bye (for now) Indonesia...

Surprisingly odd, I am starting to write this post using the on board wifi of the scruffy public Damri airport bus.
It's 3:30 am and after some rooftop bars and a straggly taxi ride (the old driver would change from the first to the fourth gear in less than 200 metres!! hiccuping the vehicle, seriously, in the middle of the road, just the road where half naked girls where waiting for some people or if you want clients!!!).
He managed to get me to the Jakarta's Gambir Sentral Statiun from where I am heading to a early morning flight to Kuala Lumpur..
I am leaving Indonesia tired and looking forward to resting little bit; I have encountered a very culturally rich and intense country that gave me a little bit of India, of China and of Africa too!!...leaving the comparisons aside a smiley, gentle and warm country has helped me to get to some interesting corners of my personality...
That's what I am here for, I am traveling also but mainly for the sake to get to know myself better, to see which sides of myself are still unknown to myself and meet them and get to become more conscious of my choices and behaviours..
Two weeks have been shamelessly little and not enough for the beauty and the variety that the archipelago has to offer but I guess you cannot have it all and we all have to go down to compromise in some ways in life, don't we?
I have come across a country with issues and quirks with animals, see the photos below...

  

looking after their cats....

still wondering myself.....or better WTF!

this street side "cobra shop" guy promised me better stamina if I would drink the snake's blood!

there is a serious passion for putting birds in cages, this at Yogyakarta's Pasty (bird market)

A hot and humid country in the middle of their rainy season, where A/C at 28 degrees would already be fresh air and not even a simple rain fall has happened where I was (in the other part of the country thought they did actually get heavy flooding!!!)

I ended up finishing this post in the airport by the way, the bus ride was suprisingly (odd) quick.....

view from the 56th floor rooftop bar in Menara BCA,Jakarta

crosscutting Java

Mister, excuse me Mister..my friend wants picture with you...a veiled girl asked me... young Indonesians are curious and forward when they see westerners and they love to get your face on their smartphone...even if maybe the only english words they can say are those, they are very smiley and mannered...
As the biggest muslim country in the world, and one of the few, if not the only one, where the cigarettes smoking habit is increasing instead of falling I have come across a positively interesting country so far.
I arrived in Jakarta at 5:40 this morning, after a strenuous and dodgy night shuttle bus journey....
I have been traveling extremely fast and intensevely in the last week and obviously I have been paying the price physically and emotionally...when tired many things look different and you tend to think of the people you love most especially when you see that your driver's neck is not able to stand tall and he is falling asleep, luckily the road pavement was so messed up that every now and then a hole would wake him up...
At one particular moment around 2:40 I was there behind him (mentally driving myself) ready to shout if needed, but then I gave up....for the two local ladies in the van I guess everything was just normal: the jumping up and down, the crazy overtakings and the driver shouting at the phone while driving in the middle of the night!!
I always like to alternate in my traveling adrenaline and logic, jumping on and off the tourist path, not suffering much of FOMO (fear of missing out!) and improving slightly on my YOLO (you only live once!) attitude.
in the last 96 hours I guess I have squeezed everything in, 1500 km on the road crossing the big Java island using train, mini vans, "bemos" (small vans or mini trucks used by locals to move around), and even a scooter to cross on the other side of Mount Bromo instead of going back the same way through Probolinggo.

alarm at 3, hike up Penanjakan at 2700m for sunrise

lunar landscape: scooter riding inside the Tengger Caldera, surrounded by five (four of which active!!) volcanoes, to reach the city of Malang.

soon out of the national park another amazing view, very spectacular 

(it reminded me of the Ecuador/Colombia border crossing)

train rules: I had to leave my chicken behind!! Durian (a seriously smelly fruit) is forbidden too on board!

