“Aku Rapopo” is Javanese term, means “I’m
fine!”. It’s currently a hip meme[1]
especially among Javanese speaking communities.It has been popular at least
since late of 2013 through social media, and become more popular as hashtag “#akurapopo”.
Literally “aku rapopo”is telling a good news; asking people not to worry,
whilst it’s actuallya satire.Along the way, it also becomes a daily joke. Here
are some picture which may help you to get the point (I hope it help):
That is just the brief information about the
term “aku ra popo”. I choose to use it in this text with no intention at first.
It just cross at my mind when I start to
write. But then I realize that it’s a specific cultural hip, that may be caught
only by the Javanese-speaking communities. So I think it necessary to make this
sort of prologue. It is not only the word of “aku rapopo” that popular, the
word of “travelling” is more massively well-known around the world.
*****
Nowadays, people travel more and more. They travel with many different purposes:
vacation, hobbies, getaway, working, pilgrimage, family visit, study, or even
getaway from routine. I my self
travel a lot (not that many but I still
count it as a lot :D ) in these late 3 years. My work as a researcher allow me
to do it. I usually extend for days or weeks in my research just to explore the
area as a tourist, not a researcher [Let me tell you that there is a huge
different exploring a new place as tourist and as a researcher. I often trap in
self-problem about it. That could be another article to tell about the identity
issue, you should just wait]. However, both of being a tourist or a researcher
allow you to live in different environment, custom, culture, and way of living
from your home. It allows you to meet people, have relationship with locals, another
travellers, and people that “somehow” live in the area. This text is about
those circumstances that I often deal
with. That at some point I just can response and express it with
#akurapopo.
If
you travel to a famous, fancy tourism destination you may not have problem with
food. What you need to deal with is
possibly just paying more for the kind
of food you want to eat. But, when you travel to a small remote island you
could have no choice, no matter how much money you have.
When
you far away home, it happened that you miss homemade food. I was in Nusa
Lembongan weeks ago. There are a lot of
restaurants and warung there. However the menu are not that varied, especially
when it comes to Indonesian food. They have nasi goreng, mie goreng, nasi
campur, and cap cay every where, nothing more. I actually can find very good
Balinese traditional food but it takes more effort. There are people selling
Balinese breakfast along the street in the very early morning. They start
selling at about 5 am and sold out at about 7am. For lunch, there is a lady selling Balinese
homemade food. She walks around the Island and carrying a bucket of food on her
head. Problem, it’s not easy to find her as she keeps on moving selling her
food. In the beginning it sucks to eat the same menu in several weeks or
months. Until I learned just to accept and getting used to with it and just end
up with #akurapopo even it’s borring.
I pay more, #akurapopo!
I live in Yogyakarta, where everything is
cheap (compare to other big cities in
Indonesia). I actually know that the price of everything are doubled or even
tripled outside Java. However, when I travel to another island I still
frequently frustrate paying something more than the normal price I know.
Indeed, it’s the rule of tourism, that people charge you more since they think you travel because you have
more money.But it happened every where. I just need to be more tricky andhaving
more “sense of generosity” when I travel so it won’t disturb me enjoying the
journey.
I
was standing on Legian street in the morning. I was waiting for a Blue Bird
taxi to go to Sanur, then a middle ages man
stopped in front of me. On his old motor bike, he offered me to just
take his car. He said that I can get a special price. He mentioned Rp 250.000.
I quickly said No, it’s crazy price. We were negotiating then, until he
realized that I know how much is the normal price. I finally agreed to pay the
car Rp 110.000. Even I know that it needs about Rp90.000 with Blue Bird taxi to
Sanur,I agreed to go with his car as I was bored waiting and think that it’s ok
to help the old man make a living. He is a middle man and I am sure he is when
he said “please just wait here I will call the car to come, and a friend of
mine will drive you to Sanur”.
