Every year I have looked forward to attending Inacraft, and every year something has happened and I have missed out on attending, so this year I was determined to make it there for opening day, mid week, to avoid the crowds. Of course I never quite made it to that either, and instead found my way to JCC Senayan on a Saturday morning with Samudra, Putra, and half the population of Jakarta.
Entering the complex I realised this was probably a crazy idea to be attending at this time as the car park was absolutely jam packed and there were long lines of cars everywhere and I knew Putra would be likely to lose interest if we didn’t find a carpark super fast! Eventually we did find one, and had to walk quite far in the heat of the morning and I could feel our enthusiasm fading quickly… we had to get inside! I bought the tickets which were Rp. 20,000 each (under AUD$2!!) and we entered through the decorated archway to a fully packed room lined with booths. It was completely overwhelming to walk into and we didn’t know where to begin. I thought it may be best to start at one side and make our way up and down the aisles, but there seemed to be no beginning as there were rooms off rooms and more passageways leading to even more rooms and there were people absolutely everywhere. There were hundreds of booths selling beautiful batik fabric, batik clothing, Indonesian trinkets, toys, furniture, you name it, it was there.
Putra wanted to find his friend who had a furniture booth but for the life of us we couldn’t find it as we kept getting lost and losing our sense of direction and finally we found a map listing all the booths. Well, there are lists of booths and then there are LISTS OF BOOTHS! It was no use, there were so many names on this map that it was impossible to read through them all and so we we had to just keep wandering further and further into the maze. I had planned to meet with Treen, Jackie and Kadek there but with no phone signal inside and no clues as to where to meet as I was completely lost, I had to give up hope and we never saw eachother in there. It would have been a fun experience to go there mid week without the crowds and actually look at all the booths as there was so much that looked amazing, but I guess the amount of people were a good thing for me so I didn’t feel like shopping.
We did end up staying quite awhile until it all became too much and Samudra had had enough of the crowds, Putra was starving and I needed some air and personal space from all the crowds. We ended up at Poins Square to check on my smashed up iPhone to see if they had been able to repair it but alas it is unfixable. I have been so long without a phone now that I am completely out of contact with everyone here! It’s crazy how much we rely on our phones these days and I am completely lost without it although I haven’t missed the constant checking of Whatsapp, Line, Facebook, etc everywhere I go.. so I am grateful to have that freedom at the moment.
We watched some gorgeous little girls competing in competitions for Kartini Day, all dressed up in traditional indonesian costumes, ate some delicious tofu and noodles at Red Bean Cafe and headed home exhausted but happy.
I hope you had a beautiful day too wherever you are in the world.
Day 88: Welcome to Inacraft 2014. Happiness.
Day 88: Miniature Padang food. Happiness.
Day 88: Beautiful statues from Jogjakarta. Happiness.
Day 88: Owl cushions. Happiness.
Day 88: Super cute neck cushions for kids. Happiness.
Day 88: Bashing a drum to play a video game. Happiness.
Day 88: Fun lights for kids. Happiness.
Day 88: Musicians in one of the booths. Happiness.
Day 88: Kartini Day contestants at Poins Square. Happiness.
