Articles by Agustinus Wibowo

About Agustinus Wibowo

Agustinus is an Indonesian travel writer and travel photographer. Agustinus started a “Grand Overland Journey” in 2005 from Beijing and dreamed to reach South Africa totally by land with an optimistic budget of US$2000. His journey has taken him across Himalaya, South Asia, Afghanistan, Iran, and ex-Soviet Central Asian republics. He was stranded and stayed three years in Afghanistan until 2009. He is now a full-time writer and based in Jakarta, Indonesia. agustinus@agustinuswibowo.com Contact: Website | More Posts

Kontan (2007): Yuk, Keliling Dunia Tanpa Duit Berjuta-juta!

Kontan Minggu I, Oktober 2007 Yuk, Keliling Dunia Tanpa Duit Berjuta-juta! Seluk-beluk seorang backpacker Tidak perlu menjadi triliuner untuk bisa keliling dunia. Modal niat dan tekat saja bisa membawa pehobi backpacker berkelana ke mana-mana. Eh7 Anda juga bisa meniru mereka, lo! Agung Ardyatmo, Aprillia Ika, Femi Adi S. Trinity. Begitu ia minta disapa. Dalam usia kepala tiga, wanita ini sudah banyak mengunjungi tempat-tempat menarik di dalam dan luar negeri. Jangan membayangkan Trinity sebagai wisatawan yang tinggal duduk manis dengan pelayanan dan fasilitas hotel bintang lima. Bukan seperti itu. Modal Trinity untuk bepergian adalah sebuah ransel di punggungnya. Jadi, jangankan kamar mewah dengan jacuzzi, Trinity rela tidur di terminal dan bandara untuk menghemat biaya perjalanan. Gaya Trinity ketika sedang bepergian itu lazim disebut sebagai backpacker. Trinity hanyalah salah seorang dari jutaan pehobi iMickjHickfn- di dunia. Menurut Bimada, pemilik jaringan Bakmi Raos yang juga hobi backpacker, ada dua tipe backpacker. Pertama, orang yang punya uang namun dia ingin bepergian dengan dana minimal. Kedua, orang yang ingin bepergian namun tidak mempunyai uang yang cukup. Bagi seorang backpacker, ada kepuasan tersendiri jika bisa mengunjungi suatu tempat tanpa harus terikat jadwal ketat yang biasa dilakukan biro perjalanan wisata. “Saya selalu melakukan backpacking [...]

October 9, 2007 // 1 Comment

Kabul – A Female Journalist Murdered

Funeral of Zakia Zaki. Photo credit: Safiya Saifi (Pajhwok Afghan News) Today I was struck when a female colleague told me that one of her good friends, a female journalist, was shot to death by mysterious gunmen. Zakia Zaki, director of a radio company, was killed a night before on her own bed. It was scary news. Just about a week before, May 31, 2007, a popular Shamshad TV female news presenter, Sanga Amach, 22 years old, was shot to death. The actual motive and suspects remained mysterious. ‘Honor killing’ was among the possible motives. An honour killing is a murder, nearly exclusively of a woman, who has been perceived as having brought dishonor to her family. The killings are typically perpetrated by the victim’s own relatives or community. Such killings are often regarded as a “private matter” for the affected family alone, and courts rarely become involved or prosecute the perpetrators. Being a journalist in Afghanistan is comparatively dangerous. It is not uncommon to hear this journalist to explode with a bomb or that journalist being kidnapped. But the risk is much higher for women. The conservative don’t approve women to work (neither to go to schools), moreover to [...]

