To Luis... From 11308 kilometers away.: 25: September 2015

I dreaded writing this post and the next one for so long. Not because something bad happened, nor is happening at the moment between us. It's just that.. thinking about these days rips me to pieces every single time. Every time I picked myself up and started typing, my heart was broken all over again. Exactly how it is now. But this needs to be done, so here we go.

Today was the last full day we were together since tomorrow he would fly out to the Netherlands and only God knows when we would see each other again.

Oh my goodness. See? I suck at trying to feel better.

Okay let's start over.

Today was Luis' last full day in Jakarta. The options were endless as of what to do for the day, but realizing we were running out of time, shopping for his family and friends it is. The list included stocking up on Tolak Angin and other Indonesian things for him to bring back to NL, a few items for his friend Jeremy who's a quarter Indonesian, a couple of Victoria's Secret perfumes for his sister whose birthday he missed since he was here, a blanket for his niece (yes, we were carrying blanket all around that day hehe), and a t-shirt for his nephew. This is what we got half-way.

Thank God for Kelapa Gading Mall, eh?

I forgot to take the final photo with all of the goodies. Oh well. Good thing we still got time to have lunch at his favorite non-MSG restaurant and took cute photobooth pictures..... which required us to first go to an ATM cause he was going a little ham on the shopping spree, haha. Amazes me every time I see him putting his every effort in gifting people and not sparing nearly half of the energy for his own needs. Smart, sexy, selfless. I must have done something good, in the words of Maria von Trapp.

Anyway, it was very convenient that the mall we went to was very close to my baby cousins' house. They love Luis, so we really wanted to pay them a visit. And they were such sweethearts as always!

My Laura

These girls are seriously the cutest!

We were basically rushing at this part; his plane was at 5.30 the next day so all packing needed to be done by tonight. Lucky he has the best packer in the world! This is how snug everything was. Bear in mind the blanket and his suit et cetera had not been inserted.

Gift-exchange at my place took the final hours before we had to part to try to catch some sleep for an hour of two. The long note consisted of his 25th birthday present I had been keeping for more than half a year, a photobook of our summer together last year, and my thesis in which he could find his name.

I meant each and every word

Adding my gifts into the already super full suitcase wasn't really a big deal. This, on the other hand, was.

Remember this post? About a week ago we tried to find a bakery that apparently was closed due to a major renovation. Knowing we went through all the troubles only because Luis really loved the cookies and wanted to bring some for his families, Mama's friend contacted her sister to ask her to bake A SPECIAL BATCH just for Luis. Earlier today, her driver dropped these TWELVE boxes of SIX different types of cookies as she texted Mama begging to just take them without worrying about the bills. I can't. She can murder someone and will still go to heaven I'm sure, that's how kind she is to us. May God bless Tante Tria and her family. <3

As per Mama's suggestion, he only took 6 out of 12 since his stopover in Dubai would be quite lengthy, making carrying 12 boxes of fragile cookies even harder than 6. She gave him a bag to store them and there he was, kissing me good night for the last time in 2015.

This is another entry where I'm inserting a ton of pics so I'll TRY to cut down on the word count. :P

Two weeks ago before we parted ways with our awesome guide from Jakarta Good Guide, Pak Candha, after half a day touring the Old Town area (full story here), he informed us about this great deal Kereta Api Indonesia is having! One ticket is 70k for any destination of your choice to celebrate KAI's 70th birthday! (Only the routes they do cater to, obviously.) Pretty much right away, I remembered that Aunt Zippora had been telling me to take Luis on a day-tour to Cirebon which is accessible by train, but for the longest time I hadn't really been giving it too much thought since I was pretty sure my parents wouldn't take it very well. Just out of curiosity, the following day I started browsing for tickets and found an opening for Sep 15, today, which would've been perfect if we could do it. Already prepared to hear a big no, I decided to bump the idea up to Bapa anyway, and MUCH to my disbelief, he was unbelievably excited about it!!!!! Green light from Mama was tougher to get but, again, much to my disbelief, Bapa actually talked her into it! Un-frickin-believable. She said yes and I took no time at all to book the ticket. Bapa (and Abang) himself drove me to the ATM that midnight to purchase the ticket since it might have not been available anymore in the following morning. To say that we were anticipating this day to come would be an understatement because it was more intense than that, haha! Plus, that would be my first time going out of town by train, besides that one time our big family went to Bandung. I was probably 7.

