Lumajang

Hello world

It's been over a month since I posted back in Brazil and thanks for all the positive comments, i really appreciate them.. As events unfolded I'd often think of how i could describe them best to you all but so much has happened the following post has ended up more like a summary of 'our amazing week' with my occasional twist on events. Currently, we're in Jakarta.. in the state of West Java and the capital of Indonesia. It's interesting, but first lets go back a few weeks and recap.

After a comfortable, but admittedly not so inspiring 5 days in Sydney we arrived in Ubud, Bali. The people seemed friendly but the negative effects of tourism were evident, in that many people were out to make money from you..
I had been looking forward to Indonesia for a long time, as it was like we were starting a whole new journey. Before then, Asia had been nothing more than a distant dream, and then we arrived and everything changed. I can only speak for myself.. but spirits hit an all time low and homesickness was sneaking in. I felt Indonesia basically had nothing to offer me, not that I thought the country had nothing to offer.. but because I had no language, little time, huge distance and forsaw trekking from mountain to nation park. However nice they would be.

We'd been sick in bed for two days delaying our plans to move onto Java. But we eventually did, via a taxi, bus, ferry and more bussing until we ended up in Jember and soon enough we were on the economy class train to Probalingo in order to visit the Bromo volcano our guidebook had recommended. After a 4 hour wait then a mad rush for seats we somehow managed to find ourself a not too packed part of the train. There we sat and waited.. it felt as if the whole cabin were looking at us.. and I think they probably were.

Then from nowhere a man introduced himself as Zainul and his son Zackie, which sometimes sound like "Jainul" and "Jackie". He said Zackie had recognised me as a power ranger and had pointed me out to him. As a member and teacher at the English Club we were to get to know so well, he took this oppourtunity to meet some native english speakers. At the time I thought he was a friendly guy, maybe abit odd because he lingered around for so long, but now looking back and knowing the great guy he is, he was probably really nervous.

As Willem and Oran were further down the train meeting Zainul's family, I kept watch on the bags. Perhaps Zainul had given them confidence to interact with us strange looking foreigners, because the train became alive and slightly surreal. I found myself confused of where to focus my attention, children were passing messges of "what your name?", a guy had taking Orans seat and was trying to show me the hand sized kitten he had with him, and the whole train was watching highly amused at my baffled look. Orans head popped around and said some words to the likeness of "Right, we're getting off next stop to go to this English club with Zainul"

In some crazy way, despite my appearance of shock, i kinda expected it.. Maybe Indonesia wouldn't be so bad

We got off with Zainul, his 2 sons, his wife, his mother in law and his sister Luluk. Zainul knew a good hotel and soon enough we were in our room reflecting on what had just happened. It wasn't long until we were picked up and taken to dinner with 4 men; Zainul, Agus, Dede and Hendra. At the time we didn't really know how people fitted into the scheme of things but soon enough it was all revealed. Turned out Agus was the owner and ran this place called Denny's Bunch, the English teaching school. Also turns out that many of the important people in this town called Lumajang were once students of Agus and as people go, his influence was quite noticable.

Zainul, Dede and Hendra were all teachers at Denny's and like most of the other teachers we were to meet, made their living from teaching English in normal schools. After some fried noodles and ice-less drinks we were taken back to our hotel room with the promise of being picked up tommorow at 9. Which we were, and taken to Denny's Bunch where we met a cricle of people, mainly teenagers but there were many in their twentys and older too. The 3 of us sat in the circle and here began one of the strangest things I've experienced. We introduced ourselves one by one with everyone listening intently. Then they fired questions at us like:
"why are you here?" "where are you going?" "do you have a girlfriend?" "what do you think of indonesian girl?"

We answered the best we could, and these questions and many more like them, proved to be the standard to which would answer many times in the week to come.

We then split into groups to have small chats, 1 group for each of us. I had an interesting conversation and we discussed our different health systems, education, the girlfriend boyfriend thing and it was as insightful for me as it was for them. I'm not sure what the others talked about, but i heard the occasional roar of laughter coming from somewhere so it must've been funny.



