Chiwawines Travel: Our gateway to Asia

Antes de llegar a Indonesia, lo poco que sabía era de Bali (playas con muchos australianos en fiesta), Ubud (los campos de arroz), que en algunas zonas predomina la religión musulmana, y que era un país conformado por más de 17.000 islas y que hay aproximadamente 300 millones de habitantes. Es decir lo poco que puedes enterarte después de leer un par de blog en internet, haber visto la película y el libro: Eat, Pray and Love. Llegamos al aeropuerto, y la cantidad de gente impresionante, tanto turistas como locales, pasamos migración sin tanto trámite, y salimos a buscar al taxi que habíamos contratado, y nos sentíamos cual estrellas de Hollywood por la pasarela mientras todos los taxistas levantaban sus carteles cada vez que pasábamos gritando "Mister, mister, taxi?" El aeropuerto, es una construcción Hindu, esos pilares altos, los techos escalonados, estatuas Hindu y ofrendas de flores e inciensos.

I had never really thought about Indonesia before and it was not really on my mental roadmap. A few images of rolling surfing barrels, Orangutans, tigers and Komodo dragons, and of course the nasi goreng and then one in ten Australians with their " I love Bali-Bintang" t shirts. I had once invested in a JP Morgan Indonesia fund, but blindly trusting my broker's advice and without any significant knowledge about the country. Then, I found out Indonesia happens to stretch 5000 km along the equator and was in the middle between Australia and my mental roadmap. Between 13000 and 17000 islands depending if you count atolls and islands only visible during low tide. Almost, 300 million inhabitants, more than the US. Predominantly muslim, through Arab traders in the 13th century, but with important Hindu communities and centers and significant Christian and Catholic communities, some intertwined with animist remnants. Without a doubt, the most fascinating thing for me about Indonesia is its history of trade and the richness of the country, from its volcanic soils to the mineral deposits, from the precious wood to the vast and varied fisheries and from oil and gas to a unique combination of spices. I became fascinated with this country but the more I read and I spent time here, I became puzzled by this country. How can such a ethnic and religious diverse country with a tremendous geographic complexity exist? How will this vastly rich country manage its future, which in my eyes is a big challenge, demographic and environmental wise? Every day I would laugh and be sad with what I saw, every day I would be thoughtfull to try and make sense of it, but finally take it as it is in this, archipelago richer in juxtaposes than in islands.

Ubud, callecitas angostas, gente por todos lados, motos, autos, cantos de gallos en la mañana, ofrendas por todo lado en las calles, todas las calles con olor a incienso. Bali, es una de las islas en las que predomina la religión Hindu, y como costumbre tienen el venerar a sus dioses con ofrendas. Es un ritual que hacen todos los días, para agradecer a los dioses y complacer a los demonios y así no les pase nada malo. Ponen unas canastillas de hoja de plátano y en su interior flores de colores, dulces, incienso, arroz, mientras hacen una oración encienden el incienso y vierten unas gotas de agua sobre la canastilla. La gente es bastante amable y amigable en Ubud, todos te ven pasar y te sonríen, luego las típicas preguntas que TODOS te hacen: Hello, where are you from?, Where are you going?

Our first destination was Ubud on Bali, which is the cultural capital of Bali made famous in the movie Eat, Pray and Love. I must say that I suffered, not a severe, but still a tangible culture shock due to the combination of all the new things and being caught immediately in the tourist circuit. The Monkey Forest, a complex of Hindu temples with over 300, initially unreliable monkeys, but who in my opinion, due to the amount of tourists and idiots feeding them and taking pictures, became nasty, mean, aggressive creatures. Considering a big rabies outbreak in Bali in 2008 and monkeys being a potential carrier of the virus, the combination of the 300 monkeys and at least a 1000 of their evolutionary successors, distinctive in their physical appearance but not so much in their behavior, seemed a bit risky combination. I enjoyed the different Hindu architecture full of details and meticulously finished, but wasn't really at ease with all the cheeky bastards around checking out bags and pockets. Finally, the complex spit us out on a 35C street without footpaths with swarms of motor cycles passing by and honking horns. After walking a bit we dodged in a side street to get some oxygen, being assaulted by vendors of the "I love Bali Bintang" shirts, impregnating benzoin laden incense and wooden penis handled bottle openers. Finally, we got in a quiet riverside restaurant where they served the babi guleng, roasted piglet (on Hindu Bali) with ice cold beer called "Bintang" or in Latin "Stella".

