Day 5: Raw

Days Left To Journey: 52 Days

Training Kilometers Cycled: 0 km

Training Miles Run: 15 km

Stationary Bike Hours: 1 hr

Thursday Night Walk.

Every Thursday and Sunday night I walk to Pencak Silat after getting dropped off at a gated golf community by public transport. The homes hug the road and I greet complete strangers with a mumbled “punten Pak” (excuse me, sir), “punten Bu” (excuse me, ma'am). The sounds of the extremely busy Java road begins to fade as I walk into the community and the strength of the voices of the call to prayer take its place. I no longer really hear it. Soon I come to an open field like an African savannah and see a couple fireflies. This is one of the great moments of my week.

Silat.

The earth is hard and dry after a single day without rain. My instructors bring cassava, the first non-processed cassava since being in Indonesia. They boil it. The head instructor's family comes out to snack with us. Boiled cassava root plus sugar is not bad. It's called “Jakarta cheese” sometimes. We practice and a huge callus tears on my left foot and so I have to end practice early. We begin talking about how many times I'll come back before I leave. I start to get a little sad.

Market.

I visit the “traditional market” at 11pm. I go to the same stalls and get whatever they have. The routine is nice and I dislike haggling. Dozens of roaches crawl around the darkened area where I buy bananas while the salesman gets a massage and a cigarette vendor acts as the middleman for the prone banana man. The next week will consist of variations of napa cabbage, tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, tofu, bananas, and duck eggs. I hobble around unwilling to put pressure on my sensitive left foot.

Raw.

I decide to add raw eggs to my diet, the kind from traditionally raised chickens; “telor ayam kampung” (village chicken eggs). I add a dash of honey to make it palatable. Not all of it flows out on the first attempt. I think to myself, honey will flow if I add hot water. A millisecond before the water hits my tongue I realize, “...I'm about to chug hot water.” Too late.