Saturday, September 10, 2011
A daughter tells stories....
It's been more than 15 years ago that I spend a week or more with my mother alone. So I was really excited about this adventure...
I picked her up from the airport at the 23th of August...tears were flowing...and brought her back on the 8th of September...tears were flowing...
What happened in between:
Java is like the most other islands of Indonesia dominated by the muslims. We knew that August is the Ramadan month, but that it would have such an impact...we didn't expect. The long holiday was from the 22th of August till more or less the 4th of September, with the big final around Idul Fitri, the end of Ramadan. The whole country was travelling and we had to change our plans from the first day....grrrr I still didn't learn it...making plans, makes no sense in asia!
From Jakarta to Yogjakarta....no way!! No bus, no train, no plane everything fully booked. After already staying for a couple of days in Jakarta, with Jonas a friend who lives here, I desperately wanted to get out of this city. I'm not that kind of a city-girl, more a nature-woman :-) and Jakarta has next to traffic jams and shopping malls not much to offer. We finally found a flight to Solo in central Java. We had to get up around 5 am, but it was whole worth it.
In Solo we stayed in an old traditional Javanese building with a pool and a nice gardensetting and....Wayhu a nice javanese guy (no mom...I'm not gonna marry him!) who took us to some nice and interesting places. We just loved it to be among all these friendly and lovely smiling javanese people.
For me it was really nice to see how my mother was enjoying all the new impressions and experiences she made. She asked me from the beginning if she could just join me on one of my trips. So I could keep on travelling the way I was used to and she could get an impression of that what I've been doing the past couple of months.
So we did....accept for the first 2 nights, which we spent in an Ibishotel, to let her get a proper sleep and that tthe shock wouldn't be too huge. We slept in more budgetplaces, basic but clean, we ate for 25cents the best food on the street and we've been drinking lots of coffee and cappuccino. And....she was travelling with my old backpack ;-)
She trusted me that much, that she probably still would be sitting on the trainstation of Malang if i did never show up after organizing a meal for on the way... The train was there, I was late and she was just relaxed waiting for me although almost all the people where already in the train... we had to run....:-)
I heard a lot of times...oh carry look there...oh this is so beautiful....did you see that?...and so on. She helped me opening my eyes and being curious again. Back to blessed feeling of doing this.
What else happened?:
- we are probably the first tourists, who didn't want to walk to Mount Bromo, after seeing sunrise in Probolinggo
- we were invited to a village for a Ramayana danceperformance with 'highlight' the interruption of locals being obsessed by the devil...
- we went on a scooter to the Borobudur...quite a ride ;-)
- due to local transport we came to late to enter the Prambanam tempel..but we did see the great Ramayana dancing performance.
- relaxing at the pool, reading, talking, eating, drinking coffee....and so on!
Jonas, thank you so much for your hospitality and giving me the chance to get to know you a bit better! We will see eachother again....
Mom, I feel grateful that I was able to give this too you...
Next stop....and probably last stop....India! See you there....
I picked her up from the airport at the 23th of August...tears were flowing...and brought her back on the 8th of September...tears were flowing...
What happened in between:
Java is like the most other islands of Indonesia dominated by the muslims. We knew that August is the Ramadan month, but that it would have such an impact...we didn't expect. The long holiday was from the 22th of August till more or less the 4th of September, with the big final around Idul Fitri, the end of Ramadan. The whole country was travelling and we had to change our plans from the first day....grrrr I still didn't learn it...making plans, makes no sense in asia!
From Jakarta to Yogjakarta....no way!! No bus, no train, no plane everything fully booked. After already staying for a couple of days in Jakarta, with Jonas a friend who lives here, I desperately wanted to get out of this city. I'm not that kind of a city-girl, more a nature-woman :-) and Jakarta has next to traffic jams and shopping malls not much to offer. We finally found a flight to Solo in central Java. We had to get up around 5 am, but it was whole worth it.
In Solo we stayed in an old traditional Javanese building with a pool and a nice gardensetting and....Wayhu a nice javanese guy (no mom...I'm not gonna marry him!) who took us to some nice and interesting places. We just loved it to be among all these friendly and lovely smiling javanese people.
For me it was really nice to see how my mother was enjoying all the new impressions and experiences she made. She asked me from the beginning if she could just join me on one of my trips. So I could keep on travelling the way I was used to and she could get an impression of that what I've been doing the past couple of months.
So we did....accept for the first 2 nights, which we spent in an Ibishotel, to let her get a proper sleep and that tthe shock wouldn't be too huge. We slept in more budgetplaces, basic but clean, we ate for 25cents the best food on the street and we've been drinking lots of coffee and cappuccino. And....she was travelling with my old backpack ;-)
She trusted me that much, that she probably still would be sitting on the trainstation of Malang if i did never show up after organizing a meal for on the way... The train was there, I was late and she was just relaxed waiting for me although almost all the people where already in the train... we had to run....:-)
I heard a lot of times...oh carry look there...oh this is so beautiful....did you see that?...and so on. She helped me opening my eyes and being curious again. Back to blessed feeling of doing this.
What else happened?:
- we are probably the first tourists, who didn't want to walk to Mount Bromo, after seeing sunrise in Probolinggo
- we were invited to a village for a Ramayana danceperformance with 'highlight' the interruption of locals being obsessed by the devil...
- we went on a scooter to the Borobudur...quite a ride ;-)
- due to local transport we came to late to enter the Prambanam tempel..but we did see the great Ramayana dancing performance.
- relaxing at the pool, reading, talking, eating, drinking coffee....and so on!
Jonas, thank you so much for your hospitality and giving me the chance to get to know you a bit better! We will see eachother again....
Mom, I feel grateful that I was able to give this too you...
Next stop....and probably last stop....India! See you there....
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