In the end of 2012, me and my friends decided to try this new event organize by Government of Jakarta :
Jakarta Night Festival, or Car Free Night.
Jakartans laud NYE street fest | The Jakarta Post
We planned to gather at one of my friend's house at Sawah Besar, Gajah Mada then walk from there towards Thamrin, Monas, and Bundaran HI.
As my house is on South Jakarta, I planned to go to Grand Indonesia first, wait until Magrib prayer, then go to Sawah Besar afterwards. I think it was little before 7pm when I was out from GI and queued for taxi, waited for half an hour for taxi, then left to Sawah Besar. It was already raining that time.
From around 8pm we're at my friend's house, eating, chatting, catching up, while waiting for the rain to stop. It didn't. So around 10.30pm, as we began to feel the comfort of my friend's cozy room, we decided to take a walk anyway, while bringing umbrellas. The 5 of us, walked in 2-2-1 pair, began our journey.
The walked from Sawah Besar to Thamrin was crowded. Sawah Besar and Gajah Mada road were not closed for vehicle, so we have to walk on the sidewalk. The fact that there's no decent pavement for pedestrian to begin with, added with many people are heading to Thamrin, many mini dirty pool created by the combination of rain and uneven road, and many peddlers along the way, made it a less pleasant walk.
The situation on Thamrin was not much different. There were so many people. My friend and I was searching for "class A" people, who were, as expected, rarely seen. Sometime past 11pm we made it to Monas. We took pictures outside Monas area, and decided to continue to Bundaran HI.
I bought kacang rebus on the way there, a perfect companion for a cold walk, hehe.. Then we walked past through several stages with various performance like lenong and band. It was still raining, so we walked using our umbrella, tried to pass through the crowd who's watching the show on stage. Meanwhile fireworks were popping from everywhere.
It hurt us when we saw many people were so ignorant, stomping the lovely plant, thrashing, sitting and bending the fence. Ouch >.<. There were also many annoying trumpet sound. Haha. This one perhaps just my introverted-personal opinion, i like silence and solitude :p
Little before 12 we got to the front of eX Plaza. We didn't think we can pass through the crowd to HI, so we waited there, take pictures, and tried to get some rest. Then later the fireworks and trumpet sound got crazy. We're guessing it's midnight already. The fireworks lasted for couple of minutes, but in my opinion, it wasn't extraordinary, just many fireworks got popped concurrently.
We waited until the crowd was more sparse, then at 12.30, we walked back. One of my friend injured her feet while walking, due to lask of comfort in her shoes. So she was struggling all the way back, and we often need to stop walking to gave her a chance to treat her feet. The walk back were like 3 times harder. We're exhausted.
By the time we get to Gajah Mada area at around 2am, we were intrigued by 24hours Dunkin Donut store, which were not very crowded. We stopped there for a drink and to rest.
Finally we managed to get back to my friend's house around 3am. Exhausted and feel dirty, we dragged ourself to a quick wash-up, then to get some sleep before returning to our own house in the morning. I felt like my legs were going to fall off.
The sleep, for me, was not like a sleep. I had to get up by 5 for Subuh prayer, then to be woken up by 6 to return to our own home. So that was not count as sleep.
At 6 am we got up, one of my friend brought his car and willing to take the rest of us to get taxi. I arrived at my home around 7.30am, wash up, then straight to bed. I planned that I'll sleep until 11am. I woke up at 3pm. Haha.
Woke up feeling refreshed, I didn't regret my much-needed sleep. Especially when around 5pm, this video came up :
"Girls' Generation 소녀시대_I GOT A BOY_Music Video"
Haha. I dare you not to get addicted at the song. My energy was refreshed! :p
