December 19, 2014. Pinrang, a small town on the road to Toraja country in South Sulawesi. I have an appointment with Yunus and his twin brother Andi Lawang at the family home. Not just any appointment, because Yunus is a boy—human, that is—and his twin Andi Lawang is a monitor lizard, a Komodo dragon type (varanus komodoensis) whose size must be around 1.50 meters.

A curious custom indeed, these human-animal hybrid children, one that has endured for centuries in Bugis country.

Andi Lawang's second sister welcomes me into her simple wooden home, the lizard in her arms. Andi seems like a nice fellow. Mealtime is invariable, around ten in the morning, consisting mainly of chicken eggs that he gobbles up greedily, opening wide his mouth with its finely chiseled teeth.

Andi is registered in the city's birth records just like any human being. He even has his KTP, a local identity card. Madame Suharti, the midwife who assisted in bringing Yunus and Andi Lawang into the world, receives me in her office at the small hospital and explains that the customs of lizard children or crocodile children are commonplace in Sulawesi. In Yunus's case, he was born first. However, where things get peculiar is that Andi appeared only several hours later without the midwife's assistance…

People sometimes come from far away to see him because he brings good luck. A great feast is being prepared for the twins' birthday, the local imam is there, and the sacrifice of a young cow is an occasion for everyone to eat meat—except for Andi, for whom the mere smell of blood could awaken instincts as gregarious as those of his Komodo cousins.

On the outskirts of Makassar, there is a family whose twin girls are a human daughter and a crocodile. Rani, the human sister, has just married a man from another village, and her crocodile sister has become completely "amok" (mad). She had to be locked in a cage downstairs in the house. Rani returns to her childhood village as often as possible to soothe the sorrow of Herlina the croc; she takes her out of her cage and brings her into the family home. Herlina measures close to 1.80 meters for 65 kilos, but she lets herself be handled and caressed.

What a world this Indonésie is! Lizard children of Sulawesi, horse-men of Java, tiger-medicine man in Jakarta, flower-man shamans and healers in Siberut, Dayak sorcerers casting spells at Tanjung Isuy, right up to that Dugong (a marine mammal) seen in Fak-Fak in Papua whose tears are harvested to cure a few anemic patients...

Travel never ends in this immense archipelago of 17,000 islands, a mosaic of the most diverse peoples and such particular customs—encounters born from this desire to share a daily life, a meal, a smile, a kretek (cigarette)... That is all Indonésie is, the people of a million smiles.

Based on texts by Thierry Robinet, adventurer & English-speaking guide in Indonésie since 1977. Charlène Nomadays. SEO writer from the very beginning at Nomadays, now content manager and head of the communications division, Charlène has accompanied the adventure from its inception with passion and loyalty. After spending seven years in Asia—from China to Thailand, passing through Mongolia and South Korea—she has made travel a way of being in the world. A lover of words, nature, and human encounters, she strives to convey in her writing a sensitive, engaged, and responsible vision of tourism. For her, each article is a bridge between curiosity, respect, and wonder.