Sunday, November 21, 2004

Finally managed to get my lazy ass off bed n went downstairs to blog. So here’s what happened to me in the past 2 weeks :

Leaving Jkt on Nov. 6th, 8 hours flight headed to Abu Dhabi with Gulf Air (with flight attendants that successfully gave me d feeling of being in a military camp) and bukapuasa di pswt menurut waktu setempat, which is 20:00 wib! T_T *sniff*

Nginep di Abu Dhabi.. nice hotel.. oversize rooms and landscapes (no complaining here xp) and continue our journey d next day. Off to Jeddah. Sampe sana langsung drove to Madinnah, arrived at sahur, langsung makan di hotel Anwar Al Madina, beautiful 5-star hotel, only 20 meters from the Nabawi mosque. Couple of days later we headed to Mecca, stopped at Bir Ali mosque buat ngambil miqot –niat umroh dan yg cowo changed their clothes with pakaian ihram- which has a very beautiful garden, ga berasa lagi di daerah padang pasir..

Sampe Mecca abis naro barang2 di apartemen, langsung ke Masjidil Haram. First thing u should know about me is that I HATE CROWDS. Dan disana the sight of hundreds of millions of people struggling to get inside the holy mosque frightened me to death. I was like, “uh.. mum.. do we REALLY NEED to get in there??” and yes, she dragged me in without even bother to answer.

Puasa2, thawaf muterin Ka’bah 7x along with God knows how many other people crammed around it, lack of oxygen, tired and all worn out, thank God I’m with my family. We made it anyway, trus duduk di dalem mesjid nunggu waktu bukapuasa. Standar, kurma sama air zamzam. (And I STILL CAN’T drink it without getting nauseated!!! Whyyyyy??????? O_o**)

Pas Sa’i, mondar mandir 7x between Shafa-Marwah, ga jauh beda menderita sama kaya pas Thawaf. Bener-bener deh.. Umroh Ramadhan tuh jauh lebih rame dari musim haji.. mana hari gue umroh sengaja dijadwalin tgl.27 (Lailatul Qadr) biar afdol.. well I should’ve known better that millions of other Moslems juga berpikiran sama kaya rombongan gue..

Back to our dingy apartment. Gue baru liat kamar mandi ukuran 0,5mx1,5m.. ^_^” (I resisted the urge of bitching on the holy land..)

Besoknya city tour ke Mina, Arafah, Jabal Rahmah (tempat Adam-Hawa ketemu lagi abis kepisah 300thn) dan katanya klo berdoa disitu dpt jodoh. Tempting! Heheheheh .. tp begitu ngliat tempatnya mesti manjat dulu keatas bukit (tanpa ada fasilitas tangga..), yah wassalam deh.. gue cuma naek ke kaki bukit, berdoa disitu trus turun lagi. My brother went all d way to the top. Niat lu yey! Huhuhu..

Pulang dari sana pada Umroh lagi (sunnah). Gue ga ikut, due to personal reasons.

Oh and I was robbed right in front of Masjidil Haram, by 4 women who pretend to be beggars tapi sebenernya rampok. They took my pda-phone. YES, my lovely PALM TUNGSTEN W with the new simcard!!! Fuuuuuuug!!! *cries*

Gue ga dapet taraweh disana.. baruuu mau taraweh pas abis Isya tau2 dari arah istana ada bunyi ledakan petasan dan orang2 pada keluar dari mesjid sambil takbiran! And I was like, “Huh? What’s going on??” *clingak clinguk*

Ternyata di Mecca lebaran tgl 13.. huhuhu.. surprise surprise! v(^o^)v

Gw yg hrsnya plg tgl 14 di delay jadi tgl 15.. dan liburan di Mecca itu garing juga yey.. udaranya panas bgt, debu, dan as a female Moslem gue harus pake baju yg ‘bener’.. huhuhu.. tertutup from head-to-toe.. YES, banana, your lovely baby-hentai managed to behave well by putting on some decent clothing in the holy land! (iyalah, daripada dirajam.. huhuhu T_T’’)

Yah pokonya akhirnya pulang juga, ke Jeddah dulu, city tour, liat laut merah sama mesjid terapung (only one comment on Jeddah: Big city with too much wealth sampe ga tau mesti diapain lagi uangnya, makanya they spent most of it on artistic sculptures on the seashore sama di bunderan jalan). Two thumbs up for the landscape work. Two thumbs down for the weather. Panasnya sinnj…

Dari Jeddah ke Abu Dhabi, transit doang 5 menit langsung cabs ke Bahrain.

