On Wednesday we left Pangandaran to go to Wonosobo, central Java. The trip was very long, even though we stopped some times to take pictures or to go the toilet. This place and the neighbour places was on the news these last days, because the terrorist they catched and killed came from there and also the one they’re still looking for comes from there. Around the city you see huge advertisements with his pictures and personal information, but the people who lives there is too afraid to tell the police if they knew something about him. Our hotel was a very old, colonial house. Beautiful, with a lot of souvenirs and paintings from many years ago, when Indonesia belonged to Holland. The owner of the hotel “Ibu Ita” is a very nice person, who speaks perfectly Dutch, even though she’s Indonesian. She told us a lot about the place, about the hotel, about her life and I think you may put her as a typical rich Indonesian. For instance she said: “I would never live in Europe. There I wouldn’t have my servants, I wouldn’t have the people who do everything for me at home”. She has cooks, cleaners, drivers, babysitters, gardeners,… She told us that two of her children where allowed to study in the USA, only if they could bring each a servant with them. And so they did. A lot of people here in Indonesia have their own driver, a person who brings the members of the family wherever they need to go. He brings and gets the children from school, brings and gets other from work. Ibu Ita said she doesn’t need to do anything at home, everything is done by other people. Typical Indonesian.

On the 13^th we went up to the mountains of Wonosobo. To get there we had 2 little busses and there was especially one point where some of us freeked out. We had to cross a bridge, made of long wooden pieces lying one next to another, without being fixed. Underneath it there was nothing, and driving on the wood every piece was moving. We got save to the other side though
First we saw a Buddhist and a Hindu temple and then we went to the three color lake on the Dieng plateau. It is true that depending on how the sun shines on the water, the lake looks purple, green or blue. We also went to see another active crater, but this time some of us went really closeto it. It looked like a big round swimming pool where the water was boiling and sometimes jumping up. It looked creepy, ‘cause, what if it suddenly came up and we were standing there so close?!
On the way back we saw a lot of children wearing very nice and colorful clothes. It was a kind of carnival. My cousins started dancing in the parade of these people, so we were the attraction and they took pictures of us, instead of the way around.
During the afternoon we went back to the hotel to get my grandmother and Mimiek (our aunt who lives in Jakarta), because they didn’t come with us and then we drove towards Yogyakartakarta.
On the way to Yogya we saw a wedding ceremony, which is something truly beautiful to see over here. The bride and the groom usually wear traditional clothes and have a lot of make up on. When we were about to go they asked me to sing a song for them…and so I did…
Just before arriving in Yogyakartakarta we went to see one of the seven wonders of the world: the Borobudur.

“Rulers of the Sailendra dynasty built Borobudur some time between AD 750 and AD 850. Little else is known about Borobudur’s early history, but the Sailendras must have recruited a huge workforce, as some 60’000 cubic metres of stone had to be hewn, transported and carved during its construction.
The name Borobudur is possibly derived from the Sanskrit words ‘Vihara Buddha Uhr’, which mean ‘Buddhist Monastery on the Hill’.
With the decline of Buddhism and the shift of power to East Java, Borobudur was abandoned soon after completion and for centuries lay forgotten, buried under layers of volcanic ash. It was only in 1815, when Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles governed Java, that the site was cleared and the sheer magnitude of the builders’ imagination and technical skill was revealed. Early in the 20th century the Dutch began to tackle the restoration of Borobudur, but over the years the supporting hill had become waterlogged and the whole immense stone mass started to subside. A mammoth US$25 million restoration project was undertaken between 1973 and 1983 to finally finish the job.
On 21 January 1985, bombs planted by opponents of Soeharto exploded on the upper layers of Borobudur. Many of the smaller stupas were damaged, but it has once again been fully restored, demonstrating the structure’s timeless resilience. In 1991 Borobudur gained the status of a World Heritage site.
[...]Borobudur is built from two million block stones in the form of a massive symmetrical stupa, literally wrapped around a small hill. It stands solidly on its 118m x 118m base. Six square terraxes are topped by three circular ones, with four stairways leading up through finely carved gateways to the top. The paintwork is long gone, but it’s thought that the grey stone of Borobudur was at one time washed with a colour to catch the sun.
Viewed from the air the structure resembles a colossal three-dimensional tantric mandala. It has been suggested, in fact, that the people of the Buddhist community that once supported Borobudur where early Vajrayana or Tantric Buddhists who used it as a walk-through mandala.
The monument was conceived as a Buddhist vision of the cosmos in stone, starting in the everyday world and spiraling up to nirvana, the Buddhist heaven. At the base of the monument is a series of reliefs representing a world dominated by passion and desire, where the good are rewarded by reincarnation as a higher form of life, while the evil are punished by a lowlier reincarnation. These carvings and their carnal scenes are covered by stone to hide them from view, but they are partly visible on the south side.
Starting at the main eastern gateway, go clockwise (as one should around all Buddhist monuments) around the galleries of the stupa. Although Borobudur is impressive for its sheer bulk, the delicate sculptural work when viewed close up is exquisite. The pilgrim’s walk is about 5km long and takes you along narrow corridors past nearly 1460 richly decorated narrative panels and 1212 decorative panels in which the sculptors have carved a virtual textbook of Buddhist doctrines as well as many aspects of Javanese life 1000 years ago – a continual procession of ships and elephants, musicians and dancing girls, warriors and kings. Some 432 serene-faced Buddha images stare out from open chambers above the galleries, while 72 more Buddha images sit only partly visible in latticed stupas on the top three terraces. Reaching in through the stupa to touch the fingers or foot of the Buddha inside is believed to bring good luck.”
[Lonely Planet – Indonesia, 2007, pp. 167-168]

