5 things I miss about Holland and 5 things I love about my holiday in Indonesia

Last month we just came back from our family holiday to Indonesia. We had 5 weeks holiday. Het was super leuk vakantie! (It was super great holiday!). We stayed in my brother’s house which just in front of our parents’. Het was gezellig ! (cozy, nice, great!). My soul is recharged.

My mission to eat many variations of Indonesian food was accomplished! I’m happy, my belly is happy.

My ambitions to visit a lot of extended families was achieved! My soul is happy.

Everything runs as its plan except we missed our flight because our taxi driver didn’t have a good instinct to know where was the worst traffic jam (that was another story). We ended up in the worsts one.

I love our holiday but I do miss some things from The Netherlands…I remember the first 3 days I arrived in Semarang, I texted my dutchie friends about things I miss most from Holland.

1. Biking

I went around Semarang with a car, a big family car with the driver of my parents. It was super cozy and easy but still I miss biking with my kids.

When I was there, it took at least 30 mts to go from one point to another, with a lot of traffics. I felt tired already being on the road so long. I can imagine for people who are living in Jakarta… fyuihhh… in a traffic jam every.single.day.

It takes a lot of your energy to deal with a fully packed traffics everywhere. That’s why I miss biking in a quiet street…like in my city now. 🙂

2. Talking non-sense with a stranger

Ik mis praten over koetjes en kalfjes! 🙂

That’s the term to describe about talking non-sense with the stranger. Dutch people love to have conversations with each other..

When I’m waiting in the cashier line, someone can start a conversation with me about.. the weather. Yes. Dutch people loves talking about the weather. A very simple one like “it is really dutch weather today, he!” (meaning : gloomy and dark with a rain) or “Wow, it is sunshine now” or “Oh, gezzz.. it is cold, isn’t it.”. Whatever the weather is, talking about weather is always a great opening conversation with a stranger and it is always fun.

….or when I bike over the city and my neighbour almost pass me by with his bike, he will bike slowly and bike next to me and we talk about our daily life, which is always start with “Hoe gaat het?” (How are you?) or “Gaat goed met jou?” (is goed with you?)…and the conversation begins.

I miss that kind conversations while I was in Indonesia.

3. The breads

When I stayed in the hotel in The Netherlands, I missed nasi goreng was being served in their breakfast buffet.

When I stayed in some hotels in Indonesia, I always missed a good breads were being served in their breakfast buffet. Some hotels do have a good one and that is great.

4. A very routine schedule

This is really depending on the traffic.

I bike everyday and there is no traffic jam in biking line. That’s why it is not difficult to have a very routine schedule and being on time.

It was traffic jam almost everywhere in my hometown and… you just can not be on time.

Especially in Jakarta. You just can do 1 thing per day, meeting up with a client or doing grocery shopping or going to ikea… you can’t do all of that in 1 day.

That’s why there are a lot of malls that offer many kinds of comforts.. It is a mall, also a office building, also family recreation with supermarkt, also there is a church inside the malls…salon, spa, kids playground, apartment, etc.

When people say that Indonesian people tend to be always late. It is true because with the traffic jam everywhere, you just can’t predict how long you are in the traffic….and with that situation, people also expect that their friends will come late anyway.. usually people will come 30 mts-1 hour late than the appointment schedule. Even with my cousins, they were 5 hours late because of the traffic jam… which was without traffic jam, they could arrive within 1 hour. It is in the same city and you can be trapped in traffic jam for 5 hours. It is amazingly tiring.

5. Nederlands praten (Speaking dutch)

Call me crazy but I did missing that part.

I missed speaking dutch in my daily life. That’s all. 🙂

 

But.. but…

I do love love love our holiday in Indonesia. There are 5 things that I know I will miss it when I’m in Holland.

1. The jokes

Every culture, every country has its jokes. When I’m in Holland, most of the time, I have to adjust myself to its culture and have a good laugh about the jokes that commons here. Every jokes is funny, it is just different kind of jokes.

In Indonesia, I don’t have to think what kind of conversation I have to start, what kind of jokes that I have to say. It goes natural for me and it is FUN ! 🙂

2. My eldest son knows that his mother speaks not only dutch

At first he was confused why I spoke differently than in Holland. I speak Indonesian to him but he rarely heard me speaking Indonesian every.single.time and everybody speak Indonesian and so fast. At first he said “mama, speak dutch, please, I don’t understand” but by the time… he understands that people can speak so many languages and he starts speaking Indonesian as well (not so much but he understand some sentences now, not only words). It was such a great experience for us as a multilingual family.

3. Children playing together outside in the housing complex

Around 4pm, some children will go outside their house and play together in one of their friends frontyard. It was super nice to experience that. Parents will feed their kids or just having conversations.

Some people really against the culture feeding their kids while they are playing. For me, if they enjoy, why we against that. At the end, as teenager they will eat and sit on the chair during diner time.

It was soooo nice to see children playing together and parents can mingle together !

4. A city that never sleeps

My city is the 5th biggest city in Indonesia and with 1,5 million populations. It is also describes as “city that never sleeps”. Jakarta is even more active, “city that never sleeps, never tired”.

I love the ambient of the trendy, ambitious, modern city. It stimulates my energy, my brain, my soul…

It gave me a lot of tickling in my ambition “what can I do for my future?”.

I saw a lot of hip, trend, ambitious young people. I went to a lot of new high-end restaurant. I met a lot of inspiring young businessman.

The world goes round faster, moving faster…

The trend, the fashion, the marketing strategy, the career plot… are moving fast.

I’m just a big city girl. A big city life always amaze my soul. It likes kicking my ass and say “Bring it on, girl!”.

It was the same vibe when I went to Rotterdam, Utrecht, Den Haag or Amsterdam!

5. Indonesian food.

Do I have to say more about this?

Indonesian food is the best!

It never dull! and Indonesian people love food.

People who love food is the best people… and food is the best way to get you in happiness mood. So.. I’m happy to be Indonesian and I was happy in my holiday! 🙂

Last but not least,

Thank you for all of you that I’ve met in Indonesia… It was such a great great holiday because I met you, guys. The greatest gift that people can give is their time, and you guys really gave that to us. Thank you so much… Xxx

 

Greetings,

Sekar Nareswari