A Serendipitous Flower

If I were a believer in Divine Providence, or divine anything for that matter, I might say someone or something was watching out for Pablo and I on our journey to Jakarta Indonesia. Rather than an angel on golden wings who swooped down to guide us, our saviour was a flower, Bunga – flower in Indonesian. Bunga sat next to us on the plane, a Jakarta native, she offered advice on things to do and where to go and even was generous enough to give us her email and phone number to contact her if we needed any help. Already it seemed we had met one of the friendliest people of our trip as well as the most helpful. Little did we know that this kind gesture was only the beginning of our floral experience.

Getting off the plane, she offered to give us the number of her cousin in Bali would give us similarly helpful tips for our trip there, and as she was writing them down, Pablo found himself in a bit of an immigration jam, which you can read about here on his blog in detail. Seeing this, Bunga jumped in and after a heart pounding moment or twelve got us through our scrape with some smooth negotiating with the immigration officials. Our “foolproof” plan upon arrival was to find a last-minute cheap flight to Bali directly upon arrival, so she took us around the airport from ticket counter to ticket counter until we figured out that it wasn’t possible that night to get ourselves to Bali so again she helped us figure out booking a flight online, the deadline for which we missed by 10 minutes. So once again she trekked with us over to the Air Asia ticket counter so we could book our flight for an extra few dollars in person.

Now I felt guilty for taking up so much of her time, but she assured us she was still waiting for her family to come pick her up. In the meantime during our ordeal, it had become apparent that we were now spending the night in Jakarta and were hotel-less and slightly at a loss at the airport at 8:30 pm. Our guardian angel was there to save us from our foolproof plan, and decided to take it upon herself and her family to get us settled. Now the airport, understand, is at least an hour away from the city and in traffic ridden Jakarta, usually twice that. So after weaving our way through the crowded highways and streets, we were taken to a local spot that serves the city’s best Chicken Gandar – a deliciously flavorful and spicy chicken and sticky rice dish, to pick up an Indonesian “must try” (which I will wholeheartedly agree with) on our way to her friends hotel. Unfortunately the condition of that hotel was abysmal, so it was back in the car, and back on the crazy road, further delaying Bunga and her family’s arrival home, to the next hotel option – a complex usually reserved for Indonesian army members and visiting military members.

The complex was clean and safe, and after more of Bunga’s by now well-exercised negotiating skills, we were looking at a rather barren but perfectly nice (much better than many of our accommodations in the past) room. Unfortunately this time although we were perfectly willing to devoid her of the burden we presented, Bunga herself decided that she would be uncomfortable leaving us there – so climbing into the back with her mother, brother, and adorable son, I apologized for probably the 100th time and thanked them for the 1000th for all their help – with their assurances and insistence that it was absolutely no problem. Finally after another 20 minutes in the car we found ourselves quoting the old idiom – third time’s the charm! It was a bit more costly than the first two options but infinitely more acceptable for reasons of comfort, cleanliness, security and location. So after the entire family had trooped out and inspected the property to make sure it was up to everyone standards, we paid for the night and said goodbye to our newfound and kindest friends we’d ever met, thanking them enormously for all their help, their kindness, and the 5 hours they had taken out of their lives to make our lives a little bit easier.

Of course if that had been all they did to help us out, we would have still found them to qualify for the title of most welcoming and helpful family ever, but it was not the end of their aid. The next morning, they picked us up from the hotel to show us Jakarta before our 8pm flight to Bali. It began at the mall for a late breakfast, some wireless internet usage to book a hotel in Bali – to avoid seeing repeats of hotels 1 and 2 from the night before at 11pm in Bali. After they got some of their errands done there, it was another mall (Jakarta by the way is basically a megalopolis of malls from the dirt cheap to the luxury expensive) this time to browse local handicrafts and see what the traditional art and goods from Indonesia had in store for us. A fruitful venture – we were off to enjoy another local delicacy for late lunch/early dinner – Nasi Uduk coconut rice with your choice of meat, fried shalots, peanut sauce, and hot sauce, FANTASTIC. Of course after they led us there Pablo and I managed to wrestle some of our dignity back, proving we weren’t completely worthless and ignorant tourists, and despite protests, managed to actually treat the family to the meal (which came to a whopping total of under 20 bucks for 6 people to gorge themselves).

It was then time to start heading over towards the airport – with a few detours along the way including a quick stop at the national monument, a drive by the presidents house, and a jaunt through some of the nicer parts of the city. Of course in typical Jakartan style – despite having started towards the airport 2 hours before we could even check in for our flight, we arrived just about on time to check in, after horrible traffic and the usual confusion at the airport as to which gate/terminal we were leaving from. Yet again, the kindness of the family was apparent as the escorted us to the airport, and stayed with us for a tea as our flight was delayed and we spent another hour chatting over a few pastries which they purchased for everyone without our knowledge. It was a rather sad goodbye as they finally felt safe leaving us on our own, as we only had about 50 yards to go to the security and about another 50 after that to our gate for a flight that boarded an hour later.

I can not even explain all that Bunga and her family invested in us – time wise, energy wise, finance wise, and certainly gas wise with all the chauffeuring going on. It took about a dozen times being assured that they wanted to be there, that we weren’t in fact taking them away from something better than taking two lost tourists around Jakarta and back 3 hours to the airport, that they were actually enjoying our company, and that it wasn’t what they perceived as a “burden” for them to spend their entire day giving us our own personal tour of the city. It took a lot for us not to feel guilty stealing their time and energy, but in the end we just had to accept that it’s a different culture and their unselfish kindness was not motivated by anything other than just that – kindness! It definitely tops the list of my most incredible encounters on this trip and is one experience from which I think everyone, certainly myself included, can learn a lesson, and I hope that I will, in fact be able to do so.

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~ by moyful on March 30, 2010.