From left to right, Luluk Willem Hendra Herten Firman Chaty Zainul

Soon after we are all together again and it was much more relaxed. We finished up the club and we all hopped on the back of someones scooter or motorbike and rode off in a huge group. As an experience, this first bike ride was one to remember.. this was the kind of thing I was travelling for, and spirits were restored as we rode up that a moutain.

Feeling slightly more learn-ed, after being educated about the active volcanoes in the area and the devestation they could cause if they were to erupt, we drove down to the appropriately named 'Bamboo Forest'. It was suprisingly beautiful and we ate some good food before quickly moving onto the swimming pool. I had told them my job in England was a swimmming teacher and despite how much I insisted teaching and swimming itself are two different things, they all expected me to be of olympic standard. Which i'm not, but it was nice to be able to teach a little and improve some peoples swimming strokes.


The gang on bikes (willem blue and oran in the lead) and all together


Riding from Bamboo Forest, Zainul and Luluk swerve up on my right on the way from Bamboo Forest

Eventually we ate dinner at Ecco's house. It was our first introduction to eating indonesian style. We sat on the floor with all the food in the middle, held the bowl in our left hand and used our right hand to eat. Difficult at first but with a little demonstration from Zainul of how to flick the rice into your mouth with your thumb, its now almost natural. Willem and I were speaking between ourselves as our food digested, while Oran was in the toilet. I told him that this is what I'd been looking for out of my travels now and to leave tommorow (as we'd intended) seemed to make no sense. He had been thinking along the same lines and we noticed the whole room had gone silent. He proceeded to thank everyone for all they had done for us, and just mentioned that we were thinking of maybe staying a couple more days. At that instant, they all roared with delight and applause and then one by one they came to shake our hands. A reaction not expected in the least. Zainul told us of how they had been racking their brains of how to make us stay longer and had put together an action packed day with the some of the best food and locations Lumajang had to other. They joked how, after asking God, he had sent an SMS to our minds telling us to stay. Perhaps.

Then they realised that Oran hadnt been consulted in these plans.

"What will Oran say?"
"Do you think he will want to stay?"

We replied "He should be alright", but they persisted in asking the same questions until he returned from the toilet and the room once again was silent and all eyes fell on him. He looked baffled, almost scared. Zainul introduced that we had something to say and cue Willem with

"we're having such a good time here, we thought maybe we can stay a bit longer"

His response wasn't highly enthusiastic with, "Yea, I'm alright with that"

But nevertheless before he had time to think there was another roar of applause and everyone shook his hand.


The next day like everyday which would follow we were picked up in the morning, bright and early. We were going to the beach; it wasn't your normal picturesque beach but was surely impressive with black sand and a fiercesome sea. They told us of how there is a sea Godess who at will could sweep men away and they were all quite fearful of the water. One thing I noticed during that week is that most people believed in magic and myths as if they were normal.. The response to many of my questions about how these strange things could happen, was simply "Oh, by magic".



Gang at the beach: Luluk, Hendra, Firman, Herten and Dede

After visiting a water park and being show a Chinese Dragon Dance we went to Denny's. It was monday, so in contrast to the speaking club of yesterday.. class lessons were in progress and this was a whole new thing alltogether. Our job was to just talk with the students to encourage them to speak and continue learning. They were all very anxious to meet us, and if we walked by a class you could hear the atmosphere intensify. Inside the classes it varied, some couldn't stop talking and others were shyly silent and had to be prompted by the teacher. Over the week we all learnt to handle things better and I really enjoyed it.


Luluk and her class


Ifan and his class


We went to Denny's everyday after that, it was kind of like our service to them, just to speak. In return they would provide for us, take us places and just be our friends. Having said that, they would have probably done it all for us regardless, that's what they're like. At Denny's I'd go from one class to another, I preferred the older lot because I could really get them to speak but I know too well everyone has to start somewhere and the small kids were fun too. When we weren't in a class, we'd usually sit around the table with the other teachers. We'd make jokes, often i'd get a massage, be asked if i am tired, "Go lie down!" or "Hows your eye" (I had injured it when dirt flew in while on a motorbike)

"noo i'm fine was my generic response, another class? Lets go!"


