Catching Up in the New Year - Part 1

So, yes, I have been horribly remiss in keeping my blog updated. Really, I am sorry, loyal readers. In the 2 weeks after my last post, I was terribly busy, then I went home for the holidays, and now I’m trying to catch up after my return.

Excuses aside, it has been a very eventful past month and a half. In my last post I mentioned that I would have another exciting beach getaway. It was wonderful! I went with the same group as before, FunTrips2Volcano, to the southeastern corner of West Java. After driving in a packed mini bus all night, we arrived at a beach in Cilacap for breakfast. Nasi goreng, of course! The area was fairly industrial, probably the least appealing beach I have visited in Indonesia. But the light on the water was beautiful. After eating, we toured the ruins of a Dutch colonial fort that have been somewhat transformed in order to make them more appealing to local tourists. Somehow the addition of large dinosaur statues to the scene, with an oil refinery just over the fenceline, seemed a bit ironic. The remaining parts of the fortress were lovely. Unfortunately the gaudy additions to the area detracted from my historical experience.

After the fortress, we drove a bit down the road to hop into a boat that would take us through the mangrove swamps. There was a fish market and a few other interesting sights at the loading dock, not the least of which was a bigger “party boat” with the words “ECONOMY CLASS” on the side. We piled into our covered outboard boat (actually a platform built over 2 separate canoe hulls) and took off. The next couple of hours were spent lounging on the boat and watching the mangroves go by. We alighted in a small village to grab lunch to go. While eating in the boat – noodles, squid, stewed veggies, the usual stuff – we were headed to yet another secluded beach. To land on the beach we needed to transfer to a more traditional outrigger canoe. A short hop over a spit of land, and the beach was ours. It was a gloriously sunny day, and the surf was strong. Before the beach was tracked up by enthusiastic beach-goer prints, I found two lines of tracks from a very large lizard – maybe a monitor? Took photos since I had never seen such large lizard tracks, especially on a beach. Lots of shells to look through and waves to play in! There was a rip tide right where we were playing, so I wore a life vest. No, not especially comfortable or attractive. But with the sketchy currents in that area and no Coast Guard post in sight, I thought it best to play things safe. (I’m sure my dad, Mr. Safety Conscious, is glad to hear this…)

After enough sun and more than enough of Budi’s jumping photos, we hopped back on the outrigger canoe and went back to the village for a shower and cold drink. There was the traditional handout of books and toys to local children, while I snuck bits of food to an imprisoned monkey (maybe a marmoset?). Yes, to those of you who know I’m not particularly fond of monkeys, I was nice to a monkey, and I have the photos to prove it. I felt bad for the poor thing, and it didn’t attempt to bite or throw feces at me. So I could certainly hand over some oranges and dried bananas. We spent that night in a hotel (!) at Batu Karas, a known surfing beach. Our hotel was a little way down the road from the main beach, but clean. Other hotels were across the road from the beach. The beach sand was very fine and black – I could run it through my hands all day. Breakfast was, of course, nasi goreng, served on the beach. A few trip participants went for a ride on the “banana boat” while I gave a very brief surf lesson. The beach has a very gentle and consistent left-hand break, perfect for a novice goofy-footer such as myself. Unik, who is relatively new to the ocean and had never ridden waves in any form, was thrilled when I put her on the board, aimed her toward shore, and helped her catch her first wave. It’s not every day you get to make someone else’s day. Yea! Although we don’t have a set date yet, I hope to have a girls’ surf weekend back at Batu Karas in the near future…

After an hour in the surf, we loaded up again. This time we went in toward the forest for a caving and canyoneering adventure. After rendezvousing with our local guides, we (all 20 of us) hopped into a pickup truck filled with people, life vests, and innertubes. We headed up into the jungle, with a few of the larger guys hopping off the back when the road became too steep for the overloaded truck. We finally stopped far up on a ridge, donned our life vests, and went down the steep side of the hill down to the river below. Just a short walk down from where the trail ended at the river was the large opening to a limestone cavern. Full of bats. And guano. One of the local guides advised taking off our sandals. As this advice was correct for the last cave I went into with this tour group, I obeyed. Big mistake. The guano wasn’t that deep, and the rocks were sharp. All of my public health sensibilities were shrieking – I was sure to pick up some horrible nameless disease either through the cave air or guano injected into my tender feet. Later, the same guide who told me to take off my water shoes then told me I should have worn shoes. All while he is clomping around in rubber boots. Thaaaaanks! There was another opening at the back of the cave in the ceiling that provided a lovely soft light. The bats congregated back there and circled nervously with our presence. A neat thing to see. Something to remember until I was sure to die of a horrible tropical disease. Thank goodness I have been vaccinated for rabies!

I was very ready to jump into the river after being in the cave. I couldn’t rinse off fast enough. So, when they sent an innertube tied to a very long guide rope down the river and told us to jump in, I jumped. Unfortunately, they hadn’t told us which way to go in the current around the first rock, and I was swept right across a barely-covered boulder. Not 5 minutes after we started, I was bruised and bleeding from multiple sites. It was only then I realized that the only person in the whole group who had a helmet was our fearless leader, Budi. Leo, our epidemiologist from FAO, was also on the trip. The looks between us told me we were thinking the same thing, that this excursion down the river could end up very, very badly. We had a long way to go and many inexperienced people. Flashbacks of my last rafting trip – taking on class 4+ rapids in the water instead of the boat – surfaced with a chill.

