Indonesia's independence day. August 2014.

Short introduction: My brother's father in-law family lives in near Jakarta, Indonesia, so this trip i was starting on their home my journey. In many Asian countries it's common that people use house cleaners, laundress or things like that, which i think is really good actually to have poor people job, i support that fully :)

Anyway, to the point. So this father in law, they have this cleaner name Cuing. So i heard that there is coming Indonesian's independent party and near Jakarta is this little village, just local's village, but they have party of course because independent, so Cuing offered to take me there. So of course i had to take opportunity.

So next day me and Cuing are heading that village with motorbike. When we arrived there, i was straight away surrounded with villager's and everyone was some reason to talk me "mister, mister" they yell all together. I knew already from my previous trips from Asia that this is common but really, Indonesia is number one on that, you feel like movie star there... And people taking pictures of you all the time. But didn't bother me :)

Anyway, there was many kind of competitions, mostly for children, but first was this:

So thing is that top of that pole is small gift's that you have to try to climb and reach them, to get them as a price. But this pole is oiled, so it's not easy, boys were trying to climb on each others shoulders to get higher but every time that looked too easy this guy was making it harder by throwing bucket of water to them, so soon boys were really muddy and slippery, so it was harder and harder. In the end they didn't catch prices but they had fun :)

And all this was really in small village, i was only white people there, shining middle of brown people :D

But yes, next competition was this: 

 

Trying to get coins that were in coconut, hanging on the string, without hands, using just teeth. And coconut was also covered with chocolate sauce so it was messy but tasty :) 

That was so fun that also little older were trying it:

Didn't try any of those but next competition was something i tried.

Mission: catch a fish from the pool.

Equipment: just bare hands.

Level: muddy :D

So people were really happy that white man wanted to try that also, but to be honest, that last picture is fake, i didn't get any fish on muddy water, but i really enjoyed that, they just wanted to take picture of me as i would catch the fish.

Of course locals were really good at that, they got more fishes that i probably could get with dynamite and trawler :D

After that i was visiting on Chung's family, we were eating there and they offered me change clothes because my clothes was muddy, and they said i could take nap after dinner when they wash my dirty clothes, soooo friendly :)

After nap we were going to see little boys football match. But some reason scoreboard was match between "Brazil vs German" which ended "German" winning 2-0.

me and kids watching football game :)

And of course there was also commentator and little boys were screaming players "names" from famous players :)

Second game was Belgium vs Perancis which ended 2-1. Belgium win.

After that we went back Chung's family, eating again, and i was playing with Chung's kids Hello kitty-game and they were showing me their circus skills:

Hello Kitty-game

very skilled kids <3

Indonesian guy on the right is Cuing :)

After that went back to Jakarta, but that was really nice day with really nice people, this was beginning of my 3 months trip after half year working in Finland, couldn't have better start again to my trip, and straight away reminded me WHY i love to travel in Asia and meet these wonderful people there <3

But that's it this time, tell you later where i went and what did i do after that....

 

January 2014 Hoi Anh, Vietnam.

Ok, next destination: Hoi Anh. Its been a while already when this happened so i just try to make story based of my goldfish memory, so here goes something. (For now on if you read this it's just by your own responsibility :P)

You can read lots of stuff from Hoi Anh on guidebooks and that's really beautiful city i can tell, and recommend to visit there. But this is not about city still, it's story about what happened on my trip so i just tell that.

I was in Hoi Anh couple of days, just wondering around near beautiful river there and renting motorbike and going around near places, sometimes stopping for tea with local men and maybe playing something with them.

I tried to learn this check style game but never really learned very well that, but that's popular hobby in Vietnam among men, drinking tea and playing this:

But i didn't get points with success but rather trying it, lol :D

Anyway if i wasn't going around with motorbike or just wondering in evening near to riverside i liked to go just for beer and watch peoples going market and everyday life near the river.

 So here is some pictures of river area, was very beautiful just take beer and enjoy scene :)

Anyway, one evening i was sitting near to river with my beer, enjoying evening and good beer, i heard: Hello mate!!!!

Jan, beer and lots of stories :)

I turned to see who is speaking, i saw this fellow traveler from Australia. So i had beer and some stories and she had beer and lots of stories, she told me that she had been travelling already when i was still playing with sand cake when i was kid. And she was travelling with his little son when she was younger, and son still travels, i understood. Idea of that was fascinating and we were changing stories about travelling, haven't had so good time changing stories for awhile.

Anyway, there was some kind of appointment with travelers in that evening so went there and had good time.

But like sometimes in traveling, some things are just short while, so next day i was packing my backpack again and heading more to north, eventually in Phong nha-ke Bang National park. (Or something like that) Which is place of really massive caves!!!!

So i was visiting couple really massive caves, one of them had to go with underground river with boat, in that area they have discovered most biggest cave known now. (that's i understood)

Didn't go that cave but others were massive also!!!!

Of course my skills and my camera you really cant get the picture, if you want better pic, just google that place, but can say that was totally awesome!!!!

From entrance of area, was raining...

Entrance of the cave

So that was awesome place to visit. But i wanted to have time trip to ancient Vietnam and was asking from Huan, my motordriver on mountain area if i want to see some little oriental village where is no tourists if possible. He advised me this little village where i went next for about one week. I don't even tell name of village because i want to keep that like oriental place, but i went there, was really beautiful village in middle of mountain area and there were just couple homestays and some tourists but usually not many and usually they were there just one night with organised trip. There was this one Guide, born in Vietnam and now living in France, so he had business of taking just France people there so those was only foreigners i saw there, but just one night always. So i could really get in to village life, of course language barrier was little shame, but i was there about one week, just chilling and enjoying time travel.

 Some pictures of that village:

So there i was, and one evening this French-Vietnamese Guide came again to my homestay with French group, so they always had this party of local dance in my homestay:

And here is another one:

And after that of course we were eating so good food that still makes me tearing when remember that <3
French group was eating together in the room but this guide was taking me secretly downstairs to eat with the family and some locals which was honor to me.

Me eating with family. Guy in red in right is French-Vietnamese guide

But again, i had been that place in about week so i thought i should move on because wanted to visit also Halong bay, so i was asking this guide does he know what time on next morning there is bus going even Halong bay direction. But he said that actually he's group is heading on that direction with mini Van in next morning so if i want i could come with them. So i was like -"Sounds good, how much i pay you for trip?" He said. -"nothing, just join with us"

So i got free ride towards Halong bay. I knew that trip would be so long that we have to stop some city for a night. So i thought group is going on some expensive hotel and i find some cheap place and in morning continuing again. So i was telling this my plan to the guide but he said that he's parents live in that city and he is going there for night and invited me there for a night, for free of course again :D

So i was also there with his family eating on evening, i love the way how they eat: food is on the floor and everyone around that and then just eat very good food.

And after that next morning we continued towards and were stopping in this really beautiful temple-lake area which name even don't remember:

But in the end we arrived to Harbor where boats are going to Halong bay and i was saying good bye this group because their plans were different than mine to continue, so i tell you later what happened next....