“You’ve traveling a lot, Endah. Looks like you never run out
of money”
I heard that words so many time, every time I told them that
I’m going to traveling somewhere. Some of my friends always said that I have
countless money, I printed my own money to the point where they think I have
tuyul (a tiny ghost or spirit who always stealing money from other people for
his master/owner). *laughing out loud* *evil smirk*
Who’s said I have a lot of money? Wanna prove? I’ll show my
bank record book this month. If you still don’t believe that because you’ve
said “That’s a few days ago record, you’ve probably has a huge amount of bank
transfer for today”, I’ll give you my ATM and the pin code so you could check
it for yourself and see how many money actually I have. *feeling meh*
Just because I always traveling, it doesn’t meant that I
have a lot of money. Most of the time, I do traveling on an extremely tight budget.
For example, when I went to Bali to join Inspiration Class by Teaching
Indonesia community as photographer, trust me! I only have under 1mill IDR
(Approx. 75 USD) on my bank account. Buying a Denpasar to Jakarta flight ticket
for 400k IDR (approx 30 USD), I only have a little bit more than 500k IDR (approx. 40-45 USD) left. A flight ticket from Jakarta
to Denpasar was extremely expensive due the long weekend holiday and the
cheapest ticket was about 800k IDR (approx. 60 USD).
Trying to find another way to travel makes me doing a road
trip from Jakarta to Bali for with total cost about 350k IDR (approx. 26 UD)
using trains and buses and crossing 4 provinces in Java Island. I also get extra
money from my aunt in Tegal, Central Java and my parents in Pati town, Central
Java for being able to visiting them while doing the road trip. Not bad!
*tapped myself in the shoulder*
 |
| Inspiration class by Indonesia Mengajar (Teaching Indonesia) at Bangli region, Bali Province, Indonesia |
Another example when I was traveling overseas for the first
time to Singapore, trust me I only had cash money about 400k IDR (approx. 30
USD) when I’m board the aircraft. At that time, before entering the aircraft, I
left messages to my aunt in Tegal and my mom in Pati said “I’m going to
Singapore right now and I only had this amount of money. If you got a miscalled
from a number start with +65, it was from Singapore and I run out of money.
Please help me and transfer some money that you could loan to me. Thank you
very much. PS. Only transfer the money if you got miscalled!”
Alhamdulillah! Thanks to God, while I’m traveling in Singapore
everything was pretty much helpful and smooth. I got wonderful host in
Singapore who provide me some breakfast, took me a ride with his car around
Singapore and help me and my friend to everything I need in Singapore. With the
30 USD, I could even treat them a dinner, buy some souvenir for my family and
went back to Indonesia with 3 USD in my pocket.
Another experience, recently my friend offers me a trip to
an island in Jakarta. I do really wanna go because it’s been a long time since
the last time I went to island and doing snorkeling but with the extremely
tight budget, again, I have to think and think and rethink that offer, again
and again. Because the money that I have now could buy me a 1 week food supply.
At that time, I could only sent a message to my friend “I do really wanna go,
but still tentative, still considering it!”
A day before the trip, a message came to my Whatsapp inbox
said, “Endah, there’s a person has to cancel his trip and he already paid the
trip. He said, you could take his seat so you will only pay this small amount”.
Alhamdulillah again, Thanks to God when I got those message. God always know
when you need it the most.
Sometime I wonder how I can do traveling with an extremely
tight budget beyond belief and just a strong will to do that. But hey, in God
eye’s, nothing is impossible. If there’s a will, there will be a will, Insya
Allah, if God allow us. You just had to believe it and have a faith in it!
But, there’s a moment when I got a lot of money and day off
but I still failed to traveling. For that kinda story, I’ll write it on another
time! Soon enough! (EKW)
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