En Ubud, visitamos el Temple Monkey. Es una reserva donde hay varios templos estilo Hindu, mucha vegetación, un cementerio y más de 300 monos que están sueltos paseándose por todo el santuario. Dentro del parque, te venden plátanos para que puedas alimentar a los monos, pero nosotros preferimos mantenernos alejados y no acercarnos mucho a los monos, ya que vimos cuando otros turistas emocionados compraban sus plátanos... inmediatamente los monos se les tiraban encima trepándose hasta en la cabeza y arrancándoles los plátanos y otras pertenencias. Para los Hindu, el mono es una animal sagrado, ya que significa protección divina y fuerza, por lo que en todo el parque habían guardias de seguridad observándote de que no te acercaras mucho a estos amigos juguetones. A pesar de que te advertían con carteles: No asustar a los monos, no correr, no intentar tocar a los monos, tener cuidado con las pertenencias, más de una vez escuchamos gritos de turistas aterrorizados cuando el moño se les trepaba o los perseguían después de ofrecerles un plátano o algo de comida.

What did surprise me in the Bali tourist centers, was how religious practices and ceremonies are not a tourist facade, but an important share of daily life. Statues to protect houses and temples, offerings everywhere and for everything, religious ceremonies in the temples. The size and frequency of the offerings depend on the occasion and place, for example once a day in a family house or business or in a cab to avoid accidents, maybe once every month for a dangerous spot on the road or a lunar calendar associated event, and then once every few months for bigger events, involving more people and bigger offerings. After our dinner we fell into conversation with the restaurant owner and fired all our questions. We found out that they spend around 15000 rupiah a day on the daily offerings, 1.2 USD in a country where many people live below the world poverty standards of 2 USD a day. The restaurant owner considered this a heavy economical burden but it is what the gods demand and it will bring them good fortune. It also confirmed what I would later read, that a lot of the religious practices are mainly for personal gratification or of the family and less socially engaging. Comply and you will be rewarded.

Bali también es conocido por sus terrazas de arroz, por lo que decidimos salir un día a caminar por las afueras de Ubud, introducirnos a zonas donde ya no estaba colapsado de turistas, y eran solo los locales los que predominaban. Nos vimos rodeados de esos campos de arroz extensos, la gente local trabajando en ellos, era terraza tras terraza de arroz. Paramos a almorzar algo en un puestito local, donde la señora que nos atendió y nos sirvió unos riquísimos noodles fritos con pollo y verduras, también nos enseñó nuestra primera palabra en Bahasa (idioma oficial en Indonesia): Terima Kasih que significa "Gracias". Ubud me encantó, la gente, el ambiente místico, sus callecitas, estatuas de sus dioses por todos lados, un Ganesha en la entrada de cada casa, el arte, la cultura que está presente en cada rincón (una noche asistimos a un teatro a donde apreciamos distintos bailes típicos de Bali) la comida (en especial esa comida que consigues en los Warun, que son pequeños restaurantes o picadas, donde comen los locales ...comida deliciosa y a un precio ridículo (menos de 3 dólares por plato).

The next days we ventured out in the Ubud outskirts for rice terrace views. The amazing thing about these hundreds of years old rice terraces is the agricultural technology that has been developed to be able to cultivate on steep hills, to counter soil erosion and to increase crop yield, sometimes 3 crops of rice a year, maintained due to extensive irrigation. More amazing still is the irrigation management of these fields, through canals, but obviously, the lower on the hill the higher the risk of not receiving water as your upper neighbors have used all. This testifies of an important and solid social structure on village community level to manage this system for hundreds of years. Remembering the endless fights and struggles, one of my Chilean friends had in his neighborhood, to manage canal irrigation from the mountains throughout the property, I would love to sit in a community meeting and witness how this is addressed. The other noteworthy thing about the rice fields is that they are full of ducks, and one of them, including feet, nails and head was being prepared by Ibu Run to end up on our dinner table, roasted in a delicious spicy cover.

Salimos de Ubud, con destino a Padang Bai desde donde tomaríamos el bote que nos llevaría como destino final a la tan famosa Gili Air. En Padang Bai, experimentamos por primera vez ese acoso de los locales que te ofrecen taxi, hospedaje, Ferry, tour, comida, todos quieren llevarte algún lado, todos te siguen, lo mejor es responder "No Thank you" y caminar lo más rápido posible hasta escaparte. Aquí alquilamos un scooter y fuimos hacia Kun Klung, donde visitamos el antiguo palacio de los reyes de Bali. Por la noche regresamos a Padang Bay y fuimos a cenar a otro Warun, donde mantuvimos una larga y amena conversación con el dueño del local, se llamaba Ketut y nos explicó lo siguiente: "En Bali existen 4 primeros nombres que puedes poner a tus hijos y estos se ponen según el orden cronológico: El 1ro se llamará Wayan, el 2do Made, el 3ro Nyoman y el 4to Ketut, por ejemplo Johan como fue el primer hijo, en Bali se llamaría Wayan Johan, siempre son dos nombres, pero el primero será un nombre fijo que corresponderá a tu orden de nacimiento. Esta es una tradición que lleva años y les sirve para saber el lugar que ocupa cada persona en el Clan.

