I was in Harmoni today.
Well, first I caught the train that runs from Bogor to Kota. Rp.1,000 and a mere 10 minutes from South Jakarta to Juanda station. Comfortable? Well, sort of. I had a seat and a pleasant breeze from the open doors which afforded views of the shacks lining the tracks. Travelling cattle class ain't too bad if there's room for the peripatetic peddlers of cheap paraphernalia,
tahu (bean curd), cigarette lighters with floating naked ladies inside and shoe laces. Today we were mercifully free of one-legged single mums screeching to a backdrop of over-amplified dangdut songs. Don't get me wrong; I'm a soft touch for all victims of life but I'm also a music lover. I generally give some small change in order to buy a bit of aural peace.
From the station, I strolled cheerfully through the back streets of Pasar Baru observing the extant Dutch and Chinese buildings, several still in fine condition. It's nice to walk.
But, of course, I'd gone in the wrong direction and had to backtrack. And the rains came with enough wind to flip my new pocket umbrella inside out ~ or should that be downside up? And with the rains came the motorcyclists to park on the pavements thus forcing foolish pedestrians like me into the gutters which were, this being Jakarta, rapidly overflowing.
By the time I arrived at my destination I was sopping and definitely dischuffed. But the meeting was very harmonious.
All in all, a yin/yang day which means, I suppose, that my title is apt.
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