Smells of Indonesia

That smell after it rains

Burning trash, as its smoke spreads onto the main street

Fresh terang bulan on the street corner, like vanilla cake being baked in your oven

Body odor on 105 degree days, sometimes my own

Pizza Hut pizza

Essential oils, like cajeput oil, in the teacher's room, for someone not feeling well

Shallots and garlic being cooked in oil, especially in my kitchen come 5pm

Hotel soap in a hot shower

Cigarette ash

Dirty cows and their poop

My PVC yoga mat

An air freshener clipped on my fan: peony and berry bliss

Melted batik wax, mostly made from paraffin, when making handmade batik

Freshly grilled fish at the beach

The smell that gets on your clothes after you eat at McDonald's

Sweaty kids when playing frisbee next door

Dirty chickens and their poop

Burning trash

Burning coals and grilled sate on the portable stove of a food stand

Cooked chili peppers, burning your nose from the spice

Doused body fragrance when you walk past someone at school

Incense burnt in offering to Hindu gods

Coffee brewing, or boiling water being added to instant coffee

Motorbike exhaust at school dismissal

Essential oil I bought to help me fall asleep

Burning trash

A ice-cold Bintang

Freshly printed textbooks in the library, stacked on bookcases that smell like varnished wood

Dirty goats and their poop

Smelly feet when someone takes their shoes off

Fried chicken, fried bananas, fried bread, fried mushrooms, fried potatoes, fried broccoli

Salty air at the beach

Burning trash