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February 28, 2005
kalimantan jungle
the forest near rungan sari, where i was staying. fyi, i was in the central part of kalimantan, about 40 km north of palangkaraya. you couldn't walk on the ground (which is just as well cos the ground is where all the scary snakes and creepycrawlies are), you had to go from tree to tree.
Posted by Yasmina at 01:33 PM
February 27, 2005
back from kalimantan
Got back from Kalimantan this afternoon. I managed to get a flight back to jakarta; my dad was getting upset because I stayed so long here. Was sad to leave as it's such a beautiful place. Back to smoggy "macet" Jakarta again... *sigh*
February 26 2005
I am writing this in Kalimantan, not knowing when I will be able to post it online.
I've been here a few days, and I'm loving it. Walking, mountain-biking, swimming, sunbathing, taking photographs, doing amazing latihan kejiwaan with the others. I am thinking of taking Robert here after our Bali trip, and we'll stay at the Eco Village, and then take day trips down the river, where it really looks like the Amazon in all the documentary movies. Here I am surrounded by lush green scenery. Fresh air. The sun is much much stronger here than in Java or Bali. This place is amazing. It's a very special place. What an experience it is to live here and to grow up here.
The da Silvas
It has been good to see Hamid and Isti, and Ema and Lucas again. I stayed with them in Rungan Sari.
Isti has lost a lot of weight due to her month-long stay in Aceh; she had a difficult time there, and sometimes when I see her, I feel that she is so fragile. She's been busy running around organizing the Subud congress so I haven't chatted to her all that much.
Lucas is so tall and so handsome! Still quiet, but he'd walk with me in the afternoons when I need company. Ema as pretty as ever. Hamid only arrived today although he'd been in Jakarta earlier during the week, having business meetings, I guess, with my dad. I asked him to be the witness at my wedding and he said yes! Yay! He will be in Portugal next week but promised to be back in time for the wedding. :-)
Emalia
Em is so great, she needs a subchapter all about her. She picked me up at the airport, saw me, big hug and kiss, then laughed at how pale I am. "Dasar bule loe," she said in perfect Indonesian whilst showing off her tan.
*ema dan gue tuh hobi banget cela-celaan... kalo elo ga ngerti background keluarga kita, elo mungkin mikir kalo kita berdua tuh rasis abis, abis kita emang suka nyela each other dgn kata-kata seperti yg diatas*
As usual, after I arrived, Ema goes through the clothes in my suitcase; she picks my Diesel kickboxing pants and pink Bollywood flip-flops that João bought me in Rio de Janeiro and goes out to meet her friends. Typical. She is just like Yacinta; invading my wardrobe and borrowing my clothes. They're my sisters though, and I cannot imagine them any other way.
Ema is the girl who went trekking in the Borneo rainforest wearing my Evisu jeans! My special limited edition kimono-lined Evisu jeans! I only found out because she posted a picture in her photoblogof her wearing my jeans in the forest :-S
Ema then proceeds to go through my iTunes collection; she decided she liked most of my music and transferred them into her iBook and she's been playing them constantly. She also hijacked my digital camera for a couple of days because her dad had not yet arrived with her new camera. She made me the best brownies ever though and we stayed up late eating brownies and drinking milk, listening to Hamid's stories.
The Creepy-Crawlies
There is plenty of creepy-crawlies. The bugs here are way bigger than the European ones. The bees are the size of my thumb. The milipedes and centipedes are fat and look crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. The beetles all come out at night and they are huge; their bodies are the size of my index finger, but they are pretty stupid and are always flying into things. I really hate the thought that one would fly into my hair and get tangled up. Eek!
It's scary walking in the dark, because you have to watch where you are going. Ema stepped on a snake when she was looking at bats in the sky and the snake bit her. Oh but don't worry, the snake slithered off before it could release any poison. Ema was also stung by wasps yesterday at the swimming pool. Poor thing.
Meeting New People
As with any Subud event, you're bound to meet new people. I met so many interesting individuals during my stay in Kalimantan. Gaye Thakvisin, who runs Kalimantan Meeting Centre and has been in Kalimantan for 3 years. Stephanie from Devon, who's teaching at the international school in Rungan Sari for 6 months. Mas Madji and Mbak Amy, Mbak Lita, all of Tante Isti's family. Ani and Manda Geiger.
