Articles by Agustinus Wibowo

November 18, 2005 Gopal Guesthouse 150 Rs/double bed room Today, together with Lam Li – the Malaysian traveller, we tried to smuggle into the Jodhpur Fort. The ticket for foreigner is 250 Rs, which is quite expensive for us. So, instead of directly entered the main gate, we tried the small path, climbing up and down the rough terrain behind the fort, and suddenly found that it was actually quite fantastic already outside the fort. On the back of the fort, we met two young boys. One is 17 and the other is 16. They are skipping the class today, as one of them didnt do the biology homework, and the other did accompany him as sign of solidarity. They are both Brahmin, who are supposed not to eat meat and smoke. But the guys, on the top of a small hill, smoked together without anyone knowing. The boy told me that the parents were very strict, and surely would beat him if finding him smoking and eating chicken in a food stall. As anywhere in India, the guys suddenly drive the conversation to “sexual matter” right after 3 minutes. “Are you married?” “Do you have boyfriend? Do you have [...]

November 17, 2005, The friendly old man from the wedding yesterday who gave me an Indian name, invited us to the water hut where he works. He is an old man of 56 years old, owning a water hut between the forts to give free waters to thirsty folks. And the water is free. The hut was operated since 3 generations, and his father was a very famous holy man in the area. As the omelette shops and rickshaw drivers, the water hut also have guestbooks. But this one is really different. Compared to the one liner comments in the omelette shop guestbooks with boring praise to how delicious on earth the omelette was, the collections of the water hut is much, much more interesting. This is a free service, nobody paid for the water given. And the collection of comments were from the letters from various countries on earth, from 1960’s up till recent days. It was really amazing to read how this holy man, working with full of his dedication, just to give water to the people from the simple hut in the junction of the street. “My Indian father, you are really the spirit of my life” [...]

November 17, 2005 Gopal Guesthouse 150 Rs/ double bed “The boss should be taught that Taiwan is part of China” write a message in Chinese characters in one among the guestbooks of the Omelette shop recommended by Lonely Planet. It seems that this fellow mainland Chinese traveller was not happy being asked by the owner, “From China? From Taiwan?” Then this message was responded by a Taiwanese, with big English letters “Taiwan is always a free individual!!!” The respond aroused anger in other mainlander “What a bull-shit!!!” in big Chinese characters, followed by reasons of why Taiwan was part of China. And there were another responds by nationalist Taiwanese complaining “these ugly mainlanders”. What a phenomenon. A guestbook of an omellete shop in the middle of nowhere in Rajasthan became a political written war between the mainlanders and Taiwanese. BTW, the owner of the shop, being proud of featured by the book, keep showing us the guestbooks, pictures, postcards, and also photos he got from the guests. But we just wanted omellete. As I was also asked to write in the book, I wrote, “The omelette was nice, but would be nicer if I wasnt forced to write. I just [...]

November 16, 2005 Gopal Guesthouse 150 Rs/ double bed room Yesterday, when we were invited to a family house, we were shown their family photo album. It was a big album full of photos of a grand marriage ceremony in Jodhpur. This family should be one of important families from the highest caste, ane the wedding was so grand that there were more than 4000 guests invited in the reception. We just adored how fantastical the marriage was, the rioting colours of the costumes of people attending the party. Today, when we walked around the small alleys of Jodhpur, we heard noise from a band group. And suddenly we found that there was another marriage is happening. The owner of the house, seeing us taking pictures of the band, suddenly asked us to take pictures of themselves also. Then, the old couple invited us to come in to their house. Everybody was dressing in beautiful costumes, and everybody was excited. This is the groom’s house, and there was a ceremony in another floor. Then the mother of the groom, tranced look like, let the groom out of the house. There was a horse, beautifully decorated, waiting outside. And also a [...]