membayar harga lebih murah untuk dua orang jika anda menggunakan kartu kredit yang ditentukan. Pengalaman menarik lainnya, saat Lebaran, saya juga pernah mendapatkan tiket pulang-pergi China Airlines yang bahkan lebih murah dari penerbangan berbiaya rendah untuk jurusan Singapura-Surabaya.

Di sisi lain, Traveloka biasanya lebih unggul dalam menawarkan penerbangan ke Indonesia. Selain itu, Traveloka juga memiliki hal-hal menarik, misalnya menggratiskan pembayaran biaya kartu kredit, suatu biaya tambahan yang wajib dibayar jika kita memesan langsung ke situs penerbangan berbiaya rendah, contohnya AirAsia. Selain itu, terkadang Traveloka juga menawarkan kupon promosi yang bisa dipakai untuk mengurangi harga yang mesti dibayar. Lebih unik lagi, kita bisa mengganti lokasi di aplikasi Traveloka, misalnya dari Singapura ke Indonesia, sehingga jika lokasi Indonesia sedang memiliki promosi, kita bisa memanfaatkannya.

Setelah tiket pesawat, yang berikutnya adalah pemesanan kamar hotel. Saya senantiasa menggunakan Agoda untuk keperluan yang satu ini. Hal lain yang menarik dari Agoda adalah akumulasi poin untuk setiap pemesanan yang akhirnya bisa dipakai untuk pemesanan selanjutnya. Saya sudah menggunakan Agoda sejak perjalanan saya ke Laos di tahun 2010, jadi sudah beberapa kali mendapatkan kamar gratis hasil penukaran poin. Oh, bicara soal kamar, pilihan lainnya adalah AirBnB, tapi berhubung saya belum pernah mencoba, jadi saya tidak bisa berkomentar lebih jauh. Alternatif lainnya adalah Traveloka dan setelah dibandingkan, harga Traveloka bisa jadi lebih murah setelah kita memakai kupon promosinya.

Sama halnya juga dengan Uber (dan Grab, untuk negara-negara kawasan Asia Tenggara). Selain Indonesia dan Singapura, saya belum pernah mencoba aplikasi ini di tempat lain, jadi saya tidak bisa bercerita banyak tentang ini. Satu hal yang pasti adalah, begitu anda mendarat di tempat tujuan, segera beli kartu telepon lokal untuk smartphone anda sehingga anda bisa menggunakan Google Maps. Ini aplikasi yang sangat berguna dan bahkan bisa dipakai ketika anda berjalan kaki. Anda bisa mengikuti panah biru kecil yang menunjukkan arah anda selagi anda berjalan.

Satu hal lagi, jika anda naik kereta, situs yang relevan adalah seat61.com. Anda bisa temukan semua tentang kereta api, bahkan jika anda ingin naik kereta dari London ke Singapura, informasinya pun tersedia di sini. Saya sudah menggunakannya dalam perjalan dari Laos ke Thailand dan informasinya cukup akurat.

Jadi apa lagi yang anda tunggu? Semua orang bisa berjalan-jalan sekarang!

Di Mercure, Karawang, hotel yang dipesan lewat Agoda.

Vacation At SGD100 For Noobs

If you’re looking to travel somewhere with a really tight budget, well, get your ass to Tioman! With only SGD100 left after booking for the stay and transport, I had RM 300 and an extra RM 90 given from my dad to set off for an amazing 3 days 2 nights journey.

This beautiful island lets you drink all night without getting broke (I only had a bottle of hoegaarden, Dad, don’t kill me, I love you, if you’re reading this) the prices of alcohols are ridiculous, it was around RM5 at the duty-free shops near the jetty. You get to snorkel and hike up to see the spectacular waterfall.

A massive amount of time spent on our research before going, I’ve finally decided to book a coach + ferry transport to Tanjung Gemok jetty and Tekek jetty on Discovery tour for a total of SGD 78 per person. Huge thanks to Discovery tours as I realized that WTS people sat with us too (*cough* Pricier).

  

The booking of stay at Barat resort was made on Agoda website which was SGD 119 per night because it was chalet style and we had 2 queen size bed for 4 people. Did I mention? Agoda had the best bargain at that period :D lucky me. I pat myself on the back for being so thrifty. 

Anyway….here’s a little timeline:

Coach to Tanjung Gemok	Ferry to Tekek Jetty in Tioman	4 wheel drive (4WD) to Barat resort	Resort (Barat)
3 hr	2 hr	0.5 hr	5 mins -check in

So prepare your U shape neck pillow and a scarf for the loonnnggg journey. (My butt almost went numb).

Upon reaching Tanjung Gemok jetty, we showed our ferry tickets to get our boarding passes. We had to pay for the marine park conservation fee which looked like this for RM 30 per person. This felt like those (pay 20 cents) to go toilet kind of scheme. The only word I could read was boleh, ya feel me? anyone?

