I told you, "You'll never know."

Sometimes what you're looking for might have been standing right in front of you all along.
You just need to look closer.

I am now a believer of this ever so gay philosophy; that one Friday in June 2009 was quite an epiphany. Sick and tired of Jakarta, feeling most needy of getting away from the city's miasma, thinking of ways to get away and possibly never return, I instead found peace at Ancol. Jakarta's very own Taman Impian Jaya Ancol!

I, and I believe all those claiming to be Jakarta residents, must have been there so many times in my almost 20 years of existence, enough to make me feel like I've undressed the place bare naked up to the point where nothing else was new, enjoyable, and even more, exciting. It has rather become dull and embarrassingly unhygienic as you will most likely find bundles of trash in the waters as proof of the seemingly uneducated citizens who were probably as unenthusiastic of the place as I was.

But regardless those impossible points, how can the one and only closest thing Jakarta residents have that resembles a real beach--and by real i mean, well, just real, you know.. clean. and stuff--not be special, right? That fact alone makes it special already, I suppose.

So that day I drove a little bit further inside, looked a little bit closer, held my breath little bit longer, shut my eyes a little tighter, walked just a little slower, and found the the purest state of peace I have been missing in the longest while. It was just right there, I couldn't help but think of the many times I let myself trade it for some silly little misjudgments.