Seeing something so big in front of you just makes you quiet and meditating. I really asked myself how they built such an immense monument so many years ago. How did they manage it? How many people worked on it? Who designed it? Whose idea was it?
One of my favorite books is “Siddhartha” and on Borobudur one of the stories you can read when you walk around the monument is exactly that one. I felt so happy being there!
I think it’s is one of the most beautiful places I ever saw in my life!
And those of you, who didn’t read Siddhartha, go get it in the library immediately!
Arrived at the hotel and finally having dinner à I was in Heaven! They finally had PASTA!!! I was missing pasta so much; I’m a pasta person, I’m addice to it, I could eat pasta every day. For me staying without pasta is a torture. I ordered pasta carbonara and it was sooooooooo good! Delicious! So good that the day after I ordered the same I was thinking “now I have pasta and it tastes really good, I don’t know what I’ll get the next days, so it is better to store some up now”. It was really Heaven for me! And oh, I had an apple juice…mmmhh; it was fresh and also really good!

On Friday, René (my uncle) was celebrating his birthday. A big cake was brought to his room and also Bobby brought one when he came to us while we were having breakfast. We ate one after breakfast and saved the other one for after dinner.
In the morning we went to see the atelier of an awesome good batik painter. His name’s Kabul, here called “Kabul Picasso”, just for fun. Batik is a typical Indonesian way of painting on clothes, table clothes, paintings and everything else you could paint on. It’s the method where you put bee wax on the part of the drawing you don’t want the color to be on, then you put the cloth in a color bath and when you take it out the color stayed only where there’s no wax. To take away the wax you iron the cloth and then you start again to put wax on other parts you don’t want to have the next color. And so on. I know, it is difficult to explain J
In his atelier we could see people actually working on paintings and we could buy Kabul’s paintings. I bought a nice painting with masks on it, but seriously there were too many to choose of.
The next factory was the cigar’s one. A lot of women making cigars by machine or by hand. I already saw this in Cuba and in Switzerland, but funny enough a lot of the cigars in this Indonesian factory are going to Switzerland and Cuba…
After lunch we went to a place where they make everything of silver. I had the shock of my life over there. When we came in they were working the silver and a girl asked me my ring because she said she wanted to clean it. Well, if it is only “to clean” I’m ok with it…but…
When I got it back it wasn’t looking the same as before. My ring is the most important ring I have since 6 years…it’s my ring of good luck and it has an identical copy. I have one and Lore has one each with the name of the other in it. The ring has never been bling bling, never shiny…and she gave it back shiny. I know, maybe it doesn’t seem important, but for me it is. I have been everywhere with this ring on and it went through a lot of good and bad things with me. My heart started to beat faster and faster because I wanted to have it back the way it was. I went to the store where they sell their rings and looked for one which looked similar as mine before. I found one and explained to another girl who spoke English what happened. At the beginning they told me it wasn’t possible to get it back like the way it was and after I tried it the second time with somebody else they finally turned it back not shiny. I promised the second girl that if she made it I’d buy another ring from them. She came back and yeah!!! I’m so happy to have my not shiny ring back on my finger not shiny! Lore, you don’t know what I went through…
I didn’t only buy a ring from them, but me and my sister bought also two necklaces each.
I will never ever ever anymore give my ring to somebody else! Not even for money!
After this whole disaster we went to see a place where they made batik clothes. We could also see how they put all those nice prints on the table clothes or shirts, which look like machine made, but are actually handmade.

