It is a new experience for me that I know one of the world traveler. I met him through the hospitalityclub.org, a website for traveler that I just joined. His name is Mac Madison, comes from London, England. Reading his profile on the website made me amazed. He has traveled to more than 20 countries, and he is able to speak at least 6 languages. Wow……. Mac planned to travel to Indonesia for around 2 months, then continue to India after that. This is his first travel to Indonesia and I am very happy to host him and show him a bit about Jakarta. I bet after 2 months of staying here, he will be able to speak with Indonesian slanks already. He is totally into travel and languages.
Mac came on Friday, October 5th in the afternoon. His flight was scheduled to arrive in Jakarta at 3.30 PM, but as usual, the delay made it late until one and a half hour. Mac sent me a message at 5 pm, saying he just landed and he was trying to get the bus (DAMRI) to the place we agreed to meet, Starbucks Café at Plaza Semanggi.
I called the number that he sent me the message from because I thought it was his Indonesian number. But surprisingly, it was a lady who picked up the call. Then I spoke in bahasa Indonesia with her, she said Mac borrowed her mobile phone to send me that message. From there, I started to think that Mac is not an ordinary guy. He’s got something special.
Since a couple of months ago I have been staying with my parents, in a bit suburb of Jakarta, Pondok gede. I thought Mac got a bad first impression right away, looking at the traffic jammed which was very bad at that time because it was Friday night. We started to have a conversation on the taxi to my “village” in Pondok gede. Before going to Indonesia, he traveled for some days in Sweden. He also told me the reason to choose Indonesia for his next destination of traveling. He knows Indonesia is a huge, sunny country with millions of culture, thousands of island, kind people (I figured out lately that the kindness is a bit problem for him hehehe). He had traveled to Asia before; to China, Thailand, Japan, Korea, Vietnam and Hong Kong, but never been to Indonesia.
On Saturday, when we went to Miniatur Park of Beautiful Indonesia (TMII-red), I got a call that I had to come to the office because there’ll be a pleno meeting before the Idul Fitri. We went to my office and I let him go around by himself, and ask to go back to break the fasting. (Yes, he experiences fasting as well. He also does “sahur” with my families). On his way to nowhere (because he hasn’t had Jakarta map at that time), he saw some people playing chess. He came towards them, watched them, and finally they offered him to play. (Can u imagine that?). Then he continued walking around until he reached Monas, and went back to my office for fasting break.
Before going back to my home, Mac bought so many fruits at Hero. He got salak (which he didn’t know how to uncover and eat it), melon, lengkeng, dragon fruit (which my mom wasn’t familiar with), guava, and what else?? On our way to Pondok gede, macet was everywhere. His crazy idea came up, he said he felt like giving the fruits to the buslane passengers, and we’d have fruit party. Ha ha ha….
Mac joined me to meet some friends to have fasting break together. Before that, he also experienced to have hair creambath for the first time. (Well, I guess the term “hair creambath” treatment only happends in Indonesia, because in Singapore I couldn’t find that treatment either, another treatment I had there cost much much more expensive than Indonesian creambath, but they just call it hair treatment, not creambath). Besides, we played bowling 2 hours before the break. So much fun.
Mac stayed at my home until Sunday, and on Monday when I also had to go to work, he moved to Jalan Jaksa, which he found it himself to be a place for foreigners to stay. (I heard about it only, but never been there). Unfortunately, he was sick for a couple of days during his staying there. He went to a doctor who overcharged him, and the doctor said he got infectious bacteria in his throat. I thought it was a shore throat, but it wasn’t. I wasn’t sure if it was because of infectious bacteria in the throat, because Mac’s temperature was high, he also got coughing, and also he felt like having no energy (that what he told me). Whatever it was, hoped he would recover very soon.
In this Idul Fitri, I didn’t go for “mudik”, my dad either, but my mom, my sister and brother did. So, I stayed at home, having family function, welcoming the guests who came, taking care of the food and beverages, cleaning the house, etc, just like a housewife. But that was OK lah ;). Luckily, most of my BIG family members are in Jogja, so I don’t have to spend so much time in having family functions in Jakarta.
After I finished all the Idul Fitri things on the first day, Mac sent me a message and asked to come along to Bogor Botanical Garden (Kebun Raya-Red) a day after that. Since I was free, so I decided to come along with him.
Walking around with him in BBG was like walking in a red carpet in Oscar Award (hahaha, I’m trying to say that he was a center of attention, and a lot of people said hi to him, wanted to take pictures, ow…...). I felt good also of coming there. Because of the hectic in work before, coming there, taking fresh breath, looking at the trees, made me refreshed. We had lunch at De Daunan Café (yeah I know, it’s an overpriced café, but no other choice), then we enjoyed the BIG garden while having a chat to get to know each other more. Mac told me a lot of his travel experiences. He ensured me that I don’t have to be rich to travel the world (I still couldn’t accept that, because in Indonesia, people who are traveling are just next to be rich).
