We felt like accessing a mind field for our 2nd part of our travel as the alert from the Bendera group in Jakarta stated of getting rid of Malaysians from their country. The Malaysia – Indonesia conflict was at climax as Malaysians were not advised to enter Jakarta but on the bright side the price ticket went as low as RM179 one way. That was a rare as usually bargain AirAsia tickets would only apply if you booked it for some of months before but not five days before. It turned out that Bandung was one best adventure I had.
We left for Jakarta on 2nd September (Thursday) after a week rest in Malaysia due to extension of our Visa stay for another 30 days. It was creepy all right wondering what might occur if we end in the middle of the conflict. Even Man was stuck at the immigration for some time, as they took advantages of the circumstance. As soon as we got out the airport, my concentrate on only wanted to get out of Jakarta, so we took the bus straight to Bandung for 75k Rp. Bandung was said to be a great place from most people we met along the way. It is located among the hills, so it rains usually but this time of the year the rain was more frequent due to global warming. The people here has fairer skin contrast to other Indonesians as their weather are always cool and so less sunlight. My eyes were wide open to see the beauties of Bandung. Bandung is the 4th largest city and is known as a posh district in Indonesia. We have a school friend Harizah, who is studying Medicine in Padjajaran University for six years and is on her final month to graduation. She was not around as she had to do her practical out of town, so she electronically introduced her course mate Amira. She gave us a stay at her boyfriend’s room (who was also out of town) at the hostel rented for mostly Malaysian students. We met Har the next day after she came back for the weekends. Earlier that day there was a demonstration in Dago about 10minutes drive from where we settled in Sukajadi. The demonstration was done at a Petronas Fuel station where they burned the Malaysian flag and pictures of our current prime minister. It gave us a rattle as phone messages amongst Malaysians were spread to stay in their homes and not to go out but still we went for a night hangout at the nearest shopping complex, Paris Van Java and oh my more beautiful girls all dressed up elegantly. We met Har’s close mates during her study in Bandung. Also met Rizal (the room that we stayed in) later that night and had numerous conversations. My questions toward him were my curiosity on medic students as my exposure was from TV sitcoms. Rizal told us that the dilemma here was always about money. Most of them do not have the funds to even pay the medical bills. It differs to Malaysia as usually our hospitals would do the surgery or medication first and worry about the bills later but it was vice versa here, if you do not have the money, you will ask to leave and bare with the problem you have. Insurances are mostly done by the rich but it was still not to be trusted because of scammers. The Indonesian government does help the poor citizens but the process itself is said too tedious and someone may presumably die before the right document & affirmation is done.
Dago & Riau in Bandung is the known places where factories outlet for cheap imitation clothing. We took a risk on going to Dago even though there was an Anti-Malaysia demonstration the day before. We even stopped at the Petronas station where it all happened to snap a few photos. The shopping complexes in Bandung reminded me of the ones we have in Malaysia particularly the night life along the Dago area. They have cafes and restaurants where mostly students and people from Jakarta hang outs. Jakarta citizens love to come down to Bandung during the weekends as it is only more a less 2-3 hours away. We met more of Har’s course mates for our break fasting as they had a gathering for a seafood dinner and therefore we get to know them a little better of their bizarre and tragic experiences throughout their internship in different locations. That Sunday I woke up really late (the long sleep that I needed) and hung out at Har’s place as we waited for break fast at nearby Nasi padang restaurant. Har left that evening to a new hospital location. It is requisite for the medic students to do their housemanship for six months before graduation. Every month they have various destinations. That night Khad brought me to Chiampelas road which was known as the jeans street. I realize that you can be posh at every level. Either you can buy the imitations which were very good on quality or if you have too much money, you just can spend it on the originals.