The chill out table


I don't think i've emphasised how amazing the people here are. They have a real honesty, all of them. Always laughing, happily affectionate. They made us feel like of them. Everyday was lunch and dinner at someones house, and it seemed like they were almost waiting their turn to have us, but the priveledge was really ours. I had read in the guide book, Indonesians were very openly affectionate with guys often holding hands and touching each other.. its all true. They hug, put their arms around you and its all normal. Sometimes when there had been a guys hand on my leg for the last 5 minutes, my western reservedness would kick in but it was only momentarily.


Zainul: A commited man, and ladies Luluk and Romza wearing "true smiles" as they put it

Our book told us that we would be asked regularly of our religion and it was better to say something than nothing as they might think you're communist. Not quite sure if its true but sure enough we were asked the question regularly and Oran with his Islamic roots claimed to be Muslim. The faces would often light up and much attention would go his way until he dropped "but i dont pray" and then the reaction was usally of perplexion and "oh". The religion of Willem and I was usually not important after this but the few times we were asked Willem was Catholic and was a Budhist one time and 'still looking' the others. So when we met people, Oran got a little attention from his Islam, a few would ask to touch my hair but Willem was just loved for being handsome. Many conversations consisted of people simply repeating of how handsome he was and how they wanted him as their son in law. So ladies, take note... you better show him some attention back home or he may just come back here.

During the rest of the week we spent our afternoons at Denny's and the rest of the time usually on random excursions. We visited the would-be tourism hot spots like 'the 3 lakes', a tea plantation which still uses an old dutch factory from that era and a water park. We also were taken around to meet people who had requested to meet us or had invited us to use their facilities.. places like the education office, high schools, peoples houses.. we were even invited for a gamalan lesson, the instrument used in the dance we had seen in Bali. Everytime we would meet people, we'd answer and ask the same questions and pose for some pictures as the Indonesians love taking. But it was never boring. We also went on local radio, just because we're foreign.


Us on the gamalan and radio


Oran struggling to climb that rock despite Firman's help and some fish cleaning


We decided to leave on saturday. We have only 30 days in total in Indonesia due to visa restrictions and practical reasons could let us stay not too much longer. Anyway, we felt it was our turn to provide dinner, we considered cooking them a dinner and eating 'our style', but it was a wild idea and so we took them to a good restaurant instead. Everyone was there, and we ate our last dinner together like we'd been friends for life.. Willem told me that Zainul had spoke of really enjoying his 'Gurami Baker', a type of roasted fish he had always wanted to try it but the expense was unjustifiable. This alone could have made my entire stay in Lumajang worthwhile, and i felt happy knowing we had maybe had just as big an impact on their lives as they had on ours.. even if it was just a fish. Expensive, for us it wasn't at all.. for the meal and drinks for about 15 people it cost maybe 180 000 rupias, the equivalent of just over 10 pounds.

Only Agus wasn't there to enjoy it, he had to leave that morning for a wedding in Surabuya, a major city north of Lumajang. The day before we had spoken with Agus, he was the guy that made things happen and really wanted more people like us to visit Lumajang. From the places we had been, it was obvious there were several tourist attractions this place had to offer. He was shocked to find out that people paid over a thousand pounds (a ridiculous amount in rupias) just to volunteer to teach english and wondered why he couldn't even get people for free. We decided that if he could formulate some sort of weekly program, I could design and maintain him a website. So on return to England thats something I will have to do and the 3 of us will be his international correspondance. This, with the meal, and a much appreciated CD player we bought them were our ways of saying thank you but nothing in comparison to what they had done for us. So instead of leaving alone we proposed to take them all to Bromo mountain, our original destination on that first train that seemed so long ago.

