surf plaques on their bikes and wearing just the bath short. Yes, it is true, the religion is different. Hinduism. But not so much like the one in India. In Makassar you could not show up dressed like this on the streets. In Kuta you can find pubs, restaurants, night life. In the first night there, I just sat on some stairs and watched the spectacle of the street. Normality. My normality. But the rest of Indonesia has nothing to do with what is there. In Kuta, I felt like in Saint Tropez, for example. Indonesia has a lot of green and blue, dust and dirt, horns and bikes loaded more like a jeep. Indonesia has lots of flip-flops on the road. Almost all bikers have lost one while driving. Indonesia has ojek and becak, bemo, pete-pete and angkot. Indonesia doesn`t have sidewalks and sometimes not even roads. And for sure not so many supermarkets. Indonesian don`t weare short trousers but sarong, both for women and men. Indonesia has traffic lights just to give you “a suggestion�, definitely not to stop when the color is red. Obviously, Indonesia has more than 48 hours in a day and sometimes even more.Because, yes, they all live according to "jam karet". Indonesia smells like durian, coconut and green tea, strawberry, fried rice si noodle, tempe, fried banana, martabak and terang bulan. Indonesia smells like fermented trash from the wide open canals that cross every city. Indonesia smells like bike motor oil, dust and pollution. But, sometimes, when you are up on a hill, it smells like clouds. They come and embrace you and even enter your body, as you inhal them. A few seconds later, the clouds triumphantly leave. People smells sweet from the scented oils and their clothes are almost wet, due to the humidity out here. The houses smells like fried food and mold. Except the ones in Bali. Here the houses have a delicate flower perfume. In Indonesia legs should not be exposed (except in Bali) but you can so easily see women breast- feeding and just letting their breast fall down from their baby mouth. In pete-pete, bemo, ships, on the street, while they talk about their lives and while asking millions of questions: are you a Russian or Australian, where do you live, for how long are you here, where is your wife / husband,
DARMASISWA SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM Academic Year of 2012/2013
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