Last October 2010, I traveled to the United Stated of America for 10 days particularly to North Hampton Massachusetts and New York. This is my second trip after another brief visit one and half years ago also to Massachusetts.
I remember hundreds years ago, a French scholar, Alexis de Tocqueville, travelled around this country for two years and produced a really really great book about democracy in America. Comparing to him my trip is nothing, as Indonesian said that my trip experience would no more than a tip of his dirty nail :) Moreover today in this ITC technology era, when the world becomes flat like a village in which people around the world seems like know very well of what other people doing in the other part of the world. Writing a travelogue like this is maybe like putting salt to the sea, useless.
Nonetheless I still feel very fortunate and want to share my deep skin impression about this superpower country. So here is all what I experienced about this country.
I landed at Detroit Airport, spent a night and with other friends from Bangladesh, the Philippines and also our American friend continued the travel by car to Massachusetts. I was really excited knowing that autumn season has just arrived. It was like magic to witness the beauty of green threes turn into bright yellow red. My previous visit in this country was in end of winter so it was snowy white everywhere and very cold. I always amaze to the beauty creates by this changing season, so my romantic mind thought that they are lucky to have opportunity enjoying every moment of Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring. Always then a poem came out from my mind ^.^
The Autumn of my life
It was young autumn who arrive in front of the door of October,
He handsomely smile and smoothly took my hand
Walk around New England
To witness all the threes turned bright yellow and red
In solitude one last leaf fell down from a willow three
Every green will finally turn yellow and fall
Reminding the fragility of my own life
Some day I will be the yellow leaf my self
Who at the end fall separated from the ones beautiful and beloved
Oh life nothing stay forever
Well I am also pretty sure that this change of weather would be very tough for the poor because during winter the temperature is very cold, far bellow 0 degree Celsius. I imagine being poor and homeless fellows in a four seasons country would really like getting a curse from the hell. But a friend told me that in Northampton the local government provides the poor with cheap housing that they can stay with a very cheap rental cost depending on their income. Look at below picture of the house for the poor that my friend told me. It does not look like poor at all for Indonesian standard actually :-))
During the land travel from Detroit to Massachusetts I learned about how the principle of freedom of expression implement in daily life. We all know that the US constitution guaranteed freedom of expression, but I have never sure how this principle implemented in their daily life. My friend told me that only a couple days before, one of his neighbor raise a Southern flag in front of his house sang a song and all activity to express his longing for the idea of Southern State. As you know hundreds years ago the US has a very bad civil war involving the Southern states versus the Northern states due to their different policies on slavery. Many of the slaves from the Southern countries flew to the North to pursue freedom. Well it is a fact that some people in the country still want to have a separate Southern State, just like one neighbor of this friend of mine. What impressed me was that the police allowed him to do so respecting his freedom of expression.Only after the neighbors complained because the noise had disturbed them, the police asked him to stop the activity.
Well this kind of thing would never ever happen in Indonesia. Once you rise other than Indonesian red and white flag, a police would arrested you with the charge of rebellion. And many people are indeed in jail because of such case in Papua, Maluku, Aceh and even sometime ago in West Java.
I also noticed how politicians sometime harshly criticize their opponent because they are guaranteed by freedom of expression principle. At that time some politicians from the Republic party amplified by mass media were accusing Obama as a Muslim and or as a Communist, and nobody filled libel for that accusation. I recalled this kind of thing would never happened in Indonesia. High profile people in Indonesia are very much caring to their good names and reputations so any accusation would be taken as serious offense.
After driving about an hours we arrived at North Hampton. It is a very beautiful old city. I love to see flowers blooming everywhere in the streets and in front of houses. It was amazing to look at old building and old architecture houses in the city. I was thrilled to see people who are very patient in waiting the traffic light turn from green to red before passing the street, while the cars were also all abiding the traffic signs.
On this particular fact one Indonesian friend whom have been stay in the US for two years have a reason. He drives also in the state and he does it very carefully unlike when he drives in Jakarta. Why? He said he want to make his record clear from any legal violation because otherwise it will have a serious consequence for him. Not only that your driving license would be cancel when you have bad record in abiding the traffic regulations, but you may also have difficulty in other business for instance in borrowing money from the bank and many others businesses. So this friend would always carefully check how long he has park in the street to avoid overtime and so on.