Fortunately, things got better from that point on. The river traveled down a narrow canyon carved out of limestone. The canyon walls and cliffs surrounding us were unusual and beautiful. We saw trees, sunlight, and amazing butterflies. At one point, we were walking over the tops of large boulders under a long, misty shower of water running off the cliff edge above. It was one of the most beautiful spots (although a tropical cliché) I have ever seen. I could have stood for an hour watching drips fall straight down toward my face, yet not striking me. A bit like the stars going by in ‘warp speed’ in a movie. As we became more comfortable with our staff and the river, the mood lightened somewhat and laughter could be heard echoing from the canyon walls. We reached the end of our time in the water a few hours later, at a huge archway of limestone. Several outboards awaited us. The part of the river below the arch is what most tourists see – nothing as lovely as what we had just been through. Although the trees, birds, butterflies, and flowers were lovely, the water was sluggish, the river wide, and the best part of our experience over. Happy, tired, and wet, we were treated to a wonderful traditional Indonesian feast to recharge our batteries. Hot tea, scrumptious tempeh, chicken (with bones thrown to the cats), rice, veggies, tofu, fried fish, fruit, and I-don’t-remember-what-else really hit the spot. A tropical deluge made us feel that much more cozy back on land, and I was ready for a good nap in the mini bus.

It was sooooo hard to come back to Jakarta…

A few of the photos from this trip have been posted; I'll work on getting more of them up. Downloading photos takes HOURS and is frequently interrupted by a loss of connection to the server. Please be patient with me! More updates to come. E

random bits

Ha, ha, ha. I have thwarted my modem, laptop, and Blogger's propensities to lose my writings. I have been jotting down random thoughts about apartment living and Thanksgiving - both topics I have previously started in on, only to lose them before they were posted. Thus, the following is a mish-mash of those thoughts, regurgitated into the safety of Word and cut 'n pasted to here. I thought I would post it before I take off to another secluded-beach weekend with some crazy, young Indonesians. Too much time behind my desk at Deptan; gotta get out of here... Hope everyone has a fun weekend!

Ongoing Blog Thots… Apartment Living (Part 2) and Thanksgiving

Steps to doing the laundry with a manual washer: 1) Make sure the washer dial is on something other than “drain.” 2) Turn on water from spigot to fill washer. 3) Add detergent & clothes. 4) When water to desired level, turn off water from spigot and turn washer timer as much as possible. 5) Close lid. 6) Since timer on washer is broken, start timer again as needed to achieve desired length of wash cycle. 7) When washing is finished, turn dial to “drain.” 8) Wring out half of clothes and place in spinner. 9) Turn spinner timer to whatever makes it start. 10) Since spinner timer is broken, estimate appropriate spin time and turn dial back or unplug machine to stop spinner when indicated. 11) Remove spun clothes and place back in washer. 12) Repeat steps 8 – 11 for other half of washed clothes load. 13) Repeat steps 1 – 12 (without adding detergent in step 3, maybe add softener instead) for rinse cycle. 14) Hang clothes to dry on line, hangers, or rack.

My drinking water comes from a 5 gallon container in a dispenser that has both hot and cold features. One of the best perks of apartment living is the ease of which I can get drinking water! I merely call the number, request a water delivery, and in about 15 minutes a guy will come up and exchange the empty bottle for a full one. He even expertly hoists it up into the dispenser without spilling! And all for just over a dollar. Excellent value – maybe the best in all of Indonesia…

Elevators. Not having lived or worked in a high rise before, I feel that I spend a relevant portion of my day waiting for and riding in elevators. There are 3 elevators in the Taman Rasuna towers. One is a larger service elevator, and it stops at all floors. My building has a “nice” one with (beaten up) wood molding and mirrors. One of the remaining elevators serves only even-numbered floors. The other serves only odd-numbered floors. There is no 13^th floor. A complicating factor in the apartment community is that each tower has a unique combination of floors for access to the central plaza and to the outside world. In some buildings the plaza is accessed via the 4^th floor; in others it is the 5^th. To go outside the complex, one will exit at either the upper ground (UG) or lower ground (LG) floor. Taken all together, it takes a bit of memorizing to get your way around between the plaza, the outside, and the correct elevator to get you where you want to go.

Electricity, aka ‘listrik’. The electricity is metered by a unit in the kitchen. There is a “key” with a microchip in it that provides prepaid credit for the electricity. The meter shows how much credit, in rupiah, is left on the key. To recharge my listrik, I have to remove the key and go down to a weird little office in the parking garage. This office tends to have strange hours and, correspondingly, sometimes long lines. Ramadan was especially frustrating because I thought I had gone early enough to still get in, but, no. It had closed at 2:30. Apparently there are people here who will go fetch ‘listrik’ for you – for a price. I haven’t quite resorted to that yet, but I dislike going to get listrik. I never know if the office will be open or how long the line will be. The garage is hot, and the elevator to the garage is scarily temperamental. I would hate to get stuck in it! Also, my key is touchy. A few days after recharging once, my electricity was off when I got back to my apartment. Apparently there is a trick to making sure the meter is reading the key after recharging. Too bad I didn’t know that before all my food went bad.

Thanksgiving. Jenni was having a really bad week out in the field, so I suggested that we go to the Four Seasons (her favorite) for dinner Thanksgiving night. The idea was met with ecstatic agreement. The security at the Four Seasons was the most rigorous I have seen at any hotel or office building here, at least comparable to the U.S. Embassy. They had a nice, if small, buffet with turkey, gravy, cranberry sauce, CORNBREAD stuffing (my favorite!), mashed potatoes, and vegetables. The yummy turkey, stuffing, and other fixin’s went nicely with a buttery Napa (read: American) chardonnay. It was a good chance to catch up on tales from the field and Deptan. Our Real Thanksgiving happened on the Saturday after the actual day. After all, the UN does not give us the day off to cook all those yummy foods that make the day special. We were invited to the lovely apartment of a young American couple the 3 FPFs had met. It turned out to be a very international party, with Canada and Israel also represented. I was tasked with making my family’s traditional cornbread stuffing and a cranberry pie that I like. Our hosts provided the turkey and a pumpkin pie. Jenni did the sweet potatoes, which were actually white, and Stacie did two “veggie” casseroles. [I say “veggie” because they contained vegetables but were far from healthy. Only yummy counts on Thanksgiving!] Chasing up stuff for cornbread was a chore, but eventually we found a mix. The stuffing was a bit dry but very satisfactory. Yea! My first time making it. J The pie crust got a bit dark in the oven, but the cranberry filling – made from dried, sweetened cranberries instead of fresh ones the recipe calls for – came out well. Many bottles of wine, lots of calories, and tons of good conversation later, we called it a very successful Thanksgiving.

