hooray hooray it's a holi-holiday

Before I forgot, I hope it’s not too late for me to wish all Muslims Selamat Hari Raya Aidiladha and Merry Christmas to all Christians. The day before Raya Haji, mum, lil bro and I went to Jakarta and Bandung for a 6D5N trip. The flight from KL to Jakarta took about 2 hours. We reached Soekarno-Hatta International Airport at approximately 1730hrs (1830hrs Malaysia time) where we were greeted by the tour guide, Pak Taufik. It was raining when we reached Jakarta and the traffic jam was terrible, horrible and much worst than in KL. After braving through Jakarta jam a.k.a macet, which is basically a complete standstill, I think, no I’m sure that I’ll be a lot more patient on the road after this. Heh~ imagine that it took us about 2hours just to get to the restaurant (hereinafter referred to rumah makan) for dinner, which is just 40-minutes away and another 2hours for us to reach our hotel from the rumah makan! Luckily the dinner was good. After dinner, we checked in at Millenium Hotel.

The next morning, which was Raya Haji, we had a little celebration of our own where one of the members in our tour group brought lemang, nasi himpit, ketupat, rendang ayam, rendang daging and kuah kacang. Yes, you read right. He (it was a he) brought it all the way to Jakarta! He even brought the papan landas, senduk, paper cups and plates and plastic spoons and forks. The rest of the group also brought a little something for the celebration and I baked a simple butter cake. Initially I wanted to bake carrot cake but I’m sure that by the time we reach Jakarta, the cream cheese topping would’ve smeared all over the bekas. After breakfast, we started our journey and proceeded to Bandung, which took about 2hours. Upon reaching Bandung, we were brought to the rumah makan where we had a nice lunch. Then the rain poured and the roads were flooded. We had to redah the water to get to our bus and we got our shoes wet boohoo. Silly me forgot to bring another pair of shoes so I had to buy one. There was hardly anything to do because of the rain so the itinerary was changed a bit to accommodate the time. We did some shopping and then later checked in at Mutiara Hotel.

The next day, we went to Tangkuban Parahu. Legend has it that once there was a very beautiful woman who lived in the jungle with her son. She has no husband. One day she scolded and hit her son’s head for being naughty and the son ran away. Since the woman lived in the jungle, she only ate ulam, roots leaves etc and became awet muda. One day her son, who had already grown into a handsome young man met her and fell in love with her, without knowing that the woman is his mother. The woman also did not know that it was her son until one day she saw the scar on the man’s head. By then, they had promised to marry each other. So she figured out a plan to cancel the wedding. Thinking that the man would not be able to complete the task, she challenged him to build a boat and a lake before dawn. If the man failed to complete it, she will not marry him. The man has some super powers whatever and almost completed the task. This worries the woman, who then consulted her fairy godmother or some spirit of some sort. You know how cerita dulu-dulu is. Anyway the fairy gave her a piece of cloth and told her to wave the cloth. By doing this, the cloth would look like the sun and the roosters will start crowing signifying that it was dawn. However the man found out about it and became very angry and kicked the perahu until it terbalik and the waters in the lake all splashed out. The hills look like a perahu yang terbalik, which is said that that was the perahu that the man kicked, thus the name Tangkuban Perahu and until today, the lake looks nothing more like a crater, with very little water. I stand corrected though because I was sleeping when the tour guide told the story so I had mum and lil bro narrating it to me over lunch. Hehe. After the visit to Tangkuban Parahu, we went to Sari Ater Hot Spring where there was a natural hot spring with healing properties and whatnot. We dipped our feet in the hot water for a few minutes before continuing our journey to a strawberry farm. We had lunch at the farm in its small huts and the foods are simply delicious. After lunch, we went shopping.

On the fourth day, we head back to Jakarta and went to Taman Mini Indonesia Indah. We only stopped at one house, which is the Rumah Minangkabau. After that, we went to Ancol, a wonderland or Dunia Fantasi or DuFan as they call it, ala Sunway Lagoon or Disneyland. Unfortunately it was raining when we went there and the stupid tour agency did not exactly include the visit to the DuFan. We were only taken around the DuFan in the bus. Pfft. Then we went to the Art Market, which is a park with artists exhibiting their work of art etc. *yawn* There was nothing much to do there and it was such a waste. Later at night, lil bro and I took the Bajai (a three-wheeled vehicle, similar to Tuk-Tuk in Thailand) from our hotel to the nearest shopping mall and had a fun time shopping. Mum did not follow us as she was too tired and something came up (which I shall deal with in another entry, Insyaallah). We shopped until the mall closed and then walked for about 10 minutes to the Hard Rock Café. HRC is situated in a big shopping mall but by the time we reached there, the shops were closed except for the cafes, restaurants and bars. There was even an F Bar! We then sat at the lounge and watched Jakarta people, who are extremely beautiful, stylish and good-looking. It was a Saturday night so lots of young people hung out at the place and I totally adore the way they dress.

Fifth day, we went to visit the Tugu Monumen Nasional a.k.a Tugu Monas, which is like our Dataran Merdeka. Took some pics and even took pics in front of the president’s palace. After that we went shopping like crazy at a huge shopping haven called Mangga Dua. Later in the evening we went to Plaza Senayan, a high-class shopping mall, just like our Pavilion and The Gardens.

On the last day, we walked to Pasar Tanah Abang, another shopping haven, which is just a 10 minute walk from our hotel. Some of the shops were not opened yet but we managed to buy some stuffs there. After lunch we went to Mangga Dua again and shopped somemore before heading to the airport. Our flight home was at 2200hrs but considering the horrible macet, we pushed off to the airport at 6pm and reached there at about 7pm. Thank God traffic was ok. We landed at KLIA at approximately 0130hrs, on Christmas Eve. On the way out of the airport, something happened to Mum, which I shall also deal with in another entry.

Since my internet connection is very very damn bloody f***ing slow at the moment, I will only insert pics later on as it will take forever to upload the pics and by the time it finished uploading, I would have boiled over. rasa macam nak baling je modem ni kat muka orang streamyx, boleh tak??