January 16, 2012

Greetings

Good day January the 16th, and happy new year 2012.

It’s been almost a month since my last post in this blog. Not that I have lost appetite, but frankly speaking, life has pretty much occupied me.

I had Christmas in Jayapura, and gotta tell you, it was amazing. Celebration has even started on early of December. 
Roman candles gorgeously painted the sky almost every night. Christmas trees stood delightfully in supermarkets. Beautiful ornaments embellish the city of Jayapura. It was certainly the time when the city exposed its charms. 

The next day, one of my housemate held a Christmas celebration. He invited me and other housemates for lunch. Various delicious main course menus were served, and perfected with cold beers!! Yay! (Fyi, I haven’t had a beer since I arrived in Jayapura which was like 7 months ago. It was kinda difficult to get one in Jayapura, so imagine how happy I was). 
The day turned great.  I had free meals, free beers,  and an awesome talk with the housemates.
Then, came the day that I’ve been waiting for: December 27th. The day that I went back home to Jakarta. 
I had a 07.45 am flight. The driver picked me up at 05.30 am.  It was raining constantly since midnight, and I was  jumpy, worrying that the flight was going to be delayed or even, canceled.  But again, I tried to make my self calm by thinking that it’s Boeing 737 ER that I’m going to hop on, not the Pilatus or Cessna Caravan. Indisputably, the big bird is sturdy enough to fight the drizzle.
I brought along my red doubledoor-fridge look-alike luggage. I filled it with clothes and books so I won’t be having much stuff left in Jayapura. Inside, I also packed a small rice cooker (inherited by my housemate), making my bag heavily loaded. It was in fact, 3 kg over (which went for free, thanks to the check in lady).
By 08.00 am, we have flown above the Sentani lake.

The voyage to transport me from the east most island to the capital J took about six hours. During that period,  I didn’t manage to have a proper sleep. We have to transit in Makassar, which each passenger obliged to get off the plane to obtain new boarding pass. It was seriously annoying, because we didn’t even change airplane! Oh c’mon,  Garuda allows the passenger to stay on board to rest, so why won’t you? Too bad, it wasn’t Garuda. It was budget airlines, and I got cheap tickets, so I just shoved my complaints back to my throat.

The suffer still continued. Soekarno Hatta airport was chaotic as usual, it took me about 45minutes waiting frustratingly at the conveyor belt to get my luggage. Also, Jakarta was very hot and humid that day. I felt it as soon as I stepped outside. My body yet validated it by showing allergic reaction. I had it straight away. The reaction rarely happened in Jayapura, confirming my suspicion that it’s triggered by J town's tainted air.

Instead of taking taxi, I took Damri bus to Bekasi. It was the right decision, since the traffic was friendly. Most of Jakartans already left the nest for out-of-country or out-of-city holiday.
I tried to sleep on the bus, but I couldn't. Guess I was just too excited :)

After 40 minutes, I reached the Damri station in Bekasi. I saw my mom and niece waiting at the parking lot.
I took my luggage out. I waved to them. I saw my mom smiling blissfully. 
At that moment, all misery and despair suddenly evaporated, and unconditional happiness took over. 


I am home. 

No comments:

Post a Comment