HOB Tales: Volume 1

picture by Mark Barlog

There is a traveler. He spend a long time on the road and have a lot of incredible adventures. A day like that will become a reality when he met other travelers same like him. Together they sat on a beach somewhere in Indonesia, Thailand or anywhere else.

There was a night with thousands of stars in the sky. Ocean whispers them gently. Sand was warm and soft.
Three or maybe even six of them were enjoying this magical moments. They made a fire. At the end of the day, they all will sleep in their tents or hammocks. But now is the perfect time for sharing travel tales. Every traveler has their own collection of short traveling stories that they tell many many times to many many diffirent people.

Such stories became a legend of you if you are a traveler. Now it is my turn to share my travel tales. I made the fire and everyone ready in a silence moment.


Language Barrier

Language barrier can be a big problem if you step out to see the world. I do not agree with this point.

When language creates communication problem, it also resulted in a lot of funny situations. Smile to people who don’t understand you. In the end you will find ways how to communicate and you will have a good story to share.

Three Russians in the middle of the road and waiting for the right car to hitchhike.

This is Laos - poor road condition, not many motor vehicles and always nature around. While you waiting for next car to come, you can easily start to read a book or do something else. It can take a long time before you leave this place.

Mark was playing with his kashgarian knife and trying to make sandals from trekking boots. Later it proves to be a mistake. You can't create sandals from old boots!

Me and Kris were busy with something else. A flower is hanging in my hair and I was posing for Kris for pictures. We were wasting our time. Almost half an hour past since we last saw a car. So when a Toyota Hilux appears at horizon we waved at the vehicle.

Besides Russian language, three of us are fluent in English as well. But in Laos we mostly never use our mother tongue. When the driver stops his car in front of us, we started to explain to him what we want in English and by hand sign too. Usually it takes about one to seven minutes to get inside a car even though the person does not understand a word of what we saying.

We are always successful in this hundreds of time! We were sure that there is no person in the whole Asia that do not understand our explanation.

But now we are facing an exceptional situation.

We tried everything. We tried very hard. In the end the driver do not understand us at all!

Many times we showed him that we want to go straight ahead in this road and we need a ride to Vang Vieng. It just does not work!

We tried to explain it slowly but no use too.

We gave up.

I said to my friends in Russian:

"Мы ничего с этим не поделаем. Давайте ждать следующию машину.”
"(Nothing we can do. Let’s wait for another car)"

Before I finished this sentence, the driver interrupts me. He suddenly starts to talk in Russian too!

"Мужики, вы что из России? Я же в СССР раньше учился. В Киеве! Как я могу вам помочь?"
"(Hey guys! Are you from Russia? I studied in USSR before, in Kiev! How can I help you?)"

Now we were shocked and we look like we do not understand a word from his mouth. After a moment we all laugh. We laugh very hard! The driver laughs with us too. Definitely one absurd situation. Nothing we can do.

Car was going to Vientiane. We got a ride straight to Vang Vieng and had a good lunch too. Many people from Laos used to study in USSR. After so many years, until now they still can remember Russian language very well and still keeping some warm memories about their student life in USSR.


My friend orangutan

I always love to tell this story because it starts with a sentence: "I was once attacked by an orangutan..."

But before I will continue there is a short introduction.

Orangutan is a highly intelligent primate with reddish hairs and strong arms which are twice as long as their legs. Those apes are children of rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra. Even their names translates from Malay language as human from forest (‘orang’ means people, ‘hutan’ means forest). They usually weight up to 80kg and height up to 1.5m.

Ok, now we can continue. So, I was once attacked by an orangutan. It happened in Surabayan Zoo. My friend Shinta and I were wandering around. We watched komodo dragons, sumatrian bears, tigers and even african giraffe. But most attracted we were by big reddish apes in small cages.

We cannot come close to them because there is a fence and a sign warning us that it is prohibited. I do not care about these warnings. It is not a problem for me. But there were a lot of children around and I do not want to show them any bad example. What I have to do now is just to watch the orangutans from a far. It was boring. But I was not the only one feel this way. The orangutans too were bored in their own cage. They were just sit there and staring at people. Some people throw them peanuts, but they were not even bothering.

Shinta and I continue walking. Soon we noticed one of the orangutans is with a zoo keeper. Now, the orangutan is not in a cage! I thought that finally I have the chance to see him in a closer range. When we came closer something happened with the orangutan. He almost jumps on me! The zoo keeper shouts while trying to hold him, but the orangutan was too strong and too quick. At the moment, out of panic, I have forgotten my weak Indonesian language and Russian language and English too.

Shinta warn me quickly hide my water. Then I realize I have one bottle of water in my hand. I thought if I hide the bottle, the ape will beat me. Then again why should I hide this bottle if the poor orangutan is thirsty? I quickly give him the water. He finished it in seconds. Then the orangutan came slowly and hugs me!

Suddenly, he changes his mind and run towards a woman that was sitting far away in a bench. The orangutan jump over her. I cannot see her face expression but she sounds like wanted to scream but can not do it. The orangutan grab a water bottle from her hand and came back. He was very naughty but still very young in age. That maybe explains his playful characters.

I smile to the orangutan. For a second, it feels like he smiles back to me.

It is like you never know where and when you will find a new friend...

picture by Shinta Dewi