hospitality

#1Pic1Day: Dua Tahun Sebelum dan Sesudah | Two Years Before, Two Years After (Sust, Pakistan, 2006)

Two Years Before, Two Years After (Sust, Pakistan, 2006) Two years before, I met these five girls of Sust, near the Chinese border. Two years after, again I met four of them and brought them the old photo. Can you see which girl is missing? Dua Tahun Sebelum dan Sesudah (Sust, Pakistan, 2006) Dua tahun sebelumnya, saya berjumpa dengan lima gadis Sust di dekat perbatasan Pakistan dengan China. Dua tahun sesudahnya, saya berjumpa lagi dengan empat dari mereka dan membawakan mereka selembar foto lama. Bisakah Anda melihat, gadis mana yang hilang? [...]

November 6, 2013 // 11 Comments

#1Pic1Day: Gadis-Gadis Pakistan Utara | Sisters (Sust, Pakistan, 2006)

Sisters (Sust, Pakistan, 2006) In most part of Pakistan, photographing women (including girls) have to be done cautiously, as this might be regarded as violation to their culture and religion. But in some villages in Northern Pakistan inhabited by the followers of moderate Ismaili sect of Islam, the attitude is much more laidback. Women and children might be happily showing in front of your camera if you ask politely. Gadis-Gadis Pakistan Utara (Sust, Pakistan, 2006) Di mayoritas tempat di Pakistan, memotret perempuan (termasuk anak-anak) harus dilakukan dengan sangat berhati-hati, karena bisa dipandang sebagai pelanggaran terhadap tradisi dan agama mereka. Tetapi di beberapa desa di Pakistan Utara yang dihuni umat Ismaili yang moderat, aturan ini jauh lebih longgar. Para perempuan dan anak-anak bisa bergaya ceria di depan kamera asalkan Anda minta izin dengan sopan. [...]

November 5, 2013 // 3 Comments

#1Pic1Day: Penasaran | Curiosity (Chapursan, Pakistan, 2006)

Curiosity (Chapursan, Pakistan, 2006) The Chapursan valley in Northern Pakistan experience extreme winter every year. Due to its location, some villages in the area don’t receive any sunshine for two and half months consecutively. Despite of the cold environment, warm welcome is guaranteed, as the Wakhi Tajik people inhabiting the area always highlight their tradition of hospitality. Penasaran (Chapursan, Pakistan, 2006) Lembah Chapursan di Pakistan Utara mengalami musim dingin yang ekstrem setiap tahunnya. Karena lokasinya, beberapa desa di lembah ini bahkan tidak menerima sinar matahari sama sekali selama dua setengah bulan berturut-turut. Terlepas dari udaranya yang dingin, dijamin Anda akan mendapat sambutan hangat di sini, karena orang-orang Wakhi Tajik yang menghuni tempat ini selalu menekankan tradisi keramahtamahan yang mereka banggakan. [...]

November 4, 2013 // 0 Comments

Murghab – The Dudkhoda’s Family

Boys of Murghab, in front of Tajik banner with the tricolor flag and coat-of-arms, of which important element is a snow mountain “Pamir will be better…. Pamir will be better….” – Dudkhoda My first impression of this 39 year old Tajik man was really not so good. this man tried to hug me and kiss me when I was sleeping next to him under the same blanket on the floor in the Kyrgyz restaurant in alichur packed by the Kyrgyz drivers. He also made me to pay his bills in the restaurant. But later I found that he had story worth to tell. He arranged for me a seat in the Kyrgyz truck, along with him, who returned to his home in Murghab. He was actually a passenger of the truck, not being able to pay the ride with money but offered the drivers a dinner in his hosue in Murghab. I came along with him, sitting along the way to Murghab (100 km) for free. Just near Murghab, there were two military checkpoint. The Kyrgyz drivers failed to do registration and they became easy target of the military man in the small dormitory. “Hey, brother, you should follow the [...]

October 29, 2006 // 0 Comments

Vrang – Life in Vrang

Green, peaceful, and lazy … Vrang Travelling in Tajikistan side of the Wakhan Corridor was as difficult as in Afghanistan side. Public transport was rare, the oil price got higher as the altitude got higher. It was 3.50 Somoni per liter of petrol here. No one was sure when the coming transport would come. And even when it came, it was often full, no space to share. It was indeed luck to be able to travel according to what one has planned. I was patient enough even though I worried about my short visa. Dr Akhmed was a doctor in Tughoz. I was waiting for transport to Vrang, 5 km away from tughoz, in his hospital. As the main doctor in this village, he earned only 50 Somoni per month. You would go nowhere with that amount of money in Tajikistan. But everybody was optimistic with his life. Working with little income was still better rather than begging on the streets. I have heard beggars in Jakarta could earn at least 60 dollars per month, about 280 Somoni, or 4 times higher than Dr Akhmed’s income. You need a lot of money and bunch of patience to travel in Tajikistan. [...]

