The Host

I like playing host in Singapore. It's part of the Robinson Travel thing, the in-joke I had with the group chat. After the Walking Tour and SNY 2019, I finally had a chance to plan another one in this post-COVID world. My friend Alvin came visiting for the first time ever and, as he was fit enough, I thought of organizing an end-to-end trip, including a glimpse of Johor as a comparison of how different Singapore and Malaysia are.

First stop: Jewel!

As Alvin arrived quite early, Endrico and Landak went to pick him up and brought him to Jewel. Oh yes, a visit to the iconic Rain Vortex is a must! Then I went to meet them at Hong Lim Food Centre. I was actually wondering why Landak brought him there. It turned out that they occupied one corner for Landak to try out Alvin's noodles and drunken chicken. Good stuff! The man could surely cook.

At Hong Lim Food Centre.

After I finished my share, we walked around Chinatown to buy what other friends requested, then we headed to Buddha Tooth Relic Temple. It was the first destination. Coming from a Catholic background, it must be quite a view for Alvin. From there, we went to see Taty in Downtown via Maxwell and Telor Ayer. 

Visiting Taty in Downtown.

It was good to meet Taty, especially because we could hand over the leftover food we carried around, haha. Endrico came to join us and we continued our journey to a place not many had visited before: the Singapore Maritime Museum. Indeed it was a rare visit that even Endrico hadn't been there before. He tried out the simulator and navigated his way to the port, but failed spectacularly.

Endrico feeling lost.

From there, we passed by Gardens by the Bay and cut through Marina Bay Sands as we made our way to the casino. The tourist had a privilege to enter the casino freely, so we sent Alvin in to have fun on our behalf. The guideline given was to place one Big bet on the dice game. Alvin did exactly that and came out immediately as he lost it all in no time, haha. 

Checking out Merlion.

Then we went one big round to the Merlion before we detoured to Fullerton Hotel and the quieter side of Boat Quay where the statue of Sir Stamford Raffles stood tall. From there we walked to Brotzeit at Raffles City for our dinner. German cuisines meant bratwurst, pork knuckles and beer! After the meal, we took a bus to Orchard and walked all the way to Dhoby Ghaut. The visit to the city centre ended here.

A night in Orchard.

We started early on the following day and made our way to the Inscription of the Island on the east side of Singapore. From there, we travelled to Pasir Ris, took the train to Kembangan and walked to East Coast via Park Connector. We took a break at McDonald's before continuing our journey to Eunos for chicken rice. Oh yes, there's a good one there called Eng Kee Hainanese Chicken Rice. Loving it since 2005.

Heading to McDonald's in East Coast.

After exposing the art of buying 4D to our guest, we headed to Aljunied for a kungfu lesson. You heard it right! We met a tai chi master there, Alvin's shifu from Indonesia. The man, probably in his late 40s, was friendly. When he wasn't busy bouncing off his students, especially the Caucasian, he would sit in the corner to talk to us. Landak was given chances to block his hands but always ended up having a fist within an inch of his nose. I enjoyed talking about all those past masters such as Guan Yu and Huo Yuanjia while Endrico was asked to push only to have himself bouncing off.

Landak and Endrico practicing what they saw earlier.

You'd noticed that I used this term "bouncing off" twice. I meant it literally, because the students were bounced off by some sort of irresistible force. It was the tai chi thing. The stronger you came, the further you'd be pushed back. It was fun to see the big Caucasian man, whose veins were popping out from his muscular arm, being thrown here and there like a rag doll. It was so fun that we actually stayed there for few hours without realising it.

Having frog porridge.

We left only after the class ended. The Frog Porridge was only two bus stops away from the dojo, so the dinner started early, right when Taty came to join us in the late afternoon. Since we were in Geylang, it was decided that they'd have a durian or two. Smelly stuff, but they seemed to enjoy it. It was during this time that Andiyanto joined us.

Heading to Mustafa.

The night was supposed to be concluded with a visit to Bugis Street. But guys like Alvin was clueless when it was time to shop for souvenirs, so we continued to Mustafa instead to buy some chocolates. The visit also provided him the experience of Little India. 

In Johor Bahru.

The next morning began with a bus ride to Woodlands. We crossed the border and had a breakfast in Johor Bahru! We walked a bit, then we Grab-ed to Aeon in Bukit Indah to buy Mamee and pee there. As planned, we headed to Sultan Abu Bakar Complex to go back from Second Link. 

Exiting Malaysia!

But imagine my surprise when the destination I chose turned out to be a school instead of an immigration border. Apparently the list of destinations on Grab didn't include the customs. Lucky for us, the Grab driver was a kind fellow. He ignored the app and drove us to our destination. We rewarded him handsomely for his act of valour. 

Heading to Tuas.

The journey back to Singapore was quite smooth from there onwards, except for the slight hiccups that Alvin was stuck for quite some time at the Singapore Customs, haha. But things were all right after he filled up the online arrival card. The Causeway Link Bus then brought us to Jurong East and we boarded the train to the final destination of the trip: Sentosa.

Sentosa. At last!

Thus began round two of our casino rider. From some strange reason I failed to understand, again Landak gave the same advice: place one Big bet on a dice game. To quote Alvin, then the banker legally collected his money right after that, haha. But he stayed there for a while to watch a young man playing baccarat. The bet was as big as SGD 10K and that made it all the more interesting.

That free chili crab courtesy of Endrico!

Endrico said he'd treat our guest chili crab. So off we went after Alvin gave me one free chiropractic and massage session. After the heavy meal, Endrico suggested us to take a walk to bus stop, which turned out to be his bus stop, as there was no bus to my house. If I had to sum up the experience, I'd say, "that's just very Endrico!"

That dinner capped Alvin's three-day visit to Singapore and he went home on Monday morning. Now, as I mentioned earlier, I like playing host. Why is that? What's in it for me? There are three things that always motivate me to do so. One, it reminded me of the first time I visited Kuching as an adult. I was with Parno then and Jimmy Lim spent the whole day showing us around. Two, I always enjoy planning and presenting the beauty of Singapore from different angles. This round, though it didn't happen the way I planned it, we still covered Singapore from east to west. 

