Where are you going?

As a traveller, you better get used to being asked where you are from, as this question comes up early in conversations no matter where you are going in the world.

Direct Indonesians?

Nevertheless, I was surprised to hear the Indonesian version “dari mana?” constantly when walking down the roads of Labuan Bajo. Without a greeting like “Halo” or “Selamat” it felt rather direct for the generally very modest and polite Indonesians. Of course, we didn’t want to be rude foreigners and learned our reply: “Dari Jerman”. OK, actually Yoeri is “Belanda” by passport, but he is also a Berliner, and the Dutch are not very much loved in Indonesia.
More complicated was a second question which often followed, sometimes was even the only one asked: Ke mana? Where are you going? We were not passing through as tourists, therefore we also didn’t know what to answer. Hopefully, nowhere for a while!

Here to stay

Even though Labuan Bajo isn’t the most appealing place to be, it serves as a gateway to Komodo National Park with all its natural wonders as well as lush Flores. It was winter in Europe so we were definitely planning to stay in Indonesia for some time (My arrival in Indonesia: Dig or dive?). Basically, we came to stay, but on which islands and for how long we had no idea. “Where are you going?” turned out to be even more of a philosophical question revealing that we were drifting, going with the flow – quite happily, but without any proper destination or plan.

An Indonesian greeting

After a while, we started to understand that these questions, in fact, are meant as a greeting. Unlike in other parts of the world where only strangers are asked, in Indonesia everybody is addressing everybody else this way. It’s simply not so much how you are doing, but where you are doing it. But even then you don’t have to be precise. You can say “jalan-jalan” for walking or my favourite expression “makan angin” (eating wind) which in a way reflected our approach to coming to Indonesia quite well.

Video for Uber Scuba

We moved on by now. But we still don’t really know where we are going or when this will happen. We are enjoying life where we are – most of the time at least. However, in this blog, I show you where we are coming from as well as where you are going (category travel or such per country). In the meantime, we highly recommend exploring the beauties of Komodo yourself: