Amazing

This weekend, I'm spending a quiet weekend at home. Last weekend, I had a not-so-quiet weekend at Pulau Seribu, or Thousand Islands. We left our house at 5:45 to make sure we got to the dock by 6:30 a.m. We thought there was only one boat and that it left at 7:00 a.m. sharp. We took two cabs. One of them (mine) found the dock with no problems. There were several boats leaving for Pramuka Island—our destination. The first left at about quarter til seven, loaded down with people and cargo and not so many life vests. Watching the first boat leave, I was a little concerned. I didn't relish having to store my cell phone and camera in the plastic bags I brought while swimming to shore from a sinking boat. One person in my group had been to Pulau Seribu before and her boat actually did start to sink. Lucky for them, they were close enough to another island to crash land and evacuate.

There are lots of little moments in Indonesia where I think "Well, this boat (or this car or this whatever) goes every day to the island and even though it looks as if one good wave would sink it, it must be sea worthy."

But for last week, we didn't end up on the first boat, which was the most crowded, because the second cab, containing our friends, got a bit lost. It was stressful because we didn't know how long it would be until we had just one boat left. They kept filling up and leaving. One gone...two gone...three gone...four gone. At seven, our friends told us we should go without them. But there was one boat left. The three of us stood there, not sure whether we should get on the last boat or hold out hope. Then, finally, at quarter after seven, they came running around the corner. It was a good thing too, because the boat was just about to leave...

Just kidding--it's Indonesia. The boat didn't leave until it filled up, which was at about quarter til eight.

We had an uneventful ride out to Pramuka Island that took, as promised, about two and a half hours. Pulau Seribu is actually just over 100 islands in a little string starting just a half-hour off the coast. The water doesn’t start to clear until about an hour into the trip. In Jakarta, it is a nasty, and smelly, brown color with loads of trash floating in it.

As it started to look a little bluer, we started to see flying fish. In my mind, I had confused flying fish with sword fish that jump out of the water, but don’t actually fly. Flying fish—or at least the ones we saw—were little. They weren’t much bigger than perch or small walleye. But they jumped out of the water and then went skimming across it. Some of them only managed a few skips before they went back under. But some of them cruised across for at least a hundred feet, skipping and flying.

Aside from the flying fish, there wasn’t much to look at except for blue water and the occasional boat. I practiced a little bit of Bahasa Indonesia with a man sitting by us on the front of the boat. He was a teacher too, and last year he lived on Pramuka Island and taught at the school there. It’s the only school for the entire island chain and kids who live on the other islands arrive by school boat. I wanted to ask him how I could apply for a job, but my Indonesian isn’t that good yet!

In the past, when I have traveled, I’ve always preferred to have the details nailed down. It probably comes as no surprise that I’m a bit of a planner. Here though, planning ahead is more expensive because the hotels that you can book online or through an agent cost more. And, in some cases, even if you book ahead, they give your room away, so it makes sense to just go and figure things out when you get there.

I learned that this is especially true when you are taking a boat to an island that is expecting tourists. We got to Pramuka Island and before we were even off the dock, we’d been met by a man offering to help us. His office was right off the dock so we went with him and within ten minutes, we had a place to stay for the night and we had chartered a boat for the day to take us to snorkeling spots and other islands, complete with a guide. They quoted us a price and I think we were expected to bargain them down, but it was so ridiculously low by any standard that any of us were used to that we didn’t bargain at all. We just asked to see the place first.

It was a house, with one large, air-conditioned bedroom, one living room, and a bathroom and shower. It was clean and it was right on the water. They brought us an extra mattress, so all six of us could fit in the bedroom, and we were golden. Total cost: about US$35. And we split it six ways. You can see why we didn’t feel the need to bargain him down. The boat for the day was even cheaper.

I love being on boats and last Saturday was no exception. The boat had plenty of cover, so I could stay out of the sun, and we motored around, taking pictures as we went. There’s a lot of coral around the islands and the water is incredibly shallow. This means that we saw people in the distance who looked as if they were walking on water, hundreds of yards out from shore. There were also many fishing houses, and even a restaurant, built on stilts in the middle of the sea.