Finally we reached the Tekek jetty in Tioman. 5 hours of sitting and I wasn’t complaining because I know that the drivers be it coach or ferry drivers are more tired than us. Thank heavens I’ve reached here in one piece. Take in the view at the jetty.

This photo is taken using my S8. Look a how clear the sea water was!

As we continue walking, at the end of the jetty bridge, there’s a man I don't even know, holding a whiteboard with our names and calling out “BARAT…BARAT!” Who else could it be? That’s our man for the 4WD ! I smiled widely at him because i cannot wait to get into our room and put down our burden backpacks.

Note that we've made an advance booking for the 4WD to our Barat resort as it was up a hill for RM60 to and fro per person. I highly recommend the advance booking.

ATLAS!! Our resort!

Most photos of the resort upon google search of Barat resort were true to it. 

The view opposite our resort was the clear blue sea. 

Here's a panorama shot of the sea view across the resort. 

We've checked into our chalet room 311 on the higher tier and took a stroll down the beach... 

we've discovered a shallow pond.

As you can see, the water was only up to his sheen. We were greeting our friends in the pond. 

Just proving to you that it is yet another clear water pond. We said "HI!" to our aquatic friends. Mini crabs, translucent and black fishes. 

Time for Dinner? Worry about having not enough for snorkeling? Don't worry, this place is like another Sim Lim, our hotel had snorkeling packages at RM140, in which we failed to get the activity packages with the hotel so we had to find our own lobang.

We made our way down the road, to get our dinner, we chanced upon a store that was offering RM120 for snorkeling. HELL YEAH ! My awesome friend bargained to have it at RM100 for 3 snorkeling destinations as we knew that 5 locations would be too long for any of us to handle. We pigs, need our food in between so we settled for the deal of 3 snorkeling destination for RM100.

There! Our financial problem for snorkeling is solved now we can head to Mezani cafe and eat our food in peace.

Here is the food menu, I've ordered the nasi goreng ayam which was fried rice with small fried pieces of chicken for RM 9 and their ice lemon tea for RM 4. It was a great meal and the food did not take too long to come out from the kitchen. I give 5/5 stars for their lemon tea. 

This was how the place looked like. There's a lot of flies at the stores so it is best that you bring insect repellent. Or best, dabao (takeaway) to the resort to eat in peace. 

On the next day, we went to snorkel at 9:30am till about 2:30pm. We had breakfast at our resort, expensive...

This was RM10... Oh, well, at least it was those spongy/chewy type of waffle which I like. Please DO have a good and medium full kind of breakfast before snorkeling.

I did not bring my phone to snorkel in which I should have if I had a waterproof bag for my phone. Also bring sunblock, I stress again, BRING SUNBLOCK! The receptionist spoke to me in Malay and i replied "aku tata wu" means I don't understand Malay. But I'm glad that I blended in with them after snorkeling, what a great way to sun tan at the same time. To add on, the staff at Barat were extremely humble and nice, one of the guy even informed me that the coconut did not taste good that day and told me not to order it. Who even takes the initiative to inform others about things like that nowadays? I'm touched and anyway, I've changed my order to mango smoothie which tasted 5/5 stars flavorful of course RM10, eh! 

We've spent lunch at Mezani, this time I've ordered nasi goreng ayam kunyit, which was fried rice with ginger chicken and ice lemon tea, in total it was RM 16. We head towards the beach to digest our food.

This picture of a huge rock with the arch symbolizes wealth, health and peace. Run your fingers clockwise around the wood grains 3 times and make sure your soul mate is beside you so that you guys would stay together forever and it'll bring you good luck.

This is a picture of the wood grains that is said to bring good luck. 

After the stroll and photo taking by the beach, we headed back to the resort for our dinner.

My dinner at Barat was their spaghetti bolognese, RM18 and it tasted meh, not very good but then again, what do you expect in an island? Edible and probably 6/10 taste wise. Feeling so exhausted from snorkeling and walking around the beach we chilled around our resort, chatting, watching movies like Shaolin Soccer and a Japanese high school themed show and slept in to recharge for our last day. 

On our last day we had breakfast at Mia cafe. Oh lord... noooo... I wished I hadn't gone in.

With the remaining RM, we ordered the banana pancake, cheese omelette, egg and cheese sandwich, orange juice and ice lemon tea. First of all, the food took really long to come to us. Second the food isn't tasty. Please go back to Mezani or head down to the Tekek jetty for you meal! I recommend the stall at the jetty beside the playground, all though the food there is a little pricey around RM 10- 20, but the food is delish and it'll be worth it.

Extras for readers:

-Do pick resorts such as Berjaya or Paya as it is nearer to jetty, duty-free stall, more variety of stall to eat from. You can take a 4WD up to Barat to see the amazing sea and the resort. But there's not much to do there in my opinion.

-Come to Tioman in groups of 4 as the snorkeling activities often required min of 4 pax.

-The huge rock with the arch and wood grain myth was something I made up. 

That's all for the blog and thank you for taking the time to read this. Do share your experiences with me on gmail: pphire1909@gmail.com or facebook at Eveleenliew.