Foto-Batik-hal-Inggris-1Traveling for 3 hours heading to the White Elephant’s land making us feeling good, the plane that made us feeling comfortable. Thai pretty and friendly stewardesses made the trip on board very smooth on that Airbus of Thai National Cariers like their motto smooth like silk. Time in Jakarta and Bangkok remains the same and makes easier for us to set the time, just a matter of Internet network that makes us disturbed and so we have problem in communication with relatives and friends, especially related to works.

Nia S. Amira
[email protected]

The extreme weather of El Nino is hap­pened in large parts of Asia, especially in the South and Southeast Asia. When arriving at Suvarnabhumi Airport, hot winds ambushed our face. The streets were still quiet as it was still holiday of the International Labor Day and several countries in Asia provide long holiday for their workers, such as for work­ers coming from China we often found at the airport and the hotel where we were stay­ing.

Bangkok I vis­ited few years ago has been a lot of preening, kind of MRT is there, many over­passes inter­locking like i n Jakarta are here and there. The trip from Su­varnabhumi Airport to Bangkok Inter Place Hotel takes only 15 minutes driving as the street was not crowded that day.

After passing through the so-called Motor Way Road, we finally came to Rama 9 Road which seems like Ciomas street in Kebayoran Baru, Jakarta. It was getting dusk when Okky, our new friend escorted us to buy our needs for the cooking class and she took care of us while in Bangkok. The three of us hurried to prepare for things on cooking demo as well as the training on Batik Cake Roll which will be held tomorrow morning.

Chicken eggs are the most basic thing for the good cake’s form and the texture. Consid­ering that the food products sold in Thailand are similar to those in Indonesia, we bought the eggs and flour from the local supermar­ket. Although the mixer is also sen­sitive, but we be­lieve it was enough to use the m i xe r p r o ­v i d e d on-site training.

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Okky (46) from Jakarta has been 1.5 years living in Bangkok with her husband and their two teenagers. Okky particularly liked the Pad Thai which resembles fried Kwetiau. Okky who likes red color dresses is talented in arranging parties and gatherings and al­ways managed successfully. Together with Santi, they invited the three of us coming to Bangkok, the never sleeps city.

Besides Okky and Santi, there are 6 wom­en who attended our Batik Roll Cake training and several other women enliven the pro­gram which is scheduled for 5 hours. There was Lucia Sri Istijorini (56), familiarly called as Iin who has been residing in Thailand for 30 years and particularly she likes Thai’s Art & Culture, especially Thai fruit carving, the same one like in Bali. Iin can speak Thai but she can’t read and write and Thai languange is like Sanskrit.

Yati, who married to an expat and has also been living there for 30 years. Several Indonesian women often ask her to cook special homemade steamed rice wrapped in banana leaf with vegetable soup in rich coconut milk and chicken which is famous throughout Bangkok. Yati will be more busy when there is an event or social gathering among the Indonesian. There was also Ria, a certified Yoga instructor who was amazed by the work of her friends coloring the motifs patiently and carefully.

That morning Okky has pre­pared Indonesian snacks; ongol-ongol with brown sugar brought from Jakarta, Balado chips from Padang, and many more. Trainees started to come and the three of us were ready with all the ingredients that will be used including motifs for Batik Roll Cake training.

At first, Sinta, the Batik Roll Cake trainer, assisted by Siti, a graduated diplo­ma from faculty of mechan­ic explained the materials we used, including measuring ingredients and how to dye the motifs that have been pre­pared, for example Parang Rusak, Kawung, and Mega Mendung motifs. All want to learn well and everyone wants to master the sci­ence of making Batik Roll Cake because this is a new experience for them. The class is full of laughter joke.

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Monique is an architect, feeling chal­lenged to make Parang Rusak motif as beau­tiful as possible and after carefully painting finally over. Feeling proud and happy seen from her face when the cake is removed from the alumunium steamer. Batik painting was sticked perfectly to the roll with a smear of delicious white cream therein.

Santi (39) who came from Garut, West Java was initially embarrassed to attend the training, but after being challenged by her friends, she eventually made the Batik Roll Cake because she wants to share the knowl­edge later to her friends after returning from Thailand. Santi favorites food is spicy egg­plants and small anchovy in Padang style. She has been residing in Bangkok for four years with her husband and two children.

The training was interspersed with homesick stories and Super Indonesian Lunch as well as group photos. That af­ternoon the heat was enough to sting out­side, but all the participants who com­pleted the training were satisfied with the results they achieved, plus they got new knowledge from Sinta, who was in the previous time busy with her 200 trainings per year in most major cities in the world, and now is proud to be the trainer of Batik Roll Cake, a long journey to introduce Indonesian her­itage to the world audiences.

No time wasted and the knowledge, no matter how small it is, it will always be use­ful for many people, so share the knowledge as good as possible. The last day in Bangkok there was still a group who just heard about us and wanted to get training from us the next day, but we have had to go back. By evening Sinta and Siti had time to stop by at MBK, the biggest Mall in Bangkok where people can buy various souvenirs.

Flight TG 433 which brought us back to Jakarta had a perfect landing, the heat of the capital immediately greeted our arrival. Un­til we meet again in Bangkok, another time must visit to Chao Phraya or Pattaya as it is only 1.5 hours from Rama Road.

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