Memories of Contentment

NICO PIERE SIMARMATA

Memoirist

Memories of Contentment

Summer vacation is one of the best holidays of the year. In summer 2015, my family and I went to Yogyakarta and Bali to spend our two weeks holidays. I was ten years old at that time. We did many fun things together and experienced the worst attitude of my brother and me every time my mom went shopping which I regret now.

Our first destination was on Monday in Yogyakarta. We arrived there in the early morning because we left Jakarta last night by train. We had our breakfast at the train station, we drank warm tea and bought some bread to dip. A few hours after, we are looking for a hotel to take a rest. My mom and dad lay in the bed. While my brother and I just went to the hotel lobby to reach the WIFI and play video games. In the evening we took our dinner in the restaurant near the hotel, then we went to Malioboro. It is the name of the street, but this street is known as a shopping street. That was where my brother and I felt bored because we spent 4 hours walking following my mom. Walking here and there makes my whole body restless and in pain. We went back to the hotel around 11 p.m. and took a rest. I was hoping that it will be the last time we went to go for shopping.

The day after tomorrow, we went to a traditional market in the morning. There were traditional clothes, toys, jewelry, and a traditional performance too near the market. Guess what? It’s another day of shopping! Thankfully, it’s not as bad as before because my mom bought me a toy to keep me shut. Later, we watched the traditional performance. We took a few pictures using the traditional costumes before we leave. In the afternoon we went to the airport to go to Bali. We had our flight at 2 p.m. and arrived at around 4 p.m. We went looking for a hotel. I was amazed when we are on our way. There are many beaches that we passed, and there are many tourists too. Sadly, we were too tired to enjoy the beach that day, so we went straight to the hotel to rest.

The following day, I woke up very early because my mom told me that we are going to the beach that I saw the other day. We had breakfast in the hotel and went to Sanur beach. My brother and I played with the sand. We built castles and buried each other with the sand. There are white crabs that are very small, like the size of an ant. It makes me want to get out from the sand when it was my turn to get buried. I almost got a sunburn because I forgot to put lotion on my body. We took a break to get some lunch near the beach. In the afternoon, we went to another beach that is called Kuta beach. It was a half-hour trip from Sanur beach. This time I didn’t forget to put lotion on my body. My brother and I were swimming while my mom went shopping and my dad is watching us. We tried to learn to surf there. I manage to surf well by just learning it for 15 minutes. We spent all our time playing in the water, making all of our fingers wrinkled.

The best part is on our last day. We went to Mandala Suci Wenara Wana or also known as Ubud Monkey Forest. It is the sanctuary and natural habitat of the Balinese long-tailed macaque. There are many monkeys or macaques all over the area. I enjoyed feeding them with small bananas. It feels satisfying when they can catch the bananas. We also went to Garuda Wisnu Kencana cultural park. There are many big rocks as we walk towards the end, where we can see the huge Garuda Wisnu Kencana statue. We also went to the theatre to watch the Bali traditional drama. Since it was our last day there, we had to enjoy every last thing that we did.

These are the memories that I will always have with me. I think I will never forget this summer holiday because this is the time I can spend most of my time with my family. I hope one day we can go there again.