Tantre and The Brondonx (Oct - Nov 2008)

“Okay boys, I’ll see you tomorrow at 6.30 a.m at Ragunan sport center!” Tantre said. She is the leader of our group called Tantre and The Brondonx. There are 10 of us in the group. Tantre stands for Tante, an Indonesian word describing a classy and dignified mid-aged woman and simply because she is the eldest among us. The rest of us were boys and girls from 23 – 28 years old.



This group was created in order to join a sporty and healthy competition within our office which is called Run-A-Muck. This is a one month program where we got to be very healthy and sporty and competing with 10 – 15 other groups. Therefore during that one specific month, Tantre and The Brondonx has made some what so-called sporty event every week such as jogging around at the office park during lunch break wearing nothing but a short pants, jump suit and T-shirt while spreading away some flyers containing healthy way of living to the passerby.






Not only that, we also went to Monas on a lovely Sunday morning and luckily there were some kind of a sport event being there at the same time which is the-10,000-foot step for a stronger bone held by one of the dairy products producer specialized in Milk for the stronger bone.





After walking for almost an hour from Djakarta Theater to Monas, the distance is only 500m, (too much photo session involved during the walk), we spent the rest of the morning eating Ketupat/Lontong Sayur, Nasi Goreng and Bubur Ayam at the food stall around Monas area. It was a perfect way to end the day.





On the last week of the month, as she said before, we were supposed to gather at Ragunan sport center at 6.30 a.m, all of us managed to get there around 7-ish in the morning. Of all my 28 years of living in Jakarta, this is the very first time I visited Ragunan Sport Center, turns out that it was not bad at all, you will find jogging track which is like the one in Gelora Senayan, plus there is a football field, swimming pool, badminton and volley ball court and many others.



Luckily the jogging track was not too crowded at that time only some local athlete who were doing a routine in the jogging track. Thus we spent an hour of exercising and jogging plus another one and a half hour of photo session. Hehe..
This is another reason why our group, Tantre and The Brondonx, was selected as the Best Group of the Year, it is simply because we were very consistent and cooperative doing some sports and photo session.





As a reward, each of us was awarded an IPOD by the committee and a fancy dinner plus Karaoke as a special treat from our beloved Tantre. Sadly, now Tantre and The Brondonx has been separated by work condition, I have moved to a different company and some others as well, even there is one of us who is working at East Kalimantan but we believe that the sporty and cooperative spirit will remain strong deep within ourself.






How to get there:
Monas: just take the the Busway from Blok-M to Kota, stop at Monas, or if you want to walk, you can park your car at the Djakarta Theather and walk or ride your bike to Monas for about half an hour. It is a good way to spend your Sunday morning especially when there is a car-free day which is usually held on the last week of the month. You could call the Traffic Management Centre (TMC) for the exact date of the car-free day.
Ragunan Sport Center: take the Busway from Kuningan to Ragunan, stop at the Ragunan Busway Terminal and walk to the Sport Center which is only 400 m from the terminal. Or you can always take your car with you, go to the Departemen Pertanian intersection at Jl. TB Simatupang, turn right if you were coming from Pondok Indah, go straight until you find the entrance to the Ragunan zoo, do not enter the zoo, make a left turn at the corner of the entrance, or you could simply ask the street vendor for direction.