On the 15^th of August we first went to the Mangkunegaran Palace, which is the palace of the sultan of Indonesia. The women have their part of the palace and the men the other part. No way they stay together. After 11pm they have to be each in their own part. The sultan of nowadays has just 1 wife and 4 daughters, but one of the first sultans years ago, had 17 wives and 82 kids. Whenever he didn’t want a wife anymore he just let her leave the house where they all live together and she’d get a house for her own with servants. The sultan can also change the rules of the nation and the women were not allowed to grow up their own children. Whenever the sultan has more than 1 wife, the one that he counts as most important is the one that gets called “mother” by all the other kids of the sultan. So they are not saying “mom” to their real mom, but to the most important wife of their dad.
One of the daughters of the man that is now sultan is studying in Geneva, Switzerland.
Since the sultan is Muslim, the children can only marry another Muslim chosen by their father, because it has to be somebody of a high status. And on parties or dinners, women are not allowed to drink alcohol and man had to ask the sultan for every glass of it. If they wanted more, they had to have his permission. He decided how much alcohol every single one would drink.
Later we went to a leather fabric of a Dutch woman. They showed us how they make purses, bags, heads, belts, and other things of leather. Everything handmade and with an incredible precision.
In the afternoon we had a free program and we went to a mall. A lot of Polo shirts are sold here, and really cheap! Also original cd’s are very cheap here.
After dinner we went to a dance show where the story of the Ramayana was told. The same story of those Wayan puppets. The clothes they wear on such a show are just awesome! So many colors… The stage was in front of the Prambanan temple, which we would’ve visited the day after. It was so nice to have the stage and behind it see the big temple. The show is just music and ballet (the typical Indonesian dance), nothing spoken. It was very nice, but also very long. The two little kids of our family fell asleep after maybe 30 minutes of the show.

On Friday (the 7^th of August), I was feeling a little bit better. I still had some fever and a lot of stomach ache, but I still went with the rest of the family to the Tangkuban Perahu crater, where it was really stinking like rotten eggs, because there are sulphur fumes coming out of the crater. It is not particularly active anymore; its last serious eruption was in 1969.
Later that day we went to Ciater Hot Springs, where we could swim in water from those craters. It was very hot water, 40-42’C. Strange in the beginning, but quite relaxing after a moment. Even though I had fever, I went in a bad for a little while. At night I went to bed early, while the rest of the family had dinner at the hotel. I was ko and fell asleep in no time.

On Saturday 8^th of August, Didi was sick. Now she had fever and a lot of stomach ache. She stayed at the hotel during the whole day, while we went to the Saung Angklung Udjo concert. Angklung are bamboo made instruments that have a really nice sound. You hear it in almost every kind of Indonesian music and people of every age can play it. Udjo was a man who made angklungs and this place is still owned by his family. He had a couple of women, a lot of kids and grandkids and they all play together on those concerts. A very good family business. During the concert we got the chance to play each one angklung together with their musicians and we also got to see how angklungs are made. For dinner we went to a beautiful place, where you can sit outside on little terraces around water. In the water there was also one big, 2 meter long, fish.

On Sunday we left Bandung to go to Pangandaran. This is a coastal place on the Indian Ocean, hit by a tsunami in 2006. People there believe that you must not wear green clothes, because then you wake up the God of the sea which causes tsunamis. So no green clothes for 3 days
On our way to Pangandaran we stopped at a little village in a valley. Its name is Kampung Naga and they really live like years ago. Some have no electricity, the toilets are outside, a hole somewhere or above water, the shower is outside on the sand and the kitchens are made of hard sand, like little ovens that burn on wood. The kids there were really sweet and we took a lot of pictures with them.
When we arrived in Pangandaran it was night, so we couldn’t see anything of the sea, but we could hear the big waves outside.

On Monday, August 10^th, we went to the Green Canyon, a big river in the middle of a forest where we went in three little boats. On the way to the place where we would be able to swim, we saw a big reptile lying on a little sand beach.
Arrived at the big rocks we climbed on them, took off our clothes and jumped into the very green water. The more we swam to the back of the canyon, the more beautiful it became, because it was almost like being in a cave since the rocks above our heads closed the whole and the sun was shining in it. My brother, a cousin and an uncle climbed on a high rock to jump off of it. We didn’t stay there too long, because after a while it was too cold and there was a strong stream and only a few rocks to stay on. Back in the boat we went back to where the bus was waiting for us. Before going back to the hotel we drove along the coast, where you could still see what the tsunami left behind. A lot of houses where half or complete destroyed, some were completely gone and you could only see the foundation. Some people still live there and build everything up again, while others are still too scared and moved away from the coast.