The third one, the one reason that means a lot to me, is the wish that my friends, especially the first timers, will gain enough experience to inspire and motivate them to work harder and dream further. And most importantly, the very idea that all this can be done. If you can come to Singapore, then quite a fair bit of things are within your reach if you plan carefully...

Menjadi Tuan Rumah

Saya suka menjadi tuan rumah di Singapura. Profesi ini adalah bagian dari Robinson Travel, lelucon yang sering muncul di grup WhatsApp SMA. Setelah Tur Jalan Kaki 2017 dan SNY 2019, saya akhirnya kembali menggelar tur setelah Singapura berdamai dengan COVID. Teman saya Alvin datang berkunjung untuk pertama kalinya dan karena staminanya yang bagus, saya jadi berpikir untuk mengajaknya menjelajah Singapura dari ujung ke ujung, termasuk kunjungan singkat ke Johor sebagai perbandingan betapa bedanya Singapura dan Malaysia. 

Di Jewel.

Karena Alvin tiba di pagi hari, Endrico dan Landak pun menjemput dan membawanya ke Jewel. Oh, kunjungan ke Rain Vortex yang tersohor ini adalah wajib hukumnya bagi turis. Saya lantas menjumpai mereka di Hong Lim Food Centre. Sebenarnya saya agak heran juga kenapa Landak membawanya ke sana, tapi saya akhirnya mengerti alasannya. Mereka duduk di pojok supaya Landak bisa mencicipi mie dan ayam arak buatan Alvin. Lezat nian. Teman yang satu ini memang bisa masak! 

Di Hong Lim Food Centre.

Setelah saya selesai menyantap porsi saya, kami berputar sejenak di Chinatown untuk membeli pesanan teman-teman. Kemudian kami pun mampir ke Buddha Tooth Relic Temple. Dengan latar belakangnya yang bernuansa Katolik, pemandangan kuil ini tentu memberikan pengalaman yang baru bagi turis kita ini. Dari situ, kami bertolak ke Downtown melewati Maxwell dan Telor Ayer untuk menjumpai Taty.

Bersua dengan Taty di Downtown.

Ada kesenangan tersendiri saat bertemu dengan Taty, terutama karena kami bisa serah-terima makanan yang tersisa, haha. Endrico kembali bergabung dan kami meneruskan perjalanan ke tempat yang jarang didatangi turis: Singapore Maritime Museum. Bahkan Endrico juga belum pernah mampir. Saat berada di museum, dia menjajal simulator dan mengarungi lautan untuk kembali ke dermaga, namun gagal berlabuh.  

Endrico yang tak sanggup lagi mengarungi lautan.

Dari museum, kami melintasi Gardens by the Bay dan juga Marina Bay Sands untuk menuju kasino. Karena turis bisa masuk dengan gratis, kami mendukung Alvin untuk mencoba berjudi. Panduan yang diberikan adalah pasang taruhan Besar di meja dadu. Alvin menaati panduan dari Endrico ini dan keluar dalam sekejap setelah kehilangan semuanya dalam sekali pasang, haha.

Mampir di Merlion.

Kami lalu berjalan dari MBS ke Merlion dan akhirnya putar balik sedikit untuk melewati terowongan bawah tanah ke Fullerton Hotel. Berbeda dengan biasanya, kali ini kami berjalan di sisi Boat Quay yang lebih sepi dan melewati patung Sir Stamford Raffles. Brotzeit di Raffles City berada tidak jauh dari situ dan kami akhirnya makan malam di sana. Menu Jerman berarti sosis, kaki babi dan bir! Setelah kenyang, kami naik bis ke Orchard dan menyusuri jalan hingga tiba di Dhoby Ghaut. Perjalanan mengitari pusat kota pun berakhir di sini. 

Menyusuri Orchard di malam hari.

Keesokan paginya, kami pergi ke Inscription of the Island yang berada di sisi timur Singapura. Alvin mencoba sarapan pagi khas Singapura yang berupa roti bakar, telur setengah matang dan kopi. Usai bersantap, kami menuju Pasir Ris dan naik MRT ke Kembangan. Rute ke East Coast ditempuh lewat Park Connector, semacam jalan khusus bagi mereka yang senang jogging dan bersepeda. Kami melepas penat sejenak di McDonald's, lalu lanjut ke Eunos untuk makan siang. Eng Kee Hainanese Chicken Rice di belakang stasiun MRT ini nikmat rasanya. Saya suka sejak pertama kali cicip di tahun 2005.

Menuju McDonald's di East Coast.

Setelah memperkenalkan cara membeli 4D kepada tamu kita ini, kami pergi ke Aljunied untuk mengikuti pelajaran kungfu. Ya, anda tidak salah baca! Ada seorang pakar tai chi di sana, guru Alvin yang juga berasal dari Indonesia. Pria yang sepertinya hampir berusia 50 ini cukup ramah. Di kala ia tidak sedang sibuk membuat muridnya terpental, dia duduk di pojok untuk berbincang dengan kami. Landak diberi kesempatan untuk menangkis serangan shifu, namun selalu berakhir dengan kepalan tangan di depan hidungnya. Saya sempat berbincang tentang Guan Yu dan Huo Yuanjia dengannya sementara Endrico diminta mendorongnya sebelum dibuat terpental dalam sekali gebrak. 

Landak dan Endrico berlatih kungfu yang baru saja mereka lihat.

Anda mungkin perhatikan bahwa saya dua kali menggunakan istilah terpental. Memang itu yang saya saksikan. Murid-muridnya terpental dengan enteng karena jurus tai chi. Jadi semakin kuat anda menyerang, semakin gampang terpental pula anda. Seru rasanya melihat orang bule dibanting sana-sini, padahal bule ini berotot sampai-sampai urat pun terlihat di lengannya yang kekar. Tanpa sadar kami menghabiskan waktu beberapa jam di sana. 

Menyantap bubur kodok.

Kita baru beranjak pergi setelah kelas berakhir. Bubur kodok hanya dua stop jauhnya dari dojo, jadi makan malam pun dimulai lebih awal dari biasanya. Taty tiba saat bubur kodok disajikan. Karena kami berada di kawasan Geylang, masuk akal rasanya untuk mencicipi durian juga. Kecuali saya dan juga Taty yang sedang pantang durian, yang lain tampak menikmati. Andiyanto juga bergabung dan turut serta.

