January, 20th, 2024
Before today, I couldn’t sleep. Nervous. This was not my first time going abroad alone but this was my first trip to Hong Kong – Macao – China (Guangzhou), so of course I was nervous.
I woke up without my alarm and got ready to go to the airport. Everything went well until the flight was delayed because one of the airway’s staff didn’t feel well, they needed to change staff. So, I waited for around 1.5 hours. I got a next trip on the same day to Macao by bus at 6.50 pm, I just hoped I wouldn’t miss it.
The flight from Kuala Lumpur to Hong Kong took around 4 hours. I spent it while sleeping, watched Netflix, and read some stories from my Kindle book.
When I reached Hong Kong, I never imagined I would have to cross many escalators to go up. Only up, up, and up. But everything went so fast and organized. I reached Hong Kong around 2 pm and everything was done around 1 hour. After exchanging my ticket for my Seventeen concert, I bounded to the Prince Edward train station to catch my bus.
I almost changed my plan to travel to Macao by Ferry, but I was worried. I didn’t do much research on it and I already bought a bus ticket, so, Prince Edward train station indeed.
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Hong Kong for me was like a typical Chinatown. Tall buildings were everywhere, people walked fast, and good street food was everywhere.
Inside the Hong Kong station was like Tokyo station. I could find food everywhere. Maybe the difference was the type of food, Tokyo station was full of desserts while Hong Kong station was full of milk tea, and bread. I didn’t like milk tea usually because it was too sweet but I liked it in Hong Kong, maybe different tea. Also, I could survive here, although not all people knew English, they always tried to speak Chinese with me, but they could guide me well.
My journey to Macao took 2 hours by bus and I passed three immigrations. It gave me a question! Why should I pass three immigrations? I think only two – I think, and why I passed China immigration. Okay, it was weird but I didn’t think much.
After I passed the third immigration, in Zhuhai terminals, I became so confused. This was my first drama. I was supposed to stop in Cotai, not Zhuhai. Next, I had to pay to ride a bus while I didn’t have any MOP – Macanese Pataca – Macao currency at all, I only had HKD.
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One of my Chinese friends already told me to use Alipay, but even Alipay I couldn’t use it because it needed verification. I could use my HKD in Macao but of course not for bus fare.
It is already 10 pm and the terminal is already empty. I tried to ask the taxi driver but mostly they couldn’t speak English. Luckily, I found one shop inside the terminal and the lady could speak English. Before the money problem, I had a problem with my line. I couldn’t use my Hong Kong line and it made me need to buy a Macao line, so I need Wi-Fi. The connection was so slow and I needed around 1h to settle down.
In Macao, I stayed with a friend from the Philippines and because it took too long, she even messaged me on Twitter “Where are you? I am quite worried”. I also worried about myself at that time so I just answered her “Almost there, I have a bit of drama here.”
Riding a bus to my hotel was quite challenging because Macao used the Spanish language for names. The unfamiliar language made me couldn’t catch the names of the stops. I relied on Google and luckily it could be used in Macao. I reached the hotel and my friend was already waiting for me in front. Automatically I screamed and hugged her saying “OMG you will not believe what happened to me just now.”
On our walk to find a late dinner, both of us were surprised to find almost all restaurants open past midnight. It had a long queue so we chose to eat fast food. I haven’t eaten since lunchtime and my friend is too tired to wait for me. We needed our energy back.
January 21st, 2024
We woke up quite early because my friend needed to get her seventeen tickets from other fans. We rode a bus at 9 am and reached the stadium in 20 minutes. Today’s trip went smoothly. I think I would come back to Macao only for travel, even as a solo traveler.
The only drama was because we mistook riding the wrong bus after the concert. We needed to ride one more around to reach our hotel.
Macao’s food was similar to Malaysia’s, but maybe the taste would be different because I didn’t try it all. Macao had egg tart, siew pao, and loong kee. The building combined Chinese and Spanish architecture.
I thought Japan also influenced Macao because I found many products from Japan, such as BOSS coffee and Kirin. We found many ramen houses and also Thai and Spanish food.
January 22nd, 2024
My next drama absolutely will be chosen when I am alone. I rode a bus in a rush in the morning because I woke up quite late, and I knew I would meet with many school children, workers, and maybe grandparents who needed to go to the morning market.
Also, I knew I brought 24-inch luggage so I needed more space. See! I only stayed on the corner along my ride to the terminal. Interestingly, one grandma started talking with me during the ride and I could only smile at her because I didn’t understand. But, I took a guest, it was about me and my luggage, and maybe because of my early trip.
I reached the terminal around 8 am and asked the security officer where Zhuhai station was. The security said, “This is Macao, so you need to cross the immigration to reach Zhuhai station”.
Actually, the statement made me confused, “Where am I?” and “Where is Zhuhai station, a different country?”. Following the security directions, I walked through so many security inspections, again and again, I needed to lift my luggage to cross the baggage inspection.
