Tag: Travel

The ups and downs of a mountain (and travel)

This past weekend I have visited the magical town of Dieng, Indonesia. Let me tell you, there is a lot of natural beauty here. I took so many pictures and love to watch them over and over again, and dream away. You can find them here.

It all started on a Friday afternoon. The itinerary said to be at the meeting point at six, and we would leave at seven. I was already prepared to take this schedule with a grain of salt, and planned to be there at seven at least, but when I looked out the window in the end of the afternoon, there was a major storm going on. The rain came poring down, and even though the sun sets at 6 pm, it was already completely dark outside at 5 pm that day.

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So, I decided to go earlier. I ordered a gojek and was a little bummed that i would get completely soaked, but I made my peace with it. When I got downstairs, however, the gojek driver had a rain-cape for me! It didn’t completely keep me dry, but at least I wasn’t soaking. The trip only took me 15 minutes, so I was there even before six. There was nobody there.
At six: Nobody.
Half an hour later: Nobody.
At some level I knew that this was probable, but I still got worried. I called the two organizers: no answer.
Finally, at ten to seven, one of them arrived. Of course she got stuck in traffic, and so did a lot of other participants. Eventually we left around eight. Got to love Indonesia.

I was afraid the bus would be a wreck and sleeping through the night was not an option, but it turned out to be a really fancy bus. Even though I sat in the middel of four seats, which was a bit uncomfortable, I slept through most of the trip.

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We saw some sights on the first day and although I loved seeing all the nature, it felt a bit weird to be on the trip by myself. It was an organized tour and everybody had a companion. Besides that, everybody spoke Indonesian. So I felt a tad secluded at some moments, but there were also people who spoke English and it gave me the opportunity to practice my Indonesian.

The local guys of Dieng were really nice, but when I introduced myself to them, they immediately gave me another name. Juminten. Apparently this is an old traditional Javanese name and everybody called me that during the weekend.

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Another thing I learned during this trip, is that there is no need to be ashamed of taking selfies during a trip in Asia. Everybody does it. Proudly. I told the female tourguide that in Europe it was something to be a little giggly and embarrassed about. Here, it is the most normal thing. Not only that, but there were SO MANY grouppictures. We had to do a group shot everywhere. And not just one. Oh no, we had to make one with everybody’s camera.
It took so long and there were so many. At one point I started taking pictures of the picture takers. Ha. Got ya.

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According to the program, the next day we would get up in the middle of the night and leave to climb up to a hill, from where we would see the sunrise. I went to bed very early (around 8 pm) and set my alarm. It was 2 am when we woke up and without any breakfast (or even water) we left to go to the hill. I think I wasn’t completely awake yet, because of course I had to eat something, even though it was not arranged. Or at least have a drink. But I didn’t really think about it until later and we were already on the road. After driving through empty and silent mountain roads, we arrived at a place that was bustling with people. Guess we were not the only ones to watch the sunrise.

We were told to bring a flashlight and warm clothes. It was cold, but it was okay for my thick Dutch skin and once we started walking uphill, I became rather warm quickly. The beginning was okay, but the trek was tougher than I had imagined. Not only was it completely dark, it was also very misty, which created a wet slope to walk on. I kept going and figured we would arrive soon, because the guy told us it would only be around 30 minutes.
He lied.
We walked and climbed about an hour and I slipped once, causing me to glide down in the mud. Well, I’m not one to let that get me down, but I was a bit scared going further and I so was ready to sit down and see this damned sunrise already.

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Finally we were sort of on top and someone told me we had arrived. I plopped down on the ground (I was already dirty, so whatever) and waited, but then they told me we were going to another hill nearby. He pointed in the distance to some walking flashlights and it looked so far away. Too far. And when we walked in that direction, we already had to pass a slippery slope (no pun intended) and I was just not up for it.

