Hi guys! A little while ago I posted about my trip home to Indonesia and holiday to China, along with my family. It was a good trip and I really enjoyed it. I needed to go back to Indonesia for the police and character check for applying for permanent residency in Australia. Of course, as I have stated in my previous post, I can do it in two ways, the official or unofficial way, by going back to Indonesia and take care of it, or having it done from here with some “help” from fellow Indonesians. It was a no-brainer to me, as I didn’t want to violate the law.
So I went back to Indonesia for taking care of that, and for holiday. My family planned to go to China, but you can see all those in the previous post. In this post, however, I will focus on the Indonesian trip, albeit with minimal pictures displayed.
I arrived in Medan, Indonesia, which is my hometown. A small, yet modern city, which is currently (as of 2011, I believe) the fourth largest city in Indonesia after Jakarta, Surabaya and Bandung. Now, despite the title of being the fourth largest, it is still a small town where you can go from one place to another with only 30 minutes maximum (unless you get caught in a mild traffic jam).
Telling the truth, I don’t quite like my hometown. It’s not as orderly as Australia, or even Surabaya and Jogja, and the humidity just soar through the roof. I had to change shirts every two hours or so. And not mentioning the people, so judgmental and not yet modernised. And both my parents know the fact that I don’t quite like being in Medan. The things that make me going back to Medan, are the fact that my family and my girlfriend’s family live there.
This time in Medan, I had the chance to meet two of my best mates, one of them currently live in Medan (he studied in the UK, though), and one of them studying in Kuala Lumpur. We hadn’t met for years, and it was such a pleasure to be able to meet them. I also asked my other friends to come by, but they couldn’t (with their obviously obvious reasons). I guess that’s what separates best mates from friends, huh?
I also had the chance to go to Surabaya and Jogja. Surabaya is the second largest city in Indonesia. It’s a mix of highly modern Jakarta, with some of the rural areas. It’s a very nice city to live in, and the people are very welcoming, much better than Medan. Unfortunately, though, I only had two days in Surabaya, as I had to go to Jogja.
Jogja is one of the largest cities in Indonesia, dubbed as the student’s city. Jogja is actually even smaller than Medan, as I can still remember most of the streets in Jogja, but the people in Jogja are very, very, very polite. Its traditional values are still kicking in, and they are given a status as a special administrative region called the Kesultanan (literally, kingdom).
My girlfriend and I planned to meet in Jogja for just 3 (yep, you read that right, THREE) days, along with my family, since my younger sister currently lives in Jogja along with my grandparents. We (me and my girlfriend) had a great time in Jogja as we went to Prambanan Temple. Here’s the picture of one of the Prambanan temples (and I believe this is the only picture I got from my Indonesian trip):
One of the temples in the Prambanan complex
I always find Jogjakarta (the longer name of Jogja) fascinating, as it manages to keep its traditional values in the midst of the modern world. We tried to go to the Keraton (which literally translates to palace), but it was closed because there were going to be a traditional ceremony called sekaten the next day. For you tourists, I would advise you to not only go to Bali when you go to Indonesia, but Jogja as well. It’s only roughly 2-hours flight from Bali anyways (and besides, it’s way cheaper than Bali).
So, all in all, my trip back home to Indonesia (and to China) was very enjoyable, to say the least. I had the chance to see my girlfriend, my family, and also made some trips I’ve never done before. My only regret was I didn’t take enough pictures to show it to you guys.
But anyways, I am currently playing Pokemon White version, as it was just released a week ago. Now, hopefully by next post I am able to post a review of this game. So until then, see you next post…!
jovee~