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