Bapa and I picked up Luis around 5.10 and it only took us 15 mins to arrive at Gambir Station. We quickly popped into 7-Eleven to get breakfast-to-go and snacks (a chocolate bar for me, bananas for Luis, cause, duh :D) and went through the security/customs. Still barely awake, I was so happy the train was ready for us, and that the condition was muchhhhh better than what I had expected it to be! Seat was VERY comfortable (the adjustable seating came with a proper foot rest), the whole thing was squeaky clean and smelled great, and most importantly, the crew was amazing. Later on they would check on our tickets and actually tried to make conversations! Fantastic service. But the highlight of the 3-hour journey was..... the view. It was incredible. Departing the station exactly at 6 (nope, not even 6.01), we were there to watch the breath-taking, golden sunrise. Upon leaving Jakarta, we were welcomed by acres and acres of fields, mainly rice but other plants too. It was the harvesting season, there were so many colors before our eyes, from hues of green to hues of oranges and yellows, displaying a beautiful contrast to the dark brown ground and black spots they burnt to stop a parasite from growing, all under a clear blue sky and milky white, fluffy-looking clouds. I wish I were only romanticizing this part; I'm not, it was that magnificent.

We switched seats because Luis wanted the window one. I happily obliged, it's not something he sees everyday, or ever. We started having breakfast (including the delicious cakwe Ega hooked us up with from the Puncak trip yesterday) and did nothing much but cuddling and admiring the landscape view. It was so comfortable and lovely that I fell asleep a few times! The cheeky lad took the very rare opportunity (cause I'm one who can never sleep in a car) to snap a few candid photos of me sleeping! Ugh. Arriving in Cirebon, not only was I still sleepy, I also felt really cold (Luis let me wear his hoodie during the train ride), luckily they have a Starbucks at the central station! Hot chocolate, come to Mama!

Looking back, it was kinda funny how we just started making itinerary when we were already in Cirebon. Owe you one, TripAdvisor! :) But we did, and knowing we only had 6 hours before our train home, we selected five places and one restaurant that was rumored to have the best empal gentong (Cirebon's signature dish) in town. We came up with a game plan, instead of taking multiple public transportation one place to another, let's just rent one with a local driver who knows the area much better than we are. Rental car and taxi would get us to places much faster, but as we were stepping out of the station, becak was everywhere so we had this crazy idea to just rent a becak. ONE becak! For the both of us. Hahahahaha, we thought it would be really fun and funny so we made a deal with a local becak driver (who couldn't take proper photos even if his life depended on it).

Yup!

I wore this Batik dress Araz got me for my birthday. <3

We were soooooo right! We couldn't stop laughing on the way to the first place! It was REALLY snug on the becak! On top of that, Luis was much too tall for the becak so the driver had to lift the lid up and bent it to the back so Luis didn't have to hunch back during the ride. It was HOT as fruit but really hilarious too how everyone else on the road just stared at us in a total confusion. We are weird, get over it, people! :D

From this point forward, I'll just be listing the places we went to, jotting down random bits, and showing the photos. Information about the places can be found here.

1. At-Taqwa Mosque

I'm a huge fan of Istiqlal Mosque (went there last year), but At-Taqwa is much more artsy and cool and colorful and different! Highly recommend checking out this place and maybe requesting a private tour like we did at Istiqlal. Too bad on this day there was a wedding, so we couldn't go inside and tour around. To wait for the event to end wasn't an option since we were dealing with such strict schedule. Next time, I hope.

Photo of the day. Used it as my LINE profile picture for months when we got back.

2. Trusmi Batik Village

We were supposed to spend a little time here to look around, but we got carried away! They had literally everything a Batik fabric can be used to make and they sell it for reeeally low price. What was supposed to be a 15-minute look-around got extended to more than an hour of souvenir shopping, hahahaha, but I was so happy I could get Luis' family things I hope they'll love. We went to several different Batik houses but we made all of our purchase here at Batik Mahkota. They sold the most variants compared to other houses we visited, plus they had a real-time Batik drawing on the top floor (which is basically a rooftop garden)! So happy I got to show Luis how a Batik is made. The girls there were nice and showed us different techniques. Definitely coming back to this house. :)

Getting back to our becak with bags of stuff, our becak driver, Mang Untung, laughed cause we had said we were not gonna shop. Sadly he also told us it was now impossible to visit Gua Sunyaragi. I was looking forward to going but I saw his point, the place was the farthest among all, and to still go there would mean we would need to forego our three other destinations, which we weren't willing to do. It was also already lunch time and we were staaarving! We had told Mang Untung in the morning where we wanted to eat and he agreed it is indeed the best one in town. However, since the schedule was pretty much off, we then told him to just bring us to the nearest empal gentong restaurant, which was literally everywhere (read the next paragraph). He insisted to take us to that specific restaurant cause he himself really wanted us to have the ultimate empal gentong, hahaha, the guy was really sweet. It was getting even hotter, we both had started to burn, but Mang Untung had made up his mind. And so we obeyed. :D

