Live-In & Expedition: The Story

Live-In & Expedition: The Story

This is the final part of my Live-In and Expedition series. Now I'll tell you what I've done in this activity.

DEPARTURE
 We gather at the Bogor City train station at 7:30 PM. The opening was taken place in there. After the opening, we board the train onward to Jakarta Kota station. And we depart from Bogor station at 8:00 PM.

Figure 1.1: Getting ready for departure.

After we board the train, we do stuffs to overcome our boredom. Some play guitars (that's my teammate Rakha 2), some chat with each other, and some takes pictures. Me? I drew some drawings and watching my own drawings too. The trip took just 1 hour 30 minutes because the train's passenger numbers were relatively small.

Figure 1.2: Inside the train.

Figure 1.3: Me & my friends in the train.

Figure 1.4: I'm trying to sleep...

We arrived at the Jakarta Kota station at approximately 9:30 PM. Then, we rent some public transportation to go to a mosque in Muara Angke. We take rest there before departing to Kelapa island tomorrow. There's a slight problem before we arrived at the mosque. So we disembark from the cars, and walked to the mosque. There, we put our carriers, take a pray and then take a rest.

Figure 1.5: This is just me and my friends at the angkot.

Figure 1.6: Muara Angke at night.

Figure 1.7: The interior of the Muara Angke mosque.

DEPARTURE FROM MUARA ANGKE & DAY 1 AT HARAPAN ISLAND
  We woke up at 4:30 pm (maybe), to take morning (Subuh) pray. Then, we pack our carriers, and go outside the mosque to prepare for departure to Kelapa island. Before going to the boat, we bought some water and Mr. Okwan gives us some seasickness pills. Then we walked to the pier where the boat was parked.

Figure 2.1: Lining up for departure.

Figure 2.2: Mr. Okwan giving us seasickness pills.

Figure 2.3: Buildings in Muara Angke at morning.

We board the boat, put our carriers, take a meal of breakfast and taking a seat in the boat. Technically, the boat has no standard seat. We just sit down on the floor. Some sit in the back of the boat, but me and some of my friends sit in the front of the boat. Before the boat departs, we eat our breakfast. After that, we're still waiting for the boat to depart. The boat delays in a lot of time, because the amount of passengers that were going to board the boat.

Figure 2.4: Boarding the boat.

After approximately 45 minutes, the boat finally departs. We depart at approximately 8:45 AM.

Figure 2.5: Finally!

Figure 2.6: OTW to Kelapa island.

The trip takes about 3-4 hours. In the boat, I'm just taking a sleep. After I woke up, at all the sudden the boat has arrived (yay!)....at Pramuka island. The boat takes a transit on that island. Then, afterwards, we sail again to Kelapa island. It took 30 minutes for the boat to arrive at Kelapa island from Pramuka island. After we arrive at the Kelapa island's pier, we unload our carriers from the boat, then the lunch was given. Before we take a lunch, we walked to Harapan island first. After we arrived at the front of the Kepulauan Seribu National Park office, we ate our lunch, then we go to the local mosque to take a Dzuhur pray. After that, we gather at the National Park office. There, we're getting some briefing about what activities that we're going to do on that day. After that, we take Ashar pray. Then, we meet our family that we're going to live in. My group was living in Mr. Roni's family. Mr. Roni's wife takes place to guide us to their house. After we arrive at Mr. Roni's family house, we put our carriers in our room. Then, we take a rest, and drink some fresh drinks. Then we wait for Maghrib time to come. After that, we go to the mosque, then we take a Maghrib pray. After we finished, we stay at the mosque, reading Al-Qur'an to wait for the Isya time. Then we take an Isya pray. After that, we go to the National Park office to take some life vests for the live-in activity tomorrow. Then, we go back to our family's house and take a dinner, then we take a sleep.

 

HARAPAN ISLAND: DAY 2
The live-in activity starts this day. We woke up early to take Subuh pray, then we go back to our family, to take a breakfast and prepare to sail to the open water. Of course for fishing. We took off at 7 AM (maybe). At first, we catch some small fishes for a bait for a bigger fish. We catch some fishes, then we go to the waters that the fishes that we're going to fish meant to be. We catch a lot of fishes. Two of them were barracudas. After that, Mr. Roni suggests for us to take a rest on his island. It's named Dolphin island. There, we grilled our fishes for lunch. We ate them with the rice that was bought from our house. Then we're having a free time, then we take Dzuhur pray. Afterwards, we set off again, to Semut island. Mr. Roni's friend has a pompano captivity in that island. We feed them. Then we set off again to Perak island. We take a rest there. All of my group members except me were having fun on the island. Me? Just sitting on a chair and waiting...for the time to get back to Harapan island. After an hour, we sail back to Harapan island, bypassing the Bira Besar island. At the middle of the trip, we met fishers that having their boat broken down, so Mr. Roni decided to tow them back to Harapan island. We arrive at Harapan island at 4 PM. My friends were washing themselves first at the beach, but me? Straight to the house. I immediately take a bath. Fiyyan came back, but Thareq was injured on his feet so Rakha 2 carries him to the office for treatment. They came back a bit late. Then, we take Ashar pray at the mosque, then we came back to our family's house, then wait for Maghrib. Then, we go to the mosque, taking Maghrib pray, then go back to our family again, for dinner. Then, we take Isya pray at the mosque again, then after that we go to the National Park office for debriefing. We tell the activities that we do on this day. What I'm doing when I listen to other group's story? I drew some stuffs. But I still hear them though.