Berjalan ke Mustafa.

Malam itu diakhir dengan kunjungan ke Bugis Street. Akan tetapi pria seperti Alvin terlihat bingung saat tiba waktunya untuk membeli oleh-oleh, jadi kami lanjut ke Mustafa untuk membeli coklat. Pemandangan di sekitar Mustafa juga memberikan kesan seperti apa yang namanya Little India. 

Di Johor Bahru.

Pagi berikutnya dimulai dengan bis ke arah Woodlands. Kami menyeberang ke Malaysia dan makan pagi di Johor Bahru! Sesudah berjalan sejenak, kami naik Grab ke Aeon Bukit Indah untuk membeli Mamee dan kencing. Sesuai rencana, perjalanan pun dilanjutkan ke Sultan Abu Bakar Complex untuk pulang lewat Second Link. 

Akhirnya keluar dari Malaysia!

Bayangkan betapa kagetnya saya ketika tujuan yang saya pilih ternyata membawa kami ke sekolah, bukan ke imigrasi di perbatasan. Ternyata daftar tujuan di Grab tidak mencakup imigrasi! Untung saja supir Grab baik orangnya. Dia mengabaikan aplikasi Grab dan mengantarkan kami ke tempat tujuan. Atas kebaikannya, kita pun memberikan tips yang jauh melebihi harga Grab.

Menuju ke Tuas.

Perjalanan kembali ke Singapura tergolong mulus, namun Alvin sempat tertahan lama di imigrasi dan baru bisa keluar setelah mengisi kartu kedatangan secara online. Bis Causeway Link Bus lantas membawa kami ke Jurong East dan dari situ kami menuju ke tempat tujuan terakhir: Sentosa.

Sentosa. Akhirnya!

Dan mulailah ronde kedua bagi pemain kasino kita ini. Namun entah mengapa Landak pun memberikan wejangan yang sama: pasang Besar di meja dadu. Mengutip ucapan Alvin, jurus ini lagi-lagi memberikan hak kepada karyawan kasino untuk meraup uangnya secara legal, haha. Setelah kalah, Alvin menonton seorang anak muda yang bermain bakarat. Taruhannya yang berjumlah SGD 10 ribu per game membuat permainan terasa tegang dan menarik. 

Kepiting saus cabe yang ditraktir oleh Endrico!

Endrico lantas memberitahu bahwa dia mau traktir kepiting saos cabe. Setelah Alvin selesai memberikan saya satu sesi pijat, kita pun berangkat. Makan malam yang lezat dan berat itu dilanjutkan dengan ide Endrico untuk berjalan kaki sejenak. Dan kami berjalan sampai ke halte bis yang hanya ada bis ke rumah Endrico sehingga saya dan Alvin pun terlantar. Kalau saya harus jabarkan pengalaman ini dalam satu kalimat, maka saya hanya bisa katakan, "ini memang khas Endrico!" 

Makan malam itu pun menjadi penutup acara kunjungan tiga hari ke Singapura. Alvin pulang keesokan paginya. Nah, di awal cerita, saya sebutkan bahwa saya suka menjadi tuan rumah. Kenapa begitu? Sebenarnya apa untungnya buat saya? Ada tiga alasan yang membuat saya senantiasa termotivasi untuk menggelar acara ini. Yang pertama, hal ini selalu mengingatkan saya akan kunjungan pertama saya ke Kuching bersama Parno. Kala itu Jimmy Lim membawa kita berjalan kaki sepanjang hari untuk menjelajahi Kuching. Kedua, saya selalu suka menyusun rencana dan memperlihatkan keindahan Singapura dari sudut yang berbeda. Kali ini, meski tidak sepenuhnya berlangsung seperti rencana, kami masih tetap berhasil melihat Singapura dari timur ke barat. 

Yang ketiga dan yang paling berarti buat saya adalah harapan bahwa teman-teman, terutama yang pertama kali ke Singapura, mendapatkan pengalaman yang menginspirasi dan memotivasi mereka untuk bekerja keras dan bermimpi lebih jauh lagi. Yang paling penting itu semoga mereka memahami bahwa semua ini mungkin dicapai. Jika seseorang dari Indonesia bisa ke Singapura, maka sesungguhnya itu membuktikan banyak hal yang bisa dicapai bila anda mau merencanakannya dengan baik... 

Prau: The First Climb

There were four of us going for the Prau trip. We used wisatagunung.com as our guide. Gusti, AW and I were to meet Jimmy in Patak Banteng.

The departure, with Gusti and AW.

The trip started with wrong bus tickets booked by me. We were supposed to depart from the nearer terminal (Kalideres) but I ended up buying the further one. It was fortunate that we could make it on time. We had an overnight ride and we reached Mendolo terminal in Wonosobo around 5 AM. I never expected that the weather was cold (around 16 degrees Celsius)!

Jimmy had reached Patak Banteng earlier. We met around 7 AM. Put our stuff at wisatagunung.com's office. Since we had few hours before departure, we Grab-ed and visited the famous spots around the city: Telaga Pengilon and Kawah Sikidang.

Visiting Kawah Sikidang.

We gathered back at office and was briefed. After praying for the smooth trip, the journey began. It was around 11:50 AM. Prau height is 2590 meters above sea level. As it was a guided tour, we only brought certain essentials; backpack, trekking pole, jacket, gloves, headlamp, mattress, sleeping bag, raincoat, etc. The guides were responsible mainly for the tent and the food. Nevertheless, I believe each of us carried around 20-25 KG of weight. 

We had at least 6 breaks before reaching the top. AW looked exhausted during the first hour but managed to get himself back on his feet. Gusti was amazing. He had the most hiking experiences, so seasoned that he started the hike with a cigarette. He was talkative but never ran out of breath. Jimmy played it safe, slow and steady with his umbrella-cum-walking stick.

AW exhausted!

Along the way, we met fellow climbers that headed back and they said the day before was bad, as there was big thunderstorm and some didn't make it to the top. I guess we were lucky that our journey was smooth. There was one part when we thought it was going to be a downpour and we put on the raincoat, but it was just a brief drizzling.

