Sorry Is Not Enough

I am very sorry that I have failed you.

I am very sorry that I have ignored you and remained in ignorance of your plight.

I am deeply sorry that I have stood by and allowed you to be violated.

I am sorry and ashamed that I have allowed you to continue suffering all this time, fighting to stay alive.

I regret that I have been unable to do much to help you.

I am ashamed that I have been mute, deaf, blind and paralysed and thus couldn’t come to your aid.

I am sorry. Please forgive me, the innocent people and creatures of Aleppo. My ignorance and inaction have led to your destruction. I have failed you, just as I had failed Srebrenica, Gaza, Afghanistan, Yemen and Rakhine State of Myanmar.

As we may have known (if we’re not still too ignorant or self-absorbed or self-obsessed), there was heavy bombardment on Aleppo earlier this week. The Syrian forces had pushed in with the area held by the rebels shrinking. They claim to be liberating the city from the rebels when in truth they have systematically and determinedly been destroying all public facilities: hospitals, schools, and anywhere that may provide shelter to the innocent civilians. They even destroyed bakeries, for crying out loud. I was tearful for the most part of this week and prayed to Allah for safe passage for the civilians. I was sad, I was angry, I was furious that no one seemed to be doing anything. No one, except for the pro-government forces who were relentless in destroying the city. The final straw was the clip of the people saying goodbye, convinced that their end had come.

Who is the terrorist here? The innocent civilians who just want to be left in peace, who want to continue living in the city of birth, who oppose the tyrannical president? Or the dictatorial president who clings greedily, hungrily and blindly to power, never mind that he commits genocide on his own people and destroys his country’s heritage? It was the Syrian forces which bombed Aleppo and then attacked them with chlorine gas??? How low can one go?

Aleppo has been in existence for more than five thousand years. It has seen hundreds of generations building and expanding it. And it took a generation of morons only four years to completely destroy it.

And yet, in spite of this, it’s amazing that there are still heroes there. One such man is Mohammad Alaa Aljalel or the Cat Man of Aleppo who, while himself seeking shelter from the bombings, found a stray cat. To me, it’s just amazing how this hero can manage to keep his sanity, humility, humanity and compassion in the face of fresh challenges and onslaught. He’s the total opposite of the dictatorial tyrant.

I have faith in Allah. I have faith that Allah knows best. The Almighty is in full control and has a bigger plan. The people of Aleppo are now being evacuated. The Cat Man is now safely in Idlid with his cats, Alhamdulillah. I was so happy and thankful that he and the cats are safe but couldn’t help thinking how sad and heart-breaking it must be to have to leave your beloved birthcity, not knowing if you’ll ever be back.

Oh Allah, please protect the innocent souls in Syria. You know best. Amen.

As shitty as 2016 had been at times, I don’t look forward to 2017. How can I when my fellow brothers and sisters are suffering?

P.S. This is another Twitter account of the Aleppo Catman.

Jakarta Trip Photos

Camomile tea for me, green tea for my niece / Inflight meal (didn’t enjoy my noodles though) / The setting sun as we began our descent

The setting sun during our descent

Our apartment unit. There are storage drawers beneath the bed

Bathroom, balcony and the lights of central Jakarta

View from our room. The bottom two photos are of Cosmo Park

At level 10 of Cosmo Terrace. You can see Tanah Abang market building from here. And picture on the bottom right-hand is of the back of one block of Cosmo Park Town Houses

At Plaza Indonesia. The picture in the middle is the DAMRI bus (van, more like) for the service to the airport. I think there are also services to other areas but I didn’t really check

Jakarta, December 2016

I had planned to bring my niece to Jakarta (I had brought her brother and sister there before on separate occasions) and decided to take advantage of the Maulidur Rasul long weekend. After buying the air tickets, I searched for hotels. I was contemplating the guesthouse I usually stay at but decided to find another place and only fall back on the guesthouse if I couldn’t find an alternative. You see, this time, I wanted to stay somewhere really central. Sure, being in Menteng and Jakarta Pusat, the guesthouse is central enough, but I wanted a place where I can walk to places instead of taking the cab and being stuck in the jam. I finally found (after cancelling one hotel at Jalan Lombok) a small apartment available on Airbnb, promptly signed up and booked the apartment.

