SUMENEP ~journeys 2010: journal with pfotos~Mar.17

~ Sumemep? ~

“Sumenep, 53km north-east of Pamekasan, is a more refined, royal town and the most interesting on Madura. You can see Sumemep's 18th -century mosque, and the kraton with its water palace and interesting museum. Asta Tinggi, the royal cemetery, is only about 3km from the town center” [Attribution: South-East Asia On A Shoestring Lonely Planet Publications 2001:232].

Wed., March.17. Saint Paddie's Day, but no celebrations in the rice-fields 'round here! Up, do washing and shave...those mundane, time-consuming chores that one has to do even on the Irish national holiday tempering my sojourn feeling. I do my own washing not to save money but rather because it's a self-sufficient, independent thing to do. I change from room #21 to #58. It's $1.50 per day cheaper but has a shared bathroom. #58's in a quieter part of this quite large and popular hotel. All but a couple of the rooms are on the ground. #58 has no view of the road though which is a bit of a shame. But to compensate it's at the back where the friendly truckies overnight. There are at least half a dozen every nite...out from Surabaya for 'their' companies, supplying the retailers here on Madura.

Again I think about the one month visa I've got. It's half gone already...and only a single full page left in my passport. Accessible finances stand at about US$ 1,500. Maybe I'm slowing down in my old age because I fuck 'round all morning. Really! I told myself last night that I should be on my way to the beach this morning and here I am cutting my nails. It feels like I'm kill time...for some obscure reason. Eventually I make it out around 1pm...taking the Italian man the t-shirts from the washing line he forgot when he shifted rooms. Over at reception there's confusion about room payment. She's confused me with him! I guess it's true what they say. We must all look the same after all. I suppose it's understandable...he's balding too and little beard.

Brunch of soto ayam which is rice-chicken soup. Simple, but delicious. Then I walk to find the former Kraton of the Sultans of Madura. This palace has got to be photogenic. I want to check out it for the best time of day vis a vis the light ~ the morning or the evening? The entrance to the Kraton gets busy with local tourists. My friend Adi's office is in the building built by the Dutch to keep and eye on and control the movements of the Sultan. I run into Adi. He gives me a map and introduces me to his boss. He says he'll see me at my place at 6...with the bike. And when I ask him about going to the beach he tells me he thinks it's too late for that today. He's right. I'm thinking if the bike is a good one, I can ride to the beach in the coming days. It could be an ideal mountain bike, but I find out later. So it's not difficult to flag the beach idea for today. These days are hardly great for a beach. There's been cloud with rain in the middle part of the last few days. It's the tail end of the wet season here.

I wander instead to the historic mosque right in the town center. The Kraton from the outside, is a bit of an anti-climax, really. But I know that the mosque is terrifically photogenic and I need to check it out now too. Morning light for the front is a foregone conclusion...it faces east. What's round the back though? The light's very flat at the moment with thick cloud cover but interesting. Could be great in the evening sun. But today I'm too knackered and don't have the patience to wait to see if the sun breaks through late, as it often seems to in the tropics. So I saunter slowly down the main street towards the Wijaya. It's down a slight incline away from the hill behind the town. It's there where the “Royal Cemetery” is to be found...Sumemep's other wonderfully photogenic historic attraction.

Back to the Wijaya traffic lights where I ate earlier. I take an "intersection" movie from the footpath while sipping some iced tea. Somewhat refreshed again, I head to the day market, which is back towards Pamekasan, less than a kilometre on the left. More short movies and stills as it starts to rain. Interesting in the busy morning here. The sun does comes out just like I thought it would as I retrace my steps once again back to the hotel and rest before Adi calls round. There's been some pretty active days since arriving in Madura after resting up at Maninjau. I feel totally buggered. Wonder if it might be time for another HIV test? I'm turning 57 day after tomorrow. I must have walked...I don't know how many kilometers in the past month? Hundreds! So maybe that's all it is. Or maybe I'm gonna have another twinge of dengue symptoms. This tends to happen when I get worn out for too long. I've had two dengue fever episodes since leaving NZ in '96...part and parcel I suppose of living the way I do in the tropics. I do hope I'm not about to get full blown dengue again, that's for sure. The last one time was horrible! That was exactly 8 years ago in Jayapura, Irian Jaya just when I turned 7 times 7...49 years old. If it hadn't been for Coco looking after me...I might have died. It certainly felt like it. At the time, at first, I thought I had malaria and took massive amounts of meflequine. It's the anti-malarial drug that sends certain emotionally-sensitive individuals mad. I certainly felt like I was knocking on...that door in the floor. Had amazingly colorful but distorted, disturbing dreams. On top of dengue fever's regular symptoms I was a very sick boy. Dengue delivers a high fever, desperately painful throbbing headache up behind the forehead and strange aching sensations in the bones and bone-joints. A blood test in NZ for Hepatitus anti-body counts and HIV in 2002 confirmed that I'd had two dengue strains.

