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„Indonesian English“ at the marketing lecture at university

proud

Martina uses my photo for a poster promoting her art gallery – few weeks ago I found another one of my shots in an advertisement in the Yak - a Balinese style and fashion mag

Typical Good Day

Thursday. The meeting for the culture excursion was announced for 12:30 pm at Sentral Parkir, Kuta. Woke up that grey rainy morning and had about an hour more until I would have to take a shower and go there. It was windy and a bit cold for local conditions. However, I brushed my teeth, put on boardshorts and was at the beach within five minutes. Still earlier and cloudy, it was empty, the air some kind of misty and the water had the typical colour for that weahter, a matte mix of grey-blue and mintgreen. A perfect medium sized slow and resitant wave was peeling along that lonely beachbreak in front of my compound. There was regular swell with just a little close out. Laura had smsed before that she´s too tired. In the Halfway some hundred meters south as well as in a wave north of me there were only a few surfers. So I was alone in this section, paddeled out with a feeling of hapiness and luck, like a baby dolphin, sliding through the waves. Rode some perfect malibu style crests and compensated three busy days in one hour.


Then I went to the parking area and we got on the bus for our excursion to a traditional Balinese village and two tempels. Pak Suastra, our teacher in Indonesian History and Culture, joined the trip and explained us about the functions of each part of the tempel and about the village architecture. The traditional villages on the mountain slopes of this vulcanic island are always built along an axis from the mountain top where also the temple is situated to the ocean which consitutes another divine vicinity. It was again interesting to see how deeply the people here are into their religion. Almost every house has a temple, every neighbourhood and every village has several temples for different kinds of ceremonies, every district and so on and so forth, Pak Suastra says, that Bali has hundreds of thousands of temples.

Forward and back – but now room 20B

Left Java behind, departure at the airport, taxi to the beach and sunsetsurf for one hour in crowded small waves. Then I moved to a traditional Balinese house in Kerobokan, near where I originally intended to live, but farther away from the sea. The “wow”-room that Mira, the lovely and supersweet Jakarta-Bali babe had shown me was unfortunately rent out already, but nevertheless I got a real nice and very private upstairs room in a traditional Balinese house, with a huge balcony and view over the padi fields and with a nice and easygoing family downstairs. To live in a Balinese house means you almost live within the tempel. The door to my room looks like that of one. Water and bed are clean, and it´s as silent and much cheaper here. Almost started to love that place.





But only almost. Lying in my bed at night I knew already that I would miss the view on the the ocean when driving along the beach on my way to school in the morning. And finally I felt unpleasant to tell the owners that I have to move out already. I moved back on the next day. Got a new room now in the same compound as before, so still the same adress, only the room number changed to 20 B. It´s much more expensive than the familystay and also something more expensive than my old room, which I couldn’t bear anymore. But this room is newer, it is clean and it does even have a hot shower. I just had one and it feels so good after months of cold showers. I finally feel completely at home in that tillte tranquil beach inn. On Saturday morning I will take my board, pass the little palm meadow and will be on the waves in five minutes. Niza, another girl wants to move to a house in Seminyak and asked me to join. I will see. It depends on factors, which I will carefully asses this time. Today we had decision making processes at school – that was one day too late. However, the chance is little that I will move away from here anymore. I love it. And it looks little bit like a temple, too.

Surabaya

Surabaya, the capital of East Java, proofs that Bali is in fact very different from other places in Indonesia. This city is a Moloch. On my first day I already escaped from heat, dust, stench, dirt and poverty to Tunjungan Plaza, a big mall in downtown.


What you see is just one of several domes, which are interlinked by six floors high corridors lined with more or less luxurious shops of all kinds. After Bangkok this is the hugest mall I´ve ever been to. And I see those people shopping: Chinese-Indonesian families, rich Javanese, young wealthy couples, beautiful girls... After having met some rather well-off boys and girls in Bali and seeing this place here now, I start to wonder, where does all that capital come from? These people got lots of time, go out almost every night... I do not want to blame them for that, no. They´re nice people. Doing their job. Sympathetic. But it seems to me to be much easier to get things done with the family background they have. Talked to two girls here in the KFC, and they wondered that I walked from my hotel to here, what is about 10 minutes only. Those people live “aircon”. I also wanna manage an established family business or take the money and realize something new instead of working in order to save the money to open up my own thing lateron. That steals me years. Asia is the future. Germany has missed it´s opportunities. Everything here is bigger and has more style. I find books: Chinese Contemporary Restaurants, Asian Architecture, Bali Style Houses... those places are so posh, you won´t even find anything that comes close to it in our country. And it is all so virtual. A clever composition of raw materials and ideas.