In the morning of the day after me and my sister got a special wakeup call by our youngest cousin and his father (Daan and Jan). We had to wake up (at 6.30 am), because they wanted us to join them to walk along the beach and see the fishermen at work. They hoped to see the fisher boats come back from the sea, but to see that they had to be there at 4am, so they missed it. What we saw where fishermen pulling back their nets from the sea. Big nets, which were pulled by 5-6 persons. When we could finally see the net, it was almost empty, they don’t catch a lot. A lot of jellyfish, which they take barehanded out of the net and they threw away and what left over were only some tiny little fishes.
When we got back to the hotel, we had breakfast and we went in becaks (bicycles with a seat in the front) through the village of Pangandaran. It was quiet funny to see the long line of becaks going through the streets full of holes and sand. We stopped at a tempé factory, a little family business. Tempé is made of soy bean and is used a lot in the Indonesian kitchen. After that, we saw a place where they open the old coconuts (the brown ones). They opened some for us and let us drink the milk out of the nut with a straw. When the nut was empty they opened it up and cut the coconut in pieces to eat. It was delicious! So sweet!
To get the coconuts they climb in the palm trees without any security line or anything; they just go like monkeys. When all the coconuts are removed they hang an empty box underneath the fruit where the nuts grew on. This was the juice of the plant falls in it, which will be used as sugar and oil. They empty those boxes twice a day; it is something like a “monkey job”
After the coconuts we passed by a house where a woman was making delicious caramel sweets. Actually it wasn’t caramel, but palm sugar which after being cooked had the same density and look of caramel. We got some and they just melted away in our mouth.
At the end of the trip we saw the krupuk factory. Krupuk is made of shrimps with cassava flour and fried in oil to a crisp. It looks like big chips and people who had dinner at our place know for sure what I’m talking about
Driving in those becaks through the village was a nice opportunity for everybody of the family to see how primitive most of the people in Indonesia live. Their houses where just made of big leaves of pisang (banana plant) and bamboo. They live without electricity or water in their houses. Some have a water pump or a pit where they get water from and their animals, like cows, chicken, gooses, cats, geeks and a lot more walk around freely.
The shower, which isn’t a real shower, but just some leaves to hide and the toilet, which is often just a hole in the sand are outside in the green.
It’s really a different way of life from what we’re used to.
Before going to lunch we also saw a family business of Wayang puppets, which are made of wood, carved out and with sticks to be able to move them, used for theatres. There is a famous story told by everybody with those figures.
During the afternoon we went to a nature park close to our hotel. We walked through a forest full of monkeys, scorpions (big ones!) and snakes (but, unfortunately, we didn’t see any of these last ones). We also went through a cave with bats…it was tremendously stinky in there!
We ended up on a beach (full of monkeys), stayed there for a little while to have a swim and went back to the hotel by boat.
Because it was our last evening in Pangandaran the guides of the place organized a really nice dinner on the beach for us. After dinner they made a camp fire and there was a live band for us, so we sang and danced around the fire.

(Questa è finalmente la traduzione di quello in inglese. Ora che siamo a Lombok, ho finalmente tempo per scrivere il resto del nostro viaggio)

Riciao a tutti!
Scusatemi se non ho più scritto nulla di nuovo, ma ero davvero malata…come certi altri della mia famiglia. Ora sto meglio, anche se ho ancora tanti dolori alla pancia.

Durante tutto il nostro viaggio sull’isola di Java abbiamo una guida indonesiana che parla anche olandese. Si chiama Bobby e viene da Jogjakarta. Oltre ad essere molto divertente sa tanto sull’isola e ci racconta tante cose sulla cultura e sui posti.

I primi giorni siamo stati a Jakarta dove abbiamo visitato il Sunda Kalapa Harbor, il porto di Jakarta e poi siamo andati a mangiare in un vecchio ristorante della colonia Olandese, chiamato Café Batavia. Il ristorante era pieno di quadri e foto della famiglia reale olandese.
Durante il pomeriggio siamo andati a vedere il monumento nazionale “Monas”. L’ex presidente Soekarno ha iniziato a costruirlo e il presidente dopo, Soeharto, l’ha finito. Questo immenso monumento, sulla quale si può anche salire per vedere tutta la città da sopra, viene anche chiamato “l’ultima erezione di Soekarno”… Il monumento è fatto di marmo italiano e in cima c’è una grande fiamma d’oro che all’inizio pesava 35kg, ma che dopo una piccola aggiunta, ora pesa 50kg.

Il giorno dopo siamo andati a vedere il parco miniature, Taman Mini Indonesia Ancor. È qualcosa di simile a Swiss miniature o Madurodam, con l’unica differenza che le case sono in dimensioni reali. Era molto bello da vedere come costruiscono le case in modo diverso a seconda dell’isola dove ci si trova.
Dopo aver visto il parco, siamo andati in un posto pieno di chaos; un centro shopping, che assomigliava ad un mercato cinese…se non peggio. Dopo 15 minuti ne avevo già piene le scatole…troppa gente che urlava per cercava di vendere e il bello è che vendevano tutti le stesse identiche cose. Era un posto enorme, 5 piani e innumerevoli stand.
Al pomeriggio siamo andati a visitare una grande moschea, chiamata Istiqlal, a Jakarta. Era obbligatorio mettere delle sciarpe intorno al corpo per nascondere certe parti, per esempio il petto, le braccia, le gambe e dovevamo togliere le scarpe. C’erano due tre gruppetti che stavano pregando in quel momento, cosa interessante da vedere. Il rituale di pregare, alzarsi, ripiegarsi, inginocchiarsi, fare delle gesta che ci sembrano strane con le mani, ecc. Ogni giorno sentiamo le moschee già alle 4-4.30 del mattino, iniziano a cantare e ovunque sono appesi altoparlanti, così tutto il popolo lo sente. Cinque volte al giorno sentiamo la stessa canzone ipnotizzante, cantata da uomini…la sappiamo quasi a memoria