October 25, 2006 // 0 Comments

Tughoz – Aliboy Family Aliboy family

The Aliboy family His name is Tuloev Aliboy Jumakhanovich, an unemployed man who sometimes work as driver, 33 years old. He greeted me, “We, Ismailis, dont go for hajj in Mecca. We dont waste our money for hajj. But our leader says, providing shelter and food for poor traveller, the mosafers, that is our hajj pilgrimage.” That is the reason of the hospitality of the Ismailis. No matter that there is no even wheat to make bread, being hospitable to a guest is compulsory. Aliboy sheltered me in his traditional house. There were his old father, Jumakhan, 72 years old, the old mother, sisters, cousins, and children in his little house. People of the Pamir are said to have long ages, like Jumakhan’s grand father who lived until 120 years old of age. Maybe it was because of the pure water. Aliboy had no job, even though he had a car. Here we could observe how live reduced dramatically to its modest form since the breakaway of the USSR. From a car owner to be an unemployed whou couldnt sustain sufficient income for basic needs, life have never been easy afterwards. The situation in Tajikistan was much worsened by the [...]

October 24, 2006 // 0 Comments

Mashhad – Lost Mobile

“Peida misha (It will be found)” – Reza Mahdavi After the 14 hour smooth bus journey from Tehran covering a distance almost 1000 km, I arrived in Mashhad. I was invited to come here by Reza Mahdavi, one of notable artists in the country. Once I arrived in the bus station, I went to the public telephone booths, checked his number from my mobile phone, and called him. SIM card in Iran is incredibly expensive. The common SIM card for mobile cost 550 US$, and just recently prepaid system was introduced, and it still cost almost 100$. That was the reason I don’t use my mobile in Iran. My mobile had been degraded its functionality to be a notebook to save numbers and an alarm clock. After calling him, I put my mobile in my trousers pocket and went around the station. The station was quite modern, as Mashhad is the second city of Iran. Mashhad is also a holy city and it made the city always crowded by visitors. Reza came 20 minutes after I called him. He was in training of teaching biology. He escaped his class immediately to pick me from the bus station, put me in [...]

August 29, 2006 // 2 Comments

Krat – The Wakhi People of Krat

Wakhan Corridor is always far and mysterious “Zdravstvui tovarech” – a villager from Krat Freedom is what the Wakhi people are longing for. I never expected my visit to Chapursan, the Wakhi Tajik valley in northern Pakistan, brought me to learn deeper about the life of the same ethnic in Afghanistan side of the valley. In Chapursan, 7 months ago, I stayed in house of Noorkhan, a Wakhi Tajiki from Kil village, where sun doesn’t come at all in winter for 3 months. Who expected, deep in restricted area of Wakhan Corridor, I met friends and relatives of Noorkhan. Faizal-u-Rahman, 29 years old, is a cousin of Alam Jan Dario, a famous man from Zod Khon village in Chapursan, who pioneered tourism in the valley. I met Faizal in in Khandud. He was offering me a hitch on tractor to the village of Krat in Wakhan Valley of Afghanistan. He, together with other people from Chapursan are working for an American NGO, Central Asian Institute, and this moment they are building a school in the village. Chapursan is an area dominated by Wakhi Tajik people, same as in Wakhan Valley, and the Wakhi people follow Ismaili sect of Islam. Only [...]

August 3, 2006 // 2 Comments

Bamiyan – Being Penniless in Afghanistan :(

No money! How can I survive here? I was so excited to continue my way from Bamiyan. Everything in my mind was about the blue crystal water of the Band-e-Amir, and the adventure that I would have to experience in interior Bamiyan province. I was so excited, until this incident, which evaporated all of my dreams, happened. Yesterday, just before sleeping, I counted my money. My money was put together with my passport, wrapped in an envelope, placed in the zipped pocket on my left chest of my jacket. It was always wrapped properly, and always my habit to count the money every day or every other day. That night, at about 7 pm, with Ayatullah, the Muslim teacher who has religious program in Radio Bamiyan watching me. Actually there were about 5 people living in this room, in the same office where Akbar Danish from the NGO worked. I was a guest, with Ayatullah and other two Hazara guys, plus the servant boy. I was listening to nice dangdut song from my MP3 when trying to pluck out my money from the envelope and to count it. First my passport jumped out. Then I was waiting for the Afghani [...]

June 23, 2006 // 6 Comments

Bamiyan – Hiding?

