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)Photos from a Hindu Temple
When Billy and I were in Singapore we stopped by a Hindu Temple. It was really colorful and beautiful, and I took some pictures. I’m just finally getting around to posting them. Hope you enjoy ‘em!
A photo for Ren
I have a friend back in Seattle named Ren. I thought of him when I was in Singapore, and I saw this store in Chinatown. 
)
Bird Nerd in Paradise…
Okay… so the Jurong Bird Park in Singapore was beyond my expectations. I did the falconry program that they offer, and I was the only person for the day, so it was incredible. The park’s falconer met me at the entrance to the park with a vest, and a falconry glove, and handed me a lugger falcon. Amazing. The first bird I handled was hooded, as falcons apparently freak out pretty easily. The hood blindfolds the birds and keeps them calm. Here we are…
Next I met a HUGE Griffin Vulture. The guide told me that the vultures have incredibly strong beaks that can easily rip through flesh… then he had me feed it… of course I fed it with the hand that had the glove on it. I didn’t handle that bird, and I was totally fine with that. It was massive and quite intimidating!
After that we met an African Secretary Bird. She was incredible! Very friendly and would follow you around like a dog. She looked unlike any other bird of prey… extremely long legs and a crown of feathers. Here are some pics of her:
Next I met a Malay Fish Owl…
Then I met a beautiful Harris’s Hawk. It made me think of the hawks back in Seattle. It was amazing to be so close to such an awesome creature. I got to fly this bird between myself and an assistant. It’s awesome to have a huge bird fly right up to you and perch on your arm!
They released some Brahmany Kites next. These birds look like miniature bald eagles. They’re known for their precision in being able to snatch prey. I was given a metal plate to hold that had a small piece of meat on it. A bird would fly right at you, and just grab the meat off the place. You could hear the talons hit the metal plate with a bang. There were 4 of these kites out at one time, and they’d grab food, then perch in a tree, or a roof nearby. You’d put more meat out, and they’d just come out of nowhere! Apparently they’ve even been known to grab food off of chopsticks when people are dining outside. They made Billy and I think about a Bud Light commercial that came out during the Super Bowl a few years back with a hawk that stole beers from the outdoor cafes.
I also threw meat into the air, and got to see the kites do some amazing acrobatics to catch it. That was really cool! Unfortunately we didn’t get pictures of any of the Brahmany Kites.
Finally, I met an African Vulture. I don’t remember what kind she was, but she was very relaxed and fun to handle… though there were a few points when she was on my arm looking at me that I thought to myself, “Wow, it would really suck if she decided to peck me in the eye.”
Luckily she never did anything like that, and was content to just sit on my arm, and eat meat out of my hand.
Singapore is sooo hot!!!
… No, not in a Paris Hilton kind of way… I don’t think I’ve ever sweat so much in my life. Today was a stormy day around 90 degrees F, but with the humidity it’s almost unbearable.
Billy and I took a siesta today, as the heat got to us, and we had to head back to the hostel to take in some A/C to cool down. I think we slept for a couple of hours.
Now we’re in the common area of the Hive Hostel, drinking a couple of beers before we head over to Arab Street in search of a nice dinner… Hmm… maybe some kebabs?
Tomorrow morning we’ll get up early to head to the Jurong Bird Park, and I’ve got a reservation for their falconer program tomorrow, so I might be able to actually handle some birds of prey. Those of you that know about my bird-watching understand that this will probably the highlight of my trip to Singapore.
Hopefully tomorrow I’ll have some cool pics to post. )
Singapore
Yesterday (Monday) was a pretty stressful day for me, as it was the first day I had 4 classes scheduled. I took my books home on Friday so I could get a jump start on lesson planning over the weekend. I spent a few hours on Sunday setting up a couple lesson plans, then I received a text message about a workshop I’d need to attend for work on Monday morning. Eek! 4 classes, and a workshop that’d take about 2 hours out of my morning. The only way I managed to survive that was thinking about the fact that I’d be off the rest of the week on a vacation in Singapore. Whew!
So… here I am now in Singapore. Billy and I are staying in a hostel tonight. Friday is a holiday, so a lot of the hotels are booked for the week. It’s a cute place where we’re staying, and has a ‘B&B meets dorm room’ feel about it. There’s free wi-fi, and two HUGE persian cats that roam around the place.
We left Bandung this morning at 10:00, and had a driver take us to the airport in Jakarta. It’s roughly 2 1/2 hours, and it only cost about $25 US for the driver and the nice air-conditioned SUV. Driving from Bandung, there were several points where I was in awe of the surroundings. The emerald green of the tea plantations covering the hillsides, with some kind of trees mixed in that looked like they came out of a Dr Seuss book. There was a place along the way that had a lot of cattle in a huge grassy field, and it made me think of Washington… specifically of the grassy fields in Eastern Washington, and I remembered driving to Spokane for my friend Trista’s college graduation several years ago… The scenery changed again, and there were rice paddies and banana trees between big hills that looked like jungles. Billy pointed out that the rice paddies formed a kind of road through the jungle, as if all the rice paddies were a huge river cutting through the forest. The soil is red in some areas, and there were mounds of paprika-colored earth on some of the hills. It’s kind of shocking to see dirt that color… you just don’t expect it.
We caught a flight out of Jakarta at 3:00, and I think we landed in Singapore just a couple of hours later. I thought it was interesting seeing this on the customs form for Singapore:
We explored Singapore’s Little India tonight, as Billy and I haven’t been able to find any curries in Bandung, and were craving some good Indian food. We got off the subway, and wandered around for a few minutes. A guy on the sidewalk handed us a flyer for an Indian restaurant, and we went for it. The place offered “barefoot dining”, so we had to leave our shoes at the front door. It was a fantastic little restaurant, with short tables, and cushions on the floor. It had air-conditioning, soft lighting, and fun Indian music playing. They told us that the dishes could all be made non-spicy, or up to a 6 for spice. I went for a 2, and Billy went for a 4 on the spicy scale. It was the hottest Indian food I’ve ever had, but after my mouth started to go numb, I was able to enjoy the flavors.
We’ll be in Singapore until Sunday morning, and we’re planning to do a lot of touristy things while we’re here. I’ll post more when I get the time.
Hope everyone’s doing well!
Filed under Singapore | Comments (4)