the dark side of Bali.....continued

......I am alive and nobody injured me, even though I had to spend a full evening and night dealing with the guy that was still trying to get some extra money back out of me if I wanted to dive the day after...
He suggested me to pay for my own room and I would have been allowed on the diving trip and boat no problem, but I just knew inside myself that it wouldn't have ever happened...
The guy kept punching walls and anything around him as I explained him to realise that their scam had been trumped by mine and that's the way it is...I am glad I am little yogi lately handling these issues....I was still waited till the morning and threatened by a "I wanna fight with an Italian, I never fight an Italian, I am not scared of Mafia!!!"
I realised that I have been carrying some negative energies around me (even today) and that is clashing with some Indonesians pride finding somebody smart on their way...and by the way also today I had somebody telling me out of the moon (arranging a shuttle bus) "you want to sort it one to one??" showing me his fists...
In any case the dive was quite good and calmed me down enough even though the boat was small and unsafe for the 13 people of us....unsafer than the black fin shark encountered in the second dive..
A straightforward and cheap ferry crossed us from Gilimanuk (Bali) to Banyuwangi (Java) from where a convenient and surprisingly organised train took us to Probolinggo, starting point of trips to Mount Bromo..that I am planning to picture tomorrow at sunrise!!!
Few curious experiences happened today: the realisation of bed bugs in my bed or better spots of blood allover the bed sheets but not bites on my body!!!!I have actually had a super resting night sleep.....also a very strange offer from the juice shop man that after asking me if I was married offered me his 17 years old daughter.....he needed to get rid of one of his 8 kids!!!!!
Funny also that the dragon fruit and mango juice that I orderered from him had pieces of styrofoam blended in, when I made him notice it he smiling showed me the cover of the container where he kept the ice and that the pieces must have fallen into, but that everything is ok!!!!

view from the village of Cemoro Lewang where I find myself now!!!

the dark side of Bali....

the life's pendolum never fails!!!the more you love something (or somebody) the more you will suffer....that's why just when I was having smooth time in Bali and getting some great energies back from Indonesia it arrived the swing back....
I left Ubud direction north side of the island, just to get the transport to the west side of Bali to jump on the ferry to Java...that was the plan until I stepped down the shuttle service to Lovina (a small black sand beach village) and joined a Scottish traveller also solo, but that's when the swirl of emotions started....
a charming, loquacious and smiley young man approached us offering accomodation that would have costed us cheaper if shared in one of the very comfortable hotels in town that provide swimming pool and basic comforts...checked in but ended up bargaining for a diving trip from 150 euros to 100, even if I hadn't thought about any underwater thing at all!! the trip would have included the room cost (a mere 150000 IDR- 10 euros), meals, transportation and kinda fitted somehow in our confused mind as next step of our trip.Very naively I was dazed by him....
Our distracted look at references on the internet didn't inform us of the scam or better mess we would have ended up in...proudly I thought that we had got a fair deal, but after few hours we discovered that the guy had lied all the way and that a fair price would have been 60/70 euros!!
I had to switch on my best drama skills and run to the dive shop and made up a stand up comedy where I was selling him that I had to turn back the dive as some "big problem in Italy, tomorrow morning fly home!"he knew he had cheated and he was not gonna get back us the money as he was supported by more than one partner in crimes from the receptionist of the hotel to the complaint secretary of the dive shop and from a very loyal right hand man...
My hour persuading him to give me some money back cause of the "big problem" ended when he handled me one fourth of the money back cash pretending to change the receipt to one person instead of two...but that's when I kept money and receipt and accused him of unfair behaviour...
That was though when their anger erupted nearly physically on me, one of them left with a very aggressive "up yours" (in italian we call it "the gesture of the umbrella") threatening me to karate me down and not to take me on the boat, but I had scammed him back and they didn't want to accept it...I paid them with the same currency and they couldn't stand it!!!!
Heavy intimidation and stalking had just started....the pendolum was swinging rapidly on the negativity side......and no dive for the day after was confirmed by the secretary......panic..ahaha

To be continued...

PS: we arrived on Java island and we are in Banyuwangi where there is only one wi-fi place in town and my battery is low on netbook and my smartphone's screen broke (it seems like I'll have a weight less and maybe a backfire with my old fashioned ones...).

Bali street food (and flowers..)

amongst my top (best) things I enjoy doing while traveling is making my hands dirty trying the street food...here is some from Bali:

This sounds very African dish but the Indonesian name is Gado Gado and this is a variation with rice.
the brown plate is were actually the lady has just finished the sauce grinding peanuts with some soy sauce, water and palm sugar (note the three plastic water bottles with holes in the lid) and chilli and garlic.
the fried tofu, some beansprouts and the rice (already made sushi style in the plastic bags for easy cutting..) are then added and served in a cone shaped piece of something like bread paper.
Gado Gado can be found served also with tempeh, green long beans, potato and eggs...cost 5000 IDR (35 eurocents!)

