Received like a prince in Indonesia

On Jakarta’s airport there was a domestic flight ticket to Semarang waiting for me. And two hours later, on Semarang’s airport there was a cab driver waiting for me as well, holding a board with my name on it. He drew a good, air conditioned car — and had a few bottles of mineral water for me on the back seats ready. A couple of hours later he’d bring me to Jepara, where I’d meet my online friend Koos Mooij, who organized my whole arrival to Indonesia. It was about 3 hours driving to his wooden villa on Jepara’s beach, where Koos gave me a room, just at the corner of his accommodations resort. It was his best guests room, only 20 meters from the beach, surrounded with the palm trees.

Koos is my online Ekudos friend. Eight month or so ago, we were only joking online and it all started with the idea to come to Indonesia and get drunk together. A couple of months later, this joke wasn’t joke anymore. We were both serious in stead.

When I arrived in Jepara and came out of the cab, they applauded me, as I was celebrity. So, I felt a bit uneasy and got a little bit blush on my face instantly.

Sailing around in Jepara

The following days, Koos, his friends and I would drink loads of Bintang beer, eat good food and have from time to time catamarans sailing tours to - and around - the near island, with regular breaks on Sunset Beach. My last sailing days I was getting sailing lessons and on my very last sailing day we had a little accident, due to a human mistake. :)

Our catamaran got overturned, so Louis and me found our self in the water, trying to get our boat up again. From the coast we saw our British friend Rob coming with kayak to help us, and so did Edwin and “Opa” later on, coming to help with their speedboat. They made sure the sea stream wouldn’t smash our boat against the rocks and we wouldn’t get cut by corals… as the sea stream was strong that day and we were very close to the rocks and corals, drifting to exactly that direction. It was the matter of 5 to 10 minutes… So our rescue team came just on time.

The idea was that Koos and I would go to Bali together, where his two daughters live and arrange a photoshoot with them. He wanted to have nice pictures of his daughters, who’ve done some modeling work in past and got even on the pages of Indonesian mode magazines. But the girls were now too busy with their work and study, so our flight to Bali was at the end canceled. To stay in shape, Koos asked me to make-up his beautiful wife and also a Dutch medicine student Inge, who happened to be there only for two days.

Partying in Jakarta with Jack

My last 4 days I spent in Jakarta where I had a photoshoot with photographer Marcus and model Valerie. I spent the rest of my Jakarta time partying with Jack all the time.

Leaving Jepara was kinda emotional (and so was leaving Jakarta). Koos said I should pay nothing for my 2 weeks stay in Jepara, as I was invited — and I’m now (also in real) his good friend. I insisted I should pay at least my flights tickets and a cab… and so it happened. That was the deal we both could live with.

On his turn, Jack suggested I should come back to Jakarta as soon as possible, if I don’t want to stop living.

I was received like a prince in Indonesia and got at the end sucked by Jakarta’s night life where I partied like a beast.. At the end I left Indonesia completely exhausted and emotionally cracked, on very positive way.

Sailing crew: Edwin, Rob and Inge.

Sail along the fishing net.

Catamaran approaching.

Sail competition.

Sailing with a full speed.

Speedboat.

Speedboat approaching.

I made these pictures from our third catamaran boat, with my small travelers Olympus camera … which is extremely difficult thing to do.

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