I just caught the anniversary tenth Sabantuy festival in London yesterday!

The organizers really went all out: professional hosts and singers, delicious food, and plenty of hot tea. The only thing they couldn't arrange was the weather, but what else would you expect from Britain but rain? (to be fair, last weekend it was scorching hot at almost +30C/86F)

The weather didn't stop anyone from showing up and sticking around for basically the entire main part of the festival. The organizers say there were up to 300 people. The biggest Sabantuy that's ever happened here!

Big thanks to the organizers and everyone who came. If you didn't make it — definitely come next year :)

For over a decade now, they've been staging a ballet based on the Ramayana in Yogyakarta. You can watch it practically for free at the sultan's palace (though you do have to pay for palace admission), or for a fee at Prambanan Temple (they move into the city during the rainy season).

The Ramayana is an ancient Indian epic where Rama, the seventh avatar of Vishnu, rescues his wife who was abducted by the evil king of Lanka. Being a truly trusting husband, Rama suspected her of infidelity right after rescuing her. As proof of her faithfulness, his wife literally walks through fire, and the god of fire protects her from the flames. After that, the couple lives happily ever after.

The epic reached Java centuries ago and underwent slight changes under the influence of local traditions. For example, Rama's wife is called Sinta instead of Sita, and she's portrayed as brave and strong, even fighting asuras in battle, rather than just being a modest and patient woman waiting to be rescued, as in the Indian version.

And the ballet is far from classical. But it was interesting to watch. If you happen to go, at least read a summary beforehand. Otherwise, you'll have no idea what's happening on stage. Or read the full version of "The Tale of Seri Rama: The Indonesian Ramayana" translated by Lyudmila Mervart.

At one of the Arab restaurants in Kuala Lumpur, they were broadcasting a show from a Qatari TV channel. The guests were sitting majlis-style on the floor, which caught my attention. I listened in and it turned out that all these people had gathered to discuss and comment on (try to guess) a football match!

PS. To avoid attaching a pretty low-quality photo of the TV on the wall to the post, I googled that same broadcast from late 2024. I would never have guessed what was happening there. Here's the full video.

Happy New Year! Wishing you peace, travels, and plenty of magic!

I unexpectedly ended up in Kuala Lumpur (can you believe it: a ticket from Istanbul and back popped up for just ~$200).

In Malaysia, they don't limit their celebrations to just the calendar New Year: they widely celebrate the Chinese, Islamic, and Tamil new years too. But everyone came out to watch the fireworks anyway.

I'd like to believe that people will continue to find ways to get along together peacefully.

Thank you for commenting, reading, and simply sticking around ❤️

Bosnia has been hosting a music festival for years now in the Sutjeska National Park. Music and mountains—how could I not go? The festival runs for three whole days. Some people show up with tents and hang out the entire time, but one day was enough for me. Saturday's headliner was Dubioza, and they got almost two hours on stage. Honestly, that's mostly why I came. I didn't know many of the other acts, but I was surprised to see that the Croatian band Psihomodopop is still performing—these guys have been singing since 1982, and I wasn't even born yet :) ).

I was really surprised by the food and drink prices inside the festival area. You'd usually expect inflated prices at events like this. But nope—everything was normal, actually way cheaper than in Belgrade. For 10-15 marks (5-7 euros) you could grab a pljeskavica.

The crowd was pretty cool overall, though there was one sketchy moment where people would get a bit too excited and throw beer cups into the crowd. I got splashed a few times, but overall I left dry. It was awesome. I'll write about the mountains separately. They're absolutely stunning.

Of course, someone had the idea to use a platform like that for advertising. Even political ads. Under the same rules, if you're advertising something, you need to contribute $50 to the parade fund. Not that expensive really, considering almost the whole city is guaranteed to see it.

There were also various representatives from all kinds of churches walking around in the crowd, handing out flyers. Though the preachers probably didn't pay anything—they disappeared somewhere once the parade started.