We finally came to our first snorkeling stop and jumped in. I love to swim and I used a mask and snorkel plenty of times growing up around lakes in Minnesota and Indiana. But I’ve always been a little bit afraid of swimming in the ocean. I knew I was afraid but I knew I was going to do it any way and, after sitting on the edge of the boat for a few minutes, mustering up the courage, I jumped in.

It was like nothing I’ve ever seen before. It wasn’t particularly colorful, like coral I’ve seen in aquariums or on television, but it was so beautiful. Coral fanned out all around us, in pinks and browns, in different sizes and shapes, and at different depths. There were fish swimming everywhere, but again, not the gigantic schools of them you see on nature programs. There were also these bright blue starfish, clinging to bits of coral. Our guide went down and picked one up. He also encouraged us to swim down and touch bits of it, which I thought was a little weird. He obviously wasn’t a conservationist! In any case, I had to fight with my anxiety most of the time we were snorkeling, so I stayed on the surface.

I did fine. As long as I was with the group and didn’t stare for too long into the bright blue expanse off the edge of the reef, I could concentrate on what I was looking at. But we kept swimming further and further away from the boat and at a certain point, my anxiety overcame my enjoyment and I decided to swim back.

After everybody was done snorkeling, we went to an island that is also a national park and nature reserve. There was only one house on the island—for the park ranger and his family, I think. It only took about fifteen minutes to walk around the entire shoreline and it wasn’t so good for swimming because there were too many rays in the water. But it was beautiful. There were huge pieces of gnarled driftwood on the shore and, as I walked, there were tiny crabs scooting here and there. There are also blocks of Mangrove trees planted in the water around most of the islands we saw. I learned later that they are a good natural defense against erosion.

After a long time relaxing on the island, it was on to another snorkeling spot. I’d had enough for the day and stayed on the boat. I know I’ll go again though, and maybe some day I won’t have anxiety about it. We ended our day with dinner at the floating restaurant and then, once we were back on Pramuka, a walk around the town in the dark.

The following day, I woke up early and opened the front door to a gaggle of children swimming in front of the house. Eventually, another person in my group woke up and we got some coffee from a little outdoor place where we sat and watched the kids swimming. When we were bored of sitting, another friend had joined us and we went for a walk around the village again. It looked quite different in the daylight and people were mostly outside of their houses, cooking or sitting. The kids were adorable, as they are everywhere. Where I live in Jakarta, the kids spend their weekends playing video games or walking around the mall. On the islands, kids were doing the same stuff that I did when I was a kid, riding bikes, swimming, and making up their own games. It was great to see!

While not everyone in Indonesia speaks English, they all seem to know “Hello, Miss,” which is what we heard from almost everyone we passed. We walked until we found the opposite shore of the island and then we turned back. By the time we got back to our house, everybody was up and we chartered another boat to take us to an island with a nice beach where we could spend the rest of the morning.

On that beach island, we met some guys with jet skis and some local boys, who stalked us until they worked up their courage to come and talk to us. It was a nice way to spend a couple hours. We got tired of the sun and went closer to the dock to sit in the shade and wait for our boat to come back for us. We had to be back on Pramuka to catch the boat back to Jakarta at 1 o’clock. While we were sitting, we started talking to a bunch of guys from Jakarta who were with the jet skiers. These guys were all Harley Davidson enthusiasts who take several trips a year on their motorcycles. Each summer, they fly to a different city in the U.S. and ride from there to Sturgis, South Dakota for the big annual Harley fest (the one where John McCain offered up his wife in 2008).

As we got more and more concerned that our boat wasn’t returning, we started talking about what we would do if we missed the boat back to Jakarta. The guys heard us talking about it and offered us a ride back with them. Turns out, they go over almost every weekend to relax on the islands. Some of them drive the jet skis. The others ride on a friend’s yacht. Yep. That’s right. They offered us a ride back to Jakarta on a yacht. But first, they took us to another friend’s private island where we were treated to a lovely lunch.

Who has enough money to buy an island? I don’t know and we didn’t get to meet the owner because he was on the way from the airport as we dined in style on his dime. We chatted with a lot of the guys (there were only a few women along—and about thirty to forty guys). Many of them had excellent command of English. At least one that I talked to went to school in the U.S. and then stayed there to work for several years. We also met a few police officers who were invited to lunch and we ended up coming back to Jakarta on a police boat instead of the yacht, which was super cool. It was super fast and the weather had turned a little bit stormy so, although we were out in front of the storm, the waves were huge and we got sprayed quite a bit.