September 29, 2007 // 0 Comments

Weekender (2007): The Traveler’s Tale

August 2007 Jakarta Post Weekender The Traveler’s Tale What does travel really mean to us – is it about the adventure and discovery, or just being able to say that we have been there and done that? Yunetta Anggiamurni gives her perspective. “And at night I like to love to listen to the stars. It is like 500 hundred million little bells.” This was how Antoine de Saint-Exupéry expressed his adoration of a beautiful starlit night in his masterpiece, Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince). Although it was supposed to be a book for children, the work has become one that adults should read because the writer’s message is clear: Are you an open-minded person? Above all, de Saint-Exupéry tried to encourage readers to do one important thing: travel. Indeed, we view traveling as the quest for freedom, of choosing the place we want to go, of having the luxury of not worrying about daily work obligations, of satisfying our thirst for new experiences, in visiting places and meeting new people. But for most of us, traveling also requires time, money and delicate negotiations with friends, family, children, boyfriends, girlfriends and so forth. In short, no room for individual needs. [...]

August 23, 2007 // 0 Comments

Elite Traveler (携程自由行): 他的 Avgustin.Net

Avgustin.Net收藏了翁鸿鸣大量关于亚洲大陆旅行的照片和文字记载。这些照片的视角不同于普通风景图片，他们全部出自于一个摄影记者的眼睛。翁鸿鸣说，是旅行，教会了他如何尊重不同文化，不同的人，也教会他这个世界并不像我们梦想中那样美好，还有太多的事物等待我们去探索和注视。在我们的世界中，美丽与丑陋，快乐与悲伤，多彩语贫乏，它们始终并存。

August 19, 2007 // 0 Comments

星洲日报（马来西亚）2007：我的生活，一定是要爲了看世界

“自小，翁鸿鸣就对旅行充满幻想和憧憬。小学老师曾经问过他的志愿，当时他回答说将来相当一名游客。老师告诉翁鸿鸣，游客不是一种职业。那位老师可能不知道，翁鸿鸣真的把旅行当做一生的志愿，老师也可能不知道，许多年后，翁鸿鸣真的在路上找到了可以让他不断游走的工作。”

July 1, 2007 // 2 Comments

The Jakarta Post (2007): Yustinus Wibowo—Going around the world on a shoestring

21 June 2007 The Jakarta Post People http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2007/06/21/yustinus-wibowo-going-around-world-shoestring.html Yustinus Wibowo Going around the world on a shoestring Maggie Tiojakin, Contributor, Jakarta A hundred and fifty years ago, when so much of the world was still unknown to the majority of the earth’s inhabitants, exploring uncharted lands and seas was available only to a privileged few. Today, with the help of technology, it isn’t uncommon for one to travel the world in twenty-four hours by plane, or twenty-four seconds with the click of a mouse. However, there are others who cling onto the exotic dream of being an explorer crossing multiple frontiers. Meet Agustinus Wibowo. Born in Lumajang, East Java, on Aug. 8, 1981, the 26-year-old has been embarking on an around-the-world journey since July 28, 2005, as a backpacker with only US$2,000 in his pocket — the amount of money he managed to save while studying and working part-time in Beijing, China. So far, the former student of Tsinghua University has visited more than a dozen countries in Asia — far-flung lands which others have probably only heard of in the news such as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Nepal, India, Tibet, Pakistan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia [...]

June 21, 2007 // 5 Comments

Tehran – An Old Friend

March 12, 2007 Tehran – An Old Friend An accidental meeting on Internet made me finding my old friend. Her name is Dina, but Indonesian bloggers knew her as ‘bundakirana’ (http://bundakirana.multiply.com). I actually don’t check Internet quite often except only for emails, chat, and news. But that day, when I was quite bored in an Internet Café in Esfahan, I found out her message on a traveling forum: “Soon I am going back to my home, leaving Iran, where I have spent my 8 years. I am thinking of writing a book about traveling in Iran. So I want to ask your suggestions of what should I include in my travel writing, for example what stuff that Indonesian readers might be interested.” I replied her message by saying that I was also, by accident, in Iran. I invited her to visit my blog as well. Out of my expectation Dina was enthusiastic in replying my message and even to meet me when I returned back to Tehran. She tried to arrange everything for me, but she also had some limitation of her work and family. But she asked a friend of her to host me for some days, thus we [...]

