When I turned up to work on Friday morning, I was told that I have to be at work at 7am on Saturday, to go to Bogor for a tree planting ceremony for Fair Trade Day. Friday night happened to be one of the rare occasions I was actually going out for a drink with people, which I was looking forward to a great deal. Getting up around 6am after Fri night drinks wasn’t ideal, but I was keen to check out Bogor and it sounded like it would be fun (which it was).
On the way to the drinks, I had some trouble on the bus. Basically, I needed to get to an obscure little stop on a line that I use frequently. The strangeness started when (as usual) I had to change buses and there was a huge, packed crowd, waiting to get on the next bus. This is all standard fare, but what was not so standard was the hand on my arse while waiting. At first, I wasn’t sure if I was imagining it, or if it was something else on my butt, then I leaned a little forward to get away from it. Lo and behold, it moved with me! I was still a bit miffed, but when I felt some distinct finger movement, my suspicions were confirmed.
Now, to see if I can find the perpetrator… No. It was so crowded I could hardly move to see, but I think it may have been the small middle-aged woman with the shopping bags.
So, after the groping and finally getting on the bus, it skips the stop I need to get off at, which is right at the start of the line. The bus is so crowded I can’t get off and I’m not sure if it’s just taking a slightly different route, so I stay on. Till the end of the line. Then all the way back, making what should’ve been an easy 45min trip 2 hours long, stressful and tiring.
When I did finally get there, it was a lot of fun. The drinks were unusually reasonably cheap, so I got my first scotch in about 4 months. The company was great and a band started half way through, who were doing old cover songs pretty well. The animated guy with the fancy mullet type haircut was a highlight.
I was awoken briefly just before 4am on Sat morning by a weird sound. It sounded like someone outside my room whispering hoarsely, like something out of a horror movie, someone trying to freak me out. I lay and listened a little more, wondering when the scratching or the axe through the door would come. The cadence was familiar. I realised that it was actually the rooster across the street, trying to do his morning crow, but he had no voice. It’s impossible to adequately describe; sad and creepy are a start. It just kept going. Eventually, it stopped and I drifted back to sleep til my 6:15 alarm.
::Bogor::
The work trip was quite fun. The place we were heading to was actually a property that my work owns, about an hour out of Bogor, or 2/3 from Jakarta. It’s a nice little plot in the hills where they’re planting various useful fruit trees and others that used in making some of the products.
The people from my work are very nice and we just hung out there for a while, did some planting and took some photos.
On the way back, we stopped off at the palace gardens in Bogor and took some photos, which you can see here.
Saturday night and Sunday have stories too, but it’s too much to get into for now.