There was not a lot of Subud youth present, in contrast to the European events when there is always a lot of young people around. I was kind of disappointed as I was hoping to meet more of the Indonesian Subud youth *abis dari dulu kok kaya'nya subud youth yg gue kenal ga ada yg orang indonesia deh*
Also at the swimming pool I met Ethan, an American guy living in Bali. He teaches tai-chi and wing-chun and makes wooden dummies and sparring equipment for export. He speaks bahasa Indonesia very well, after living here for 11 years. We are going to take a boat trip down the Sei Gohong river today.
*oh ya, keluarga disini udah pada tau gue mau nikah, jadi mereka suka ngeledekin gue dan Ethan. istilah mereka tuh: nyari selingkuhan terakhir sebelum nikah. yeeee.... tadi aja pas gue lunch di latihan hall bersama Ethan, Mbak Amy was making googly eyes at me*
Getting Sunburned;
Ethan and I got pretty sunburned at the pool. I hardly ever burn and just to be safe, I put on sunblock twice all over, and still I succumbed to the Kalimantan sun. Ethan was in the kiddy pool, sunbathing in shallow water, and he's very used to the Balinese sun, but really, the Kalimantan sun just turned both of us bright red. I could not even sleep on my back last night. I've put on some cooling aloe vera on my skin, and after-sun lotion. My arms and legs are a very nice bronze, but my back is a bright red and is very sore.
When I got home and Ema saw how sunburned I was, she said, "Dasar bule loe, emang ga tahan bermatahari-ria." Aaarrrggghhhh... sebellll....
_______________
More stories later as I update the visual blog. I'm a bit busy this week as we get closer to the wedding date. Robert arrives on Wednesday. Yay!
Posted by Yasmina at 10:30 PM | Comments (4)
February 19, 2005
The colour green...
by Mr Robert, resident blogger
I have decided that 2005 will be the year of the colour green. One of the reasons why I bought this jacket (and because I really like it) I guess this is a piece of clothing that some people would refer to as pimpy stuff...
Posted by at 04:35 PM | Comments (1)
ladida dida dida dida
*blog gue sepi pengunjung yah?*
nothing new to report. same old same old. updated the blog. going for a fitting for the wedding clothes tomorrow. delivering the invitations. my dad is having the bulk of the invitations sent by courier instead of the postal service, but in the old days, it was custom for the wedding couple to go and deliver the invites themselves.
nice excuse to pop to friends' houses for a cup of tea :)
next week something is going to happen that has been making me a bit nervous. okay, not a bit nervous, but a lot nervous. i'm feeling like i need monica or laszlo or robert to tell me i'll be okay. but on the other hand, i'm quite excited and looking forward to it. and no, it's not related to the wedding.
oh, and i am off to borneo next week for 5 days or so. i don't know yet, i just bought a one-way ticket, hihi, in case i decide not to come back to jakarta. i'll be running around the borneo rainforests. will take loads of photos but i'm not sure how my access to the internet will be...
Posted by Yasmina at 12:27 AM | Comments (9)
February 18, 2005
parents' garden: gazebo
siraman is the event before the wedding where the groom and bride have to bathe in water with 7 kinds of flowers and water from 7 sources. the little gazebo hut is where my mom is planning for us to sit and have the "elders" of the family pour water on us.
Posted by Yasmina at 06:40 PM
parents' garden: greens
Posted by Yasmina at 06:38 PM
parents' garden: mom de-weeding
Posted by Yasmina at 06:36 PM
parents' garden: vivid purple plant
look at the amazing colors that nature produces. i think i took a photo of the same type of plant during my visit to my mom's mountain house in west java last summer. my mom loves their color so much that she decided to move some to our garden at home.
Posted by Yasmina at 11:07 AM
parent's garden: guardians of the door
these two balinese statues guard the front doors of my parents' home.
Posted by Yasmina at 10:59 AM
February 17, 2005
yacinta and her pore pack(s)
she's going to kill me if she finds out that i've posted this here...