Ciao! I'll get lots more beach photos to share...
E

Tidak Sama Thanksgiving

Ok, forget it. I just wasted far too much of my evening on a blog that vanished due to my damn sensitive mouse pad. I forgot to stick to the rule of writing in Word and pasting into here. I'll write about my Thanksgiving and trip to Bangkok - again - another time. Maybe this weekend. Sorry.

Hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving!

Love, E

Kawah Ijen

Wow - I'm blogging again so soon! Guess the torrential rains are good for keeping me in and getting me to do this...

So, as I write, Flickr is uploading the next set of photos: my weekend trip to Kawah Ijen. Having lost a lot of blog work to a poor internet connection, I have decided to write my posts in Word and then copy into my blog page. [Rob – you indicated considering a similar strategy on your MySpace blog. Amen to that!] I guess ya gotta learn the hard way a few times before figuring it out. Seems like I’ve learned A LOT of these kinds of lessons here in Indonesia! LOL My next, as yet untried, trick for making life a little better here is to wash the towels in one load together, without any clothes. I don’t know if that will help at all, but it is worth a try. All of my clothes come out of the laundry absolutely covered in lint. My previous housekeeper loved to wash the mats and rugs, which contributed a huge amount of lint to the lint applicator machine, also known as the clothes washer. Right now I have a black patterned batik that I don’t know what to do with because it has such an incredible amount of lint, both inside and out… There’s an idea for a stocking stuffer – tape roller!

[Note: When I said to ‘buy Synbiotics’ I had been told that we would certainly be switching rapid influenza tests. Now I’m told that since the new test has almost the same sensitivity in local tests as the old one, and the original price quoted for Synbiotics was a one-time very low price – just to get us to try it, like the crack dealer on the corner – we will stick with our old Anigen tests. Do what you want with that info. My field officers all seemed to prefer the Synbiotics because it was faster and easier to read. I won’t make stock recommendations anymore…]

Now down to the real stuff. Two weeks ago I went on a weekend trip to Kawah Ijen (Ijen Crater) in East Java. My guide and companion, Jonathan, had been there several years ago and wanted to go again. He speaks perfect Indonesian, as well as some Javanese and I-don’t-know-what-else, and is an MD, so I figured it would be pretty safe for going off the beaten path. We took a cheap Asia Air flight out of Jakarta to Denpasar, Bali. Asia Air is the Southwest Airlines of Asia – cheap and no assigned seats. They are notorious for delayed and cancelled flights. True to form, our flight was about 2 hours late leaving Jakarta. We arrived uneventfully in Bali, picked up our stiff little Suzuki in Sanur, and then caught a quick dinner - yummy grilled fish at a lovely beachside restaurant - before heading up the west coast of Bali to the ferry.

It wasn’t a particularly exciting drive, and we really wanted to catch the ferry to East Java that night. No line for the ferry when we arrived at 1 or 2 in the morning. It was a strange port: all the expected lines for vehicles but there were maybe 5 docks and each dock was serviced by a different ferry company. I guess they would take turns being loaded with vehicles. It was a strange contrast to the uniformity of Washington State Ferries. Our Suzuki was one of 4 or 5 vehicles on the ferry when we loaded, and we thought that meant waiting until it filled. Fortunately for us and another vehicle of surfers jammed into a VW van, we didn’t wait long before setting sail in the moonlight. It was a beautiful crossing, lasting about an hour. The water was calm, the moonlight shone on the water, and I could see the hills and volcanoes on both Java and Bali. Lovely!

We rolled into Banuwangi at something like 3 am (Bali is 1 hour ahead of Java so we had crossed time zones twice in about 5 hours) and picked the second hotel we saw. As luck would have it, the owners of this small resort on the water in this industrial part of town had taken much pride in their place, and it showed! The AC mostly worked, everything was clean, the guy sprayed for mosquitos when we asked, and there was even hot water! Plus a decent breakfast of nasi goreng (fried rice) with remarkably good coffee. Yes, it was actually filtered. Hallelujah! All for about $15-20. That was a good find for a random hotel at 3am in a port town on East Java.

After our nasi putih breakfast, we piled back in the Suzuki and went off in search of the road to the crater. The map and directions we had turned out to be pretty good, and we drove up toward the clouds. As we went up, the vegetation became very lush. First it was clove and coffee plantations and then jungle. We stopped for photos at a particularly lovely spot, crowded with tree ferns and with gibbons going ‘whoop-whoop-whoop’ in the background. Very cool. We continued up to the trailhead, signed in, paid our fee, and headed up.

Molten sulfur pours out of vents in the crater, near the edge of the acid lake that covers most of the crater bottom. After the sulfur cools and hardens, it is collected by men who toil very hard in a highly toxic environment and then is carried down to the trailhead in baskets across the shoulders. We saw these guys coming down the trail all day. They weigh the loaded baskets near the top and can tell you pretty accurately how much they are carrying. Up to 80kg at a time was what we heard repeatedly. Hello! That is up to 176lbs! Crazy! No wonder the older ones had really rounded shoulders or calluses on them…

Anyway, up the trail we went, running into these porters constantly. They usually make 2 trips per day. If you take their photo, they will expect a few rupiah. But, hey, if I moved over 300lbs of sulfur in a day from a nasty, vapor-filled crater and made next to nothing to do it, I’d try for photo fees, too! As you get maybe 2/3 to ¾ of the way up, there is a weigh station where they weigh the baskets. They also sell sulfur that has been molded into silly shapes, in cake pans, while still hot. Beyond the weigh station there are fewer trees, and you can see the vapor among the clouds – it looks more like smoke and less like cloud. The trail climbs up along the backside of the crater until it emerges at the crater rim.

