This blog is the detailed story of my 2-week Indonesian Journey from Dec 2018-Jan 2019, broken into 2 parts. Part 2 will be released with a video diary!
Traveling to Indonesia was an experience that I could never forget, but just in case, I’m writing this blog because, well, never say never. I was blessed enough to be traveling to Indonesia to dance in a New Year’s Concert followed by the then hush-hush video shoot to follow. First things first: I have to talk about the flight(s)— Two long ass flights with nothing to do but sleep, watch movies, and if you’re fancy, Wi-Fi to communicate with the outside world. On the way there I was feeling pretty fancy so I paid for Wi-Fi. At the time, I couldn’t bear no communication with my BOTM (Boyfriend of the Moment) for more than a few hours at a time (more on that later). Luckily, I made it through the 8-hour flight followed by the 12-hour encore with the help of some edible candies. When we landed in beautiful Indonesia, instantly, we were sweating bullets. Really, the weather reminded me a lot of the most humid days in the midst of DC summers. Times ten. Then I vaguely remembered something from a geography elective in college about DC mimicking tropical climates. *shrugs* It makes sense. The humidity steals your breath right out of your lungs, I tell you!
Our hotel accommodations were immaculate. In fact, it wouldn’t be until later that I had ever witnessed a more majestic, golden palace of a grand hotel. As we walked the shiny marble floors of Hotel Mulia, we were greeted by tall greenery (including Christmas trees, after Christmas) all around with giant digital screens at every corner with an advertisement for our concert and music videos of our boss lady playing on a split screen. We were in awe as we were escorted to a huge dinner table in a private room. When asked what we wanted to eat, we were told our chef could make anything! That turned out to be true. I truly felt blessings rain down as we dined and fellowshipped our first night in this foreign land.
Sidebar: One thing I noticed in Indonesian culture: Christmas music/decorations just don’t abruptly STOP the day after Christmas; which I can appreciate because often times I find myself in a sort of withdrawal from Christmas festivities. I love the music and the celebration and I need more time! They feel me over there. The soundtrack for this leg of the trip would be: NOW Christmas.
The next day was our first rehearsal on the stage in the Grand Ballroom. And grand it was! The room had about a hundred couches, lounge chairs, loveseats and tables for the guests that would be enjoying the concert. There were huge screens bordering upstage and the sides of the room, so long that they stretched to the side walls of the room. As I looked up, I saw countless crystal chandeliers accessorizing the ceiling for the fanciest party imaginable. As we soon learned, this party was a swanky event for the hotel guests of Mulia, but we didn’t know just how fancy those guests were. As we explored the hotel during our down time, we noticed a few things. 1) We were definitely some of the only black people around (a person with us was white, but that was different too). It seemed that everyone thought that just because we looked different, we were important/famous. This theme continued throughout the trip, even on remote islands where the native people didn’t speak English. I felt like, “Paparazzi gon’ get you one way or another”. I’m guessing it’s because of the American Television that everyone watches worldwide. Black people like us are depicted on American reality shows or in the music industry and they assume we are all famous. Or it could be the fact that we were with a famous person, but I'm sure everyone in the hotel (and country) couldn’t have known that. 2) When we went to common areas, like the Café, we noticed that many of the patrons (mostly Asian) donned high end fashion labels down to the flip flops. It was no surprise that staying in this hotel = big money. We did notice some European fellows in the Cafe, whom we later learned were the Russian Acrobats that would be opening for us that night.
The concert jumped off on New Year’s Eve in Jakarta, Indonesia. We had the longest set I've done thus far in a concert: a 45-min set followed by a 30-min party set to celebrate the New Year after the countdown. I’ve learned that everything rarely goes as planned with long performances of this nature. All you can do is prepare for the things that you can control, plan ahead and hope for the best. We had planned for a slippery stage, because not unlike everything else in this hotel, the stage was so shiny you could look down and see your reflection. We had shoe guards placed on both sets of shoes (combat boots and stiletto boots) just in case. It turns out, the hotel wanted a fog machine for the drama of it all. Little did they know it would turn the stage into an ice-skating rink. As I stepped on stage for the first time that evening during our intro, the floor felt similar to when I put too much shea butter on before dance class— Slippery af. Despite the fog mishap, the concert went well, and by the end of it, we had even the most traditional Indonesian guests on their feet! I became obsessed with this idea of celebrating the New Year from the “future”, because of the 12-hour difference between there and home. So many jokes ensued after we figured out that we would be entering 2019 before anyone we knew. “Y’all late, living in the past and shit!”. Lol, ok. I’m done.
After the concert, we went back upstairs to celebrate the birthday of our concert assistant: A shy Indonesian fan who had grown up on 90’s R&B in the 00’s, who also had singing aspirations of his own. We had a surprise cake for him, dance party and possibly made his night after we gave him a twerk tutorial. We were still hype from the concert, so we ventured into the hotel’s hottest bar (a cigar/cigarette bar, to my dismay) to celebrate our performance and the New Year. Bringing in the New Year while doing something that you are passionate about halfway around the world was an amazing feeling. And though we were tired, we all felt it. That high. Upon entering the bar, we spotted someone who looked like us on the stage, dancing, rapping and hyping the crowd. A dark-skinned guy with locks and a sharp black fedora beckoned us over to the stage. He reached out his hand as we climbed on stage and immediately started jamming out with their band. Our DJ, drummer, videographer and my fellow dancer friend and I broke out into a couple of dance battles, followed by an all-out stage party. Totally forgetting about fatigue, we grabbed some shots and celebrated until the bar closed. We found comradery halfway across the world with fellow performers and learned about their journey to Indonesia.
We had one day left to parlay until we traveled to our next location for the video shoot. We decided to go to the pool, of which I have no memory of getting in (but I did leave my headphones) where we spotted the Russian acrobats in the pool getting a few stunts on camera. We left just before the sky erupted in thunderous rain. It turns out, we had landed on the first day of the “rains” aka the rainy season in the rain forest climate.
The group shrank from 6 to 4 with just dancers, the videographer, and the artist. We took a small plane to the island of Belitung—where our real adventures began...
To be Continued...
Show some love and comment for the release of part 2 with video diary!
留言