During breaks, we played cards, took photos and chatted with the guides. Cards was fun, the winner was Gusti and Jimmy at the end. About the guides, they could move very fast and were able to carry stuff equal or more than their bodyweight. For photos, they were mostly taken using our phones though some were taken using my DSLR. Talking about phone, the signal was minimal and surprisingly, it felt good taking a break from the device. 

Taking a break.

We reached our base around 3:50 PM. It was a four-hour hike. Once we reached, the fatigue was gone. I had thought earlier that the mountain would be littered with trashes. but it was extremely clean. The tent was ready for us. We put down our stuff and started enjoying the weather and the view. The sky was still clear. We then set up mattresses outside the tent. We had biscuits, Indomie and Jimmy brought Soju, too. The Indomie tasted a lot better when eaten on the mountain. When the sky got darker, we put on some head lamp. It was totally dark at 6 PM and the wind was chilly. We had soto for dinner. After few rounds of cards game, we headed to the tent. It was around 9 PM and getting colder. Jimmy kept us warm by setting up fire powered by ethanol. By the way, there was no rest room, so you got to walk further from your tent to do your business.

The meal is served!

Now, the sleeping part was not easy. It was cold and the thin mattress definitely didn't help. I had backache and I probably  slept less than two hours that night.

It was 4:45 AM when we woke up and prepared for sunrise. The view was superb with a perfect silhouette. We walked from one camp site to another to hunt for a better view. The sky got brighter very fast. by then, we had taken hundreds of photos.

And when the morning came...

As the sun rose, the weather was more bearable. We  headed back to our camp, had our breakfast and packed for departure. We took a different route when we descended the mountain. It was a route less travelled as we did not see many climbers along the way. 

Heading down was faster and not as tiring as climbing up, but it was more challenging for me. Subconsciously, I was worried for my knees and still traumatised (I fell on my butt during the last trekking last year). I slipped three times, but no serious fall this time. The view on the way down was different. We passed through some potatoes farm and we also passed by a spring (the water was in a big bucket, flowing directly from the mountain). It was refreshing. 

We conquered Prau!

It took us around 2.5 hours to head back to the starting point and that was it. If you asked whether I would go for another hiking trip, the answer is yes, but definitely with thicker mattress! 

Our tips for the 1st timers: hiking might or might not be your stuff, so test it by joining the tour. Google the destination, know your stamina and prepare for it. And by joining the tour, you don't need to buy all the things required. Most of them can be rented; gloves, trekking pole, jacket, mattress, headlamp, torch, sleeping bag. You should buy comfortable shoes, though. Get some friends to go with you, it helps a lot. Take your time, you are not racing. Relax and and enjoy the trip!

Straighten It Up

You couldn't be in your 40s without straining a few muscles, spraining an ankle or suffering from back pain. Next to aromatherapy, you must be very familiar with the smell of Counterpain or Tiger Balm by now. The body stiffened as we aged and the problems mentioned above started occurring. In our group chat, the exercise topic would crop up from time to time as it was supposed to be something we could do to overcome this issue.

I started my Strava time since last October and to a certain extent, it helped. But I had this recurring backache that first happened when I helped shifting the heavy Futures dealing desk probably some 10 years ago. I still remember the soft horror sound only I could hear, it was as if something within the lumbar spine area had broken. So painful that I could barely move.

The pain would come and go since then. We'd get back to that. On a separate but not unrelated track, there was this friend of mine, Alvin. He was many things: a teacher, a cook and also a massage expert. He was academically smart, as we could see from his writings. His drunken chicken and noodles were delicious. I tasted those recently. And then there was his massage skills. 

The pictures of him doing that had been circulating from time to time. Some of our friends had testified that he did wonders. I'd seen it live at least once, when we visited Bakmi Alit in 2018. But it was during his visit to Singapore that I got a chance to experience it myself. And it was one helluva experience. Literally, haha.

It was quite interesting. You see, the term "massage" had been loosely used in Indonesia. What Alvin did, I think, was what we referred to as chiropractic in English. There was no equivalent word in Bahasa Indonesia or at least I didn't know if there was any. 

The initial check began with him sitting behind me, poking my back with his fingers and applying some pressure here and there. When he finished doing that, he said some parts of my bone structure had gone wrong for years. Come to think of it, perhaps it also got to do with my style of sitting. You see, just because the sitting position was comfortable, it didn't mean it was right for the body. It was a bad habit slowly creeping in without us realizing it until it was too late.

Then he did his stuff to correct this posture issue. As he twisted and turned my body, there'd be this cracking sound that felt so oddly satisfying. Quite fun, actually, except the neck part. I couldn't help thinking if it ever went wrong, I'd die on the spot, haha. 

Once done, I asked curiously if this would need to be done on a regular basis. Apparently it depended on the severity. If it wasn't that bad, it could be rectified immediately. Otherwise it might take more than one attempt to get it right.

To be frank, I was kind of surprised. I was under the impression this would be a regular treatment because I vaguely remembered that the chiropractic centre often offered such packages. It was certainly good to know that the bone issue could be addressed permanently. 

But it turned out that there was part two. After he settled the bone, he worked on the muscles. I thought shoulder massage was bad, but the calf massage hurt even more! It was like a torture that I almost cried. And he closed it with reflexology, which was quite bearable, though I wasn't sure if I liked it at all. As he did that, he mentioned that I might want to pay attention to the liver. I acknowledged that the issue could have been originated from my casual drinking habit.

When we wrapped it up, I recalled the testimonies from our friends. I wasn't immediately convinced, but a few days later, I could feel that my back was not as stiff as before. It felt... relieved. Now that I really gave it a thought, it was kind of amusing how he learnt all this. Looking back, the weirdest moment was the time he did his initial analysis. How on earth did he figure out the issue simply by poking my back? But it worked. The man knew his stuff and he sure had a talent that could benefit many. Highly recommended!

The professional massage!

Luruskan!

