For me, to travel is not just about visiting popular places, moving from one favorite place to another. Not solely about spending time relaxing from busy days and hectic office-city life. It is always more than that.
To enjoy the diversities, to learn their values, meeting new people, to know their stories, to see life from their eyes. As cliché as that sounds, it is what interest me to do the journeys.
A few years back on a trip to Jogjakarta, we take time to visit the royal water palace of Taman Sari where the underground round-shape mosque was located. A beautiful place, a well known place for photo shoots. Oh, and whispering here is useless. People can hear you loud and clear in the mosque due to its shape that works like an amplifier.
But that’s not what makes the journey interesting. When we were heading to the water palace compound, which is near from the Sultan Palace, I started to notice that the houses constructions in that complex are not as usual as normal houses would be. Yes, the residential here is an old one but something more hidden here. We started to notice that for every wall we went through, the doors are small, even for us. In between the stories and talks we have on our way, the gentlemen who shows us the way, who is one of the elders there, then answer the question we have about the short doors. Why the doors were purposely made short when you enter the old mosque complex: to make you bowed your head. It is a symbol of respect. When you enter the mosque, which is the symbol of The Almighty, you are humbled at the door. It is align as well with one of Javanese old values to respect the host. A value subtly implemented in daily lives.
2 years ago when traveling to Magelang to celebrate Vesak Day at Borobudur Temple, I met fellow traveler from California, US. She’s teaching at a local school in Solo – a two hours drive city from the temple. She’s been a few months in Indonesia, and she has lots of stories and experiences she wants to discuss. And we’ve been friends ever since.
December last year during a trip to Mount Ijen, a story brings really moves us. We started hiking to the summit precisely at 02:00am. The sulfur miners are on their way as well. Nothing better than having them as hiking companions and the stories they have.
Do you know that they have to carry 70-80kgs from the top? And some of them do it twice! On foot.
Do you know how much they got for every kg they brought in? IDR 1,000 – that is barely $0.1 cent.
Yes, they have metal carts now to help them carry the sulfurs and can make only one trip with 160kgs approximately for one mining trip. But they still have to carry the sulfur from mining place in the lake shore to their mining carts! And that is not including the trip down for another 1.6km with elevations up to 45’. The strength, endurance and patience of a human is indescribable.
A recent trip took us to the mountainous region of Bali where we set camp there for a night. The mystical Tamblingan Lake. Though a lot had change – shrinking water debit and surface, trees been cut down along the shore – since the first time I visited the lake 5 years ago, the view still one to enjoy.
What fascinated us most is a group of young kids grilling their catch. They are from nearby villages, students of an elementary school and junior high. And they ride motorbikes! After some small talks, we asked them to let us have the fire when they finished and take some pictures with them. And we would like to share the pictures with them. Talking about sharing pictures, we thought of today’s common tools: social media. One in mind that most people know is Facebook. We were surprised to learn that they haven’t heard about Facebook. Even messengers app is an alien to their ears. Solid proof, on the difference between kids growing up in city and those whose not.
When you interact with people, you get something so valuable, probably even without realizing it. A new perspective as a souvenir.
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