Hiking: Sports, nature and tourism

If you hike a beautiful area with a lot of historic cultural sites along with beautiful outlooks on nature, it is hard to maintain the athletic aspects only. Sports physicians define hiking as walking through nature with different type of tracks and at a minimum speed of 5-6 km. It can range from an easy paved road to paved forest trails, rougher track area, different types of soil up to slippery extremely steep serpentines.In most cases the distance ranges between 10 and 30 km per day.

However, there will always be the touristic side of the hike. This means that we need to count sightseeing  ancient castles and other historic cultural sites, different photo stops which shouldn't be missed or just enjoying the scenery. These non-sports activities add  some extra time to the planned hike. We always have to go for compromises because if we want to enjoy nature and culture to the fullest,  the minimum cardiovascular workout cannot be maintained throughout the whole hike. A stretch of app 20 km can easily take around 6-7 hours including all breaks.

This is another part of the Rheinsteig between Braubach and Filsen, alongside the Rhine including steep ascends and descends, partly slippery, partly in forested areas and the other stretch in the hot sunny part along the Rhine

Wispertal: A piece of heaven at the doorstep

The car ride between Mainz and Lorch, where the hike starts, is already a trip on its own. It goes through winding roads along the Rhine and through beauitful hills and architecture

I have been to Wispertal a few times to buy fresh rainbow trouts. This time it was the first time that I explored the place by hiking. If you consider hiking as a good sport to boost your  cardiovascular system, you have to keep a certain pace from beginning to end. I had difficulties to make the right decision: either I had to stop and take some time to zoom the right focus and take the picture from the right angle, or I had to keep my pace from beginning till end

The trail started at the beautiful UNESCO heritage site Lorch with its beautiful buildings, churches and scenery. The hike goes through the forest, many slate trees and shrubs, the remaining wild berries and several outlooks far beyond the Rhine to the other side, the Hunsrück mountain range.

The trail was broad enough for the relatively large group and we also had the opportunities for fruitful conversations with some very interesting people. We have also been very lucky that it hadn't rained for some time and had no problems with a slippery ground. Most of the trail was soft soil and hardly any rocks on a well-formed track.

There were some ascends and descends, the one up to the ancient castle ruine Sauerburg was one of them. From the description the trail was around 18,5 km with some fairly rough stretches and a difference in altitude of about 700 m. The last stretch was along the famous Rheinsteig trail back to Lorch, a gradually descending track. The view on the Rhine, its castles, mountain range and wineries on the other side was divine, which more than often distracts a good hiker from his purpose.

Rhineside hiking tracks are sunnier and warmer for most of the time, making the stamina a lot lesser after a good hike in forested areas. Even the road was a lot smoother and slowly descending, it was the hardest part because of the heat. From a lookout point near Kaub, we could see the small castle Pfalzgrafenstein built on the island Reichenau in the middle of the Rhine. This was formerly a venue built for custom purposes and nowadays open as a museum

Going on such a hike is challenging enough for your stamina and we can all combine it with beautiful scenery, ancient castles and churches along with great social interaction. Absolutely recommendable for visitors to Germany too!

Touring the vineyards in a tractor-pulled trailer with free-flowing wine

My Australian friend Monica has organised a typical drinking tour to the Dörrschuck winery in Lörzweiler near Bingen. It has a beautiful location at the mouth of the Rhine Gorge. For EUR 15,- it gets you a beautiful tour, four types of free-flowing wines, non-alcoholic beverages and snacks.

It is not the type of wine tasting where you can taste many different types of wine before buying them.  Although Andreas Dörrschuck had excellent expertise, he didn't present much about wine-manufacturing unless you ask him explicit questions. Rather is it a mixture between a drinking orgy, a fun event with friends, family or colleagues and a tour through a beautiful vineyards with breathtaking views of the Rhine,

Andreas Dörrschuck, the owner of the winery, drove the tractor pulling a 14 seater trailer. The trailor was covered with a canvas roof in case of rain and too much sun. It was raining on that day, first it was covered but later Andreas opened it to allow us a better view.

As soon as we arrived, Andreas introduced some beautiful wines for us to taste. Then we embarked on the trailer. It was arranged in a way only a meticulous German business can do. In the middle of the trailer, there was a long plank with holes to put in the glasses and bottles. It also served as a table where you could put your plate with food. The wines and food was kept cold in a cooler box.