March 12, 2007 // 3 Comments

Esfahan – Arbain

20 Safar in Islamic lunar calendar is remembered by the Shiite Muslims as Arbain. In Arabic, Arbain means 40. Arbain marks the 40th day after the death of Imam Hossain (10 Muharram, known as Ashura) in the holy war of Qarbala against Muawiyyah dynasty led by Yazid. When I was in Pakistan, I followed the Shiite’s 40 days of mourning, since Ashura (10 Muharram) until Chehlum (20 Safar). In Pakistan, Arbain is known as Chehlum, a Farsi word which means ‘the fortieth’. Interestingly in Iran, the country where Farsi is spoken, they chose to use Arabic word to name the day. Chehlum in Pakistan is a bloody procession. Young boys paraded on streets of earthquake-torn town of Muzaffarabad, while whipping themselves with sharp knives known as zanjir. Check Chehlum Gallery and Chehlum in Muzaffarabad At that time I didn’t speak Farsi and I was unaware that the Shiites in Pakistan used huge amount of terms taken from Farsi language. Interestingly when I attended the procession in Iran, they preferred to use Arabic terms. In Esfahan I experienced a very different way of commemorating Arbain, the end of the mourning period. I went to the Imam Square. Most shops were closed. [...]

March 10, 2007 // 0 Comments

Tehran – Flying West

March 1, 2007 The Iran Air midnight flight from Kuala Lumpur to Tehran was surprisingly crowded. The Iranian passengers came with loads of their luggage – seemed to be enormous number of shopping goods during their holiday in Malaysia – queued in font of the check-in counters in Kuala Lumpur’s new, modern international airport. Iranians were always as what I have knew before, curious and friendly as usual. It was not hard for me to start conversations with other passengers. First there was a woman who just finished her shopping holiday. Then there was another man who had to open his carry-in luggage (as the police saw him bringing too many powders in his suitcase but it seemed that the man was too obsessed in buying milk powder, instant coffee, instant juice, and all other powder drinks – strange things to buy from a country as far away as Malaysia). While waiting in the crowded, messy lounge (somehow didn’t match the modernity of KL International Airport), I chatted with Omid, a 30 year-old-man who had been working for more than 7 years in Malaysia but spoke only a few Malays sentences. We chatted in English and Farsi. “This plane is [...]

March 1, 2007 // 1 Comment

Medan – A Meeting with Medan Photographers

His name is Andi Kurniawan Lubis, a photographer of North Sumatran media, Analisa, which is quite popular among Medan Chinese population. Andi Lubis is quite famous photographer in Indonesia and I met him for the first time when I was going to Aceh one month after the tsunami catastrophic. Andi was very excited when I told him I would go home, and he invited me to stop for a night or two in Medan. He is my old friend whom I was very delighted to see. He arranged everything for me once I arrived in Medan, as he said, “don’t worry on anything, bro. You are my guest in Medan.” There was a little bit accident when I arrived there. My plane departed at 7:30 from Malaysia, so if the flight was about an hour, he thought I should arrive at 8:30 in Medan. He forgot that Medan had one hour time difference with Kuala Lumpur. I had to wait for an hour in the Medan airport, quite harassed by the aggressive taxi drivers but they couldn’t do anything as I didn’t have any Rupiah to satisfy their demand. I was delighted to be invited to a warung, to eat [...]

February 9, 2007 // 2 Comments

Medan – Touching Indonesia

The modern and luxurious Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) was not designed to carter budget airlines, which now flourished Southeast Asian sky. Indeed the wind of cheap airlines had made flight more and more affordable for most people. And Malaysia was among the pioneers with their widespread Air Asia. Kuala Lumpur airport authority has made a separate airport for the passengers of these budget airlines at LCCT terminal. This airport was small, crowded, and messy. Even if it was a younger brother of the KLIA and just several kilometers away, it didn’t match the latter in any sense. Most of the people in waiting lounge were Indonesians, distinguishable from their strong Javanese or Sumatran accent. I have learnt that many Indonesians working in Malaysia tried their best to change their accent, due to fact that Malaysians quite disliked Indonesians. Some said there were more than 1 million Indonesians now in Malaysia, legally or illegally, and the Malaysians cursed the cause of criminal cases in their country was the Indonesian migrants. There were always sentiments between the two neighbors, as most other neighboring countries in the world. Even if the Indonesians and Malaysians possessed so much proximity in their culture and [...]