That’s
the way of some people makes money in tourism, and that’s the way of the networking
work. It happened everywhere and sometime you don’t have any other better
choice. I can be very mad if I think that’s someone is lie to me and steal my money somehow. But when I change my point
of view, instead of being annoyed, I can still say “I pay more, #akurapopo!”. I
learn that when I travel what I need is knowing the normal price and prepare a
tolerance (money and heart) to facing such moments like this so I will not
loose my joy
No Internet, No electricity, No
Coffee Shop, #akurapopo!
At
the first time it was very frustrated for me dealing with no electricity.
Frequently, no electricity means not only no light but also no water, no cell
phone, no computer, no internet, and no on time dateline. I was frustrated when
I need to send works but the power is off and no internet on the island. But no
matter how stressed I am, no one can help. Then I realized that I just need to
sit down, talking to people around me, playing card with them and forget about the work for a while. And
keeping on my mind that I should spare more days to finish and send works
before the dateline for the next time.
Travelling
to somewhere far away home means that we also need to manage our expectation
about everything. I learn not to expect and do the same way of living when I
travel. That’s actually the pleasure of
traveling, doing something
different. When I am home, I spend hours
and hours sitting in a coffee shop, for working, hanging out, or even just
enjoying my me times. Sometimes I miss
that moment when I travel. Unfortunately, Starbuck is not really everywhere. There
is maybe only the “not really proper” coffee shop in town, means not cozy place
to sit, not a good coffee to drink, or just instant coffee available. When it
happened, I just can say #akurapopo! while enjoying what were in front of me,
the drinks, the meals, the atmosphere and the people around. Luckily, there
is a really “proper” coffee shop in Nusa
Lembongan Island. It’s Eco Deli. Good
food, good beverage, good place, and good internet. It just close early, so I
can not spend until late sitting and writing, like what I am doing right now,
in a 24 hours coffee shop in Jogja.
Still, #akurapopo! It’s good, that living in the island make me go to
bed and wake up early J
I love and then I Left,
#akurapopo!
Mostly, I travel by my self, oh I have my
book and laptop with me actually. I used
to be very busy with them even when I didn’t have to. I thought it was ok until
I felt sort of bored and lonely. Then I remembered a note from my buddy,
“happiness is made to be shared”.
Thanks
God, I was never really alone on every single trip I made. I meet people, we talk, get to know each
other, hang out, and some become like families.
The longer I stay in a place, more frequent I meet the same people,
bigger opportunity for us to become really friends. [Trust me it was not an
easy thing to do for such an introvert girl like me. I am not sure if I become more open today, but I think so]. However, I really worked for it, to become
“less laptop and book oriented”, to have more friends and share the happiness
with new people. It’s interesting and fun until the day when I have to leave
comes. No one likes to say good bye I think [except good bye to your past and
your ex :p] and so do I.
I
met an Italian friend during one of my trip. I met him several times in
restaurants and bar. One time he told me a story about an Italian traveler who
inspires him to travel. He said that this guy traveled around the world with a
scooter, with low budget but he really made his days. He got along with people
in every place he stopped by, make friends, or even fell in love but then left
in three days. The story really tells me how to deal with saying good bye. It’s
hard and sad but somehow it has to.
When
you travel, you may meet a lot of nice people but not all of them you can keep
in touch with. Some people go but some stay. You wish some people to stay but
you find they don’t. They maybe just stay in your heart in silence.However,
#akurapopo!
*****
I
really thanks God for every single trip I made. It was not only about exploring
a new place but also it’s sometimes about learning and being in process to grow
up. One of the lesson, it teach me to be
#akurapopo; not being stress about everything, not too picky, not too
demanding, more accepting and more grateful.
Thus, I can BE HAPPY EVERYDAY both in my trip and everyday life…
___________________________________
[1]Meme is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads from
person to person within a culture."[2] A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols, or practices that can be
transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures,
rituals, or other imitable phenomena with a mimicked theme. Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme
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