From Ubud we travelled to Gili Air, an island in front of the Lombok coast, ranking highly in the tourist trail, I was a bit in a bad mood after being hassled for taxis and boats, being overcharged and on a ferry full of overly excited tourists and where the local boat personal threw of the deeply rooted Balinese calm and politeness to put on shiny sunnies, show off piercings and tattoos, bouncing on loud music. I could have been on a rafting trip in South America or a bungee jump in New Zealand, but the style is the same. I felt trapped in a tourist circuit while I had imagined being surrounded by plantations of the Indonesian spices crammed in a bus with 10 locals and 20 chickens. Arriving at Gili, settled in the guest house and on a white sand beach I started to relax a bit and considered that 1) I will not stop being a tourist as long as I carry my back pack through Asia and further, a little tourist will always remain in and around us wether we want or not 2) my chicken buses would come (I proved to be right) and 3) being there I better enjoy what I am living, and so I indulged in the island life.

Salimos de Padang Bay hacia Gili Air en un fast boat, que nos tomó como 3 horas, el cual en determinado momento fue intersectado por la policía marítima, nos hicieron parar el bote en medio de alta mar, nos empezaron a sacar fotos a los pasajeros... Pensé: Oh no, ahora que pasó... Estaremos en algo ilegal? Nos van a arrestar a todos o que? Al final nos dejaron continuar, solo estaban haciendo un control para verificar que no hayan sobrevendido asientos y no haya ningún pasajero parado. Llegamos a Gili Air, la isla más tranquila de las 3 Gili, la isla a donde van familias y parejas que quieren relajarse y estar un poco alejados de la fiesta y bulla que encuentras en Gili T. Aun así, encontré que Gili estaba bastante desarrollado y explotado. Pasamos tres dias relajados, descansando, caminando alrededor de la isla, leyendo bajo la sombra, degustando toda la comida Indonesa, pero la playa no era la mejor para nadar, ni tan paradisiaca como lo habia imaginado, había muchísimo coral muerto en la orilla, por lo que te dificultaba ingresar al mar y nadar tranquilo.

On the boat to Gili, I saw a vaguely familiar face, then by accident I saw a KBC bank card and when I heard some Tervuurs slipping through the English, I was pretty sure. And there again where tiny tiny dots moving in apparently random lines on the globe, sometimes 2 of these dots cross, and here I was on the boat with Sander, best friend of one of my flat mates in Lerkeveld in Leuven and brother from a university friend. We decided on a beer and dinner on the beach that same night and had a good night out.

Lo que estuvo bueno fue un tour de Snorkeling que tomamos, en realidad nos sumamos a un tour en el que estaba metida nuestra vecina en el hospedaje, Susan..una holandesa muy simpática con la que conversábamos todas las mañanas mientras tomábamos desayuno, y nos invitó a compartir con ellos el bote que habían alquilado para ir de Snorkeling a 3 lugares distintos. Lo pasamos increíble, me di cuenta de lo mucho que disfruto del Snorkeling, poder ver todo ese mundo que existe bajo el agua, es increíble. Nadamos con tortugas, vimos un poco de coral aún vivo, y muchos peces de colores. Y así se pasó la primera semana en Indonesia, tuvimos un poco de cultura, playa y nos preparamos para nuestro siguiente destino, la Isla Lombok donde subiríamos el Volcán Rinjani.

I enjoyed the beach, the reading, the cold beers and the Indonesian food spiced up with the sound of the ocean breeze. We also had a beautiful snorkeling tour with without the doubt, sea turtles being the highlight. The visited spots were beautiful but seemed to be rare as all the spots, snorkeling from the beach, had dead coral. The coral is destroyed by pollution and until recently fishing practices such as the use of explosives and of cyanide to stun the fishes, clearly damaging coral. As mentioned before, one second you would smile seeing a turtle nibbling on sea grass, while the next moment you would virtually be crying (hard in a diving mask though) swimming through a graveyard of death coral, which I can best describe as the elephant cemetery of the lion king but under water, a sense of death, destruction and gloomy. Hopefully, and apparently, tourism has brought the conscience that the coral is a precious resource and that a few years of protection will restore this beautiful marine jungles. After 3 days beach and sun and water we, or should I say I, was getting restless, and with the 3700m high Rinjani volcano towering above us on Lombok during the sunrise we decided to tackle this sleeping giant.....