February 9, 2007 // 3 Comments

Tashkent – Iran Visa

The embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Tashkent is notorious to be very reluctant to issue visa. My Iran visa struggle has started long before since I was in Kyrgyzstan. The Tashkent Iran embassy said that they wouldn’t issue any visas for Indonesian passport holders because now Indonesians don’t need visa to go to Iran. It was strange reason anyway, because visa free for Indonesians is only for 2 weeks and difficult to extend. But my friends in Indonesian embassy in Tashkent were trying their best to help me. A staff said, “Let’s try to call them on different day. Maybe different staff will give different answer.” She was right. Another day the Indonesian embassy phoned the Iranian embassy, and it was another man who answered the call (I have never seen any women working in Iranian embassies that I have ever visited). The man said it was possible to apply with a letter from our embassy and we had to wait for 2 weeks for the result. On 12 January 2007 I have heard that the visa was ready and I could pick up. It was almost 1 month since we applied for it. I went to [...]

January 22, 2007 // 3 Comments

SNAP (2006): Mencari Warna-warni Kehidupan

No. 006/2006 SNAP (Majalah Fotografi) JALAN-JALAN | Asia Selatan Mencari Warna-warni Kehidupan NASKAH & FOTO: AGUSTINUS WIBOWO Ketika saya masih duduk di kelas 1 SD, pernah seorang guru bertanya tentang cita-cita. Saya menjawab dengan polosnya, “Ingin jadi turis!” “Lho, jadi turis, kan, bukan pekerjaan?” katanya terkejut. Hari ini, dua puluh tahun kemudian, saya berada di Afghanistan, setelah satu tahun lebih mengelana melintasi negeri-negeri Asia, dari gunung-gunung tinggi hingga padang pasir tak bertuan. Berjumpa dengan suku-suku terasing di pedalaman, hingga mengunjungi pabrik-pabrik senjata ilegal. Separuh turis, separuh jurnalis. Sama sekali tidak kusangka, cita-cita masa kecil kini tercapai. India Kaya Warna Perjalanan panjang ini adalah perjalanan mencari warna. Menemukan arti kehidupan yang tersembunyi dalam ragam-ragam budaya, serta saling berbagi dengan pembaca yang mungkin tak berkesempatan menengok sendiri. Kamera, bagi saya bukan hanya alat untuk mengabadikan pengalaman, namun juga media berkomunikasi dengan penduduk lokal. Memulai dari Beijing, Cina, setelah tiga bulan perjalanan darat sampailah saya di Nepal, sebuah negeri mungil yang terjepit di antara dua raksasa Asia, India dan Cina. Budaya Hindu begitu mewarnai kehidupan masyarakatnya. Warna mistis dan kepercayaan kuno, disemerbaki oleh harumnya asap dupa yang dibakar oleh para penganutnya, menjadikan Nepal negeri yang penuh misteri, terkunci di antara puncak-puncak salju yang [...]

