Miss This Team

Found this picture among old archives:

 

From L to R: Chris, Me, Julie and Chris (double Chris!)

This picture was taken when I volunteered as an LO of Amazing Race Jakarta on August 7th, 2011. The race was managed by Indonesian Future Leaders (IFL) and the participants of this race were members of Junior Team Canada (JTC) that visit Indonesia bringing trade missions. I was entrusted to be an LO for Chris - Julie - Chris and here are our journey logs that previously have been told through my tweets:

• The participants of today's race are Canadians and parts of Junior Team Canada (JTC).
• To become a part of JTC, they should have exceptional leadership and entrepreneurial skills. They must pass several selections as well.
• It's hard, but once you belong to JTC, you can safely say that the future is yours. JTC has so many cool programs to nurture their skills.
• And the members also have a chance to take a trip around the world. Free of charge! One of them has even visited 20 countries at once!
• Back to the race. Today, I'm entrusted to be an LO for Chris - Julie - Chris.
• As you can see from the picture, they're huge and very much like a giant compared to me (in a good way though). -_-"
• Thankfully they're very nice and welcome. They're fast learners too, always eager to know more about Indonesia. Be proud, people! ☺
• Anyway, our first stop is Museum Bank Indonesia. Here they're expected to give the correct answers for the questions given by the staff.
• Each team gets 5 different questions that must be answered correctly. Get 1 question wrong, they should go back to Museum to answer it again.
• Thank God our team answers it correctly on the 1st try. We even have a chance to do a lucky draw and get a nice pencil case from it!
• We're the second team to finish the 1st challenge. We're supposed to be the 1st actually yet...
• ...since the post guards forget to give us the next clue, we should go back to find them and get the next clue.
• The next clue brings us to Bundaran HI! Yeah! We go there using Transjakarta and we're very grateful to be on the same bus with the 1st team
• Why? Because we have a bigger chance to be the 1st!
• The post guards at Bundaran HI give us a challenge to take a photo together with 5 locals coming from different ethnics.
• It may seem hard at first, yet in reality we only take 5 to 10 minutes to finish the challenge. The trick? Stop every passerby and ask them.
• We get a chance to take photos with locals coming from Bekasi, Bandung, Solo, North Sumatera, and Jakarta - Palembang. ☺
• And yes, we move forward to the 1st place! After giving our proofs to the post guards (photo plus locals' bio) we finally get the next clue.
• Our next clue brings us to Alun-Alun Indonesia which is located at the 3rd floor of Grand Indonesia.
• You should be proud again, people. Chris - Julie - Chris seem to be enchanted and enthralled with the beauty of Grand Indonesia.
• They say that Grand Indonesia is the nicest shopping mall they've ever visited. And they consider to visit it again and again ☺
• Back to Alun-Alun Indonesia. We're grateful to arrive first, but also confused since we don't see any post guards nearby.
• I quickly call Riza (a mobile team member) to ask about the post guards' whereabout. Do we come from the wrong side or what?
• Then I suggest to the team to split up and search for the post guards. Thank God, Chris with the glasses on has found them quickly.
• And yes, they're located on the different side. They then give us the next challenge: find a souvenir with the price below IDR 30,000.
• It's quite easy to find such souvenir at Blok M or PGC but Alun-Alun Indonesia? It looks like finding a needle from a pile of straws!
• Yet we also finish the challenge in under 10 minutes. The trick? Ask the receptionist.
• Since we're supposed to pick souvenir that represents Indonesia really much, I suggest to them to pick a wayang pencil rather than keychain.
• The wayang pencil is more expensive of course, but is also still under the budget (IDR 26,000). It's not a sin to buy it. ☺
• We should pay for it first though before going. And here comes the madness: finding the cashier is harder than finding the souvenir. -_-"
• Thankfully after asking one person to another, we find the cashier and pay for it as quickly as possible.
• And yeah, we're the 1st team to finish! We go back to post guards after that and they give a challenge for us to eat Indonesian meals.
• One more challenge: the meal should be different for each person. Since I'm having a shark week, I'm expected to eat too.
• We have IDR 50,000 each as the lunch budget. There they choose Java Kitchen meals for lunch.
• Why they choose it? Apparently it's because Java Kitchen has a nice 'Traditional Indonesian Food' slogan below their logo. -_-"
• I suggest to them to choose a meal that can be served fast to save more time. And here are their choice: Rawon, Soto Sulung, and Sop Buntut.
• And my meal? Soto Ayam. And yes, in only 5 minutes our meals have already been prepared and ready to be eaten.
• They dig in to their food quickly. They seem to find the meals to be very spicy yet they still try to eat it.
