From a funeral to a weeding

by Paula Avendano (Saudi Arabia)

Making a local connection Indonesia

This is a year full of new experiences for me, and Agricultural Engineer who has been leaving in one of the most unexplored countries in the Middle East. Since I am part of the western culture and traditions, Christmas eve and new years eve has been one of the most espetial dates of the year for me. The last year 2019, I decided to travel to Asia for the first time, Indonesia and some islands around there. During my 15 days vacation, I visited Bali, where I could find very touristic and crowded but with some unknown places. During my visit, I met Mulia who was a close friend of the waiter I met in the restaurant in fron of the place I was staying. He used to work in a cruise but since he got married and have one kid; he decided to live permanently in the island again. He became friends and he offered me the possibility to travel around the island. One of those days, he mentioned his grandmother had died the night before but even with this tragedy he wanted to take me on a tour the next day. Ready for the most productive days of my entire life, we decided to leave the hotel at 2 am. During the trip, I visited an active volcano around four hours to the north. I hicked for three hours to see the sunrise and then come back and continue the journey. Then, we visited waterfalls, we tried one of the most expensive coffees in the world which is made after the luwak, an animal digest it. We walked around this farm which has the most representative crops of Indonesia and where I could aprecciate the old techniques to produce this coffee. During our way back to the hotel he invited me to his cousin weeding and grandmother's funeral. Me and my friends were feeling uncomfortable since a weeding for us is such an important date and we were not prepare for that. After a long discussion, he convinced us to go. Once we arrived to his house, he showed us his family temple, prayer altar, family members and animals. His wife invited us to drink some traditional liquour called Arak and after having the whole bottle we decided to get ready for the weeding but first we went to the funeral. We dressed up with the traditional costumes includind the hair style. Once we arrived to the funeral, the party began. We took the offers for the gods and we danced all together in a ritual. We realized even if we were not part of this religion, we were believing in his traditions and being part of his special moments created in us and special connection. Even if we had not had any idea of the rituals, we enjoyed every single step in the event. When the funeral was over, we went to the weeding. At the entrance they have a little box in which you make a gift for the couple and you get some traditional appetizers. Then you sit down and eat the main dish. For our surprise they offered all kinds of meat, including snake heads from the rice crops. Then the music band came over with some of the indonesian's classics. We listened to them and danced as well. What really captured my attention was the make up and costumes the couple were wearing. So shinny and colourful. Before coming back to the hotel, I realized that this day had been one of the best experiences in my life, I could taste the most traditional dishes of Indonesia, share with natives who explained me the importance of death and marriage for them and how different the celebrations can be from one continent to another. After all we realized, walking up at two in the morning was totally worth it.