#mehdila

[ataywangi]

Palawan, The Philippines - 02/2018

[ataywangi]

Shortest Indonesia Trip Ever: Day 1 - Jakarta - 21 April 2017

As you all know, Mehdi and I live in different countries albeit in the same region. I took a QA flight from Dubai to Doha that left at 16:35 Dubai time and landed 16:40 Doha time. Basically, I was picking Mehdi up with the next flight to Jakarta (CGK).

We landed in CGK at around 09:00 WIB where a childhood friend of mine (thanks Dika!) was waiting to pick us up. As pointed out by Mehdi, it was obviously a lot more humid in Jakarta than in the UAE and we immediately needed to drink a lot of water in spite of waiting only around 7 minutes for the car to come around.

As we drove into the city, Jakarta’s terrible traffic problems began to reveal themselves. Lack of public transportation, no apparent driving lanes, roads overcrowded way beyond capacity, and drivers not following any traffic laws are a few among the many obvious problems that the new governor of Jakarta must tackle in order for Jakarta to reach the standards of other cities of similar sizes around the world. We were happy to see however lanes dedicated to buses, used a sustainable transportation strategy to reduce traffic and incite people to use public transportation...

We stopped by Indonesia’s National Monument (Monumen Nasional -- or Monas for short) that acts as a symbol for the struggle of independence that the Indonesians had gone through in the past against the Dutch and the Japanese. There was a long queue to go up to Monas that Mehdi and I did not bother to even try. Outside of Monas Park were vendors (mostly Madurans) seeking shelter from the heat and humidity. It was time for Friday Prayer and, although we did want to go to Istiqlal Mosque (Masjid Istiqlal) to pray (did not get a chance to). We did drive past it and the St. Mary of Assumption Cathedral (or Gereja Cathedral) that stand pretty much next to each other -- a beautiful symbol of Indonesia’s diversity and pillar of tolerance.

Dika dropped us off at Gambir Train Station (Stasiun Gambir) where our train to Bandung, a city in the middle of mountains east of Jakarta, would depart less than three hours later.

[ataywangi]

Mehdi & Ila

Met in January 2016 and married November that same year –

A couple who can’t be described with just words.

Now living the long distance (but not really that long of a distance) marriage life between Doha, Qatar and Dubai, UAE. 1 hour flight away and limited expenses to be spent.

Come from two sides of the world that both love to drink tea – just one point among the infinite that unite them together.

This is their personal, online scrapbook – their story, their adventures, a crumb of their haven. Don’t think, just read.

Photo Credits: http://www.nabeela-huda.com/