(1) MY LUCKY STAR

“Mimpi”… semua orang pasti punya mimpi. Begitu pun gue. Pergi ke negri Tirai Bambu ini adalah salah satu impian gue dari kecil. “Tuntutlah Ilmu Sampai ke Negri China” pepatah ini sering banget diucapkan nyokap gue kalo lagi nasehatin gue dan adik-adik gue. Meskipun gue tahu arti pepatah itu hanyalah ungkapan atau kiasan supaya kita jangan menyerah atau berhenti belajar dalam mencari kepandaian, kalimat itu selalu membuat gue penasaran. Kenapa sih harus negri China? Kenapa sih bukan negri Amerika atau pun negri German, Belanda, Inggris, Australia atau Jepang?

“Dream”… everybody has a dream. So do I. Go to the Bamboo Curtain Country is one of my dream since I was young. “Go study until to China”. My mother often says this proverb to me and my brother and sister. Although I knew the meaning of the proverb is to give me support to not give up when we study to get our goal, this proverb always make me curious. Why China? Why we don’t put America, German, Dutch, England, Australia, or Japan?

Hal lain yang membuat gue semakin penasaran akan negri ini adalah masyarakatnya yang tersebar di seluruh penjuru dunia dan terkenal sebagai orang-orang yang berhasil dalam bisnis perdagangan karena kegigihannya dalam bekerja. Apalagi kehebatan teknologi mereka dalam memproduksi barang-barang tiruan, sampai-sampai kita sendiri sulit membedakan mana barang yang asli dan mana yang tiruan. Then yang terakhir, penasaran gue timbul karena hobby gue nonton film. Sejarah negri ini dan kemegahan Forbidden City selalu jadi pilihan tempat syuting film-film box office Hollywood.

The other hand which made me more curious is Chinese people. They are living in every country in the world. Chinese people are very famous that they are hard worker and always success in their job. Moreover they are very good in technology to copy many branded goods. It makes us difficult to recognize which one original and imitation. It’s very perfect. Then the last, my curious was coming up from my hobby to watch movie. History of this country and greatness of the Forbidden City always to be a choice of place for made Hollywood box office movies.

Lucky Star

Kali ini gue memang nggak punya coin keberuntungan mata uang China seperti biasanya, tapi bintang keberuntungan memang sedang berpihak ke gue. Gue dapet informasi dari sahabat gue Irene kalo ada 2 pesawat charter “China Eastern Airlines” dari Shanghai ke Bali dan dimanfaatin sama travel agent-travel agent China di Bali untuk buat paket-paket tour ke negri tirai bamboo ini. Tentu saja karena pesawat charter, biaya tiket pesawat pulang pergi Denpasar – Shanghai nggak ada sama sekali. Kita cuma dibebani pajak sebesar RMB 146.00. Kalau dalam Rupiah sekitar Rp 240.000,00. Murah banget kan? Padahal kalo kita berangkat ke sana sendiri dan kalau beruntung dapet ticket promo, paling murah USD 500.00 pulang pergi. Padahal harga paket tour selama selama 1 minggu full board plus tiketnya cuma USD 488.00… unbelievable kan?!! Normalnya sih paket tour ke China pasti lebih dari USD 1,000.00. Karena semua icons China ada di Beijing dan sayang banget udah nyampe China masak nggak ke Beijing, maka gue ambil paket yang tournya sampai ke Beijing. Untuk itu ada tambahan biaya additional charge domestict air ticket dari Shanghai ke Beijing dan land arrangement selama di Beijing. Jadi harga paket tour yang gue ambil total jadi USD 850.00 plus tips untuk guide selama disana USD 42.00. Selain itu mulai tahun ini kalau kita bepergian ke Luar Negri, pemerintah sudah membebaskan pajak fiscal luar negri. Sedangkan visa ke China, kita hanya bayar Rp 350.000,00 semua sudah diurus oleh agentnya.

This time I don’t get any lucky coin of China Coin before I go to China as usually. But my lucky star was at my side. I got information from my best friend Irene that there were 2 charter flights from Shanghai to Bali by “China Eastern Airlines”. China travel agents in Bali take this opportunity to make packages tour to China. Of course the package become very cheap due to we don’t have to pay the air fare. We only pay the tax fare as amount RMB 146.00, it equivalent to Rp 240.000,00. So in one week full board package tour to Shanghai and some another city near Shanghai, we only paid USD 450.00 plus guide tips USD 42.00. Soooo…cheap, isn’t? Because normally, tour fare to China more than USD 1,000.00 including air ticket. Compare if we go there by our self and if we are lucky can get promotion ticket, the cheapest air ticket is about USD 500.00 for return.

