Not surprisingly, they speak Indonesian.  Official Indonesian is a sort of artificial language constructed from the thousands of dialects across Indonesia.  It is closest to Malay; one could make the analogy Malay:Indonesian as British English:North American English.

As such, it is designed to be simple to learn.  It uses the Roman alphabet, there is no conjugation, and the rule of thumb is "keep it simple".  For example, "I'm going to go to the store later" reduces to "Later I to store".

Luckily for me, it's not too hard to pick up.

Indonesians are the nicest people I have ever met.  Everyone wants to be my friend where ever I go, which can be a little overwhelming from time to time.

There are times when I just want to be left alone, free to do as I please in a veil of anonymity, without judgment.  But the people are very welcoming, helpful, & hospitable. A man who must feed his family on less than $2 a day will gladly take me in, offer me a meal, some tea, and, of course, the obligatory cigarette, proudly introducing me as his new friend.

Granted, most of my experiences are limited to a certain region in Sumatra.

In some rural areas, the only things people know about the West they learn in movies.  This made for some interesting conversation, as Hollywood magic starts leaking into the realm of the possible.

For example, everyone knows we've been to the moon, space travel is not only possible, but routine.  But how routine, exactly?  How common?  The first time someone asked how many times I'd been to the moon, I thought he was joking.  Then I got the question several more times.

But when all you have to go on is common knowledge and Hollywood films, how can you be certain what is possible and what is an exaggeration or artistic depiction of the future?

The space travel question was a bit rare to be sure, but I did notice a pattern of questions that everyone seems to ask. Things like "Where are you from?", "Where do you stay?", "What is your program?" and "What size shoe do you wear?" (Indonesians have small-ish feet and are always in awe at our massive Western hooves) were at the top of the list.

These questions were in fact so common that, to save time, I made up a card of answers (an FAQ if you will) that I could hand off to my interrogators.

However, my number one favorite question, after conversing in Indonesian for a full five minutes, is this: "Do you speak any Indonesian?"

"Hello, Mister!" or more appropriately "Heeelllooo, MissssTairrrr!", bellowed at the top of the lungs with rolling "r", is the Indonesian national greeting to any bule (foreigner), regardless of gender.

After living in the same house on the same street in the same town in Indonesia for over 13 months, the same people would still shout this phrase with full-bodied gusto at the mere suggestion of me or my colleagues. It never gets old (for them).

The photo at top left of the myriad children bursting towards me (well, okay, the camera) is a fairly typical day, as any non-Indonesian in Indonesia can testify.

For my web presence during my time in Indonesia, I could think of no domain name more appropriate.

All press and official media releases must be coordinated through the expedition leader. You can start by sending me an email, but I cannot make any guarantees.

Yes! I am a freelance web designer / developer as well. Even though saving the rainforests is exhausting work, I have about two weeks out of each month free (after January). I still provide updates to my existing clients.

Send me an email, and be sure to check my present location. If I'm in Indonesia, my response might be delayed.

I am an American called Tim. After completing degrees in physics and applied mathematics at NC State University, I began working at RTI International as a software engineer. After only a brief time there, I was asked to participate in a National Geographic funded expedition to Indonesia, with the goal of obtaining the first photographic evidence of a bipedal primate known as orang pendek.

I lived in Indonesia with two other field researchers for one year. After that, I returned to the States and became a photographer. After a year at home, I'm going back to Indonesia to work on the same project for about six months.

Besides just looking for orang pendek, we are expanding the scope of our project to include a biodiversity survey of an area of virgin rainforest we fear is scheduled for logging. It is currently outside of, but abutting, a national park.

We intend to demonstrate the rich biodiversity of this area and make a case for its inclusion into the protected national park. Discovering orang pendek in this region would make this task even simpler.

You can read more about orang pendek at orangpendek.org, but here it is in a nutshell: short, about a meter high (3.2 ft), short brown or grayish hair covering its body, walks completely upright on two legs, very strong upper body, face closest to a gorilla's. No one has ever been able to get a photograph, although British researchers Jeremy Holden and Debbie Martyr have studied the elusive animal and eye-witness accounts for over a decade. They both claim to have seen the animal on multiple occasions.

I have never seen orang pendek, and I am not sure whether or not it exists. It is possible that (a) it never existed, (b) existed in the past, but is now extinct, or (c) exists to this day. But my colleagues and I believe there is enough of a chance, and orang pendek would be an important enough discovery, that it is certainly worth looking for. The best chance of getting the primate on film (or in our case, compact flash card) is with camera traps.

Other researchers have enjoyed enormous success with camera traps (motion activated cameras) in the recent past. The World Wildlife Fund has a nice gallery and explanation of how they work.

Although others (Holden & Martyr) have used camera traps before, no group has ever used so many for so long.

Other people have come to Sumatra searching for orang pendek and found footprints, recorded eye-witness accounts, and even collected hair samples. But all of these are, in the end, always inconclusive. We are interested in only the photograph: conclusive evidence that orang pendek exists.

Unless otherwise stated, all photographs appearing on this website are copyright © Timothy Mowrer and may not be used in any way without explicit permission. I have provided some photos on this site as a way of conveying my experience to others. As a photographer, I make my living through the sale of photographs; please be respectful and do not steal my work.

If you would like to use a photograph for a publication, online or otherwise, please request permission via email. If I am currently in Indonesia, please be patient, as I may take some time to respond.

At this time, I cannot provide prints to individuals. Send me an email, and we'll talk when I return.