Posted by Yasmina at 05:48 AM
February 16, 2005
sadness on wednesday
my parents' new house in bogor lakeside is in a very green, hilly residential area. we don't have very many neighbours, so it's pretty quiet, cool breezes sweep through the house all day, we hear frogs and crickets and sometimes birds at night. it gets very dark at night so it can get creepy, but security guards patrol the area regularly, and you feel pretty safe.
public transport is scarce in this area; everyone drives their own cars and no one ever comes here unless you live here, or visiting someone here.
as soon as you leave the private property of the housing complex, just a few hundred meters down the road, you will see small wooden roadside stalls. in these simple buildings, people make their living, selling food in warung nasi, or pondok bubur ayam, or simple warung selling basic goods, like flip-flop sandals, kerupuk, cigarettes, aspirin, matches, fruit.
this morning when i drove by to get some bananas at the fruit stall, they were still standing. however, a few hours later, when i drove into town again, everything had been torn down. the wood of the stalls and zinc plates of the roofs were all lying in a heap. on some of the buildings left standing, yellow police lines were put up to mark off the area.
the only thing that was not destroyed was a couple of stalls, selling plants and flowers. i suppose because it wasn't really a stall, it was a bench with a roof, kind of like a gazebo and the plants the man was selling just blended into the roadside, a pretty natural display.
i saw cooking utensils, boxes of goods, and other belongings all on the side of the road. people were still poking through the remains of their shacks, i suppose looking for anything else they could salvage. they looked really sad. it was really hard to watch; a guy was collecting his things and handing them to his wife who stood nearby and watched with an uncomprehensible expression on her face.
i felt so so bad for them. the shacks were probably illegal, built on the side of the road like that with no trade permission. still. the people were trying to make a living. they weren't bothering anyone. actually, i can imagine the security guards of bogor lakeside finishing their shift and grabbing something to eat at the warung nasi before going home. or students from universitas pakuan nearby having their meals there.
i dunno. it just bothers me. i mean, in general i hate these roadside stalls that block the street or the sidewalk so cars and pedestrians need to swerve out of their way. they create traffic jams and leave a lot of trash behind. but these guys were really on the side of the road.
*well, ok, so they should pay a small fee for trash removal and using public property*
i hope they are getting moved elsewhere in the city, and not just getting removed and having their shops taken down. :(
Posted by Yasmina at 07:13 PM | Comments (3)
February 15, 2005
my sister and her son
Posted by Yasmina at 05:46 AM
February 14, 2005
my dad and his grandson
Posted by Yasmina at 05:42 AM
February 11, 2005
a lesson on kebaya and batik: part 1
what a horrible title. part one. so you know there's more coming...
this week i have been to the wedding stylist and the kebaya man. the kebaya is the traditional javanese blouse for women, which is worn over a batik cloth, accompanied by a matching batik sash. the modern kebaya has many variations, made from different materials and having different style cuts, adorned with hand-sewn sequins or embroidery, and can be worn over skirts, dresses, even jeans.
robert loves kebaya on me so in the summer i wear kebaya over trousers with sandals to work. i love wearing kebaya, it's so feminine. for the wedding, i will have two kebayas made: the first one for the religious ceremony, the second for the javanese ceremony and reception.
the kebaya man is a guy who makes the kebaya. the guy i went to is fairly well-known for his creations, and has his shop in south jakarta. i went with my cousins, who are also getting their kebayas made to wear at the wedding.
the kebaya man and i talked about the kebaya styles i liked, the cut that would flatter my shape. he looked at the material i brought, analysing the pattern and he drew several sketches for me before we agreed on the final design. he will make matching shoes as well and will fill all the motifs in the brocade with sequins *bhs indo: payet*
*omg. how heavy is that going to be? i'm trying to imagine this poor person trying to hand-sew all the sequins, and then i imagine myself wearing this really heavy kebaya during the reception, and the kebaya man assured me that it will look gorgeous, so i must be a woman after all, since i'm willing to suffer to look good*
next stop, the wedding stylist. the consultation was like going to history lesson. it was really interesting. i learned about the different batik patterns and the history behind it. truntum is a pattern that only the parents of the wedding couple can wear. the word truntum is derived from the javanese "turun-menurun" which roughly translates to generations/generating.
in the old days, weddings were held at home and we didn't have a stage or pelaminan on which the wedding couple and their parents would stand to greet their guests, instead they would socialise amongst their guests. so, by wearing the truntum batik cloth, guests can distinguish the hosts of the wedding, who are usually the parents of the wedding couple, from the other guests.