So, to recap: boats, beaches, sun, snorkeling, ride on a yacht, lunch at a private island, and delivery back to Jakarta courtesy of the local police.

Quite a weekend.

Life is Easy

When I lived in South Korea, everything was so hard. I didn't know the language and hardly anyone spoke English, I didn't have many people to ask for help, and I felt very much on my own. It was scary and it was stressful. I expected to feel the same way when I arrived in Indonesia, but it has been, so far, remarkably smooth.

There are moments when I don't understand what's going on, but usually they happen when I'm with another foreigner. So, either the other person understands or we both don't. When it's the former, all is well. When it's the latter, we can make a decision together about what to do. Either way, it's not too stressful.

Making up for these occasional moments of confusion is the fact that everyone in Indonesia seems to want to take care of things for me. When I come out of a restaurant or the mall, there is always a taxi waiting. If I wait, an angkot will come along. When I walk into a store, I'm immediately approached by someone who wants to help me. My school pays people to make sure we have enough water at the house, to make sure our floors are cleaned and our dishes are washed, and to wash and iron our clothes. The security guards in my neighborhood remain concerned if I appear to be walking without an umbrella when clouds are rolling in. And, if and when there is a time when I am utterly lost and in desperate need of help, I know there will always be someone willing to help me, either for free or for a few thousand rupiah.

Sometimes, it makes me a little uncomfortable when I think about how little money all these people who are taking care of me earn. But it's a job, which is better than being unemployed. And we're not the only ones who are taken care of. In my wealthy neighborhood, nannies carrying sleeping four-year-olds, following mommies who are shopping and the mall actually employs someone to put your umbrella in a plastic bag if you walk in and it's dripping. It seems kind of silly until you realize that a) they are paying him and b) no one is slipping on wet floors.

Tomorrow morning, I leave for Pulau Seribu and a couple days on the water, motoring from one remote island to the next. We won't be staying in a hotel because the residents of the islands rent rooms in their houses to the tourists to make extra money. Wherever we end up staying, I'm sure we'll be well taken care of.

Bogor and Cibodas

On Saturday morning, I left my house at about six-thirty with one of my housemates. We took two angkots to the bus. Then, we took the bus to the train station where we boarded an express train for Bogor, a city of about a million people located an hour south of Jakarta. There are two different trains going to Bogor: economy and express. As you would probably guess, economy is the cheaper option (about twenty-five cents). But when we had discussed which train to take with the ladies who work at the front desk of the school, they looked a little bit horrified at the thought that we would choose economy. We went with their recommendation and took the express, which cost about a dollar. It was air conditioned and only made about four stops along the way. When I got up to the train platform, I understood why the ladies were horrified at the idea of us on an economy train. First of all, there aren't many seats on either train--the seats line the edges, like on commuter trains, with a large middle room for standing. Plus, on the economy train, the middle doors are wide open, to let the air in. There were so many people stuffed into each car that some men were hanging out of the middle doors and more of them were sitting on top of the train. I can't imagine how they climbed up there, but it did look like the most comfortable spot on the train--they weren't packed in like sardines and they had natural air.

Our train ride was uneventful. Once we got to Bogor, we ran into a tour guide who shuffled us into his office and offered to take us around for two days. His price was high, but he would have bargained. But we declined and headed for a mini-bus to get to the town of Cibodas. It wouldn't be the first time someone approached us and offered to be our guide. The thing is, we didn't want a guide. We were both into exploring on our own.

The mini-bus up the mountain took about an hour and a half. There is only one two-lane road going up and traffic was heavy. We were packed in, but luckily, we got the front seat by the open window and away from the exhaust. Including the driver, there were four of us in the front and, of course, no seat belts. Sitting in the front is always a mixed blessing. It tends to be more comfortable than the back, but also more harrowing, because you can see what's happening with the traffic. I tried to look out the window at the scenery and not pay attention to how close the other cars were.

We got dropped off at the side of the road and had to catch another angkot further up the mountain to Cibodas. I'm not sure how those little mini-vans make it up the mountain. It felt like the little engine that could. But we made it.

