World Sketching Tour's
Luis Simoes Comes to Indonesia
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| Custom sketchbook made for Luis by Soleh Hadiyana |
One of the many dreams of a sketcher is to see the whole world and show it one drawing at a time. An urban sketcher from Portugal, Luis Simoes is living that dream for about 4 years now. He set off from his hometown in Lisbon in 2012 and wanders the world (mostly Europe and Asia) alone, though sometimes meeting fellow travelers on a road.
A few days ago, he arrived in Jakarta after he finished traveling in the Philippines for about a month. After settling in a hostel in the Old Jakarta area, we arranged meetings with fellow Indonesian Urban Sketchers here and had a dinner together nearby the hostel. It was a great experience for us to meet him, talked to him about his numerous trips around the world, his struggles, his sketching method and his passion. He hopes to keep going on tour until he reaches his last target, Australia and New Zealand.
We took Luis in a laid back stroll around the old Chinatown residential block called Petak 9 the next day. We enjoyed the little and vivid details that the area provide and especially admire how this area still exist inside a megapolitan city like Jakarta. After having a late lunch (we sketched for a long time and almost skipped lunch). We also visited the Old Jakarta's "square" a.k.a Taman Fatahillah where the colonial Dutch buildings can be found. From there we head back to his hostel and let Luis rest.
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| Petak 9 neighborhood. A quiet Chinatown residential area yet has so many great little details that spring out from everywhere. |
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| Sheila and I took Luis to lunch in a hidden food stall behind Petak 9 traditional market called gang Kecap. In this sketch I wrote 10 questions that I asked Luis during our few days hanging out together. |
The next day, Luis had the chance to explore Jakarta by himself for awhile. He went to an area called Passer Baroe and later had the chance to sketch Jakarta's oldest church, the Cathedral. In the afternoon, we came to meet him and took him to Cikini area, nearby city center to meet more Jakarta's urban sketchers. After sketching together inside a cafe there, we went to dinner at a small food stall nearby and have a farewell group photo.
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| Luis tried out his famous fish eye lens on my phone to take a groufie |
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| A groufie after dinner. Stand left-right: Iqbal, Sari, Wahyu, Luis, Aga, Motulz, Donald. Front: Yoso and Yanuar. |
Right now Luis is in Bandung, West Java. His plan is to spend few days on major cities in Java (Jogjakarta, Semarang, Solo & Surabaya) before crossing to the island of Bali and Lombok. We wish him a great adventure and may he find Indonesia comfortable and feel at home here. See you around, Luis. Vamos World Sketching Tour Indonesia!