3. Empal Gentong Bu Darma (previously named Empal Gentong Mang Darma)

Flashback a little, on the way to Trusmi, Luis and I noticed an odd thing: there were SOOO many "Empal Gentong Mang Darma" on the both sides of the road! But earlier we thought it was because the restaurant was very popular that they made a branch on every block, whatever. Turns out there's a story behind it! According to Mang Untung, who's lived in Cirebon all his life, there was once a guy named Mang Darma, he set up his own empal gentong restaurant. The food was really, really good that the restaurant just kept on getting more and more popular to a point that he had to name the place. That was the birth of Empal Gentong Mang Darma. However, it didn't take long till copycats arose and people started naming their restaurants Empal Gentong Mang Darma, despite having zero connection with the real Mang Darma. After he passed away, the wife and kids carried on with the business and changed the name into Empal Gentong Bu Darma.

And boy were they not joking. Four minutes was all what Luis and I needed to finish our food. While it might not be the most delicious-looking dish ever invented, everything about it made the dish quickly climbed up our most favorite food list (OUR --Luis included). Definitely up there with our comfort food! (Following this trip, Bapa has traveled to Cirebon twice and Mama once. Each time I made them a priority to bring home these for me. The house too went bananas over it!)

Just in case the copycats ever change their names also to Empal Gentong Bu Darma, it's located on Jalan Diponegoro (initially was on Jalan Krucuk but they have moved and the old place now is used by another copycat restaurant that goes by the name, guess what, Empal Gentong Mang Darma). Do not be fooled! Although you are as starving as we were, be as persistent as Mang Untung. Hahaha!

Anyway, since we finished VERY QUICKLY, Mang Untung said now there was still a possibility to visit Gua Sunyaragi! Yay! But first, the three keratons.

4. Keraton Kasepuhan

Had we had the time to go inside (which is a museum), this place would've been my favorite, I'm sure. Too bad we were in a rush! :( But fortunately the outside is still pretty.

This is the most popular kingdom area although currently not being populated anymore by the locals. So many people are just chilling there every day apparently! They socialize here, hang out and enjoy their snack, but not so much of a picnic. Anyway, one person from the crowd approached us to ask if he could take a picture with Luis. Of course he was only the first! Hahahaha, such pioneers. I didn't mind though.................. I mean I have eyes. :P :P :P (Baby, if you're reading, I'm pretty sure you're shaking your head now and saying, "This girl tho!!") The only concern now was that we might not make it to Gua Sunyaragi.

4. Keraton Kacirebonan

There was nothing particularly exciting about Keraton Kacirebonan, unless what you're after is to see how the locals live. We were interested in that too, of course, but given the little timing, we knew it was not on our plate. A quick tour around from the outside and we moved on to the next.

5. Keraton Kanomanan

This place, however, is worth visiting, even only from the outside! There are still unique statues that must convey interesting messages and portray rich history we would have loved to ask the guides. Again, till the next time.

Can we just talk about the kid photobombing this cool shot!!! :(

6. Miscellaneous: Toko Souvenir Daud, City Hall, and Old Locomotive Monument

Looking at the time, we were left to either hop into a taxi to take us Sunyaragi (with only such a super short time to sight-see and explore the place) or we give it up and go to different places to just enjoy the city more. It wasn't a tough call, really, so Mang Untung took us to this famous shop where they sell signature packed food and snacks of Cirebon. It was really great listening to stories Mang Untung has of the city too, he was both our becak driver and our tour guide, hihihi.

City hall was just okay but still pretty cool, so we made a quick stop and took a few pictures such as this one.

Finally, before Mang Untung drove us back to the station, we checked out this old locomotive as a symbol of the legendary train station of Cirebon.

Expectation: posing in front of the famous city icon. Reality: basking in the sun. :D

That was the end of our day tour in Cirebon! Short but really sweet. We said goodbye to Mang Untung who was honestly one of the key factors of this successful and memorable trip and could not resist to take one more selfie in front of the station. This one is per Bapa's request by the way.

Since we had about half an hour to kill before our train arrived, we went back to the Starbucks for a chocolate croissant, a smoked beef quiche, and two frappuccinos. Soooo happy of everything that happened during the day tour!

The view on the train ride back was equally killer, and we chatted all the way to Jakarta, talking about the important stuff mostly. It was just an overall perfect trip.

The all day mood today!

Cutting the ride a little bit shorter by getting off at Jatinegara Station instead of Gambir (so happy the train made a stop here), we went to a noodle place near home for dinner. AND THAT'S WHEN THE HORROR HAPPENED: