Indonesia Part 2: The car, more than just transportation.

With high speed, I rumbled through Indonesia by train, boat and hitchhiking. The good diving conditions in Lampung gave my sex appeal a boost with my attractive flippers and goggles, I witnessed the evening prayer of the Muslims, I fought the bustle of Jakarta with a private driver, but underwent acupuncture treatment against the traffic stress, which I spontaneously got diarrhea. I met someone who had experienced how powerful the tsunami in Aceh, 2004 was and the damage it inflicted and saw how grateful he was that he had survived the disaster.

Lampung: 22.06.15 to 23.06.15

My trip through Sumatra, I ended up with a visit to Lampung, the easternmost town of the largest island of Indonesia. In a shopping mall I met Gita, a studious Chinese girl who wanted to improve her English by talking to me. She showed me her university, where students dropped the book from their hands, dropped their jaw and after realizing what happened they picked their phone and massively tried to take a picture with me. Gita was down-to-earth and seemed innocent, but deep down she had a strong mind that yearned for an adventure; travel and study abroad. I hoped that her desire for an adventure was stronger than the things that prevent her from this.  

At an English school I met Intan, a girl who passionate English teacher. Although the students had holidays, Intan had to go to university every day, which was pretty meaningless, because there was little to do.

Along with Intan and her friend we were picked up by Leo. Leo took us to a house where we dined with the whole group of friends. Because I was new and the only non-Muslim, they wanted to show me how was done the evening prayer. For praying, I had to wash my hands, feet and face so I was clean before I worship Allah. After washing, you should not touch anyone before praying.

One of the men took the role of priest and told us a story from the Koran. In between, the story was interrupted several times to pray, kneeling with my forehead hitting the ground and saying ''Allahu Akbar", what means ‘’God is the greatest’’. That I could witness the evening prayer showed me that the Islamic religion is very open to non-Muslims.

One of the boys was not entirely convinced of his faith. He doubted the rightness of the Koran and therefore felt not strong enough to follow the principles. He was the only one of his group of friends who did not join the Ramadan. He said I was lucky to be raised as an atheist because I was free to choose a religion. He had received his faith imposed from his parents and he would hurt his parents if he would not live according to this belief.

This guy was looking for his own direction within a faith without influences from his environment. In its surroundings, his friends and family thought he showed crazy behavior. I found it very logical that someone was developing his own vision and ideas and was searching for his belief. If this guy follows his heart, he will find a faith which he is loyal and fully confident too. In reality his environment is forcing him to take a certain belief what sooner or later will lead to major disagreements.

The next day I went snorkeling with Intan and a few friends. They knew exactly where we were going, so I had an easy day. I just had to follow. With a captain and a rickety, local boat we passed several islands. The water was shallow, so I could see sea urchins, sea horses and many colorful fish. Just when I was swimming in a deep part of the sea my snorkel slipped out of my hands. Soon it was 10 meters deep on the bottom sea and no one could bring it back. I had already resigned to the fee for the snorkel when the captain suddenly began to undress. What was impossible for us seemed to be a piece of cake for him. In fifteen seconds he dived to the bottom of the sea and returned with the snorkel. This guy had more diving skills than we all together had.

I slept at Leo and his family’s home, one of the nicest families that I've come across. The mother was afraid that I would suffer from hunger and served me the whole buffet, father enjoyed how his family was reacting on me, the eldest sister was passionately telling me about her successful company with which she imported and sold sustainable products, the other sister was a fantastic cook and very attentive and the youngest brother was a big badminton talent. Leo himself was very charming and walked around all day with a smile on his face. Everyone in this family developed their own talents under the protective wings of two amazing parents.

To illustrate the generosity; when I told about my hitchhiking trip adventure the family found it, like most other local people, very insecure what I did. But this family was decisive and paid a bus ticket to Jakarta for me. Not that I was looking for that, I wanted to hitchhike, but it was the only way to ensure that I was going to hitchhike.

Jakarta: 24.06.15 to 26.06.15

Sumatra, an island with 50 million inhabitants and the sixth largest island in the world, has two single lane highways. Trucks transporting goods on these roads, public transport runs on these roads and people use these roads to meet friends or family in another city. An accident or a hole in the road, what frequently happens on the poorly maintained roads means that the traffic is delayed till the road is fixed, which can take a day. Because of these huge delays, fresh products get spoilt and people can not be there where they needed to be. The bad roads where many people are dependent on are a major constraint for the population. People have to spend a lot of time in the car, truck or buses, so often it is also a meeting place, workplace or place to sleep.

