When tour's home away from home

When tour's home away from home

JAKARTA (JP): A few months ago my neighbor, Ibu Etty, asked me
to accompany her on a tour to Europe, all expenses paid, hotel,
airfare, three meals a day and city tours.

It sounded like winning a lottery, so I immediately said yes.
Ibu Etty sells cars for a living and for reaching a certain sales
target she gets an all expenses paid tour for two to the
destination of her choice.

So Ibu Etty has been to the States, Japan, China and even
Russia, but this year she wanted to go to Europe again, and
wanted to buy a diamond ring she had left behind last time.

Another friend advised me not to go. "You'll be exhausted when
you come back," she said. "Every night packing and the next day
you're off again to another destination. And the food! Terrible!
No such holiday would be too stressful for her. But I was
determined to go on tour with Ibu Etty.

Before the start of the tour, participants were invited to a
seminar, where they discussed where they would visit. A vote was
cast and a majority voted for shopping malls or at least
department stores. Sightseeing is fine, they had said, after all,
they need to see landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower or the Great
Wall and must be able to show photos of themselves standing on
the Red Square or under Big Ben.

But visiting museums? Oh well, crown jewels are OK, but who
cares about all those mummies and paintings? Nude paintings just
make people giggle and the Mona Lisa is not as beautiful as
Madonna.

But shopping is always interesting, especially when everybody
at home can expect an oleh-oleh (a present).

From the start one could feel this going to be a different
kind of tour. At a delay of two hours, nobody complained, peanuts
and potato crackers were handed out and everybody was happy with
the nyemil (snack).

On being delayed for another two hours, nasi bungkus (rice in
parcels) were handed out, all tourists enjoyed the home cooking
and the airline meal was skipped.

During European trip only Asian restaurants, that is Chinese,
Indonesian or Vietnamese, were visited. If any tastes were funny
-- no problem, bottles of acar and sambel where whipped out and
was transformed into the spicy and refreshing. For breakfast some
brought cooking utensils, instant noodles and could serve them up
in a few minutes, complete with abon (shredded meat) on top.

The atmosphere was always gay and there was never a dull
moment. We could always hear the cracking of peanuts and shrimp
or potato crackers just like home. Best of all was during sight
seeing bus trips, when somebody would pull your sleeve and offer
you rujak (fruit with a hot-sweet sauce) or pickled fruit. Oh!
they were so refreshing in that sultry weather.

But of course, nothing could beat the experience of the fire
alarm going off. My roommate and I quickly dressed and left. But
in the corridor people were laughing and having fun. Our neighbor
was soaking wet. The manager appeared, shook his head, and then
disappeared.

What happened? Our neighbor laughed heartily as she told the
story: "Well, we wanted to have salted fish with our instant
noodles tomorrow morning and we just fried them in the room
without opening the windows. Instantly the smoke detector started
sprinkling water and we were soaking wet. The fire alarm also
went off, because they thought, there was a fire! Oh, was that
manager mad!"

We all laughed with her and the next morning we were all
invited to try the fried fish. A bit wet, but it still tasted
good. I am now waiting for the next trip with Ibu Etty. Wherever
she is going to take me, it will always be home away from
home...

-- Myra Sidharta