Not only was I a little tired, I felt nauseous and a little dizzy. Guess I should have eaten. I asked the guy leading us if it was okay if I stayed on this hill and watched the sunrise from there. It was okay.
So I stayed.
And I sat down.
And I felt really, really sad.
I don’t know why, it sort of overcame me. And thinking back to it now, it seems a bit surreal. Here I was, sort of on top of this great mountain, in the middle of freaking Indonesia, living the freaking dream. And I was sad? Really?
A feeling of terrible aloneness came over me, seeing all these people together. I felt like I was left out a bit, even though I chose to stay behind. And one of the guys who led the tour even stayed with me, and sat nearby. We didn’t really speak, but he was still there with me. What may also have played a small part is that I had been without an internet connection the past two days, which made me unable to vent about the experiences to my friends (or my mommy). I told myself to snap out of it, but in that moment I even wondered if traveling alone was a good idea if it was gonna be like this. Well, without elaborating any more, let’s just say it was a very depressing moment. I got even more annoyed when the sun did start to rise and everybody was taking selfies and I was in the background. Even on this touristic site I was the only white blond girl and I felt like a monkey in a cage. This feeling grew when two girls asked me to take a selfie with them. When I got back to the guy, the female tourguide was there too. I suppose she just arrived. She said: let’s go to the other hill! The sun was already up a bit and it was light outside now. I don’t know what exactly the guy and girl said to each other in Indonesian, but I gathered that he told her I had a little trauma, which even then, I thought was a tad funny. She told me it really was not far and the road was not tricky and now that it was light, I could see she was right. So she took my one hand and the guy took my other, and we slowly went in that direction. The path was not hard, at all.

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When we saw the group, they were already heavy into one of the main activities of this trip: taking pictures. Once we reached them, one of the tourguides yelled something that I could only interpret as: “clap your hands for Juminten”, because the next thing I know, they did. It felt like my birthday. And it felt like I was part of the group. I felt even more stupid for my teeny tiny breakdown earlier and smiled on each of the selfies they wanted to take with me.

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I hope if you took the time to read this long story, it was not uninteresting for you. In all honesty, I mostly write this blog for my future self, and I wanted her to remember this, which is why I was so elaborate.
I guess the lesson I got out of this is that a lot of the world we live in, consists only in our heads. I felt like I was left out of the group, while in reality, I had a really special role in it. I felt like the path ahead was going to be hard, and really it was not.

My mind told me traveling alone was a bad idea and I should want to go home. But in reality, I really don’t want to go home.

Wow. Just… Wow.

This time, I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Just kidding, I will write a blog about this past weekend later.

A lake, another lake and natural springs

The alarm went off at 4.15 this past Saturday. That just seems inhumane, does it not? However, excitement turned out to be an effective method to getting out of bed and after a shower, I ordered my Grab-bike – the driver arrived surprisingly quickly – and went to the meeting point, from where the trip would start!

On this Saturday in November, I had planned to visit Kawah Putih, a lake located on a volcano. I went with an organized tour and the program also included some other sites. Needless to say, but I am going to anyway, I was psyched to finally get out of the city and see more of Indonesia.

While I sat and waited for my friend to arrive and join me, I enjoyed the relative silence that the morning in Jakarta brought, and was watching a girl next to me with fascination, who was slaying mosquitoes like a pro. Once we boarded the bus and took off, I was happily surprised to be able to doze off for at least an hour and a half. Even after that I was in a blissful state of half-unconsciousness, until we reached Bandung.

There I looked out the window and took in all the hustle and bustle of this city. The area where we drove was very different from Jakarta. From the main street you could see the lush green fields and there were no buildings higher than two stories, maybe three. After a while we ended up on the small mountain roads where honking before turning a corner is a must. The views were already incredible, but hard to photograph from a moving bus.

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Once we arrived at Kawah Putih, we took a small shuttle bus to the main site. Before going here I read some information on the internet and there were also some signs around the area, all saying the same thing. The smell of sulfer will be insufferable and you cannot stay near the lake for longer than 15 minutes, in case the heavy smell effects you. While we were driving in the area, I kept waiting for the smell to hit. When we were on a small hill near the lake, I carefully sniffed the air and when I was standing next to the lake, I was simply confused about what the fuss was about. There was no sulfer smell, whatsoever. It almost distracted me from the natural beauty, but then I came to a conclusion. Being a touristic site like this, I am guessing they don’t want people crowding the place. So, if everyone can only stay for 15 minutes, they will leave quickly and the amount of people at the scene of the beauty will be minimized. It is either that, or for some reason the smell was just absent for the day. There were people selling masks to cover your nose and mouth, and I politely declined. Doing so in Indonesian resulted in a few gasps of surprise, which is always good for some giggles. I still don’t really understand the use of these masks, especially in this situation. It does not keep out smell. And breathing in the sulfer never killed anyone… right?

