Legilimencied

In Indonesia, there are 3 big mobile phone companies: Telkomsel, XL and Indosat. There are some others like Smartfren and Tri.

I’ve been using Telkomsel and I feel like writing about one of its products: T-Cash, in particular T-Cash Tap. It’s not new, but I’ve just used it since August this year.

The very reason I decided to use it was because on Indonesia’s independence day (August 17) this year, there was a promotion of 17k rupiah for some books bought in gramedia (the biggest bookstore in Indonesia) online store paid using T-Cash. So, I browsed about it and realized I had heard about it before and I had wanted to try it but never had a chance to do it.

So, T-Cash is basically like a bank account in your Telkomsel mobile phone number. It’s a product of Telkomsel, thus it’s exclusively for Telkomsel users only. You register your Telkomsel number for T-Cash and you can deposit your money inside it (they call it cash-in). And you can use your T-Cash to pay stuff you buy at merchants which have collaborated with T-Cash. So, it’s real money (they call it e-money) and it’s different from the credit on your mobile phone which you use for phone calls, text messages or internet connection (cellular data).

And to use T-Cash to pay at some merchants, you need T-Cash Tap, which is a coin-shaped sticker which you can get in Telkomsel office (they call it Grapari) and which you stick behind your mobile phone. When you want to use it to pay, just tap the T-Cash Tap into the machine in the merchant store, type your 6-digit PIN number and your transaction is done! Your e-money will decrease after each transaction.

When I bought some books from gramedia online store, I didn’t need the Tap because it was online shopping, but I needed a token to finalize my transaction.

So far, I have used T-Cash Tap in some XXI cinemas in Jakarta (15k rupiah every Monday), Coffee Bean (50% discount every Monday), Wendy’s (50% discount every Wednesday), BaskinRobbins (50% discount every Friday), and McDonald’s (20% discount every day). And for T-Cash without Tap, I’ve used it to pay gramedia online store, to buy credit for my and my friend’s Telkomsel mobile phone numbers, and to pay my mom’s home phone bill once.

And to cash-in my T-Cash, so far I’ve done it in Grapari and Indomaret (a chain of minimarket in Indonesia).

Besides T-Cash, I just registered Rekening Ponsel Niaga last week. It’s a bank account where your account number is your mobile phone number. Unlike T-Cash, though, it’s not exclusively for Telkomsel users only, meaning the users of all mobile phone companies in Indonesia can register if they want to. And as the name (Rekening Ponsel Niaga) suggests, it is a product of CIMB Niaga bank. So, if you want to register, you have to do it in one of the offices of CIMB Niaga bank.

I registered in its Digital Lounge in Mall Bali Galeria when I was meeting one of my Balinese best friends there. It was a pretty simple procedure. I just filled out a form, gave a copy of my ID card and that was it. I deposited some money through the ATM there even though I didn’t own a CIMB Niaga ATM card. If I want to take some money from my mobile phone bank account, I can do it in the ATM too, without CIMB Niaga ATM card either. That’s the difference between T-Cash and Rekening Ponsel Niaga. I have yet to cash-out from both, but for T-Cash, as far as I know, if I want to take some money from my T-Cash, I have to go to Grapari. At least with Rekening Ponsel Niaga, I know I can do it easily in its ATM.

There’s a catch, though. What I don’t really like about Rekening Ponsel Niaga is the fact that it deducts your credit from your mobile phone every time you want to do a transaction. Even if I just want to check my balance, I will get charged 550 rupiah twice, first to send the message to ask for the balance, and second to receive the message about the balance.

To use Rekening Ponsel Niaga to pay for a transaction, you will need to make a coupon (which will get you charged 550 rupiah at least twice). I have yet to use Rekening Ponsel Niaga to pay for something. I wanted to try to use it to pay for a ticket in Cinemaxx because you can get free drink if you pay your ticket in Cinemaxx using Rekening Ponsel Niaga. But I just bought 18 vouchers of Cinemaxx in Mataharimall.com, so maybe I won’t use Rekening Ponsel Niaga in the near future.

Besides cashing-in my Rekening Ponsel Niaga in a CIMB Niaga ATM, I have done it in Alfamart (another chain of minimarket in Indonesia), which was also a pretty easy thing to do.