The parade was in the morning and lasted about an hour. In the evening, they always put on a fireworks show regardless of the parade.

The kids were having the most fun. People in passing cars would often throw candy, and sometimes toys too. According to the rules, you're not supposed to do that (there should be a helper handing everything out directly). But almost everyone just threw the sweets straight at the kids.

On the bright side, there were plenty of sports cars and super loud fire trucks with ambulances. You might want to turn down the volume on the video though. Listening to that for a long time in person isn't really that pleasant.

And just like that, the ceremonial procession got underway. Vietnam War veterans led the way. An old military truck appeared out of nowhere. There wasn't any other military equipment, though you can sometimes see it in larger cities. They try to avoid driving tanks and other stuff that damages the asphalt through the city any more than necessary.

I completely stumbled upon a Fourth of July parade in a small American town by accident. We were heading back from our overnight stay and decided to drive through the center, and that's where people were gathering for the show. I couldn't help but stick around to watch. I probably won't see anything more quintessentially American than this.

People started arriving way early on the main street. With food and their own chairs. Many were wearing patriotic outfits—either in flag colors or with themed slogans.

(more below, this is a short series of posts)

The island of Djerba is really trying hard to attract non-religious tourists too. Back in 2014, they invited artists from dozens of countries to one of the villages to paint the street walls. Belgrade, check it out if you can :)

But you couldn't just pick any random wall and start creating. First, you had to get permission from the building's residents. While it was tough at first, by the end of the project, people were actually asking for artists to paint on their walls. This whole thing is called Djerbahood.

As a bonus on the way back from the bullfight, I completely by chance stumbled upon a local livestock and cheese exhibition near Travnik. I just happened to spot the festivities through the car window and stopped to check it out.

Here they only show the animals, and the best breeder gets up to 1000 euros in prize money. But overall, the livestock kind of stood off to the side. Every now and then they held various contests like tug-of-war.

The main action was happening in front of the stage. People were dancing kolo. It's one of the most famous Balkan dances. Everyone was in the circle dance: young people, older folks, and it looked like everyone was really enjoying it.

They started holding this exhibition relatively recently. This is the 11th event, but it happens every year.

The Balkans never stop amazing me. I randomly found out that Bosnia has been holding bullfights for over 250 years. I just had to go see it in person.

Even though they call it a Bosnian bullfight, the only thing it has in common with the Spanish version is the bulls. The second name for the Bosnian version—bull wrestling—actually gets closer to what's really going on. The animals leave the arena alive and healthy. At least, I didn't see any injuries.

They bring two powerful, massive bulls onto the field and wait for them to fight each other. There are people in the arena, but mostly to keep order and, for example, separate the bulls if a dangerous situation comes up.

Not all bulls want to fight. In that case, they might literally poke them with a stick, but without overdoing it or hitting them hard. More than half the matches end without actual combat. Usually, one of the bulls starts running around the field and mooing miserably, making it clear they don't want to fight. Then the referee declares the other bull the winner.

The fights go one after another without stopping. A match usually lasts a couple minutes, but you can spend another 5-10 minutes before the actual spectacle—bringing the bulls in and the preliminaries, when the bulls check each other out, just walk around the field, or stand next to each other. The pairs constantly rotate, and owners bring the animals to the arena as the event goes on, then take them back to the farm.

They hold dozens of these bullfights every year (!). Practically every weekend from spring to fall there's something going on. And they even advertise it on local TV. Smaller events fit into one day. Bigger ones go for 2-3 days. I was at the Kochichevo Assembly, the second largest one. The president of the Republika Srpska even visited last year.

It's one of the most atmospheric Balkan mass gatherings I've been to. But the format and the wrestling itself are definitely not for everyone. I was more curious about the tradition itself and the people around it. It's a whole separate world. I can't help but mention the insane amount of questionable t-shirts people were wearing with slogans like "on your knees before a Serb," ultra-right-wing messages about Kosovo, and other souvenirs with Mladić in the shops at the entrance.

PS. I'll add some more pictures in the comments.