Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

Cyndi Lauper.

Mereka yang lahir sebelum tahun 1980 pasti tahu siapa penyanyi asal Amerika yang tampilannya aneh itu.

I think those who were born before 1980 know this funky American singer.

Dari semua lagunya, yang paling saya sukai adalah lagu dengan judul di atas itu. Lagu itu juga terhitung beken.

And of all of her songs, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun is my favourite. It was actually quite popular in the 1980s.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun… Cewe-cewe Cuma Pengen Bersenang-senang..

Saya terbangun di hari Rabu (13/3) dengan pemikiran demikian walau sempat terombang-ambing antara ragu dan cemas tapi sorenya jadi juga saya pergi ke jalan Sukasari untuk menonton arak-arakan dalam rangka memperingati perayaan Cap Go Meh.

I awoke on Wednesday, 13^th March with the thought that I would just want to have fun today though I did have doubt and worries but in the afternoon I made up my mind and went to Sukasari street to see the Cap Go Meh parade. It is an annual festival commemorating the 15^th day after Chinese new year.

Sampai di sana belum ada jam 5.30.

Got there before 5.30 pm.

Weleh, hujan tiba-tiba turun. Ini dia yang tadi sempat bikin saya ragu dan cemas. Maklum, selain curah hujan di Bogor memang tinggi, beberapa bulan belakangan ini sepertinya hujan turun tidak pakai aturan lagi.. hehe.., maksudnya gini, dalam sehari bisa panas-hujan-panas-hujan berganti-ganti.

It rained. Unbelievable!. This what worried me in the morning. Bogor gets lots of rain and it has been raining in the afternoon. It has no pattern anymore though so it would get rain and then it stopped, it was bright and sunny only to be followed by another rain. This could happen several times in a day.

Benar saja, tidak sampai 10 menit hujan berhenti dan cuaca kembali terang walau di langit tetap kelihatan ada awan mendung.

See, in less than 10 minutes the rain stopped and it was bright again though it was still cloudy.

Satu perkara baru selesai, muncul tantangan lain. Di depan Ramayana sudah sesak. Penuh orang. Kok tumben? Tahun lalu tidak seperti ini.

Another challenge followed. In front of Ramayana chain store crowds already filled the street. It was not like this last year.

Waduh, bagaimana ceritanya mau nembus manusia begini banyak? Kepala saya mulai pusing dan serangan panik mulai datang. Saya suka begini kalau berada di dalam kerumunan orang atau kalau melihat terlalu banyak orang.

I had no idea how to walk through the crowds. I had dizzy and panic attack lurked. It happened sometime when I see or being in the crowds.

Segala sesuatu yang saya lihat kok agak bergoyang. Aduh mak, pertanda buruk…

Dizzy. Not a good sign.

“Ke, kita ga bisa lewat sini” di waktu genting itu saya mendengar suara bu Martha berseru mengatasi riuh rendahnya suara orang dan musik gombrang gambreng.

“We can’t walk through this street” I hear Mrs. Martha’s voice overcame the loud noise of people and Chinese musical instruments.

“Terus kalau ga lewat sini, kita harus lewat mana lagi dong?” saya berupaya untuk tetap tenang. Aduh, jangan panik. Jangan ngegabruk pingsan ya..

“But where should we go?” I tried to remain calm despite the dizzy and panicking. Don’t passed out… please…

“Harus balik lagi”

“We need to go back”

“Balik lagi??” saking kagetnya, saya sampai lupa pada kepala yang sedang keliyengan. Sudah sampai sini terus mau balik lagi?

“Go back??” you gotta be kidding me, I forgot my dizziness that very moment. We have got here, what do you mean we have to go back?

“Kita naik angkot. Lewat Bondongan”

“We take angkot (a car uses as public transportation in this town). We take Bondongan route”

Oh, ngomong dong dari tadi. Tapi naik angkot? Ke Bondongan? Naik angkot nomor berapa? Nyari angkot dari mana? Itu angkot lewat arah mana?

Gosh, why didn’t you say so from the first place?. But Bondongan route? Which angkot should we take? From where?

“Terserah ibu dah” jawab saya akhirnya “saya ngikut aja”..

“Ok” I said “I follow you”

Ya, iyalah. Saya kan tidak tahu arah. Hehe. Kalau sudah begitu jangan banyak tanya, jangan rewel ngomel, jangan protes. Ngikut aja. Yang penting akhirnya sampai ke tujuan.