The response was of Errs, No's then Maybes. People need permission, especially the girls. It doesn't matter if you're 25. We decided to talk more about it the next day over lunch, then tommorow came and we ate lunch and discussed at Herten's house. One by one, people eventually came out with "yes i will accompany you to Bromo" and everyone would call out a yay! Eventually everyone could come bar Chaty who had work responsibilities and Zainul with family commitments, and we were happy knowing we still had the gang with us.. even if it for only a day more. Then the sound of drumming grew louder. Everyone got excited and ran outside, we followed curiously to find the monkey man. Common in a few other countries i think, this guy had a small grey monkey (similar to all the ones i've seen so far in this country) on his back in a cage. He played his drum to attract people, sort of like the ice cream man. In return for money, his service was to make his monkey dance.. so we paid, and at least it provided entertainment for the rest of the street. The monkey did dance, but quite angrily and when it retaliated or tried to adjust its metal collar for comfort, the man tugged hard and flug it around.. It was used to it, and continued to do tricks like sitting crossed legs, throwing things at the crowd, riding a wooden horse and wearing a mask. They act suprisingly like us which makes it seem somewhat more cruel than maybe another animal.. but im not going to discuss ethics here.. have a look


Monkey Dance

So we said our goodbyes to everyone who stayed at the clubs. Denny's club was a place we would miss and surely return. But it wasn't a proper goodbye yet as we had most the gang still with us. At night, we boarded a public bus to Probalingo, and then another smaller one to Bromo. The bus probably had seats for 12 people, and had maybe 30 with one guy hanging on the outside.

After a 2 hour rest, we walked in the dark and up this mountain. It looked amazing with the stars and volcano siluette, but none of our cameras could capture it so you'll just have to trust me. We reached the bottom of the mountain and started climbing the stairs up it. Waves of Sulphur would occasionally burn our eyes and throat, but soon the sun rose and the view was beautiful. We stood there on the edge of a crator with our friends from Lumajang and just enjoyed it.



Carefree, on the side of a volcano

It was time to go and we walked back to our hotel (1 room for all twelve of us) and then took a minibus back down to Probalingo. Hendra and Hendric's parents were coming this way to go to Malang, our destination, so we decided to go with them. For the rest of the group it was goodbye. Lots of hugs, tears and "don't forget us"

And then we left, to Melang. After a brief stop at a restaurant then a slighter longer one at Hendra's cousin's house, we found our hotel. Time to say bye to Hendra and Hendric probably the funniest pair of Indonesians and their parents who had treated us like sons. Hendric told us of DTA, Don't Trust Anyone and his mum was worried about us as we had no Indonesian guide and we could easily get ripped off or conned. We assured her she shouldnt be. We're travellers, this is what we do.


The restaurant on the way to Malang, and at Hendra's cousins

Soon they left, Lumajang was now only memories and we had to fend for ourselves again. For me the following few weeks have just been a blur of illness and tiredness but to summarise we spent a while in Melang then off to Yogyakarta where we went to the temple and met some cool people before coming to here Jakarta. I'm sure Oran will write more about it.

In a few days we will take a ferry to an island near Singapore. It will take 2 days, and we could've gone for economy but with 2 to a single bed, severe over crowding and a regular brawl for the provided meals, if you can afford otherwise you'd be crazy to do otherwise..

So, to conclude.. Lumajang was one of the best things I've experienced in this trip and in my life. Considering all the random events that lead to us meeting mr Zainul, such as our delaying 2 day illness.. and Zackie pointing me out as a power ranger.. it leads even a sceptic like me to believing in other powers at work. Humbled, i think we all are.. and with an increased gratitude for the luck we have. People in Lumajang are happy, but I met maybe 2 people who had left the country.. For us at 19 years of age, to be able to travel the world is a blessing and i can only hope we've used this bit of luck to do a little good in the world.