This lady is the simple street version of a Patisserie made in Bali and the most traditional one amongst her sweets is what they call "sticky rice" for us (tourists!!!) to understand, it is basically a glutinous roll of rice filled with either shredded coconut, palm sugar sweetened red beans or sweet black rice.
it's actually very spread out in South East Asia as I remember trying something similar when I was in China...I guess there must be a name for the Indonesian version...
I tried the one (roll shaped bottom right with the black stripe) cost 1000 IDR (7 eurocents!!)

This morning this smiley englishless lady on the side of the street, nearby the Monkey Forest in Ubud and surrounded by Western bars and restaurants, invited me to try what she was preparing and she actually served me one of the tastiest breakfast I have ever tried!!
the making is very straightforward as she just put on the paper sweet black rice, two different balls: a glutinous sweet potato one in palm sugar Biji Salak (see the bowl with the green scoop) and a green one prepared with pandan extract that is stuffed with liquid palm sugar Keplon (see next to the blue stapler that she uses to "seal" everything up at the end) and everything topped with shredded coconut and some more palm sugar....I loved it....cost 5000 IDR (35 eurocents), but I guess it was because of the location!!!

reuse of a Corona bottle for a local, very sweet, ginger (temulawak) soft drink!

One of the most common colourful activity around Bali (and Hindu temples all-over the world) is the practice to give flowers (and food and/or fake money) as offerings to the gods...that's what this lady caters for....

One life is not enough!!!!!

I ended up in a brand new, yet empty Korean run hostel in Ubud, maybe intentionally (I haven't really had time for myself since I arrived in Indonesia!!!), and my roommate and only guest with me is also Korean!!! his name is Pierpan, or at least that's what I understood when he introduced himself and that's how I am gonna call him!!!.....unless I decide to add a "t" and take some little piss of him...
Ubud presents itself as the cultural capital of Bali, and it feels good at first sight, traffic was very bad to get in yes, the sewage is covered up with unstable squared bricks, cute geckos of course everywhere, holes in the ground in unlit side streets making it very dangerous, and the offerings to the gods allover the place adding themselves to the street rubbish, but the many westerns around added the glitz (I have just learned this word today!!!) to the spirituality of the locals...I have come across also some job opportunities as yoga teachers.....and as I am definitely gonna take some classes and suck in a little while here, I might even consider it...ahahaha....
Wherever I turn I see style, tradition, spirituality, massages and (I wanna do a reflexology course) and music and art....and I think: one life is not enough!!!!
For the uncaring or uninformed Ubud is where Julia Roberts goes and where "casually" finds her love in Eat, Pray and Love...this also brought fame to the town that is busier than Kuta touristically speaking, that's why I recalled "Eat, Pay and Leave"...
I also succeded in my fruitarian day plan, I don't recall though how many juices I have drank and how many times I visited the restroom!!!!

find the peculiarity... and comment if you do!!!

snake fruit or salak, never judge from the cover!!!!

no need to go to a bar here, it comes to you!!!

finding....life's equilibrium

I have fallen in an open sea acquarium and in a tourist trap in the same day in my excursion trip of the Komodo national park.....life's equilibrium...
I have just flown/returned to Bali, and believe it or not I am in Legian, that is in between Kuta and Seminyak, for tonight....for those who haven't been here it's considered the party place of South East Asia, let's say something like Cancun or Ibiza, for those who haven't been either in Cancun or Ibiza, let's say somewhere in the world where alcohol and drugs and sex are not used in moderation!!
what am I, me doing here in my "no temptations" and "senses controlling" journey of South East Asia??...nothing really, I just wanted to see why so many people talk about it...I actually ended up in a super cool boutique hostel and I have planned a day tomorrow drinking just fruit juices only, all over there are shops, or moving stalls blending dragon fruits, mangos, huge papayas, tamarinds, soursops, weird salaks, gigantic durians and more..

