Gili Air – a tiny paradise
17.-18. May
After one night in Singgigi we bought the tickets to Gili Air in our hotel (60 000 IDR) which included the drive with the shuttle bus and the boat to Gili Air. When we arrived at the harbor the boat was ready to leave but we were not allowed to enter because the drivers told us that we had the wrong tickets. So we went to the Ticket Information to exchange our white tickets against almost the same ones in green and hurried back. The boat had left directly in front of us!! Typical Indonesia! So we had to wait until around 25 people were waiting for the boat which took around 1 hour. The next boat we shared with some tourists, some locals and a 2 m big fish cut into 2 pieces.
We arrived at the most beautiful island I have seen by now. The water was lightly blue and the island was so small that it takes you around 1 hour to circle it. There are no motorcycles due to its size and the sandy ways, only bikes and carriages which makes it really clean and quiet. The whole island seems to be consisting of nice hotels and restaurants with an amazing sea view and you can enjoy unbelievable beautiful sunsets while enjoying a cocktail at the beach. The prices for food and cocktail are around 50 000 IDR, so quite expensive if you are used to pay Jogja-prices.
Around half of the people are from abroad and some of them started their business here, writing their advertisements in German, English, French, Malaysian…And they are really friendly here and compared to Bali don’t insist of making you buy sth. It seems that the whole island is a big family so they don’t care where you stay because you will stay somewhere here. We stayed in Mawar which is a lovely Backpacker hostel only around 120 000 IDR – no sea view but breakfast.
The last evening we spent at a nice Mexican bar which sold really good Mexican liqueur and the barman told me (after I did it for 100 times wrong) that you don’t call younger men or men in the same age “mas” but “bro”. Mas is the Javanese form of address but on the islands like in Lombok or Gili you say bro. In the Indonesian language there are several words how you call other people. Women in the same age as you are or younger women are called “mba”. Older women are called “ibu” and older men are called “pak” (don’t pronounce the k).
Lombok – the former Bali
13.-14. May
After a 5-6 hour drive with the public ferry from Padang Bai in Bali and a 30 min drive with the shuttle bus (150 000 IDR, but there might be cheaper alternatives) we finally arrived in Mataram – the capital city of Lombok. We found out that it’s relatively expensive to get to Kuta and to the Gili Islands. So we decided to eat a soup and talk about the best solution how to get to Kuta in the south. A conversation between us and the 2 Indonesians – Ali and Arya – on the table next to us arose. It turned out that they planned to drive to Kuta to visit some of their bank customers. At the beginning we were a bit skeptic and wrote a message to our friends to search for us if we hadn’t replied on the same evening but indeed it was a really nice experience. We had some lunch together and met the family of Ali’s friend. Ali and his friend kept touching each other’s hands and held it sometimes. I think it’s a sign for being friends here. When the grandfather appeared Ali and Arya greeted him by holding his right hand with their both hands and took a bow so that their foreheads were on the grandfather’s hand. This is a Muslim symbol for great respect. Another special Lombok handshake starts with a “normal” handshake but then you turn the hands so that both thumbs are embracing each other. I hope I could explain that so that you can understand it 😉 It symbolizes strong life and friendship.
Lombok is a really noisy city. Really!!!! You can hear an approaching motorcycle from far away. In addition it’s even hotter than in Bali and if you’re lying at the beach it won’t take a long time until small children try to sell you bracelets saying “Oh, so sexy”, “You are so beautiful so you need a beautiful bracelet”. I bought one! For 5 000 IDR (40 Euro cents). The prices are lower than in Bali but still higher than in Yogyakarta. Everything has to be shipped to the island.
And here are a lot of dogs, only a few cats. In Jogja it’s the other way round… One day we were laying at another beach called Selang Belanak and I was waiting for Mona to finish with her surfing because it was recommended to us to not let our stuff be unattended. So I was lying at the beach having an eye on our stuff – but not on Mona’s little plush toy dog Zmoulz. When I turned around to see if it’s still there it was gone. Oh my god! She LOVES this dog and it even has its own blog (I know that sounds weird if you don’t know the whole story) and I was the one who let it being stolen! F***. I hurried to the Indonesian guys sitting close to one of the huts and shouted “Dimana?” -Where? cause I didn’t know the word for plush toy. The Indonesian women simply handed it to me! I just grabbed it while trying to look as angry as I could. Later when Mona came back from surfing she didn’t wanna believe what I told her.
The people here (excluding the Zmoulz thief) are friendlier than in Bali but you still have the impression if you talk to them that they just want to sell you sth. cause most of them are somehow related to tourism or have friends who do. But it’s not surprising as Lombok is still an undeveloped and poor island and locals are dependent on tourism besides fishing and a little bit of farming. The skin color of the locals is much darker than in Jogja. They are still used to work on the fields and they don’t seem to care about their skin color. It becomes obvious now why the “city-people” in Java don’t want to get tanned: they relate it to the poor people working hard. So they want to differentiate as a symbol of being rich and modern and not having to work anymore on the fields. The houses are mostly built out of bamboo and straw which looks really pretty and rural. But surprisingly the streets are way better than in Jogja – no wholes, no stones on the streets that can break your wheels.
