His contemplative nature and literary adeptness has pushed him to compile his travel stories in a publication called ‘Selimut Debu’ in 2010, and ‘Garis Batas’ recently in 2011.

Whiteboard Journal had a chance to learn more of his purpose of travels and the turnings points that have defined him as a word traveler.

W: How did everything start? What initially drew you to be so engulfed in traveling?

Everything started from childhood, when my dad introduced me to philately. I collected stamps from almost all countries, and stamps were my “window” to the world. I always dreamed to visit the countries of which stamps I have collected. I also loved geography, wanted to learn different languages and cultures. As I was raised in a small town, everything seemed just merely a dream. But then when the chance came, I went to Beijing as a student, and I saw how my fellow students from Japan wandered around the world independently, I just knew the meaning of “backpacker”. I made my first journey in 2002, to Mongolia, where the travel was really adventurous, and that made me really fond of the taste of adventures in travel.

W: Your travel destinations are not conventional to say the least, is there a reason behind your choices of travel?

I started my journey in Mongolia, where in my first and second day consecutively I was robbed and mugged. This experience is kind of near-to-death experience just exactly on my first day of traveling. This made an impression in my mind that the taste of adventures is important. The second year after the trip in Mongolia, I went to Pakistan and Afghanistan, and enjoyed every single step in those countries. But now after traveling for several years, I understand that destination does not really matter. The most important is how your eyes observe and how your heart learns.

W: What do you look for the most in your travels?

In the beginning, I was searching for myself. Until a point that I found, there is no point of searching ourselves, because it’s always together with us. Now when I travel I try to “lose” myself, being totally open to learn what the people, the culture, the history, the world teaches us. From their life experience we can make a  reflection of our own life. We can learn from other people’s success and failures and learn from their wisdom. I think this is the meaning of life, because life itself is a journey.

W: Amongst your quest to conquer a new territory, you ended up staying in Afghanistan the longest, what formed this attachment?

I don’t regard travel as a “journey to conquer”, it’s not matter of conquer because we as human being is indeed nobody in front of the world. I stayed in Afghanistan because I love the country, the people, and the nature. Afghanistan is like a Pandora box for me. Everything is full of surprise. Of course, there is war and poverty. But besides of that dusty color of Afghanistan, there are so many beautiful colors in the country. And that’s the reason of the love.

Borders is something to engulf an identity, a difference, something that people can be proud of, and something that people can find their safety zone . In my childhood, I experienced racial discrimination, so the borderlines lied between minority and majority. When I was a student in China, the borderlines lied between the locals (Chinese) and foreigners (including me), which emphasized my Indonesian-ness. When I was living in Pakistan or Afghanistan, the borderlines was between Muslims and non-Muslims. These are just few examples how borderlines can be relative. But after crossing different borderlines, experiencing life at different sides of the borders, the meaning of identity and borderlines itself also changed. Now for me, the universal identity which united all human beings on earth is “humanity”, as we all have something in common as human being, with our dreams and struggles. By having this as our new borderlines, our world would be much wider and universal.

W: Do you think those borders are important? Or would you prefer that we could live as one without these differences?

Yes, borderlines are important, and that’s the nature of human being. With borderlines, we have varied and colorful life. We have diversities and differences, and we have pride. Life without borderlines would be scary, it reminded me to 1984 by George Orwell, where a utopia (or dystopia) means creating a gigantic nation with common enemy, same ideology, same thinking, same values, etc. It’s daunting and inhumane.

Borderlines engulf identity, and identity brings pride. A man without identity, without pride, is a blank man. If I can put it this way, identity and pride is like your financial wealth. You don’t need it all the time, nor need to show it every second, but when you need it, you have it. The point here is, borderlines are always there, but the reality now is how artificial borders (including artificial nationalism, fanaticism, etc) then made a certain group of people feel like they the rights to disregard, attack, or even kill others outside their boundaries.

W: After assimilating in different cultures, has this changed your perception of your own country, Indonesia?

Yes, so much. In Indonesia I used to learn that our nation is the most respected country in the world, being praised for its wealth and hospitality of its people. But when I traveled and lived in different countries and cultures, I felt that this claim is arguable. Moreover, I understood the fact that Indonesia is similar to many Asian countries, building our nation and nationalism from the relics of colonization. Our country’s boundaries were the result of creation of Western powers, thousands of miles away. There are many myths created, and we believe them for granted. But, surprisingly some of these myths were very successful to unite Indonesia and becoming our national identity.

i

i

iContinue to the second page.