Ijab Kabul - Officially, Mr & Mrs !

Before reception, one of bride's family came to accepted groom. Groomsmen bring "kembang mayang" as symbol of merging creativity, taste, and intention for the happiness and safety. Kembang mayang from groomsmen will exchange with bridesmaid's kembang mayang.

After arrived in bride/reception place, They did "Ngidak Endog/wiji dadi". Groom stepped on an egg then bride washed groom's feet. It means the readiness of the groom to be the head of household and the bride's willingness to serve her husband and in it means an expected to get a good generations from that marriage,too. 

Groom and bride draped by a fabric and lead to aisle. This step called " Sindur" as a hope for bride and groom for don't give up to face challenges of life. It continue with "sungkeman" as an expression of devotion to parents and ask their blessing. 

After all, we all enjoyed my cousin wedding. Actually, that was not a complete wedding tradition there are so many steps in Javanese wedding tradition. Behind the long process there is a hope from family, friends, and others for goodness of their marriage, Aamiinn.

Beside it,

I always remember there is a hadist in Islam :

Blended with the others contingent 

Our departure began from Sultan Aji Airport, Balikpapan to Makassar, South Sulawesi (transit) before arrived in Haluoleo Airport, Kendari. We arrived about 9 pm in camp area and decided to built a tent that night T.T. We had camp neighbor from Papua, East Java, and Sulawesi that time, they had unique culture too.


Actually, this is the most back breaking national camp I ever did, the weather was very hot like two sun above my head, dusty camp area, lack of water so we just take a bath 3 or 4 times in 6 days. My lips was bleeding too because dehydration and the distance between girl's camp to boy's camp and field were reallyyyyy far. We must walked for almost 1 km just for took food ingredients, rice, and mineral water. But, I met many amazing new friends from all over Indonesia, introduced our local culture and learn the culture from the other Indonesian's part. I FEEL VERY GRATEFUL !

Ah, Kendari's snacks like gogos and buras were the things that I miss. I miss the conversations when we had a free time in tent and cooked then ate together ( I really hate eat alone), I miss did laundry secretly in very early morning with my friends, I miss crossed a ravine as shortcut way to the field, I miss walked in the dark just for go to the scout exhibition. Yes, I really miss y'all !

Opening ceremony, air force unit's attraction

Firstly, I came to Erau Expo but it still prepared (we arrived to soon :p). So, we moved to Wood Museum called "Tuah Himba Museum". It's about 10 years from my last visit but nothing changed. I still can see my hometown crocodiles which attacked and ate humans so they preserved in this museum. 

crocodilus porosus, preserved estuarine crocodile

This crocodile had a length 6.8 meters and weight 850 kg when arrested, he lived for 70 years. His victim is a woman named Hairani from Sangatta. Actually, the same cases still happen in our hometown, Sangatta until now. Many crocodiles attack human that do activities near the river.

the second crocodile from Muara Badak. Height : 5.5 m

In this museum, we can see many wood collections from Borneo. Like this :

Dryobalanops Lan Ceolata Barck (lime wood)

This wood has been lived for about 350 years with diameter 1.5 meter and height about 60 meters. It usually used for building material. There are some crafts from wood and leaves collections too.

If you wanna visit this you only need 3 thousand rupiahs for a ticket, really cheap !

We moved to Kumala Island in the afternoon, the sun was burning our 'already' tan skin :P. This island located in Mahakam River and really near from town area and we can reached the island with a bridge (by foot only) within 230 meters.

Some snapshoot from Kumala Island 

We explore the island by foot and public wagon car then we stopped in some spots. After that, we came back to esplanade in the middle of Kumala Island for watched street performance from Crystal Group - Russia. This is one of kind Erau International Culture Festival's performance. There are some countries that joined this event, Russia, Poland, Lithuania, USA, Estonia, and others. But, today is Russia, Taiwan, and Indonesia's turn. Indonesia became the first performer who showed a dance from Dayak Benuaq as a greet and welcome for guests. 

Russian performance

We were so unlucky, Taiwan that should be performed their dance yesterday but suddenly rain came and changed their performance schedule to this Saturday.

I really wanna come back again to see the other countries street performances and eat a lot there, too :P