When I arrived, I was fortunate to catch an immediate glimpse of the turquoise blue lake below, partially revealed through the fumes coming up from the sulfur vents. I waited there for Jonathan and one of the porters who was keeping an eye on us. We crossed part of the rim trail and started our descent. The porter told us the story of a French (?) woman who died a few years before while going down. She fell from the trail and struck her head on a rock; our porter helped carry her body out. The cloud of nasty sulfur dioxide was capricious – here and gone, hiding the lake or, rarely, showing it. About halfway down the steep trail, I just couldn’t take any more of the noxious fumes. My eyes were tearing, my lungs were burning, and so much snot was running down my face that my bangs were getting caught up in it! Enough was enough, so I turned around to get away from it and hike the upper rim trail. Jonathan continued down. He said the fumes were more concentrated as they came out of the vents so you could mostly avoid them. Unless a gust of wind came to blow them on you. In which case maybe you would pass out. He stayed for HOURS, which amazes me. And the workers do it day after day, with a cigarette on their breaks. Yikes. They have installed pipes to direct the molten sulfur and maybe other nasty stuff that comes out from there. The sulfur is blood red (I’m guessing it is an oxide of some sort but will let someone else work out the chemistry!) when it comes out but quickly cools to a transparent yellow and, later, opaque yellow. It pools and, when cool enough, is broken into slabs which are carried down the mountain. Jonathan touched and tasted the acid lake. He even brought some of the water home in a water bottle. Me? I was happy to save my lungs from greater insult and get away with just photos.

Once back on the crater rim, I went alone along a trail going up toward the end opposite from the vents. It was a bit of a scramble at times, especially coming down off-trail, but it was amazingly beautiful. The valley we came from was visible in the distance, green and soft in contrast to the barren and somewhat stark angles of the crater. The light and shadows dancing along the crater walls and turquoise surface of the lake were mesmerizing. Truly beautiful. For my efforts, I had clean views and clean air. Who could ask for more? My eyes, spirit, and lungs definitely thanked me.

After tooling around on the upper rim trail for a good hour, I headed back to wait for Jonathan at the weigh station. And wait I did. While observing the changing clouds, I got to chat with the guys who work at the weigh station and a few other random local Indonesian tourists who came along. Although not really the helpless female, it was nice to be “looked after” by my new friends. One of them gave Jonathan an earful, when he finally came down, for making me wait so long! Lol. We got a bowl of mie goreng (fried noodles) and then headed back down just as the sun was setting. My silent walk through the forest at sunset was indeed renewing, and we got back to the Suzuki right as it was getting dark.

Our next stop was to get back to the north coast of Bali that night. The ferry was more full this time, but it was another lovely voyage. We headed out toward an area Jonathan remembered as being “touristy,” but it was taking a lot longer to get there than he had anticipated. I had been asking about eating dinner before most places were closed, as it was getting late. It finally took the trump card of “I-will-go-into-hypoglycemic-bitch-mode-soon” at 10pm to get his attention to the matter. Fortunately, I talked him out of the first homestay place we saw. The owners were sleeping on a mat on the floor, and the rooms were horribly grungy, they had hung up nasty towels, and there wasn’t even a sink in the traditional wet mandi bathroom. The sagging mattresses with – no kidding – grime and stuff smeared on the wall around them would have been too much for me. I would have hung up my hammock outside.

Instead, we continued on to randomly find a lovely little place, serving only vegetarian dishes, run by a young couple from Jakarta. They graciously made us nasi goreng and gado-gado, a dish of vegetables made with a peanut sauce. [I think I’ll have stickers printed for my Jeep and backpack that say, “Powered by nasi goreng!”] Then off to rest my tired self. The bathroom was the whole back courtyard of the room: a walled-in courtyard with a sink, a toilet, a showerhead, and a large tub/spa all up against the wall, with tile and loose, smooth rock flooring / landscaping. Ah, ha! Outside shower! But it just wasn’t as nice as the one at the beach house…

The next morning we decided to continue along the north coast, then cut across the middle of Bali to deliver me back to the airport in Denpasar. I really, really wanted a little time at the beach, so we parked along the beach and walked around in an area with some dive hotels. The sand was black. A cute little hotel was right there, so we had some cold juice, took a dip in their pool and then had lunch before leaving. I was dying for a salad, so I had a seafood salad with shrimp, squid, fish, and avocado. It was soooo good, and I didn’t get sick! Bali is about the only place I feel safe enough to have salads here, although Jenni and Stacie seem to do ok… But I digress.

We continued along the hot, dry north coast before turning south to cut across Bali’s middle. Things became much more lush as we climbed up and up. There were beautiful little villages and paddy fields all along the hillsides. The flowers and vegetation is so lovely! A small sign said ‘waterfall’ with an arrow, so we stopped. About that time a vigorous downpour started. I managed to keep my camera and Blackberry dry for the walk to the waterfall and back but couldn’t get much in the way of pictures. Amazingly, there was a bathroom at the bottom of the trail, with toilet paper! Ya gotta love that about Bali – they have toilet paper in so many places. We got back in the car and proceeded to drive up and over the top of the hills, passing by two popular lakes almost completely obscured by mist. We stopped for fuel at a town at one end of one of the lakes. That’s where I saw the pig truck. Balinese eat pork, unlike their Muslim friends on Java. These were adult pigs in round, cylindrical baskets, some stacked on each other, in the back of a pickup, presumably going to market. Poor piggies – they looked awfully confused and uncomfortable.

There was a brief stop at the Water Palace near Ubud, where a festival was being prepared for the next day. We caught a shred of the dress rehearsal for the festivities but then had to take off again. After stopping in Seminyak for Jonathan to check email, we continued on to Nusa Dua for another seafood dinner. It was right near where I had eaten in Jimbaran with Stacie & Jenni but wasn’t quite the same spot. Then on a flight – delayed by >1 hour – back to Jakarta. After unpacking and packing again, I got to bed far too close to the time I was to get up.

