On Board Transfer In

On Board

Good morning, ladies and gentleman, Have you all been here ? Anybody left? So all of you are 30 person, right ? If all of you have been here. Please don’t leave anything out of the bus. And if everything has been ready, now please make your seat comfortable because we will depart soon. If you have some questions or some problems when I’m speaking, please let me know,  don’t  hesitate.

Everybody, Welcome to Cirebon City, welcome to Indonesia, welcome to our program. Right now we are accompanied by our driver, this is Mr. Yohan, (Selamat Pagi pak. Yohan). And this is Mr. Haryono, He is our co-driver (Selamat Pagi Pak Haryono). Before we depart to our hotel, for our safety during our program let’s pray together based on our belief. Pray, begin. Finish. (Pak, sekarang kita bisa jalankan mobilnya).

Ladies and gentlemen, now we are leaving from Cakrabuana Airport to our hotel. The name of our hotel is  Santika Hotel where you will stay in  for 2 nights. This is three stars hotel. It’s location in the town. It’s around 30 minutes from Cakrabuana Airport. This hotel is also near one of the biggest shopping centre  in Cirebon. In this hotel, you will get some services such as deluxe room service, twice dinner, and twice breakfast. This hotel also provides some facilities such  swimming pool, Wi-Fi and spa, fitness centre, pub, restaurant and the others. Everybody, I just recommend you,  to make easy our program, please fit your watch to the local time here. It’s 10.00 o’clock. I would like to repeat, it’s 10.00 o’clock. Have you finished ? Good. Thank you

Ladies and gentleman. Have you ever visited  Indonesia before ? Alright, To make clear and broader information about Indonesia especially Cirebon,  I’ll tell you about it. Indonesia is located in Asian continent especially in South East Asia. Indonesia is located between two oceans, Hindia and Pacific Ocean.  Indonesia is lied on equator line, so that Indonesia is tropical country in which it has two season. They are rainy season and dry season. Rainy season is usually from September until March and dry season is usually from April until August. But as we know because of change of climate, so the season can’t be predicted anymore.

Everyone, The temperature in Indonesia is usually around 30 - 33 degrees Celsius or more. So the weather is so hot. May be it is different with your country, right? So that, I just recommend you if you want to go outside along the day, please use sun block or body lotion for your skin. The people believe that in the morning, around  07:00  until 9:00 a.m, shining of the sun is good for healthy, except If we have allergy syndrome, just take sun block if you want to go out. But if rainy season, the people usually bring and use umbrella, rain coat, mantel or something like that, If you want to go out. So just remember if you see the weather is hot, just use sun block but if it is rainy, just bring your jacket,  raincoat or ,umbrella.

Everybody, Indonesia is divided into three time zone. They are GMT+07.00 or WIB (Western Indonesian Time Zone), GMT +08.00 or WITA (Middle Indonesian Time Zone) and GMT +09.00 or WIT (Eastern Indonesian Time Zone). The time difference of each time zone  is one hour. Right now we are in the western Indonesia time zone or WIB.

Everybody, Indonesia country is a republic. It is leaded by a president. The president is choosen directly by citizen. Right now the president of Indonesia is  Mr. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and vice president is Mr. Budiono.

Everybody, the currency of Indonesia is Rupiah. It consists of two kinds. They are bank note (Uang kertas) and coin (uang logam). This is the sample of Indonesian rupiah. (Menunjukan gambar uang) you can see over here, please.

The bank note starts from one thousand, two thousand, five thousand, ten thousand, twenty thousand, fifty thousand and one hundred thousand. While, the coin is  started from a hundred, two hundred, five hundred and a thousand. If you want to buy something please use rupiah. Because the sellers here will not accept the other currency except rupiah.  So that I suggest you to change your money into rupiahs in money charger or in the bank around our hotel.  For one dollar around 10.000 thousand rupiahsh. Don’t forget to change it.

Ladies and gentleman. Have you ever heard that Indonesia also called an archipelago country ? Some people call Indonesia as archipelago country. Do you know why  it is. Because, Indonesia has many islands. Indonesia has around 17.000 islands which has name and around 25.000 islands which hasn’t got name. Indonesia also has 5 large islands. They are Sumatera, Kalimantan, Java, Sulawesi, and Papua Island.  And now we are in the Java Island especially in West Java Province.

West Java is one of the provinces in Indonesia. It is located between Banten, Jakarta and Central Java province. In West Java, there are 26 regencies and municipalities. Two of them are Cirebon regency and Cirebon municipalities.

Cirebon is located between West Java and Central Java. In West Java, Cirebon is bordered by Kuningan, Majalengka, and Indramayu regency. In Central Java, it’s bordered by Brebes regency.

Everybody word “Cirebon” is derived from Ci and Rebon. Ci means place or location and rebon means small shrimp, so Cirebon is called as Kota Udang or the city of shrimp. And because the fact, Cirebon is city where we can find easily  shrimps any places and some product of food made of shrimp as the main ingredient. The Other version said Cirebon is derived from the word “Caruban” which means Campuran or mixed. Because, along time ago Cirebon was big sea port and some people from other islands come to Cirebon for trading. Because of that, their culture was mixed and assimilated  with Cirebon people. So Cirebon has some tribes and ethnic such as Javanese, Sundanese and Cirebon tribe, Middle East ethnic, Chinese, India and others. That’s why Cirebon is called Caruban or Campuran.

