Market day in Moni

This post is dedicated to David, who is a fan of the Asian market experience 😉

Moni is a tiny village serving as “base camp” for trips to the famous colour-changing Kelimutu lakes. On Mondays, people from the nearby mountain villages as well as the seaside fishing settlements come to trade fish, vegetables, fruits, and general household items. Definitely no supermarkets around here. But everything is super fresh, and you definitely won’t get sick of pesticide overdose here.

I wonder how many years before these handmade ikat sarongs and blankets, which take weeks to to weave, will be completely replaced by cheap Chinese junk.

For half a day, the village is complete chaos and mayhem. Not really for lack of space, more like lack of common sense, they also block the main road of the island as well. Way too many people in way little space. But it’s a nice experience. Even a shabby place like this is exploding with colours. The thing I miss the most now that I had to come back to Europe after 12 years of Asia. All those colours…..

 

 

Village smiles

Village kids from Be’a after the pig-killing ceremony.

 

 

 

New home, new roof

The villagers of Be’a celebrated the completion of new roofs for three homes by sacrificing six pigs and two horses to the ancestors, and smearing the blood all over the village. People from all the nearby villages flocked to share the meat, very crudely cooked 😦  no fine sausages and bacon and fried blood and other pig-killing-day delicacies. Just lots of fun. More photos of kids coming up sometime soon.

 

 

 

 

Wishing it was home

Oops, sorry, this is hopeless.

Ok, not quite. Just too busy here…. trying not to go nuts. Still many things to do to get the guesthouse running.  And the worst emotional rollercoaster ever. I still feel like the most evil person in the whole world. Blablabla. Nothing new here.

Handmade ikat is still a big thing here. Sure to get extinct soon, Chinese blankets and clothes are so much cheaper than putting in weeks and weeks of work.

 

Or, who knows. Many local ladies wear their best ones every night for evening prayers. It’s Mary’s month, every evening they get together at a different house, and in every village, you hear people singing hymns and praying, from a different corner of the neighbourhood.

 

  

Some more village, people and beach pics. I will try to carry a camera around town as well, but it’s more difficult to pull off, for me at least. I don’t wanna stick a camera into the faces of the old ladies who sell me tempe and vegetables and fish. Out in the villages, they get a share of village entry donations for these glimpses, in an organised way.

I have this restaurant photo from last year. Buffet local style. But this week actually I prefer cooking my own fish and vegetables. These places always serve tons of rice, and no tomatoes, and some dead vegetables only, and a little piece of fish. Still very cheap and good, and maybe next week I won’t enjoy cooking anymore so I’ll go back.

Returning to favourite spots

Ok, I’m not officially the worst blogger ever.

 

Going in circles

I don’t even know where all the time is going to, can hardly find enough to follow my online courses, and do the laundry, and finish up reading Harry Potter at last, and make maps, and go to the market to buy fresh fish, and….

The ever-present mountain is looming over everything.

I love being here, but nothing has changed much – still scared, still confused, still full of doubts. But at least for once, I have enough time to wait and see where it is all going.

As for going round in circles, driving all the way around Inerie, a total of about a hundred kilometres, must be one of my favourites of all times, along the coast, black sand beaches, in the jungles, through traditional villages, under cliffs, along rugged dirt roads in some parts. Stunning. (Wanna buy a map?)

The happiest day of my life

Oh, not today. I wish. I just wanted to remember something nice. Just a day when by accident, a curious mix of people, places, events and encounters come together, and something unforgettable emerges. It just happened, totally unexpectedly, in Moni, two years ago. I had been so scared to go to such a remote corner of Indonesia, but the fears disappeared within hours, as I found people who treated me like family. A piece of my heart was left there forever on that day….

….and I wish it hadn’t been shattered. I meant to return and stay. I really did. But it is not my decision anymore.

But actually, I’m hoping the best day of my life was not simply laughter and games, going to church, the hike to the lakes, walking down the mountain, meeting dozens of people on the way, more playing around with the Bintang Lodge family, then market and farewell the next morning.

Sometimes I’m hoping the best day of my life is yet to come. It is just so difficult to believe it, as I still think that I don’t really deserve anything good, it just happens to me by accident sometimes.

The photo in the header was taken a year and a half later, on a different day, a desperate and sad day, yet a beautiful day, as my spirit is free at Kelimutu, like a bird, and gains momentary release from all that is dragging it down.

Hammock time

I’m a seriously lazy person and I thoroughly enjoy doing nothing in a hammock. These have been some of my hammock highlights where I enjoyed sleeping under the stars at night and seeing these views during the day.

Ko Chang, 2005

Ko Tao, 2010

Togean Islands, 2013

Raja Ampat, 2013

Flores, 2013

I wish I had a hammock in my living room! Haven’t figured out how to do that.

(The view from the hammock in the header is of course the iconic old pier on Kanawa island, in 2012.)