Di usia 40an ini, kemungkinan anda sudah melewati apa yang namanya nyeri otot, kaki terkilir atau sakit punggung. Di samping aromaterapi, bau Counterpain atau balsem pasti tidak lagi asing bagi anda. Semakin umur kita bertambah, tubuh kita menjadi kian kaku. Di grup SMA, topik olah raga pun sering dibahas sebagai solusi untuk mengatasi masalah ini. 

Saya mulai menjajaki Strava sejak bulan Oktober lalu. Sampai batasan tertentu, aktivitas gerak badan ini cukup membantu. Akan tetapi saya juga memiliki masalah sakit punggung yang pertama terjadi sewaktu saya turut membantu mengangkat meja kerja yang berat di departemen Futures kira-kira 10 tahun silam. Saya masih ingat bunyi gemeretak yang hanya terdengar oleh saya sendiri, seakan-akan sesuatu di bagian pinggang telah patah. Sakitnya langsung membuat saya berdiri diam di tempat. 

Rasa sakit di pinggang yang kadang menjalar ke punggung ini muncul dan hilang tak tentu waktu. Kita akan bahas lebih lanjut lagi nanti, tapi mari kita beralih dulu ke teman saya Alvin. Dia ini memiliki profesi guru, koki dan juga tukang urut. Dia pintar secara akademis, seperti yang bisa kita simak dari tulisannya. Ayam arak dan mie masakannya pun lezat nian. Baru-baru ini saya mencicipinya. Kemudian ada pula keahliannya dalam memijat. 

Foto-fotonya dalam menekuni profesi ini sudah sering beredar di grup dari waktu ke waktu. Beberapa teman pun sudah bersaksi tentang kepiawaiannya. Saya juga pernah melihat Alvin beraksi sewaktu kita mampir Bakmi Alit di tahun 2018. Akhirnya saya berkesempatan untuk mencoba sendiri sewaktu dia datang ke Singapura.

Ada satu sudut pandang unik yang saya dapatkan dari pengalaman ini. Istilah pijat itu ternyata agak rancu. Yang Alvin lakukan itu sepertinya disebut chiropractic dalam Bahasa Inggris. Saya tidak tahu apa terjemahan kata tersebut dalam Bahasa Indonesia. 

Pemeriksaan awal dimulai ketika dia duduk di belakang saya dan mulai menotok serta menekan punggung saya dengan jemarinya. Sesudah itu, dia mengatakan bahwa beberapa bagian struktur tulang saya sudah tidak beres selama bertahun-tahun. Kalau dipikirkan lagi, mungkin juga ada hubungannya dengan cara saya duduk dan bersandar. Hanya karena posisinya terasa nyaman, bukan berarti sudah benar. Jadi kebiasaan buruk ini terbentuk tanpa sadar.

Alvin lantas mulai melakukan koreksi postur tubuh. Setiap kali dia menyentak tubuh saya, ada bunyi gemeretak tulang yang memuaskan rasanya. Saya cukup menikmatinya, kecuali pas di bagian leher. Sempat terbersit di benak saya, jika ada gerakan yang salah, hidup saya bisa berakhir pada saat itu juga, haha. 

Setelah selesai, saya bertanya apakah proses serupa harus dilakukan berulang kali. Di luar dugaan, ternyata tidak perlu. Jika tidak terlalu parah, sekali pun sudah cukup. Bila agak kronis, maka perlu diulang beberapa kali. Terus-terang saya agak terkejut. Saya sering melihat promosi klinik chiropractic yang menawarkan paket, misalnya paket 10 sesi. Menarik untuk diketahui bahwa masalah tulang ini bisa dituntaskan secara permanen. 

Namun ternyata masih ada bagian kedua. Setelah tulang, kini dia menguraikan ketegangan otot. Ini baru yang biasanya kita sebut sebagai pijat atau urut. Pijat bahu membuat saya menahan sakit, tapi ternyata pijat betis lebih bikin ampun lagi! Rasanya seperti siksaan fisik yang membuat saya meringis. Terapi pijat pun akhirnya ditutup dengan refleksi. Yang ini lebih enteng, tapi tetap saja sulit untuk dinikmati. Dari tapak kaki, Alvin tahu bahwa liver saya kurang sehat, tapi saya juga tahu itu karena saya kadang memang minum bir, haha.  

Seusai pijat, saya jadi teringat dengan testimoni dari teman-teman. Saya tidak langsung percaya, namun setelah beberapa hari kemudian, pinggang saya terasa lebih lega dari sebelumnya. Saya lantas teringat lagi dengan caranya memeriksa yang tergolong aneh. Bagaimana bisa dia mengetahui apa yang salah hanya dengan menekan punggung saya? Tapi hasilnya nyata. Alvin jelas tahu apa dikerjakannya dan keahliannya ini bisa membantu banyak orang yang membutuhkannya. Memang layak direkomendasikan! 

Get

I was a sucker for the plastics since I got my first one back in 2001. I often said I loved the card design and I collected them after they were cancelled, but perhaps I also subconsciously loved being approved for applying cards. I'd never know for sure. Whatever the reason was, I browsed the relevant websites frequently, just in case there was a new one that I'd like to have. 

On the other hand, the internet was so smart these days that it picked up my search result and displayed the ads based on it. And the plastics had changed so much that they were not only issued by banks, American Express and Diners Club anymore. Any companies that were licensed to do financing such as Grab, Crypto.com, Wise or InstaRem could issue Visa or Master these days. Then one day, I saw an ad from Get on the news feed of my Facebook. 

The Get Card.

The concept was quite unique. I was always a supporter of cashless transactions, but I never heard of anything like this being extended to kids. I fancied the idea and it got more interesting as there was this concept of earning their keep. My Dad did that and I believe the impact on me was positive, therefore I'd like to try it out with my daughter, too. Noticed that Revolut offered the same thing, too, but I finally opted for Get as it looked much simplified.

The account opening was seamless and fast, except for the odd behaviour of repeated details after the app pulled data from Singpass. I was using Google Pixel 6 with Android on its purest form, so it had to be the app's fault, haha. Due to this, my daughter's name was listed twice. But I chose only one and the subsequent process was smooth-sailing.

The setup was pretty straightforward. That included disabling the magnetic stripe, online purchase, ATM and enabling the transaction limits. The physical debit card that carried the Visa was ordered and it arrived much earlier than expected. I also installed the app on my daughter's phone and it linked immediately to my account. 