....back to yesterday's boat trip to the island of Rinca where you can be lucky to come to close encounters with lazy and nearly domesticated dragons of Komodo..they are wild on their own islands but of course not to disappoint the tourists easy to spot, as they must get fed cause some are mostly hanging out around the kitchen of the rangers....being the only place in the world where it's possible to see them I guess we humans have no other choice....

playing hide-and-seek...they can run up to 18 km/h our guide said....

On the other side though, the dive at Batu Bolong has been extremely exciting, a super tiny rock/island breaking strong currents of the open water and attracting millions of fish...you are surrounded by thousands of tiny orange ones, with a super coral and a lively/busy acquarium atmosphere....
a little (less than 2 metres long) white tip reef shark noticed our presence and swam with us too, a huge Napoleon fish (with remora) and a couple of turtles so big that me in "shashankasana" (hare pose) could look smaller next to them!!!.....it was an impressive dive indeed and as usual meditative... ...in the night went back for some more "local air" at the harbour side market/restaurants.....

                 close up of live squid at fish market/restaurant on the harbour side of Labuan Bajo

Indonesian Ratatouille at work....(bottom left!!!)

spicing things up...

I am writing this post from Labuan Bajo, a dusty, ratty (in the literal sense of the word!!) fishing village, where rubbish and open sewage welcome you entering fine italian dining places, on the island of Flores in the Eastern Nusa Tenggara one of the 17 thousands that fall under Indonesian flag...
here is the view now at 1:30 pm yet some little rain seems to be arriving just from the mountain behind me....it's the rainy and low season in the country and it was a concern for me till the last second...

..yes because after landing in Denpansar, Bali at midnight I still didn't know where I was going to go the day after...so I made myself comfortable on the benches of a nice Chinese restaurant at the entrance of the departures floor and I slept on it!!!
I was up at 6 am and peacefully floated/walked to the domestic airport that is some 500 metres away from the international Ngurah Rai, that's where the airlines travel agencies are located.

Uncaring of the fact that I had been purposely fasting all day and flying from Colombo through the new Kuala Lumpur airport till Bali, I handed my card and passport to the smiley young boy that issued me a return ticket to the (building in progress) Komodo airport.
it seemed just straightforward and normal and in 20 minutes I was checked in and in 90 minutes boarding again on a small aircraft of 100 seats, little I knew that my seat 1A was in the last raw as the entrance and main door was from behind!!

Little I knew also that the flight was also going to be an highlight of my trip to the national park and home of the Komodo dragons or Varanus komodoensis, the largest lizard in the world that I am so excited to go and visit tomorrow..

with 5000 IDR, Indonesian rupiah, (35 euro cents) a scooter taxi drove me and Rob the 2 km from the airport till a very chaotic centre left side of the village where we are sharing a super Spartan room for 100000 IDR (7 euros)....the centre right side is for the locals and doesn't have all the things and facilities the tourists need....
in the evening around the port and where the dry fish market is held in the day time, locals set up food stall for locals (the majority of the tourists seem to prefer amongst the choice of four italian dining places) selling squids and fish barbecueable on the spot for as little as 35-50000 IDR...

...now I have to go as I have an appointment for a "relax massage" (1h - 120000 IDR!!) and I don't wanna be late.....

we are all strangers (siamo tutti stranieri)

today I feel like taking advantage of the Sri Lanka's bank holiday, roads are pleasantly empty and the cars and bus honks nearly non-existant, it doesn't feel real.. I had thought, very shily, to go for a day trip to Colombo but I am not finding the motivation in my backpack and I rather plan for my next step Bali and Indonesia already coming up tomorrow..
it's quite hot anyway and the cool and chilled hostel run by Alex, a talkative and smiley young siberian guy is attracting me to stay in fixing pictures and hand-washing my t-shirts and shorts...
yesterday I had a great "african" like day in the market in Negombo where I used up most of my energies, sucked by the sun and the humidity but mainly by the vibes of the experience...it reminded me little bit of Senegal...

fish drying in front of the fishermen shacks

my lunch was a fish omelette prepared by this smiley lady

 

I felt as an alien walking under the colourful tarpaulins covering the hot, yet breezy, waterside market area, where most of the sellers have the same produce just set up on a different and photogenic ways. 

                             

onions and dried tobacco leaves

Outside of the market area though amongst statues of Christian saints and Jesus I came across alot of serious poverty and western yet small shopping malls too, a side of Sri Lanka I hadn't had the chance to meet yet.. now it's time for my daily coconut water and pineapple, maybe I will even enjoy of my last Sri Lankan rice and curry...