Other mobile phone companies in Indonesia that I mentioned (XL or Indosat) also have their own e-money products, and other banks in Indonesia like Bank Mandiri or BRI also have their own mobile phone bank account products, but for now, I’m fine with T-Cash and Rekening Ponsel Niaga.

Last Tuesday night, Bali airport was closed due to some volcano activities in Lombok. So, what’s it gotta do with my life? Nothing, except I had planned on flying to my hometown last Wednesday.

My mom’s birthday is on Nov 5th, which was last Thursday. Last year, I flew home and we went to Puncak to celebrate. I never thought it would be the last birthday she celebrated with her husband.

Actually, mom had told me it was ok for me not to fly home this year merely to celebrate her birthday. But last week, when I was in Ubud, I suddenly remembered about her birthday coming soon, and the thought of her celebrating without her husband and children was unbearable for me, so I decided to fly home to surprise her.

But of course, one can make plans, but it’s the Lord who decides one’s plans. On Tuesday night (Nov 3rd), I read news about Bali airport being closed and knew it right away I couldn’t fly the next day. On Nov 4th, the airport was closed for the entire day. On Nov 5th, the airport was opened at around 3 pm local time, but still there were no flights to Jakarta.

So, on Nov 5th, mom celebrated her birthday with her friends in her church, like she originally planned. I called afterwards and we talked for more than an hour. I don’t know why it was decided that I couldn’t fly home that day, but there’s no point in constantly wondering, I guess.

It’s been a good year for transportation apps here in Indonesia. So many people have written about these apps and I haven’t felt like writing about them until now. So, here’s my personal experience using those 3 apps (GrabBike, GrabTaxi and GrabCar are actually 1 app under GrabTaxi) both in Bali and Jakarta/Depok.

#1 Gojek I found out about Gojek back in March when I was in Bali. Tbh, I’d never heard of it even though they said they'd been operating in Jakarta. They just started operating in Bali and they had this referral program where your friends can get 50k rupiah if they use your unique number, and you also get 50k rupiah once they finish their first transaction. I definitely took advantage of it until Gojek decided to stop that referral program. Before Gojek, I had ever tried looking for ojek (motorbike-taxi) online and I had even had my personal ojek driver, but he was not available in the morning. Back in March, Gojek charged 4k rupiah per km, but around July, they launched this promotion of 10k rupiah (or 15k rupiah in Jakarta) for the maximum distance of 25km and of course, I definitely took advantage of it until right now, when the promotion is still running.

Anyway, at first, Gojek only had 4 kinds of service: transport, courier, food delivery and shopping. Later, they renamed those services GoRide, GoSend, GoFood and GoMart respectively. But, now they also have 5 more services: GoBox, GoClean, GoGlam, GoMassage and GoBusway. I don’t feel like writing about those services at the moment, though. I’ve used only 3 services thus far: courier, GoFood, and transport (which is very frequent).

With the promotion, I’ve used Gojek to Ubud and even to Besakih Temple. I’ve been using Gojek since before they had a promotion, and I think I’ll keep using it until I have the reason not to. Gojek is now available in Jakarta/Depok/Bogor/Tangerang/Bekasi, Bali, Bandung, Surabaya and Makassar and I believe will be available in more cities around Indonesia.

#2 GrabBike I decided to write about GrabBike first before GrabTaxi (even though it was launched after GrabTaxi) because it’s a direct competition of Gojek. I think the first time I heard about GrabBike was in June or July this year when I was in Depok. And I believe GrabBike was the reason Gojek launched its 10k rupiah promotion, because instead of 10k rupiah, at that time GrabBike launched this 5k rupiah promotion, even though it could be used in Jakarta only. I first tried GrabBike when I was in Jakarta and I did pay only 5k rupiah. From the beginning, GrabBike never had a referral program until right now. And, besides Jakarta, GrabBike is only recently available in South Tangerang, Depok and no other Indonesian cities.

I think the only thing that makes GrabBike better than Gojek at the moment is its lower fare.