Durante il nostro viaggio per andare a Bandung ci siamo fermati in un safari dove si poteva passare col bus. C’erano animali stupendi, piccoli e grandi. Alla fine si potevano anche fare foto con una piccola tigre, un leopardo, una scimmietta e una tigre grande. Al pomeriggio siamo passati da tante piantagioni di tè, dove donne stavano raccogliendo le foglie da quei piccoli alberelli. Le donne che lavorano indossano un bellissimo e grande cappello, per proteggersi dal sole e stivali, perché ci sono i cobra che strusciano tra le piante.
Per tutto il viaggio Didi, la mia cuginetta era seduta vicino a me e abbiamo parlato del più e del meno…poi, quando siamo arrivati all’hotel ho iniziato ad avere freddissimo, tremavo come una scema. Arrivati all’hotel avevo ancora più freddo e la mia temperatura era 38.1’C. Sono andata su in camera e un’ora dopo avevo già 39.7’C di febbre…non ci stavo più dentro.

Hi again to everybody!
I’m really sorry for not writing any news anymore, but I was really sick…like some other members of the family. Now I’m feeling better, though I have a lot of stomach ache sometimes.

For our whole journey on Java we have a very funny Indonesian guide who speaks also Dutch. His name’s Bobby and he comes from Jogjakarta. He knows a lot about everything and tells us about the traditions, the places and so on.

The first days we stayed in Jakarta where we visited the Sunda Kalapa Harbor and we went to an old Dutch café called Café Batavia. As many of you know, in the past Indonesia was a colony of Holland. That’s why in this restaurant there where hanging a lot of pictures of our Dutch Royal family.
During the afternoon we went to see the National Monument “Monas”, started to be build by the old President Soekarno and finished by Soeharto. It is also called “Soekarno’s final erection”… The monument is made of Italian marmor and on the top there’s a flame of gold that initially had a weight of 35kg, but is now 50kg heavy.

The day after we went to see the miniature park of Taman Mini Indonesia Ancor. It is something like Swiss miniature or Madurodam, with the only difference that the buildings are real size. Beautiful to see the different kind of houses around Indonesia!
After seeing that wonderful park, we went to a place full of chaos; a shopping mall that was looking like a Chinese market…or even worse, where some of us also lost the exit. After 15 minutes in there I had enough…too many people shouting, trying to sell stuff and everywhere you were looking they where selling exactly the same! A very big building, 5 stocks high…huge!
During the afternoon we went to visit a big mosqué in Jakarta, called Istiqlal. We all had to where scarfs to hide our body, most of all the women and we had to take our shoes off. We saw some people praying, interesting to see, but nothing for me. Besides, here in Indonesia we already wake up at 4.30am by the song you hear from the loudspeakers of every mosqué. Five times a day you hear a man singing and by now we almost know the song by heart.

On Wednesday we went to Bogor and we visit the Botanical garden at Kebun Raya. A nice big garden with all different kinds of plants, trees, flowers, fruits and insects. We were all stung by those idiot mosquitos, which we have plenty of here in Indonesia. They drive me crazy, me with my sweet blood.
In the afternoon we went to our hotel, our of the city. A very beautiful hotel, with swimming pool, golf yard, football field, tennis field and all kinds of other different sports. Pitty enough we only stayed there for one night because the day after we would go to Bandung.

During our way to Bandung we stopped at a Safaripark, were we could drive through with our bus. There were some beautiful animals, from small to big. We could also take pictures with a little tiger, a leopard and a monkey and a big tiger. During the afternoon we drove through huge tea plantations and we also saw some women plucking tea leaves from those tiny trees. People who work there are usually wearing those nice heads and boots. Boots because there are cobras sneaking between the plantations.
During the whole trip in the bus I was talking to Didi, my cousin, who was sitting next to me…when we almost got to the next hotel I suddenly got freaking cold and was also trembling. When we arrived to the hotel I got even colder and when I mesured my temperature it was just 38.1’C. I went upstairs to my room and one hour later my temperature was 39.7’C….it was crazy!

Hi…I wasn’t able to write a new article yet, because the journey by bus was in the mountains and I would’ve been sick of all those curves. Then, when we finally got in Bandung…I got ill. I’m in my bed at the hotel since a couple of hours and I have 39.7′C of fever. We don’t know yet what I have… Don’t panic, I will be ok

Ciao…non sono riuscita a scrivere un nuovo articolo, perchè durante il viaggio sul bus era impossibile scrivere o leggere. Eravamo in montagna ed era pieno di curve. Quando finalmente siamo arrivati a Bandung ho iniziato ad avere un freddo cane e…da allora sono a letto nell’hotel con 39.7′C di febbre. Non sappiamo ancora cosa ho…ma niente panico, guarirò

Hey everybody! Today we are going to Bandung and we’ll travel a lot of hours, so I have the time to write something new!