This blog could've been 10 times longer if i wrote about all the people I've met and to just mention their name doesn't seem to do them justice. But I will anyway, so in no particular order.. a big hello, thank you and we miss you to.. Hendra, Hendric, Dede, Agus, Firman (thanks for riding me around), Hertyn, Fifi, Ifan, Romza, Chaty, Zainul and his family, Luluk, Ecco, Ecco, Tigu, Yuri, May, and anyone I've forgotten

People take care, remember that clicking the picture makes it bigger (don't laugh, you'd be suprised) and be good

Zenna

Sau Paulo to Lumajang

Hello everyone! glad to hear that none of you were caught up in the London bombings, though some people still have'nt got in contact so hope you and anyone close to you was unaffected. I would liek to apolgise for the lack of updates but i tried on a number of occasions to put on a blog whilst in Australia and in Indonesia but somehow everything i wrote and the images i uploaded disappeared. It has been a long time since we have commented on our progress so i have a lot to fill you in on, i willdo my best to summarise this now but unfortunatley the computers are too slow here so no pics just yet.

We left Brazil about a month ago now flying first of all to Chile for one day, then on to New Zealand, Australia and now Indonesia so it has been a pretty busy month as you can imagine. Santiago, Chile, was beautiful and a nice little break. We only stayed there for a day but felt we conquered most of the city, got to go to a nice market and ate some traditional Chilean food it definitley seems like a country worth visiting, though not quite on the top of my list just yet.


"Team leader" my tushi, I had to show him whose really boss-POWERSLAM!


Andes painted in the background!


Cool Santiago skyline


Secret agent



The flight to Auckland went suprisingly smoothly, 14hours but felt a lot shorter. Pretty small city centre so we got to see most of what it had to offer in a day. It wasn't much. On the third day we took a bus to Matamata, which is a small town, 14000 people, in stunning countryside(it was the place where theu ilmed the Hobbit village in Lord of The Rings). We were really lucky with the weather and although it was cold the views were amazing. Our old head of 6th form Stuart and his wife Lynda had moved here at the beginning of the year and after Oran corresponding with the prior to the trip they offered to put us up for the night. We could'nt have asked for better hosts, they fed us like Kings and made us feel right at home, a big hello to their neighbours Alan and Claire too. On our second and final day there they treated us to a tour of Rotorua which is a town with a few traditional Maori villages set amongst the natural volcanic Geysers which were an amazing sight too. Had a really good time there and cannot thank Stuart and Lynda enough for their hospitality!!!!!!!!!


Rotoruas Geysers


Stuart, Lynda, Alan and Claire


Maori Warrior


Spooky

Early the next day we caught a flight to Sydney. Got to a hostel rather easily and then slept for about 20 hours. We hadn't really noticed how jet lagged we were and for me at leat it took most of the 5 days in Sydeny to get over it, as well as a cold which Oran had picked up and kindly shared with me and Zenna :)
Oran got to visit some family in Sydeny he had never met before which he was quite made up about and randomly we bumped in to Paul Thomas on the highstreet (Paul had been at Wilson's with us since year 7) spent a couple of days with him before he departed for Auckland to meet u with Liam, so hope you two are enjoying yurselves. Sydeny is a pretty cool city i would say. Very modern and clean, it even has a mono rail which i was amazed at. Everything is run smoothly there and jsut like their olympics everything is well organised and they jsut tend to do things better than us, but 5 days was more than enough considering we were'nt travelling any othere parts of Aus so i got a bit bored by the end of the week.


