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I joined an ondel-onde laudience in Old Jakarta. Ondel-ondel is a folk performance that uses huge puppets. (Photo by Muhamad Ridwan/Photo editing by Ivan Kevin Castro)

When I was a grade-school student at San Beda College in Manila, my favorite subject was social studies. I would always take extra interest in studying Indonesia, a “brownieland” that is very similar to the Philippines in people and culture. I have always had at-home feelings about Indonesia. In my second visit to the country, it swept me away again with more experiences and memories. I don’t mind going back again and again.

I frolicked among plastic bubbles with a lady and her baby in Jogjakarta’s Alun Kidul (South Park). (Photo by Wahyu Nugraha/Photo editing by Ivan Kevin Castro)

Dulce Bautista, Rey E. de la Cruz, and Ace Caño (Photo courtesy of Rey E. de la Cruz/Photo editing by Ivan Kevin Castro)

On my Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong to Jakarta, my Filipina flight attendants were Dulce Bautista (Manila) and Ace Caño (Legazpi City, Albay).

Rey E. de la Cruz, Bella Subagyo, Clarissa Bañuelos Subagyo (Quezon City), Rose Marie Heradura Kartodirdjo (Manila), and Bernadette M. Soedaryo (Manila) (Photo courtesy of Rey E. de la Cruz/Photo editing by Ivan Kevin Castro)

My hosts in Jakarta were Clarissa Bañuelos Subagyo (Quezon City) and her daughter, Bella Subagyo. They introduced me to their Filipina friends Rose Marie Heradura Kartodirdjo (Manila) and Bernadette M. Soedaryo (Manila).

Clarissa is a co-founder and an administrator of Mentari International School. Bella is a medical student at Pelita Harapan University. Rose Marie is a marketing researcher. And Bernadette is an entrepreneur.

The author with Clarissa Bañuelos Subagyo, Marie Alcazar de la Torre, and Dave de la Torre. (Photo courtesy of Rey E. de la Cruz/Photo editing by Ivan Kevin Castro))

I enjoyed the company of fellow University of the Philippines at Diliman alumni: Clarissa Bañuelos Subagyo (Quezon City), Marie Alcazar de la Torre (Baguio City), and Dave de la Torre (Quezon City). They are Jakarta residents. Marie is a homemaker, and Dave, her husband, is a business consultant.

Rey E. de la Cruz, Ed.D., writes from Chicagoland when he is not loving the arts and traveling. He is the author of the children’s book, Ballesteros on My Mind: My Hometown in the Philippines, which also has Ilocano, Spanish, and Tagalog versions.

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