I think it’s different in Europe. There, (for European) people don’t need visa to travel along the EU countries and countries are accessible with good transportation system. But here, to go abroad we need to pay for 1 million rupiahs, besides the visa if we go to outside South East Asia. Even to travel along the islands in Indonesia is not well accessible, we need to put much efforts. So, money is really a matter.
Continue to next post, which will tell about our trip in Bandung………..
Mac came on Friday, October 5th in the afternoon. His flight was scheduled to arrive in Jakarta at 3.30 PM, but as usual, the delay made it late until one and a half hour. Mac sent me a message at 5 pm, saying he just landed and he was trying to get the bus (DAMRI) to the place we agreed to meet, Starbucks Café at Plaza Semanggi.
I called the number that he sent me the message from because I thought it was his Indonesian number. But surprisingly, it was a lady who picked up the call. Then I spoke in bahasa Indonesia with her, she said Mac borrowed her mobile phone to send me that message. From there, I started to think that Mac is not an ordinary guy. He’s got something special.
Since a couple of months ago I have been staying with my parents, in a bit suburb of Jakarta, Pondok gede. I thought Mac got a bad first impression right away, looking at the traffic jammed which was very bad at that time because it was Friday night. We started to have a conversation on the taxi to my “village” in Pondok gede. Before going to Indonesia, he traveled for some days in Sweden. He also told me the reason to choose Indonesia for his next destination of traveling. He knows Indonesia is a huge, sunny country with millions of culture, thousands of island, kind people (I figured out lately that the kindness is a bit problem for him hehehe). He had traveled to Asia before; to China, Thailand, Japan, Korea, Vietnam and Hong Kong, but never been to Indonesia.
On Saturday, when we went to Miniatur Park of Beautiful Indonesia (TMII-red), I got a call that I had to come to the office because there’ll be a pleno meeting before the Idul Fitri. We went to my office and I let him go around by himself, and ask to go back to break the fasting. (Yes, he experiences fasting as well. He also does “sahur” with my families). On his way to nowhere (because he hasn’t had Jakarta map at that time), he saw some people playing chess. He came towards them, watched them, and finally they offered him to play. (Can u imagine that?). Then he continued walking around until he reached Monas, and went back to my office for fasting break.Before going back to my home, Mac bought so many fruits at Hero. He got salak (which he didn’t know how to uncover and eat it), melon, lengkeng, dragon fruit (which my mom wasn’t familiar with), guava, and what else?? On our way to Pondok gede, macet was everywhere. His crazy idea came up, he said he felt like giving the fruits to the buslane passengers, and we’d have fruit party. Ha ha ha….
Mac joined me to meet some friends to have fasting break together. Before that, he also experienced to have hair creambath for the first time. (Well, I guess the term “hair creambath” treatment only happends in Indonesia, because in Singapore I couldn’t find that treatment either, another treatment I had there cost much much more expensive than Indonesian creambath, but they just call it hair treatment, not creambath). Besides, we played bowling 2 hours before the break. So much fun.
Mac stayed at my home until Sunday, and on Monday when I also had to go to work, he moved to Jalan Jaksa, which he found it himself to be a place for foreigners to stay. (I heard about it only, but never been there). Unfortunately, he was sick for a couple of days during his staying there. He went to a doctor who overcharged him, and the doctor said he got infectious bacteria in his throat. I thought it was a shore throat, but it wasn’t. I wasn’t sure if it was because of infectious bacteria in the throat, because Mac’s temperature was high, he also got coughing, and also he felt like having no energy (that what he told me). Whatever it was, hoped he would recover very soon.
In this Idul Fitri, I didn’t go for “mudik”, my dad either, but my mom, my sister and brother did. So, I stayed at home, having family function, welcoming the guests who came, taking care of the food and beverages, cleaning the house, etc, just like a housewife. But that was OK lah ;). Luckily, most of my BIG family members are in Jogja, so I don’t have to spend so much time in having family functions in Jakarta.
After I finished all the Idul Fitri things on the first day, Mac sent me a message and asked to come along to Bogor Botanical Garden (Kebun Raya-Red) a day after that. Since I was free, so I decided to come along with him.
Walking around with him in BBG was like walking in a red carpet in Oscar Award (hahaha, I’m trying to say that he was a center of attention, and a lot of people said hi to him, wanted to take pictures, ow…...). I felt good also of coming there. Because of the hectic in work before, coming there, taking fresh breath, looking at the trees, made me refreshed. We had lunch at De Daunan Café (yeah I know, it’s an overpriced café, but no other choice), then we enjoyed the BIG garden while having a chat to get to know each other more. Mac told me a lot of his travel experiences. He ensured me that I don’t have to be rich to travel the world (I still couldn’t accept that, because in Indonesia, people who are traveling are just next to be rich).
I think it’s different in Europe. There, (for European) people don’t need visa to travel along the EU countries and countries are accessible with good transportation system. But here, to go abroad we need to pay for 1 million rupiahs, besides the visa if we go to outside South East Asia. Even to travel along the islands in Indonesia is not well accessible, we need to put much efforts. So, money is really a matter.
Continue to next post, which will tell about our trip in Bandung………..
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