Our intention was to hike a path up between two volcano peaks in a national park. We didn't intend to go all the way to the summit of either peak, because those were hikes much longer than we (or at least I) could handle. But there was a 2.8 km hike up to a place where the mountains sort of fuse together and there were three waterfalls there. As hikes go, I imagine it was pretty easy. There was a pathway made entirely of large stones and stairs for most of the way. But I'm not exactly in the best shape for hiking so I didn't know whether I would make it all the way to the waterfalls. About 2/3 of the way in, there was a lake that was a turquoise blue color. That was my original goal, and when I made it there, I was really tired. The thunder that we'd been hearing in the distance was getting closer and I considered the fact that I still had to get down, which is the hardest part for me and my knees.

But three waterfalls...it sounded so cool. So, I sucked it up and kept going. We ended up having to walk the final 0.3 km over a rickety old bridge but the scenery was absolutely amazing! And finally, we got to the waterfalls. It was well worth the walk. Oh, and did I mention the monkeys? Yep, we saw monkeys in the trees on the way up. It's pretty cool to look up and see monkeys!

On the way down, my housemate went ahead and hiked another up another path for a while while I slowly made my way. It had rained at the lower elevation while we were at the waterfall, so the stones were slippery. My knees hurt, but I didn't have much of a choice, so I focused on not slipping and hurling myself head first off the path into the jungle bush. I went very slowly. So, slowly that some other people coming down from the waterfall passed me and asked me if I was okay. I was perfectly fine. It's just that I'm clumsy under the best of circumstances and I wasn't taking any chances!!

I made it out, tired but extremely proud of myself and ready to hike again in the near future. I'm thrilled with the investment I made in my new hiking boots. I'm pretty sure I couldn't have gone the whole way if I'd just worn my Teevas.

After the hike, we returned to Bogor where we spent a little time trying to find a hotel--the first two places were full. But we did find one, where we had showers and dinner and a nice sleep. On Sunday, we headed for Bogor's botanical gardens. The gardens cover more than 80 hectares (1 hectare = 2.5 acres) so we walked some more! All the trees and flowers were so beautiful.

After our day in the gardens, we got a little bit lost trying to find the train station again, and we got caught in a downpour, which felt good after a hot day. Eventually, we made it to the train and made our way home where we had dinner at our favorite Indian place.

All in all, a fantastic weekend. Coming up this weekend, I'm headed for Pulau Seribu (Thousand Islands), which is a string of islands just off the coast of Jakarta, for some sandy beaches and snorkeling. There are actually only a hundred or so islands, but I figure that's enough.

An Important Discovery

My mall has two Starbucks--one at both ends. Just sayin'.

Sadly, after two months of rationally-sized portions, the grande java chip frappucchino that I polished off to celebrate my discovery made my tummy hurt.

P.S. The picture has nothing to do with Starbucks. It's a cute baby orangutan I saw at the Singapore zoo. :)

Death by Angkot Revisited

This afternoon, I was lucky to get the front seat in the angkot on the way to work. It's the most comfortable spot and I don't feel like Alice in Wonderland every time I climb in and out of the side door that is two sizes too short for me. Unfortunately, this particular afternoon, my angkot driver was psychotic. I've had crazy ones before. They're in such a hurry to drive their route that they weave in and out of traffic as the passengers are tossed around in the back. But in the back, I can't see anything but the ground out of the windows because, once again, I am much taller than the average rider. Today, I had a perfect view out a big front window as the driver weaved and threaded his way, making three lanes out of two and five out of three. I feared for more than one motorbike rider as we would come perilously close to them before the driver would either slam on the breaks or weave again and come thisclose to another car. All along the way, he was yelling something at the other drivers. It could have been the Indonesian word for "asshole" which is my preference for expressing road rage. Or it could have been "Ha Ha, I'm going to make my passengers puke." In either case, I was happy to climb out at the mall.

I don't really need a reason to go to the mall anymore. I go there almost every day--to shop, to eat, when I'm bored and don't know what else to do. But this afternoon, I had purpose. I was backpack shopping. I'm not sure why I didn't think to bring a backpack with me. I was certain enough of the possibility for hiking that I invested far too much money in a nice pair of hiking boots. But somehow a backpack fell through the cracks.

