Sudden trip

my college friend, Bayu said he wanted to go to Cirebon to visit some rattan industries. since he promised me a long time ago to show me the industries, he asked me and some of my friends to come along. at first i hesitated because i imagined it will be a long ride and i could get carsick as usual. at the same time, i'm also curious. so after thinking about it for two days i decided to come along. together with Bintang and Dian. (seems it's always the four of us that always hanging out together, since we're the ones with the least things to do.)

we departed from Bandung at five in the morning. the road, as i expected turned out to be the one that could get me carsick but this time i came prepared (tolak angin and koyo!!)

after three visits to the industries, we headed out for lunch. we had nasi jamblang near the harbor. nasi jamblang is a dish that served on top of teak leaves. we only got the rice and sambal, for the side dish we are free to choose whatever we like and pay according to what we had.

Dian and I insisted to look at the keraton before we went home, it's just around the corner. the boys agreed since it's still noon. we parked the car and a man came to us with a parking ticket. now, i already think Jakarta's parking ticket is expensive, but this aji mumpung guy gave us the ticket with Rp. 10.000 on it. not printed, but hand written. refused to start a fight so we payed. :(

one thing that embarrassed me a lot about this country, the superstitious stupidity that tells people to throw coins in every single thing. literally. in front of every object in this keraton, stood a chair or table and several people around it banging the top of the chair saying "ayo nyawer dulu!" with a pushy manner. the whole place smell with kemenyan, and even we saw a woman that wipe one of the "sacred" object intensely like she hope she'll get some fortune out of it. i mean, come on! for crying out loud.

we decided to get out of keraton and headed home. the stupidity was unbearable, then we sat under a tree for a while just to see our surroundings. we realized the tomorrow is Maulid Nabi, and it's a ritual in this area to visit the keraton or what we call 'ziarah'. this was my first time (our first time) to encounter something like this, so yeah, we're in shock.

"magic"

How this country still survives really is something needs to be asked. I don't usually do any comments about it, however,everything that had happened lately was just too amusing. Started with the future-president-to-be that involved a dangdut singer that knows nothing about this countries issue except for "i want to make Indonesia a moslem country, and people will back me up since they want a moslem president that's nationalist, not a nationalist that happened to be moslem." next is the menpora (youth and sport minister?? Not sure it is in english) resigned because he involved in some kind of infamous corruption (duh! Like he's the only one in this country. If that's the case the president himself should resign also). Since the position was empty, the president had to choose a new person to fill in. And menpora that stands for menteri pemuda dan olahraga' now meant 'menteri photoshop dan rekayasa' why? because the one chosen is someone whose a top notch in that area. He usually be the one the reporters came to whenever there's a nude picture of our celebrities. So that guy, now a minister. 

As i had my coffee this morning, another person came out. He said he's also ready to be a president. He thinks people will pick him because he saved 4 people from death sentence (he's a lawyer i guess) the punch is, he will use "sumpah pocong" as a sentece to any corruptors in this country. A well educated student that has became lawyer that freed 4 people from death sentence, consider the king of dangdut as his main opponent, will apply "sumpah pocong" as a sentence. I'm just lost for words. 

If one of them elected to be a president. Anyone please, help me to get out of this.country. I cannot let myself be ruled by one of those idiots. I don't want to witness this country crumble even worse than it already is in the hands of a singer or a stupid lawyer. Or an old lady who still believed she could make a difference by always bringing up her belated father that built this country the first time. Ma'am, the time passed. We wont forget your father, but women, please, you're not your father.

grief

i lost my camera in Seoul, so i couldn't post any picture. i'd still share the stories and info (i always found interesting info from blogs, other than traveling books, so maybe my info can help somebody one day) but there'll be so little pictures because i could only rely on my phone camera and my mom's phone camera.

so i'm still hanging the flag half way for my orange casio, not for the camera itself, but for the memories it carries. (indonesian tradition when a hero dies, bendera setengah tiang)