North Hampton is a small town, we can reach almost anywhere just by walking. Just like other small city, this one will also ready to sleep in the evening. Many of it shops will close by 5 or 7 o’clock in the evening. Only on weekend, starting at Thursday evening all the shops open late giving chance for people to have more fun for shopping and drinking outside. By walking you can find restaurants offering various kind of foods, and they are delicious.
At least foods I tried there were all delicious :) I tried one pizza restaurant that has all very good foods: margarita pizza, pasta with eggplant and cheese on the top, and wonderful salad with olive oil sauce. I tried Moroccan kebab which located in one corner of the town. Another restaurant, I forgot the name, was also having very good roasting salmon with potato.
This city has everything people dream of: beautiful houses with large garden, good hotels, many restaurants offering various kind of delicious foods, universities, and the most important is heavenly scenery with all that beautiful lake, river, gardens, houses, old buildings, flowers and so on. No wonder people want to stay here. Hotels are fully booked during the summer as people want to enjoy this piece of heaven in earth.
The hotel I stayed in, Northampton Hotel, was an exotic building. Its tagline “an inn of colonial charm” is reflected in all its architecture building and interior design. I like the hotel: the building reminds us to the British colonial history, the interior design also reflects the past century comfort, and the foods are great. I was lucky Verite paid the hotel for me this time, but if we want to stay there next time we need to spend about USD 200 per night. Whew pretty expensive, doesn’t it? But I think its worth for the beauty the hotel offers.
When I was there, one wedding was just held there in the Hotel ballroom. It was not an ordinary wedding (in my Indonesian opinion) because both the groom and the bride were male! Oh yes it was a gay wedding. This is another form of freedom adopted by this particular state, off course not all states in the country legalize a gay marriage like this one. Well they said that generally New England people are more liberal and tolerate to difference cultures and views.
I only spent about 5 days in this beautiful town and did not feel enough. Really want to comeback some day and enjoy more the city when another color of season changed.
Before flying back to Jakarta, I spent one night in New York. I was lucky because one Indonesian good friend, Abidah, was very kind invited me to stay in her apartment. She cooked nice Indonesian foods, rawon and lontong. She treated me for dinner in one Indonesian restaurant. She shows me around New York.
This is the first time for me to meet Abidah actually after long long time ago we always heard each other name mentioned by common friends. But student activits you know always close one another because we share the same critical idea, the same dream of a better Indonesia. We talked a lot and everywhere: in the bookstore, in the train, in the restaurant, in the car and offcourse in her house. We discussed everything and that was really exciting.
We went to Isles Island where the liberty statute located. It was Friday 10 AM o'clock in the morning, and we stucked with very very long queue (about 1 km). And all of them were waiting to board in ferry that will bring them closer to the statute. The ticket was USD 12 each. If you want to go up to the statute, go there before 8 AM in the morning because they set a quota for how many people could go up the statute for each day.
Well I ended up with taking picture with the liberty in the far distance background. And thats not less fun I think. Because for me happiness is not depending to outside factors but within ourself.
We took picture with George Washington statute in Union Square, a place with so many people whom did free activities: playing chess, selling cute T-shirt, selling tomato, pumpkin and other farms harvest and so on.
We visited a popularly cheap bookstorne called strand bookstore. I bought some books and merchandises there.
We then enjoyed the walked to the UN center and took some picture together with the the organization peace symbol.
With all those tall buildings, busy people, and sleepless city no wonder they called it as big apple. A big fresh apple in which everyone looking for with passion. However I personally did not see it attractive or want to stay there. I prefer to call it as the jungle of New York. When you are not inhabitant of it and get lost, you will feel lonely and confuse. I think I love New England more than New York. With all those busy people in rush; with all those arrogant tall buildings around, with all those depressed homeless people in sight, I just felt like nothing and depressed.
Well still even in this dry energy of New York, I can still find an oasis and that was in book stores ^.^ You can always find peace in spiritual books written by Dalai Lama, Karen Armstong, Thich Nath Hanh, Paulo Coelho, Deepak Chopra, Rumi and many more. Actually I was not alone to seek refugee in this spiritual haven of the bookstore. I can understand that at one point people need to take a rest, from the crowd to solitude, from the ambition to achieve carrier ladder to a more relaxed journey to find the true self. I shared the feeling and understanding to the people in that corner and pray for them, may peace and happiness be with you!
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