before the wedding of my father's oldest brother, the first of my grandparents' six children to get married, my grandfather commissioned an artist to make a truntum design for him and his wife. my grandparents wore this truntum batik for all six weddings of their children, and they wore it to their 50th wedding anniversary celebration. to this day it is still kept at my grandfather's house, wrapped in crepe paper, and aired every once in a while.
my father is considering wearing the truntum batik cloth of his parents at my wedding, but we must first check if it is still ok to wear. it would be cool if they could use it.
more batik lessons next blog update. :)
Posted by Yasmina at 10:15 PM | Comments (4)
February 10, 2005
life under the bridge
i thought i saw a wooden man today. or rather, i mistook a man for being a piece of wood. i was looking out the window of the car and saw him lying on the grass, on a patch of green on the side of the road. he was lying on his side, not a young man, an old man, his body wrinkled and sinewy. he was dark brown and shiny, like polished wood, and lighter brown on his joints and where his bones protruded under his skin, his ribcage, his hips.
i remember thinking, what a beautiful carving. then i realized it was man, not wood. he appeared to be sleeping. then i also noticed he was naked. i wondered if he was working and got too hot, so stripped naked and took a nap. or whether he was insane. or whether he was homeless. or both. i didn't even know if he was alive.
anyway, it made me sad. life under the bridge.
we were under the inner circular ring road that circled jakarta. the ring road around jakarta is a raised toll road, about 25 meters off the ground, allowing dual traffic on the toll road and on the road beneath it. so it's not really a bridge as such.
when you're driving on the toll road, you're presented with a view over jakarta; that is, if the smog doesn't get too thick. you can see the rooftops of the dilapidated wooden shacks, the office buildings, the gleaming towers of the financial district.
the road beneath is a lot more interesting. people build their shelter beneath the road, simple wooden or cardboard shacks. street peddlers at the traffic lights, selling everything from cold drinks, cigarettes, plastic globes, gorilla masks, etc. motorcyclists weaving in-between cars. they're a pain in the ass, motorcyclists, they search for death, and they're one of the reasons i don't drive in indonesia.
beggars and street musicians also gather at traffic lights. when i got to indonesia in 1992, i couldn't get used to seeing them. their eyes bore holes through the car, i felt. i didn't know how the others, my cousins, my family, could wave to them away nonchalantly; now i find that i do the same.
sometimes you see more interesting people though. the other night, there was a transvestite, dressed in a dress so tight it was like second skin, his makeup applied more expertly than when i put on make-up (!!!), his hair teased back into a bouncy puff. asian men make perfect transvestites; smaller body build, less facial and body hair, beautiful arms.
he danced in front of cars, playing a tambourine and sang along. he would get turned away, but occasionally, a car window would scroll down and a hand handed him some money.
anyway, anyway, anyway. life is good. been busy. doing family stuff, wedding stuff, and eating indonesian food, glorious indo food. it's a little bit overkill actually.
so yesterday, after getting measured for my wedding costume, i was craving a nice big fresh salad. my cousins drove me to pizza hut pondok indah nearby where i could binge on their salad bar.
i'm going to get ready to go out now. my sister turned 24 today. hooray! we're going out to celebrate... hooray! :-)
Posted by Yasmina at 04:15 PM | Comments (2)
February 02, 2005
getting here ok
the flight was pretty uneventful. i was reminded again of how much nicer SQ is than the other airlines.
i'm at my dad's house now, at bogor lakeside, where everything is still a mess because they're just moving in. i saw a gorgeous sunset from the bedroom window this afternoon. everyone has been trying to feed me. which is very nice!
conversation goes as such:
mom/dad/granddad/relative: it's good to see you! how are you?
yasmina: fine, thanks.
mom/dad/granddad/relative: did you have a good flight?
yasmina: yes.
mom/dad/granddad/relative: have you eaten? what would you like to eat?
yasmina: *pulls out long list of food from her pocket*
repeat this conversation with every indonesian relative i met so far.
i'm heading to jakarta tomorrow i think. drop in on a couple of friends. :)
Posted by Yasmina at 07:31 PM | Comments (11)
February 01, 2005
i'm gone
hah, robert's jealous because i am escaping eindhoven at that carnaval time of the year.
i'll arrive in jakarta in time for lunch at my grandfather's house. it's my ritual: his house is the first and last place i visit in indo.
i wonder what movies they'll have on-board.
*tucks pbook away, waves to everyone and boards plane*
Posted by Yasmina at 07:31 AM | Comments (2)
