Eventually the First Step :)
posted in Gorgeous Travel |Traveling–all you have to do is take the first step.
–Ibn Battuta
Eid was coming soon, but I never like the making-cakes-and-cookies ‘tradition’ from the very first place. I don’t like baking. I don’t like staying too long in the kitchen. And I don’t like staying too long in the house either, just don’t get it.
… maybe it’s just because of my lovely haven, which is my bedroom—it’s so dirty and messy 
So, 9 October 2007, I took my ‘first step’. It wasn’t planned, at all. I went to my fave hotspot area (my previous campus), but no connection on the internet (it had been two days with the same condition), made me in a bad mood. So I just drove my bike to many random areas, probably almost half of the city and a bit of the outer. Gosh, this city–Pontianak–is just so hectic, while the outer is a bit serene.
At first, I considered my going only as a survey or something before I’d do the ‘real’ traveling to some interesting places in the city and around, but then after changing my notebook’s bag with the smaller one and after grabbing my given-by-my-only-big-brother digital camera and put it into my small bag, I went driving through the same route, again. I definitely took my FIRST STEP to travel 
Before I finish my route, I saw this road sign (left = Sei Kakap, right = Pelabuhan/Harbor). Previously, on my ’survey’, I took the right turn. You can guess next, I was triggered to take the left turn at the very last minute.
Back then, when I was a little girl, my dad took me and my brother once to a seafood resto in Sei Kakap. It was located both very near and above the sea. I’ve been planning that my first travel, ideally, would be to a beach or something. That’s why I went to Kakap, even without a neat plan, even it was raining, and even it was so, so, so far away. Along the straight, smooth road, I felt this weird feeling of going alone by a motorcycle to a strange place that I didn’t know what to face later (well, I remember the resto, but no clue about the exact route). I felt ‘romantic’
Once I saw coconut trees everywhere, I was thrilled without warning. Reminded me of beaches (I always believe that beaches are the most gorgeous, peaceful places on earth). But then I remembered, coconut trees could grow practically anywhere. A coconut tree grows at my grandpa’s backyard. And no beaches, at all, in his small village or around. It’s a mountainuous area, instead.
After tens and tens of kilometers, I came to the end of the road. It had both the left and right turns. I took the left just in random, but then realized a sign at my right–a name of a beach (was it Taman Pantai Indah Kakap or something…?). Yep, I turned again and followd the sign.
Apparently, it was just a restaurant. From the two gates, I could see the smooth waves of the sea water. I didn’t have any courage to enter the resto. So, with a bit disappointment, I went straight more from the beach sign. I felt goosebumps (the good one) when comprehending that my nose could smell the salty air from the sea. Actually the sea was very, very near at my left, but too many bushes and small buildings, I could only see flashes of the sea. God, I almost lost my patience. I felt like running through the bushes and just jumped to touch the sea water, but no, didn’t do that.
I kept driving forward and…
… and I came to this soil road that was slippery here and there after it was raining. I became hesitated. In one side of my head, I was (pretty) sure that the end of the (bit) damaged road would bring me to a beach or something. And in another side of my head, I heard a whispering voice telling me to stop just right there and turn around. I followed the luring visualization of a sea.
At my left, coconut trees, bushes, a few houses and small, not-clear rivers. At my right side, several small houses. There were only a few people passing by. As much as I wanted to see the sea (clearly), I didn’t wanna take the risk of being lost or something in a village that I didn’t even know the name. So I stopped in front of the only traditional house I saw. The rest of the houses there had adapted the modern architecture style, that’s why I captured that one-of-a-kind house using my digital camera. I felt like a real traveler 
After taking a few pictures, I went back but…
… the road was getting more slippery, I thought, I fell off from my bike… two times (first to the left, and second–after a few meters–to the right). Thank God there were three guys kindly helping me out from the bad situation. Mud was almost all over my body and my bike. I felt weak in sudden, so I decided to go back home. And the rain got heavier.
My first, independent, unplanned travel… finally.
What an experience! Loved it! My first debut in traveling
… and I’m gonna go back there again, soon …
Traveling–it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.
– Ibn Battuta
