LONDON, KOMPAS.com - Inggried Dwi Wedhaswary, one of the two Indonesian Green Journey Ambassador and also happens to be a reporter for Kompas.com, reports her fascinating journey to London. The other ambassador is Goris Mustaqim, Asia's Best Young Entrepreneurs 2009.
Through the eyes of the ambassadors
A famous airline of our neighbor country's, Malaysia, flew me and Goris to London Heathrow International Airport, Thursday, at 5.05 London time, or 12.05 Indonesian time.
The 14 hour flight was quite exhausting. But it was fun for Goris and me, and this is our first time setting foot on Great Britain.
To reach the lodging at St. Pancras area we were suggested to take the tube (the subway) from Terminal 3 at the airport.
It wasn't hard to find the ticket booth, because the signages were communicative and clear. Especially since some friends from the British Council had given us loads of directions.
We chose the "day travel card" ticket category, which is for one day's travelling. Time was short, only one day, and we've planned to visit a number of places. Note that the ticket cost £ 14.80 per person or around Rp. 236.800 (roughly calculated assuming £1= Rp 16.000).
Making friends
We went through 23 stations to reach King's Cross St. Pancras Station and it took an hour. The train was quite vacant when we got in from Terminal 3 Heathrow at around 6.00. There was only a middle-aged woman sitting in the carriage.
She is friendly, and she greeted Goris and I. The conversation went on. She gave directions based from the stops displayed in the carriage. Chandni Shah is her name.
"Where are you from?" she asked. When we answered Indonesia she seemed surprised. What a coincidence that Chandni had just visited Indonesia, Bali to be exact, three weeks ago.
"Bali is beautiful and very exotic. Unfortunately I haven't visited other parts of Indonesia. Maybe I'll come back one day," said the woman who lives in Leicester.
Goris and I then exposed a bit 'advertisement' about the places worth visiting if she came to Indonesia again. "Oh, of course I want to go there again. Do you mind if we swapped emails?"
Chandni works at the Commonwealth Secretary. "How long are you staying in London and for what occasion?" she seemed intrigued. We told her that our visit is as ambassadors for climate change from Indonesia, and that excited Chandni even more.
She said that she also cared about climate change and read about its issues. We explained how climate change has affected our nation, what efforts the young generation has done, and Indonesia's current position, and including the hope that the COP 15 Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen will come up with a better agreements.
"But the young people at the conference wouldn't get too deep into the politics. We just bring the voice of the young generation and of course summarize what contribution we can give to face the effects of climate change," said Goris, the British Council climate champion from Garut, West Java.
Chandni continued, "That's excellent. I'm glad to see that the young generation cares. The climate change should be everyone's concern."
Chandni looks forward for the COP15, where America will set its emission mitigation target at 17-20 percent. Hopefully, this will be a good start so COP15 can come up with something positive and promising.
Unfortunately the half-hour conversation had to end. Chandni arrived at her destination. Actually we wanted to chat some more, especially to see how far the environment friendly life-style has been applied in the country where Prince Charles comes from.
"Good luck for your conference. And oh, be careful of your valuables. See you in Indonesia," she said as she got out at the Leicester Square Station stop.
Our plan today is to visit a number of buildings in London that have adopted the green building concept. As we know, the environment friendly building concept has been studied to be developed by the Jakarta government. Hopefully that will go smoothly.
By Tomorrow noon we will have joined the delegates from other countries at the London British Council to start the next step of our Green Journey to Brussels, Belgium. (ING/C17-09)