Some people also said in the past time the name of Cirebon is Grage which comes from Negara Gede. It means a big country. Because in the past, Cirebon wasn’t a city or a regency but an Islamic Kingdom which leaded by Sultan or Muslim king. But Cirebon people usually call him Sunan. The first king was Raden Walangsungsang or Pangeran Cakrabuana. Then, he was continued by his cousin namely Syekh Syarif Hidayatullah or Sunan Gunung Jati. Sunan Gunung Jati was also one of Walisongo from West Java. Do you know Walisongo ? Walisongo is derived from 2 word, Wali and Songo. Wali means people who spread Islam in Java Island and Songo is from Javanese language, it means nine. So Walisongo is nine people who spread Islam in Java Island. But now Cirebon is not a kingdom anymore. Cirebon is municipality and regency that ruled by mayor and regent.

Well everyone,  Cirebon is part of West Java province at which the majority of people  is Sundanese people, but Cirebon isn’t sundanese, even though as part of West Java province. Why ? because the location of Cirebon is in the border of West Java and Central Java. So, Cirebon is in the border of Sundanese culture in the west, and Javanese culture in the east. The custom, language, culture is influenced by two culture and two groups of people ; Sundanese and Javanese. That’s why Cirebon has own language and own custom which different from West Java Province and also different from Central Java. But, there are also many things that equal with Sundanese and Javanese.

Cirebon people called their own language as Bahasa Cirebon or Cirebon language.  Bahasa Cirebon is mixed from Javanese language and sundanese language. Everyone, Do you want me to teach you a word or phrase in Bahasa Cirebon ? well, how if you learn to say Priben Kabare. Priben kabare is same with how are you in English. Cirebon people will say priben kabare when they meet their friends and then shake hand. Well, now let’s say together.  after me,  Priben Kabare. Let’s repeat Pri-ben, kabare. Wow that’s so good. May be one of you try to say it. Excuse me, May I know your name, sir? Hendrick, ok  Mr Hendrick let’s say priben kabare. That’ very good. Give applause to Mr. Hendrick. Thank you

Everybody, There are some customs which are usually done and behaved by Cirebon people in daily life. It is affected by Cirebon  culture and their way of life, such as :

·         If they want to give and receive something they use right hand because it is not respectfully if give and receive by left hand.

·         If they meet  the other people who are familiar, they always shake hands. And for women and women, they will shake hand and kiss the cheek each other . But for women and men, they shouldn’t do it,   it is forbidden, except they are close family

·         The majority of Cirebon people is Muslim. So, don’t be taken aback if you are hear voice like this. Wait a moment I will show you the voice. This voice called adzan. Adzan voice is signal for Muslim people to have prayer. Adzan is usually audible in the morning is around 04.30 a.m, in the afternoon is around 12 o’clock,at 03.00 p.m, in the evening is  at 06.00 p.m and at 07.00 p.m.

·         Majority of Cirebon people is Muslim, so it influences in their life style and fashion especially for woman. They use veil to cover her part of head and their body.

·         When walking and passing in front of the other people they say excuse me or in Cirebon language is Punten. And it usually when you say punten, you should bow your body. Like this. The answer of saying punten is mangga.

Everyone, Cirebon has also some tourist attractions and traditional art performance such as Red Mosque Panjunan, Kacirebonan Palace, Kasepuhan Palace, Sunyaragi cave, Topeng Dance, Nadran, Panjang Jimat and the others. Would you like to know them? Don’t worry, because tomorrow we will visit some of them.

Ladies and gentlemen, Indonesia is very famous with various of traditional food. Cirebon also has many typical traditional food such as Nasi Jamblang, Empal Gentong, Tahu Gejrot, Docang and the others. One of the famous ones is Nasi Jamblang which we will taste tomorrow in our lunch. But if you really carious about it you can taste it in  Mang Dul restourant. This place is  famous and the location of this place isn’t far from our hotel. We can go there by public transportation in Cirebon. Such as : angkot and becak. Becak is traditional transportation mode of Indonesia, especially in Cirebon. Becak has three wheels and becak does not make pollution, because becak does not use machine but becak steering by human. The tariff of becak is depend on the distance. Maybe 1 KM is  five thousand rupiah but you can bargain it to make it cheaper. The seat capacity of becak is  2 person, but for the fat one, it is only one person, right? Beside becak, there is the other mode of transportation, angkot. Angkot is like small mini bus which has blue color and has code based on the route. The tariff of angkot is around two thousand rupiahs. Here, I bring the picture of them. You can see over here.

Everyone, if you miss your family or friends and you want to call them from Indonesia, you can dial 001 then your country code then your local area code, after that your phone number. And now you can call your family or your friends in your country. I suggest you to use the local telephone card in order to be cheaper. Just buy it in the counter near hotel.

Ladies and gentleman, we are arriving in santika hotel, please get off from the bus carrefully. Don’t forget your personal bellonging. Mind your step and  mind your head please.