Transaction details. The payment was scheduled, apparently!

I had to top up the account in order to activate it. At the moment, this could only be done using a credit or debit card. It showed Get Kid Account right after that. Upon seeing this, I clicked it as prompted only to realize that it was a a label called Get Kid Account instead of a button to get a kid's account, haha.

Then came the fun part where I got to assigned chores. The interface was quite confusing, I'd say. There was this rolling date saying when the payment date would be, but it was apparently superseded by the default payment scheduled on Sunday. As a result, when she finished her first chore, I sent the money to her account as automatic payment didn't seem to occur. On Sunday, I learnt that each payment I did before was paid again at 8am. 

Her first transaction. She wanted to swipe!

When she first received the card, I did share with her that the card details shouldn't be revealed to anybody. Now that she had some money to spend, I could teach how to use the card. I asked if she would buy me an ice cream at McDonald's and she was okay to treat me. So off we went and bought a strawberry sundae. She did everything herself on a self-service counter and when it was time to pay, she was taken aback when the point of sales beeped before she did anything. "I thought I had to swipe the card first," she said innocently. And I told her that was how we did it a long time ago. 

When we returned to our seats, she said about stuff she'd like to buy and she started asking her Mum for more chores. As I watched the scene unfolded, I ate my sundae, thinking and hoping that I had taught her the right thing: the same lesson I had, wrapped in present day's technology...

Free ice cream always makes me smile!

Get

Saya senantiasa tergila-gila dengan kartu kredit sejak saya mendapatkan kartu kredit pertama saya di tahun 2001. Saya sering berkata bahwa saya suka disain kartunya, yang kemudian saya koleksi setelah kartunya saya batalkan. Selain itu, mungkin juga ada kepuasan tersendiri yang timbul dari disetujuinya aplikasi kartu kredit yang saya ajukan. Saya tidak tahu pasti, tapi apa pun alasannya, saya sudah sejak lama memiliki kebiasaan melihat situs-situs kartu kredit. Siapa tahu ada yang baru dan menarik perhatian saya. 

Berdasarkan kebiasaan saya ini, internet yang kini kian canggih bisa mendeteksi apa yang sering saya cari, lalu menampilkan iklan yang sama kategorinya. Sekedar info, kartu kredit tidak lagi dimonopoli oleh bank, American Express dan Diners Club. Perusahaan yang juga memiliki ijin finansial seperti Grab, Crypto.com, Wise atau InstaRem pun bisa mengeluarkan Visa atau Master sekarang. Suatu hari, saya melihat iklan Get yang muncul di Facebook. 

Kartu Get.

Konsepnya cukup unik. Saya selalu menyukai transaksi non-tunai, tapi saya tidak pernah mendengar hal serupa diterapkan di kalangan anak-anak. Saya tergelitik oleh ide ini dan semakin tertarik pula dengan konsep yang mengajarkan anak tentang arti dari kerja untuk mendapatkan uang. Ayah saya dulu mengajarkan hal serupa dan saya percaya dampaknya positif. Ketika saya hendak mencoba teknologi ini, sempat saya amati bahwa Revolut juga menawarkan konsep yang sama, namun akhirnya saya coba Get karena terlihat lebih sederhana. 

Pembukaan rekening terbilang praktis dan cepat, meski ada kejanggalan data yang seperti terulang dua kali ketika aplikasi Get menarik data dari Singpass, semacam pusat info terintegrasi di Singapura. Saya menggunakan Google Pixel 6 yang sudah jelas murni Android-nya, jadi kesalahan pasti dari aplikasi Get, haha. Karena duplikasi data, nama putri saya terdaftar dua kali, tapi saya hanya memilih salah satu dan prosesnya pun beres. 

Konfigurasi selanjutnya tidaklah rumit. Saya mematikan fitur transaksi lewat lapisan magnet di kartu, belanja online dan juga penarikan ATM. Saya juga mengatur batas transaksi. Kartu debit berlogo Visa pun saya pesan lewat aplikasi dan tiba lebih awal dari estimasi. Selain itu, saya juga mengunduh aplikasi yang sama di HP putri saya. Setelah registrasi, akunnya pun terhubung dengan yang ada di HP saya. 

Daftar transaksi. Pembayaran upah sudah otomatis terjadwal setiap Minggu!

Saya harus memasukkan uang untuk mengaktifkan akun saya. Untuk saat ini, penambahan saldo hanya bisa dilakukan dengan kartu kredit atau debet. Kemudian muncul tulisan Get Kid Account setelah saldo berhasil diisi. Saya coba klik, tapi ternyata itu hanya label bertulisan Get Kid Account yang artinya akun Get untuk anak, bukan tombol instruksi untuk mendapatkan (get) Kid Account, haha.

Setelah itu, saya bebas memberikan pekerjaan. Tampilannya cukup membingungkan menurut saya. Ada tanggal yang selalu berubah dari hari ke hari dan tanggal ini digunakan sebagai tanggal pembayaran. Akan tetapi pembayaran pekerjaan ternyata berdasarkan jadwal yang sudah tersimpan di bagian menu lain, yakni setiap hari Minggu. Alhasil, saya jadi mengira bahwa saya harus mengirimkan uang setiap kali anak saya berhasil menyelesaikan pekerjaannya. Ketika Minggu tiba, baru saya sadari bahwa apa yang telah saya bayar itu lantas dibayar lagi oleh sistem pada pukul delapan pagi. 

Transaksi pertamanya. Tadinya dia mau gesek!

Sewaktu anak saya menerima kartunya, saya jelaskan padanya detil di kartu yang tidak boleh diberitahukan pada orang lain. Sekarang, setelah dia memiliki uang di saldonya, maka saya bisa ajarkan cara menggunakan kartu. Saya tanyakan padanya apakah dia mau membelikan saya es krim di McDonald's dan dia setuju untuk traktir. Saya amati dari belakang bagaimana dia memesan es kirim di layar sentuh. Ketika tiba di tampilan untuk membayar, dia agak terkejut karena transaksi sudah terjadi saat dia baru memegang kartu di dekat mesin pembayaran. "Saya sangka harus digesek dulu," gumam putri saya. Mendengar ucapannya yang polos, saya jelaskan padanya bahwa memang seperti metodenya bertahun-tahun silam, tapi sekarang cukup didekatkan ke mesin.

