Time Travel – Exotic, dangerous, beautiful, spiritual Indonesia.

(The Postcard was written in September 2023. Preparing for an Indonesian adventure, I explored Indonesian history via a series of Postcards.)

Motivation for Time Travel.

Soon, I’m up anchor and travelling to Yogyakarta, Indonesia to commence another time travel adventure. Follow this link to understand how and why I use the idea of time travel. Why travel? What do we get from travelling? I am not by nature very reflective, so set myself the task to explore such questions. Perhaps explore Indonesia via a few Postcards, before heading off. Since I’m not a good sailor and travelling by tramp steamer from Australia to Indonesia has been done, and due to pirates is none to safe, then it’s:

Really chocks away, grab a flight – here we go!

Where is Yogyakarta and how far am I travelling?

Yogyakarta, Indonesia is 5000 kilometres from Australia. Six hours direct flying time. Travel time from my home to hotel – Say 10 hours.

The first reflection is one of adventure and the unknown. I live on a rural property 100 kilometres West of Brisbane, quiet, undeveloped with a small population.

Then there is Yogyakarta!

Yogyakarta has a population density of 1100 people per square kilometre – Compared to my neighbourhood of 5 people, 300 cows, and a 100 kangaroo.

The contrast is even more extreme when you consider the street where I live in Australia, with my temporary home in Yogyakarta:

Time Travel Adventures – Remedy for jadedness.

Certainly, there is a sense of adventure, dropping down in a city where I don’t know one street. When you get to 60, well your own environment gets somewhat jaded. Nothing is ever new, and some places are just not as good as you remember them.

Well unlike dear, sad, missed Robin, I remember the 1960’s. When I was born in 1962, Australia had a population of 10.75 million – Today it’s 26.33 million. Not surprisingly my environment has changed: Not always for the better.

Time Travel to the 1960’s.

My Dad would take me fishing, simply pull up by a river or beach, set up a tarpaulin, camp on the ground, light a fire – catch a few fish. Sometimes the local ‘Wallopers’ (Police) would stop by, not to arrest my dad and his mates, far from it: They would have more than a few beers, play poker with Dad and his mates! Try that today, you would definitely be arrested. One of Indonesia’s attractions is the comparative lack of regulation and control.

Friends tell me they don’t like travel outside Australia: “The nose and eye savaging condition of bathrooms and toilets“. I never had the experience of an indoor flushing toilet until 1970. So, the ‘elegant’ bathrooms you sometimes encounter when travelling, come as no new life experience. All part of the time travel adventure.

Indonesia is known to me. I’ve been to Bali many times and once to the capital Jakarta. I studied Indonesia extensively in my time in the Australian Military – Australian/Indonesia relations have been troubled and at times very tense. One of my interests – What probable reason in 2023 have we for not being great supportive neighbours?

I also speak Bahasa Indonesian, well kind off. Like many Australians of British decent, there was simply no need, environment, or interest in acquiring multilingual skills. Something by the age of 40, I was quite embarrassed about. Definitely part of my interest in travelling is living daily with a non-native language as your primary means of communication. Plus, at 60 its good for your brain, up there with doing a sudoku puzzle a day.

I did say I’m not very reflective, and that’s it for me: No more reflections. So, I thought I would look at what wiser men than me (not extremely hard) have to say about travel.

Time Travel: The Ancient World

One of the first recorded comments on travel was the Ancient Greek Aristotle (383 to 322 BC), he does not say very much:

However, his writings cover a broad range of subjects including Biology, zoology, geology, and systems of government. Old Ari did not simply make this stuff up, he travelled widely observing intently. Aristotle’s philosophy influenced the three Abrahamic religions. Aristotle’s intellectual afterlife would be little less than a history of human thought. So, Ari was a great explorer in life, history proves him to be an impressive time travel adventurer in death. As the Muslim religion is dominant in Indonesia, then traces of Aristotle can be found in Yogyakarta spiritual life. My writing on Indonesia spiritualism is available by clicking this sentence.

Then along came Alexander the Great (356 to 323 BC). Interestingly, Aristotle educated Alex. Below seems to be the first record of teacher and pupil kicking back: Enjoying some mind-altering substance perhaps?

Did Alex actually listen to the finer points of Ari’s classical education? I’m not so sure as evidenced by his latter actions.

Alexander did acquire his mentor’s habit of travel, by the time he died in 323BC he had both slaughtered and conquered the known world: Fairly sure that was not Aristotle’s intention.

Julius Caesar also liked to travel, in between seducing Middle Eastern Queens, I guess. However, as I discussed in a previous Postcard – ‘Fascists and other Arseholes’, Julius’ motivation was more about plunder and destruction – Nothing to learn here!

Time Travel – The Ancient world did some positive stuff.

Surely someone in the Ancient World had a less destructive view of travel.

Well, there is one even more ancient, Ancient Greek then Aristotle, the ardent traveller Euripides (480 – 406BC). Euripides believed there was no better education then travel:

However, it seems the consequence of his travel was a firm belief that life was indeed a tragedy, for Euripides wrote 90 Greek Tragic Plays, all of which Time Travelled down to us.

His personal life wasn’t as successful as his professional one. Euripides was married twice, in both instances, his wives were unfaithful to him, perhaps he should have taken them on a time travel adventure. In response, and to avoid the child support, he cancelled his passport, and platinum AMEX: Living out his days in a cave in Salamis, Greece. Some cave I guess, as it was reported to contain the largest library in Ancient Greece.

