Being able to speak Bahasa Indonesia enables me to communicate with the local people anywhere I travel in this nation of 17,000 islands. My first geography lesson in elementary school gave me very little ideas of what those shapely floating lands on the map were actually like when you step on them. My eyes began to open when my uncle flew me from Java to the island of Sumatra in 1979. The sky was clear..and I could see what was underneath the plane! Then with a friend I flew to Bali and then by boat, we hopped on to the next island of Lombok, east of Bali. I could see the mountain afar from the ferry deck. From then on, I got fascinated by the possibilities of discovering more islands and perhaps ... countries.. If my father had been a sailor, I wonder how many islands I would have stepped on. As an Indonesian, growing up in the much competitive city, our idea of traveling was to go out of Indonesia..... a place that would require a passport! That said, we were not encouraged to get to know our nation's geography in the real sense, by our parents or teachers. Rather, just like many young people, especially those who major in English, we were enamoured with the dream of visiting an English speaking country. And here I am, after dozens of passport stamps and so many countries later ..... I revisit my childhood dream.... island hopping within the Indonesian archipelago, by traditional boats, small boats, big boats....any boat... The only way to forget how awful the ozone layer has now become (I am taking some responsibilities in that I do travel quite a bit by plane).
These photos below are small islands between the islands of Flores, Rinca, and Komodo where the last dinosaurs live.
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