In this year's e-comp i sit in as the DCA --deputy chief adjudicator-- which means that i help out in motion design, adjudicators' accreditation, and room allocations, etc etc.. it's not simple work, i do feel guilty i haven't really been maximum in my work before d-day as campus demands have been quite a spoonful for me :-/
Sani (you're starting to hear this guy's name a lot, not that it's because of some other peculiar reason! but simply we are involved in activities which the consequences are travelling together; thing is, nothing ever goes right around the "pathetic travellers") will be featured in this blog.
In today's episode of the never ending series of the "pathetic travellers", the mighty duo is taking on the big rotten apple; Jakarta!
I start having that query uneasy feeling when before the trip Sani mentions 2 things;
- "Dit, we're picking up my car in Eastern Jakarta. The thing is i've no clue on Jakarta.."
- "Our AirAsia plane will be landing in Terminal 3 in Soekarno-Hatta airport"
ring-a-ding-ding, my mind goes.. hmm, it does kinda tingle.. problemo numero uno is that Sani wants me to co-drive this car with him, and we have to cross all the way from East Jakarta, thru Central Jakarta, to South Jakarta, and go a few more clicks south to Depok, where UI is.. Jakarta may be one of the most frighetning places on earth for me, because the thought of getting lost is even more possible in this city more than any other in the world (this applies to me, sampling uses 1 case where my mum and i lost contact on a train in Jakarta and she had to pick me up 3 stations later.. this never happened to me ever, not before that incident nor after it.. so my statistics are valid)..
ring numero duo; did i hear right that AirAsia is landing in Terminal 3?? Okay, this is nopt my first time flying out, and there's always only been 2 flight terminals in that airport. So what's this T3 thing? Cold sweats is washing down my spine *gulp*
to fast forward the story (we went to the airport, debated on getting the new edition of The Economist or not, argued which flight attendant is most cute, cursed myself since my plane seat didnt work if i laid back on it it'd fall down to the back and i dont think the guy behind me would find it funny if my face appears on what was his magazine 2 seconds ago), we arrived in this T3, and voila! It appears to be an expansion for the airport.. Place was lovely, brand new, the toilet had a design that when you pee you get to see men loading off baggage.. nice, could've given us views of trees or lovely ladies, but no *sigh*
after a whole night panicking how we would get to Jakarta's central station the next day (to pick up the devilish university debate team), we decided to nick the map Sani's uncle had.. He was in the driver's seat and i was his loyal navigator.. kawai!^^
Although I have read Allan and Bar'bara Pease's book "Why women can't read maps and men never listen", I find a factual error on the facts stated in that book. I can't read maps also! As part of the male sub-race archetype i made all sorts of reason to Sani; "this map is outdated", "it's the government's fault they had poor urban planning" etc etc..
Still it doesn't really help when you're entering a state of "lost". I often hear National Geographic's jingle for every traveller; "Let's get lost". They obviously have never been to Jakarta.
Isn't it ironic that we got lost in our own Capital City of the state???
It's a good thing that we found our way back on track. Initially we thought we were participants of that show, The Amazing Race, having being lost and all, and we were thinking of paying someone to drive ahead of us showing the way hahahaha..
After around 1.5-2 hours (i'd imagine normally it takes less than that long), we found our way.. yay! Only to find that the train the kids was taking was late 30 minutes *curses**bangs head on monitor*
It may seem that this adventure is caused by our stupidity, but as part of the FAA regulation on reality shows on blogs, it is our obligation to provide you some moral sense within the story; cities should be comprehensive, and its not asking too much because the level of comprehension that people have upon its city is parallel to the level of influx of visitors upon the city.. and this is the capital city for cryin out loud, not some hobo hillbilly places in the middle of a jungle!
How can people have that slogan "Visit Indonesia Year" when the tourists don't even know how to get to places. Holidays = stress reduction. Not the other way round. Another prove of the weak links of this country, wants to bite off more than they can chew..
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