Ind-ONE-sia

Jika sebelum ini,biasanya kalau nak sambut New Year,mesti nak plan yang gempak-gempak..Nak Boxing Day kat London laa,Melbourne laa,Singapore,Hong Kong,nak shopping laa sangatttt kononnya..huhu...Pastu nak countdown on the New Year's Eve kat Amsterdam laa,Paris laa,New York laa,apa laaa dan macam-macam tempat lagi..Cakap mesti lebattttttt..huhu!Paling cikai pun at least lepak Bukit Bintang,or The Curve main spray-spray orang..

The truth is,I celebrated New Year only twice in my whole life..New Year has never been a big deal for me..Not even that Millenium new year in 2000..1st of January usually is just like all those normal days..

Tapi kali ini,ianya berbeza...This year,there wasn't any plan too..But guess what??..This time,the new year turned out to be one of my most memorable new year..No Amsterdam,no Bukit Bintang,no Singapore,no party but this time I went to a place called Jember,East Java...Gua pun tak pernah dengar tempat ni..huhu..It's 4-5 hours drive from the city of Surabaya..This time,it's not a vacation..It's kinda 'reality check' on my life.. Kali ini,tahun baru saya dimulai dengan menyelami kehidupan masyarakat kampung di tanah seberang..:-)

Mbak Atin,asal dari Jawa Timur,has served the family as our maid for the last 4 years..She wanted to go back home because of some family matters.. But then,there were some complications (panjang ceritanya).. So,my sister decided to follow her back to Indonesia to make sure everything is ok..Lalu saya pun diambil menjadi bodyguard-cum-cameraman mereka..heheh!Lu jangan ingat senang kerja ni wei..Cuba imagine,pegi Indo just 2 days after the final bola AFF aritu..Silap2 gua pun kene naik kereta perisai tauuuu..Tapi sebab muka gua ngan muka Bambang pun tak jauh mana,muka ala-ala Jakarta gak,so things shud be fine laa kut..hehe!

Jadi dari situ,bermulalah sebuah perjalanan...Indonesia,rupa-rupanya adalah sebuah negara yang banyak mempunyai rahsia kehidupan..

Land of Risk

Dalam perjalanan ke Jember,kami diberitahu bahawa Gunung Bromo,an active volcano,baru meletus 3 hari sebelumnya,(-last eruption of Mount Bromo took place in 2004 and killed two people) and a potential volcano eruption might take place at any time.. News kat sini- http://www.suarakarya-online.com/news.html?id=269195 ..Kalau meletus,kata mereka debu volcanic tu akan sampai ke kampung yang kami akan tinggal,which is around 100km far from the mountain..Hmm..tak tau nak react macam mana..Because we never experienced that in Malaysia kan..Tapi cara diorang cerita tu macam rilek2 jer,so kitorg pun rilek gak aaa.. Takkan kita lak nak cuak lebih..So buat dek jer ler..huhu..

Lapindo

from our view

Then,on our way jugak,kami ditunjukkan satu kawasan seluas 450 ekar,lebih dikenali sebagai Lapindo,yang tenggelam oleh lumpur volcanic..It is the biggest volcanic mudflow in the world,created by the blowout of a natural gas..Bayangkan,satu bandar atau boleh kata satu daerah,abis tenggelam dengan lumpur panas menjadi sebuah tasik besar...Abis semua sekolah-sekolah,sawah padi,pasar,kedai-kedai,kampung-kampung semua.. Yang tinggal sekarang hanya nampak atap kilang-kilang dan bangunan-bangunan yang tinggi sikit..Exactly from the place we stood,we can see the hot gas blowing out clearly..This tragedy just happened in 2006,and it is expected that the mudflow will continue for another 30 years at least..Insaf gua sekejap..~ God bless those victims...Aminnn..~

dangerous,but still jadi tempat tourist

Land of Pure Hospitality

After 4-5 hours journey,we arrived just before maghrib in kampung Kak Atin,dikenali sebagai Desa Patemon (bukan Pokemon ya..),near Tanggul,30kms away from Jember.. On the way,lalu kampung Inul Darasita,tapi tak pegi laa umah dia..kalau tak,dah sah2 gua stay situ,tak jadi pegi kampung Kak Atin..huhu!..Anyway, sampai jer kat kampung Kak Atin,orang kampung dan sedara mara dia dah duk menunggu datang sambut Kak Atin,kitorg pun join semangkuk laa..huhu! Dan seterusnya we stayed at their place for 3 days and 2 nights..:-)

Sudah lama sebenarnya saya tak merasai kehidupan begini...Kampung life..A basic life..Jadi,adapting to a kampung lifestyle sepanjang 3 hari tu is a must..I have to take care of a few things..Makan,pakaian,tingkah laku, percakapan dan sebagainya..Sebab kita mungkin majikan di Malaysia,tapi di situ,saya dan Kak Ngah hadir sebagai tetamu..Adab sebagai tetamu perlu dijaga..:-)

This is my first time experiencing the kampung lifestyle in Indonesia..Frankly speaking,I do think that sometimes I need to experience this kind of things once in a while in my life..Kadang-kadang,oleh sebab kita leka dengan kesenangan dan kemewahan,kadang-kadang kita lupa pada kehidupan-kehidupan yang basic..Kan??

