Why the curiosity about Indonesia!
Although Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world, images of Hindu gods and goddesses are seen on Indonesian rupees and postage stamps, in which the bow bearer Shri Ram, the serpent Lord Shiva, the horned Lord Ganesha, Goddess Lakshmi, Vishnu's vehicle Garuda etc. are prominent. Among the seventeen and a half thousand islands of Indonesia, there is also an island called Bali where more than 90 percent of the population is of Hindu religion and many ancient Hindu temples are located. Borobudur Temple, which is said to be the largest in the world, is also located on the island of Java in Indonesia, which is a Buddhist temple. We had a longing to see the culture of these Hindus and their temples across the seven seas. That's why we chose Indonesia for our eleven-day family trip.
Luggage boredom
We had six members in this family team, which included my father Shri Giriraj Prasad Gupta, my wife Madhubala, son Vijay, son-in-law Bhanupriya and one-and-a-half year old granddaughter Deepa. Our family is pure vegetarian who does not use meat, fish, eggs, anything. It was no less than a challenge to arrange vegetarian food and snacks for six persons in a total journey of 11 days. We anticipated that there would be no difficulty in getting vegetarian food in Indonesia's Bali island because 90 percent of Hindus live there, but we were apprehensive that vegetarian food is difficult to get in Java Island because there 90 percent of the population is Islam. Which may not have an urge towards vegetarianism. We were also apprehensive about the fact that in many places fish and eggs are not considered non-vegetarian, whereas for us these things are non-vegetarian. So we took pressure cooker, tawa, cylinder, knife and other necessary utensils and raw materials like wheat flour, ghee, spices and pulses etc. with us for cooking food. Since whole seeds and liquids cannot be carried in many countries, we did not take oil and rice with us. We had to bear the brunt of this throughout the journey. Due to this raw food material, the problem of weight gain occurred, we solved it by reducing the clothes. Didn't take anything to wear and wear clothes to wear at least.
Integration of time and body's biological clock
It was the evening of 13th April when we left for Kuala Lumpur from Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport by Malindo Air flight. Departing from Delhi at 10.05 pm on 13th April, this flight reached Kuala Lumpur at 6 am on 14th April. In fact, we were sitting in the plane for a total of five and a half hours. Accordingly, it was three and a half in the morning in India, but Malaysia, being located in the south-east of India, was running two and a half hours ahead of India, so it was six in the morning.
After one and a half hours i.e. at 7.30 am, we got a flight from Kuala Lumpur Airport to Bali Denpasar which reached Denpasar, the provincial capital of Bali at 10.30 am Indonesian time. Confusion of time also happened at the time of return to India from Indonesia. We left Jakarta on 23 April at 11.30 am and reached Kuala Lumpur at 2.30 pm. Since the time of Kuala Lumpur was an hour ahead of Jakarta, the journey actually took us two hours, not three hours. On 23rd April Malaysian time at 7.00 pm, we left Kuala Lumpur by Air Asia flight and reached New Delhi at 10.00 pm. Due to India's time being two and a half hours behind Kuala Lumpur, we actually took 5.30 hours for this journey, not three and a half hours.
It was surprising that time was not being manipulated only in airport clocks. Our body's biological clock was also changing its internal time in the same way and we were feeling day or night according to the local time. This was probably due to the magnetic waves that have different effects everywhere.
Malindo and AirAsia's air hostess
Malindo Air Flight Service belongs to Malaysia. Malindo flight's air hostess wears a special type of dress. From the neck to the waist there is a tight coat and below the waist, there is an open tahmad which is wrapped only once at the waist. Almost the entire legs are visible in this Tahmad. Indonesia Air Asia Air Flight Service is from the country of Indonesia. The air hostess of this flight wears a neck-to-waist open collar coat and a tight-fitting mini skirt below the waist. I was surprised to see that while the majority of Muslim women in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh consider wearing a burqa as a mandatory religious ritual, air hostesses in Malaysia and Indonesia, which are both Muslim countries, leave their legs uncovered. She also feels very comfortable to keep.
It is even more surprising to see the air hostess of both the countries when they welcome the passengers with folded hands and smile like Indians. His behavior is particularly courteous and with a spirit of cooperation and service. She smiles and performs small services like tying the seat belts of passengers, giving them hot and cold drinking water, putting their luggage in the rack. Says her words politely and while greeting the passengers with folded hands again, wishes them good luck for the journey ahead.