.

traveling is my job....

Wer yu fro?....Saudi Arabi?Lebano'?I get asked often during my travels and as well here in Sri Lanka...I am from Italia, I reply!!!!.......it's fun to know I am a citizen of the world though... also the "pope" must be one and he is following me... roads have been cleaned up and surface marking painted to make it look nice for his arrival (sadly everywhere else remain old and run down)...just today I was in Kandy that is the spiritual capital of the country and where in his main temple is preserved one tooth of the Buddha....I didn't care for either of them and went running around the lake with monkeys crossing over electricity lines using their tails to balance, so as the squirrels that seem to be the local mice, and some poor stray dogs and cats that have a tough life in poor countries like this...

this first week has been pretty intense and I have started to learn about the betel leaf and the areca nut that are very popular all over South East Asia, basically it stands as the coffee or the cigarettes for the westerns, or the coca leaves for the Quechua people.
The habit to chew them evokes euphoria and has some unclear medicinal purposes locals say but it also has a strong symbolism for sexuality and spirituality, yet on the downside people frequently do spit out a red thick saliva and have a serious teeth blackening problem!!
another curiosity about the betel leaf is that it was used by the old president as symbol for his political party, the winner had a swan and another one a elephant, the symbol is important as well as clever because illiteracy is a serious issue and a betel leaf, or a swan or a elephant picture would facilitate the voting.

another interesting thing I have encountered is the common reuse of school kids' excercise papers perfectly glued into bags of various shapes for fruit, nuts or snacks from the street vendors......or just old pieces of paper handed out as receipts in shops or buses...talking about buses on the one I caught today I enjoyed the performance of a guitar player that joined the sellers of newspapers, water, snacks, fruit and lottery tickets!!!

a country obsession, that is not new to me, is the stress for their skin tone/colour, it makes me smile to think that "whites" would pay for a nice tan and "darks" strive for a lighter skin!!
on advertising boards are usually used lighter skin Sri Lankan celebrities or people and in shops is possible to buy creams that...... (see yourself...)

I am also struggling with communicating here as the country has officially two languages and even if Singhalese are the majority I still don't understand who is who!! and which one of the "thank you" -Nanri- for tamil, or -Istuti- for singhalese I should use... Karuna Karala is the singhalese for "please" yet it sounds quite swahili or african or little japanese to me...so do town names like Kotagala, Dambatenne or the town where I ended up tonight Katunayake!!!!
I have hardly found a fluent english speaker even though I have to recognize that people here have been very nice and genuine, yet they should check some translator here and there...that's what I found browsing accidentally a wedding and ceremonies brochure....

pineapples delivery.....

the view from yesterday's train ride from Haputale to Kandy...

feel free to join my journey by commenting or suggesting me....

the privileged side of my traveling...

I decided to stay in Haputale little longer...I don't wanna run to another place just because...the elections are over and yesterday there were fireworks and even little fights cause a new president is gonna take the place of the previous one that had been in charge for the last 16 years!!
I am going with a slower pace compared to my usual way of traveling..and only at noon I pushed myself out of the "bungalow" (that's how they name here some types of comfortable accomodations) to go exploring...
the view from the terrace shows some tracks amongst the tea plantations and a little village not far away, I direct myself that way taking advantage of the clouds..compassless and free I found myself in a new world surrounded by tea leaves (still on their plant, see picture below!!)...

here and there some pickers and some stray dogs.....till I reached some shanty houses and a hindu temple that kinda blocked my way with ladies and kids doing their everyday things, I felt welcomed as they smiled and went through so to get back to a main track or road!
...that was until Muthu Kumar inundated by a great energy field invited me to his tiny piece of land that he with the help of his family was preparing for the seeding...I found myself blinded by his kind and calm aura and I accepted with curiosity his invitation to his home for a tea..
his english was basic and the kids shy until they heard my name (it's shorter, funnier and easier to introduce myself as Ciccio) that even the old granny pronounced it and laughed!!
even the cat joined as I drank a sweet and milky tea,unable to appreciate the taste of the tea leaves!!!
maybe this is the first picture going online of mr Muthu Kumar, maybe he will never know he is on the web, most likely he doesn't know what the "web" is!!

building travel emotions up....

to make this trip more challenging I am setting some little goals for myself...amongst those I am going to drink some fresh coconut milk everyday, limiting my beers and spirits intake to 3 units or less per week, no wines and allowing myself to eat some "living creatures/beings" here and there (prawns, fish or whatever the local tradition has to offer..)

today I had planned to venture into a long and tiring bus journey that has now taken me to the hill town of Haputale some 1400 metres above sea level...I have left behind the surprisingly nice beaches of the south west...