I met up with my niece at KLIA on Friday afternoon (9 December 2016). We dropped off our bags, cleared immigration and headed to the Golden Lounge (I was offered to upgrade and the amount I offered to pay was accepted). I had a shower first before having my late lunch. We left for the gate at 16:00. We took off on time and settled in for the flight. It was a good thing I ate quite a bit at the Golden Lounge because I didn’t enjoy the noodles with garoupa that I chose for my meal.

We landed at 17:25 local time and quickly made our way to the immigration counter. Our bags were out within minutes and we then made our way to the bus station. I know there are direct DAMRI bus services to Thamrin City Mall where the apartment is but was told I might have to wait another hour for it so I decided to take the DAMRI bus to Gambir station instead. It came within 20 minutes and we reached Gambir in 50 minutes. Traffic was heavy but thankfully it was moving.

We walked out of Gambir station and took a cab to Thamrin City Mall. We were unlucky to get a driver who was intent on sticking to 15 km/hour so we were crawling all the way. I was surprised that no one honked the driver for driving like a pensioner. Why, my dad drives a lot faster than that!

We hit a traffic jam at Jalan Kebon Kacang Raya. Friday evening crowd and whatnot. The cabbie dropped us at Amaris Hotel and typical of most cabbies there, didn’t return us the Rp2,000 change although I asked for it a few times. What is it about cabbies over there? Do they think they can merrily round up the fare? This is one reason why I wanted to stay somewhere really central where I can walk anywhere. I still have to take a cab or ride the packed bus if I stay in Menteng.

We asked for directions and after getting lost and asking for directions again, we finally found Cosmo Terrace Apartment. We sat at the lobby and waited for the apartment owner to show up. I had earlier told him that we expected to arrive between 19:30 to 20:00. It was 19:45 then. He finally came at 20:15 and quickly brought us up to his apartment unit at level 28. The building owner is superstitious: there are no 4^th, 13^th, 14^th, 24^th and 34^th floors. The highest floor is level 39 and it took us just 62 seconds to reach level 28. The owner then showed us around the small space: how to work the stove, the washer, the wifi etc. before leaving.

We unpacked, performed prayers and settled down for the evening.

On Saturday, we woke up early for morning prayers and then up again before 08:00. We had a very good view of Jalan Kebon Kacang Raya all the way to Plaza Indonesia and could see Grand Hyatt, Mandarin Oriental, Keraton at the Plaza from the room but what really amazed us was Cosmo Park Town Houses, the residential area right on top of Thamrin City Mall. There are about 76 units of three-storey houses atop Thamrin City Mall, how amazing is that?! The residents enter and exit the area via a ten-storey circular ramp. There are no fences or walls around any of the houses. We stood at the balcony and by the window often looking down at Cosmo Park and marvelling each time.

After breakfast, we left and went up to the Sky Garden at level 37 (if I recall correctly) to admire the surrounding view. We then went down to level 10 to where the swimming pool, Jacuzzi, barbecue area, gymnasium and children playground are. From here, you can also see the back of one block of Cosmo Park Town Houses. I asked one guy and he confirmed that the town houses are built on top of the mall and are ten floors above ground level.

After admiring the view, we went down and out of the building. We crossed Jalan Kh. Mas Mansyur and walked ten minutes to Tanah Abang market. We browsed a few floors and even had lunch at Tenabang, the foodcourt at the market (there’s 10% tax imposed on food here!). I managed to buy a pair of original Crocs (older model but it’s fine) and some dates for Abah. He prefers to wear Crocs footwear of late as they are not slippery and are thick which is good for diabetics.

