Le voyage a chez moi

A homebound trip | 家鄉之旅

News of Andre's wedding came like a lightning strike. We never expected him to get married so soon, we just knew he had just separated with a girlfriend. My youngest aunt referred to it as "Cinta Kilat", I still remember the old rhyme, "Kalau cinta sedang melekat, taik kodok pun rasanya coklat." Maybe he's just in love and made a haphazard decision or maybe he had it well thought out. Whether he has his head cold or hot, I bet it's the best decision. He ain't young anymore. Though man are like wine, that's not a way to live unless you're an esteemed Casanova.

We bought two tickets for Taipei Jakarta. We flew with Cathay Pacific, the most famous, or should I say notorious for long delays. My aunts and Andre's elder sister, fifi left the day before on Eva Air. We have little time to prepare and had a last minute shopping for gifts. Our flight was Feb 21 ETD 13:30 Taipei time and we arrived at the airport two hours earlier to check in. We had two transits in Hongkong and Singapore. At the passenger waiting gate in Hongkong, I broke the ice with an Okasan from Japan who was having a tour to Srilanka. It's good practice for my rusting Japanese. I managed to hold the convo for about ten minutes with all might.



Despite the long flight and transits, I enjoy the food on board and Vicky was drunk on red wine. Our last transit was in Singapore where I helped a Hyderabad mama-ji to take a snapshot of her in Changi airport. We arrived in Jakarta at 21:30 Jakarta time. I took the biggest Silver bird taxi down to Pluit residential, my uncle's place. We were planning to stay at my bro's dorm and hotel, but ended up with the economy of staying at uncle's place. It was dark and quiet when we stopped at his doorstep. He doesn't have a doorbell, so I have to yell and knock on the gate until the housekeeper came out and opened the door. It turned out that my uncle was out entertaining a dinner and my uncle's wife ushered us in and showed us to our room.

The next day we woke up early. Vicky dressed in blue, I put on my suit and nekutai and we rushed down to Andre's place on his Suzuki sedan. When we arrived, my eldest uncle and his friend was there in the living room. All the females went out to the salon for makeup and hairdo. They came back one after another chauffeured in Suzuki 4 wheels drive. I introduced Vicky to everyone and took a seat on the sofa. We're having breakfast of tea and fried 年糕 [nian2 gao1] and all kind of traditional cakes. Finally all the aunts and my mom were back. I gave mom a hug and hold the tears of long forlorn wait for reunion. Mom took Vicky by the hand and looked at her cap a pie. They can't talk each other without me translating. Mom doesn't speak mandarin and Vicky doesn't speak Bahasa nor Hakka.



My brother John soon arrived in his shadowy F4 like hairstyle dressed in sleek suit and tie. He said the bride and groom will soon arrived. Andre's gone to a destined hotel to pick up the bride. They arrived a while later escorted by the bridesmaid and photographers. When Andre's and his bride stepped down from the white limousine, in his tuxedo suit and smooth polished hairstyle, he looked like Hui Man Keung in the "Shanghai Bund", an old classic 港片 [gang3 pian4] we loved watching..According to the customs, the bride were hurriedly ushered to her room. When the seats were prepared, the groom led the the bride down to the living room to start the ceremonial 倒茶 [dao4 cha2]. Each elder were to be seated and congratulated with a cup of tea from the beautiful ceramic teapot after which the elders handed out gifts of jewelry or red packets.



After this ceremony, the bride and groom were led back to the white limousine and rushed down to the church of Ignatius in Menteng area. Me and Vicky hitchhiked on uncle's car and sped down to the church too. We had a hard time finding the church as noone in the car knows where it was. After a couple of calls, and inquiries to the streetwalkers we finally parked in the churchyard. When we walked down to the front door, we were brooched with flowers and gifts of teddy bear was distributed. We went in, dipped our fingers in the holy water and made a sign of the cross. We were seated on the third row. On our front left were the choir and pianist ready for action. Hendra gave me handycam and asked me to do some shooting during the mass. I did my best for this is the first time I use a handycam and neither do I know the trick in shooting short documentary. The mass started with father welcoming everyone to the wedding, followed by the songs and reading from the scriptures. Then the matrimonial oath and the sign of marital contract. Father gave advises to stay thru the storms and waves in their marriage. An important message is the word of "Cinta"- Love cannot be put together with "Jika"- If, but must be put together with "Meskipun"- Eventhough. As in, I love you eventhough you're fat and old and living from hand to mouth."



After the church mass, we went back to have a rest and prepared for the evening banquet. Me and Vicky took the opportunity to windowshop in Taman Anggrek Mall. We went to eat my favourite Saint Cinnamon, and Le Kebab. Love to eat these delicacies I couldn't find in Taiwan. I took Vicky to see the indoor Skating rink on the top floor and we went to Rimo to look for clothes. We went back to Aunt's place at four pm, we stopped on the way to buy the crunchy favorite "Pisang Goreng" - fried banana. I bought fifteen thousand rups of banana and went back to the car. It was such a long wait in the line. Hearsay they bought a lot of these half cooked fried banana and resold it in Hongkong. What a great business idea.
When we reached the house, we sat down on the sofa and enjoy the delicious pisang goreng. We watched some cable and chat about taiwan politics and life in general. When it was six thirty pm, all the girls were dressed up in evening gowns, and we were ready to drive down to the restaurant. I stayed with the Andre's chauffeur this time. Twenty minutes later we were parked in front of Central Chinese Restaurant in Tomang Raya.