Well, what could I do? I didn’t know the way to get there. I wouldn’t say much nor complain. Just follow on. Get at the destination was my only concern at that time.

Jadilah kami balik kanan… grak.. menjauhi kerumunan massa itu. Segera saja saya merasa kembali segar, rasa pusing dan bingung hilang. Kami berjalan ke arah BTM dan menemukan angkot yang membawa kami ke Bondongan. Turun di jalan Pahlawan dan berjalan kaki.

So we went back, away from that crowd and soon I felt back to normal. We walked to Bogor Trade Mall (BTM), found an angkot to Bondongan, got off at Pahlawan street and continued by walking until we got at Siliwangi street.

Untungnya kaki sudah tidak pengkor lagi. Jadi tidak masalah di ajak jalan kaki lumayan jauh. Enaknya cuaca sedang mendung. Udara sore itu jadi sejuk.

I am so glad I had no pain on my left knee cap joint so I could enjoy that long walk. And the weather was nice.

Akhirnya sampai juga kami di jalan Siliwangi. Hujan turun lagi. Kacau… kacau.. padahal saya sedang mulai memotreti arak-arakan yang sedang lewat. Gimana nih? Pakai payung? Ah, ribet. Gimana caranya payungan sambil motret??.

It rained not long after we got at Siliwangi street. Great.. I was already taking pictures of the parade. Umbrella? Oh, how could I take picture and having an umbrella at the same time. No way. But I brought my cap so lucky me.

Untungnya saya bawa topi. Jadi sementara yang lain lari berteduh, saya bertahan berdiri di tengah hujan gerimis. Pokoknya hari ini saya sudah bertekad tidak ada angin, hujan, kaki pengkor atau kepala pusing yang bisa menghentikan saya untuk memotret arak-arakan Cap Go Meh.

And so while the others ran to get cover, I stayed on the street, taking pictures under the drizzle. I had decided that no wind, rain, pain in the legs or dizzy should stop me from taking picture of this Cap Go Meh parade.

Hasilnya adalah foto-foto ini.

And these are the photos.

Dari total 33 foto, 20 foto saya upload ke Facebook saya. Yang tidak saya duga, seorang teman di Facebook men-share 2 foto saya ke timelinenya dan ada 4 orang yang mengklik Like. Wah, surprise juga buat saya karena saya tidak pernah menilai foto-foto saya sebegitu bagusnya.. maklum, motret kan sekedar hobi. Kameranya juga kamera digital kecil.

Out of the total 33 photos, I uploaded 20 photos to my Facebook. What surprised me is one of my Facebook friend shared 2 photos to his timeline and 4 of his friend Liked it. I never expected it because I consider photography is just one of my hobbies and the camera I use is just a simple small digital camera.

Yang pasti Andre jadi sirik ketika melihat foto-foto itu. Soalnya kami belum pernah nonton arak-arakan Cap Go Meh bareng-bareng. Mudah-mudahan tahun depan bisa tapi itu juga tidak berani janji karena bulan segini dia sibuk.

Andre saw those photos and regretted it so much that he was not there watching the parade with me. We both hope he would made it next year but no promises since he usually busy on March.

Saya cukup puas karena bisa motret arak-arakan Cap Go Meh. Memang tidak sebanyak foto tahun lalu tapi lumayanlah. Mudah-mudahan tahun depan ada lagi supaya saya bisa datang buat nonton dan motret. Psst, mudah-mudahan juga Andre bisa datang.

As for myself, I am quite happy for the pictures. Not as many as the ones I took last year but well yeah, not so bad. Hopefully next year there will be another parade so I can take photo of it again. Psst, hopefully Andre will come along with me.

So, nyenengin ga? Seru ga?

So, was it fun?

Wow, iyalah. Biar pun kena kehujanan entah berapa kali, becek-becekan, menggigil kena angin malam dan sempat kebat-kebit mikir apa masih ada angkot ke arah rumah karena kami pulang hampir jam 9 malam.. hehe..

You bet! Though it rained on and off, the road was wet, a little muddy, the chilling evening wind and worried over finding angkot home after 9 pm but yes, I did have fun.

“You don’t have to tell me” tulis Andre saat kami chatting jam 11 malam itu “I knew you had fun” kamu ga usah bilang ke saya, saya sudah tahu kalau kamu sangat senang hari ini.

“You don’t have to tell me. I knew you had fun” said Andre when we chatted that night at 11 pm.

Yes baby, I had tons and tons of fun tonight.