Cruising home to celebrate Idul Fitri
Mudik, the annual homebound trip for millions of city dwellers during Idul Fitri, ended over two weeks ago. The Jakarta Post contributor, Joko E.H. Anwar, followed a crowd of some 2,500 holiday-makers bound for Medan from Jakarta's Tanjung Priok harbor in a state-owned passenger ship, that has a capacity of 1,906 passengers. This is his report.
ONBOARD M.V. KELUD (JP): It was almost 1 p.m. at the Tanjung Priok harbor on Dec. 25, two days before Idul Fitri, when the doors of the port's departure terminal opened and allowed passengers onboard the ship.
Some 2,500 people, mostly Jakartans and those from other areas in neighboring provinces, began to rush towards the 146.5 meter- long vessel that would take them on a cruise to the North Sumatran capital of Medan after making one stop at the seaport of Sekupang in Batam.
Economy class passengers, who bought tickets with no seat numbers, raced through the one-meter wide passageway in their efforts to secure the most preferable sites for the next three days.
State-owned water transportation company PT Pelni, which operates the passenger vessel, usually sells extra tickets (particularly during the holiday season) even though all the seats have been sold out.
A young mother seemed to ignore her infant child while making her way through the crowd. The baby screamed when another passenger, who seemed to be very determined to get onboard squeezed against her tiny head.
Several of the ship's officers along with the help of some police personnel tried to discipline passengers to queue properly but to no avail.
The situation turned even worse as most of the economy class passengers were carrying hand baggage.
The baggage, in the form of suitcases, bags, and boxes, contained various things, ranging from fruit to VCD players, which were mostly meant as gifts for relatives in their hometowns.
Even though Pelni issued regulations concerning the weight and size of baggage allowed (30 kilograms per economy class passenger), there was no baggage check for passengers.
Judging from their appearances, most of the non-seat passengers came from modest backgrounds. However, there were many of those who could have afforded to buy first class tickets.
A 36 year old, Andi Hidayat, who owns a small advertising agency for newspapers, said he had no choice other than to travel uncomfortably as non-seat passengers back to his hometown in Medan with his wife, his two small children and his college student sister.
"I could afford to buy first class tickets but they were sold out when I tried to purchase them. And that was a month ago," Andi said while sitting on a thin foam mattress under the stairs between the ship's fourth and fifth decks.
Tickets for Pelni's ships are always sold out long before a scheduled sailing. However, tickets can still be purchased from scalpers who can be easily found at Pelni's ticket reservation offices on Jl. Angkasa in Central Jakarta and at Tanjung Priok.
Officially, economy class tickets for the Jakarta-Medan trip, with or without a seat were sold for Rp 170,000 each while third class tickets were sold for Rp 272,000. Second class tickets with eight passengers per cabin were sold for Rp 292,000 each and Rp 322,000 with six passengers per cabin. First class tickets cost Rp 472,000 each with four passengers per cabin and Rp 577,000 with only two passengers per cabin.
In such a holiday season, scalpers usually sell the tickets at between Rp 100,000 and Rp 200,000 higher.
During the trip, several people managed to pass the officers' ticket inspections and got on board the ship without having a ticket.
When it came to the ticket check after the ship had departed, the crew asked the illegal passengers to hand over their available ID cards, or pay, according to the rules, the ticket price plus a 100 percent fine.
A middle aged woman said that she was desperate to get onboard the boat even without a ticket saying that she had to be home for Idul Fitri.
"I have been away from my family for three years but I couldn't find a ticket. So I just jumped aboard and paid the ticket and fine later. I don't care," she said.
Some of these passengers, if they were "lucky" to be checked by an officer who took bribes, only had to pay a small amount of money to get away with their act for the rest of the cruise.
Some passengers even allowed their ID cards to be taken away by the ship's officers and refused to take them back by paying the ticket and the fine.
"I can always make a new ID card for as much as Rp 50,000 in Jakarta. It's much cheaper," one of them said.
Pelni earlier announced that they would limit the numbers of tickets sold to help reduce passengers. They did. There were not as many passengers onboard Pelni's ships this holiday season.
During last year's season, passengers were seen lying on almost every available inch of the motor vessel, literally creating a human carpet.
This last voyage of the year 2000, M.V. Kelud had 157 crew on board and around 600 non-seated passengers.
When the ship stopped at Batam Island, there were more passengers who boarded than those who disembarked.
During the one-hour stop on Batam, huge numbers of people were seen rushing onto the passageway.
During this dramatic event, a big package slipped off a porter's hand, and fell into the sea. Knowing the owner was walking a few steps in front and that they didn't know about the incident, the porter simply moved away and fled the scene.
Like in most state-run companies, services at Pelni's vessels are almost the same, barely adequate!
The toilets were cleaned only once a day, leaving a putrid odor all along the nearby gangways throughout the entire journey.
The food seemed to have been cooked arbitrarily. Passengers from all classes had the same menu. But it's the way the food was served that made the "taste" different.
Economy and third class passengers had to stand in line to get their food. The difference was that the economy passengers got their food served on aluminum trays and ate it on their "seats", which could also mean on their mattresses or the floor. Meanwhile, the third class passengers had their meals served on a plate at tables in a vast dining room.
Food for first and second class passengers were practically the same as for third class passengers, though with more menus for the first class passengers, but there wasn't any queuing as the meals were already served on tables in the dining room, which was able to accommodate all passengers from the two classes.
However, many passengers admitted to have nothing to complain about. They said they really enjoyed sailing on the ship, which began to operate in 1997.
All rooms are well air-conditioned although not well maintained.
Decks for economy class contain one by two meter beds equipped with thin foam mattresses while decks for third class passengers are similar but the mattress are equipped with white sheets.
The decks could have been more comfortable if there were not so many boxes and other pieces of luggage brought by the passengers.
First and second class cabins were also reasonably comfortable.
Entertainment
Like many of Pelni's passenger fleets, M.V. Kelud offered several forms of entertainment for its passengers.
The ship's eight by six meter movie theater showed movies from pirated VCDs which were projected on to a three by two meter white screen by a video projector several times a day.
The theater showed various movies even soft-porn flicks with titles such as Another Woman's Lipstick and Black Widow's Escort. Such movies were shown late in the evening. For Rp 10,000 a show, people could watch a movie with poor picture and sound quality.
There was also a karaoke room where passengers could sing for Rp 2,500 a song.
A bar sold beverages with prices twice as much as usual prices.
Late at night, the dining room for first class passengers was turned into a bar, offering soft drinks and the performance of a live band.
On that night, the lady singer did not have a good voice but managed to steal the show with her low-brow wisecracks which were somehow enjoyable to her audience.
"Who dares to shake their bodies with me?
Pak, is that your wife sitting next to you? If she isn't, come down here and shake me," the singer, Dini, said to a middle-aged man.
The man, who named himself as Hendri, surprisingly took up the challenge and moved his body to a cha-cha tune.
The music show stopped a few minutes past midnight.
The sailing was also marked by several passengers who sold merchandise on board the ship, like shirts, beer, pocket cameras, umbrellas, and fruit. Such activities are forbidden on the ship but these people always managed to avoid the ship's officials.
Some of the economy class passengers even sold watermelon and bananas to passengers standing in line to get their meals.
Some other "vendors" were also able to entertain passengers as they sold their merchandise in interesting ways such as telling dirty jokes.
The ship arrived at the seaport of Belawan on the day of the Idul Fitri celebrations and from there continued its trip back to Tanjung Priok.
For the ships crew, the trip was only a routine. But for the passengers it was quite an adventure.