Figure 3.1: At the National Park office.

Figure 3.2: Mr. Arief explaining something.

Then, we go back to our families, then take a rest.

HARAPAN ISLAND: DAY 3
The final day of our live-in activity. As usual, we woke up to take Subuh pray, we go back to our family for breakfast. But this time, we can't go fishing with Mr. Roni again. Because yesterday the boat was overloaded because of us (or maybe me :v). We just doing things in our room. I bring my book here, so I give it to them for reading. Me? I just drew stuffs again. We're totally bored for about 3 hours. Then, Dzuhur time came and we're taking Dzuhur pray. After that, at 1 PM, we go to the National Park office for debriefing.

Figure 4.1: This is how I overcome my boredom, without any single annoying conversation.

Figure 4.2: Supplies for our families in the island.

Figure 4.3: The groups that have made their posters going to place their posters.

We're going to execute the contribution project after Ashar pray. But our group doesn't made any poster for the contribution project. So the groups that doesn't made any poster were going to take trashes on the pier. We're given a bag to collect the trashes. We need to fill it with trashes. For about 30 minutes, we managed to fill the bag. Then we dumped it to a nearby dump. After that, we clean ourselves, invite our family's representation, Mr. Roni's wife, for a goodbye event at the National Park office. There, our teachers says thank you to our family's representations. Then, we take photos together, and we bring some food supplies such as rice and milk to them.

Figure 4.4: Saying goodbye to the families in the island.

Figure 4.5: Photo of us with our family members.

After that, we wait for Maghrib, then after the time come, we go to the mosque and we take a Maghrib pray. Then we go back to our homes to take a dinner. Isya comes, and then we take an Isya pray at the mosque. After that, most of us go to the pier, some refresh themselves, some play soccer with the kids from the island. I join them. But I didn't play the soccer though (:v). I'm just making another drawing. Then, at 10 PM, we go back to our family, pack some stuffs into the carrier, and take a sleep.

DEPARTURE TO BIRA ISLAND.

Figure 5.1: Last moments at Harapan island.

This is the first day of our expedition. We woke up at 4:30 (approximately), to take Subuh pray. Then, we go to the National Park office to bring back our life vests and take our shoes. Then, we go back to our family's home, to take a breakfast and final packing. Then, we take a goodbye photo with our group's family, then we go to the pier.

Figure 5.2: Boarding the girl's boat.

In the pier, we put our carriers at the girls' boat. Our boat was another one at the other side of the pier. We board it, then we set off to the Bira Besar island.

Figure 5.3: Preparing to leave Harapan Island.

Figure 5.4: Leaving Harapan Island.

Figure 5.5: On the way to Bira Besar.

Figure 5.6: Bira Besar's pier, moments before we arrived.

Figure 5.7: Waiting...

Our boat reaches Bira island first, then the girls' boat arrive later. We wait at the island's pier gazebo. Then, we rendezvous. We walked to the island, put our carriers on the designated area, and then make some camp.

Figure 5.8: That's my group's camp, amirite?

After it's done, we take a field trip throughout the island. Well, just its outer areas only. We didn't reach the middle of the island. The field trip was taking approximately an hour, maybe. I think we started at 10 AM and finished at 11 PM.

Figure 5.9: Getting ready to explore the island.

Figure 5.10: Mr. Arief giving some instructions.

Figure 5.11: Exploring the island.

Figure 5.12: Halfway through the trip.

Figure 5.13: Sultan walks by a lot of dried fishes, at the abandoned helipad.

Then, we make lunch, and taking Dzuhur-Ashar pray, combined.

Figure 5.14: Before taking a pray.

After that, we're going for an observation and mangrove conservation. At first, we take an observation at Checkpoint 1, then we go back to the main base to take a mangrove cutting, and we went to Checkpoint 2. There, we plant our mangrove cutting to make them grow. But, the mangroves from the generation before us was already dead. I hope ours doesn't. We continue to the third Checkpoint. There, we take another observation of the creatures that were living there.

Figure 5.15: Moving to the first checkpoint.

Figure 5.16: Seaweeds.