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The entrance

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Even though people were around to take a picture of me, I could not help myself and took a selfie too.

After we walked around, took some pictures, watched a wedding couple get there pictures taken and sat around for half an hour because we did not need all of the allocated time, we continued our trip. The shuttle bus took us back, we had some lunch and waited for the bus to continue our journey. While I was sitting near the bus, some of the other participants of the trip turned out to speak English very well and struck up conversation. They had been to Amsterdam and they told me something about their trip to the Keukenhof, where I have never been myself. We discussed how strange it is that you don’t take the time to see the sights in your own country, but when you are abroad, you want to see everything. It strengthened my resolve to also start discovering more of The Netherlands. When I will be there for a longer time. In like, a year or so. So maybe it is more of a long term plan.

After Kawah Putih, we continued to another place called Situ Patenggan, a big lake. We needed to pay an extra entrance fee here, which turned out not so positive for me. First of all, it was a little strange for everyone that they had to pay an extra IDR 20.000, and that it was not included in the price for the organized trip. But my disadvantage was a bit bigger, because the price for foreigners was not IDR 20.000, but a whopping IDR 185.000. That set me back a bit, and when we got to the lake I was a tad disappointed. It was just a lake and really not that special after the amazing Kawah Putih. They wanted to go for a boat ride, but while we were walking that way, one of the locals started talking to me and telling me about a location nearby, where it was supposedly really special, called Kawah Rengganis. There were natural springs, and some of them were heated naturally up to 100 degrees Celsius. He showed me a few pictures, and though I was a bit hesitant, I really wanted to let him take me there. I was a bit worried about the price, but he told me the entrance fee was only IDR 30.000. Then I quickly discussed with my friend about what his fee would have to be, and he said I could give him whatever I wanted. My cash funds were running a little low, but I decided to go with him and see what I thought the private tour was worth.

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Still took the time to take a picture at the lake though

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So. I hopped on the back of his motorbike. This part was nothing new for me and even though maybe going off with a stranger should have caused some nervousness on my part, I was surprisingly calm. That is, until we hit the small mountain roads, varying from cobblestone roads to dirt-roads and there was a lot of wobbling involved. I told him ‘hati-hati’ (be careful) a few times, but he just smiled and gave a little more gas.

We arrived safe and sound, of course, and despite the nagging fear that took hold of me if I looked too closely at how close to the ledge we drove and how far we would fall were that that to happen, I took in the view and could only feel extremely satisfied that I took him up on his offer. We drove past some beautiful tea plantations and we hadn’t even arrived at our destination yet.

When we did, I finally got something I was waiting for all day. A sulfer smell. Now here was a place that is undiscovered by so many and there was nobody there, except for locals. It really gives you a kick when you go off the beaten path and see something new. There were a lot of different springs and the place was really humid. The fact that it started raining didn’t help, but also did nothing to spoil the adventure. Although, it did make walking a bit difficult. The guy hopped from stone to stone and was a few meters in front of me at all times. Sometimes he would wait and a couple of times he would just look back and laugh. Out loud. He grew up there, so of course he was used to the tricky paths, so I just smiled and told him I was nowhere near as fast as him. Although I am sure he already noticed and was thinking something along the lines of “really, Captain Obvious?”

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He’s bigger! Faster! And stronger too! 
He’s the first member of the DK crew!

Or at least that is what I was thinking when I saw this statue.

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We walked around a bit, took some pictures and I even put a bunch of mud on my arms en rinsed it with the water from the spring. I had a small conversation with a few local guys who were hanging out there and I could not help myself from wondering about how different their lives must be from mine. After a while we went back, because I could not be late for the bus that would continue on. The way back was even scarier, because instead of uphill, we went downhill and because of the rain, now the stones were wet and slippery. HATI freaking HATI.

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We made it down alive and he dropped me off at the place where we started, unharmed and a few experiences richer. I gave him IDR 50.000, which was all I could spare. I only had 14.000 rupiah left to get some dinner later on. I am still not sure if he was happy with the amount or not, but I guess that is his occupational hazard.

We were supposed to go strawberry picking afterwards, but because of the rain we all decided it would be better to head back to Jakarta. I really didn’t feel like I was missing out, because the strawberries here taste nothing like the strawberries in The Netherlands.

While driving to Jakarta, I looked back on a great day of exploring. And looking forward to many more.

