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