Only a week of work left
I can’t believe how fast a year’s flown by. Thursday is the last day of our contract. We’ll go to Yogyakarta in Central Java for a short vacation before we head home to Seattle. Yogyakarta has many ancient historical buildings and temples in and around the city, including:
- Borobudur – said to be the largest Buddhist monument in the world, dating back to the 9th century.
- Prambanan – a collection of Hindu temples, that were built during the 10th century.
- Kraton – the palace of the sultan of Yogyakarta.
We’ll be in Yogyakarta for a few days, then back to Bandung, and on to Seattle for a month.
Filed under Exploring Indonesia, Flowers, Living in Bandung, Singapore | Comment (1)Borneo adventure… part 1
Sorry for being so bad about updating this site lately. Somehow I’ve just been thinking that it’s such a daunting task to remember all the details to put on here, so I haven’t wanted to do it.
We returned from our Borneo vacation a week ago. We had a good time, though it wasn’t quite what we’d planned.
When we’d decided to go to Borneo, we planned to visit Tanjung Puting National Park. It’s said to be the highlight of Indonesian Borneo. We bought our plane tickets to fly into Kalimantan’s biggest city, Banjarmasin, and we were told by a travel agent in Bandung that we’d have to buy tickets on a small plane from there to a city close to Tanjung Puting, called Pangkalanbun. The travel agent said it wasn’t possible to buy the tickets in Bandung. We arrived at the tiny Banjarmasin airport and went to the ticket counter for the other airline… only to find out that the airline hasn’t had any flights since December due to some problem with their airplane. Our only option for getting to Tanjung Puting would be an 18-hour bus ride, that had a 50/50 chance of having A/C… and it was HOT.
Instead of spending 36 hours of our 1-week holiday on a bus, we decided to just stay around the city. We stayed at SAS Hotel, which was mentioned in the Lonely Planet guide book. It was reasonably-priced and had A/C. The bed was really comfortable, but the walls were paper-thin, and the floor would shake when people walked down the hall, or in the room next to us. There was also a mosque nearby, but Billy and I are so used to the sounds of mosques that we slept right through the morning calls to prayer. It mentioned in the Lonely Planet that breakfast was included… I didn’t think that 4 slices of white bread (not even toasted) with a little pot of coffee counted as “breakfast”. Hmm…
Shortly after checking into the hotel, we met a local guide named Tailah (pron. Tie-la). He’s mentioned a few times in the Lonely Planet as the best guide in Banjarmasin. He’s a very small man, about my height, but thinner than me. He’s incredibly friendly, and loves to joke and laugh. We talked with him about trying to get out of the city to see some jungle. He told us about a 3-day trek that he offers, and we decided to do it. We told him we wanted to check out Banjarmasin a bit before we headed out, so we agreed that we’d start the trek on Monday. We also met a guy from Germany, who was in the same boat as us… wanting to get out of the city, to explore the jungle. He decided the next day that he’d join us on the trek.
Sunday we headed out for a two-hour tour to see some proboscis monkeys on a nearby island. These endangered monkeys are found only in Borneo, and look hilarious. They have huge noses, and pot-bellies. My photos didn’t turn out, but this is a picture of a proboscis monkey from wikipedia.com:
Our new friend, Tailah, jokingly called the proboscis monkeys “tourist monkeys” because of their big noses and bellies. He led us on the tour, and we were able to go into the edges of a mangrove forest in our boat, so we could see the monkeys jumping overhead. At first we were a bit nervous, afraid they might leap into the boat or something, but we got used to them, and just sat there quietly amazed.
We found a good Chinese restaurant that wasn’t far from our hotel. We ate there a few times, and had sweet and sour pork each time. It’s funny, there are things that you don’t realize you’ll miss until you don’t have them. Back in the States I didn’t really eat much pork, but since you don’t see it very often in Indonesia, I always jump at the opportunity to have it here. It’s a rare treat here.
Monday morning we met up with our guide, Tailah, and our new German friend, Lobe (pron. Low-bee), in the hotel lobby. We set out at 9 am, starting with a 3-hour bus ride in a really old, very hot van. We were already sweating when we got to the start of the trail, and we had a 4-hour trek ahead of us. The first day’s trek had a great trail, that was paved the whole way to the village where we’d stay the night. It was disappointing to occasionally hear chainsaws cutting down the forest as we were walking. Illegal logging is a horrible problem in Borneo.
We stopped in a village to rest for a few minutes, and distribute candy to the children and clove cigarettes to the adults. Tailah told us that it’s customary for tourists to give these to the villagers. They all lined up, and within seconds there were plastic candy wrappers strewn all over the ground. It’s strange the way Indonesians just throw garbage everywhere.
Between that village, and the one where we slept, we walked through farm areas with “mountain rice”, cassava, banana trees, eggplant, and tomatoes. The Dayak people plant their rice on the mountainside. They don’t practice terracing for their rice paddies. They also don’t use any fertilizers or pesticides on their rice. The downfall to this method of rice farming is that they burn down the forest to clear the area and enrich the soil.
When we arrived at the final Dayak village of the day, it was getting dark. We stopped briefly just outside of the village, so Tailah could show us some trees. He cut off a little bark, and made us smell it…. Ahhh… Cinnamon. It’s one of the main sources of income for the Dayak people. Another income source is natural rubber from the rubber trees that are so plentiful. Throughout our trek we saw a lot of trees that had deep V-cuts in them, and 1/2 a coconut shell on the ground to catch the sticky white sap from the rubber trees. The contents of the coconut shells are eventually put together into wooden boxes, and formed into rectangles of rubber that are floated down the river, and sold to a company in Banjarmasin.
