Puri with Ratna

Friday, October 10, 2008

A post after 4 days of nothing!!! xDD
So sorry guuyyss...
I had a whole week of lame school and sleepy days and I'm sure none of you would like to hear about it, it's too boring ;p

So anyways, today is Friday! I actually got dismissed at the miraculous time of 10:00AM, and I instantly went to pick up Ratna, and we went to visit our favourite, nostalgic place, Puri Mall.

Well! I had my first experience of getting myself ____. What's that? You will never know. I just wrote it down for my own personal future nostalgia's sake. And then we met this guy, you can read about him in Ratna's Blog . Haha.

After all that stuff in Ratna's blog, she had to go home. And so I was left alone in Puri mall. I sat down at the food court, wondering what to have for dinner. As I was deep in thought, this woman suddenly approached me. She was from the table next to me, where another woman, and a man, sat.

"Kakak, kita dari Celebrity Fitness. Kita lagi ada promosi blablablabla..."

Trans: Miss, we are from Celebrity Fitness. We are having a promotion of blablablabla..."

For those who don't know, Celebrity Fitness is one of the most famous fitness centre in Jakarta. I told the lady I'm not interested. But she told me, taking out a large brochure from her bag, that this is really worth it. She said that from the normal membership of 1.5 million rupiah, I could get this for only Rp 100,000. AND it also comes with my own personal trainer.I get a free, genuine Adidas water bottle, and my own free towel set etc.

By now I was really suspicious. I lost eye contact with the woman, who kept at a close distance with me. I asked her, "Wait, it's Rp 100,000 from Rp 1,500,000??"

She said that if I were suspicious, she can give the manager(or someone) a call. I told her no need. I observed the brochure again. Yes, it was indeed printed nicely, with Celebrity Fitness logo stamped all over it. I saw a name card at the bottom. "Since you're from Celebrity Fitness, can I just directly go to the place and apply for this thing?"

And she said I couldn't. She said something which I didn't quite understand, but the point is I couldn't. I got really really suspicious. I collected my things, and took my bag. I told her no thank you, and I left before she could say anything else.

For foreigners who don't know, hypnosis is an extremely common technique used by Indonesian criminals. This has been getting even more common recently...

Warga Khawatirkan Pelatihan Hipnotis

Kapanlagi.com - Sejumlah warga Kota Bandarlampung, Provinsi Lampung, mengkhawatirkan pelatihan hipnotis yang makin marak berlangsung dan diiklankan di daerahnya.

Mereka mengkhawatirkan praktik hipnotis itu dipakai untuk menipu orang, sehingga penegak hukum perlu segera menertibkannya.

Kekhawatiran itu disampaikan para warga, di antaranya para ibu dan kaum perempuan, di Bandarlampung, Rabu, setelah melihat pemberitahuan, iklan dan poster maupun spanduk terang-terangan yang marak di sejumlah media massa dan dipasang di tempat umum.

"Saya prihatin dengan dilegalkannya perguruan atau pelatihan hipnotis itu, tidak ada pelatihan saja sudah banyak orang yang ditipu dengan cara hipnotis, apalagi dilatih dimana-mana," kata Ny Maya pula.

Kecemasan serupa diungkapkan sejumlah kaum ibu dan para gadis remaja, di antaranya beberapa pegawai dan karyawati yang setiap hari mengaku harus menggunakan sarana transportasi umum.

Mereka mengharapkan aparat penegak hukum dan pihak terkait segera menertibkan pelatihan, kursus atau perguruan hipnotis yang makin marak itu, sehingga tidak menjadi tempat pelatihan bagi para calon pelaku tindak kriminal di daerahnya.

Secara khusus, sejumlah warga mendesak pihak kepolisian, khususnya Poltabes di Bandarlampung, untuk menertibkannya.

Sejumlah warga di Lampung sebelumnya telah berkali-kali melaporkan kepada aparat berwenang karena telah menjadi korban penipuan oleh orang yang menggunakan hipnotis, saat mereka berada di lokasi keramaian dan tempat umum.

Salah satu anggota DPRD Kota Bandarlampung, beberapa waktu lalu, bahkan telah kehilangan sepeda motor barunya saat diparkir di RSUD dr H Abdul Moeloek (RSUDAM) Bandarlampung.

Ia tiba-tiba merasa ditepuk seseorang yang meminta sepeda motornya dan diberikan begitu saja.

Anggota fraksi parpol besar itu merasa menjadi korban hipnotis, setelah pelaku pergi meninggalkan dirinya bersama sepeda motor miliknya.

Belum diperoleh rincian jumlah kasus penipuan dengan modus hipnotis dan seberapa banyak pelaku kasus itu yang berhasil ditangkap petugas kepolisian di Lampung.

Aksi penipuan berkedok hipnotis itu telah menimbulkan kecemasan di kalangan warga masyarakat, khususnya para ibu dan kaum perempuan di Lampung. (*/cax)

The main point, is that hypnosis is commonly practised even at crowded places, like malls. Most victims are mothers or teenage girls. Those who like to sit around alone at a public place must be aware of this danger! Hypnosis can be done by simply the patting of shoulder, legs, any physical contact, and even by eye contact. These criminals tend to approach a person, randomly strike up a conversation, then hypnotise them. Another source says that "when a stranger approaches you, starts talking, and then takes out an object from their bag, leave immediately."

Hati-hati bila berada di pusat perbelanjaan dan jalan, seperti mal, supermarket dan halte bus. Bila ada orang yang belum dikenal, lalu secara tiba-tiba menyapa atau mengeluarkan benda tertentu dari dalam tas atau bungkusaan yang dibawanya, sebaiknya Anda segera menghindar.

So what I did was right. I was really scared by then. I called Ratna and she told me they might be trying to hypnotise me. She told me to keep an eye out for them. So I sat in Fun World by myself, making sure I kept close to crowds. I was scared. I searched for those three people, couldn't find them anywhere. I wondered if they could be waiting for me somewhere.

Finally, after some time, I stepped out of Fun World. I braved myself, and went to Celebrity Fitness (it's in Puri). I asked the guy at the counter if there was a special promotion like mentioned by the woman. The rude guy told me yes there was, then didn't give me any details because he seemed unhappy talking to me while I blocked the queue asking questions.

So the question remains. (Yes, I know there is a repitition of the word 'question' here)

Were those people really trying to hypnotise me? Or were they not? What made me suspicious was how casually they dressed. If they were trying to do business, they should have dressed more formally wouldn't they? And they picked me, a teenage girl who sat alone doing nothing. When I went to Fun World, I actually felt my vision blur a little (but that might have been the softlens) and my head slightly dizzy (but that might have been the excessive DDR). I also found it suspicious that the woman kept such a close eye contact with me. And if I try to suit my situation with the one I read in the article (mall, teenage girl, alone, doing nothing, stranger, strike up a conversation, take out an object from his/her bag), it really matches closely.

So I don't know whether I was actually almost a victim today. I might have been, who knows? But from this experience, I learnt that we, especially the girls, ought to be very very aware of our surroundings. You never know when and where danger can strike you. And never believe in everything you hear and see. Use your brain, and your intuition, and know when to be suspicious, in order to avoid danger.

Pictures will be posted later. =)

****UPDATE: pictures have arrived****

Great minds think alike! Look how similar our outfits are today!