Back from Asia

Came back from Indonesia & Singapore late sunday night. How was the trip?I'll skip the boring details and just move on to the most exciting part.

Arrived in Jakarta Thursday afternoon for Akong's Suprise 80th birthday party. My Akong is not a big fan of big parties and celebrations involving himself. At first I thought the party would just involve the family, but turned out there were over 100 people there. Considering that there is already +/- 20 grandchildren. It's been a while since all the cousins were re-united so we chatted noisily. Our uncles and aunts kept coming to our area to tell us how they can hear our chatters from the other end of the restaurant. As usual, the Gunawan cousins are always on the highest decibels.

Saturday was D-Day! Morning was the church ceremony. The pastor was entertaining, he touched on important topics but kept it light-hearted. Towards the end, when my cousin, Ko Hendry and his bride, Ce Maggie, hugged their parents, they started tearing up. Everyone at the church cried - Akong, all the Aunties, some of the Uncles and also the cousins. It was a touching moment.

Then next was the tea ceremony. We were excitedly waiting for the hong paos that Ko Hendry was going to give to us. Before handing it out to us he said, "Don't be disappointed ah.. It's symbolic only." We were "Wow-ing" and making jokes about wanting some of the gifts when he and Ce Maggie received the jeweleries from the grandparents, parents and other relatives.

At night was the reception. It was held at the biggest ballroom in Jakarta, if my sources are true. Two words to describe it "crowded" and "bazaar-like". They were expecting 3,000 guests but my dad said that more than that came. It felt like I was in an award show of some sort. It did not feel like a wedding. The reason why I described it as bazaar-like is because the ballroom had booths with various food such as Peking Duck, Bali Mixed Rice, Pasta Bar, Chicken Mushroom Soup, Wellington Beef and etc. There were long lines everywhere. My poor cousin and Ce Maggie had to stand on stage for hours to shake hands with the guests. I believe they were doing so for more than 2 hours. It must be so tiring.

I'm glad I decided to go home to attend Akong's 80th birthday party and Ko Hen's Wedding. Sacrificing a week of school and work is definitely worth it.