When we got to this village we were taken to the longhouse, in the center of the small village, where we’d sleep. It was up on stilts, and under it a lot of pigs, chickens and dogs took refuge. We were given a dinner of vegetable soup with noodles, and coffee. We were pretty exhausted and dirty from the trek, and longed for a shower. The only water was either the river, or a faucet that was right next to the longhouse. I washed my face and arms, but that was it. Ugh. I was coated in sunblock, insect repellent, dirt and sweat.
The children in this village were really sweet. There were 4 or 5 little girls that kept running up to me and shaking my hand. They’d say “Selamat datang” (welcome) and shake my hand, then “Terima kasih” (thank you) shake again, followed my “Sama sama” (you’re welcome) and another handshake. They giggled constantly, and eventually they started telling me their names… over and over… “Nama saya Linda”… “Nama saya Helda”… then back to Linda again. Always wanting to shake my hand. They were precious.
We slept on the floor of the longhouse on thin cushions. One of the women in the village let us borrow a couple of sarongs, to use as sheets to cover ourselves while we slept. It was easily the most uncomfortable night’s sleep I’ve ever had… and all of the animal noises didn’t help matters. Some pigs started fighting right under us during the night, then well before dawn the roosters started in. There were also dogs trying to get into the longhouse, and at one point they managed to knock the door down, and had to be chased out.
Here’s the outside of the longhouse:
Inside the longhouse there was a “shrine” built out of wood, and decorated with rice leaves. The Dayaks are Animists, and have ceremonies twice a year, once for the planting of rice, and once for the harvest. It was interesting to me that children were allowed to play on the structure, and they would climb it and braid the rice leaves together. Here is the “shrine” and some of the children inside the longhouse
Here’s a photo of more children. In this photo you can see a bunch of cinnamon bark piled up on the right. The children and adults use knives about the size of machetes to strip the outer bark off the cinnamon, then it’s dried and rolled up.
I took a few pictures of flowers around the village, then it was time to set off for more trekking…
Unfortunately we didn’t see (or smell) any Rafflesia flowers, that I’d mentioned in my previous post.
Filed under Exploring Indonesia, Flowers | Comments (4)Merry Christmas!
We started Christmas Day with a brunch at the Sheraton. The food was great, and there were so many things, I probably only tried half of them. They had some Indonesian food, and a lot of western food as well. They also had a big dessert table with lots of goodies. I think one of my favorite foods was an Irish Cream pudding that made me think of an Irish Cream pie my Dad makes. It was delicious! Here we are enjoying our brunch:
It was so funny hearing Christmas music while we sat eating all the wonderful food. I heard “Winter Wonderland”, and as they sang about walking in a winter wonderland, my Mom pointed out some of the colorful butterflies that had landed on the Birds of Paradise flowers nearby. It was just so much different from any other Christmas I’ve spent with my Mom.
After brunch we headed back to our place to open presents. My Dad and Judy sent us a large box, and Billy’s parents sent a package, too. Our friend Russell stopped by earlier in the day to drop off presents as well. Russell gave us some cool books. Billy’s parents gave Billy a wallet and me some jewelry supplies including a clay pendant with a gecko on it, and some static-cling snowflakes for our windows. My Dad and Judy sent us a bunch of Seattle things: a Seattle calendar with photos, smoked salmon, cocoa, Snoqualmie Falls Lodge oatmeal, Seattle’s Best Coffee, Seattle Truffles and other goodies, and a Christmas ornament that says “Merry Christmas” in bahasa Indonesia (Selamat Hari Natal).
We decided to invite Russell and his girlfriend over to join us for some snacks and Christmas music. Billy had his laptop on and chose the music. I opened the smoked salmon my Mom brought for us, and we had that with Ritz crackers and cream cheese. I also opened the Applets and Cotlets that my Mom gave us. We drank a little beer and wine and relaxed.
My Mom also brought us some demo CDs and T-shirts from my brother. We listened to the demo CD, and were all impressed by how good it sounded… well, all of us except Russell’s girlfriend who really prefers pop music… She didn’t seem to enjoy it at all… Oh well. My brother gave us 8 CDs and several shirts to distribute for him. One of Billy’s co-workers is always asking me about my brother’s band, and he loves metal. I think he’ll really like the demo, and proudly wear a t-shirt.
Tomorrow morning I’m going to call home to talk to my brother, my Dad and Judy, and whoever else I can reach. For now, it’s off to bed.
I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!
Filed under Flowers, Living in Bandung | Comments (3)Flowers from Bali
We returned from Bali early this morning. I didn’t take as many pictures as I’d planned, but here are some I took of the flowers there.
Pictures of Flowers from our weekend
We went South of Bandung for the weekend, and explored Garut, a volcano, some hot springs, and an old stone Hindu temple. Here are some pics of flowers from the trip. I’ll post more pictures of everything else, and tell you about the trip when I get a little more time.
Flower and Butterfly for my Mom
This is a butterfly picture I took a couple weeks ago. I really can’t get over how many different kinds of butterflies I see here. Each morning when I sit on my balcony drinking my coffee, I’ll see anywhere from 2-10 different kinds of butterflies. Unfortunately most of them don’t sit still long enough for me to get a photo of them.
Flowers for Mom
My Mom has asked before for me to post pictures of flowers. Here are some more:
  
Photos of flowers in Bandung
My Mom emailed me and asked for some pictures of the flowers here. Here are a few I’ve taken so far. Once we get our house I’m sure I’ll have a lot more pictures, as it’s really lush up in the Dago area.
