Tin shops till we drop

Tin, my dear good friend lives in Washington, arrived in Jakarta last midnight. She had booked me since two months to spend time with her while she’s around. It was still early when she called this morning. Ah yaa.. I had to get PEN’s house, where she stays, as early as possible :-)

We had lunch in a Vietnamese restaurant. It was a non-stop chat about many things. Catch up. Time flies. It’s been three years since Tin left Jakarta. We could not believe that we didn’t meet last year. She used to come over twice a year with the kids because they still consider Jakarta their home – only after seven years living here. The eldest would definitely be back to Asia after finishes university.

Tin has long list of what to buy and eat, and who to meet. She shared us the list so we know and could plan for her. She only has five days in Jakarta, five in Bali, and seven in Perth to see her aged father. She likes to stock up things she likes so that’s what she’s going to do while she’s here. She also likes to stock up presents that makes shopping the main activity.

We started up in a rejected shop (factory outlet) to buy clothing for the three young-adult girls she has. She was excited to find many top US brands in the hangers that only cost one-tenth of price in the shop. She used to shop in the outlet when she was in Jakarta but still found clothing shopping surprising. I had fun browsing hangers but hardly found things I liked and fitted me. Or, to be precise, I avoided to liking. I have more than enough clothes. Too many.

We stopped by the new upmarket mall, SC, to show Tin how Jakarta has developed. We giggled a lot because we all felt like orang kampong showing a friend from urban area beautiful shops and lights in big city. Today we shared a lot about being Asian living in ‘other’ world. Tin is Burmese and she finds it strange to live in an upscale but non-cosmopolitan neighborhood in Washington where she’s the only non-white.

We got PEN’s house seven hours later. I was tired (of not shopping?) and wanted to go home soon. But who let me? SIM opened his drawer to offer me hundreds of DVD, even he played one about Asian wife in the US. That fitted today’s topic. We talked about the topic more while having dinner. They shared about doing DIY renovation in Washington and Australia, things that don’t exist in Indonesia because we have troops to do house work. If we have such troops, we won’t look like ‘imported maids’ from Asia :-)

I ended ten hours being with good friends around 22:00. It’s always nice to be with good friends but I also missed my solitude.

Photo of kerupuk in Indus, Ubud.