Day 45: I only know their names, Dina and Rizki, and that today is supposed to be the happiest day in their lives. Their wedding takes place under a tent that is crowded with relatives and friends. Their silky clothes are luxurious, and every embroidery seems to have been crafted by an expert hand. The bride is crowned with fake jewels. Perhaps this dress has been passed down from generation to generation. Dina's smile is too static to be authentic. Rizki, instead, seems to be thoroughly enjoying the day. Her parents sit in a semi-circle opposite her. This is probably the moment in which they are “handing” the girl over to the groom’s family. You could exchange what goes on under the tent for a wedding in Dubai. Outside the tent, life goes on as normal in this coastal district, among the rubble, the dirt road, the house foundations eroded by the rising seas, and the wooden roofs collapsing under the power of typhoons.
Maybe this tent is a metaphor of global warming. We live in a bubble where everything seems joyful and luxurious, but reality bites outside. The brides can hardly pronounce my name, but they share their food with me as if I were a member of their family. My van to Yogjakarta departs soon, so I leave the gathering well before the wedding is over. I leave under the illusion their future will be bright... 65/

#RefuseToFly #slowtravel #Semarang #Indonesia #JavaIsland #JavaneseWedding #coasters #SeaLevelRise #LandSubsidence #ClimateBreakdown #DontLookUp

Day 45:
I know that slow travel offers the incomparable opportunity to see with my own eyes how most people live on this planet. After taking the 6-hour train from Jakarta, I'm keen to visit people living on the coastline in Semarang, as they have been exposed to constant flooding in recent years. A local couchsurfer takes me there by scooter.

The meeting with Deby is by far the most touching experience of this travel, maybe of all my travels. Check it our on my YT channel: https://youtu.be/Gl7IXxYpDgc?si=mcbo_xTXx_njcB8_ .

Relentless flooding destroyed her family's lives to the point they have nothing to eat. When she suddenly burst into tears after confessing that she didn't have the money to send their children to school, I felt the powerlessness that so many people in this world experience in their daily lives. Theirs is a small house compared to European standards, less than 20 m2, and yet I could see all the love they put to build their home. The floor is made of concrete. They must have wanted this construction to be as stable as it could. But they didn't consider that relentless sea level rise, accompanied by land subsidence, would have exposed this building to constant flooding. Inundations bring about lack of sleep, inability to work, loss of capital equipment - in particular, the scooter they used to go to work - and, in the end, food scarcity. This is climate breakdown in action.

#RefuseTofly #Semarang #SeaLevelRise #LandSubsidence #Slowtravel #researcherlife #Indonesia