Insider or outsider is matter of borderlines, and it’s borderlines in mind. For example, I’m from Lumajang, a small town in East Java. When I studied in the province capital, my strong identity was my Lumajang-ness. When I went to Jakarta, it might be my Java-ness or East-Java-ness. When I became an international student, my identity was being an Indonesian. That’s natural, but this was my world view before I traveled. By traveling you would change much of your point of view. Travelers are actually refugees, we are taking refuge from our life and our routine, we try to lose our ego. And when you lose ego, you become nobody, you become easier to adsorb new values, and you will respect differences. I don’t feel differences as a wall which prevents me from blending with people. I might have a different thinking or a different view from other people, but I respect the differences and is eager to learn from the people.

W: With your personal experience, you’ve mentioned in an article, that “not all countries dream of independence and democracy”, would you care to elaborate?

Ex-Soviet Central Asian countries were not expecting the collapse of the USSR, and suddenly they became independent countries, despite of the fact that they were unprepared for the independence. The matter in C.A. was that the countries were artificially created by USSR, so when they got independence, the nationalism, economic, and identity problems became very obvious. All those countries experienced economic difficulties in their first years of independence, while some of the countries are still in a terrible situation. In some countries like Kyrgyzstan, which adopt democracy, the political situation is in turmoil, and recently we saw riots and ethnic clash there. Tajikistan also experienced bloody civil war years just immediately after gaining independence from the USSR. Democracy might be bloody, and citizens are starving. No wonder, I met many people from those countries who are in nostalgia of life under USSR. What’s the meaning of freedom of expression, when you have nothing to eat and when the future is blurred?

W: You also stated that you let go of your attachments of things and people, and have the ability to work anywhere to survive, does living without a sense of having anything to hold on to make life easier?

It’s not matter of easier or not. It’s matter of happiness. When you don’t have much burden or unreachable dreams, you tend to be happier.

W: Thus, what do you prepare for your travels?

I used to prepare nothing, and let every step became adventure. But now the purpose of my travel also changed, it’s a not matter of conquering the world, proving myself, or answering to challenges. But traveling for me now is process of learning. Before visiting a destination, I try to learn their cultures, language, historical background, and look for local contacts that can bring me deeper to their life. I read books, mostly travel narratives and history books about the  destination and anything related.

W: What have been both your biggest challenge and most memorable event in traveling?

Biggest challenge is financial. I’m financing all my travels by myself, which means I have to stop many times to earn some money before being able continuing my journey, and sometimes this means I’m stuck for years, for example in Afghanistan, and now in Beijing, China. But I also regard this as the path of my travels, so I also enjoy the struggle. The most memorable was when I got hepatitis in Thar Desert of Pakistan, a local family brought me home and took care of me with full passion for weeks. They were my life savior.

It developed. When I started my journey in Beijing in 2005, I dreamed to reach South Africa by overland journey. It’s a high target, and kind of putting travel as “conquering a challenge”. But the more I travel, the slower I become. Numbers of countries being visited or numbers of visa in passport became meaningless. I started to learn about life, about culture, and about struggle. And I think that’s the real meaning of traveling, and learning from life.

W: Do you have role models or things that have inspired your travels or writings?

Marco Polo, VS Naipaul (travel writer), Paul Theroux (travel writer), Ryszard Kapuscinski (Polish journalist and writer), and Lam Li (fellow traveler from Malaysia, whom I met several times in Nepal, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and now in Beijing)

W: Looking at your photographs, you seem to be very in tune with your visual sense, are you a trained photographer? And is there a creative process behind those photographs?

I have never been trained in photography, just the same I have never attended writing class. I learned the techniques by doing. For photography, as I take mostly human interest picture, I understand the power of expression. And to get the natural expression, communication is a must. That’s why I build extensive rapport with subjects before taking their photos, and then follow their daily life to get the most natural photos and to understand their story of life.

W: At the same time, you also have an astonishing ability to master various languages, how do you manage mastering many different languages?

I like languages since I was young. When I was in junior high school, I learned Japanese by myself. Then when I studied in China, I learned Chinese, Russian, Japanese, German and French. Learning several languages made me easier to grab new languages. On the road I learned Urdu/Hindi, Farsi, Mongol, and Turkic languages. I grabbed self-taught books of those languages, and made myself memorizing the basic grammar and vocabulary. Then practice the languages directly in their natural environment. This is an effective way to boost language competence, and also to break the ice with the locals.

W: Where are the next destinations that you would want to explore before finally settling down? And why?

I’m very much attracted by the Middle East culture and dynamics, so I wish to learn Arabic and become a journalist in Middle Eastern countries.

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Interview by: Athina Ibrahim

www.avgustin.net

avgustin_photography@yahoo.com.cn