#3 GrabTaxi When I was browsing about KL at the beginning of this year, planning to go there in April, I found out about MyTeksi app and installed it but never used it. Little did I know that it was going to be booming in Jakarta under the name GrabTaxi. The mechanism of using GrabTaxi is basically like this. You order a taxi with the app and once it finds you a taxi, you will get information about the taxi driver’s name, his/her mobile phone number and the taxi’s plate number. And a real taxi with a real meter will take you to your destination. In Jakarta, it is a well-known fact that BlueBird is the most trustable and reliable taxi. And the taxis of GrabTaxi are predictably not BlueBird taxis. I’ve used GrabTaxi with Gamya, Express, TaxiCab and some other unfamiliar taxis. Of all non-BlueBird taxis, I’m most comfortable with Express Taxi (the white one). The promotion GrabTaxi had at the beginning was a 15k/20k rupiah discount from the total of your taxi fare. The thing with using GrabTaxi (or any taxi) in Jakarta is you cannot really know how much you’ll pay because of the notorious traffic condition in Jakarta, so even though GrabTaxi gives you the fare estimation for your journey, you can’t really rely on that. Initially, there was no referral program for GrabTaxi, but they just launched one and I have yet to use it because I’m in Bali at the moment, and so far in Indonesia, GrabTaxi is available in Jakarta, Surabaya and somewhere in Sumatra I’m not sure.

I’ve used GrabTaxi and I think I will keep using it for short distance journeys and as long as they have a promotion.

#4 GrabCar GrabCar is another part of GrabTaxi app besides GrabBike. The mechanism is similar to GrabBike/Gojek, but instead of ordering a motorbike-taxi, you order a car-taxi. I call it a car-taxi because it’s like a taxi but it’s a car. But unlike the real taxi which uses a meter for its fare, GrabCar has a pre-decided fare for your journey (like Gojek before promotion), which in my opinion is a good thing because you don’t have to worry about how much you’ll pay even though you get stuck in traffic in a very long time, which happened to me the first time I tried GrabCar in Jakarta.

GrabCar was launched in Bali around June this year when I was in Depok and they had this promotion of free ride in south Bali for about 2 weeks. When it was launched in Jakarta, the free ride promotion is only for journeys between Semanggi and Kemang. In Bali, after the free ride promotion, they had a 15k flat fare for journeys around south Bali. But when I arrived in Bali again in September, they didn’t have any promotion and still don’t have it until now. But their fare is still cheaper than taxi in my opinion. So far, I’ve used GrabCar in Depok and Bali and I think I will keep using it as long as its fare is reasonable. It’s better than taxi because it is a real car and it’s cheaper than taxi but it’s similar to taxi because even though you use the app to order, you pay cash to the driver once you arrive in your destination. In Indonesia, GrabCar is now available in Jakarta and Bali only, which is perfect for me. Like GrabTaxi, initially GrabCar didn’t have a referral program but they have one now where your friends can get 30k rupiah discount from their total fare if they use your unique code, and you can get the same thing once your friends finish their first transaction. The thing is this referral program is for totally new users only.

#5 Uber I’ve heard about Uber since before they came to Indonesia, but I found out about its existence in Bali at the same time I found out about Gojek, which is March this year when I was in Bali. I personally think that just like GrabBike copied Gojek, GrabCar copied Uber. So, Uber is a car-taxi you order from its app but unlike GrabCar, you pay by credit card, not cash. However, unlike GrabCar which has a pre-decided fare for your journey, farewise Uber is more like GrabTaxi because it only gives you a fare estimation and you won’t find out the fare of your journey until you arrive in your destination. Unlike GrabTaxi, though, Uber has a surge pricing in peak hours. You might not worry about the fare because you’d use a credit card anyway but for me, I prefer the pre-decided fare of GrabCar and its cash method of payment because not everyone has a credit card (I don’t). I’ve used Uber both in Jakarta and in Bali but I used it on the promotion periods only, so I literally paid zero for my journeys and I always made sure each of my journey was free because if it hadn’t, they would’ve charged my sister’s credit card which I used when I signed up for an Uber account. So far, Uber is available in Jakarta, Bandung and Bali. Will I use Uber again? I think I will.

Conclusion: for motor-bike taxi, I prefer Gojek and for car-taxi, I prefer GrabCar.

PS: Just in case Gojek decides to run its referral program again, my unique number is 542531149.

And my unique code for GrabTaxi/GrabCar is 915F01 (nine one five F zero one).

