Traditional markets

In the food division you can get anything eatable, from fresh fish and meat to banana chips. The atmosphere is good, a lot of people come together and sell and buy from each other.

There are a lot of smells melting into each other, and the ones with fresh meat and fish is one of the most prevailing. Everything is usually laying out in the sun – probably not to be approved by any Food Standard Agency in the world, but it works out fine in the Indonesian culture.

If you move into the clothing and crafts section, you can easily get lost – the items are stored from the floor to the the roof. The ”streets” are really narrow, and you feel like you are in an endless labyrinth. We ended up buying a lot of things here, and we also managed to lose a pair of sunglasses. But hey – that was a good opportunity to buy some new ones on the next corner:)

Indonesia was most affected by the Bird Flu, and still have occurences of it both in birds and humans. The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has strongly recommended people to stay away from bird markets in Java, which was, and still is the most dangerous area. World Health Organization confirms that the virus brings danger of infection for both birds and humans in Indonesia. But as the adventurous students we are, we

attended bird markets on both Lombok and Java:) There were so many strange, colourful and crazy birds! Since none of us got the flu, we do not regret taking the risk!

Del/Tips: