Back in the West

So we’re back in the western world; with many memories of spectacular sights, fantastic food, and especially wonderful people. Now remains the task of selecting the best from nearly 1400 (!) pictures. It’s all my new camera’s fault: it switches on fast, and also reloads fast, so before you know it you suddenly have taken 200 pictures a day! And of course not having been to Asia in 20 years helps create the idea (illusion) that everything is interesting.

In addition, I want to write some entries about specific topics, rather than bore you with a daily record of the events of that day (which I do keep, but just for myself). Topics screaming to be described include: food (why did I stay away so long?), people’s attitudes, working life & living standards in Asia, shopping experiences, differences between China, Malaysia, and Indonesia, and maybe family reunions. Oh, and of course the Search for our Roots.

(Luckily all the diseases we feared stayed away, like diarrhea, malaria, and EV-71)

So stay tuned for more!

Last day in Jakarta

So after a whole week, I’m finally online again, but not for long, because I’m sitting in a cubicle at a cybercafe. Officially, they are a Business Service Center, but sending normal postcards seems to be very difficult for them
Finding it required an odyssey in the catacombs of the Ciputra mall (passing the “Gojim” = Gold’s Gym first), but it is worth it, because at the hotel they ask RP 50000 (EUR 3,50) per hour: almost as expensive as Schiphol, and you have to use it up in one go. Booh to Hotel Ciputra Jakarta. In Semarang it was free.

Anyway, as expected, I had a nice week full of fantastic meetings with many relatives: many old, many new. Not going somewhere for 20 years definitely improves your popularity, and my cellphone is hardly silent for more than an hour.
Great fun, great food, lots of laughs, lots of interesting sights. 3 weeks have passed, but it felt just I could easily add another 3 weeks. Even though its’ true what they said about Jakarta: it’s hot, has bad traffic, and not much entertainment except food and shopping (i.e. no parks and geocaches). Luckily all the great people make it worthwhile.

Well, more details later, since I’m running up a huge bill of 3000 Rp already, which is about EUR 0,21

Unfortunately, we’re flying back tonight already. Oh well, just savouring the last few hours here…

Landed in Jakarta

On Monday we arrived in the capital Jakarta. The flight from Semarang scheduled for 60 minutes, only took 40 minutes. In Jakarta, described by everyone as hot, dusty, polluted and congested, we were lucky that we traffic was not too bad. The heat and humidity were as described, though.

My aunt’s house resembles a small palace, withmarble floors,lots of wood, and a huge garage with several cars including a Mercedes. Since I was awake between 3 and 4, and then woken up at 5:45, I badly needed a siesta in the afternoon. And a shower every 2 hours…

In the evening, more than a dozen people (cousins and their families) dropped by my aunt’s house. Needless to say that it was lots of fun, especially not having seen them for 20 years.

Souvenir Touts

On Friday, June 6 (incidentally Sweden’s National Day), we hit the road to drive from Yogyakarta (near the south coast) to Semarang (on the north coast). In between, we stopped at the Borobudur temple complex for some must-have snapshots, and in the small town of Wonosobo, where my Mom lived between age 4 and 8.

Having come this far, my uncle felt (rightly) we just had to make a quick stop a the famous temple complex. As legend has it, if you can touch the statue inside the “bells with holes”, you will be guaranteed numerous offspring. As the temperature was rising fast, and the coveted statues required mounting a substantial number of steps, we decided to keep our feet firmly on the ground.

What was a bit interesting / slash / annoying about this (touristic) place, was all the souvenir touts: people trying to sell you the usual crap. Having gained a bit of experience at waving them off in Shanghai, our skills proved grossly insufficient here. These people were REALLY persistent / hard to get rid off. They followed us all the way around the temple, and then even back to the car.