I had set my alarm at 6:15am so to catch the last of the five early morning bus to Wellawaya for 7:35..

it must have been the two cups of tea I have drunk or a mosquito or the tension of the early alarm (ahahah) but at 3:20am I was still unable to fall asleep....plans changed right there and I moved my alarm to 4:30am and walked out of the hostel to catch the 5:20 one!!!

I was alone in the old town (just met 3 young teenagers at some point!!) till the bus stop where things were much more lively....I ended up buying some local breakfast as I was little hungry from a tiny trolley/shop man.

the spiciest 5 o'clock breakfast ever!!!you buy by pointing and it was a rice ball with chilly pepper that I had to cover up with a little piece of something reminding of bread and a banana and also a potato and vegetables roll...

the bus was also uncomfortable and impossible to fall asleep and recover the lost hours from the night, while sun was rising and the island was seriously waking up...

after a toilet and nourishing stop (that's where I had my coconut of the day!!) in a tiny busy and dusty village we arrived a Wellawaya where the mountain bus would have taken me to Haputale....the road was winding and narrow with astonishing views that recalled little the Jamaican Blue mountains with some monkey here and there and tea plantations allover.....

in the little over 2 hours it took to reach my destination the bus stopped at least a hundread times to drop some people off and collect new ones from the side of the road like a "live tetris" made of people at one point we were more than a hundread squeezed in the vehicle..it was impressive to see how many people have been jumping and fitting on that bus..I had my seat, luckily, eventhough in the last half an hour a old lady was squeezing me to the window (for not real reasons) and I could not even move even if it was for a tiny fart!!

today was election day in Sri Lanka and it is advised to be cautious in the next few days they say...

yesterday in my day out in town strolling and visiting the stilt fishermen traditional old fashioned way to fish back in the days but that today is a trap...

the guys just sit on the stilt pretending to fish (in the 20 minutes I was there I saw none of them catching anything, also because 2pm is not a great time for fishing, is it?? but for pictures maybe yes!!).

as soon as a "white" or anything looking like a tourist passes by one of them on the shores approaches, whether you wanna take a picture or not, asking not very politely for money...if you don't the fishermen "models" will all cover up their face with their hats and middle finger you shouting you to f..k off!!!

                                  I got them from behind...

my lychees supplier of the day.

   stopover in the village and our bus on the way to Wellawaya.

the beginning of a long wanted journey....South East Asia..

I don't wanna live in a country that doens't allow me to share the world with women, I wouldn't live in a country that denies women in public life....I have always thought of it but after the day in Muscat yesterday I became irritated...even the mosque has made this obvious and it's simply not right...I am sharing my own personal point of view here!!!!
I have spent the last two nights in two different planes flying from Milan to Muscat and today to Colombo, respectevely Italy, Oman and Sri Lanka...
It has been tiring and pretty challenging to keep the eyes open on the train to Galle where I find myself now..
Three hours of a dizzy and, little like a Indian train hourney, experience....
The time went by also cause I kept getting some of the things that locals tend to sell on board, see chickpeas served with coconut flakes in tiny 50grams bags, some tiny roasted peanuts (in 50grams bags too!), some sour mandarines (I would believe not very local!!!) and little cheewy bananas as well as a prawn stuffed with something not clear, I would say breadcrumb, chickpeas and lentils!!cruncy enough to make me believe it was from the day before!!! served with onions and two deep fried chilly peppers particularly spicy on the lips!!!

 Muscat touristic old city spot                         view from the train Colombo to Galle

                                 my chef working on my naan bread

I should have started this post by saying that nearly 3 years have passed since my last one back in Africa...!!!! something must have happened in my life!!!! I am excited to be back...