"Hi, hi, hi, beautiful Sunday! This is my, my, my beautiful day!"
I cannot think of any Sunday spent with him that didn't create a lasting memory. Well, to be fair, I cannot think of any day spent with him that didn't create a lasting memory either, hihi.. Shut up, long distance relationship couples' problem. :P
For today, we booked a walking tour with a guy from Jakarta Good Guide. The package chosen was centered around Old Town, so even before we got there, I already knew today was going to be thick on Dutch influence, hehehe. We met up with the tour guide named Pak Candha at the entrance of the Museum of Bank of Indonesia. This is what Wikipedia says about the site:
"The museum is designated to introduce the public Bank Indonesia's role on the Indonesian history, such as monetary policies and payment system that changes over time. The museum also provide visitors with audio and visual experience on the history of currencies and trade in Indonesia from pre-colonial era to the present state. It include eras such as the early spice-trading history, VOC spice monopoly in the Indonesian archipelago, banking system of the Dutch east indies, currencies under Japanese occupation and finally ended on the economic crisis of 1997."
So here's the thing. I'd been there once but I couldn't remember much; it was naturally a great idea already to hire a professional guide. But! I certainly didn't expect Pak Candha to be soooo good! He speaks fluent English, is knowledgeable, funny, easy going, a good story teller. Overall, the best kind of tour guide. We liked him right away. Also the tour itself, for literally everything was related to the Dutch, hahaha.. Luis is also great at history, so the discussions were exciting for all of us! Speaking of history, I just found out that in the Netherlands, some tales are told differently than here. Pak Candha then introduced us to the term 'his-story', for history is very subjective to the person telling it. OMG, that's brilliant! I never realized how biased the stories we were taught in school. Anyway, I believe we weren't supposed to stay in the building for that long, but there are just so many interesting things to check out and new learnings to pick up. If it wasn't for the other spots in the itinerary, probably we would be there all day. :D
Next destination was the city center of the Old Town which is called Fatahillah Square. Just before we headed over the open air meeting point, Pak Candha took us to a grand canal originally designed to transform Batavia into the next Amsterdam. He proceeded to pass on more information about the area, almost sounding like a true historian. So awesome. Especially here, Pak Candha mentioned a lot of Dutch words and sentences, it was really cool to see the both of them fill each other in, since he knows more about the history and Luis obviously speaks the language. Oh and we also witnessed Satpol PP in action!
We expected Fatahillah Square to be super crowded, but we didn't expect Luis to be such a hit! Hahahahahahaha.. I think he went through a few different types of shock. People just started surrounding him, treating him like a famous celebrity or something. We could see other foreigners being approached by locals too, but not as crazy as to Luis. Purposely I maintained a safe distance from him and the crowd. I kinda felt bad for him because he's not comfortable in a crowded place, especially when he has the attention all to himself, but, after seeing how genuine the kids were, I could see he got less tense and began enjoying it little by little..... until suddenly I heard he called my name in a panic, "Baby? Why are they asking for my signature?" Hahahahaha, he was so helpless! I shouted back from where I was standing saying it's okay to sign their notebooks but just don't write his last name if he wasn't comfortable with it. Something else happened earlier! I was videotaping the whole situation and suddenly someone asked him what was the purpose of his visit. Casually, Luis pointed at me all smiley and answered, "To visit my girlfriend." I wish I could say I felt awkward receiving the judgmental eyes that turned to me, but lately I've just been laughing it off. Pak Candha basically had to stop the never-ending questions after a while cause it was taking too long and we hadn't even learned about the city center yet.
The tour was concluded by the final insightful historical lesson at Kota Train Station. Our tour guide was 100% in making our trip memorable. Right before we parted ways, Pak Candha told us that next week, there would be a huge gathering for Jakarta Good Guide and another community. The route would be different than this one and so far there had been more than 75 people signing up. We wanted to join so bad; however, we would be meeting Galuh in Bogor next Sunday! But we quickly decided that we would ask Pak Candha to meet us for coffee sometime later in the week, hope he could make it.
For lunch, while we were a few blocks away from Chinatown, I took him to my favorite noodle originally from Medan, although in Medan they go by the name Tiongsim and this one in Jakarta is Pasar Rame. The picture depicts the actual dish which is basically special noodle with chicken meat, three kinds of pork meat, wontons with shrimp and pork fillings, and onions. Climax.
One last story of the day: When walking back to his apartment after taking me home, his landlord called to invite him in. I thought they only would talk for a few minutes and maybe another few minutes for a mini house tour (he's an architect), but he ended up staying there for hours! Apparently Pak Bagus, the owner of his building, just had a few relatives coming over to their house, so they had many food from cakes to cookies to actual meal. Pak Bagus, his wife, his kids, and his aging father was so happy that he came and hang out there that they just kept on feeding him, hihi, so sweet. Luis also loved the random visit and how nice the family is (and how beautiful the home is). It's always the best kind of people who attract the best kind of people.