Ciao a tutti! Oggi andiamo a Bandung e visto che il viaggio sarà lungo avrò tempo di scrivere per il blog!

Yes guys, I finally made the 10′000 hits on my blog! Thank you guys. It’s a number I wanted to reach when I was still in LA, but it didn’t happen. Love you all!

Siiiii, finalmente sono riuscita ad avere 10′000 visite sul mio blog! Grazie a voi. È un numero che volevo già raggiungere quando ero ancora a Los Angeles, ma purtroppo non ce l’ho fatta. Vi voglio bene!

Stamattina siamo andati in giro con un becak per le strade qui vicino. Il becak è la bici con il sedile davanti per portare gente.  Era bello, anche se in mezzo ad auto e scooter ci siamo spaventati un paio di volte. Tutta la gente in strada ci salutava, si girava, sorrideva. Vedevamo che siamo turisti (pur essendo originari di qui) e per via del colore dei miei capelli qui sono qualcosa di raro

A mezzogiorno siamo andati a mangiare in un posto stupendo, un ristorante circondato da un giardino pieno di alberi di frutta. La frutta veniva poi usata nel ristorante. C’erano anche tanti tavolini bassi, dove la gente si sedeva intorno per terra. Il cibo era delizioso! Qui in Indonesia c’è qualcosa che mi piace moltissimo, si chiama cendol. È fatto di latte di cocco con dentro nangka e altri pezzi di frutta. È molto dolce, ed è vero che a vederlo potrebbe sembrare disgustoso.
La gente qui spesso mangia con le mani, senza posate. Riso, pollo, verdure. Si vedono anche le mamme che danno da mangiare ai loro figli con le mani.

Alle quattro del pomeriggio è arrivato a Jakarta il resto della famiglia. Siamo andati in aeroporto in auto e lì c’era anche un bus ad aspettarli. Siamo in 20 della famiglia qui in Indonesia in vacanza, l’unico che è rimasto a casa è mio padre. Per tutto il mese qui abbiamo noleggiato un bus con 3 autisti.
L’arrivo della famiglia era molto emozionante, soprattutto l’arrivo della nonna. Tanti di voi sapranno che anche il nonno doveva venire con noi in questo viaggio, almeno, così avevamo pianificato…invece il destino aveva in petto qualcosa di diverso ed purtroppo ci ha lasciati poco prima del Natale 2008.
La famiglia arrivò, un gruppo enorme, oma (la nonna) arrivò e subito a piangere perché è arrivata senza il nonno…quindi anche certi di noi sono scoppiati a piangere. È sempre così, basta uno che inizia a piangere e di solito sappiamo subito che è per il nonno e come la fila di domino iniziano tutti a piangere. Il vuoto che il nonno ha lasciato è grandissimo, anche se ognuno di noi porta un pochino di lui nel cuore.
Siamo andati all’hotel dove dorme il resto e poi siamo venuti qui a casa dove stiamo noi da giovedì, a casa di Mimik. La mami, Aninya (mia sorella), la nonna e io dormiamo qui a casa sua fino a quando partiremo tra pochi giorni per iniziare il viaggio per l’isola di Java.
Mimik ha cucinato per tutti, cibo a quantità come fanno spesso gli indonesiani. Eravamo a mangiare in 31, incluso l’autista privato della famiglia di Mimik e i 3 autisti del bus…ed è pure rimasto ancora cibo Era buonissimo!!!!

Davvero, io potrei rimanere qui a vivere!!! Il cibo è squisito e la gente di una gentilezza sconosciuta all’Europa. Questo mese sarà come essere in Paradiso!

This morning we went with a becak around the streets close to where we live. A becak is the bicycle with the seat in front where you can sit. It was nice, although in the middle of the cars and scooters a little bit scary sometimes. Everybody on the street was saying hi to us, because they saw we were turists. Because of my blond hair, I’m something rare here

For lunch we went in a very nice place, a restaurant sorrounded by a huge garden full of trees. Every tree grew fruit and they would use it in the restaurant. There were a lot of little tables and people would sit around it on the floor to eat. The food was delicious! There’s something I love here; it’s called cendol, it is made of coconut milk with nangka, and a lot of other fruit. People here are also eating with there hands sometimes, without spoon and fork. They just take the rice and everything else with their hands and put it in their mouth. Also mother that feed their children like that.

