It  was a unique experience when I ran City Tour Jakarta with Francois. From the beginning, I had difficulty to say his name in a right way. So, on that day I asked him ‘how to spell your name’ couple times, back then I really felt bad about it.

But, in every bad situation always had a bright side.  The good thing is…now I can remember clearly how to say or spell his name, Francois, it’s Frank – ko – a – se. Finally I can speak in French, LOL 😀

Okay, back to the topic, so how was city tour jakarta going on?

I must tell you, it was ‘funny’. Funny because it seems Francois became my tour guide, not me. He has a lot to tell about his country, about art, about his own business, about everything.  So, in Jakarta Walking Tour not only he knew something about Jakarta, but I personally learnt things from him.

He said that Jakarta and his home town, Cape Town, has some similarity. Back to the colonial era, a lot of Javanese people started to live in South Africa, consequently we had language in common. Such as, office, in Jakarta I called it ‘kantor’, and in Cape Town he called it ‘kantoor’. Honestly, I feel…wOw. Glad to know interesting fact like that, really. :O

Then, I took him to Fine Art Museum, I found that he had a big interest in art, painting, and pottery. He can stand still, stay silent when was looking over a painting. Good for him, in that Museum we can see many legendary painter’s art works from Indonesia, such as Basuki Abdullah, Affandi, Raden Saleh, S. Sudjojono, et cetera.

I also knew him as an open minded-traveler, because he wants to try something new as I suggested. While we strolled, I made him taste some snacks and traditional drinks, such as selendang mayang (Jakarta’s traditional ice drink), kue cubit (traditional pancake), and cendol ice (made from coconut ice milk, jackfruit, brown sugar, and ‘cendol’).

In the end of City Tour Jakarta, I personally felt really hard to say good bye because he was like a ‘guru’ to me, tell me a lot about culture, life, and how to run a startup business. So, we took an extra little time to chat in Sabang Street, found a good restaurant (Natrabu, a Padang Food Restaurant) and drink coconut ice drinks while we discussed about everything.

 

Definitely, run a City Tour Jakarta with Francois was a one time experience that I will find not so easy to forget. Oh, and one more thing, for you who love  a nice frame on Instagram, you can found his photo works on @fvs2 (p.s. he has a very good eye and unique perspective, trust me! 😉