Sarinah & Feby Febiola

Sarinah & Feby Febiola

It feels good to be able to trudge out from my hotel into the bright sunlight of a Sunday morning in Jakarta. I never leave home without my usual kit--my book (in case I need to read), my trusty Jornada PDA (in case I need to write), my journal (in case I need to write in longhand) and my Nikon Coolpix camera (in case I need to capture any interesting sights).

I do most of my reading outdoors. I have a couple of cafes and restaurants around here where I spend a lot of time reading before and after meals-- that is, whenever I eat alone. If I'm eating with friends, then I'll be "reading" them.

I realised ever since I was a student that I remember what I read better if I do not do my studying at the same location everytime. We tend to associate what we read with the time and place where we first read them: Different time of the day casts a different light on the page and this together with the ambience of the place tinges our memory of the facts and help make reading a total experience, rather than just a dry input process.

I can still remember where I sat in the library when I read a particular passage from a particular book when I was a student. When I was working in Singapore, I used to read a lot at the food court opposite the HDB flat where I lived even though it was a very busy and crowded place. But I can still remember where I sat when I read the passage from Fergus Fleming's Barrow's Boys about the Man Who Ate His Boots over a plate of chicken rice and a mug of Guinness stout.

Curious of seeing me always buried in books whenever I eat, the chicken rice seller once asked me whether I was a student! Flattered that he thought I was that young, I immediately ordered an extra plate of chicken rice from him.

Reading in public here sometimes attract unnecessary attention from beggars and asongans selling books and magazines. Sometimes these asongans could even spot me reading inside the Sederhana Nasi Padang restaurant in Sabang and would immediately appear before me to shove me copies of Jakarta Undercover by Moammar Emka (an expose on the sex industry in Jakarta--the hands-down bestseller here). If not it'll be the latest issue of Popular with a scantily-clad Feby Febiola on the cover.

I suppose that makes my outdoor reading experience a richer one. I was reading Kisah-kisah Mengharukan Bersama Bung Karno (Touching Moments with Bung Karno) the other day: Now everytime I think of Sukarno's childhood nursemaid, Sarinah, I think of Feby Febiola.