Malindo's hospitality
The hospitality of Malaysia's Air Flight Service 'Malindo' has become an unforgettable event for us. We had booked dinner on April 13 and had given special instructions that 'Jain-food' should be provided to us. It was as per our expectation but to our surprise, on 14th April at 9 in the morning the air hostess showed up with a hot breakfast. We refused thinking that it must be non-veg, but the air hostess insisted that it is completely vegetarian and only contains wheat flour parathas and tur dal.
This breakfast was not booked by us but was provided by air service on our behalf. Those hot paranthas and tur dal sizzled in the Indian way were delicious enough to surprise even Indians. Soaring over the Indian Ocean, this unexpected snack of lentils and parathas was worth remembering for a lifetime. We did not find such kindness and hospitality as Malindo on all three Indonesia Air Asia flights during our travels.
Booking Service Apartments
Since food cannot be cooked in hotels, the problem before us was to arrange our stay in a vegetarian Hindu family. This task was not easy, finding such a family sitting in India was like finding a needle in the sea. The solution to this problem was the facility of service apartments which came into vogue in modern times. In many countries of the world, especially in those countries where tourism is the mainstay of the economy, many families are providing their vacant part of their home to the tourists. These are called service apartments. Some websites have added these service apartments to their system, so that tourists from all over the world can take advantage of them. We selected service apartments that have separate kitchenettes for cooking.
Fortunately, we found a family in Bali in which the husband's name was Putu and the wife's name was Putu Eka. It is a Hindu family and has set up a very idyllic and comfortable flat amidst rice fields, surrounded by glass walls, with facilities like a five-star hotel separate for tourists. It was as if one had come to India and lived in a small dhani and enjoyed comfortable accommodation. We had an apprehension about our own safety. Living a family alone in an unknown country in the middle of the fields was not an invitation to any crisis! However, when we came to know that Mrs. Putu Eka is highly educated and often travels to Malaysia, Singapore and other countries to attend international seminars, we booked this service flat for five days.
A Muslim teacher named Maspriyo, who lives in Yogyakarta, assured us through his website that we would be able to enjoy our stay in the two room and one kitchen service apartment they provide. Even Masprio's wife assured that she would cook a vegetarian meal for us. We had all this conversation with this family online. We booked this service apartment.
This arrangement was done in Bali and Yogyakarta, but it was not possible to do so in Jakarta because Jakarta is one of the most congested cities in the world which is jammed almost all the time. Since service apartments are often found only a few miles away from the city, choosing them invited the danger that we might miss an 11.30 a.m. flight on the last day of our journey, getting stuck in a traffic jam. So we decided to book our last stay in a hotel near Jakarta airport.
It was not possible to prepare any kind of food in the hotel so we planned that when we leave Yogyakarta on the morning of 21st April, we will also arrange food for 22nd and 23rd. Under emergency arrangements, we took Laddu, Mathri, Shakarpare and Khakhre etc. from Jodhpur with us.
Seaside Race
At about 10.15 in the morning of April 14, we started seeing the shore of the island of Bali from the window of the plane and after 15 minutes i.e. at ten.30 in the morning we landed at Denpasar, the provincial capital of the island of Bali. This airport is built on the beach like a port. The airplane kept running for some time on the huge runway built by the sea. It was a wonderful sight. In Rajasthan, trains and buses run on the edge of the desert and we were galloping here on the seashore. The sea of Bali is very calm, clear and serene with clumps of coconut on its banks making it very attractive. The color of the water of this sea is also very attractive.
empty handed
Visa is free for tourists in Indonesia and is given out to the tourists only upon arrival. It took us about an hour to get the visa, complete the immigration formalities and get our luggage from the airport authority. Even after doing all this, we could not dare to get out of the airport. We were empty handed in terms of Indonesian currency. We had Indian currency and US dollars in our pockets which we had arranged in Delhi itself. Since Indonesian currency is not legally available in India, we had to arrange for Indonesian currency before exiting the airport. Luckily some money changer agents sit at the airport exit itself, they took our worries away.
Get rich soon
Buying Indonesian rupee from Indian currency was a loss deal. So we bought US Dollars in India at Rs 64.54. Here we had to buy Indonesian Rupee from US Dollar. Buying Indonesian Rupee in Dollar was a profitable deal. In this Alta-Palti we got 205 Indonesian Rupees for 1 Indian Rupee. We got 700 dollars exchanged for which we had paid 45,178 rupees in India. Here we got 92 lakh 61 thousand 490 Indonesian rupees instead of 700 dollars. 92 lakh rupees is a huge amount in India. In India, a person can withdraw a whole life for this much money, whereas we had to spend only 10 days in Indonesia. That's why we felt very strange that we have 92 lakh rupees in our pocket. Whatever be the case, we had already become rich on seeing it.