The waitress in long red high slitted shanghai dress ushered us to the banquet hall where all the tables were decorated. We took the same table with my eldest uncle and try to mingle with the silence. My uncles doesn't speak much nor his children. Well I do not speak much either especially when I have a sorethroat. We were served chinese tea and orange juice and the main meal was a long wait. The bride and groom were waiting for important guest to make their appearance. Andre's boss did finally come and congratulate him which is a great honor to him and his family. We started eating soon after the meals were served. It was decent meal we had, I love the shark fin soup and those Chinese delicacies. After the meals, the bride and groom approached each table and gave a box of chocolate to everybody in replace of wine toast. The bride and groom don't drink. They really have modified the customs a lot, even during the tea serving, nothing red were seen on the wall.



After the meals, the bride and groom invited close friends to take pictures for souvenir. Me and Vicky also took picture with the bride and groom. When the party was over, we stayed with eldest aunt and drove back to her place. It was not until eleven something, my uncle came and picked us up back to his place.

The next morning, we woke up early and stroll down to Mega Mall. I took Vicky on local bus which scared her much with all the angry looking, stern eyed locals in the bus. The seats were old and torn, dirty and stinks. Once we got off the bus, she swore she would never go on a bus again in Jakarta. We met Jeffrey Tan at his Quality Hotel in Pangeran Jayakarta. We waited until Jeff redressed and Vicky took the time to fax her work back to Taipei. It costed 90,000 rups to fax two sheet of papers. Daylight robbery! Anyway, we took a blue bird down to Thamrin main street and stopped at Starbucks. I had a long discussion and future plan with Jeff about Chinese Squabble. He is going to market it in Malaysia and Singapore under a different brandname. We wrapped up our talk at about two thirty and went accross the street to Chilis steak bar for a lunch. It was a collie's portion of Fajitas, I couldn't finish the plate. It wasn't a Chinese resto, so I was reluctant to ask for doggy back, besides, I ain't keep no dog.



Snipping my Heinekenn, we catched up popular topics of different cultures in Taipei, Jakarta and Malaysia. Confirming Ben's question on languages. Ben was Jeff's buddy who travel with him down to Jakarta for sightseeing. All the four or us got diarhhea when we got home. We suspect it was the chillis, but yet we couldn't prove it. It might be other stuff we ate or just a change of climate did our stomaches bad.

We bode fareweall to eachother, and headed our own way. We took a cab back to Pluit where Mom and John were expecting. That night, lot's of pressure from the family to push us to marriage. Mom, seeing all her peer's children getting married felt there's no way why his son couldn't. I had to brave the storm of pressure and promised them a deadline of next year. God knows by then. Vicky was crying on my shoulder saying she felt too much pressure from my family. I assure her it was just that the marriage of Andre's that propagated this all. My moms left back to Pemangkat early the next morning, we saw her off to the pickup car. That day we were free, we took a cab down to eldest aunt place. I packed up the remaining Chinese Squabble cards in the trolley bag so we could easily bring it back to Taipei. We saw Tingting, Fifi and Aliang's daughter playing in the living room. I asked them whether they want to go out. I called ICE to make sure she was free. She confirmed a minute later, and decided to drive us out to Seaworld in Ancol. The seaworld entry tiekets are not cheap and it wasn't anything to compare with Hongkong's and Taiwan's. We saw Mermaid, Sharks, starfishes, giant turtles. When we pass thru the giant aquarium tunnel, we saw a man swimming next to the sharks. It was so close, as if we can touch the fishes.



After a tour in the seaworld, we stopped at the beach and enjoy the soft warm sea breeze. We exchanged in pleasing gestures and took pictures of us at the beach. We went back to the car, and ICE drove us to Petojo street, where we had "Otak-otak" - literally translated as brains, is a delicacies of fish meat and flour knead grilled on the oven. We had giant glass of young coconut ice, and I have a special Kopyor coconut ice. After this rendezvous, ICE drove us back to eldest aunt's place, and we were trapped in Jakarta's rush hour. We thanked ICE and bode farewell with her as we entered the house and she was still busy dealing on her red siemens mobile.



We refused Andre's invitation to take us out for dinner and instead went back on Fifi's chaufeured car as she also needed to see a doctor to treat her fever on the same way to Pluit. That night, I called Purwandy, and he came by at eight pm to pick us up. We went down to Taman Cafe in Pantai Indah Kapuk. Where you have a big garden cafe with stage of singers and comedians. I catched up a lot with Pur, and Vicky was bored and resorted to watching those singers. Pur showed us the photos of his wife and new born daughter. She looks just like her mom. We left at about nine thirty to meet Pur's curfew now he was a married man. On the way to the gate, It was like God's destiny that I met long lost old friends. I shook hand with Lilie, Pit-Lie, Tjutju, and Evy and introduced Vicky to them. We have a short exchanged and bode goodbye to eachother. We went home to uncle's place and start packing for our flight to Bali the next morning.




I woke up at five thirty, and went down for a meager breakfast. I saw my uncle woke and Vicky also woke up and got dressed. We left for the airport CGK at six am. We bode goodbye to my uncle and proceeded to the checkin counter. It was one an a half hour flight and we arrived in Ngurah Rai airport at 10:15 am. Bali time is one hour faster than Jakarta. We claimed our baggage and hired a taxi down to SeaView Hotel in Kuta beach.