Adi shows like he said he would with the mountain bike and all. After looking at some pfotos we go out through the side gate about 5 metres and have some cheap and delicious street food. Sate ayam comes with a great peanut sauce and the special rice 'nuggets' of this vendor have been boiled for an hour in banana-leaf 'sacks'. They are thick, sweet and filling. They cook a very similar rice dish up the river from Kampong Cham, on the Mekong River, Cambodia. Probably in many other districts of South East Asia too. Delicious.

Adi informs me that his baby daughter had a vaccination shot today and has bad reactions. He leaves at about 8.30pm to get rightly home to his family. I'm bushed. I drink coffee...ah...listen to Jimi H. and write up. I might take the bike for a ride to Kalianget in the morning. And there's a bull selling market in the afternoon tomorrow. Maybe some mosque shots if the weather's appropriate in the evening. Hey...best turn out the light and get some rest. It could be a big, high-energy day tomorrow. This holiday business can become quite hard work!

SUMENEP from Pamekasan ~journeys 2010: journal with pfotos~Mar.15-16

~ enjoyable short bus ride ~

Mon. Mar.15. Up after having the ghost experience and a couple hours' sleep. I'm checking out! I'm moving on to Sumemep. Should be about two hours by bus. I have a misunderstanding with the washer-woman. I try to help her out when I see her collecting the laundry etc. from the already-vacated rooms. I offer her mine but she will only take 'my' bed sheet and pillowcases if I give her money! Obviously doesn't realize I won't be needing them anymore. I get away from the Garuda Hotel at about 10am. Down the main street I walk...it's a fine day too...laden down in the now-hot morning air, and sun. A share-taxi-minibus picks me up. Sumenep's Rp.10k the local price. I get on-board and we travel slowly around town hustling for more passengers. Not a problem.

No hurry and the friendly driver offers me my first kretek in a long time. The Indonesian clove-tobacco poison's not too strong and I note the brand and price NeoMild/Rp.6k (16 batangs or smokes inside). Regular cigarettes at around Rp.15k have really gone up in price since my last visit. Once the minibus has six or seven passengers we head out of town. This doesn't look like the main road at first...but turns out it is. Somewhere along the line and we have a new driver who ambles sedately.

It's a great ride...through the countryside, along a little seashore...with it's guidebook predicted perahus or small, colorful outrigger fishing boats. I attempt a few photos from the moving vehicle but give up. Rice growing is a major rural preoccupation, around here not cattle rearing like I was led to believe. We pass one or two groups of people harvesting...but most of it doesn't seem ready yet. On getting into the outskirts of driver drops the other passengers at an intersection. He motions me not to get off insisting on taking me to close to the hotel where I intend to stay. The annoyance of the becuk riders is evident. This is the way to welcome endangered tourists to your town! Help them survive. After a drink and kretek with some locals across the main road where the van dropped me I check in. I didn't realize the Wijaya 1 Hotel was right here on the main road. I'd saddled up the backpack prepared for a good walk in the heat. The room's very adequate, although about a third of the size of the Garuda's. It's Rp.55k per night...bang on $6. Then I go for a walk up and around the new town even in the heat of the day. Why? Because....I love doing this! It's a buzz. Getting into a new town...mapless, wandering around, sauntering along...checking things out...stopping for a coffee and smoking a cigarette...chatting a little with the amazed locals....taking some snaps of whatever turns me on...great!