Mandi air sejuk,no iced drinks at home,no air-conditioning,no vehicle of transportation of our own,no internet,no handphone lines,no cable tv,no piped water,no Gucci,no Armani,no computers,Ipad,Blackberry or whatsoever..Those branded things has no value here..

And the best thing is,not having those things above is not a problem at all..:-)..Life is good..

Saya juga first time experience seeing the life in pesantren..Di kampung kak Atin ada sebuah pesantren yang terkenal di Jawa Timur,especially dalam bidang ilmu falak..Ada banyak ulamak-ulamak terkenal di Indonesia yang mendapat pendidikan awalnya di sini..Orang Jawa Timur memang agak kuat dari segi keagamaan.. At least setiap 200-300 meter,mesti ada surau di mana-mana pelosok..Rasa macam wartawan 'Majalah 3' pulak time gua pergi situ..huhu..Saya ditemani Saiful,seorang ustaz muda berjalan-jalan di kawasan sekitarnya, sambil diberikan penerangan tentang kehidupan di pesantren,sejarah dan asal-usulnya..Sementara kami sibuk mengambil gambar dan berbincang mengenai pesantren tersebut,si kecil Nadiah pula,tidak boleh lekang dari saya..

Saiful mengajar budak-budak mengaji tiap-tiap malam..

Si Nadiah ni pulak panggil gua Om Azrul...hehe! She's a very smart girl,who can answer every single questions that came out of me..Mesti nak ikut ke mana-mana saya pergi..Siap ponteng sekolah sebab nak ikut hantar kitorg balik ke kota Surabaya on our last day there..She's the same age with my niece,Nana.. According to the locals here,the fees for school is very expensive..In fact,more expensive than Malaysia..They have to work hard to make sure their kids can get into school every year..Itu belum masuk belanja buku dan pakaian sekolah..Kerajaan tidak mampu untuk memberi bantuan kepada semua kerana rakyatnya terlalu ramai..I am gonna make sure that Nadiah get everything she needs to be in school.. It's gonna be a pity if a girl as smart as her couldn't get the chance to excel and get a proper education..The father died in an accident not so long ago..Comel budaknya..

cheerful Nadiah

I really enjoyed my days in Patemon...I got a traditional massage from one makcik kampung sampai merah satu badan,dapat mandi hujan,makan tempe tiap-tiap hari,hisap Gudang Garam,mandi kolam air bukit,naik beca,sawah padi,duduk bercerita pasal bola final dengan orang-orang Indonesia (Safee Sali adalah Malaysian yang paling popular di Indonesia sekarang,selain Upin&Ipin..huhu..),dan macam-macam lagi,etc.. Hilang rasa nak pegi Bali dalam 3 hari tu..FYI,Bali is just 5 hours (by car + ferry) from Jember..Dah dekat sangat...

Also,lepak-lepak with some of them who used to work in Malaysia,listened to their stories..Bad and good experiences.. Malam biasanya lepas sembahyang maghrib berjemaah,makan,then tengok sinetron-sinetron terkini kat RTCI (kat Malaysia tak kuar lagi), pastu minum kopi,either at home or warung tepi jalan,tengok-tengok cewek.. Ada gak yang cun,tapi tengokkk jer lerrr..huhu..tak berani aku buat pasal..

Then after 3 days in Jember,baru kitorg ke Surabaya..I just got to know then that Surabaya is actually the 2nd largest city in Indonesia,after Jakarta..Punya teruk knowledge aku..huhu!..We stayed in the city for 2 nights in a lovely hotel that was built during the Dutch occupancies in 1910's..Driver taxi cakap hotel tu berhantu,tapi buat tak reti dah lerr..dangggg!..Surabaya was tooo big,takleh cover in 2 days..Jadi masa 2 hari tu dipenuhkan dengan lepak dua shopping malls sahaja..Tak berjalan ke mana-mana pun..They said Surabaya is an industrial city,so we were assuming the same thing..

But eventhough it's a big city,I still met some nice people during my stay there..:-)..Watched Gita Gutawa's movie "Love in Perth" on my last night in Plaza Tunjungan.. Will write a review about that movie soon..

Overall, I think Indonesia is a very nice country with plenty of exciting stories.. Would definitely find any opportunity to explore the beautiful land more and more in the future.. There are so many things to be seen and learned from Indonesia and the people.. Culturally,spiritually,socially and what I love most,..politically...

-Love for Indonesia-