The next day I had to leave at 7am for a meeting in Anyer, Banten Province, Java. The resort hotel was quite nice; and, during the week it was very quiet. Anyer is about 2 hours from Jakarta and so a popular weekend destination. We had the hotel and beach to ourselves. I swam before our meetings both mornings. The water was calm and warm-ish and wonderful. When not running the AC, I could hear the ocean from my room. Unfortunately, there was no ocean view from the conference room. After 3 days of meetings, we took the bus back to Jakarta. The bus driver made a very poor choice in routes, and instead of the 2 hours it should have taken us to get back, it took 4. Two of those hours were just while stuck in Jakarta traffic. Although it was a chartered bus, it was becoming a 3^rd-world-bus-ride-from-hell. No bathroom and no one stops for breaks while stuck in Jakarta traffic. For the first two hours I obligingly sat next to a PDS/R officer who snored. My MP3 player is a saving grace, but even it couldn’t save me from the blaring of Indonesian comedy that started when we hit the Jakarta traffic. I really think I damaged my hearing between the blaring DVD and the shrieking hilarity of surrounding companions. I moved to the back where I didn’t lose further hearing but froze for 2 hours of AC overkill. To top it off, my Bucky neck pillow vanished in the chaos of unloading. Would have liked it for the flight back to Seattle… :(

So, it was back to Jakarta. I spent last week at PDS/R training in Bandung. Good chance to see some of my officers from Bandung and Bogor – some of whom I had met on my field visit previously. But staying alone in the hotel, eating boring Indonesian food, got old quickly. I had lunch a few times with our translators and joked around with the master trainers, but it wasn’t very exciting. Yes, I did get up and sing at the “cultural” evening. Yes, I was sober. Yes, it was terribly painful. No, I won’t do it again, if I can help it!

Ok, I am 4 photos away from being done uploading. Time to brush my teeth and head to bed. I had a couple hours of tango classes today, followed by the gym, so my dogs are tired. This weekend I am off to Bangkok to visit a friend from the Kili climb last year. Yea! A familiar face! Not Jakarta!

Take care all,

Love, E

short hiatus / Bali cont.

Hello, hello

Well, yes, I have not been on here in a while. It feels like sooo long ago that I was in lovely Bali! Right now I am sitting in a hotel room, on a wet night in Bandung. I am here to observe the PDS/R refresher training going on this week. Absent the companionship of my fellow FPFs, I brought lots of DVDs and reading material. The translators and I plan to go out tomorrow, maybe with the master trainers in tow. Lots of factory outlets here, but I'm hoping to find stuff suitable for Christmas shopping. Instead of being high up on the hill, as I was the only other time I stayed here, we are down in the main part of the city.

I thought I would take advantage of this time to catch up on photo uploads and on blogging. So much has happened in the past few weeks! I am trying to upload my Bali photos right now, but it looks like it could possibly take all night. I have become very familiar with the slow internet connection provided by my cellular modem. It has made life interesting and, frankly, frustrating. I was able to talk to my parents on Skype last night for the first time in weeks. I also gave a virtual lecture to Washington State University shortly after returning from Bali. As my internet connection would support neither WSU's virtual lecture system nor a call via Skype, they called me on my Blackberry. The phone on their end was hung up to the microphone with bandage stockinette. I guess given all our technology, some things just never change!

After my tango night in Seminyak, we spent the next day reclining on the beach. I was talked into making another trip to crowded Kuta for surfing, of all things. I am proud to say that, 12 years after I last tried surfing, I was able to get up on my rented long board on the first try. The water at Kuta was lovely, but there were tons of other surfers and swimmers to watch out for. I seem to be at an awkward stage in my surfing where I want to start catching waves at the break but am still on a long board, which is hard to get out that far. Not feeling in the mood for too much roughing up, I didn't spend a ton of time in the surf. We caught the famous sunset and then made our merry way to Jimbaran - home of beachside seafood. Just past the Four Seasons, there is a marketplace of fresh seafood restaurants, clearly identified from the vast plumes of smoke rising from the grills. You pick one, choose your seafood, and they throw it right on the grill for you, cooked over coconut husks. We opted for a kilo each of clams, 2 kilos of prawns, and 3 large crabs. Once chosen, we were escorted to a lovely, candlelit table down at the water's edge. A constellation of other candles on tables and villa lights in the distance, as well as stars above, makes for a magical scene. A cold beer and fresh grilled seafood, eaten within reach of the surf, must be one of life's best pleasures!

For our last day in Bali, we opted to check out Ubud, up in the hills. We were sidetracked at the Bali Orchid Garden. (Yes, that was my doing!) The garden was well laid-out and had some lovely orchids, although I was a bit disappointed in the variety of species. What made the stop more remarkable was the opportunity to try kopi luak, aka 'poop coffee.' The beans have been ingested and passed by civet cats - also the apparent reservoirs of SARS virus. The coffee is quite expensive - I bought grounds enough for one serving for $7. The three of us decided to share one brewed cup for about $4. I really liked it! To me, the kopi luak was very complex and rich, but not at all bitter. Also sampled some really interesting and good honey, as well as orchid massage oil. We were able to buy orchid seedlings in a bottle for Dale. Apparently the seedlings can be exported, as is, without a permit...

Next stop was the Elephant Cave. There is a lovely grove with a cave, sacred to the Balinese Hindus in the Ubud area. We walked around to see the cave, which isn't very deep but is said to be in a rock that looks like an elephant. Our next stop was the ever-popular Dirty Duck Cafe. It was very busy, but we had a lovely view of the rice paddies and grazing ducks while waiting for what turned out to be a really good meal. Only enough time remained for a little shopping. Lots more to see in Ubud and Bali in general.

