My dad came to visit me last month, and it was a
delight and a pleasure to have him around. Before his arrival, I was nervous
about how we would both react to being in such close quarters for such a long
time (over a month of sleeping in the same room, eating together, making
decisions together, etc), but everything worked out more than alright—we
adjusted quickly and easily to each other’s company, and ended up having an
exceptionally good time throughout our travels. My dad spent some time in Ubon,
and while he was here we took a weekend trip to Pakse, Laos, during which we
got a feel of the small city and also went to Wat Phu and Tadlo waterfall. Our
big adventure, though, was our two-and-a-half-week trip to Indonesia.
Although two and a half weeks is not really much time, my
dad and I were able to see a wide variety of things and places. Before
arriving, we had an idea of what we wanted to do, but throughout our trip we
flew by the seat of our pants, deciding each day what to do the next. This
worked splendidly! Here’s a quick rundown of our itinerary:
- Arrived
in Jakarta via plane, but only spent the night (in a super creepy hotel)
- Hopped
on a train the next day, going about halfway across Java to Yogyakarta—awesome
train ride, and awesome city! Saw Prambanan Hindu Temple, Borobudur Buddhist
Temple, some lively street performers, and cool sights around the city
- Took
a three-day trip across the rest of Java, stopping at the volcanoes Bromo and
Ijen, and getting QUITE jostled about during some very bumpy van rides along
the way
- Took
a mixture of ferry, bus, and taxi to Ubud on Bali. Saw the Sacred Monkey
Forest, traditional Balinese dancing, and some gorgeous rice fields.
- Took
taxi to Padangbai, on the eastern tip of Bali, and prepared for a relaxing end
to our trip—the beach!
- Took
the fastboat to Gili Air—an island off of Lombok. PARADISE. Spent 5 days in
paradise. (NB: Planning on moving to paradise someday.)
- Spent
our last night back in Bali in Kuta. Compared to paradise, awful. A shocking
stir back to reality, but interesting nonetheless.
I could write at length about any of the many experiences I
had, but instead I will focus on one aspect of the trip that I enjoyed more
than any other: my interactions with people. The places and things I saw were
incredible, but it was the people with
whom I interacted who really made the trip for me. From stall owners to taxi
drivers to hotel workers, the people of Indonesia were, in my experience,
extremely helpful, friendly, and outgoing.
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| Three of the men who worked at our bungalows |
By far my favorite group of people was the group of young
men who worked at the bungalows that my dad and I stayed at on Gili Air. We
stayed on the island for 5 nights, so we came to know this group a little bit
beyond the 2-minute paying-the-bill conversation. I wont try to reproduce what
little I learned of their lives here, but rather to convey the joy I took from
getting to know a group of people as themselves and what their lives were like,
and not just as a few more faces in the sea that one wades through while
traveling.
We grew to be on such friendly terms with the owner of the
bungalows that he actually took us to his niece’s wedding. It was an unexpected
treat to see a Muslim wedding, and then to enjoy some roasted chicken back at
the bungalow owner’s house later that night. Of course, the wine was eventually
brought out, along with mango for dessert (the bungalow staff quickly learned
that this is my all-time favorite thing haha), and then some easy guitar
strumming and singing among friends and family on his airy second-floor deck
until late into the night.
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| The local fare--fish and tempe in sambal, rice, veggies, and of course, freshly-picked mango! |
Along with the owner of the bungalows, the staff was equally
as friendly and open. They gave us unsolicited drinks on-the-house at dinner;
invited me behind the bar to teach them how to mix a new drink or two (tequila
sunrise, anyone?); readily offered a taste and even a whole plate of what they were eating for breakfast or lunch, as opposed to
the tourist fare (I loved getting a taste of what the
locals ate—fresh fish and friend tempe coated in a delicious, spicy sambal sauce, with rice and
veggies on the side); invited us out back to try
snacks they were munching on from the market in town; took us to the mango orchard
a few times to try our hand at climbing trees and picking fruit (mango,
coconut, rose apple); and readily sat down in their free time to play a few
hands of cards, both American- and Indonesian-style. Their
hospitality,
friendliness, and familiness were striking,
and more than I could have hoped for.
 |
| Dad getting a quick haircut (after a bit of an ordeal of trying to find a pair of scissors) |
This experience made me contemplate my goals over here on
the other side of the world. One of my ultimate goals is to experience other
cultures. My initial assertion was that in order to truly experience another
culture, one must live in it and not
simply travel through it; this is
why I came to Southeast Asia as a teacher and not as a tourist—so I could take
a peek at the iceberg from below the water’s surface. So far, I’ve found my
assertion to be true. Case-in-point: our 5-day stay at Gili Air. This was
roughly a third of our trip that we spent in once place, saying good morning
and goodnight to the same people every day. Even in this short span, I came to
know these people better than anyone else on our trip, and in a very positive
way.
Getting to know the people surrounding oneself as
individuals, and not simply faces or services, truly heightens and broadens an
experience. There is no higher or broader an experience can get than life lived
for an extended period of time in one place. Only in this way does one come
to know their surroundings and the characters of the people around them. If
you’ve spoken to me in the past six months, this goes without saying, but I’m so
happy that I came to
live in Thailand, and I’m not planning on returning to the US anytime soon. Of
course there are good times as well as bad, but all-in-all I love what my life has become—a non-stop “experience” of the highest and broadest kind. And,
I suppose and hope, it will only continue to grow.
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| Sunrise in front of our bungalows. Did I mention this place is paradise? |
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