Life lessons, part 3

Nearing the end of last year, the whole extended family and I were spending the Christmas weekend in Kuningan, visiting my father in law's (now late) mother and her family. But since there's no train going directly to Kuningan, we took the train to Cirebon first before continuing with rental cars.

That was not our first Kuningan trip, and before, we chose to go driving all the way. But that weekend, the prospect of driving seemed tiring and we're not about to take our chances against the traffic, so we took the train.

And the followings were some of the things that I've learned on board of the Cirebon Express, on our way towards, well, Cirebon of course. Nothing overly deep or serious, but still noteworthy to me. To start it off:

• You can easily make friends with strangers aboard the train. Especially if you're traveling solo. And there's another solo traveler in the same carriage. And the seat next to each other is empty. And preferably if the two solo travelers are of different genders. But please try to make sure the two of you are of the same species to avoid unwanted conflict(s).

• There's something intrinsically pleasing and appetizing about eating nasi rendang bungkus in the train. It felt like a special picnic of a sort, 'coz you're outdoor and yet indoor, sitting still and yet traveling at over 80kmph, all at the same time. Only the unfortunate biting of a clove stalk stopped me from demolishing a third serving. And although I prefer my cigarettes to be kretek, turned out I don't care much for kretek rendang.

• When you offered help to others without any hidden agenda, sometimes your sincerity ended up being questioned. In the train, I saw a somewhat attractive Cici with 3 smaller siblings -- or perhaps children -- having trouble turning the seats, and so I came over and turned the seats around for them, after which I saw a strange expression on her face that seemed to question my motive(s). What, can't a guy act gentlemanly nowadays? So much for my face being the epitome of kindness and decency. Meh.

• Newer is not always better. The Cirebon Train Station, for example. It's now revamped with underpass and everything, but when we reached there and got greeted by a royal thunderstorm, the whole renovation felt next to useless. The roof was leaking here and there for f's sake. Try to picture a half decent underpass, and then try to logically connect that to a leaky and flooded train station. Fail.

• Last but not least, isat 3G is a rare creature in Kuningan. Oh well...