Some 400 years later, Euripides inspired Seneca (04BC – 65AD), of Ancient Rome. Seneca was one of the main exponents of the school of Stoicism, which teaches that the highest goal in life is the pursuit of the four cardinal virtues, namely: Wisdom, temperance, justice, and courage.  Seneca was also a great traveller:

Seneca also wrote tragic plays, 9 in total and all of them Time Travelled down to us. Perhaps travel also gave Seneca a tragic view on life?

Seneca’s influence on later generations is immense, during the Renaissance he was a sage admired and venerated as an oracle of morality, a guide to how Christians could improve themselves. Our contemporary world witnesses a developing interest in the ‘ Ancient Stoic Way’ of such as Seneca: Don’t believe me? Search ‘Stoicism’ on LinkedIn. But,

Time Travel – The dark side.

In the end Seneca leaves us with a rather tragic and dark view on those who celebrate travel:

“They undertake one journey after another and change spectacle for spectacle. Ever from himself does each man flee. But what does he gain if he does not escape from himself? He ever follows himself as his own most burdensome companion. And so, understand that what we struggle with is the fault, not of the places, but of ourselves.“

Seneca

Confucius (551 – 479 BC) was a Chinese philosopher who is traditionally considered the paragon of Chinese sages. Confucius’s teachings and philosophy underpin East Asian culture and society, Time Travelling to us, and remaining influential in China and East Asia.

Confucius echoes the darkness of Seneca in suggesting:

“Though you travel, your problems will follow you, you cannot journey away from yourself”.

Confucius

Sometime before his death in 632AD, the Prophet Mohammed also turned his hand to a bit of travel blogging:

Now I immediately found this fascinating – Adding immensely to the credible benefits of travel. But then,

Consulting experts on the work of The Prophet, I discovered he never said any such thing. It’s a complete fabrication not appearing until around 1991. So, another lesson to the traveller – Travel and tourism is generally good for local economies, naturally then there is motivation for vested interests to ‘Gild the Lilly’, exaggerate, even down right lie about the great benefits of visiting their fair cities.

“East and West Shall Never Meet“.

So said Rudyard Kipling in 1889, though actually he is suggesting that neither geography, race, nor class, actually divide men when they meet face to face.

Is this actually true? In the contemporary world it’s easy to believe that the ‘East’ and the ‘West’ are separated, if no longer by travel and time, but by such issues as politics, culture, religion, and thickness of wallet. But was this always true?

Confucius seems to echo Seneca. Could ancient Eastern and Western Philosophers have known of each other, way back before 500BC? The answer is a BIG Yes.

We in our contemporary ‘sophistication’, simply assume the Ancient World was parochial – separate kingdoms swimming in their own remote fishbowls. But,

Time travel along ancient routes.

The Persian Empire had constructed a road network connecting the Middle East with Southern Europe and the Mediterranean well before 500 BC.

And all this time I thought Alexander the Great was a trail blazer riding his horse from Macedonian to Persia – Seems he simply followed the Michelin Guidebook.

The subjects of the Ancient World were great travellers as is evident from the ‘Silk Road’ map of 300BC to 100BC. Logical inference that the Ancient World was also considerably multilingual?

Well, I’m not sure trading Roman olive oil for Chinese porcelain, would have been extremely easy using hand gestures alone.

Curiously – 300 BC, who is an internationally connected trading port? SINGAPORE

So yes, it’s more than probable that Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy, Chinese and Persian wisdom, and knowledge: Travelled in Camel Trains and Chinese Junks, alongside other assorted trade goods. Then of course the knowledge sharing interaction between travellers in the numerous inns, hotels, brothels, cafes, and shops that no doubt bounded these routes – Travelers are thirsty, hungry, and open for a great ripping yarn.

History of Travel: The Modern World

The Grand Tour, primarily associated with the British Nobility, was the 17th to early 19th Century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper class young European men of sufficient wealth.

A time meant to broaden the young mind whilst pondering the antiquity of Europe and the former might and glory of the long-lost Roman Empire.

Did anything meaningful spring from two centuries of aristocratic grand touring?

My Hat is Definitely more Gorgeous than yours’!

I suspect a motley group of self-indulgent young men, not burdened with working for a living, achieved precisely what you would expect – Diddly Squat!

I admit my bias, since during the same period my Irish ancestors were trying to survive off small gardens of rotten potato. But at least these Dandies proved Seneca and Confucius correct in their dark warnings about the possible outcome of travel – You can’t travel away from yourself.

The end of Time Travel.

To conclude this Time Travel I’ve chosen one of my favourite authors Mark Twain (1835 -1910). Twain was a great traveller, liberal minded for his time – Worthy of being more widely read 110 years after his death.

Mark Twain arrived in Australia in 1895, having followed Robert Louis Stevenson’s directions: “Sail West and take the first turn left“. (Which is precisely what Captain Cook did when leaving New Zealand in 1769, although that left turn was promptly followed by running smack into Australia and wrecking the King’s boat.) Mark Twain was travelling big time: 13-month lecture tour taking him from America to Canada, New Zealand, Australia, India and finally England.

Twain wrote about my Country, one quote, which I guess only an Aussie could love, appreciate, and see as a positive acclamation:

“Australian history does not read like history, but like the most beautiful lies.”

Mark Twain

Did you really think my Post was anything but lies?

I had a head full of ideas on how I would conclude my ponderings on Travel, my learnings or lack off, but

I’d rather leave you with Mark Twain and Francis Scott Fitzgerald:

“So, we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

F Scott Fitzgerald (Nick Carraway, narrator the Great Gatsby)

Good luck with your own time travel adventures.