Also in Jakarta, Java the road network is too small for the millions of cars that use it. At 5 o'clock in the morning I arrived in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia with 20 million inhabitants without an underground network or extensive rail transport, and I had the road for myself. Three hours later you had to share the road with two million other cars. You simply can not build enough roads for two million cars in a city centre. The result is that 500 meters in the peak hours takes 30 minutes and crossing Jakarta takes a whole afternoon. Many people work at home or use the cab as their office building.

For example Alfard, he was a sales manager and mostly working in a cab or a restaurant.  He did not have any pressure, because the next three months the hotel that he was working for was already fully booked. Hence Alfard had time to speak with me during working hours. He told me about his father who died of a heart attack in his presence. I was expecting an emotional story, but Alfard told this story like he was presenting the news. Perhaps he had processed it, though I often notice that Asian people do not show emotions easily.

I had the pleasure to meet a special guy in Jakarta. His name was Roy and at first glance he seemed an ordinary boy. Until he gave me goose bumps with the following story;

In 2004 Aceh, a city in western Sumatra, got hit by a tsunami that killed 100.000 people. One of the biggest environmental disasters of all time, which I could not imagine how powerful the wave was. Roy does, because on the day of the disaster, the then 16-year-old Roy was in Aceh with his brother, in a complex near the coast. A few minutes before the tsunami would reach the shore people knew that the mega wave was coming. People were panicking and 95% of the people in the apartment ran to the left, Roy and his brother ran the other way and could leave the apartment before the tsunami hit the coast.

Roy and his brother ran as fast as possible, but the wave was faster than their two feet. Miraculously, both survived the blow of the water and had no serious injuries. But they were definitely not safe yet.

Roy his brother was in the army, had a good shape and could swim. Roy was a puny male and had never swum. The water was devastating; miraculously Roy learned instinctively a way to stay afloat. He let himself drift with the water and saw several dead bodies floating and worse; people who were (heavily) injured, but which he could not help. After two kilometers Roy was exhausted and told his brother that he should only continue swimming. But at that moment Roy saw something that would save his life; a jerry can where he and his brother were able to cling to. They drift further and could come ashore somewhere. Here were families, elderly and injured people, but nobody was able to help them. People were not able to help each other and the emergency help was not arrived yet. Roy and his brother had to wait till the water level dropped. Meanwhile, many people succumbed to their injuries or lack of water. People that spoke to Roy in the evening past away in the morning and they knew that.

After two days on the land, the water level dropped enough and Roy and his brother walked through the water to the nearest town. They were weak, but still healthy. Roy and his brother had some money, but no one wanted to sell them food or water. Therefore they still had to walk a long distance, before they finally were able to buy water and found a phone to let their families know they had survived the disaster.

As a 16 year old boy Roy looked death in the eye and he saw other people die. This gave him a trauma that he never can leave behind. Imagine that there are 237,000 people who probably have suffered much more pain than Roy and died in a heartbreaking way, and in many cases they left family members behind. I learned from Roy that it is good to appreciate what you've got. If you would like to read more about Roy’s life you can read his blog; http://royjp.blogspot.com/2015/08/a-piece-of-my-sweet-and-bitter-life.html

In Jakarta, I was driven around for a day by a private chauffeur. Bella, a wealthy entrepreneur who had a personal driver as she was too tired to drive by herself  The driver took us to Monas: a museum which accurately described the history of Indonesia till the Dutch invaded the country. From that time until the beginning of the way to independence the museum is not mentioning anything about the history.

Apparently it is too painful for the current population to be reading how the Dutch have abused their grandparents. Many Indonesian people think that we have brought much prosperity to the country, without knowing the other side of the dominance of the Dutch.

Bella told me about an acupuncture treatment she regularly underwent. She believed that acupuncture had powers that medicines don’t have. People who were sitting in a wheelchair could walk again and people with chronic illnesses appeared to notice improvement by this treatment with needles. I was interested and wanted to try such treatment.

I told the doctor I wanted a basic treatment, because I did not have health problems. The doctor told me about his family in the Netherlands and he seemed to be fully focused on that. Meanwhile, he pressed a few spots in my hand and it looked like he was just doing something. Until he stopped talking and told me that I had a weak stomach. I did not believe him at first and was skeptical about the treatment. The doctor taught me an exercise to make my stomach stronger and I still thought it was a charade. Until I spent that same night on the toilet and I had to give the doctor right.