We returned to Thamrin City Mall and browsed around. There sure are a lot of stalls and shops in the mall. This was the eighth time I’d been to Jakarta and only the first time I’d been in Thamrin City Mall. The stalls sell mainly batik clothes and Muslim clothing. There’s also Hypermart, some restaurants and food courts. One thing I couldn’t stand is that despite notices, people smoked in the mall. Ugh! We bought dinner from the food court (no tax imposed here or maybe it’s already built in but the prices were way lower than at Tanah Abang) at level 3 before returning to our apartment to rest. There was a power trip but the emergency light worked in the bathroom and the AC worked too. Power was restored about an hour later.

On Sunday, we walked to Grand Indonesia and Plaza Indonesia. I also dragged my niece to Grand Hyatt to visit the H store there before returning to Plaza Indonesia. Oh, before I forget, we went into Grand Indonesia first. We went down to the Food Hall and were browsing when we looked to the far right to the food counters and saw something running on the counter. ‘Oh my,’ I was thinking, ‘could that be a rat?!’ when my niece started saying the same thing. A big huge rat at one of the food counters at the Food Hall in Grand Indonesia! I wouldn’t bat an eyelid if it was at Tanah Abang or Thamrin City Mall foodcourt but at Grand Indonesia! O.O We had lunch at Food Louver at Grand Indonesia. I wasn’t happy with the pulled noodles in tom yam that I bought and my niece said her dishes (she had rice) were too hot even for her palate.

A lot of stores were having their year-end/Christmas sales but as from past experience, we found that most things were still more expensive than in KL so we didn’t shop. I only bought Sangobion at Guardian there (they cost less there as they are produced there and those sold here are imported from Indonesia anyway) and even then questioned why I was charged Rp14,200 for each strip of ten capsules when the price printed on the strip was Rp13,000 (I got my refund back by the way).

It was drizzling when we left but I had my brolly so we huddled beneath it to Thamrin City Mall. We bought dinner to go – from a different stall this time – and returned to the apartment. We spent the rest of the day resting and packing what little we had bought until then.

On Monday, we left early and went to Plaza Indonesia. The wifi was not working at the apartment so we stood outside Star*ucks at Plaza Indonesia and rode on their wifi. I also wanted to check out On Pedder as I wanted to try on Charlotte Olympia pumps. On Pedder is the only store in Jakarta which carries Charlotte Olympia and Sophia Webster and Aquazzura (it also carries Christian Louboutin even though there’s a Christian Louboutin boutique nearby). After that we returned to Grand Indonesia. We had light lunch at Burger King then headed back.

Back at the apartment, we performed prayers and showered. We had earlier planned to catch the 15:30 bus to the airport but decided to leave earlier when we saw the unpromising weather. We left at 14:15 and reached the DAMRI stop at the Mall in less than ten minutes. It was starting to drizzle then. There were seven other people in the bus (more like a van or MPV) and it can comfortably seat ten passengers. The fare was Rp40,000 (the same fare if you board at Gambir but you need to take a cab to Gambir) and we reached the airport an hour later (because the van had to drop off passengers at the domestic terminal first). We dropped off our bags, went to clear immigration and went to browse the duty-free shops.

I performed evening prayers first hence left the boarding gate plane slightly later than everyone else but caught up with them at the airplane. We took off about 25 minutes later than scheduled and landed late at KLIA. My bag came out early but I had to wait for the 22:22 KLIA Transit train then change at Bandar Tasik Selatan for LRT back. Had to wait a while for the LRT at Bandar Tasik Selatan and Chan Sow Lin and then the LRT would have to stop a long time at Cahaya and then in between Cahaya and Ampang stations. In the end, I reached home at 00:12 on Tuesday. I probably should have just taken the KLIA Express to KL Sentral, change for the LRT to Ampang Park and bus back to Ampang. Oh well...

So that was my eighth trip to Jakarta. Will I be back? If I do, you can bet I’d stay again at Cosmo Terrace due to its proximity to Tanah Abang and Grand and Plaza Indonesia. You can even walk to Sarinah Department Store if you so wish.