Saturday, November 22, 2008

How well do you know your home town?

Above question hounted me for weeks, started when a friend of mine asking about good restaurant in Tasikmalaya (my hometown) for her colleagues when she's visiting the town for colleague's wedding. And I can't give her a proper answer for that simple thing.

And last week another Dinar asked the same question when she has to go to Pangandaran Beach for work and she and her colleagues plan to stop and have a meal somewhere in Tasik. And I can't give a proper answer again, my answer was there are a lot of restaurants on the way back to Bandung from Tasik and you can choose one of them in fact I know NOTHING about restaurant down there. This is the place I called home town and I spent 2 years for my high school there, I know NOTHING about good restaurant there, shame on me!

To be honest I never dine out while I was in Tasikmalaya because my mom and grandma will
cook for us, so if I dine out that will be for Bakso (meat ball) Laksana famous bakso place in Tasik or bakso Mang Eman (near my grandma's area) I don't know why but bakso is a populer snack/meal in Tasik, bubur Zaenal (you have to get up early and quieing there because it usually sold out at 10 am) and during Lebaran holiday the place will be packed with people from all over and most of the cars are from Jakarta.

Beside restaurants, I know limited tourist things in Tasikmalaya. I know where to buy
handicraft, I know where Mt Galunggung is, although I couldn't remember when was the last time I was there, and I've been to Pangandaran beach but that also long time ago. So if one asked me what to do and where to go in Tasikmalaya, I only can name Pangandaran beach and the volcano, other than that I have no idea. Shame shame on me.

I tried to look up on the internet and not much information either, so next time I was down there I have to be really look around and have better knowledge on things to do or where to go, so when one asks me about Tasikmalaya I can give them comprehensive answer :)).

Dinar was born and grew up in Jakarta so her hometown is Jakarta but she never been to Monas, so much knowledge for what so called hometown huh?

I guess we tend to take for granted on what we have now.

So, how well do you know your home town?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

If someone asked me for direction in Surabaya, I wouldn't be able to help him/her. Although it's my hometown, I never really explore it by myself, all I know is where the good foods are, where my friends' home addresses are and where all the important buildings that needed to be visited are located (read: shopping malls).

I think my knowledge about Jakarta is way better than my own hometown

Anonymous said...

I wrote something similar about this in April but more about not having enough knowledge our own country in general. But it is just the same, we are faced by simple questions and suddenly find out we have no idea what the answers are.

I visited Borobudur the first time when I was 8y.o but wasn't interested in the story at all. I spent time for posing in front of Buddha statues. And I realise it now that's what Indonesians do. Go to tourist objects and pose and go back home and frame the pics to tell others that they have been there but no idea about the objects at all. We don't try to understand the story behind them let alone pay attention to details.

I blame it to our history teachers back in school. They made everything sound so DULL by forcing us to remember nonsensical thing like years and names, and not the whole contexts.

seputar ebook said...

well, my parents are from buton , south east sulawesi,.
people say the island produces the biggest quantity of asphalt in asia.
but, never been there at all.

i just remember the island whenever im on "the street"... :)

m i S S i S S m a said...

Hi Ecky..
hmm...u don't have to be that asshamed, actually.
coz the last time i went home to Tasikmalaya..there's still no particular or special dining spot but baksos and buburs kiosk everywhere in the town.
but the baksos and buburs there are totally delicious and taste differently..hehe

there are some famous sundanese restos too..like Manjabal, Saung Eurih, Saung Leuwi Dahu, etc.
But too bad, they all are not located in the downtown..

And it's kinda new also, now Tasikmalaya has two malls..Mayasari and Asia Plaza.
The last one's kinda cool..with Gramedia bookstore in it..hehehe

ps : nearby Bakso Laksana, there's a juice stall called "Konjaku" that u have to check coz they have many kinds of fruity and yummy cold beverages :p

Anonymous said...

I know my home town VERY WELL. Bandung gitu loooooh :-D

Pojok Hablay said...

ditto with Surgamaya, maybe because Bandung is my hometown as well?

It is common that sometimes we are lacking our sense when it's come to our hometown. It took two exchange student at our house to force me to see the beauty in my hometown, and it's become my habit.

I don't really know the must-visit-place in Bandung if it's based on orang jakarta opinion, though.