Three months and 'otherness'

May 6 – the day I started writing this entry – was an auspicious occasion; exactly three months since we left Australia. A quarter of our time here already gone; our Jogja experience slipping by unbelievably quickly.

View from D'Omah restaurant, where I write this.

The open-air gym at D'Omah hotel.

On that day, and again today, I have treated myself to a gym workout, a swim, a few minutes of sun-bathing, and a brief meditation at D'Omah Hotel, about 3 minutes walk from our Tembi home. Now I'm not much of a gym guy; the five sessions on the treadmill at the hotel gym this past fortnight is the only exercise I've done in about five months, courtesy of a severely sprained ankle courtesy of Ultimate Frisbee. Nor am I a swimmer, but try running 2.5 kms on a treadmill in 34 degree apparent heat and tropical humidity of 80%+; you'll never appreciate a pool more! Anyone who has ever seen my white flesh can vouch for how seldom the sun touches this skin. And to be honest, my efforts at meditation are only very recent too; an attempt to slow my mind down and claw back some headspace. But the combination of all these things this morning has been therapeutic, and got me feeling all reflective (I think that was an accidental joke about my tan – hey, I cracked a funny!).

Looking skyward from a D'Omah sunbed

Much has happened in three months, but the infrequent blog updates suggest I'm not good at making time to document my experiences. Joining the #100HappyDays movement has certainly helped me feel more grateful and positive, but it does reduce the impetus to blog in detail. There's usually way more than one thing worth writing about each day, and even the negative experiences have value (at least retrospectively). Feel free to let me know in the comments whether or not you like the addition of the #100HappyDays.

Actually, the lack of updates to the blog has been weighing me down a little of late, as I enjoy writing and feel like I'm failing somehow by not updating the blog frequently. This is a weight of expectation that I've put on myself, and I think in my current mood I am realising how destructive this is. Timely then that after my morning wellbeing-for-beginners session I watched that “Look Up" video that's been doing the rounds on Facebook lately. I must say, I'm as guilty as any of you reading this, when it comes to the role social media and modern technology plays in my life. After watching this, I can't help but wonder how many awesome experiences I might be missing because I'm too busy stressing over writing a blog about the experiences I've already had!

In the interests of brevity, so that you can go out and have some experiences of our own instead of reading about mine, perhaps the best approach would be to share just a few photos from the adventure so far and then sum up how I am feeling now, three months in to this life changing experience.

First, the photos. My god there are loads to choose from. In fact, I will limit this to just a few selected highlights from just the first week or this post will break the internet. Apologies to those reading on mobile.

Bye bye, dry brown land. Shot from the plane on Sony Xperia Z1	Charlie at play in paradisal pool. Kusnadi hotel, Legian, Bali. Shot with a Canon 700D
Happy boy in Tembi Tembi village, Bantul. Shot with a Canon 700D	Getting arty in Tembi Tembi village, Bantul, Yogyakarta. Shot with a Canon 700D
I love the sky here, the way the clouds play in the light. Rumah Budaya, Tembi Yogyakarta. Shot with Sony Xperia Z1	More Charlie, but what a fantastic model! Tembi village, Bantul, Yogyakarta. Shot with a Canon 700D

And to sum up the current mood: the “otherness” is fading. The breath-taking, exhilarating feeling as you round a bend and see sights you've never seen before is less frequent and less dramatic as it was. The satisfaction of getting 'found' after having gotten lost - accidentally or deliberately - is no longer as strong. The fact that it's a different culture and a different landscape seems to be less immediate, replaced by a comfortable familiarity – that sense of “home”.

This onset of familiarity happens subtly, creeping up on you until one day a busy road into Jogja could be a busy road into Sydney or Melbourne or any other city you have only vague familiarity with. Sure it's all still very distinctly Indonesian, unmistakably so - if you look. But that's just it; you stop actively looking, stop noticing, and that sense of "otherness" disappears.

Here's a challenge: on your next commute to or from work, trip to the local shops, or any other journey you have done a thousand times, try and notice something you've never consciously noticed before. Safely, of course – I don't want to be responsible for a spate of accidents. But I bet you'll find there are hundreds of things, even really obvious ones, that you've not noticed because you've long since stopped looking at the world around you.

I think this is the thrill of travelling, especially travelling to new places: getting away from familiar scenes, getting uncomfortable, so you can re-learn how to be 'aware' of your surroundings and once again see the magic and the beauty and order and chaos all around you. And that's the feeling that is slipping for me a bit now. It's all still there, abundantly - but I now need to 'try' to see it. Three months in Jogja and I'm not "travelling" any more, I've "moved home". The otherness is fading.