Two or three interesting things ensue...the purchase of the adapter...so I can use the single plug in the room for more than one thing at once. The first shop didn't care to think about what it was I was trying to purchase. I walk on to another one close-by. This is up on the main street of Sumenep. This time the distinctly Chinese-looking woman is instantly able to help me...and I purchase one three-way plug for Rp.5k. Another interesting occurrence is the case of the runaway becak. The guy leaves his machine to hassle me with words...trying to get me to take a ride. Then a passerby shouts to him...his machine is drifting aimlessly...and luckily harmlessly...across the reasonably busy intersection where he first engaged me. Laughter all round and no harm done. I get a 'hello mister' from not-so-young women...hookers. I just smile and pass on by. And a loud greeting by a passing guy on motorbike 'Bowray, apa kabar' in other words 'foreigner, how are you'. Fuckin hot, I think to myself...after the moment or two it takes me working out what he's said. After this I get kinda lost...and the gloss of exploring a new town kinda wears off quite quickly...but, hey, I love it. It's why I do these journeys in 210. Reminds me a lot of Trat, Thailand..which I know pretty...does Sumenep...what with it's quiet, narrow lanes and pleasant, liveable, substantial houses...well-maintained roads and tree-lined streets...and motorbikes, which are the main form of transport for the average local here...as they are just about everywhere, 'cept Malaysia these days. I finally make it back to the Wijaya...having to ask locals for directions on several occasions. It's been a good couple and a half hours...and I'm very tired. And I didn't see another 'bowray' either. Quick shower, then I replenish the lost fluids with fruit drink. Then the mad-dog, Scots/Kiwi sleeps...On waking, Adi's sitting outside on 'my' chair smoking. I don't know it's Adi. I haven't met him yet. In fact I think it's just another pushy local come to hustle the tourist...wanna go here, go there etc. But turns out different. Kuniadi's a local, about 35, I guess...maybe a bit less. He speaks very good English...has had a Dutch girlfriend, been to Holland in 2007...and he works for the government tourist office here in Sumenep. In short he's the ideal person for a traveler to meet. Quite possibly the old-girl hotel receptionist informs him when foreigners turn up at the Wijaya. Reading between the lines of our first conversation, he certainly knows that I stayed in Pamekasan and even knows my academic background...mentions anthropology. Maybe the Moslem teacher guy I met on the bus in Surabaya is a friend of his and informed them here. He told me his home was in Sumenep....seems very likely to me. Just like small towns the world over. Everyone knows everything 'bout what goes on, especially the arrival of a stranger...in these times!

At first I think he's just another slightly annoying guy...but he's not at all annoying. He nvites me to his house, giving directions on how to get there...“visit anytime” he says. But he means evenings, because he works days. He tells me he's got a 5 month old baby daughter. “What brings you to Madura”. “I'm not sure. Just a quiet out-of-the-way place that's got some beaches” I say and then explain that a friend of mine heard that the women here are very nice too. “I'm really not into supporting girls at the moment” I add. But he suggests, jokingly, that maybe I should “try one to find out”. He also tells me that he thinks that I'm the only foreigner for miles around here tonight. After about an hour of pleasant conversation, he says that he must go to the mosque now and we shake hands agreeing to meet each other again tomorrow. It's a Balinese holiday and although this isn't Bali, it's close enough. Evening warung, or eating stalls set up right outside the hotel fence. I go and have a slightly over-priced mee goreng telur...fried noodles and egg and return to sit and observe things from the shared veranda outside my room...which is great. Then disappear inside.

Tues. Mar.16. I wake up late...at about 9am. Must've been more tired than I thought. Coffee on the veranda. And blow me down with a feather if there's not an elderly Italian tourist in the next room! Where'd he pop up from? Two foreigners here on the same night. This probably hasn't happened for a while. Not a very talkative guy though...the language thing. My Italian's very rusty. He apparently arrived by bus from Surabaya latish last night. He's a retired guy by the looks...definitely not a backpacker! He finds the room not to his liking. Smells he reckons from the hotel's trash area about 5 meters from his door. So he moves to another room late morning. I leave for a walk up town.

Off to the square on the opposite side of the main road from the historic mosque. Adi told me about it. There's free wifi there he said...and he's right. I spend hours checking and writing emails interrupted by an afternoon shower or two. So I move to fried chicken place from where I can still receive the wifi signal. I mail my sister Irene, my kids, Kim and Ella and an old school friend Brent. I'm somewhat tired after writing reasonably long emails. Usually I just write extended notes. So should I do what I planned for the afternoon and go to Slopeng and the nearest beach called Pantai Lomburng? I choose to return to the hotel and sleep. Hey, this is a holiday...no need to rush around. I can go to the beach tomorrow...or the next day, or the next day. I never did get to Pantai Lomburng! On waking up I write up. Adi shows up again and we spend a long time talking. I show him my photos of Cambodia, Trat and Penang. He leaves because he has to be with his wife and daughter...but not before buying coffees and offering to lend me his bicycle tomorrow. To be a bit more mobile would be great for a change. So I take him up on it. He says he'll put some air in the tyres and bring the machine round in the evening tomorrow.