It was a hard landing to come back to Jakarta after our delicious week in Bali. Lots more time at Deptan, although I now actually have my own desk. It's the simple things, really, that give me enough to keep going. I went to the pet fish market with Dale and bought two really funky-looking goldfish. They appear really bloated and bounce around like ping pong balls when they try to feed at the top. They lasted 2 weeks before, unfortunately, dying this past weekend. :( I'm sorry I didn't get photos before they were gone. It was nice to have something living to talk to in my apartment, even if they were stupid fish! If I try again to have fish, which is difficult with all my travel, I will wait until after Christmas...

So, that's the rest of my first trip to Bali. The weekend after I returned, I went to East Java to climb Ijen Crater with another friend. My next blog will be reveal all; spectacular photos available too - when I have hours to spend uploading!

Cheers,
Edie

basking & blogging in Bali

Hello, hello

This one will be a bit short - at least I think so - because it is late and I want to go to bed. But right now I am too excited. Yes, I have found a tango high in Indonesia. Yea! Stacie, Jenni, and I are in Bali while Deptan is closed for Eid/Lebaran/Idul Fitri. If we had to work from home, we might as well work from Bali, right? So, I flew in last Friday morning, very early. The only ticket I could get on Garuda Air was executive class. I had breakfast (the traditional fried rice plus some fried tempeh) in the executive lounge while a woman checked my baggage and got my boarding pass, etc. in order. I could get very used to that.

Our hotel is small and about one block from the beach. It has lovely architecture and a very nice little pool. The landscaping is beautiful - colorful and fragrant blossoms everywhere. My room has a very ornate door and ceiling but the lighting is poor, so the ceiling is hard to appreciate. The food I have had here on Bali so far has been amazing. Down the block at the beach is a fantastic Italian restaurant, Stiff Chili, where we keep finding ourselves - the manager (owner?) now just smirks and seems amused to see us again. Since here, I have had seafood curry, 2 different pasta dishes with seafood, a darn good hamburger, lots of pineapple juice, a goat cheese & veggie wrap, and the usual fried rice and fried noodles. Great food available in Bali, and cheap! Sarongs and sandals are abundant, as well.

Stacie and Jenni had enrolled in a 3-day SCUBA course. I have decided to wait on SCUBA until I have someone to go with and will have one of two friends, who are both dive instructors, teach me. I spent Friday in the sun and Saturday working and walking along the beach. Sunday was for the spa - 4 hours of complete pampering from head to toe. I felt like a jellyfish when it was all over, although I was a bit dehydrated from the hot baths (with flower petals, even), steam room, and scorching dry sauna. Tough life, indeed. I was very lucky on Monday that the diving group had one extra spot in the van headed to a shipwreck dive site on the north coast of Bali. I rode up there with them to snorkel while they were diving.

It was a lovely drive up to Tulamben - rice fields, beach, villages, temples, lots and lots of shrines, volcanoes. We arrived at a hotel that basically caters to divers. First we placed an order for lunch, then we set off for the water. The first mask supplied by the dive company fit horribly, and I could only get maybe 20 seconds of underwater viewing before the mask filled with water. The baby shampoo applied to the inside of the lenses to prevent fogging would then wash into my eyes; so much for the 'no tears' label. I could see the wreck and the lovely fish, but emptying the mask every few seconds got to be too much, so I gave up and went back. One of the dive instructors lent me his personal mask which, after lunch, was a vast improvement over the first one. I decided to look at the wreck some more because it was so fascinating! Apparently the wreck is a WWII Liberty class cargo ship that was built for WWI and outfitted with guns later for the second world war. It was torpedoed by the Japanese in the straight of Lombok and was being towed to Bali for repairs. While under tow, it was about to be attacked again, so the US Navy beached it at Tulamben. There it sat for 20+ years, until the volcano blew up and washed it just off shore. Now it is a very popular dive site. The hull is split open and the whole thing looks a bit eerie, although coral and bright fish liven it up. I caught the current that was sweeping over the wreck and was able to drift slowly over it twice. Very cool.

Today was a rest break from all the water activities. After working this morning, I went to the beach with Jenni. We are staying in Sanur, which is a quieter part of Bali than Kuta - the jam-packed tourist destination where the bombings occurred. I definitely prefer Sanur to Kuta, although everywhere is much more densely populated than somehow I had expected. The beach nearest our lovely little hotel is apparently popular with Indonesian families. Today we had most of it to ourselves until late afternoon when it was positively full of Indonesian families. The people watching was pretty intense - too many fat, sunburned bules showing entirely too much skin. We have also learned how to quickly and effectively fend off the beach ladies who offer to give massages, manicures, and pedicures right at your beach lounger. When we'd had enough sun, people watching, and offers for massages, we came back to the hotel.

I knew that there was a practica / milonga on Bali tonight, and I just couldn't resist trying to go. I haven't brought any tango shoes, so I set off towards the Bali Hyatt where I had seen some cute boutiques on the way to the spa. No one had high heels with an ankle strap of any sort. I finally came across a few ladies selling leather shoes along with the usual sarongs and touristy stuff. They helped me find a pair of thin leather slippers with a slight heel. Not what I had been looking for, but they had a leather sole and a strap around the heel to keep them (mostly) on. I bought them, trekked back to the hotel, scarfed soup for dinner, and headed off to Seminyak for the "pralonga." There were only 3 men dancing and too many women, but, as usual, everyone was so nice and gracious. It was splendid to be back among tango people, even if I had only just met them. That is one of the great things about the tango community - a worldwide group of friends, even if you haven't met them yet. I got in a few dances, got contact info for a tango instructor in Jakarta, and, most amazingly, exchanged contact info with Iris, who MAKES tango shoes. I can have a CUSTOM pair of tango shoes made here in Bali. Amazing! I can't wait to get back into tango while here. I hope it will raise my spirits significantly while I am stuck in Jakarta...