At 4pm the rest of the family finally arrived in Jakarta. We went to get them by car and at the airport a bus was waiting for them too. We are 20 members of the family here in Jakarta right now, the only one that staid home is my dad. We hired a bus with 3 drivers for one month.
The arrival of the rest of the family, but most of all of my grandma was very emotional. A lot of you know that my grandpa “opa” had to come with us during this holiday, although, it was planned like this…unfortunately destiny planned it differently and he died just before Christmas 2008. So the family arrived, a huge group, oma (grandma) arrived and she started crying because she came without opa (grandpa)…some of us started crying as well.
We showed them the hotel where they’re sleeping and went to the place where Mimik lives (where I’m staying since Thursday). Mama, Aninya (my sister), oma and me will be sleeping at Mimik’s place until we leave Jakarta in a couple of days.
Mimik cooked for everybody, plenty of food like they use to do here in Indonesia. We were 31 people eating, including the private driver of the family of Mimik and the 3 drivers of the bus…and there is still food left It was soooooooooo good!

For real, I could stay here!!! The food is so delicious and the people so nice. This month is gonna be like Heaven to me!

29.07.2009

Il nostro mercoledì è iniziato benissimo! Finalmente saremmo andati in Indonesia, dopo così tanti anni di attesa. Siamo partiti in auto da Beek & Donk a Düsseldorf, abbiamo fatto il check-in , ricevuto i biglietti per i voli e dopo un attimo siamo andati al gate. Dopo esser passati dal metal detector e giusto prima di arrivare alla dogana, c’era un piccolo problemino: mia nonna aveva preso su il passaporto di Ren…mio zio…(che parte sabato) e non il suo… Senza passaporto è impossibile prendere il volo, quindi ho chiamato mio zio e con l’altro zio è partito subito per venire da noi. Un viaggio di un’ora e mezza…sono arrivati in tempo, cioè, l’aereo era ancora lì e il gate era ancora aperto altri 15 minuti, ma non la volevano far entrare. Quindi, purtroppo la nonna non poteva venire con noi, è tornata a casa con i due zii e arriva qui domani con il resto della famiglia.

Il primo volo era da Düsseldorf a Dubai, un volo di sei ore e mezza, che è passato abbastanza velocemente. Durante il volo abbiamo giocato e guardato film. Arrivati a Dubai dovevamo aspettare 4 ore all’aeroporto. Come siamo atterati abbiamo visto cose che finora solo in televisione si vedeva…donne con il burka. Strano da vedere, ma facevano anche paura. Tutte queste donne vestite di nero, che nascondevano il loro viso dietro al velo nero. Ti camminavno vicino oppure te le trovavi lì davanti, in piedi, ferme…a volte anche senza vedere i loro occhi. Abbiamo visto anche un paio di bambine piccolissime con il burka. Ho chiesto a un ragazzo il motivo di questa usanza e mi disse che la bellezza di una donna la può vedere solo l’uomo con la quale è sposata. Inoltre con il burka si evita che altri uomini guardano donne già occupate.

Giravano anche uomini con vestiti lunghi bianchi, come si vede in tele…con un cerchio nero sulla testa per fissare il velo bianco.

30.07.2009

Il secondo volo da Dubai a Jakarta è durato 8 ore e 15 minuti. Era un aereo più grande; c’erano tanti burka e stupende hostess asiatiche. Per noi erano le 2 di notte quando siamo partiti da lì, quindi eravamo abbastanza stanchi durante tutto il volo. Abbiamo giocato a quei giochini al computer, guardato un film e poi ci siamo addormentati.

Finalmente stavamo per arrivare a Jakarta! Eravamo emozionatissimi!!! Finalmente avremmo visto da dove veniamo, dove hanno vissuto i nonni, da dove viene il cibo che ci preparano così spesso, da dove vengono tante delle nostre tradizioni, finalmente…vedevamo da dove è partita la storia della nostra famiglia.

Da un’altezza non troppo alta si vedevano già i campi di riso, le casettine, le palme e tantissime piante di banana.

Siramo scesi dall’aereo, cercato i nostri bagagli: quelli dell’aereoporto son venuti a dirci che i nostri bagagli erano rimasti a Dubai, ma per fortuna si eano sbagliati…dopo mezz’ora di attesa eccoli che li abbiamo trovati!

Uno dei primi cartelli appesi che abbiamo visto all’aeroporto era uno grande con su “Pena di morte per traffico di droga”…penso sia chiaro il messaggio! E poi…finalmente…per la prima volta abbiamo incontrato la famiglia che fino ad allora abbiamo solo visto in foto.

Taufik e Mimik: Mimik, è la figlia del fratello di mia nonna (l’ho già conosciuta due volte da noi in Svizzera) Taufik è il suo marito.

Erifarida (Eri): sorella di Mimik

Endang: sorella di Mimik

Andrea: figlia più piccola di Mimik (11 anni)

Tari: figlia di Mimik (26 anni)

Le altre due figlie di Mimik, Anggri (31) e Mita (23), vivono a Ginevra.

Quando siamo arrivati con i bagagli dove ci stava aspettando la famiglia, ci hanno preso i carelli e non potevamo più fare nulla. La famiglia ha un signore, Pak Rochman che li porta ovunque, va a prenderli dal lavoro, prende i ragazzi da scuola, li porta ai negozi, ecc…quindi lui mi prese il carello di mano e non potevo più assolutamente spingerlo io.

