Indonesia -- A land so near yet so far

Indonesia, yes, to most Malaysian urban families, it is where their domestic helpers largely come from. Most children call these maids 'kakak', meaning 'elder sister', that clearly tells how important is their role played in our local families. Of course, due to some complicated political ( and God knows what)issues, the Indonesian Govertment has stopped their maids from coming into Malaysia for almost a year or two, the demand for domestic helper has swifted to other neighbouring countries like Myanmar,Cambodia etc lately.

When I told my friends that I will be going for a 'Round Jawa Island' tour , self-driving, well, quite a number of them gave me a kind of ' eerr..' or ' aahhhhh....' look. Ya, compared to Scandinavia where I went in summer, and Korea this fall, both well-developed places, in a luxury manner, I certainly deserve such sceptical look!

Why not? I asked. Life is an accumulation of experiences along the journey which we do not know when is it going to end. Different experience adds colours to this journey.

Indonesia , being an opened-minded Muslim country, has geared up its growth rate in the recent years. With its population,land size and natural resources, it is definitely the 'tai guo' (big brother) of the ASEAN region now. Vast disparity between the wealthy and the poor, nevertheless, well, quite common in fast developing countries like China and India.

I don't know what am I going to find ,see, feel and learn from this trip. Love, maybe? Like the movie < Eat,pray and love> by Julia Roberts?. Hahaha, let's wait and see. It's going to be different, I know. Sure la, no itinerary, no plan,no tour guide, no hotel pre-booked, nothing at all! (Better to have no expectation too) If you know me, you know it's not like me!

It's time to throw myself into the unknown, for once !