Food such as pretzels and homemade Spundekäs, a typical Mainz wine companion snack made of  cream cheese, chopped onions and paprika powder, was available in abundance. The main idea was to help ourselves to all the good food and fine. Water and grape juice was also provided but the majority of people preferred the wine

It was a great group with some great conversations and jokes. A good diversity of nationalities only added spice to the event. Two visitors came directly from Australia. After the tour, Andreas still had a little surprise for us. A lovely semi-dry red wine was waiting for us to be tasted. Andreas' expertise of winegrowing also made the tour unforgettable

Such a tour easily tempts you to drink excessively due to the self-service and the happy atmosphere. One of our friends, an experienced drinker and avid traveller collapsed all of a sudden. Thank God a few of our friends brought him home by bus and taxi, so nobody needed to worry about people not getting home

Panti Werdha Kristen Hana, horror story about an Indonesian retirement home

The Panti Werdha Kristen Hana in Pamulang, Tanggerang Selatan(south Tangerang), a retirement home under the G.K.I(Christian Association of Indonesia) turned out to be a nightmare experience. My first impression of the home was a very good one, nice staff, residents, room and a residential feel. The home will not be that bad without a doctor who had no clue about ethics and a spineless manager.

My mother had a  eye condition called AMD(Age/related Macular Disease) on her retina. She developed bleeding, a secondary glaucoma and blinded. The doctor misdiagnosed and referred her to one of the specialist she knew for of course a skyrocketing fee. Their qualification was not so clear because my mother's condition was complicated and needed careful attention to her medical history.

This doctor forced her to see her specialist and also forced her nurse on her. The patient's right to choose their own doctor and nurse was totally violated at. Apart from everything, this nurse had bad manners, did not pay attention to the secrecy of the medical and paramedical profession. She screamed loudly in a public place about my mother's medical condition. Her presence at the doctor's office would have seriously disturbed my mother's communication with the doctor.

As my mother refused to accept their conditions, especially since this was not outlined in the home's terms and conditions, the manager and doctor started to make up stories. Among others my mother was denied a conversation with the board of directors, she was accused of being unable to socialise with the other residents and the workers. There were many doctors and residents who could witness that my mother could fit in well into the life of the retirement home

But the worst thing was that the manager did only notify me by email one week after the letter of dismissal was written. And my mother herself was NOT told anything and was severely shocked as I told her on the phone that she had been dismissed from the home behind her back. On the last day they forced her to sign a document which said that she was obliged to let one of their nurses accompany her to the doctor. I have reported this doctor to the ethics commission of the Indonesian Doctor's Association. She had practiced severe misconduct

Getting a deeper insight into Indonesian culture

Traditional Benteng Chinese wedding in the village

Modern Chinese New Year celebration

I was  not born and raised in Indonesia but my Indonesian genes are visible. My language skills are quite good because I had many Indonesian contacts in other countries. Reading books and virtual social networks has helped me a lot to get around the country with adequate language and behaviour.

This year  my mother has been struck by a sudden illness. I needed to take over all her business and social duties without much preparation. As a seasoned traveller in business and leisure, I am aware of cultural differences. But there is a huge difference between knowing and actually living a culture. I was forced to plunge and blend in into the society because I was my mother's only relative. Couchsurfing turned out to be extremely helpful because I met my CS friends Diana and Magdalena. They guided me to cope with cultural differences and Diana even helped me to find a retirement residence for my mother. I do have Indonesian friends that are not on CS too. Lovely people, wealthy, highly educated and well-traveled but unlike me, they haven't had a globalised parental education from their first baby crawl. So, sometimes it has been a challenging act to bridge the differences in perception. Here are a few cultural differences which highly differ from mine:


 

These friendly Muslim nurses are against over-structured society, hypocrisy and adult authority

Unwritten social rules
At least outwardly, ethnicity differences seem to be a big no-no in European or Australian societies. In Indonesia it is different. Mentioning ethnicity differences and even a certain degree of racism is socially acceptable. People address the elderly, the Chinese, the Christian indigenous and the Muslims differently with different names. For instance if they assume that somebody is Chinese they will automatically call them Ci(older sister in Chinese) or tante(auntie).  The problem with this kind of social etiquette is: Somebody will automatically be placed in a box or given a place in society just based on their looks. Some Chinese look like indigenous Indonesians and many indigenous Indonesians look like Chinese, some older people look younger, some younger people look older.