Saat kita kembali ke tempat duduk, dia bercerita tentang apa yang hendak dia beli kalau uangnya terkumpul lebih banyak lagi, lalu bertanya pada ibunya, ada tugas apa lagi yang bisa dia kerjakan. Saya menikmati es krim saya dalam hening tatkala menyaksikan semua ini. Di dalam hati saya hanya bisa berharap, semoga saja saya sudah mengajarkan hal yang benar: pelajaran yang sama dengan apa yang saya dapatkan dulu, namun kini dikemas dalam teknologi... 

Es krim gratis selalu membuat saya tersenyum!

Not All Apps Are Created Equal

I kid you not! I had the title lingering in my mind for the past few days, as if it begged to be written! It was so amusing that I couldn't help thinking about it. This story started with an incident that happened few days ago, when a friend that was pretty active in our WhatsApp group chat suddenly contacted me via Messenger. She asked me to top up her prepaid phone. When I mentioned that in our group, another friend said she was asked to provided the SMS OTP. Then a friend in Bali was asked to lend her money. Needless to say, we knew immediately that her Facebook account was hacked. The issue was sorted out quickly. 

But how did we go from the experience above to the idea that not all apps are created equal? In order to understand this, let's go back to the very beginning, to the dawn of the internet. I was old enough to be a young man during this exciting time in Pontianak. Internet cafes were thriving and it was hard to get seats on Saturday night. Every youngster would be there to play mIRC. We'd be logging in to channels such as #khuntien and #bawel, getting to know girls. Though we could be banned if we accidentally said something that was deemed as abusive, we couldn't go wrong with the opening line: "ASL, please." 

For those who were born after the internet, it might sound weird that we found this thrilling. You had to realize that just a year before, we were hanging out at Telkom's public phone booths, holding a stack of coins while conversing with girls we tried to impress. It was unglam and we had to suffer from mosquito bites. Going from analog conversation like that to asking Age, Sex, Location to strangers was beyond wild! The internet was a miracle, mIRC was a godsend and ASL was the universal internet slang that ruled them all! Good times! Got me no girlfriends, though. Only one or two pen pals, haha.

Then there was ICQ. I just had to mention this, even though it wasn't as popular as mIRC. In fact, I knew it only from Jun Fui, a fellow computer lab assistant and a geeky friend of mine. I never used ICQ for chatting purpose, but it did one thing that was quite valuable at that time: it could send SMS to the mobile phone. Yes, SMS. Short Message Service containing only 160 characters. Back when you barely had enough money to top up your prepaid number, free SMS was too good to be true. While it might seem silly by today's standard, being able to send a couple of SMSes for free per day was a luxury back then!

When I went to Jakarta few years later in 2002, the internet had significantly improved in just a short period of time. I was now using Yahoo! Messenger on a desktop computer. I think it was the first chat app that introduced emojis to me. Cool stuff. Now people could know that I was smiling when I replied them. Then I switched to Google Talk when I moved to Singapore because... the girl I loved also used it, haha. One more that was worth mentioning during this period was MSN Messenger. I used it because some Singaporean friends used it, too. 

Then came the time when the three messengers above were made available on mobile phone. There was an app that allowed us to log in to all three. But this coincided with the rise of BBM. With a native app on a phone that was so widely used, especially in Indonesia, third-party messengers seemed redundant. When BlackBerry was riding high, BBM was all I needed. Looking back, I liked the idea of BBM pin. Nobody could add you without your permission, haha.

Skype appeared around the same time. The voice call feature was its main attraction. I remember those days when I always had to buy the prepaid cards for long distance calls to Indonesia. Skype eliminated this costly need. Suddenly it was free to make a call! So there was a period of time when Yani and I used this quite regularly. I remember staying in Eunos, getting ready for a call at 8pm Singapore Time. It was a date!

Then came WhatsApp that changed it all. It started small, as if it was a BBM wannabe that used phone number instead of pin. But then it got better. One-to-one chat, ticked. Group chat, ticked. Voice call ticked. Video call, ticked. Group call, ticked. File sharing ticked. By then, it had become the ultimate communication tool that we must have. BBM's days were numbered and I remember the fateful day when I had to say goodbye to the most beloved app during its heyday.

And that brought us back to Messenger. If you observed the apps that I described above, each of them was quite revolutionary and it served its purpose. But in a world where WhatsApp was the benchmark, Messenger looked like a sad little app with not much use. Both had pretty similar features, but nobody I knew really used Messenger. The recent case got me wondering, perhaps the only time the app became useful was when it inadvertently alerted us that the person's Facebook account had been hacked. How ironic. So it's true that not all apps are created equal...

PS: yes, I know there were still other apps such as Line, WeChat, Telegram, KakaoTalk, Snapchat, Viber, and many more, but I never really used those. I remember reading it somewhere that Chinese had WeChat, Japanese had Line and South Koreans had KakaoTalk, but only Indonesians had the time to use them all to chat with the same people, haha.  

Those logos we saw before...

Tidak Semua Aplikasi Diciptakan Setara

Percaya atau tidak, beberapa hari ini judul di atas selalu muncul di benak saya, seakan-akan meminta untuk diceritakan. Agak mengherankan juga, sebenarnya. Cerita kali ini dimulai dengan sebuah peristiwa yang terjadi beberapa hari yang lalu, ketika seorang teman yang cukup aktif di grup WhatsApp tiba-tiba menghubungi saya lewat Messenger. Dia ingin agar saya mengirimkan pulsa untuknya. Sewaktu saya pos ini di grup, seorang teman lain langsung bercerita bahwa dia juga dimintai SMS OTP. Kemudian seorang teman di Bali juga ternyata diminta untuk meminjamkan uang. Kita langsung tahu bahwa akun Facebook teman yang satu ini telah dibajak. Isu ini pun segera ditindaklanjuti. 