Behind all the politeness and sweet promises, who really knows what they are actually thinking about? Early in the morning Hadi told me that suddenly his wife from Kabul had called and that he had to go back to Kabul to do ‘something’ at his house. He used that gesture that he meant his wife did really need him for the nights, as he had not been home for 25 days. I asked for how long he would be there in Kabul, he said for a week or 10 days. Yesterday there was someone from an NGO in Bamiyan offering me to go to the villages of the province after a week. I asked Hadi whether it was OK to stay in his office during the waiting time, he was trying to convince me that the activities of the NGO had nothing to do with my work (how he knew?), but then he said that it was no problem at all. But suddenly early this morning he said that he had to go to Kabul for 10 days, leaving completely his office and locked the news room, which is for me was just an excuse to ask me to leave. [...]

June 19, 2006 // 0 Comments

Umerkot – Heatwave

May 14, 2006 The heatwave almost killed me Pakistan was boiling, Punjab was attacked by heatwave. The newspapers reported hundreds of people fainted and 30s killed in Sialkot and Lahore, where the temperature rocked until 50. And actually, I was among the victim. The hot days in Multan and Bahawalpur, and the unforgiving train journey from Punjab to interior Sindh, had eaten all of my power. ‘My old friend’ had come to visit me, and forced me to have a complete bed rest for a week. Fortunately, on my weakest time, I had arrived to a house of my survivor, the Hindu family of Piragani in deep Umerkot, where I could recover my health in a comfortable room filled with love and affection of the whole family of 52 people. My recovery was fast, but still hard work of research in hot and deep desert might danger my body. But I will try my best for [...]

May 14, 2006 // 0 Comments

Noraseri – The Doctor Shahab Family

April 2, 2006 Doctor Shahab with my Indonesian cap The NGO camp was emptied already today. The scars of the tents left another scars in people in neighborhood. It was Doctor Shahab, born as Khani Zaman, among those who used to come at least one time in a day to our camp area. He was an old man in his sixties, and everybody called him as Mister Doctor, or Doctor Shahab. I believed he was a doctor, until Hafizah told me that he never been a doctor. It turned out to be that he was a pharmacist, and used to be a driver of an ambulance of Edhi Foundation. His work was not that far from doctor anyway. The first time I knew Doctor Shahab was the same date when the Hajji Shahab passed away. The two occasions still made me confusing the two names many of the times. Doctor Shahab was there in the funeral day of Hajji Shahab, claiming that he was a friend of President Soekarno in school time, and asked me to send a dozen of Indonesian caps. He was humorous, he was optimistic, and he was intelligent. He lost his wife in the earthquake, but [...]

April 2, 2006 // 0 Comments

Rawalpindi – More About Public Transports

Travelling and eating can be done in one-go in Pakistan February 20, 2006 Sometimes I have to grumble, and it was about the public transport service in Islamabad. In New Delhi I had an example when I took a bus and suddenly the bus stopped in the middle of nowhere as the driver didnt have mood to continue the journey, and all passengers had to find their own way. In Rawalpindi, it’s another story. Conductors are little bit too much enthousiastic in selling tickets, that they will lift you even they know surely 1000% that the bus will not reach your destination. Instead they will take you the nearest point between your destination and their route. Once I took a bus to Phir Wadhai and they dropped me somewhere in Murree Road and asked me to go by Qingqi instead. I chose to walk, and it was even further than the initial distance where I took the bus. In Islamabad, some bus numbers concern too much about the profit. Take an example, bus number 120 which passing from Melodi Market to F-10 through the Karachi Company. Karachi Company is a big terminus where all buses stop for a while for [...]

February 20, 2006 // 0 Comments

Rawalpindi – Slums

Phir Wadhai February 1, 2006 A whole day in Phir Wadhai. Phir Wadhai might be never been in any places you wanna visit. Phir Wadhai is the most important transport hub in Rawalpindi, where you can get bus from here to anywhere in Pakistan. But as other bus terminals in Java (Indonesia), Phir Wadhai is another stinky and polluted place. First I saw the place at a glance from the bus which took me from Gilgit to Pindi. I suddenly ‘fell in love’ with it. The huge stinky pond of unflowing water flourishing the road, while people selling fruits, grilled meat, rice, and anything ‘eatable’ around the stinky black water. The environment made me curious how people here survive, and at last I decided to spend a full day in Phir Wadhai to discover the life here. Rawalpindi is a harsh metropolitan, with dreams to offer about high income to the villagers all around Pakistan. Here you can meet people from Northern Areas, Balucshistan, Sindh, Punjab, from big cities like Karachi and Lahore until small villages in the middle of Thar desert. The life here is not that easy, of course. Many of these people are uneducated, so they end [...]

February 1, 2006 // 3 Comments