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After I passed three or four baggage inspections, I reached immigration. I gave my passport to the inspector, and suddenly she said,
“You need to make a new visa, it already expired”
“How come, it expired on March 2024,” I said to here
“Yes, but it is only a single entry and you already used it”
I blanked! Like I didn’t know what to do. Then, I thought “Oh, I need to buy a return ticket to Malaysia today” but then the inspector said “Go to the immigration office”
I didn’t have options for this so I could only go forward. I asked the security guard where the immigration office was, but he didn’t speak English. He needed to use Google Translate to understand it, luckily, we could communicate and he dropped me off at the office.
I needed to wait for 30 minutes because the office was still closed, it opened at 9 am. I tried to contact my friend in China to explain my situation. She said I can contact her if needed.
At 9 am the office opened, I talked with the security person who spoke English about my purpose. He asked me to fill out the form and take a picture in the photo booth inside the office.
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I needed to wait for two people before it was my turn for document checking. The officer asked me so many questions
“What is the purpose go to China” “Meet friends”
“Oh, so you know someone in China?” “Yes”
“Indonesian?” “No, Chinese”
“How do you know each other?” “My classmate in Malaysia”
“Oh, is your friend studying in the Philippines together?” “Yes, but not Philippine, it is in Malaysia”
“What is her party?” Okay, for this one I don’t know the answer “Errrr,, I don’t know but I have her identity card”
He wrote something in my form after he read my friend’s identity card
“I will call her,” he said in the end.
Maybe because consciously, I was nervous, I wrote the wrong number in the form. He tried to call my friend but no answer, then he told me to call my friend. I called and my friend picked it up and I gave my phone to him and they talked. I only understood “xie xie” when they ended the call.
“Okay, you wait”
Before that, I needed to pay the fee. I used my credit card because I didn’t have cash. After 20 minutes of waiting, I got my visa and returned to immigration. It took me 45 minutes to cross the border, and many things happened to me again.
So, they couldn’t deduct money from my credit card; my friend in China needed to transfer money via Alipay to the officer. The immigration machine will talk with you automatically using our mother language. I was shocked because I suddenly heard someone talking in Indonesia.
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At Zhuhai train station, I had a problem again with my line. I had difficulty communicating with my friend due to the line disruption, maybe because I was at the border.
I needed to find a spot several times because it was freezing outside. Luckily, I could get a train ticket at 11.48 am, but I couldn’t find any signal during my ride. I tried to text my friend so she could pick me up, but my message didn’t reach her. I didn’t want to stress myself out, so I continued watching Netflix.
Finally, after I passed one station, my China line was working. I reached Guangzhounan station around 1 pm, and from that moment on, everyone tried to speak with me in Chinese.
Once or two times, it was OK, but after that, I started to question what happened. I knew I had Chinese ancestry, but I never paid attention to it. Maybe because my cousins on my mother’s side always made fun of me when I was little or maybe because Indonesians are actually forced to stop talking about Chinese descent.
Furthermore, some people expressed their curiosity toward me by asking my friend where I came from and why I couldn’t speak Chinese while I looked like Chinese. And that was the first time I felt my Chinese ancestry acknowledged.
People living away from home are known to practice their traditions to create comforting, familiar situations in unfamiliar environments – Sheere Ng
Yet, in my bewilderment and my drama during my journey, I felt I found my other identity. I remembered joining a workshop and the committee requested us to list our identity. As I only mentioned three identities, which were female, Javanese, and Indonesian.
I suppressed my Chinese ancestry identity since my childhood. Only after I started to stay in Malaysia, many people asked me, “Are you Chinese? Or mixed?”
Tomlinson (2013) said and I quote “cultural identity was something people simply ‘had’ as an undisturbed existential possession, an inheritance, a benefit of traditional long dwelling, of continuity with the past” and in this situation, I felt my Chinese ancestry was disrupted.
But Tomlinson added and I quote “but it was also discovered to be something fragile that needed protecting and preserving that could be lost” and yes, I lost it because I never practiced Chinese tradition at all. I rarely visited family from my father’s side and my father only joined practices from my mother’s side.
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It was different in Malaysia. I joined the Chinese tradition because most of my friends were Chinese. I enjoyed Chinese cuisine and joined to celebrate Chinese New Year.
On the other hand, this experience made me reflect on the process of globalization in Indonesia. The mainstream of the capitalist system during the globalization process forced Indonesia to have a standardized version of its identity.
The complex cultural identity of many ethnicities in Indonesia was considered a threat to “national identity”. So, Indonesia forced people to use “Indonesian” as their identity.
Even though we couldn’t forget the local movement to talk about their cultural identity. But at the same time, along the way, globalization also became a process that helped people find their identities.
Globalization helped people to cross places and times. It was like my experience; I needed to cross countries to find my other identity. Yet, I didn’t know how to interpret my new finding, as identity was people’s source of meaning and experience.
Like many of my contemporaries, I have yearned to find my place in this world, to have a sense of homecoming, a sense of being wedded to a place. – bell hooks