Akan tetapi apa hubungan kejadian di atas dengan ide bahwa tidak semua aplikasi diciptakan setara? Untuk mengerti lebih lanjut, mari kita kembali ke awal munculnya internet di Pontianak. Saat itu saya adalah seorang pemuda di periode yang gegap-gempita. Internet cafe bertaburan di mana-mana dan penuh-sesak di malam Minggu oleh muda-mudi yang ingin bermain mIRC. Kita sibuk di channel #khuntien dan #bawel untuk mencari pacar. Walau kita bisa didepak kalau salah bicara, tapi sudah pasti aman kalau memulai perkenalan dengan, "ASL, please." 

Bagi yang lahir setelah zaman internet, mungkin sulit untuk memahami kenapa hal seperti ini bisa terasa seru. Anda harus menyadari bahwa setahun sebelumnya, angkatan saya masih berkumpul di telepon umum kantor Telkom sambil menggenggam setumpuk koin untuk menelepon gadis yang diincar. Ini jelas kalah pamor, ditambah lagi banyak nyamuk. Peralihan dari pengalaman seperti ini ke internet, lalu bertanya Age, Sex, Location pada orang asing, rasanya seperti dahsyat sekali. Internet adalah sebuah keajaiban, mIRC adalah kiriman Tuhan dan ASL adalah istilah universal yang menjembatani perkenalan! Masa-masa yang menyenangkan. Tapi saya tidak dapat pacar. Hanya dapat satu atau dua sahabat pena, haha. 

Lantas muncul ICQ. Saya wajib sebutkan yang satu ini, meskipun ICQ tidak sepopuler mIRC. Saya sendiri baru tahu aplikasi ini dari Jun Fui, sesama asisten lab komputer dan juga teman saya yang kutu-buku. Saya tidak menggunakan ICQ untuk chatting, tapi untuk satu fitur yang bisa dilakukan oleh aplikasi ini: mengirim SMS ke HP. Ya, SMS. Short Message Service yang hanya berisi 160 karakter. Di zaman tatkala saya sering kekurangan uang untuk membeli pulsa, SMS gratis itu bagaikan berkat. Walau mungkin terlihat konyol sekarang, bisa mengirimkan beberapa SMS gratis per hari adalah suatu kemewahan tersendiri di masa itu!  

Sewaktu saya pindah ke Jakarta di tahun 2002, internet sudah jauh lebih maju. Kini saya menggunakan Yahoo! Messenger di komputer. Seingat saya, dari aplikasi inilah saya menggunakan emoji untuk pertama kalinya. Ini adalah hal kecil yang luar biasa. Sekarang pembaca bisa tahu kalau saya sedang tersenyum saat merespon komentarnya. Kemudian, setelah pindah ke Singapura, saya menggunakan Google Talk karena... wanita yang sukai juga menggunakannya, haha. Satu lagi dari masa ini yang perlu saya sebutkan adalah MSN Messenger. Saya juga pakai ini karena banyak teman-teman Singapura yang menggunakannya.

Lalu tiba era di mana tiga aplikasi di atas bisa digunakan di telepon genggam. Jadi ada satu aplikasi yang bisa sambung ke Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk dan MSN Messenger. Kedengarannya memang praktis, tapi semua ini terjadi ketika BBM mulai populer. Dengan aplikasi yang sudah tersedia di telepon yang digunakan oleh begitu banyak orang, terutama di Indonesia, tiga aplikasi di atas jadi seperti ekstra dan tidak begitu diperlukan. Di era BlackBerry, satu-satunya yang saya perlukan adalah BBM. Jikalau saya lihat kembali lagi sekarang, saya suka dengan konsep pin BBM. Orang lain tidak bisa semena-mena menghubungi anda, apabila tidak ada permisi dari anda, haha. 

Skype juga muncul di saat BBM menyapu bersih aplikasi lainnya. Fitur telepon lewat internet adalah atraksi utamanya. Saya ingat betul hari-hari di mana saya perlu membeli kartu untuk sambungan langsung internasional. Kemunculan Skype mengurangi biaya dari keperluan ini. Tiba-tiba saja kita bisa menelepon secara gratis. Jadi ada periode di mana saya dan Yani cukup rutin menggunakan aplikasi ini. Saya ingat saat itu saya tinggal di Eunos. Jadi kita cukup janjian, misalnya telepon jam 8 malam waktu Singapura, dan kini bisa berbicara langsung! 

Sesudah itu muncul WhatsApp yang mengubah segalanya. Di awal kiprahnya, WhatsApp mirip seperti tiruan BBM yang menggunakan nomor telepon sebagai ganti pin. Kemudian WhatsApp kian berkembang. Chat perorangan, bisa. Chat secara group, bisa. Panggilan suara, bisa. Panggilan video, bisa. Panggilan lebih dari satu orang, bisa. Kirim file, juga bisa! Akhirnya WhatsApp menjadi andalan sehari-hari. BBM pun pudar. Saya ingat betul dengan hari-hari terakhir dari aplikasi yang kalah saing ini. 

Dan cerita di atas membawa kita kembali ke Messenger. Bila anda perhatikan setiap aplikasi yang saya jabarkan di atas, setiap aplikasi ini cukup revolusioner dan memainkan peran penting di zamannya. Tapi di dunia di mana WhatsApp kini jadi patokan, Messenger terlihat mengenaskan. Dua-duanya memiliki fitur yang mirip, tapi dari semua yang saya kenal, tidak ada seorang pun yang benar-benar menggunakan Messenger. Insiden di atas membuat saya membayangkan, sekali-kalinya Messenger terasa berguna adalah saat akun Facebook kena bajak. Sungguh ironis. Jadi benar bahwa tidak semua aplikasi diciptakan setara...

NB: ya, saya tahu masih banyak aplikasi lain seperti Line, WeChat, Telegram, KakaoTalk, Snapchat atau Viber, tapi saya tidak menggunakan semua itu. Satu hal yang saya pernah saya baca dan ingat adalah, orang Cina punya WeChat, orang Jepang punya Line dan orang Korea ada KakaoTalk, tapi hanya orang Indonesia yang punya waktu menggunakan semua aplikasi ini untuk chat dengan orang yang itu-itu juga, haha.  

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!