back to suraboyo, 50 hours by sea

one might think that a 50hr boat ride on a crowded indonesian ship during the beginning of ramadan (month of muslim fasting) in economy class would not be enjoyable.. one might even think it would be a lot like what hell would be like...
oh how wrong one would be!!!
ln fact it was such a great time and by the end of it i had many friends and was sad when the boat docked!! umi patria and her family (pictured below) are people that i am so glad to have met.. they invited me to visit them in their beautiful small village on the north coast of the island madura.. i would later spend much time with them again far removed from the outside world.... have i mentioned that i absolutely love indonesia?

good bye borneo, for now...

borneo will always be a special place for me.. i arrived expecting nothing and left with 2 months that i will never forget.. i wanted to push myself and really struggle but i ended up enjoying every second of it so, though it was difficult, there was no real struggle at all.. the highlights here are the remoteness, natural beauty, and above all the people... from all of the smiling faces in the dayak villages to my malay family to deccy's kampung, borneo was sooooo much more than i ever couldve imagined.. now working on getting back to cycle the other half!!!

IN THE KAMPUNG WITH DECCY

kampung is an indonesian word for a very small village... my friends in malaysia recommended that i meet their friend deccy on my way back through west kali to pontianak, where i would catch a boat back to java.. deccy, who lives in pontianak, was 180km away in the small village she grew up in looking after her father as her mother had become ill. I met her there and planned on staying the night and leaving in the morning, but my stay turned into a week and i didnt want to leave! i fell in love with life in the remote surroundings.. there were no nearby neighbors and the house was situated amidst many lakes and jungle as well.. the house had electricity for only a few hours in the evening and everyday we would eat vegetables from the forest, catch fish or snails, and bathe in the river...
i was so amazed at the beautiful simplicity and contentment of life in these conditions.. deccy taught me to cook many vegetables that i had never seen before and also taught me one of the most important skills ive ever learned: how to make sambal!! sambal is the basis for indonesian food and, although there are many types, it is basically a very spicy paste made by hand from chile, fermented prawn paste, salt, sugar and juice from a local citrus that resembles a lime, but tastes more like an orange.. the 'sambal' that we used to get in restaurants in the states was a very poor representation of its original version..
after one week of pure contentment i wondered 'is this the type of life ive been looking for? a simple beautiful life were each day was enjoyed and spent sustaining oneself?'

when the time came to leave, this was a tough place to pedal away from... very very tough

back with my brothers in sosok

makasi banyak teman2q di sosok.. dua hari yang senang dan g lupa.. aq mau kembali lagi.. foto ini mandi di sungai dengan nels, dicky, dan leonardus..

after 2 amazing weeks in malaysia i came back to indonesia and had the opportunity to do something that i normally never do, revisit somewhere.. my first time thru sosok i met dicky and nelson who run a local cybercafe.. these guys were so cool and we kept in touch via internet.. so when i passed through sosok again i was happy to spend a couple days hanging out with them.. they put me up in the cafe and i made many friends... on the morning i left nels said 'mike you are our brother now, we go bathe in the river' (in indonesian of course)..
riding away the empty feeling that i know so well set in, but wouldnt last long as i was about to meet deccy and have one of the most memorable weeks of this journey experiencing life in a beautiful small village amidst jungle and lakes..

FOOD: sarawak, malaysia...

one of the first things that i noticed in malaysia that was different from indonesia was the number of chinese things.. people, characters, and food.. in indonesia the history with the chinese is less friendly and it is not legal to display chinese characters..
kuching had so much amazing food ranging from traditional dayak fare to a variety of noodles in brothy goodness.. i kept thinking: 'this is so amazing, why have i never seen any of this in nyc?'

caves in sarawak...

i love caves.. my malay fam took me to check out 'gua angin' wind cave which is in sarawak borneo.. it was much different from the new mexico caves which were made of limestone with crazy looking formations everywhere.. the cool thing about these caves was that i was completely alone the whole time i was inside, unlike the tourist filled carlsbad caverns...

with my malay family in kuching

when i stumbled into kuching i was not in good shape, my body had all it could take and i was weak and looked like hell.. i immediately met some cyclists and they brought me to a local hangout, arif hotel, where there is a plaza and all the local cyclists gather before and after rides.. they summoned the 'clunny of borneo' aka piruz macpherson.. piruz, my 2nd father, is the king, he is a very nice guy for whom i have much respect.. he took me in and my 2 day trip to kuching turned into 2 weeks!! his wife caroline and daughters are such fun people and im proud they consider me family.. they all made me feel very comfortable and at home which was a nice change of pace from the nomadic gypsy lifestyle i now lead..

we went to national parks and saw orangutan (orang hutan 'forest people'), also saw crocodiles and ate soooo much amazing food (that is for another post!)

i enjoyed my time so much in kuching that i decided to look for work there and maybe spend a year, so we'll see..