Figure 5.17: Sea cucumber.

Figure 5.18: Reef.

Figure 5.19: Reefs.

Figure 5.20: After observation @ checkpoint 1.

Figure 5.21: Going to plant the mangroves.

Figure 5.22: Planting mangroves.

Figure 5.23: After planting mangroves.

Figure 5.24: It's a long sea cucumber.

Figure 5.25: Sea urchin.

Figure 5.26: Resting after the observation and conservation.

After that, we go back to main base (our camp), take some bath, cook some food, until Maghrib. We take Maghrib and Isya pray, combined, again. Then, we read Al-Matsurat,, we listen to some stories by Mr. Nathiq, then we re-evaluate our actions. After that, we go to our camps and then we take a sleep.

Figure 5.27: It's awesome. Don't ask it.

BEST DAY IN THE EXPEDITION.
Why did I call this day as the best day in the expedition? You'll see.

Figure 6.1: Morning routine.

We woke up, as usual, to take a Subuh pray. Then, we read Al-Matsurat. After that, debriefing, then we cook our breakfast. After that, we change our clothes to diving clothes. We take some exercise, and then practicing to plant a reef.

Figure 6.2: Getting ready to swim.

Figure 6.3: Test on planting reefs.

Figure 6.4: Planting reefs.

Then, we wait for our turn for snorkeling. That's the reason why I call this day as the best day in the expedition. We're snorkeling!!! (:v)

Figure 6.5: Getting ready to snorkel.

Figure 6.6: Don't mention it. This is beautiful.

Figure 6.7: Mr. Arief waving the SAB flag underwater.

Figure 6.8: What an epic shot.

Figure 6.9: Awesome. Nuff said.

Figure 6.10: Rakha 2 backflipping, with some of my friends snorkeling in the background.

Figure 6.11: Snorkeling!!! :v

Yeah, my group gets the last turn to get into the water. But some of us, including me, has done the snorkeling first. But, without fins. I get the fins in my group's turn. We snorkel for about 30 minutes, then we exit the waters. We take a bath, then we take Dzuhur-Ashar combined pray. It's Friday. We're supposed to take a Jum'at pray, but due to the place, we can't, so we take a Dzuhur pray instead. After that, FREE TIME!!!! That's the other reason why this is the best day on the expedition, for me. I'm just doodling all the time at the free time on my sketch book. BTW, I'll show my drawings at the Live-In and the Expedition activity later on this post. We have our free time until we're told to cook our dinner, pack our stuffs and remove the camp. And then, we wait for Maghrib. At Maghrib, we take a Maghrib-Isya combined pray. After it's finished, we read Al-Matsurat, then we're going for a "show" on the pier's gazebo. My group, collabed with Andro's group, shows 2 songs, with Rakha 2 on the guitar. It was a great show, especially the finale. Our teachers shows some comedy. Yup, we laughed. They're so funny back there. That's the third thing that makes me feel that this is the best day in the expedition. After that, we take a rest. Some of us take a rest on the pier's gazebo. But me and the rest of us takes a rest in the base.

GOING HOME.
We woke up at 4:30 AM (as i remember), to take a Subuh pray, so we can get to the boat earlier. After we finished praying, we pack our carriers and take them to the pier's gazebo. We load them to the boats. But this time, the carriers were placed not solely on the girl's boat. We must take our own carriers to the boats. We board our boat at 5:30 AM, and we set off the Bira island. We arrived at the Kelapa island at approximately 6 AM. After that, we move our carriers to the same ferry that bring us here 6 days ago. This time, the ferry has no delay. So we set off at 6:30 AM. The trip takes about 3 hours. Now I'm not sitting in the front of the boat again. I sit in the back, sleeping, and then when I woke up, when the boat was approaching Muara Angke,  I doodle again on my sketch book. Yeah, a short doodle, but I finished it before the ship moors into the Muara Angke's pier. We arrived at 11 AM (maybe). Then we gather at some sort of office, waiting for a transportation to take us to the Jakarta Kota station. I bought some mineral water to fill my bottle. Then, the transportation arrived, and we set off to Jakarta Kota. After we arrived there, we take a lunch, buy some drinks at the train station's 7-Eleven, then set off to Bogor. However, Fiyyan and Reksa was left behind because they're going to the restroom. Alhamdulillah, there's Mr. Arief. So they know what to do. Of course we arrived earlier, but Mr. Arief arrived approximately 15 minutes afterwards. We take Dzuhur pray, and then we close the activity at the same place we've started 6 days ago. Then, we all go home.

CONCLUSION & LESSON:
1. Remember: There's a person that doesn't live just like us. They need to do something exhausting to get money. So accept everything you got. Don't even reject it.
2. As a social creature, humans need to help each other. We can't live without any other person.

NOTE: Photos courtesy of Rafi Nugraha (Nugi).