Oh, and one more, my unique code for Uber is tommyf208 (two zero eight). You can get 75k rupiah discount for your first Uber ride in Jakarta or Bandung or Bali, and this code can be used only if you've never used Uber app before.

It’s been a busy week this week, so yesterday I felt like going to the movie. For the past month I’m in Bali, I’ve been to the cinema twice. First when I watched Everest and second The Martian. Both are in 3D and in Cinemaxx Lippo Mall Kuta. It was my first time watching film there and it turned out to be a nice place.

Anyway, yesterday, after browsing, I decided to watch Goosebumps in Galeria XXI. There are 2 other XXIs in Bali, but they are a bit farther from Denpasar. So, I went to Galeria XXI but it turned out that the schedule and the film that I saw online on their website were different from the ones they had in the cinema. Instead of Goosebumps, at the time slot I wanted, they had Bridge of Spies, so I decided to watch it, even though that wasn’t my plan.

I’m aware that the actor playing in the film is Tom Hanks, hence my decision to watch it. I have this thing to never see a film review online if I wanna watch the film, even though I can easily do it in this internet era. For me, to read the review before you watch the film is like watching a spoiler. Besides, I don’t wanna be influenced. If the film is good in my opinion, and afterwards I read the review and they also say it’s good, then we agree about the film. Same thing if the movie is bad. But if in my opinion the movie is good but they say it’s bad, or the other way around, then we agree to disagree.

The film is good in my opinion. It’s related to history (Cold War, Berlin, etc). In high school, I always got bad score for history lesson, I don’t know why. But having a movie tell a story about a piece of history (added by fiction and dramatization I’m pretty sure) is a good way to learn about history and to make you wanna learn more about that piece of history. That’s definitely the case for me.

The movie’s not boring. Maybe because I can relate to it. One of my most favorite non-spoiler scenes is when Tom Hanks’ character’s calling his wife and asking her if he can talk to his children and whether they’re aware he hasn’t been around. It’s a funny scene and it’s true for most fathers. Almost at the end of the movie, and I don’t really remember what the scene is now, I remember feeling touched and found myself nearly crying, which I might’ve done had I not been so self-conscious about my surrounding at that time. Any film that can touch me is definitely a good film in my book. The last time I remember feeling touched like that while seeing a movie with someone else was when I watched “Blindside” in Jayapura, Papua. And that year, Sandra Bullock won an Oscar.

So, does it mean next year Tom Hanks will win his third Oscar? He definitely deserves it, but let’s see who he’s up against with in the Best Actor category. And even if he doesn’t, I know he’s the best actor for many people, including me.

Last week, I was sitting on a beach thinking about us. I’ve been wanting to move on from you and I was thinking maybe it’s time to do it. I was looking at the sea, just like we usually did. You were probably on your side of beach doing exactly the same thing.

The date was not coincidental. I thought it was like a perfect circle. It was not the first time we spent the night together, but it was the first time you and I did something to each other. Was it something special? I think so. For me, because I knew I did it out of love. And for you, because I knew you never did what you did to me to someone else before. And when I was sitting on the beach last week on that particular date, I thought it’s a perfect closure for us. For me to finally let you go. What started between us on that date finishes on the same date. Like a perfect circle.

But then, this morning I woke up vividly remembering that we just spent time together in my dream. The dream has never been so real. I can see your face, we’re talking, I can touch you, we’re having fun together, we’re cracking up. It was a happy dream. I don’t know why it ended. It wasn’t a sad dream. It’s not like you meet me to say goodbye or I meet you to say goodbye. And when I woke up and I clearly remembered that dream, I didn’t feel sad. I wasn’t like, “Oh, why do I have to wake up? Why can’t I spend more time with you in my dream?” I just felt confused why did we meet again last night, and of all places, in my dream? It’s not the first time I dreamt about us but I don’t really remember those past dreams (maybe because I didn’t immediately write it down).

So, why did we meet again? I do hope you’re doing fine right now. I did feel confused about the dream when I woke up, but as I was writing this blog, it came to me that I have actually got the answer and I already knew why. I even already stated it. We met again because it’s a perfect closure for us.

So, I’m not saying I’m not gonna miss you, I know I will. But maybe it really is time for me to let you go. And thank you, universe for giving me the closure.