Searching for any new object at the mall is like solving a puzzle. Sometimes, things are where you'd expect them to be. For example, I buy paper clips at the office supply store. But other times, I find things in the oddest places. I had some ideas for where to locate a backpack. I'd seen luggage stores and sporting goods stores on my many walks through. The trouble was, I couldn't remember exactly where I'd seen them and I had a limited amount of time before I had to be at work. And the mall is big. Really, really big.

I'm not sure how many floors there are--at least four or five and several half floors that seem to pop up in different places. Plus, the mall twists and turns and there are no directories to help find your way. I didn't have time to meander. So, I found the information booth and I tried out my new Indonesian language skills. I told the helpful man behind the desk that I wanted a backpack. I said the "I want" part in Indonesian and then I pantomimed backpack. At first he thought I meant "purse" and suggested the Guess store. Being supremely stylish, I'm not opposed to hiking through the jungle with a Guess bag, but I'm not exactly making a Guess-level wage. So, I tried my pantomime again and this time he got it. Then I said, "Where?" and he pointed the way. Ten minutes later, voila. I had a backpack. As a bonus, I was ridiculously proud of myself for managing three words of Indonesian.

I'm planning on using my brand new backpack for my trip to Cambodia in July but I'll be breaking it in this weekend when I head for Bogor and the national park just south of that city. There are two volcanoes, lakes, waterfalls, and tea plantations to be seen. Wish me luck!

Busy Busy Busy

I kept thinking that I would write about my second day in Singapore before I wrote about anything else, but clearly that isn't happening. There was a "Day Two." I went for a walk by the river and then I went to the zoo and the night safari, which were both pretty cool. The end.

It's been almost three weeks since I went to Singapore and almost seven weeks since I arrived in Indonesia. My classes are in twelve week cycles so next week marks the half way point. The time is flying by and I'm feeling a little wistful about that already because I'm not sure yet whether I'll stay another year and I don't think a year is long enough to see everything I want to see.

Last weekend was Cap Gomeh, the end of Chinese New Year. There was a parade in Chinatown, so one of my roommates and I decided to go. What's even more fun is that we decided to explore Jakarta's bus system to get there. Up to now, I've taken taxis everywhere outside of my own neighborhood. The angkots run all over the city but they run short routes and there is no general map to figure out how to transfer from one to the other. I'd been told that the city buses were too crowded but the price difference to where we were going was about 65,000 for a taxi and 3,500 for the bus plus 4,500 for the two angkots we had to take to get to the closest bus stop. I realize $6.50 isn't a lot of money for almost an hour in a taxi, but why pay that much when I can spend $0.80?

Turns out, the bus system is awesome! They have a special lane for buses called the "busway" and other cars aren't supposed to use it. They do, of course, because this is Jakarta. But the lane is still relatively clear compared to the other lanes of traffic, so the bus just sails on through. Yes, it was crowded, but everyone was going to Chinatown to see the parade. It wasn't any more crowded than buses or trains I've been on in other major cities. Plus, it was clean, it was air conditioned, and it was fast. Unfortunately, the buses stop running at 10 pm, so for nights out, a taxi is still necessary. But for all future sightseeing, I'll be happy to use public transportation!

We didn't exactly know what to expect when we got to Chinatown. There were already people lining some of the streets but we weren't sure when the parade started, so we walked around a little bit. It was hot. So hot that we had to get our umbrellas out to protect us from the sun. Eventually, we noticed people lining up on the main street, so we joined them. And luckily, just as the parade started, the clouds rolled in.

I'm not a big fan of parades in general but this one was really neat. There were different groups from Buddist temples carrying shrines and spectators would sometimes join the parade and follow the shrines to pray. Some of the shrines had men on top who had long needs sticking in and out of various parts of their faces. They didn't look particularly comfortable, but they weren't bleeding either. Then, there were the lions and the dragons. Everything was so colorful and fun. It was a great day!

This weekend, I'm planning to get out of Jakarta and see some of the surrounding area. We're going to Bogor, which is famous for its botanical gardens, and then we're going to hike an area between two volcanoes where there are also tea and coffee plantations. Should be fun and I'll finally get a chance to use my hiking boots!