view from the Zoo


opera house


Harbour bridge


So on to Indonesia, flight again was pretty smoothe but longer than i expected, something like 6 and a half hours, we had been expecting a lot less! After joining the longest queue in the world for our visas we dove straight in to an integral part of Indonesian culture and begun haggling for a taxi fare. Turns out Zenna has a natural gift for it. With his help we got one driver to take us by taxi to a less westernised tourist town called Ubud, about an hours drive out of the capital Denpasar, for Rp60,000 just under 4BP. He was origially offering 100,000Rp and we discovered later than no one goes for less than 60,000 and for most tourists not less than 80000, so we felt we did well but i am sure we still paid 5 times the indonesian price! Had a good time in Ubud though it was HIIIGHHHHLY touristy, but still a little traditional (unlike Denpasar and Kutar which we did not want to stay in). Went on a Balinese cooking course the second day and saw a traditioanl dance called gamelan on the third. Gamelan consists of a precution band playing xylophone like instruments, recorders and drums. They play music which is supposed to immitate wildlife and people based around a story which you are given a summary of, the show lasted about 1.30 hours and consisted of maybe 8 stories. During some stories there are dancers who help to tell the story through a very angular dance where the women move there joints in very sharp actions and they add to effect by moving their eyes in the same manner. By the third day we were as sick as dogs and stayed in bed all day. We still have'nt figured out what it was but more than likely it was the ice in our drinks. So we ended up staying in Ubud, and Bali, longer than we had hoped, one days sickness and one day to recover meant we left on the fifth day taking an 8 hour bus to a town called Jember in Java.


Temple in Ubud


View of rice paddies


Gamelan dancer


I call this one "Monkey eating banana"


The bus was quite an experience, first of all like any form of transport in Indonesia it gets rammed, in every bus, bemo (public people carrier) or mini van they have tiny wooden stools to provide extra seating! It felt liek every five minutes a guitarist would run alongside the bus as it was driving at a slower speed, jump on play a song or two ask for change then jump off in the same manner, it was entertaining if you have the patience for it but it got a bit annoying after the 20th person came round asking for some spare coins. Then you have the human supermarkets who jump on, possibly 10 at a time, at the ferry ports all selling drinks, peanuts, crackers or a pre cooked meal wrapped in banana leaf, which was something we later decided was a pretty neat idea and are especially prominent on the trains. Got to Jember late and then had to drive around in a mini van and look for a placeto stay, found one relatively quickly but the guy driving the van tried to rip us off asking for Rp40,000 for about 10 mins work. Baring in mind we got an hour long taxi ride for 60000 in Bali we were not happy and settled on 30000. It was still a rip off but for 1.80BP we werent too bothered.

We did'nt even bother with Jember, the next day we just asked how to get to the train station and began to work out our route to a town called Probbolinggo, the closest town to a group of mountains infamous for their sun rise views. So we jumped in two rickshaws but made the fatal error of not asking how much it was to the train station as we had already been told by the receptionist it was 3000 each. So we got there paid the two men 6000 and ended up getting in a row with one of the drivers who said he wanted 4000 more for the two of them. Everyone in the train station was joining in and it ended up being split pretty evenly. Finding the situation mildly amusing we carried on with the argument until we finally decided if he wnats to stand there and argue his point for this long he probably desereved the money. So we gave him the money and begun our 4 hour wait for the train.

One thing i have falied to mention up to this point is the stares EVERYONE gives us especially in Java which has no tourists when compared with Bali. I am not finding this particularly strange as i got it a fare bit in Brazil, but for Oran and Zenna who tended to blend in in Brazil more easily, this is something new and at first they were not too pleased with it. However after talking to one man on the train, he spoke very good english, he mentioned that everyone was staring only because they want to talk to us but didn't have the confidence in their english to do so. Most people have never seen a foreigner before and more than anything just want to know what would possess someone to come to their town, what we think of Indonesia and its people.
I should menton the mans name now as meeting him on the train resulted in the best week of our trip, and i think we would all agree possibly the best week of our lives. His name is Zainul and we initially began a conversation because his son thought Zenna looked like a Power ranger! (at the time he did quite suprisingly resemble the White Ranger) We spoke briefly to him and his siser who were coming back from visiting their brother in another town and they told us about an English school they work at which holds a club for practising Englsih on Sundays (we were travelling on a Saturday). So, quite randomly, we decided to get off the train two stops early and go to a town we had never heard of, Lumajang, to have a talk with the members of this English club. The following week we spent in Zainul's home town was so busy and special special for us i just don't have time to write my thoughts on our week there now, only to say that at the moment i am very sad we are not still there! Hopefully we will find a better internet cafe soon where we can upload pics and fill you in on LUMAJANG - the best town in the world!


Mr.Zainul and sister Luluk

Sao Paulo to Bali