I've been back home in Brisbane for the last few days thinking about the awesome trip to Indonesia I have just experienced.
The 4 week trip felt like it lasted for 4 days! I had such a blast, and I'll never forget it!
I was amazed at the variety of experiences I had on this trip. Each place was just so different in character, feel, and food!
When I originally thought of this trip idea, I wanted to experience the real Indonesia – not the tourist one.
The only way to do this is to stay with the locals and have them show you their world. That’s exactly what I received – and so much more.
I was shown the very best of Indonesia. And I saw the very best of the Indonesian people.
So to all of Indonesia – Thanks so much for everything.
Unfortunately, Indonesia does receive some bad press, but the hard reality is that 99.9999999% of their people are extremely wonderful, hospitable and caring human beings, and I have definitely been grateful to receive this hospitality.
My job was to show all the good in Indonesia, and I think I've accomplished that!
Thanks to the local blogging communities, there were so many things that I experienced that would have been almost impossible as a solo traveller.
These are experiences that money cannot buy. I am so grateful that I was able to be part of your lives. I consider myself very lucky.
And I think I’ve made a few more friends in Indonesia!
Thanks so much again, and I hope to see you again soon!
I would also like to thank Air Asia for their support for flying me to and from Australia. Hope to to this again sometime!
For other bloggers out there in cyberspace, the websites of each Blogging Community I visited are listed below.
Drop an email and say hello – I'm sure the Indonesian bloggers will be happy to hear from you, and follow each other on Twitter. They're a friendly bunch and love to have a good time.
Yesterday, one of the Semarang Blogging Community members, Mizan, invited me to witness an Indonesian Wedding.
He literally asked me that morning – the day of the wedding!
I was a bit shocked because a question like that is virtually non-existent in western society, and after he insisted (after talking via Adi, who I'm staying with), I thought that I don't get invited to an Indonesian Wedding every day!
And that's the whole point of this entire trip – seeing the real Indonesia.
Since the timing was a bit short notice, Ari, also from Loenpia, quickly brought me one of this batik shirts to wear. This is what men traditionally wear to such weddings when invited as guests.
Anyway, this is roughly how an Indonesian Wedding works (well in this case, a traditional Javanese one).
First of all there is a ceremony. Unfortunately, I missed this because Ari was caught in a traffic jam when he was buying me the batik shirt, so unfortunately I cannot tell you what happened in this case!
There are a number of complicated rituals that occur (about 7 steps). If you want to know more, you can translate this page from Wikipedia (in Indonesian). But in a nutshell, there the spiritual jist is that there is a transfer of responsibility from the parents to the bride and groom.
But the reception is something else.
The bride and groom, with their respective parents and immediate family, are on a stage for photos and greetings. They are all dressed in traditional Javanese clothing.
Photos are taken with each and every single guest/family group. And I literally mean, every single guest.
Since I was an invited guest, the same applied to me!
Instead of presents, money is donated so that the costs of the wedding and reception can be covered.
This was a relatively small wedding by Javanese standards – only about 700 guests were present at this wedding.
Sometimes, they reach 2000-3000 guests! I've been to some large Italian weddings in my time (some of which where I didn't even know the bride or groom), but these Indonesian Weddings put these to shame!
There are no seats and tables at the reception. Everyone stands up, and goes to a number of food stalls to eat and mingle with each other. The reception is a fairly social and informal event, and it was bustling for the entire time I was there.
This reception goes on for a large chunk of the afternoon, and guests move in and out of the venue in steady droves.
Like most weddings, there is music played – I heard a variety of songs both in Indonesian and English sung by the band.
However, it's not often that a foreigner rocks up to one of these events.
Once again, like in other places in Sumatra and Java on this trip, people wanted their photo with me.
I was almost paranoid of stealing the attention away from the bridge and groom.
And there's also the wedding car!
I very grateful to Mizan for sharing this fantastic opportunity with me – I'll never forget it!
And I now have a batik shirt to prove it!
Air Asia flies to loads of places in Indonesia from loads of other places. Check out their website for a great airfare deal now!
Once again, there's lots of stuff to do here, so here goes:
1. See Gedung Batu (Sam Po Kong Temple) and know your future.
This Chinese temple was built in the name of Admiral Cheng Ho who led scores of Chinese fleets to Java. He is revered as a saint and is credited with spreading Islam through Java.
One of the things you can do there is pray to him, ask for a wish, and one of the Temple head honchos performs a ritual to see what the outcome will be.
Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to take photos, but this is what happens.
Firstly you buy some incense sticks. You then pray to Sam Po King, and have some incense candles lit. You talk to the guy who has your incense sticks and tell him your date of birth, and what you want.
He goes up to this altar:
taps it three times, and places the incense candles in some sand.
He throws a couple of wooden blocks in the air with colours on each side – 1 is red, one is yellow. Red means closed, yellow is open. One red and one yellow is good.
Two yellows means the questions asked are not specific enough. Two reds means bad.
Luckily for me, I had one red, one yellow.
He then shakes a few sticks, and the one that pops out determines your future.
This is what is in store for me:
The Poem:
The sunrise illuminates from east. In front of it there’s glory, behind it waiting prosperous people. Clouds sweeping past’. Then all troubles will be excluded and no-one will dare to make trouble.
Meaning:
Good deeds occur when you plant the seed of fortune. Because of other peoples prayers, your life will gain improvement. Temptation can be handled by virtue.
Point:
There’s profit on sales. If you look for profit there will be a result. There’s happiness in the household. You will be in a perfect couple. Good news is approaching. If you have certain problems, please fix it very soon. You can make a daughter and a son.
Sounds like good news! I'll report back on how this works out!
2. See Lawang Sewu – the old Dutch Railway Station
Lawang Sewu was originally constructed by the Dutch as a railway station, and administration building.
It's a grand colonial building that has seen better days, but there is some restoration going on around this attractive edifice.
However, Lawang Sewu was grusomely used by the Japanese during World War II to execute Indonesians.
These concrete separations underneath Lawang Sewu were designed by the Dutch to be filled with water to help with the cooling of the building.
The Japanese used them to house up to 5 prisoners in each compartment, in pitch black conditions with no sanitation.
This area below was used for a different kind of torture. Prisoners stood up in neck high water, with no sustenance, until they literally dropped dead.
Their bodies were then removed and disposed of in a nearby river.
These photos were all taken with the flash. There is virtually no light in these areas. You also have to wear gumboots because some areas don't drain very well and this creates a sloppy existence.
While Lawang Sewu may have a chequered history, it's worth a visit.
3. Once again, like everywhere else in Indonesia, eat copious amounts of great food.
Here is some of the stuff that has made its way to my stomach:
Loenpia – this is the signature dish of Semarang. It's a mixture of a prawn with young bamboo cooked with egg, wrapped in pastry. It can be deep fried or left out of the oil!
Rabbit Sate. This is rabbit meat on skewers served with a peanut sauce.
Deep fried banana and cassava. You can feel the precise point when this stuff adheres to your arteries, but it tastes great!
Kerupuk Rambak – Deep Fried Buffalo Skin. Sounds gross,but tastes crispy and salty.
4. Visit the Ambarawara Train Museum.
For those who love trainspotting, this is for you.
There's loads of old locomotives that were brought to Indonesia by the Dutch, and they are sitting in a yard waiting for you to climb all over them.
The best thing about the museum is that you can take a short trip around the country side in a smaller, more modern train and see locals working in the rice fields.
5. Hike around the Gedung Songo Temples
Didut from Loenpia transported my big frame on his small motorbike to this great place. It probably wasn't a wise move, because I'm sure the addition of myself to his small Honda probably greatly exceeded the carrying capacity of the bike, especially his brakes when going downhill!
Gedung Songo Temples are a heap of Hindu shrines scattered around a mountain. From here you can view a number of large volcanoes in the distance. Try to arrive early if possible. We walked around this place at midday and almost became vapourised.
It's a great place to walk off the calories ingested by all the food you will eat here.
Or you could be a lazy arse and hire a horse and guide to take you around.
6. Spend Time With The Semarang Blogging Community
As mentioned before, The Semarang Blogging Community here is called Loenpia. I'm staying with Adi (or his nickname, Didut) at the moment.
These guys are very social beings and love nothing more than spending time with each other, mucking around, joking, eating and helping each other out.
They also do great community work. They have set up a fund called Force which they contribute money into.
This fund helps some of the poorest children in the Semarang area to attend school. School in Indonesia costs about $USD1 per month, but some families cannot afford that.
Loenpia also takes these kids out to other places out of school, such as museums, and other fun activities.
The voluntary contributions of Force help kids who would not be able to attend school, now do so. Once again, this is just another example of the great people of Indonesia!
Air Asia has helped me get to Indonesia with no problems at all. You can visit Indonesia with them by checking out their website and booking a cheap airfare here!
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