The next day did also become a day of contrasts. I went to Chinatown and the Arabic quarter. It´s an interesting area, where Becaks (kind of rikshaws) carry goods and people through the narrow lanes. Especially the Area around the Sunan Ampel mosque has it´s very own flair. It was interesting so see the youth joking around in the mosque. I sat together with some boys and had a chat. You feel completely different to what you normally perceive in connection with people wearing Peci, long robes and beard when you switch on the TV and get the latest news from the near East. I strolled through the bazaar to try various kinds of sweets and cakes. In the evening I went to some guys which the girls in the mall had recommended. “They will join you. Don´t go alone. There are many criminals. Threaten you with a knife for your mobilephone.” The way to those guys went past very run-down areas and I at first wasn´t convinced of that idea either. But one has to take risks to get something. And I wanted some pictures from the Surabaya ladyboy scene. I took my IXUS only. There are many ladyboys here and they aren't as ugly as I was told, but it´s a poor and pitiful street-scene. Asking produces mostly boring images and hunting for shots isn´t possible with a compact camera. The result of that night is thus just a single sad picture. I don´t know if I will use it for the project. Those guys joining me were far more interested in showing me the “biggest” red light district of Southeast Asia. I suppose that it´s not the biggest. But it comprises varioius streets already. You can watch and choose out of hundreds of girls sitting in rooms behind big windows. They told me the price is between 5 and 25 Dollars. Most aren´t looking good and all are looking bored. The craziest thing: you see even girls wearing veil in those rooms. We went into a pub, I spent some beer, they brought me to downtown, police barricade on the street, discussion why I don´t carry my passport, two dollars for them not bothering us anymore, back in my hotel. Next morning I woke up again by prayers of the muezzin echoing down from the minarets.


To try an answer on the question on capital: the capital comes from a corrupt national economy, that in opposition to Germany missed it´s opportunities to combat poverty and create a broad middle class instead of thousands of rich and millions of poor. The dual economy of that country is omnipresent. You can see poverty in Bali as well, little kids begging on the highway crossroads, but here I almost stumbled over dozens of people lying on the streets like dead when I was out to get some food at the stalls on my first night. After four days in Surabaya I have seen some more poverty, and I didn't even go to the slums. The pedestrian bridge is just outside the mall.


Probably the people who were warning me are right. I suppose that dangerous situations might be possible here. Especially for westerners, and especially if they are outside their cars and carry symbols of wealth like mobiles, watches, cameras. Or even if they arrive at a shabby place by taxi and not by Ojek (motorbike taxi). But nevertheless it might be not dangerous to the extent everybody told me before. I was more than careful here for that reason. But maybe the perception of threat by wealthy Indonesians is more sensitive than my own. In Cambodia robbers have firearms, I had red at that time, and it didn't keep me away from going out at night ... nothing happened. One has to be careful and express a certain level experience and self-confidence towards ones environment. Hanging out in Bali lets you loose this a bit because it´s simply not necessary. But next time in Java I will know what I have to expect. It might be a critical city, and I will indeed need a clever guy helping me with my project as an interpreter and bodyguard as well, but I am not scared anymore of Surabaya. It´s not as nice, easy or interesting as HCMC or Bangkok or Phnom Penh, but it has it´s very own character, too.

clubbing

Saturday night, May, 6th, 2006

out with Reinhold means: get haircut by yoga teaching model – to Huu Bar, Paparazzi and Double 6 on his tiger – doorbitches get us on VIP list – pool – rich people – beauties only – Jakarta young urban scene - drinks – get so flashed – colours – techno beats – tanned bodies - watching – smiling – chatting – with that Singaporean chick - dirty dancing – grab her ass - French kissing – rock on - lost suddenly – Reinhold at home - girls disappeared – what have I been doing - sms – come to Lao Ta – go there – dinner for breakfast – brought me home in her Chevy – sunrise – headache – kiss goodbye

Still defend myself against materialism, all those schicki-micki-hippie-shit, but it´s so difficult surrounded by beaches, bitches, villas, jeeps, motorbikes and all that stuff at this destination of pure luxury and style.

semesterbreak

paddeling out every day – slipping through walls of water – get up get down - get high – music - gangsta hip hop in the water from the volleyball event - gangsta guys around me – atmosphere - being washed awsome and feel like drown - thrill - being outside - hours and hours - surfing until crazy – do my first parallel rides – gliding down the green liquid quarterpipe – riding to the shore – oceanwards again - shoulders becoming weaker and weaker – dark tanned – feel my body again - muscles – forget about all that artificial shit - making it across the breaking barrel right in the moment of the last chance – dropping down heavily on the back – spray raining down – sitting on the board - observing the vicinity – waiting – trying to judge what is rolling up from the sea – dark shadows – a bigger one – the crowd starts racing for it – get it - take off – cruising down the green wall of water – moving – on a board – on a wave – water – on the ocean - on the spinning globe under the sun

lateron lowtide and decreasing swell – make my way home along the palm fringed shoreline – sky reflected by water – heavenly – a beach destination – the ideal place for life – evenings and weekends should be like this – day for day – on and on – dreams – one day – maybe – hopefully

passing the volleyball championship – Thai girls` team fighting – strong women – perfectly shaped bodies – everybody was interested in the game – everybody but one – divine

No news so far. Bali business as usual. Next week I will go to Surabaya in East Java. I will post news from there, maybe that will be more essential for the reader.