Some things they don’t tell you about Indonesia

Before I got to Jakarta I did some research, because even though I like to just go somewhere without preparation, I also wanted to know what to expect of the next five months of my life.

So I googled, like any good college student learned how to do. I found a lot of different things that people either warn about or are very excited about. I will list some examples:

  • They tell you people will rip you off. And even though that may be true a little, everything is still so cheap that it doesn’t really matter. Let the nice man with a smile that charges you 30 cents above the rate for the locals have his extra money and eat for two days.
  • They warn you about the different toilets. You will do a lot of squatting and you better bring tissues with you everywhere! Well, this is probably true in the more rural part of Indonesia, but in Jakarta there are a lot of western toilets and a lot of times they even have toilet paper. However, the tip to keep tissues at hand all time should never be disregarded.
  • I’ve read about the friendly Indonesian people, but even though I was a little prepared, I never could have braced myself for the heartwarming smiles I receive everywhere and the offer to help me when I need it from everyone around. It is just something you have to experience, because even if I would tell you now, you would not be able to imagine it to the full extent.
  • A lot of sites mention that the food is so good, but because I mostly eat vegan, I was still a little worried about that. But now I found all the good dishes and there are a lot of vegan options here too.
  • Although, there are also a lot of warnings about the streetfood. It could make you sick and puking all day would seriously ruin your trip.
  • You learn online that a bule is something of an attraction here and so when walking around, you can feel like a famous person. Also, this is something you really need to experience to understand. It can make you really self-conscious, but no worries. Immunity will soon kick in. I guess they never heard of the resistance you can get to certain things when you get too much of it.

So with all this information, I was a little prepared. But here are some of my own findings, that I would not have expected here. Things that people don’t tell you about Indonesia.

  • There are ants everywhere. I was afraid to find a lot of gekko’s and/or cockroaches and even though I did also see some cockroaches, in the city there are no gekko’s (that I have seen). BUT: So. Many. Ants. Everywhere. So many.
  • People will call you mister, with no regard for your gender. In Indonesia people are very polite and they often use the words ibu (f) and bapak (m) to address each other. So I get that they want to address me as something in English too, but why they cannot learn to leave out the -ter for females is beyond me.
  • Indonesian people have magic. They can make things just appear out of thin air. In the food court, for example, you can ask for anything and they will get it for you. You don’t know where it comes from, you don’t know how it was prepared (if it is food). But it is just there. And when I needed a doctor to take a look at my foot, all of a sudden a medical care center magically appeared on the 27th floor of my office building, just by asking one of my colleagues.
  • You can get people to do anything if you give them some money. Sure, I heard about bribing being more common here, but it doesn’t just stop at bribes. In most western countries, if something isn’t part of the services a business offers, you cannot get it done. For example, if you want a hotel to do your laundry but they have no laundry service, you will just have to figure out how to do it somewhere else. But here, if they don’t offer it, you can just pay them a little extra and they will get it done. No questions asked.
  • You are not the only one who will have a culture shock when visiting Indonesia. Indonesian people will experience the same thing by talking to you. Telling them about daylight saving time blows their mind and they are very confused by the fact that in the summer, it is light out until late in the evening. Here, during the entire year the sun rises at 6AM and sets at 6PM.

At this moment I cannot think of any other things that really surprised me and I am a little bummed that my initial wonder for all things Indonesian faded. I walk around the streets that used to be so strange to me now and feel at home. A friend of mine told me to take many pictures in the first days here because after a while the things just wouldn’t seem special to me anymore and I am sorry to not have listened to her. But on the other hand, it makes me feel really comfortable to know that you can adjust to any place and make it feel like home.

All by myself

Let’s start this blog with a video of my recently discovered talent…

Dubsmash, of course.

I know the start of this blog may make you think I am feeling lonely, but don’t worry. I did that on purpose.

I have been AWOL and haven’t posted anything in a while (thank you, Facebook, for the constant reminder). Well, this is basically because there was nothing to tell. The last two weeks have been pretty uneventful. And the one event that caused the uneventfulness is that I slipped and fell in a pool (well, more like at the pool, not in the pool, that wouldn’t have resulted in the injury). I have a tiny fracture in my foot, which sounds cuter than it feels. It’s still healing and I cannot wait for it to be fully recovered.