Off course when we going to China we would like to see the Icon of China. The Great Wall. So do I. But this icon is in Beijing, also the other interesting place like The Forbidden City, The Summer Palace, and The Temple of Heaven. So I decided to take the package Shanghai – Beijing and I have to pay USD 400.00 more for domestic flight and all land arrangement in Beijing. So now my tour fare to be USD 892.00. O ya… to go to China we have to apply visa. But the travel agent is taking care of it and we only pay Rp 350.000,00. Also starting this year The Indonesian Government has exempted Indonesian people and permanent resident who has tax ID number to pay fiscal tax. Before we have to pay Rp 1.000.000,00 for fiscal tax when we are going to aboard J

Satu lagi yang membuat perjalanan gue ke negri tirai bamboo ini semakin sempurna, gue akan ada di negri ini pada saat Imlek atau tahun baru China dan kebetulan musim dingin juga. So gue bakalan dapet moment paling bagus, Imlek tahun ini dengan merasakan perayaannya di negaranya langsung dan sekaligus bisa ngerasain dinginnya salju.

Another thing which made my travel to the bamboo curtain country more perfect, I will be in this country on the Chinese New Year. So I will get the best moment in this country. Also this is a winter season. I can feel the cold weather and I can see snow.

FIRST DAY, JANUARY 24^TH, 2009

Hari ini gue masih kerja seharian buat nyelesain budget dan monthly report. Jam 8 malem gue baru sampai rumah. Untungnya semua udah gue packing dan Zorro udah gue titipin ke kakaknya mba Lastri, jadi gue tinggal mandi, siap-siap and jalan ke airport naik taxi. Sampai di airport ramainya minta ampun, penuh dengan orang-orang Indonesia yang joint tour. Mereka berkelompok-kelompok sesuai dengan travel agent yang mereka pakai. Kebetulan saat itu nggak cuma 2 pesawat charter China aja yang terbang di jam-jam itu. Tapi ada Garuda dan Japan Airlines yang ke Jepang. So makin ramai dan bikin gue makin kebingungan nyari kelompok gue, apalagi gue nggak tahu siapa-siapa aja anggota maupun tour leadernya. Hopeless banget gue begitu nyampe di depan McDonald tempat meeting point, tetep aja gue nggak nemu tour leader maupun rombongan gue. Akhirnya gue telpon Irene dan gue dapet nomor HP pak Heru boss-nya Amazing Tour. Dari Pak Heru gue dapet nomor HP-nya Koh Tian, tour Leader-nya. Thanks God … finally gue berada diantara rombongan gue.

Today I am still working in the office to finish my budget and monthly report. I arrived home on 8.00 pm fortunately I have packaging all of my things and bring my dog Zorro to Lastri sister. So I only take a shower and preparing to go to airport by taxi. Airport so full people when I arrived at 09.00 pm. Mostly they were Indonesian people from Bali and Jawa who would like to joint tour. They are assembled in some group tour by their travel agent. Fortunately on that time, not only 2 flights China Eastern Airlines are going to flying. There are Garuda, Japan Airlines and others airlines too. It make departure terminal more busy and crowded. Then make me more difficult to fine my group. Moreover I don’t who are the member of my group and the tour leader. Almost give up when I arrived in front of McDonald, I still couldn’t find my group. I call Irene and I got Mr. Heru HP number. He is the boss of The amazing Tour which I use. Then I got name and HP number of the tour leader Mr. Tian. Thanks God … finally I am in my group.

Delay

Ini hal paling menyebalkan. Seharusnya kita sudah terbang jam 00.30 WITA. Tapi gara-gara fiscal jam keberangkatan delay sampai 02.00 pagi. Pemerintah Indonesia itu memang lucu dan selalu bikin diri sendiri keliatan bodoh banget di mata rakyat. Bikin peraturan baru tanpa mempersiapkan pelaksanaannya. Memang sih diberlakukan peraturan baru bebas fiscal sangat menguntungkan orang-orang Indonesia yang mau bepergian ke Luar Negri. Tapi pada saat check in kita masih harus mengajukan permohonan bebas fiscal ke petugas kantor pajak di bandara. Konyolnya, dengan antrian orang sebanyak itu cuma ada satu counter dengan 2 orang petugas. Keliatan banget ya bodohnya…kalo Departement Keuangan Indonesia nggak siap dengan adanya peraturan baru. Kembali lagi … kalo nggak gini kan bukan Indonesia…. Hua ha ha ha ha ha ha ha….. kenapa gue jadi ikutan guoblok kayak mereka ya….

The worse thing when we are traveling is flight delay. We should be flying on 00.30 am. But we couldn’t fly due to fiscal tax processing. Indonesian government very funny and always make themselves looks very stupid. Government makes a new role to exempted fiscal tax but their staffs are not ready to do it. Of course the new role make Indonesian people who would like to go overseas, but on the check in time we still have to request an exempted fiscal tax to the tax office counter in the airport. The funny thing is even the queue so long, there were only 2 tax office staff. Yeeaaahhh….back to the reality ….. It is Indonesia! Should be like this! Huahahhahahhahaaa…..how come I am going to be stupid too!

To Be Continue………..