In my opinion it’s the perfect spot if you are a group of surfers as you can find beautiful beaches, surf spots and many other surfers. There are a few bars and restaurants and the Magic Café is a nice place to enjoy some cocktails and live music. However, it’s quite empty and there’s not too much to do besides surfing and hanging around at the beach. In the north of Lombok you can climb up the Rinjani mountain which takes at least 
3 days but we didn’t have enough time.
Today our 2 friends picked us up in Kuta (btw: we stayed in Melon homestay for 100 000 IDR and Lamancha was also recommended to us by a friend) and drove us to Singgigi which is in the north of Lombok close to the Gili Islands. We stayed at the Lina Cottages which was really nice because it is located directly at the beach and is around 150 000 IDR for a standard double room.
In the evening we enjoyed the last beautiful sunset in Lombok with a beer at the beach. A beach seller after having promoted its unique necklaces explained to us the new trash system – an effort by the government to get this huge problem under control. For every single can and bottle they get between 500 and 100 rupiah. I think this is a cutting edge approach (for Indonesia) as it not only reduces unemployment but also keeps the beaches more clean and raises people’s awareness for environmental issues.
Guest lecture about Cultural Differences
01/05/2013
Today we had a guest lecture by a Dutch professor – Mr Adrian Borggreve. Previously this lecture had been rescheduled to a date when we usually have another course. Both the lecturers couldn’t guarantee to us that not being present at the referring lecture would not result in an absence note. So we either had an absence note in the guest lecture or in the other one. Great! So I texted to the vice dean and luckily he solved this mess.
Being bored from the mostly overly theoretical lectures we were looking forward to sth different. While waiting for the elevator he joined and instantly introduced himself as Adrian – not as Professor Dr Something- which gave me a pretty good first impression. The lecture turned out to be really interesting and pleasantly refreshing. I really like to listen to people’s personal experiences and opinions as they give you a far better impression about sth, remains in your memory and you can use them as a basis for your own experiences. He pointed out that the most important when experiencing a different culture is RESPECT and reducing the blind spot referring to the Johari Window by Joseph Luft and Harry Ingram by receiving feedback. What I consider to be the most important point he mentioned is to always ask the locals how to behave. This will give you the greatest insight into the culture and the locals will feel respected for their traditions and cultures. And – of course – learning the language.
When comparing the differences in “giving respect” he said that in Asian countries people “receive” respect when they are in a higher social and/or academic position. However, he wants to be respected for what he is achieving or doing. I think I am just one person among many whose credit this lecturer gained.
What I learned in this guest lecture is that I was all the time only scratching on the surface; seeing Indonesia most of the times through the eyes of a tourist and also my articles on this blog are rather superficial. The lecture motivated me to think more about this culture which is so different to mine and I will now do a first step and try to describe the main differences of one day in Jogja city:
When I wake up the very first sounds I hear are the melodies and the noise coming from the street vendors walking around with their tiny mobile shops. Today the gardener joined and swept in front of my window at 5:45 am. Noise in Indonesia is omnipresent and people are used to get up early. Around 80 % of the Indonesians are muslims and pray 4 times a day – even in the night at 3 am. The prayers sound in loudspeakers so you hear it everywhere you are. As you cannot buy “real” breakfast here I either have to wait for the cafeteria to open at 9:30 am or I buy a chocolate bread, which is more like a hamburger roll with some cream and chocolate crumbles; but way too sweet – the same with many drinks. Next I start my motorcycle and struggle my way through the traffic. In the first weeks I had problems with the orientation but meanwhile this is no more problem. But if you search for sth special you better ask your friends. People here rely on “Word-of-Mouth”. Only big shops or chains have homepages, so if you search for sth special pay attention to the vast quantity of signs in the streets. Then we attend the courses – all in long clothing. Not only due to the university regulations but also because of the AC. Indonesians seem to like it cool and fresh – escaping from the tropical heat, humidity and the vast quantity of mosquitos. They also love air freshener. If you live in an Indonesian neighborhood you will hear them in the afternoon and in the night singing local songs. Singing and therefore also Karaoke is a popular free time activity. The only broadcasts I saw on TV’s were talent shows. During the 2.5 months that I have already been here, I experienced some difference between the younger and the older generation. Students here seem to have a similar lifestyle like students from Europe. They like to be on Facebook. Only few of them have no account and the average user has a few thousand friends, which is even more compared to Germany (around 300 friends). They like to drink beer and meet in bars and some of the girls try to become white. When I asked a friend of mine, she replied that they might do this to be more attractive in the boys’ eyes. Being white symbolizes that the girl is caring about her health. I have the impression that also the Western influence is one factor. However, only the very Western oriented Indonesians visit clubs. Some of the really old Indonesians in the villages still carry their harvest by walking and live like once the farmers lived in Europe.
Since I don’t want this article to become too extensive I stop at this point. But as videos tell more than pictures and a picture is worth a 1000 words my next step will be to upload some videos on Youtube. For now I will now grab my “bahasa Indonesia” book and try to commit those weird words to my memory.
Indonesia study trip 