a lush, steamy and extraordinary adventure

By Crystal Robert

Sweltering heat and sweaty, smiling faces greeted our tired and cranky group after we traveled more than 20 hours from El Paso. This long trek away from the dry desert was due to a trip sponsored by the UTEP communication department in collaboration with Rare Conservation Group, a social marketing group that works toward biodiversity conservation. Twelve UTEP students landed in Jakarta, Indonesia, on June 21, 2009. 

After losing a day by crossing several time zones, and still dazed from our traveling in a state of disbelief, the only thing keeping us from still believing that we’re not in the U.S. was the heavy smog that filled the air and the strange language we had yet to become accustomed to.

Before we began our journey, we spent some time in a classroom, attempting to learn the primary language in Indonesia, Bahasa, and become familiar with the culture and food. Despite the high marks we earned and our confidence level in class, we were not and could not have been prepared for the culture shock we experienced.

Our first experience in Indonesia found us crammed into an automobile, where the driver was located on the right side of the car rather than the left. We quickly learned that when we traveled by auto, we were likely to find ourselves uncomfortably close to each other, and that street lanes were more like suggestions rather than the rule.

The Indonesian people are known to be some of the friendliest and most helpful in the world. Once our cab driver learned we were from the U.S., he greeted us with a smile and held his thumb up and said, “Obama, he’s from here too.” He was referring to our current president’s varied cultural background.  

Any fears that we may have had that we, as Westerners, would not be favorably greeted in this country were immediately quelled after this comment. Throughout our time in Indonesia, we encountered more of the same. 

Indonesia is the world’s fourth-most populated country and is made up of 17,508 islands. Throughout our three-week stay, we spent the majority of our time on the islands of Java, Borneo, Kalimantan and Bali. 

Besides the vast expanse of the country, I was immediately taken aback by its climate, lush vegetation and its varied cultures. Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world, and it would prove to be a culture shock that was as dangerous as it was intriguing.

The Muslim community is called to prayer four times a day beginning at 4 a.m. The prayer calls are loud and the low chanting of the prayers is haunting. We were instructed by our professor, Stacey Sowards, and our Bahasa instructor, Dimas Wijaya, not to use our left hands as traditionally the Muslim population uses that hand for toilet purposes. We also learned that pork is not eaten because they are considered to be filthy creatures. Being immersed in the Muslim culture was an eye-opening experience.

Jakarta is a living, breathing entity of its own. The concrete beneath our feet throbbed, radiating the heat back up to the sky above as savagely as it pressed down upon us. Although Jakarta is one of the most developed areas of Indonesia, it is a concrete jungle of sorts, with even more to fear than the wild. Motorcycles abound and are ridden by not just one or two drivers, but by entire families including mothers, fathers, adolescents and babies. People must always keep their wits sharp when walking along the street or attempting to cross against the heavy and dangerous traffic, as a bite from one of the various vehicles on the street is just as deadly as any from fearsome creatures in the more exotic rainforests that occupy most of the country.

The dark-red clay–the color of Mother Earth’s blood–reminds us that she is near. The sun continuously beats down ferociously, and leaves behind a stifling reminder of its presence even as it leaves the sky at 6 p.m. Jakarta also has a distinctive smell; due in part to the burning of trash in the heavily populated areas as well as the clove cigarette smoke, along with the faintest aroma of the burning of copal, a tree resin that is burned as incense as well as traditional incense.

“The dark-red clay–the color of Mother Earth’s blood–reminds us that she is near.”

As we rode in the frail and overcrowded van up steep and narrow roads on the drive from Jakarta to Gunung Walat, the educational rainforest in Java, it occurred to me that Disney’s theme park rides are remarkably authentic. The ride was frighteningly treacherous and made some of us close our eyes, fearful of looking down, while others gasped in terror as the tiny van veered closer to the edge of the road to let other vehicles pass.

Our first experience in the rainforest was in the island of Java. Soon after our arrival, it began to rain; it poured like nothing this desert child has ever seen before. Gunung Walat was also the first time we encountered bathing facilities that were so extremely different in design from our Western toilets. Every bath we took baptized us into our new surroundings and gave us new perspectives on the world.  

Our second experience in the rainforest was far more exciting than the first. I always believed that I would never experience places like Jakarta, Java, Pangkalan Bun, Kalimantan and Indonesia, much less be able to pronounce their names. Once in Borneo, our experience was just as exotic as its name. Prior to embarking on this leg of our adventure, we were housed on a university campus, Institut Pertanian Bogor, where we were pampered with Western toilets, showers and television. The luxury of that experience only caused me to fear what came next all the more.

When we landed in Pangkalan Bun, we began the part of the journey that placed us on a houseboat for three days. Although I can honestly say that it was one of the more uncomfortable times in my life, it was also by far the most rewarding. We traveled by river, docking at several parts of the rainforest, where there were orangutan-feeding sites. Gliding by orangutans at these locations drove home the fact that our accommodations were so beyond our usual comfort levels, but also made it more than bearable. By the second night, we felt that we could have spent weeks on the boat, as it would have been impossible to reach these areas by any other means.

The last place we visited was a five-star spa resort compared to what we had become accustomed to.  We were in Bali, surrounded by Australian tourists and Indonesians who knew how to handle visitors. We stayed in Kuta, Bali, where we found Starbucks, McDonald’s and Pizza Huts once again. Since the population of Bali is mainly Hindu, alcohol was available once again, as well as pork. Although we had been surrounded by water throughout the trip, we were finally on the beach.

As I come to end of this journal, I realize that I have dreaded completing this article. I feared that if I finally stopped writing about my time in Indonesia, it would just be filed away in my memories, a souvenir that would fall to the bottom of a junk drawer. I also feared that when I thought back on my time in Indonesia, I would come to think about it as just a faraway time and place that never took place in reality. But, the bracelets I still wear on my wrist from Borneo remind me of my time on a boat under endless skies, covered in caterpillars, butterflies and sugar ants that didn’t bite. The ring I wear from Bali, will always remind me of the beauty of Indonesia, the island of Bali and the beautiful Hindu culture. 

My hair, which is the color of the orangutans, reminds me that I must always think about conservation efforts to help the land and about people of different cultures and countries.  Despite my short time there, it brought home the fact that I know I can always make a difference in the world by acknowledging the cultures and environments of others and changing my behavior to conserve our resources wherever I live or the places I travel to visit.