Adventurer Agustinus Wibowo: A journey home
- By Rory Howard
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E-mail China.org.cn, May 8, 2015
Agustinus Wibowo is a Chinese-Indonesian author. At first glance, he seems more like a traveler than an adventurer and more like a happy conversationalist than a philosopher. But just as my first impression of him is challenged by what I learn of him in our conversation, so too do we find in his latest book, "Ground Zero: When the Journey Takes You Home," that his sense of self has been tested by his upbringing, his culture and his travels.
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A book cover of "Ground Zero: When the Journey Takes You Home" [Photo/China.org.cn] |
Danger, charity, humanity
Wibowo's first two books – "A Blanket of Dust" and "Borderlines: A Journey to Central Asia" – tell of his earlier travels through Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. When asked what took him to these places, he answers that his journeys were governed by chance. "I wanted to be a journalist, but I didn't have a background in journalism. The road itself is the best university," he says.
His journey began in China, the "land of his ancestors," where he studied computer engineering for many years in Beijing before becoming disillusioned by education. He had no interest in pursuing a career in his field, so he decided he had to travel and become a journalist. It took Wibowo's father a month to accept the idea of his son going away to become a journalist; only then did Wibowo set out.
He started his journey with little more than two thousand dollars in his pocket and a dream of travelling from Beijing to South Africa. Some ten years later, Wibowo has realized half of his dream: he has become a travel writer, photographer and journalist, but he has not yet made it to South Africa.
I asked if he was disappointed that he has not made it that far. No, he says with a contented smile. As our relaxed interview develops, Wibowo tells me what he has seen and learned, and he hints at why getting to South Africa is less of a journey than the one he has already taken.
He frequently stood on the knife-edge of danger. He travelled over mountains in rickety cars at such high altitudes that lack of oxygen had him seeing stars. He lied to police about being a Chinese national in an attempt to get into Tibet (every foreign traveler who plans to visit Tibet is required to have a travel permit issued by the Tibet Tourism Bureau), but his scariest story is about almost being kidnapped.
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