friends in madura...

here are some of the people i met along the way in madura...

kalianget youth, a rugged bunch

olivia is the queen of kalianget, eastern madura's port town.. she is so cool and i will miss our mid afternoon conversations.. hope we can hang out again!

late night with my buddies at a wartel in sumenap

adi is the man in sumenap.. he is a great guy and i spent some time with him and his family at his home.. if anyone ever finds themselves in sumenap (the capital of east madura) please let me know and i will put you in touch with him...

i hung out with these little dudes one afternoon in a park in sumenap.. umar on the left was the smartest 10yr old ive ever met.. he quickly noticed my level of bahasa and would purposely enunciate his worlds slowly and explain words that he didnt think i understood... he was sharp with conversation and asked questions that an adult might ask... if i had more time in sumenap i would have spent the rest of the afternoon teaching him to play chess.. little guy is gonna do big things one day for sure

i met hiro, a japanese guy around my age who was super cool.. he was here rebuilding an old style madurese ship that he was going to sail all the way to japan!! i hung out one afternoon with him and his crew.. he offered jokingly to take me with him to japan, but if he were serious i def would have taken an opportunity to sail around southeast asia on such a kick ass ship.. it would have been a long ride back to indonesia though!

was cycling through a small town along the northern coast and i met miftah and his family.. they took me in for the night and i really loved staying with them and spending time with their family.. miftah is from madura but also has a home and works in djakarta (the biggest city in indonesia) so i look forward to meeting up with him there in a couple months.. we had some great meals made by miftah's sister and his brother in law gave me a cool madurese sarong so that i can sleep in the mosques if i need to.. the children woke me up at 2am to watch the usa england football match.. world cup is a big deal in indonesia and even at 3am you can hear nearby people yelling every time there is almost a goal!! lots of fun

trying to beat the midday heat with my buddies in northern madura

i quickly made friends with the 'terang bulan' guy.. terang bulan (clear moon?) is a sweet, crunchy, and thick pancake with cheese, chocolate, and banana.. it is one of my fav things to eat here...