It all started when I visited my grandpa that celebrates Christmas every year. Almost all of my relatives live in Jakarta, so I went to that metropolitan city (it is actually a province, though, but I like calling it "city" better). Not like the past years, there wasn't any family gathering in my aunt's house, where my grandpa lives. Usually his brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews and their children come to visit as he is the oldest in his family.
Because of that, we went to Mall Kelapa Gading.
But that's not the story I'd like to tell you.
The next day, I, my father and my cousin went to Pasar Senen. It's a traditional market located in Jakarta Pusat (Central Jakarta). No, no, I didn't go there to buy some food or stuff, but Senen is famous for its cheap but still complete bookshops. I and my father had been planning to go there since the year's Idul Fitri, so I was really excited when he asked me to prepare. "We're going to Senen." It was just three of us; my mom accompanied my sisters and my other cousin (and nephew, if I'm not mistaken), they really wanted to swim.
It was really awesome, either the stores, the books... or the trip. Yeap, I went there not by car, but by a public transportation: bus! Okay, okay, you may think I'm over-reacting but... really, I've never been in a bus before as I usually go anywhere with car, or sometimes angkot (angkutan kota, it's like a car that is modified into a public transportation). I've been in Transjakarta, though, it's Jakarta's busway.
The bus' name is Kopaja P-20. Kopaja stands for Koperasi Angkutan Jakarta or if translated, Jakarta Transportation Cooperation (you can search what "Cooperation" here means, hehe). We got into it in Pondok Indah, Jakarta Selatan (West Jakarta), my cousin lives there with my aunt and grandpa I mentioned before. It was full, so we had to stand up for at least half the trip. (Good to be a girl, though, when there's an empty seat, I was offered to sit first)
I love what I saw there. I go to Jakarta often, but it is usually Jakarta Selatan. So... I looked at the buildings of other part of Jakarta curiously.
Central Jakarta is a crowded city. Traffic always occurs there, even when West Jakarta is not (this rarely happens, but in Christmas it did! The city was really empty that I guess I could even play football at its roads). It was an approximately-one-hour trip.
We were like explorers that time. My father relied on his memories of the city, but the last time he came there was... about twenty years ago. Many parts of the city has changed, for example there was a way to directly walk from the bus station to Pasar Senen, but now there isn't. The bookstores was also evicted, their place was actually in Kwitang, beside Toko Gunung Agung near the Pasar.
At last (after got lost for many times, hahaha), we found the place; the highest floor of Pasar Senen. It was really full of books and I was so happy, really, really, happy. The sellers directly call me like "mbak, sini mbak, cari apa" ("mbak, come here mbak, what (book) are you looking for?"). I was confused on how to reject their offerings, so I just said "later, okay, I'm still looking (at all this stuff)".
What I wanted was actually some Chemistry and Physics college books; Raymond Chang's and Giancoli's, respectively. I and my father also searched for a high school exercise book that was used in late 1960s, made by a Dutch pastor that lived in Indonesia, Peperzak. But I just wanted to feel how it was to arrive there, the place I've wanted to visit since a long time ago.
At last... I bought four books; three Physics books written by Halliday et al. and a Chemistry book made by Brady and his colleagues (yeah it was so unfortunate that the sellers didn't know Peperzak's book). Three of the four are really thick, each of them contains almost a thousand pages. The other book is quite thin, but it is the hand-written solution for the problems in the other book,
The great thing about the bookstores in Pasar Senen is that we can bargain so that they sell their books cheaply; I bought the four for only Rp 175.000! The sellers are very friendly too, my father even joked with them.
My cousin also bought some old novels, the ones published by Balai Pustaka (1920s).
When we got back to the station, we found out that... there are also bookstores there. My father, out of curiosity, asked for Peperzak's book. A seller went inside right after hearing the request, asking us to wait. After waiting for some time... the seller went back with the book in his hand! I was so excited. The price was originally... mmm, I forgot, about Rp 75.000 up, but my father successfully bargained it that we only had to pay for Rp 25.000.
We then directly searched for the P-20 bus. It was already 4 p.m. We arrived at Pondok Indah at 5 and waited for some time in Poins Square (my father bought Doraemon's Stand By Me DVD here for my sisters) before my cousin's driver picked us up.
P. S.: When we arrived home, my grandpa told us that "I and Peperzak were friends, we sometimes argue with each other." The world is really small, isn't it?
end of part one
What I wanted was actually some Chemistry and Physics college books; Raymond Chang's and Giancoli's, respectively. I and my father also searched for a high school exercise book that was used in late 1960s, made by a Dutch pastor that lived in Indonesia, Peperzak. But I just wanted to feel how it was to arrive there, the place I've wanted to visit since a long time ago.
At last... I bought four books; three Physics books written by Halliday et al. and a Chemistry book made by Brady and his colleagues (yeah it was so unfortunate that the sellers didn't know Peperzak's book). Three of the four are really thick, each of them contains almost a thousand pages. The other book is quite thin, but it is the hand-written solution for the problems in the other book,
The great thing about the bookstores in Pasar Senen is that we can bargain so that they sell their books cheaply; I bought the four for only Rp 175.000! The sellers are very friendly too, my father even joked with them.
 |
| These are what I bought from Pasar Senen. |
When we got back to the station, we found out that... there are also bookstores there. My father, out of curiosity, asked for Peperzak's book. A seller went inside right after hearing the request, asking us to wait. After waiting for some time... the seller went back with the book in his hand! I was so excited. The price was originally... mmm, I forgot, about Rp 75.000 up, but my father successfully bargained it that we only had to pay for Rp 25.000.
We then directly searched for the P-20 bus. It was already 4 p.m. We arrived at Pondok Indah at 5 and waited for some time in Poins Square (my father bought Doraemon's Stand By Me DVD here for my sisters) before my cousin's driver picked us up.
P. S.: When we arrived home, my grandpa told us that "I and Peperzak were friends, we sometimes argue with each other." The world is really small, isn't it?
end of part one
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