One of our travels (probably would be the most memorable for us) is the one that we did in a very short time to travel across Jogjakarta – Surabaya – Surakarta in only 26 hours. Each trip in this travel has its own purpose. The first one was Jogjakarta – Surabaya by train, departured from Tugu Train Station on Wednesday, August 31st 2011 at 4.30 in the afternoon. Based on the schedule it would take 5 – 6 hours to get to Surabaya (around 10 in the evening). My mother had arranged this roundtrip for 3 persons (my mom, my wife and me). Fortunately train traffic wasn’t as bad as bus and we’re already in my aunt’s house by 10. Its mission is introducing my wife to my aunt who couldn’t come to our marriage (on June 12th 2011) and she couldn’t manage to come to Jogjakarta as she used to do in Idul Fitri. Unfortunately we only had a few hours to stay since our trip Surabaya – Jogjakarta was 7.30 in the next morning.
Mission accomplished anyway, suddenly my wife's nick name changed to Uut since it was the same with my aunt’s nickname, Tari. What a name?
The next trip would be different for 3 of us. Surabaya – Jogjakarta for my mom and Surabaya – Surakarta for my wife and me. We decided to do this trip because this we thought it might be the best opportunity to visit our beloved pet ‘Djakun’ which we adopted by the end of 2009 and we abandoned by the beginning of 2010. We left him for a single reason, working – life living. Surakarta is a city in Central Java (approximately 60 km east of Jogjakarta). Two of our friends who stay there have been taking care of him since we left. My wife (who was still my girlfriend) was taking care of him until end of 2009 and I continued it until March 2010. Djakun was still unable to open his eyes when we adopted from the street.
We got off in Balapan Train Station, Surakarta at 12.30 mid-day where our friends had been waiting for us and took us to Noor Arif’s house. He said Djakun is fine has and a great place to play around Arif’s house. We’ve known that Arif’s family is a cat lover family. Even Arif told us once they had a cat but died due to poisoned, what an old story.
As we arrived in Arif’s house we immediate our waiting for Djakun’s presence. Arif said Djakun usually sticks around the yard in front of his house which full of sugarcane. Minutes to minutes passed until I saw a living black rumpled dusty creature walked off the sugarcane field. It’s an adult male cat about 1 year old I thought it was Djakun then I started to run after him. Things I remember about Djakun but his color were his long bended tail and his people’s feet biting habit. And it was him. I grabbed and carried him to my wife who was sitting on a bamboo bench nearby. She took and starred at him then said “you’re totally Djakun! One that I’ve been looking for till I got this far.”
Djakun still looked the same at a glance, black-dark grey fur, obstinate face, long bended tail and people’s feet biting habit. Different thing was his scars, he’s got many scars which probably he got from numerous fights (even though we actually thought he had been a local thug). Then Arif told us his brand new habit, drink straight from the tap. When the tap is closed, he’ll ask people around to open it. He usually does it after meal. We were pretty curious till I captured it myself.
Happy to see Djakun again but sad to abandon, that’s the way we feel. I was only wondering this creature had become this tough one. But we’re sure he’s alright.