The best solution would be to find a common term to address the people and nobody will be distinguished by their age or ethnicity. Former President Sukarno suggested that everybody should be called bapak(Mr) or ibu(Mrs, Ms) which can be directed at any person regardless of age and ethnicity. I quite appreciate the Muslim indigenous Indonesian who call everybody mbak, ibu or bapak regardless whether they are Chinese or indigenous.

Respect the elderly or adult authority?
Respecting the elderly seems to be the cornerstone of the  Asian culture. But what people in certain circles consider respect is in fact adult authority in the most narrow pyramid form. Mario Teguh, well-known Indonesian TV talkshow master repeatedly discussed the topic "respect" in all its forms. One of the topics that received special attention was: Respect needed to be earned and not demanded. This means that younger people and children do deserve respect especially when they have outstanding achievements. A lot of younger and older people in this country seem to evolve and start to think outside the usual box. A very good development!

A different approach towards raising children
Non-Western parents also tend to be overbearing and overprotective to their children. A great deal of Western parents do not prohibit their kids to climb a tree because they should learn the hard way. Only after they experience that falling off a tree can be excruciatingly painful, they will realise that they need to be more careful in such endeavors.  Indonesian parents have the habit to protect children from getting hurt by just preventing them from climbing a tree or riding a motor bike.

Due to this kind of upbringing we often see that young Indonesians have less self-confidence than their Western counterparts. While Western youngsters leave their parent's home to live on their own at the age of 18, Indonesian people often live with their parents until the age of 30. On the other hand, it is quite encouraging to see a lot of changes made to Indonesian society rules and younger people have often become more assertive.  A lot of parents start to question the old methods and start to raise their children to be more independent.

Hypocrisy towards the elderly
One Asian girl told me that "the elderly help us when we need financial help, therefore we do what they tell us". Well, in my opinion this is not respect but a form of extreme top down authority. It is difficult to understand for my social upbringing. On the other hand, older people are not taken seriously in business and day-to-day affairs.

My mother's birthday international brunch at Four season's Hotel Kuningan

My mother is a very independent lady and as she wanted to clarify issues with technical problems in her house, the government worker shouted at her very disrespectfully "Your child should take care of it!!!" And people sometimes do not realise that some elderly have no relatives anymore. When an elderly person does not behave according to acceptable norms, this attitude is automatically judged as signs of getting older. This is extremely hypocritical considering that the elderly should deserve respect.

People over 70 are considered  helpless and childish in Indonesia while in the western world they still run marathons. As my mother has been operated, I was quite astonished that it was me who had to sign the consent form. I told the people that I considered it a blatant insult to the address of the senior-aged people. Relatives can also sue doctors if anything goes wrong. However,a  few exceptions in Indonesia still have outstanding performance at the age of nearly 100!  

Lack of appreciation towards somebody else's time If you have an appointment in Jakarta,  it is nearly impossible to be on time due to traffic jams. But people seem to set their own time schedule and just make up not overly intelligent lies. They would cancel on you half an hour before the appointment saying that they have a meeting. Of course I don'T believe them.. As far as I am informed, even in Indonesia business meetings are scheduled and I have a business meeting with them too. "Can I come tomorrow because I have a meeting today?" they ask. . I told them that they had wasted my time today and going to ruin my  next day.  

The word privacy does not exist because it is not there
The word privacy in Indonesia does not exist because you simply cannot have it. What does the word privacy actually mean? One of the many meanings is the right to do whatever you think is right for you. For instance if a person has piercings and weird clothes, people  in the Western world may not like it but they respect their privacy or right to do whatever they see fit. In Indonesia, people on the street will probably follow and ridicule them. I was not allowed to wear shorts in a Tai Chi group training session because all the others had long pants on.  Of course I can understand that they have to wear uniformed clothes in a performance.

I told them that in a training session people could simply wear whatever they wish. Their response reflected more the attitude of kindergarten toddlers. Gossiping while throwing indiscrete looks and finally making fun of me. People easily ask your age and salary, while very insensitive to the other person's reluctance to answer. Even my closer friends don't show much understanding that I don't appreciate them coming to my house just as they please.......It is very clear that the Asian culture is more based on collective values while the Western culture has evolved towards individualism.

