Nur Widodo

Melati Mas is somewhat out in the sticks and the poor public transportation was not overall helpful to meet couchsurfers. I decided to use the internet and found Nur Widodo who also helped hosting my CS friend Aishah Rachman. His mail was very friendly and I wasn't surprised at all as he called me on the phone and suggested a meeting place.

He was busy because he was preparing for his business assignment on an oil rig where he worked as a geologist. Nur Widodo looked much younger than his chronological age and as nice as his profile picture. He smiled warmly and said:" Ibu Sue(my mother who also has a profile on CS)". We instantly had a lot of stories to share and he was very keen to speak his excellent English with us but I rather preferred to speak my poor Indonesian with him.

Widodo invited us to join him to Jakarta in his car. It felt like we had known each other for ages and the conversations proceeded to the more sensitive cultural issues. Cultural encounters can be interesting but we should be prepared for a shock sometimes .It is easy to get to know and even roughly understand a culture......but it can be a challenge to actually live a culture as though it was your own.

I couldn't stand the temptation to buy a dress at the posh Pasar Raya in Kebayoran Baru and again Nur showed his talent and taste for good fashion. I chose a good quality smart casual dress for about Rp 400,000, quite expensive for Indonesian standards.

We spent roughly the whole day together, it started to rain cats and dogs and he dropped by at our place for a coffee. I wanted to buy some Indonesian cakes(kueh basah) but the rain was so horrible that even he preferred to just have some cookies. Nur, your advice on Indonesian culture especially the attitude of Indonesian parents was very sound although I had difficulties to understand it. Hope to see you again when I return to Jakarta

From Bourail to Noumea

Olive's house was in the middle of the Caledonian bush or brousse and we had no neighbours except of wild cows, dogs and horses. Zita his dog couldn't stop playing with me because she was young and strong. Every time she brought a piece of stone and deliberately dropped it on somebody's foot(ouch) to invite them to play with her. She never got tired no matter how often and how far you would throw the stone. Bourail and the bushland is said to be the residence of many "Caldoches", the French white people who have been living in New Caledonia for more than 5 generations. As a tourist and foreigner, I tried to be very careful about saying something with a double sense like Caldoche or Kanak(indigenous person). The safest for a foreigner is to always use neutral words and expressions.

The Bourail market was really interesting with the many exotic fruits which remind me a bit of Malaysia or Indonesia. Indigenous women in very colourful traditional dresses sitting around chatting or selling their products was typical for the Bourail market. In my opinion they were more interested, educated and curious than the Australian indigenous people back home. I bought an indigenous vegetable called chou Kanak or indigenous cabbage which looked more like spinach to me. The Caledonian indigenous people were curious and wanted to know much about the indigenous people in Australia. I always had hangups talking about the indigenous people in Australia and was happy as Pierre came to pick me up. The woman was surprised that my friends were white because as I told her that I stayed with friends she probably expected anything else than a "Caldoche". As a foreigner I often prefer not to voice my opinion too clearly because I was not always sure whether irony in that particular case would be suitable to express the double sense of matters.

The bus from Bourail to Noumea was late as usual. Jean Lugand, my third host, expected to pick me up near the cinema where the bus stop was. He was a handsome, kind and neat young man who worked as an engineer for Air Calin. HIs written English was excellent but as I asked him he preferred to speak French. This suited me very well because I liked to practice my French as much as I could while I was in NC. Indeed my French became very fluent and I started to use irony, humour or any type of slapsticks. Jean initially treated me as a couchsurfer and he clearly said that he wouldn't change his life for a couchsurfer. Of course I would never expect any host to change his life for a surfer or guest.

We went out Salsa dancing to the prettiest dancing I could ever imagine. Jean said it was an appealing place with friendly guests and staff. I couldn't agree more with him on that place. It was built in traditional Caledonian architecture in the middle of the sea, so we had to walk a small bridge to cross a small part of the water to be able to enter the disco. We had a salsa course where men and women were separated. Jean was tired and went home earlier. I still stayed and danced with many people then I slowly walked back to Jean's apartment in the noble suburb Anse Vata by the sea.

Anse Vata is a suburb with predominantly European or sometimes Asian residents where you hardly see any indigenous person. Sometimes I could observe a few indigenous people sleeping on the beach. The next day Jean didn't have time for me because he had a business dinner. He gave me the key of his apartment which he normally didn't give to surfers. I'm trustworthy but people who don't know me need some time to find out and I'm glad Jean trusted me. I walked a long way until Baie de Citron and further up but as I had sneekers and jeans on, they didn't admit me to the disco.

The last day of my stay in Noumea I went to the famous municipal market located just on the waterside of Noumea Harbour. It was another beautiful building with a blue roof and water views. Here they had the prawns NC was famous for and plenty of Vietnamese and Indonesian food. So I had quite a good value coffee, breakfast and hot lunch here. After breakfast I was looking for diving and surfing opportunities but it was not as easy as in Sydney. I needed to pay much for a boat which could bring me to the diving and surfing points. Because I was alone I needed to pay the fee for the whole boat because it was off season but school holiday time. All the flights were booked and everything was more expensive because of the school holidays and I couldn't find a flight to the Pine Islands. Finally I decided to just take a day cruise.

A must see in Noumea is the Centre Culturelle de Tjibaou or Cultural Centre. It is a a piece of land located by the sea, a beautiful spot with interesting indigenous shows, landscape gardening and the real indigenous houses. Just the bus ride along the coast provided a different side of coastal Noumea. I initially thought that Noumea was not worth a visit. But this city is multicultural and -ethnic, so even a cruise ship full of Australians will just be absorbed in the ethnic diversity of Noumea. I spent the last day with Jean and invited him to dinner at Baie de Citron. He was very caring and organised a shuttle bus to catch the very early flight. Public transportation was extremely unreliable in New Caledonia s I couldn't thank him moer for that. I was really prepared to catch an expensive taxi at the risk that they rip me off as a tourist. Thank you Jean for your hospitality and it was a great pity that I couldn't spend much time with you to get to know you better.