Want to see a creepy x-ray of the bones in my foot? –> Click

I know you’re looking for the fracture, but don’t bother. It’s hardly visible on the real thing, let alone on the photo of the photo. Like I said… tiny.

Anyway, this resulted in me spending the whole weekend not doing anything (which had its own advantages, trust me). But as I was lying on my comfortable bed, I came to an important realization and on some level I guess I was always aware of this.

If you don’t take action, nothing will happen.

In the first few weeks that I was here, I met so many people, I saw so many things, but most importantly, I tasted so many great food (sorry, again with the food. I will dedicate an entire post to this soon, I promise). But these past two weeks, I hardly did anything. I was at home, not feeling so well and I let my foot get me down.

The big difference is my lack of initiative. Maybe I could have done some easy activities that didn’t require any walking, but I didn’t put in any effort to arrange this. I have spent a lot of time in my room. And don’t get me wrong, I am one of those people who is very comfortable just being on their own. I like me and I don’t mind spending time with me.

But being here in Jakarta and doing nothing… I just want to do stuff! I don’t even care what it is, I just want to get out and explore. I want to make memories and I want to experience anything and everything I can before I have to leave.

And that makes me wonder… Why don’t I live like this when I am at home (wherever that may be at this point). At home I used to love spending an evening at home and sometimes I could do absolutely nothing for a whole weekend (read: hang on the couch, watch tv shows, write and/or read). But here I feel like I need to live every moment to the fullest and right now I am hoping to take that mentality with me to… well, everywhere really.

So if you are one of those people who wait for the good things in life to come to you, just stop. Make it happen. Do it yourself! You cannot wait around for other people. If you want something, you have to make sure you get it.

And so when my foot is fully healed, I will. But in the meantime, nobody needs to walk much to go out to dinner and have some of that amazing food with some of the amazing people I have met so far, now do they?

Visiting an orphanage

As an airplane takes of from the nearby airport, the sounds of kids shouting fill my ears. I can only imagine what they must be thinking when they see a plane. Maybe of the exotic locations that fill their fantasies or maybe they just wonder where all these white people just came from. There is a whole world out there, and – at least for now – they won’t get to see it.

Yesterday I visited an orphanage in Jakarta, together with seven other Dutchies. So with all those strange people all up in their grill, it was no surprise that the children were a little shy in the beginning, staring and whispering, but not yet convinced they wanted to talk to us. I feared that maybe they just wouldn’t speak English, which is understandable.

I couldn’t have been more wrong. Some of the children I spoke to had a bigger English vocabulary than most adults I met on the streets of Jakarta. After they got used to the company, one by one they started coming up to us. The six puppies that were running around were a great conversation starter – not that the kids needed this. They asked so many questions and really wanted to know all about you. Even if they didn’t speak English well, they would run to someone who would and came back blurting out the question as soon as possible, before they would forget it again. I’m not sure if they understood the answer, but they never failed to smile whenever they nodded and said ‘yes’ – no matter the question.
During dinner we sang the cup song, and afterwards they played the Wilhelmus on a traditional instrument, which felt a bit surreal. The ambitions of these children are amazing. Their dreams are big and their dedication to these dreams is even bigger. Stewardess, architect, actor and even governor where some of the career choices that a couple of these kids where very deliberately working towards.

Let’s take a sidebar here for a second. Because hearing these kids having their life figured out like a roadmap, made me realize that they know what they want better than I do. At this point in my life, the only thing I know for sure is that I would really love to finish a story and publish a book someday, but that is not exactly a solid plan. I have no clue what I want to do after all the adventures that I have planned so far, and even though I’m trying to figure it out… I haven’t yet. And it bothers me. Because without a goal, there is no way to get to that goal in an efficient manner. And I’m a secret – not so secret – fan of efficiency.

After hearing all about their ambitions, hobbies and favorite animals, we ate the pancakes that we made for them. They loved it and decided to thank us with a song. They all wrote down our names to add us on Facebook and some wanted to take a picture with us, before it was time for us to go.

Doing an internship in a skyscraper while sleeping in my fancy boarding house – where they do my laundry, I might add – is nice and all. But these are the activities that make you see the real people, the culture and the daily life of Indonesia. Even though these children have so much less, they have the capability to be so much happier. It all comes down to appreciating the small things.
And even though I already was, a reminder like this never fails to make me grateful as well.