The mainstream traveller This is the worst because this group strongly defines themselves through wealth. Tour guides already know that Indonesian travel groups are more interested in shopping than people, culture and scenery. Neighbours and friends seem to nearly demand presents, the so-called oleh oleh from overseas. Travellers are therefore pretty much under pressure of which present they have to buy for which neighbour. They are even prepared to pay excess weight just to accommodate the pressure of their social environment.

golden wedding anniversary with red wine

It is very fortunate that some enterprising Indonesian people are much into backpacking and adventure; they are often members of Couchsurfing or Indonesian Backpacker Communities. Indonesian Couchsurfers and probably all flash- and backpackers all over the world speak many foreign languages, have a rather globalised view on life and their attitude is mostly untypical for their culture.


Summary
If you travel to any country for just a short time, you will not be really exposed to the real culture. In order to taste the real culture with all the pros and cons, one needs to either work or study in a country for some time. I start to realise this after I came to Indonesia for prolonged periods and had to fulfill certain tasks.

The South Coast of Penang Island

I have been invited to surf Yusuf's couch on the South Coast of Penang Island. Not only that it was a secret spot on the island but the whole family was simply something special. Originally from Bosnia, they have converted to Islam, live the lifestyle of a Muslim family in Malaysia and yet their country of origin was still present in anything they do.

They spoke Hungarian at home mixed with some English and Malay, ate a blend of European and Asian food, very often made out of Malaysian ingredients with a European touch. They love to eat with their hands at a low table while sitting on the floor.

Their eldest sons Abdullah and Hassan are ardent chess players who also love to beat you in one of the simpler games like Monopoly. The third 5-year-old son Mustafa is very social and tries to accompany you buying breakfast and even offered to carry the bags with the charm of a gentleman. Their youngest baby son Ali is a friendly and communicative little boy, likes to climb and play.

It was probably the best experience to explore the area with the family, play with the kids, go out eating together and enjoy a local breakfast at home. A lovely place to surf not only for families with small children.

Being pestered in foodcourts

Penang food is a true Godsend from heaven. I really enjoy the various foods ranging from Chinese, Malay, mamak and Indian food all over the place. Oh, how I love the Char quay teow, fried rice, yong taufu, prawns, fish, prawn fritters, loh bak etc. The hawkers have been very friendly for most of the time and the foodcourt convenient to sit. A heaven for the best quality and cheapest prices in South East Asia.

On the downside of the story, especially in bigger Malaysian cities, I have been pestered by drink vendors. Malaysia is different from Indonesia or Thailand and this means that one coffee shop sublet their place to other hawkers including drink sellers. Not only that they push you into buying their drinks but they also want to see cash as soon as they serve the ordered goods.

As soon as they have brought the food or drinks you ordered, you will hear a monotonous and repetitive "3 RM please". I am sure that not everybody is honest and they need to make sure to receive their money as soon as they have fulfilled their duties, but I still find it irritating. Most of the time the food and the drinks don't arrive at the same time. This can be really annoying especially when you are eating, have washed your hands, have to dig into your backpack to look for your wallet and touch money again. How disturbing and unhygienic! Malaysian people should stand up against this!

In smaller towns, people tend to be more relaxed, allowing us to pay our food after finishing our meals and they don't employ drink head hunters.In every coffee shop there are one or two drink vendors whom I found unpleasant and offensive. Different from food vendors, they will come to your table straight away and pester you into buying drinks for them. As an excuse they keep claiming that they also pay rent to the place I'm sitting in and disturb me further with their obligation to pay entertainment fees.

While I do understand all the reasons leading to their actions, I do not appreciate this type of pestering. Firstly, some of their drinks are such low quality that they can't hide the chlorine taste. They blame the Malaysian government for this and think I'm not very informed about their country. I do have regular vendors who serve good drinks which do not taste of chlorine.

The drink vendors have spoilt it all for me. I haven't asked them to be there and I come to the food court for eating and not drinking. In a foodcourt or coffee shop there are usually many food vendors sharing the rent as well and we can only decide to buy from one.

If the drink sellers' reason is that they also pay rent, then all the food vendors will have the same reason to pester because all vendors pay their rent share. Yet we have to refrain from buying food from other vendors if we have decided for one hawker already.

I have not experienced this very often yet in most Muslim, mamak and Indian foodcourts and start wondering what we can do about this. The final straw was: One of the restaurant owners told me" We have this all over in Malaysia and you have to follow our rules" She totally ignored my claims that we were all free to buy what we want and there was no sign obligating us to buy drinks. The only sign that actually makes sense to me is that we are not allowed to bring outside foods and drinks.