So, no photos yet, but I will get to that soon. Two more days to enjoy Bali then back to Jakarta. Things on the project are heating up and should get pretty "interesting" in the next several months. I have tentatively been assigned to cover West Java and South Sumatra. My Bogor field visit exposed me to West Java; I don't know anything about South Sumatra yet.

Hope everyone else finds their safe, healthy, 'high' for the day! Selamat malam!
Hugs, Edie

beach village idyll

Wow, I must be a glutton for punishment today. After standing in 3 lines and filling out countless forms to get an Indonesian bank account this morning, followed by an irritating 3.5-hr meeting for work, then fending off a psycho neighbor's weird text messages (apparently these people are able to find me in whatever country I go to), I am now Skyping to finally cancel my U.S. cell phone account and deal with credit card charge disputes. This feels like one of the days that will never end. Did I mention the mosquito that bit my thigh as soon as I got home and desperately raced for the bathroom? If only I could go back to the beach...

I escaped Jakarta last weekend for a short tour of a secluded beach in West Java. It was the most amazing time! I started out the trip with a fair amount of trepidation. It was the end of a long week of being stuck by myself in the office in Jakarta - Stacie & Jen were in Bali, telling me how much they loved surfing and eating fancy food and getting their nails done. I was the first of the tour group to arrive, at the late end of the appointed meeting time. So much for leaving "SHARP" at 9:30pm. The number of participants had fallen below their usual minimum of 10, but the organizers had decided to go anyway. Instead of a minibus, though, they settled on an SUV. The thought of 8 people, with gear for the weekend, crammed into an SUV for 6-7 hours in the middle of the night over potholed Indonesian roads put my already-frayed attitude on a bit more of an edge. It certainly didn't seem to get better when one of the staff had to be left behind and I watched one of the others cram ramen noodles and bottles of water under the car seats to fit everything in. Thank goodness for my Bucky travel pillow, as it allowed me to sleep most of the way. I did come to partial consciousness several times, mostly when we would hit a big hole really hard or slam on the brakes - enough time to think, "At least the UN knows where I'm supposed to be, when we die."

The group was made up of 6 young Indonesians, all of whom spoke really good English, and Budi, our organizer. A few of the participants were students and the others were young professionals. All in all, a really good group.

We arrived in the village (I'm not sure I want to give away the name yet because I want to keep the place all for myself! hahahahaha) at about 3:30am. As soon as I stepped out of the SUV, I knew why I had come - I could hear ocean waves crashing far off in the distance. After crossing a jumpy suspension bridge on foot, we were met by a few of the villagers who were preparing a meal for us. With the holy month of Ramadan, Muslims eat before 6am and then not again until about 6pm. They served us mildly spicy fried rice (nasi goreng), fried and very yummy cubes of tempeh, sliced cucumbers, sweet tea, and I can't really remember what else (sorry, Joan!). I have really gotten a taste for tempeh - fermented soy or other vegetable protein substrate that has been worked on for a little while by some fungus or other. It is widely consumed in Indonesia and comes in all sorts of forms and local varieties. It is one of my new favorite foods. :) After sleepily gazing about and eating on a raised, roofed platform built for basically just hanging out, we walked to another part of the village where we would be staying. Next to a small, open, tile-floored community building was a raised hut made mostly of woven mats and a tile roof. It had a tiny covered "porch" and an equally tiny enclosed room. There were 2 bathrooms nearby: wet mandis where you squat over the "toilet" opening and then you pour in water from a dipper to flush and rinse off the whole place. It's a good idea to roll up your pant legs and bring your own toilet paper before entering. Indonesians who use TP, and expats in Indonesia, tend to carry tissue with them at all times since the TP supply here is highly unreliable. But I digress...

After we threw our stuff down in the "guest house," we took off for the beach by moonlight to catch the sunrise. We left along the banana palms next to the guest house, passed by rice paddies and tethered water buffalo before coming to an area devoid of most vegetation due to a burn that went out of control. But as we got closer, the sound of the ocean became louder and louder. Once we crested the final stretch of sand, we had a huge curvilinear sand beach all to ourselves! The sun was rising from the hills behind, and we could see fishing boats and large rocks a way down the beach. Ever the seashell hunter, I observed what looked like some promising shell beds and took off that way to see. Yes, I now have some amazing shells to add to my collection! After running around a bit there and testing out the cool ocean water up to my knees, we decided to move along down the beach. We passed a few houses with fishing boats in front of them and headed to the big rocks. We wandered out on the rocks to check out the great tide pools and huge waves crashing on the outer rocks. There were tons of spidery little sea stars; one couldn't help but try to just tread on them carefully. Past the big rock island with shrubs growing out of it, the lava rock forming the tidal pools continued and made a large, glassy, lagoon-like tidal pool perfect for skipping rocks on. At the end of the tide pool lagoon there was another much smaller sand beach protected by the surrounding ridges and trees. We all took a nap there on the sand, in the shade, for at least an hour and a half. Amazing.

Our journey continued down the beach. It was getting hotter, and I hadn't brought my hat since we were only supposed to be away from the guest house for 2 hours or so. Another lesson to learn - at the very least ya gotta double the time Budi says it will take to do something... We continued along, me filling my pockets with really interesting shells. We came along a grove of coconut trees and could see yet another, completely perfect, practically empty sandy beach lagoon. Fishermen were setting up on the rocks for their day's work, as the sun was glistening off the waves. Definitely check out the photos on this one! We were getting desperate for shade and headed for 2 huts at the apex of the lagoon. Two guys went to the coconut grove and cut some down for us. Those who weren't fasting downed the juice with pleasure. It was so completely idyllic - I will carry an imprint of that place and that moment forever. When things here in Jakarta get hectic, that is definitely now my mental "happy place" to escape to...

After a rest in the shade, we observed some folks boiling down stuff to make palm sugar. Then we walked back over the hills and through the rice paddies to our humble abode. It was also quite lovely and so different from the beach, but so close. For the non-fasting folks, lunch was white rice, fried fish (the kind we had seen the men catching on the beach), fried noodles (mie goreng), these slightly fish-flavored cracker things, cucumbers, squid, and maybe something else. Everyone went to take another nap, and I was faced with the thought of laying down out of the breeze and sweating my way into dreamland. What the "porch" really needed - Dave, are you listening?? - was a hammock. Indonesia does not appear to be much of a hammock culture. I haven't seen one anywhere, even though people lounge around quite a bit in the heat. Fortunately, I had a handy travel hammock I had bought for use in Guatemala - light and strong. I got our flirtatious, young, village boy helper to find something to tie it up with. He brought plastic twine, which was surprisingly effective. That hammock was a dream! Instead of sweating on the floor out of the breeze, I could swing comfortably, surrounded by the lovely breeze. And another blissful nap had its way with me.

When we got going again, it was to cross the jumpy suspension bridge and head across the river to see the sunset on the beach from another angle. We were walking out toward the setting sun, through a coconut grove. Another amazing scene. The rumored crocodile never materialized, and children were playing freely in the water, so we felt confident to wade across the river outlet to the beach. It was an idyllic sunset. With the setting of the sun, those who were fasting were able to finally eat and drink. We broke out snacks and all sorts of stuff. Tea and chocolate - on the beach at sunset - never tasted so good. As darkness descended upon us, we headed back up the beach to where we had come out on it in the morning. We played a bit of LED frisbee while waiting for dinner, as the ghost crabs came out to watch. Eventually, dinner was served: stews - one sweet with bananas and the other more spicy with veggies and meat, leftover fried noodles, sliced watermelon, white rice (nasi putih, of course!), squid, fried fish, and sweet coconut. And tea.

We then walked a little further to where a fire had been built. Budi encouraged us to share our dreams with each other, including "wet dreams!" I thought Indonesians were more discreet than that!! Hahahahahaha. Anyway, it was really neat to sit there under the stars and hear about the hopes and aspirations of these young and upcoming Indonesian professionals. They share many of the same goals and desires I, my family, and loved ones have. One young woman, Unik, sounds like she is in the same place I have been previously about international vet med. She holds a passion in her heart and can't seem to break through to get where she wants to go. I hope our sharing helps her to find the patience and surrender to trust that the universe hears her and will make her path apparent, even if it is not the path she had imagined for herself. It was also interesting to hear what books people had read and their beliefs about life, energy, and the universe. We are all so alike, even thousands of miles, years, and languages apart.

Then it was back to the guest house. A few wanted to stay, but the rest of us piled into the SUV and drove to a nearby village to hike to a cave. We started out along the road in the village but wandered through cemeteries and rice paddies before reaching the cave. It was a horizontal limestone cavern with stalagmites and stalactites that are a bit worse for the exposure. A stream was running through, so we ditched our shoes and wandered along the cave, alternating between the silty or sandy stream and slippery clay. Not quite Carlsbad Caverns but still quite a treat. The trek back through the paddies by moonlight was probably even a bit more special. But one has to have a good source of light because the dikes between the paddies are narrow and sometimes high, so you don't want to slip!

I slept well that night, starting out in the hammock but moving to my sleeping bag on the floor when the breeze was too cooling to be comfortable. The heat of the morning sun drove me back to the hammock, however. Breakfast was modest - fried egg, bread, and what I discovered too late was a local tempeh. I finished off a small jar of peanut butter I had brought along for just that purpose. Besides, it was crunchy Skippy PNB, when I really just like creamy Jif! No more crunchy! We got ready for the beach and struck out. The water was cool but felt WONDERFUL! A few people were surfing in the distance. The waves were quite strong, so I didn't stay in too long for risk of getting tired and swept out to sea where there probably isn't a Coast Guard to come to my rescue. I love playing in the waves more than I like body surfing. The clear, cool water; the waves; and the tingly foam were just what I needed to recharge. After the surf, we were napping and sitting on the beach, discussing ways to improve tourism to benefit the village. I must not have applied enough sunscreen - sorry, Mom - and my shoulders got cooked. All the better to soak in the experience, I guess. Gotta have some sunburn to go with the sand in your clothes that just won't quit!

We walked back, rinsed off at the village well and again in the mandi. Then there was a simple, and simply perfect, lunch. First they brought iced sweet tea, and I realized that drinking iced tea is just what I would be doing at the beach at home. I am glad to know that beach cultures seem to universally appreciate the finer point of iced tea drunk at the beach when it is hot. We also had these divine cassava cracker things that I just love. They are a bit like tortillas but thinner and then folded over. I'm not sure what, if any, flavoring has been added, but they have a savory kind of flavor. There was a mildly spicy vegetable soup, nasi putih, and - best of all - a fantastic fried fish. Beach village cuisine at its finest. It was soooooo hard to pull down the hammock to leave...

We walked back through the village to the waiting SUV. The tailpipe had fallen off, by the way, when we left for the cave, presumably a result of the aforementioned hard driving on bad roads. We took photos of our friends, each grabbed a souvenir kilo of sweet preserved (smoked?!?) bananas from just up the road, and piled into the SUV for the trip home. We made a stop for photos at the top of a bluff overlooking the main beach and another stop in a fishing village where another river empties into the sea. Quite nice, but I'd rather be back down the road away from all the "traffic." LOL. We passed through a very narrow strip of virgin rainforest; most of what I saw on the trip back was secondary growth and oil palm plantations. Obligatory nap in the car, dinner at a random padang, and then back in Jakarta.

All in all, quite a weekend. This group is pretty active outside of Ramadan, and I will definitely go out with them again. Maybe Krakatoa? I also hope to see more of the young and upcoming Indonesian professionals. It's great to have local friends to spend time with, apart from people connected to work. Sigh. My sunburned shoulders are still quite red, but I think I have washed off most or all of the sand from my clothes and gear. I hope to go back. Maybe next time I won't return!

Hugs, E