Bahrain… also a very beautiful city.. with overrated price on everything!!! Maybe its because of the currency.. 1 Bahrain Dinar is worth US$ 2.70 !!! berarti… Rp.25rb??? DAAAAMNNNNNN!!! It costs me almost 100rb buat ngupi2 at Seattle Coffee near the hotel.. and the friggin ice mocha wasn’t even that good!! Hah!! Enakan hot choco pesenan babe gue.. ugh.. (great hotel, btw. They didn’t called it Elite Hotel for nothing.. my room.. was one of the most beautiful room I ever see.. lengkap dengan its own dining room and living room and separated bedroom.. beeyooootiful!)

I bought a brown leather-strapped DKNY watch at the airport’s dutyfree. Finally, gue pake jam lagi! sejak my Guess?Watch ilang pas SMP, gue ga pernah pake jam lagi.

Nice airport, btw. As good as Singapore’s Changi. Which is my next destination.

After 10hours flight, we finally arrived at Spore. Gue flu berat, muka gue dah merah semua gara2 demam sejak dari Bahrain, gue dah takut stuck di immigration ga bole masuk spore gara2 bawa penyakit.. tp lolos kok *phew*

I spent my 1st day in spore lying in bed at the Lion City Hotel, while d rest of my family went shopping at orchard. Luckily mum went home with couple of nice shirts for me, jadi rada terhibur dikit.. *grin*

Besoknya gue ikutan jalan2 ke museum yg di pinggir spore’s river.. trus ke Esplanade, trus ke tempat cable car up in d mountain (ga naek cable car, i’m afraid of heights) trus back to orchard to shop some more. I bought books @Kinokuniya and a Nokia 6260 cellphone.

That night I used the hotel’s computer to open the internet. Kocak, gue mesti masukin a dollar coin buat make computer 15 menit. Tapi Rp.6000 for 15 minutes? Wah bangkrut juga lama2.. gue abis 6 bucks for nothing.

The next morning we packed our things, nitip ke receptionist and went to Suntec City for more n more shopping. Frea found THE cd that contains the Piano Solo for the movie “Love Affair”.. indeed a beautiful song.. I’m playing it over n over again on my laptop and finally managed to play it on my piano, lumayan mirip tapi ngga detail. I’ll work on the details later.

Btw gue pulang pake ValueAir.. hahahah reminds me of the film “Soul Plane”.. Flight attendants-nya (mostly very young and cute) pake polo-shirt n celana pendek and running shoes, with ponytails, very sporty and casual. Kotak makannya juga uniquely designed with bright colors with the word “Hungry?” printed on top of it. And the part that made us laugh and clapped appreciatively is when one of the stewardesses singing their corporate anthem at the end of the journey! Hahahahah way to go, ValueAir! (worth all the bumps and turbulence on our 1+ hour flight).

Sampe jkt, Adit called (the guy who shares an apartment with us at Mecca, his younger brother is my sister’s highschool friend, and his other younger brother is my brother’s elementary school’s friend. And his OTHER younger brother is the young Indonesian actor/celeb who starred in the sinetron “ABG”, Dimas Setowardhana. Nice *grin*) and chatted for a while. He’s really nice, and we’re still texting each other every once in a while. I look fwd 2 meet him again, since he owes me sumtin.. hehehehhehehhe (^o^)v

Well that’s all. I am home now. Kmrn ngajar spt biasa. Still suffered from flu, my nose’s still running and my throat’s still sore and my right ear is still malfunctioned and my head is throbbing so much I cant stay up for too long. And its already Monday tomorrow, and I’ll have to face Madame Dedes again in Programming class (AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH PROGRAMMMMMMIIIIIINGGGGGGG… I was dreading this..)

Well friends, siap2 yah buat dipekerjakan sebagai tukang ketik, tukang ngitung, drafter, etc ya, krn in a few days from now gw bakal menggila ngerjain paper ama skematik programming DAN start gambar tugas2 sisbang… hikshikshikshikshikshiks… help this poor lil friend of yours… heeeelppp… TT_TT


~ been there, done that, can’t remember most of it~ taken from one of the cute keychains with witty words written in each one of them, sold at Changi Airport for Sg $ 3.90