Quietly Enjoy That Big City

sarashanti — Thu, 17 May 2012 04:31:00 GMT

At the dinner, my friend asked me about the most memorable place that I had among all my travel experience. My answer for her question is only a not-so-famous street among the Indonesian tourists’ ears that often traveled to Singapore.

There are many numbers of Indonesian who choose Singapore as their holiday destination. Beside it’s so close from Jakarta and you could get the cheap airfares easily, Singapore is like a paradise for the shopaholics. Many of them spent their money along the Orchard Road or even just taking lots of photos in Universal Studios. However, I found that Singapore is not only a good place to shop. It is also a good escape to relax through the middle of big city atmosphere.

There is one spot in Singapore where you could read book quietly while having a cup of teh tarik. If you just got bored, you could move into another comfortable public space like Fort Canning Park, CHIJMES, or National Library of Singapore. There are numbers of restaurants with a friendly price if you want to taste the local culinary, or just spend the day by chit-chatting with your friends. Need to experience an educating entertainment? Take the three days pass to museums that spread in this area. There are also Sim Lim Square, Bugis Junction, Albert Complex, and Plaza Singapura if you still need to shop.

I always stay in this area every time I go to Singapore. You can find anything here, and it's bringing you closer to many public places. The place that I’m talking about is, Bencoolen Road which just a step from Orchard Road.

Just FYI, Bencoolen is just another name of a province in Indonesia: Bengkulu. A province located in Sumatra Island where Sir Stamford Raffles was the governor at the 18s century. Actually, Bengkulu is far enough from Singapore. However, this area has the same name with that province because at 1819 Raffles came to this island (Singapore) and many of Bencoolen Malays came and settled to this area. Until now, you could find many Malays who live around here.

From this road I could enjoy the real atmosphere of Singapore quietly in a rather simple way, far from the big city’s crowd. It’s a lovely spot in the middle of shimmering Singapore that I always missing. Bencoolen, it’s the most memorable place that I have.

My Scholarship entry - A local encounter that changed my life

sarashanti — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 21:49:19 GMT

In the early 2010, I was on a trip from Jakarta to Yogyakarta, Indonesia, took an economy-class train which has the cheapest cost. I’ve been heard some terrible opinion about this kind of train.

Yes, I got some oddities. A fix upright seat from the uncomfortable materials made my backbone getting sick. Moreover, the absence of air conditioner made the whole part of wagons became a big smoking area.

In the beginning of the trip, there were a lot of sellers who selling their wares from one to another wagon. I thought that was only for a while, but apparently they keep on selling during the ten hours trip until my train arrived in Yogyakarta. No matter the clock showed that was already dawn. Even along the night, their number was increasing and they shouted more loudly and louder.

I was disturbed and didn't comfort with them, but I tried to watch over to the entire seller. Later my bad feelings were slowly gone. They didn't sleep, sit, or just take a break for a while. Most of the sellers were elderly men and women. They never look gave up to sell over their wares. One time I saw an old woman who looks so tired and I thought she was no longer to sell all of her wares. Suddenly she fell down into the floor and fell asleep with her head put on the side of passenger’s seat.

I whispered to myself: thanks God, I don’t need to take a fortune gambling through the night without resting as they do. Then, I realized that implicitly, that old woman and other sellers on the train were taught me about one simple thing but it is often to be forgotten: grateful – for every little good things on my life.

That was my cheap trip which gave me a new wisdom that I would not be forgot for a long time. Grateful is one of the important things that must be present in every human’s heart to get the real happiness and achieve the pleasures. We have to look down for a while because sometimes we are banned with the glamorous of city lights and rarely realize about the undercover of it.

Kelana Dunia

Quietly Enjoy That Big City

My Scholarship entry - A local encounter that changed my life