After this, we drove to Wonosobo, a small town where my mother lived between age 4 and 8. It once won an award for the cleanest town in Indonesia, and it showed. We had lunch in Hotel Kresna, which was built in the Dutch colonial era. Now it was frequented, apart from us, by 2 Danish tourists armed with a Lonely Planet guide.
After lunch, we looked for the house where my mom had lived, and fortunately found it. It reminded me of “Nu wonen daar andere mensen”, a famous book in Dutch: Now other people live there.

I also managed to get an Indonesian prepaid SIM-card there, and although we paid 2000 Rp more than necessary, the sales people who addressed us as “Boss”, were so kind as to register the card for us. Nomally you need an Indo ID card for that, but in this country, a little bit of money opens all doors in this country. And it’s really nothing: Rp 2000 is about € 0,15. Altogether Rp 17000 ~ € 1,30 is such a small price to pay for “Citizenship”…
I am now a mobile citizen for: Canada, Sweden, China, and Indonesia
Only in Italy it was “impossibile” to find a shop selling prepaid SIM cards.

After this we proceeded to Semarang on the north coast, the city where my mother was born.

Yo, Yogyakarta

Yes, we made it to Yogyakarta (Indonesia) in one piece.
As soon as we had gotten off the plane, we were treated to a fine sample of bureaucratic inefficiency. We were handed Customs Declaration forms, stating we did not bring in plants, too many cigarettes, weapons, or drugs. But for 200 passengers there were 3 small counters / tables to write on, so everyone tried to conquer either a piece of wall, or squatted and used their knees as a table. Way to go!

Then 1 of our suitcases was inspected, including some of the food wrapped as presents, which they made my dad open them. Fortunately nothing was confiscated.

And then we exited the airport hall, into the overwhelming heat, and one by one the things they said about Indo came true: the road from the airport was crowded, the sidewalks pretty dirty, and the shops along it in poor condition. Stupid governments that have created and nurtured the huge divide between rich and poor. What a difference with Malaysia, and even China…

Hopefully things will be a bit better on our way to Semarang tomorrow.

A day in Kuala Lumpur

We spent a full day in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)

Although upon arrival I did notfeel any emotional connection to this country whatsoever, I kinda started to like it.

The big plus is obviously the languages: everyone speaks English here, with a very cute accent (emphasis on last word of a sentence), and Malay is similar enough to Indonesian that you can make yourself understood with Bahasa Indonesia. Whether you understand what they say back, is another question Written language is a totally different story: many ancient / obsoleted words in Indonesia are still in use in Malay.

Kuala Lumpur has very modern buildings, and they have really got their country organized well. Chinatown however is a lot less clean, and some streets are very narrow. Not that cleanliness is an essential requirement for me to feel comfortable anywhere. I never expected all of Asia to be as clean as e.g. Sweden.

If I had to grade the countries, China would get an 8.5 out of 10 (only not higher because of the language barrier, which is really my own deficiency), and Malaysia (K.L.) an 8 laaah…

Too bad that Indonesia, my “native soil” (well, my parents’) is said to be worse in every respect: dirtier, unsafer, more polluted, hotter, awful traffic in Jakarta, and mosquitoes. Well, at least I will have seen it with my own eyes then…

Hello from Kuala Lumpur

Dear blog friends,

I’ve missed you, and hopefully you’ve also been wondering a bit what happened to the Noodlefan. Well, he was in China (Shanghai and Xiamen) for a week, had a great time, and lots of stories to tell. Unfortunately, all international blogging sites, like LiveJournal and WordPress, are filtered there, as in: totally unreachable.

So now that we’ve left China again and got to Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) this evening, I can finally write here again.

To summarize it very briefly: China is nice, we’ve found the village where my greatgrandfather most probably came from, but the language barrier is really an obstacle. Even though the people are very friendly, and you can get the most essential things with very basic chinese and lots of gestures and some drawings.

Still, it’s so much easier here in malaysia, where they speak both English and Malay / Indonesian…

Anyway, it’s great to be able to post here again. We will stay here for 2 nights, and then head for Indonesia, where I have no idea if i will have net access.