A Different Loyalty

When I felt bored, I liked to check out your blog to see different world with different rhythm, different vegetation, different interaction. A good friend emailed me some time ago. It touched me. She lives in a sterile compound in South Africa. She told me once that her life is pretty much predictable: work, home, and entertainment in city.

I thought about her when I was sitting in taxi in cloudy drizzling Jakarta from airport this noon. I didn’t see green; I saw tree of buildings, sea of cars, penjor of banners. I spotted billboard of a new local cell phone operator that must have nice offers to compete the existing big players. And those huge billboards introducing new cars. It made me busy 'window shopping' for a new car but many offered shiny sedan I don’t need in Ubud. And credit card advertisements? City people need various credit cards for different purposes; to use in Singapore, to pay installment, for young card holder, for buying luxury goods. Now I remember that I also have a credit card that I rarely used the past months (only useful to get permission to use nice lounge in all airports). Different rhythm, different vegetation, different interaction.

I actually had thought about my friend since yesterday. I was driving on bumpy road in my friend’s neighborhood when I picked her up to go to north Ubud. It’s a narrow road when there’s a car passes from opposite direction, one has to go half hanging in ditch – literally. We were ‘dancing’ in the car chatting like usual when realized that we might have taken the view for granted. Actually we were in the middle of rice field, our 360 degree view is only rice field. My friend touched me Hey, I don’t miss Jakarta! Had lived in Jakarta 14 years, she really liked repeating the line.

So here I am in the midst of polluted Jakarta enjoying myself. I have work to do and errands to run tomorrow. I don’t need to rush this visit since I have ample of time to do things in my own pace.

Picture of real trees between my roof and neighbor’s.