• Chris without the glasses on also seems to develop a crush with soya sauce as he enjoys the flavor so much. "It tastes funny yet I like it!"
• Since they have a big ambition to win and they're not that hungry, we agree to eat only in 3 bites and go back to the post guards.
• It's a regret to leave the food though for I know that lots of people out there can't even afford to eat like us. Yet, the race's still on.
• The next clue brings us to Museum Nasional of which we get a challenge to find three different items and answer one question.
• God, looking for them is very hard and tiring! They're like what, hundreds and thousands items bundled in one museum!
• Not to mention that the guards also don't know the whereabouts of each item. -_-"
• We have no luck in 'prasasti' room. Then we agree to split up: Julie and I go upstairs to find the answer; the boys on 1st floor.
• Julie and I find the answer quickly, but the boys still haven't found anything.
• Good thing they can find the Maluku ancient statue quickly after that. Yet we still have no luck with the other two: Gorga House and Tau-Tau
• We kind of investigating one place to another with a keen observation but the items still haven't been found.
• Thankfully not long after that we find a room with lots of traditional houses gathered together. And yes, we find the Gorga House! ☺
• Sadly during our search of Gorga House the 2nd team has passed us since they have found all items required and the answer.
• Back to our team. I swear, Tau-Tau statue is so much harder to find than snow in Jakarta! We have visited each room for 5 times but no luck!
• Then magically I find a Tau-Tau statue in front of the entrance of the room. -_-"
• It's a funny coincidence: I'm just curious about the statue standing in front of the entrance since it looks like Jakarta's 'ondel-ondel'.
• And when I see the description... "Guys, we find it! This is our Tau-Tau statue!" "Hooray!!!"
• We eagerly go back to the post guards after that to receive the next clue. Phew, thank God we're the 2nd team to finish! Not bad!
• Our next clue brings us to Monumen Nasional. We take a very long, long walk to reach the place but we really enjoy it.
• And yeah, we finally arrive to Monumen Nasional! Now it's time to find the post guards! ☺
• Thankfully it's not hard to spot them since they're wearing like a bright, yellow clothes. Ehm, me too apparently -_-"
• The post guards at Monas then give my team a challenge to finish 3 traditional Indonesian games: makan kerupuk, balap sarung, and paku-botol
• Since the 3rd team arrive not too far behind, my team is expected to race against them.
• The 1st person from each team should do the 'makan kerupuk' game, and the one who volunteers straight away is Julie. You go girl!
• And you know what? Although Julie is a woman, she finishes faster than her opponent who's a man.
• She's expected to enter the 'balap sarung' game with Chris (without glasses on) then. It's okay, they can finish the game easily in no time.
• After that, Chris with the glasses on is expected to do 'masukkan paku ke botol' game. And he finishes it with style. :))
• Yeah, it's just so funny to see him 'jongkok' and try to put the nail in the bottle. Some of the participants even capture the moment. :))
• They're not to blame though since I do exactly the same. *ehem*
• And after Chris finishes his game... Well, we can take a rest.
• Yet some of the participants who already finish the game are very eager to visit Monas, and they ask their LOs to accompany them.
• Since I'm the LO... Yeah, I go with them. We pay for the entrance tickets (which are more expensive than usual, damn the teller!) and go in!
• The participants then decide to go upstairs (to Monas), but since there's a long queue spotted in front of the entrance, we try 'jalan blkg'
• What is our 'jalan belakang'? Pay more to the entrance guards! IDR 50,000 each!
• It's sooooo expensive compared with the original price. We try to negotiate and we reach an agreement of IDR 30,000 each.
• Yet since the same price is also applied to the LOs (which are very, very locals) we try to lower the price, just for us.
• Yet the guards are very greedy and they refuse our demand. -_-"
• Good thing after that one of the committee calls us to go back to the Monas meeting point for the winner announcement will be done.
• And here our team get a nice surprise: we become the 1st winner! Reason: the 1st team to arrive miss the post guards at Alun-Alun Indonesia.
• The prize? Nice, expensive souvenir for each member of the team (I'm not included though). My prize: Lots of fun! And new camaraderie. ☺ ☺

And that's all! Quite a long story, but I hope that you'll enjoy reading it. I share this story with no intention to brag, I just want you to feel the same fun and also encourage you to try volunteering on the similar event with lots of natives. Don't worry about bad speaking skills (because I do have a bad speaking skills, believe it), because most natives won't belittle you for it. They even try to help you understand what they mean using body language and notes.