Our first wedding anniversary
Billy and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary on Saturday by heading out of Bandung for the day. We took Billy’s motorcycle North of Bandung to a waterfall in Maribaya. We had lunch there and hiked around a bit. We saw monkeys, lizards, a chipmunk, and Billy saw a big snake cross our path (I didn’t see it because I was walking behind Billy). It was beautiful and the air was clean and smelled of pine trees. In Indonesia most people go out to parks and stuff on Sundays, so Saturdays are the best days to explore. There weren’t very many people in the park, so we were able to stroll along at a relaxed pace. There were strange fake animals around the park that looked really old. I think they were made with some kind of rebar framework, overlaid with cement. Unfortunately many of the “animals” weren’t looking so good… an ear missing here, a leg gone there with the rebar sticking out. They were kinda creepy. I took a picture of one of the better looking “deer”.
Batu Karas Beach and the Green Canyon
A few weeks ago I went to the beach. Our friend Sisca organized the trip. Billy and I went, and so did some other teachers including our English friend Russell, Nina from California, and Tony from Papua (Eastern Indonesia). It’s a long drive to the beach from Bandung, so we agreed to set out at 2:00 am on Saturday morning. We arrived at the beach at about 7:30 am after a night of barely any sleep. We’d thought that if we had a little to drink before we left we’d sleep better. We didn’t account for the fact that the roads were winding and bumpy, or that the drivers here always honk when they’re passing someone (or just when they feel like honking). Still, after limited sleep and a really long car trip, the beach was excellent.
We first went to a beach called Batu Karas. It’s a black sand beach, like many around that area on the South coast of Java. It’s known as a surfers’ beach, and has a very laid back atmosphere. Things are pretty cheap, and it seems that you could get beer pretty easily from most of the restaurants (pretty surprising in a Muslim country). Billy rented a surfboard. I think he paid the equivalent of about $5 US to rent it for the day.
Some of us took a side trip from Batu Karas to a place called the Green Canyon. It’s a canyon filled with water, and lots of lush green plants blanketing the canyon walls. There were many huge monitor lizards basking in the sun on rocks and tree stumps along the water’s edge, and sometimes they were swimming in the water. Their sizes varied, but I’d say on average they were around 3 feet long. I don’t have a very good zoom on my camera, so I couldn’t get any good photos of them, but I found this one online:
I was surprised that I hadn’t seen birds in the Green Canyon. I was talking with my friend Tony about this, when out of the corner of my eye I saw something bright blue. I looked over and saw a beautiful Javan Kingfisher resting on the side of the canyon. Again, I wasn’t able to get a picture, but here’s another pic from the wonderful internet showing a Javan Kingfisher:
Okay… It’s late here, so I’m going to bed. I’ll post more about the rest of our beach trip when I get some time.
Filed under Exploring Indonesia | Comment (1)Motivation, where are you?
I just haven’t felt motivated to post on my blog lately. Things happen everyday and I think I should share them, but when I get home at the end of the day I just don’t have the motivation to write. I’m hoping that this is just a phase, and soon I’ll be back to writing more regularly. Since my last post we’ve gone to a beautiful beach, and seen some Independence Day celebrations. I have pictures of the beach, but I haven’t downloaded them from my camera yet, and I need to go to work soon… Hopefully I’ll get the pictures posted soon.
Filed under Living in Bandung | Comments (3)