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Urban Chat: BLISSFUL PARADISE HERE, BITING REALITY THERE
âIâm going away for a while to disconnect
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'I'm going away for a while to disconnect.'
Rat-racing while wired 24/7, urbanites like me often get burned out and need to temporarily disconnect. For years before the Eat Pray Love book and movie brought in gazillion bliss-seeking tourists, my preferred hideout had been Ubud.
I still have a go-to inn tucked next to perhaps the last paddy near the center of town, but now since Ubud can experience traffic jams on a mundane Tuesday, in addition to the availability of Wi-Fi, I can no longer completely disconnect there.
The far-flung islands of this world's largest archipelago are where the disconnectedness remains, as I've discovered, for better or worse.
Let's start with the 'for better'. As I write this I'm nursing sunburn and cuts from adventuring last week all the way to the Derawan Islands. I said all the way, because it took a three-hour flight to North Kalimantan's Tarakan plus a three-hour speedboat ride into East Kalimantan.
Once we arrived cell signals were scant and between snorkeling with turtles and jellyfish, sunset or dolphin chasing, cave jumping and accidentally being swept out of a lagoon against rocks into the sea, I only worried over whether our ride could race out the tides. I managed to get disconnected from how murky our financial markets and politics have gotten.
Pretty much like last year on Maluku's Banda Islands and the year before in Southeast Sulawesi's Wakatobi Islands. Very few flights, a long journey on sardine-packed Pelni ships, limited modes of road transportation and almost non-existent signals. Blissful paradise for adventurous tourists, biting reality for natives.
This is where 'for worse' kicks in ' as the natives must pursue education, earn a living, raise kids and attain medical assistance with limited infrastructure every single day, not just during a weekend getaway.
Often there aren't schools beyond junior high level, which means unless parents can afford off-island boarding costs, there goes higher education for their 15 year olds and a fighting chance to get out of poverty.
Tourists may well be ferried in chartered fast boats yet few of these islands have regular water transportation for their own residents, if at all. The modest water taxis among the Banda Islands take humans and livestock (yes, I shared a ride with a goat, thank you) but not motorbikes unless rented exclusively.
The Derawan Islands do not even have any for a student, who had gone home to Maratua for a family affair, and had to hitch a ride on our speedboat back to his university in Tarakan, lest detour through Tanjung Batu and Berau for a full day.
There are fewer hospitals than schools, so imagine if major medical emergencies occur. Even if you have telecommunication support to call for help, I doubt air ambulance is an option.
Wakatobi had just opened a small airport on main island Wangi-wangi while Banda Naira's was closed due to a labor dispute when I came; now Maratua has an airstrip though the ATC tower has yet to be built.
Some travel buddies argue that the worse the infrastructure is, the longer the paradise remains. It's logical and perfectly fine if the remote spots don't house residents beyond employees of some self-sustaining resorts like, umm, on certain islets in Karimunjawa and West Sumatra.
But if there are actual natives, don't they deserve daily access and infrastructure on par with the visitors swinging in for a sojourn? Doesn't matter what political leaning or economic ideology you hold, and trust me I'm never mistaken for a social class activist, but that's social injustice in plain view.
So now that I've fretted, what's next? Personal donations and corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects are abounding, and I strongly suggest pitching in whenever an opportunity arises, but the natives need more fundamental and sustainable efforts.
The kind of undertakings only governments can initiate, coordinate, finance and execute. The new Village Law is supposedly disbursing up to a billion rupiah for any qualified village ' but I wonder how much of that will be dispensed on basic infrastructure instead of some collective whims of consumerism. The village fund management will be an intriguing test case of democracy versus theocracy; only time will tell who'll eventually get shorthanded within the community.
I go away to forget about my troubles, many say as they book a trip. Often I intend and manage to do just that, retreat behind my sunglasses to focus on the pleasantness in the full knowledge that just by coming I've already contributed to the local economy.
But it gets harder as the inequality widens and I almost feel guilty scurrying around in chartered boats to swim with exotic marine animals while the islanders aren't even provided with regular transportation, where their disconnectedness is never by personal choice.
Blissful paradise here, biting reality there, my Indonesia everywhere.
Lynda Ibrahim is a Jakarta-based writer with a penchant for purple, pussycats and pop culture.