December 30, 2006 // 5 Comments

Cosmopolitan Men (2006): Menapaki Sejarah Panjang Negeri Afghan

December 2006 COSMOPOLITAN MEN 2006 ADVENTURE Lintas Tengah Afghanistan: Menapaki Sejarah Panjang Negeri Afghan Sebuah jalan membentang sepanjang 1000 km antara Herat dan Kabul. Jalan ini sepi. Jalan ini bisu. Tapi dia menyimpan lebih banyak cerita dari pendongeng terbaik di dunia. Mari kita berjalan dan mendengar ceritanya. Ada sebuah jalan di Afghanistan. Jalan yang sepi, berteman debu, panas dan matahari. Tanpa aspal, berbukit tandus, bergunung tinggi, tanpa peradaban dan tanpa hidup. Kontras dengan kenyataan bahwa jalan ini menyimpan 800 tahun cerita. Cerita tentang Hulagu Khan yang membawa 120 ribu pasukan dalam perang. Yang bertanggung jawab atas pembunuhan peradaban Islam di Irak. Atau legenda tentang si Pincang Timur Lenk, keturunan marga Khan yang mencoba ulangi kejayaan leluhurnya. Herat, Angin Sejarah yang Berlalu Kota Herat di bagian barat Afghanistan dulunya adalah ibukota kerajaan Timur Lenk. Di kota ini kebudayaan Persia berharmoni dengan indahnya dengan kebudayaan Afghan. Arsitektur Masjid Jum’at-nya, kolosal. Benteng lkhtiyaruddin berdiri dengan angkuhnya di atas pasar-pasar tradisional yang sibuk, yang hampir semua orangnya mengenakan surban. Dinasti-dinasti yang dulu berkuasa di sini banyak membangun menara-menara megah atau kompleks bangunan religius seperti masjid dan madrasah. Namun sayang, perang berkepanjangan sejak zaman Inggris hingga era Taliban telah menghancurkan hampir semua kekayaan Herat. Yang [...]

December 20, 2006 // 0 Comments

Turkistan – A Journey to Turkistan

A pilgrimage to the holy land of Trkistanrkistan The holy journey to the holy land The train departed from Almaty 1 train station after I had a little incident with station police. I was just informed that taking photos in a train station was extremely prohibited. I was taking photos of the train, passengers, and security officers, and then suddenly a man called me to follow him to a special room. Here I was interrogated by the woman who was the head of the police. I explained that I was just a tourist and I was interested by the Russian train. They let me go after I deleted the photos. Many passengers of the train were students. The way going to Turkistan passes Shymkent, the important southern town bordering with Uzbekistan. Most of the passengers, compared to northbound train routes, were mostly Asians. Southern part of Kazakhstan was dominated by native Kazakh and Uzbek. The holy man The train journey was long. But as here, most passengers were Kazakh and Uzbek, comparatively they were much friendlier compared to passengers of train to Astana or Karaganda. Maybe it was also the weather which defined people characteristics. In northern cities, where the [...]

December 12, 2006 // 0 Comments

Almaty – If You WaNNa LIVe

The park may look beautiful and quiet, but it can be dangerous The day started with a quarrel. Lyubova, the owner of the home stay, was not happy that I arrived with a taxi yesterday night. I was in the middle of Almaty downtown, when I realized it was already 7 pm. I was waiting a bus until 11 pm but no public buses at all going to airport area. I forgot, on Sundays all public transport stopped working as early as 6 pm. What a bad luck. I walked under darkness, with only fear of meeting criminals or drunks in my heart, from Respublika Alangy until Tole Bi. I gave up. It was almost midnight. At the end, I had to haggle a taxi (better than staying in a gay bar like last week). The taxi cost 500T. It was much beyond my budget, but I didn’t have any choice. When I arrived at the home stay, Lyubova was sleeping. The next morning, she started the quarrel. “Huh. You can pay a taxi but you cannot pay for your stay!” said her cynically. I just didn’t understand her. I paid what I should pay. Even yesterday she claimed that [...]

December 11, 2006 // 0 Comments

Almaty – the Golden Man

The busy and colorful “green market” of Almaty During my stay in Kazakhstan, today was the first time I saw a sunny day in Almaty. The city suddenly became lovely and friendly. Somehow now I started to understand how this city had a lovely name, Almaty, which was the original form of its old name, ‘Alma Ata’, which literally means Father Apple. The Chinese call this name as ‘Alamutu’, which might be the closest form the Chinese spelling could make to this city’s name in Silk Road time. Anyhow, it was said that Almaty’s apples were as big as coconut, and it was said the best apples produced here at that time. Now, for a poor Russian dwellers like Lyubova, apple is a luxury in this ‘apple city’, as the price of apples was far beyond their budget. I got used already with Almaty’s high cost of price, and as people coming from financial power below poverty line, I started to know the strategy to keep living in low budget. I started to do self-catering from the Zelyonii Bazaar (Green Bazaar). There were many Korean ladies selling the famous Korean cabbage salad and prickles. There was also a cheap Chinese [...]

December 10, 2006 // 0 Comments

Karaganda – The Mining Town

Strong Russian influence is felt in Kazakhstan, especially in the northern part of the country Some 200 km southeast ward from the capital Astana is the famous northern town of Karaganda (also spelled as Qaraghandy or Karaghanda). What made Karaganda famous were coal, labor camps, and AIDS. This second biggest city in Kazakhstan after Almaty started its history when a small-scale coal mining settlement was built in 1857, and the mining developed fast after the completion of railway link in early 20th century. The town was actually founded in 1920s by mining slave labors, and the labor camp riots dominated Karaganda’s early history. Mining industries of Karaganda, dominated by coal, included iron, steel work, and ore. Coming from Astana by bus, in early cold morning by a minibus which cost 1000 T a seat from Astana to Karaganda, I saw grey polluted air around the mining town of Karazhal, which supplied ore for industries in Karaganda. As a mining and industry city, I have learnt that Karaganda also processed another dark side: to be the place of majority HIV cases in the Republic of Kazakhstan. My first image coming to Karaganda was bleak and grey. It was like the grey [...]

December 9, 2006 // 0 Comments

Astana – A Day in the New Capital

Building, building, and keep building Despite of the bitter cold due to the fierce snowfall in this sub-Arctic new capital, I forced myself to go around. As in Almaty, bus network was quite extensive in Astana. The buses were, again similar to Almaty, mostly second hand buses from Germany decorated by graffiti from the former German owners. Astana, behind the frozen bus glass window, looked completely white in my eyes. This capital might be the most artificial city in Central Asia, even I have heard that Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan – another gas and oil rich nation in the region, was comparable. Nobody would expect this place to become the capital of modern Kazakhstan. About a decade ago, Astana was just a wasteland in the middle of nowhere. The location where Astana is, far in the north in the heartland of Kazakhstan, is known for enjoying its extreme weather in scorching hot summers and bitterly freezing winters. Nobody would decide to have a capital here. Many thought Nazarbayev was crazy with his decision. But actually he had his own calculation. The city center. It’s freezing minus thirty something Astana, of course was not called as Astana before Nazarbayev’s decision [...]

December 8, 2006 // 0 Comments

Astana – The New Capital

Welcome on board The 20 hour journey on a sleeper bus from Almaty to Astana was flat. From the window I saw the massive, flat land of Kazakhstan. My image of green giant steppe, in cold winter like this, was replaced by thick snow layer. Everything was flat and white. The sky was completely grey, adding the sorrow of traveling in Kazakhstan in freezing cold winter. But Kazakhstan was inviting. In this 2nd class sleeper, which cost 20 dollar a seat plus 250 Tenge for bed sheet rental (I tried to refuse but the train attendants said she wouldn’t allow me to sleep on the bedding without the sheets), I shared the compartment with two Mongolian Chinese and a Kazakh woman. The two Chinese men of Mongolian ethnic spoke good Chinese and Russian. They were all from Xinjiang province. One had Kazakh passport and the other, Mr. Ye Shunde, still possessed a Chinese passport. “It’s now easy to acquire Kazakh passport,” said Mr. Ye, “you just need to marry a Kazakh woman and you get citizenship.” Kazakhstan is a huge country with enormous wealth, but lack of population. The country with land area 50% larger than Indonesia was only inhabited [...]

December 7, 2006 // 0 Comments

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