I had a mission in Bandung which turned out to be one highlight of my Indonesia trip. I was in search of a lost family which was related to my maternal Muar origins. My great uncle was involved in the World War II and somehow ended in Indonesia and met his other half in Bandung. Unfortunately he died in 2003 and since that our communication deteriorated. I only had an address gave from my uncle as he visited them in 1994. My dad lasts came about a few months before Arwah Pak Salleh died. It took me a while to look for it as the number of the house was 120 but I could only find 118 and next to it was an office block that put me in blunt situation. I was not about to give up as I know that I needed to look for them one way or another. As I wander around the office, I spotted there was a road behind it and to my relief I found it but there was no one around. I asked the neighbour and they told me to come at night. I went again and rang the bell of the house. They answered it but it was not them. I stated what my expectation was and gladly so the couple living there was the brother-in-law to arwah Pak Sallehs eldest daughter. He said that the family relocated out because the land was sold to a businessperson in Jakarta for four billion rp. His family also were about to move out in a few days and I guess it was meant to be that we met. He called up Pak Sukandar and told him about my arrival and later his eldest, Hendra picked me up to their new home in Chiangjuang which they moved in about five months ago. Pak Sukandar was married to Ibu Tuti (arwah Pak Salleh’s eldest daughter) and had a son Hendra. Pak Salleh was close to my grandpa Atok Ahmad because they were about the same age. Both parties did some visiting to one another countries during the 80’s and 90’s. Also that night, arwah Pak Salleh’s wife came to the house to greet me and she was blooming happily as she said that she prayed for this to happen because since the passing of her husband there was no news or much contact among the two families. Id never met any one of them before and my family went for a trip to Bandung a year before I was born. Hendra himself went to Malaysia with arwah Pak Salleh in 1995 and during that time my family was in England. I decided to stay at their house until Raya Aidilfitri where I can meet up the whole generation at arwah Pak Salleh’s house. Hendra showed me more of Bandung. He brought us to the notable Administrative Gedung Sate, shopping factories and had the two attempts going up the hill area to see the view but out of despair it rained whenever we were up there. He also took me to arwah Pak Salleh’s house in Rajawali timur where pictures were seen of the past of us Malaysian family visiting in Indonesia and the other way round. There was even an album of pictures sent from Malaysia. It seemed that my arwah grand uncle Hassan, Uncle Malik, Pak Pid, Pak Kob and my family was the ones in touch before my arrival in Bandung.
The day that I have awaited most finally attained. Spending the Raya Aidilfitri with my family that I had never met in Bandung was a blessing. I woke up late that day but in time for Aidilfitri prayers. I put on my baju raya melayu but when I was at the mosque it felt like I was overdressed as people would stare and wonder who this guy is? So I kept close to Hendra and Pak Sukandar, so I do not feel out of place. Relatives of Pak Sukandar came to the house after Aidilfitri prayers and later before noon we went to nenek's (opah for me) house at Rajawali timur and met my unknown family. Nenek had the seven children, more than a bunch of grandchildren and some great grandchildren. I felt like a celebrity for a while with my raya dress up and relatives wanting to know of my Malaysian routes. Stories were exchange, old pictures were shown & new ones were taken and the foods were delicious as rendang and ketupat was the basic but there were plenty of others that I never had before which bloated my stomach. There were about 30 of us cramping inside the little house but it was joyful of course, the only problem that I encountered is the Sunda language that they communicate amongst one another. Besides that it felt like Muar in the 90’s. Also did my Friday prayers nearby the house. I met so many people till I forgot to ask their names. Later we went at Pak Sukandar’s family house. Their house was slightly wealthier and he too had a big family. Pak Sukandar’s father, Sukarya (deceased) was best friends with arwah Pak Salleh as they were soldiers during the World War II and they both fought for Indonesian independence. Both eldest children were married to each other (regarding to Pak Sukandar and wife). It was an emotional end leaving and saying my goodbye’s to the family. I surely hope they visit Malaysia someday as we were connected again.
As promised, Khad, Man & I had to carry on with our journey. Khad was craving for the waves and we intended we would head there once the Ramadhan was over. We took an economy train that night which cost us only 24k Rp. but the predicament was when the arrival of the train. It was so full that we cannot even enter the train, as people block the doors only for the police to be aggressive with them. It was Raya Aidilfitri and everyone wanted to go home. The economy train just kept on selling their tickets without limitation. To our desperation, we saw some Indonesians climbing outside in between two trailers, so we took a chance on that and it was one of my craziest train ride for the next nine hours outside the train. Lucky it was night time and our vision was limited, so it was not that scary but to snooze off was a bad idea as we had to look out for one another so we would not fall off. We stayed at Jogjakarta for two nights to catch our rest and took off again to Bayuwangi in an economy train for 35k Rp. but this was worst. The train departed from Jogja so we managed to get seats but everyone kept on coming in and not coming out at each train stop. Witnessing all this from my seat where I was stuck on to for 16 hours as we could not move elsewhere or it will be taken. We reached Bayuwangi late midnight and stayed in the mosque till the next morning as we took our surfboards and left for Bali again.
We had about 12days left before our flight back, so we decided to spend it with the waves in Bali. We wanted to go to Lombok but by that time we ran out of money. We went to four different destinations in search for good waves and Kuta was our base. I surfed at Uluwatu, Canggu and Berambangan where the waves went up to eight foot only for me to get wipe out but it was a great experience. All in all I find my Bandung was the best place because of the location among the hills, the beauties, cheap clothes etc and most of all getting in touch with my Bandung family.
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