It’s July 28th 2018, 20 days before the opening of Asian Games 2018 which will be held in Palembang and Jakarta, Indonesia. The government’s efforts to make Indonesian people support this, in my opinion succeed to gather ‘some’ people celebrate this upcoming event. Moreover, we don’t need to follow the Asian Games 2018’s social accounts in Instagram, Twitter, and others, because their posts are linked as sponsored posts by the media, so we can read all of the posts although we’re not following. It’s kind of annoying, but yaa It’s ok wkwk.
The pre event interested to discuss is about the torch relay. I was amazed for the first time for reading a fire called ‘an eternal fire’. A big sport event is usually opened by lighting a torch, so does Asian Games 2018 combining two eternal fires which are from India, and Mrapen Central Java Indonesia. Can you imagine, a fire was put on a plane from India to Indonesia? How can they negotiate the permission between the airline and the committee? Don’t worry! It’s totally safe (I believe so), because the fire was put on a tinder box. Before the torch will be lighted in Palembang, it will be relayed or paraded around cities even islands in Indonesia. The first city that had an opportunity to hold the torch relay was Yogyakarta. So, here we go.
July, 19th 2018. That was a nice Thursday morning. I parked my motorbike at Taman Budaya Yogyakarta TBY, planned to walk from TBY to Malioboro Street, waited for the torch relay. I texted and called my friend couples of time who was supposed to accompany me, but in the end, he didn’t come. Thanks! (I still love you my dear friend, no need to worry haha!). I continued my morning walk along with some elementary school students and their teachers who participated to wait and see the relay. So I assumed they were dismissed from school to see the relay wkwk. It was true, the crowd at Titik Nol Km Yogyakarta mostly contained with students and teachers, journalists, some officers, so it was not that crowded actually. It was a bit weird for having a relay or a parade held in the morning, because usually Yogyakarta held some relays mostly at noon, but it was a good idea, the vibe was nice.
How about the parade troupe? Mmm Sadly I said it was not that good. Maybe because that was already its third day in Jogja, the torch had some visits first at Dirgantara museum, then Prambanan Temple, Keraton Ngayogyakarta Hadiningrat, and it ended at Tugu Pal Putih. The parade consisted of some runners from Yogyakarta government, national athletes, sponsors, and others. See my pics below.
It was not as rousing as Yogyakarta’s parade in general, but it was okay, totally awkay. Tbh, the whole Asian Games Torch relay plans are awesome. Until this blog is written, I’ve read some articles saying that the torch was brought by Hamish Daud for surfing in Bali, and by Nadine Chandrawinata for diving. Like, how come? But it happened. Well done, and keep up the good work Asian Games 2018’s committee.