Malang, Indonesia- July 13, 2001
Just arrived in Malang early this morning. Its mountain city, and so far everyone that I've told that I will be coming here, keeps telling me how cold it is up there. I arrived today, and really hot. Although of course I see the locals wearing jean jackets and sweaters, and of course just regular shirts, anything you want. But its definetly not cold here. But if you live your life in Indonesia, then I guess its just not anywhere near as hot as places like Jakarta or Bali or 90% of the rest of the country.
The attention rate from locals is extremely high here. This is a place where most foreign tourists or travelers completely miss. I can feel it when I walk down the street and everyone turns to look at me. Constant hellos, and little children following me occasssionally holding their stomachs hoping I'll feed them. In interesting note regarding giving to people. Its a hard game to play, because if you give, then that means the next foreigner that walks by will get the same treatment, then eventually they demand you have to give them something. The cycle gets worse and worse, so you'll notice that vry few foreigners give money. Myself included. Sounds cold and hard, but as a foreigner, I am constantly hounded by taxi drivers, shop owners, bicycle drivers, poor people, and a continous line it sometimes feels like, and they target me because the conception is I am wealthy, rich, and money means nothing to me.
Actually I was walking down the street saying hello to so many strangers (wanting something from me), and I began to think. I often heard foreigners who go to America and complain that Americans don't smile and say hello to them as they walk down the street, and now I am thinking more and more about that. If foreigners visiting the USA were perceived as having masses amounts of wealth and were well known to give out freely, then I'm sure every American in USA would also constantly say hello to every foreigner and follow them up and down the street asking if they can take them anywhere they want, feed them, give them stuff, etc.
Okay, on to other things. In my hotel, I saw an Indonesian girl and a really young foreigner guy. I wondered who he was and who she was, and after seeing them around a few times, when she was gone, he said hello to me. It turns out he is a Swedish guy who has been in Indonesia for two months. The girl who was with him he has been chatting with over the Internet for a year and a half. She is a local Malang girl. Surprisingly, she sent him a third of the costs that it takes for him to get from Sweden to Malang. I was amazed by that, and she said that she has money. She even went to Jakarta to meet him at the airport. I was really surprised at this love story. So, he's been staying in Malang seeing her everyday since. He has also told me quite a few stories he has experienced of attempted robbery and pickpockets, and a little harsh treatment when he is with his girlfriend. Its quite interesting. Plus he has been reading all the "Indonesian Stories" about all the massive killings throughout the country, and the bombs in Jakarta, and all the other general madness. His main warning to me was 'beware of the Madura man, who is well-known to knife his opponent in the back'. Incidently, Madura is an island north of Surubuya and not too far from here. Interesting.
Okay, well before arriving in Malang, I spent the last several days in Yogjakarta. My first feelings towards this place was a little of awe and excitement, and made me question myself why I had stayed in Jakarta and Bandung so long. Both of the first two cities were okay, but Yogjakarta had so much more culture and beauty I was really amazed!
My first night in Yogjakarta, I went to a famous presentation of Ramayama. It was a ballet theater performance, with lots of cool scenes, lighting, and costumes. The theater is in front of a very old and famous ruin called Prambadan. The theater was under the open night sky, with lots of bright vivid lights showing off vivid bright costumes. The bats flew from structure eating the mosquitoes, making it equally interesting. We sat on cement seating structures, which I couldn't tell had been there for a thousand years like the background of the famous Prambadan historical city, or it had been constructed solely for the theater, regardless, it was a great performance, and made me quite happy to make it this city. The next day I went to another famous site called Bobodur, which is famous throughout Southeast Asia for its ruins. (Similar to Angkor Watt in Cambodia, but on a much smaller scale). I noticed alot of Buddha sitting peacefully throughout the structures, except for the many Buddha heads which were torn off and sold on the Black Market ending up in Thailand and being distributed throughout the world for high money. Also, saw alot of trash everywhere throughout the ruins, everything you can imagine, and they hired a crew of locals to sweep and take all the trash down that people threw all over the place. When I came down, I walked through tons and tons of locals selling just about everything you can imagine.
When I got back to the city of Yogjakarta from the ruins, my short (love) affair or interest in the city began to die. I was constantly being followed around and asked by many locals where I was going and if they could take me and to go to Batak dealers. Actually I tried to change hotels, and had walked around a little bit looking. Once I found a place, all of those guys who hang out on that street knew where I was going, they even seem to know your hotel room and hotel room number. As I had my backpack and bags on me changing hotels, one of the local bicycle drivers followed me asking 'where are you going' many times to me, and as I ignored him, he began unzipping my bag off my back, and I caught him and all of his friends laughed. Kind of irritating though. I wanted to tell him to "f*&$ Off!" but you have to remember that these guys know everything about you and where you are going and when you came and where you are from and your hotel name and number. If they seriously want to screw you over they can, so unfortunatley you can only smile and give them that 'i caught you' while adding 'you fricken ass hole' in the back of your mind. Kind of catch-22 where you have to keep your cool, becaus they really do have the upper hand in such things.
Anyhow, I began to get pissed off everytime I left my hotel, and tired of the constant attention, but I was able to get through the backdoor of my hotel, and enter a different hotel coming out on the opposite side of the street. Made me feel a little better because then the locals outside my hotel couldn't monitor my every coming and going. But of course on the other side, you had a whole new crew, but they were a little confused I think because they didn't know my room number and stuff. Finally when I got my ticket to Malang later the day, some of the locals asked me about that as I was walking them. "So you going to Malang tonight?", apparently information travels fast around here. Made me really glad to be getting out of there.
Unfortunetely of all things, I was hanging out with some local travelers, and met one of the waitresses just briefly, just casual conversation, and on the evening that I was waiting for my bus, I went to go to talk to her, and she wanted to see me more and wanted me to stay. We exchanged emails, and against my better will, I will probably go back just to see her again. So it looks like I'll have to go back to that city.
Next Journal Entry:
July 16, 2001
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