La vera avventura è iniziata subito…appena saliti in auto. Il caos che c’è qui in strada è indescrivibile. Gente che gira su scooter, motorini, becak (biciclette con un sedile davanti per portare persone – bici taxi), gente a piedi, gente in auto, chi è seduto sui camion… Spesso si vedono intere famiglie su un motorino o uno scooter, in 4. Due bambini e i loro genitori, bimbi piccolissimi, neonati, in braccio alle loro madri. Non ci sono vere regole in strada, la gente arriva da ovunque. È da vedere e da vivere…!

Casa loro è molto bella, non lontana dalla strada principale, dove comunque non si sente il casino del traffico. Ci sono molte piante, molti alberi, tanta frutta ovunque…e ovunque si va c’è cibo. Le strade sono piene di gente che vende cibo.
Abbiamo fatto cena e dopo siamo andati a fare una passeggiatina qui vicino, tornati a casa ci siamo addormentati subito perché eravamo abbastanza cotti dopo due giorni senza sonno. Prima ci siam fatti una doccia bella fresca (l’acqua qui è bella fredda, non hanno l’acqua calda nelle docce. La cosa mi piace, se no userei quella calda e poi mi metterei a bestemmiare perché appena esci hai caldissimo…così invece no)

31.07.2009

Ci siamo svegliati solo alle 13.30 il giorno dopo…(ora locale). Ci hanno dato pizza come colazione-pranzo, ci siamo fatti la doccia e poi ci hanno portato in uno dei centri shopping del posto. Anche se il posto è abbastanza vicino, quanto riguarda la distanza, ci abbiamo messo un’ora per via del traffico. Per andare a scuola i miei cugini devono calcolare tra 30 minuti e 2 ore ogni mattina. Nel centro commerciale abbiamo fatto un’ora di riflessologia del piede, anche se a dire il vero ci hanno fatto i massaggi anche sulle gambe, braccia, schiena, collo e testa. Non era solo bello il massaggio, ma uno di quei ragazzi era anche molto carino! Si chiama Happy e pensavamo avesse massimo 20 anni…invece ne ha 29. Qui tutti sembrano più giovani, ma sono più vecchi. Mah…
Il ritorno era un’altra grande avventura nel baule della loro auto. Sembrava che ogni moto che si avvicinava ci sarebbe venuto incontro. Tornati a casa, dopo cena, mi hanno finalmente fatto provare un pezzo di Durian. Si tratta di un frutto…tipico di qui…che puzza tantissimo. Effettivamente non lo possono dare in tanti hotel o posti pubblici, perché la gente ne non sopporta l’odore. Tutta quelli della mia famiglia in Olanda mi hanno sempre detto hce non mi sarebbe piaciuto, e invece…mi piace!!! Ha un sapore strano, molto forte, ma per fortuna il sapore non è come la puzza. Quindi da ora in poi, sono una vera Indo!

Ok, per ora basta. Ho scritto più di quanto volevo. Non penso che durante i prossimi giorni avrò la possibilità di scrivere ancora così tanto.

1.8.2009

Oggi abbiamo fatto per la prima volta agopuntura. Fa un po’ malino al momento che ti spinge dentro gli aghi. Soprattutto perché l’ago che mi ha messo esattamente sul punto dove ho sempre emicrania, me l’ha spinto fino a toccarmi il muscolo. Ma vabbè, se con questo l’emicrania passa, ripeterò la terapia
Al pomeriggio siamo andati in un centro shopping, dove abbiamo mangiato roba buonissima…(sicuramente farò su peso qui…sto mangiando come una maiala). Poi in un negozio c’era un ragazzo molto carino che continuava a guardarci e a sorridere; mia zia ha chiesto il suo nome ad una sua collega e mentre uscivamo dal negozio l’ha salutato per nome. Il ragazzo c’è rimasto un po’ e poi si è messo a ridere. A proposito di ragazzi e ragazze: quando giriamo per strada le ragazze si girano una per una a guardare mio fratello…alto, biondo, di carnagione chiara. Tantissime ragazze stupende si mettono a bisbigliare, a ridere, si girano, si fermano, corrono verso le amiche per dire a loro di guardare. È uno spettacolo vederle. Lo stesso per i ragazzi. Appena passiamo da qualche parte io e mia sorella, ragazzi arrivano da ogni angolo a guardare, sorridono e salutano. Poi cavoli, sono proprio belli qui!!! (Peccato solo che la maggior parte degli uomini indonesiani non sa cucinare…)

Domani arriverà il resto della famiglia…con un bus andremo a prenderli all’aeroporto.

Un bacione!
Anaïs

Ps. Sabri…Lore…non ridete troppo e voi sapete per quale motivo…. Non ho tempo per scrivere qui e sicuramente non per correggere Un bacione, mi mancate!