Joy in life

Holiday Travel or Mudik: Surabaya-Jakarta-Surabaya

On Xenia li Deluxe

7 – 20 September 2010

On this article I’d like to share my experience during my family holiday travel or ‘mudik’ from Surabaya to Jakarta.

After a long discussion with my wife on what kind of transportation mode that we will use for our mudik; we decided to use our car instead of plane or train. Inter-City bus is of course not included on our discussion. Main reason behind this decision is the cost, since it is far cheaper than the other two, by taking our car to Jakarta, we won’t need to take a taxi to get us to different places. This sure will save some money for us .

Once decision has been made to use car, preparation that we did was:

Buy a detail road map and since we need a detail one, we bought three double A3-size map of East, Central and West Java
Download free mudik map from Internet
Design which route that we will took

Eid Mubarak is in the air

Leaving Surabaya early on 7.00 am 4 days before Eid day was the right choice because it’s ahead of everyone who will take similar travel and gave us the privilege of having a not so crowded traffic. Passing Pantura route we passed cities like Gresik, Tuban, Rembang, Pati. Etc. Enjoying the trip with sea or beach view, we reach the border of east Java at around 11am. Since I’m still in a good condition to continue driving, and Habibi (my son) is sleeping at the back seat, we decided to continue the trip and had lunch when we reached Semarang on around 2 pm. It was a nice restaurant that we found somewhere near the famous ‘simpang lima’. They serve a home-kind of food. After lunch we continue the trip to Kendal and reach Pekalongan on around 5pm. As planned, we started looking for a hotel and found a simple one with acceptable price; as I remember that the hotel name was Bata Merah.

Having spent a night at the hotel; stretching our leg and having a good rest, we continue the trip at 6 am.

The 2nd day drive was even more excited, most of the roads are in good condition, and the beauty is that we experienced no traffic at all. The traffic is actually happened but lucky for us we are heading to Jakarta; not the other way around. Having our breakfast at the car, we pass Tegal, Brebes and decided to stop for a while at Indramayu to have a late breakfast or early lunch. I was quite embarrassed actually with the restaurant owner for not fasting on that day, but then again, I am just using the privileges for not fasting due traveling activities. Passing long toll road (Kanci and Cikampek), it was a big surprise that we arrived at Lebak Bulus at 1pm. The second day drive was surely an enjoyable and fast drive.

Enjoying the Lebaran Holiday with Family and Friends

Since this is our first Mudik, my first Mudik to be more specific, I planned to make the best of it; which is to spend time with my family and meet some friends. And Alhamdulillah, my entire plans come true;

- Met my friends ex Bank Niaga

- Met all of my campus friend – we play footsal together
- Visited Ratu and Inggar and congratulate them for the wedding in person
- Visited Atenk’s new renovated house
- Spend a nite at our home at Taman Melati and meet some neighbours
- Visited Yopie; a friend that is in a coma, poor him,,,alles gute und gute besserung

The visit also gave us much time to spend some time with my family at Lebak Bulus and my wife parent at Kemang. Habibi’s mbah kakung (grand father) was very happy to see his grandson and even gave Habibi a bicycle. Even though it’s not a new one, but it’s a first bicycle that my son has. So it’s a historical milestone for Habibi.

Even that we had almost two weeks for the holiday, we felt that it was too short. And on September 19 we leave Jakarta at around 9am. As planned, for the return trip, I manage to have someone to drive the car. I only need to act as a navigator and a companion, to make sure the driver is focus. Even that I don’t need to drive, somehow I don’t feel very comfortable that I can’t barely sleep in the car. I don’t know whether it’s because the driving or something else. The return trip felt so long and we didn’t stop by for taking a night rest. The only stop by is for lunch, dinner and toilets. Sometime on around 2am, I took the steer and replace the driver. This is because I realize that the driver is already tired and sleepy that he drove dangerously. Alhamdulillah, we all arrive at Surabaya on 5am and hit the bed all day due to tiredness.

So now it’s just the three of us again; me, my wife and son sharing love and joy each day

These are some pictures that we took: