Page 44 - DIVA_7_2004_No.16

Nostalgia in Pamekasan

I always wanted to do a photo- place where sunlight seldom only a handful of rickety chairs,
reportage on a place that clings reached the worn-out pave- a television-set and a young
to its traditional values and ment, because of the giant man, who pondered for a very
resists modern development. waringin-trees that surrounded long time before not answering
For that reason, I spent, over a the square. Only a small part of my question if there was a room
period of four years, almost ten the square, on a corner where available. He disappeared, to
months in a small village on the two streets met, was always in return some twenty endless
remote and little known the sun. On that spot stood the minutes later and produced a
Indonesian island of Madura,. hotel, seen from some distance key of what he announced to be
Although situated on a stones it was a bright-white building. the best room in the hotel. The
throw from Java, the island has The contrast with the surroun- room wasn't really best, but it
a quite distinctive culture. The ding shadows was so strong, was large. Very large! The room
Madurese cling very much to that the building seemed to be was enormous and there were
their traditional way of life, glowing, a brightness, almost five beds in it. Those beds must
which is not an easy one on this painful to the eyes. A closer have been as old as the paint
dry and overpopulated piece of look learned that the white on the outside wall and they
land. They depend for their live- paint must have been applied were certainly in the same
lihood on a sole crop, tobacco, in a grey and misty past. The state. The middle of the bed-
and along the coast on the hotel was grubby and falling to springs almost touched the
catch from a rapidly overfished pieces. It also was the only floor and they were covered
sea. The Madurese are devote hotel in town. I had been trave- with something looking like
Muslims; Jakarta may be the ling over the island through a either a thick bed sheet or a
official capital, but the laws long, hot day without finding a very thin mattress. On top of
from Mecca are the main gui- hotel along the way. In those that lay a bed sheet in an obs-
delines in their life. days, Madura was not yet tou- cure shade of grey adorned
To my surprise I found an unex- ched by tourism and lacked the with an almost artistic pattern
infrastructure.
pected souvenir from the time appropriate
of holes and tears. A short
my native country -the Night was falling and a long expedition through the room
colonized
nocturnal bus ride back to
Netherlands- and the bathroom learned that I
Indonesia. Surabaya was looming. wasn't going to be the only inha-
In cheerful anticipation I ente- bitant. Hundreds of mosquitoes
The hotel was situated on red the hotel's lobby. It was a came to greet me happily buz-
Pamekasans central square. A large empty space, occupied by zing and promised, regarding
42 Diva 7.2004