#Undecided goes to Semarang

4:42:00 PM

Hello hello!! I'm back, bitches!! :D

Sorry for being MIA, but I was honestly stuck in a rut, I couldn't write to save my life (from #Pink that is) LOL.

Anyway, as #Pink has told you, I was in Semarang last weekend. A holiday you may ask? Hardly. I went there because apparently according to the Chinese Zodiac, I am super unlucky in 2013 and I needed to undergo a procedure called "cisuak" (no idea what it means, but my best guess is it's some kind of cleansing or I dunno, pleasing the gods so that they might favor me?! LOL. Seriously, I don't know, google it, okay!) to restore my luck. Yes, for all piggies out there, beware :D

I honestly don't give a rat's ass about this kind of things (you may know by now that I am a Westerner at heart, through and through), but since everyone in hubby's family is true believer, and I'm such a good wife (*ahem* in my little head, I am!!! LOL), I decided to go along for the ride. Besides, this was a new thing for me so I was quite curious and I figured I could amuse y'all with the story, so what the heck.

So on Saturday morning hubby and I rushed through Surabaya's traffic - getting lost in the process (yes, I live in Surabaya my whole life but I don't know the way to the airport) - swearing to my (supposedly) smart phone's GPS - running to the airline's counter just to find out that our 9.20 am flight was delayed. Without any notification. For 2 fucking hours. Good going, Air Asia, just great!

my face when I learnt about the 2-hour delay.
please add hair and bang when you imagine it, okay!

But I guess I am indebted to the airline's stupid ground staff because I who was severely annoyed by hubby's mother since the early morning finally got to *ahem* vent.

I won't go into details about hubby's mother because I don't want to be annoyed for such nonsense now, so let's get on to the cisuak process! Hubby went first and I had to watch so going in I knew what to expect. First the spiritual guru would chant prayers in Mandarin (no idea what it meant) and then he would splash a drenched leaf against our foreheads. At this point things got interesting because he would say some more prayers and get this, tap his forefinger on our foreheads and actually electrocute us!!! Yes, with a mere finger!!! It was very light though, nobody's brain was fried, don't worry LOL.

See below for the "after-shock" photo. Yes, it was scorching hot in Semarang but no, I didn't sweat!! At least not that much. That was the mixture of water and probably blood (?) that you're looking at. I was panicking when I first saw this photo (hubby snapped it with his Blackberry because #Pink wasn't around and I couldn't find any mirror) because I thought was bleeding (drama queen in action), but if that was blood, it surely wasn't mine for there was no cuts. The guru's blood? Who knows?!

yes, I cropped this photo - you guys don't need to see my eyebrows!

The guru wasn't finished. He then wrote some Chinese letters on our backs, well on hubby's back. On me he wrote on the back of my neck because lots of people were there and obviously he would lose his concentration if I were to go topless LOL. My drawing was actually pretty badass!

my new tattoo!!

And to finish the procession, he then hit our backs twice (exorcism!?) and made us repeat after his prayers (I think by this time I totally embarrassed myself to the point of no return because I don't speak Mandarin and he was whispering so I think I screwed up the prayers royally. LOL. If the gods were present, let's just hope that they didn't misunderstand me okay LOL) and bow down 3 times.

And that was it. I was expecting that I would be handling some birds and eels and I was quite relieved that I didn't have to (yes, apparently the standard cisuak is just buying some animals and releasing them free). I mean I love dogs but birds and eels? Ugh, ew! That's another story altogether!

We then had a super late lunch at this very nice place: Beringin Resto, worthy of a visit when you're in town. Get their special Oriental Fried Rice (it's somewhat spicy but delish!!) and iced kopyor. As a true blue piggie, my spirit was elated once there's food in my belly and the day only went uphill from there. LOL.

my mood - after food

We got to the hotel. Amaris Hotel. And despite #Pink's constant reminder to take the photos of the room, I managed to forget (don't tell her!!). Well, I didn't actually forget it, but by the time we got to the room we only had probably around 15 mins to shower and get ready because we were meeting my grandma afterwards (and she was in a hurry to go to some wedding). Besides hubby was walking here and there topless (in order to preserve his "new tattoo" LOL) and since the room was unbelievably small, there was no way I could snap photos without him photo-bombing them LOL.

Overall Amaris Hotel is... well... a budget hotel. BUT if you compare it to another budget hotel, say, Fave, it is severely... for lack of a better word, ugly. The bedding is old. The room has this mossy atmosphere and did I say it was unbelievably small? Fave's room is also small but at least the bedding and everything is new and somewhat plush LOL. Don't even get me start on the bathroom for there was NOTHING there but a toilet and a shower.

a photo I found on the internet - which is super pretty compared to the actual room.
our room had king sized bed, though.

The highlight of our weekend gateway was when I got to see my grandma (my daddy's mom) and aunt's family whom I haven't seen in a while. We had tons of fun catching up and since this entry is apparently quite long (gee, I'm writing again, yayyyyy!!!), I'm going to leave you with photos of me and them.