Bali: the Cancun of Indonesia

First of all, Bali was a much needed break, and I would call it a successful vacation.  Here are some of the highlights that I wrote about in my journal while there. 

1. We saw the stars every single night. That may not seem like a big deal to most people back home, especially if you’ve been spoiled like me at my dad’s farm and have grown up seeing the Big Dipper all of the time in the night sky. Anyways, in Jakarta, there is too much smog and light pollution, so there is no chance of seeing the stars.  The best part was that no one recognized any of the constellations of the southern hemisphere. 

2.  We played in the waves of the Indian Ocean. We headed to the beach on our first full day in Bali, and I was not expecting the waves. I did know that most of the beaches are considered ‘surfer’ beaches, so I should’ve put two and two together, but I have not had much experience swimming in the ocean.  The highlight of the ocean was walking out away from the shore, where the water was waist-high, at most, and watching the waves build up higher than my head.  For the most part, I could jump up and catch the wave before it broke, but there were a few that were bigger and took me out. The only bad part about those times was that my swimsuit bottoms also got taken away, and kept almost falling off…not to mention getting full of sand. Yuck! Needless to say, I was sure to rinse off in the pool at our hotel before I took a shower at the end of that day. I didn’t try to surf, but it was fun to watch the people who were surfing. Some of the guys even used the waves to body surf, which was just as entertaining to watch. 

3.  We hiked up the Mt. Batur volcano in the dark, so we could get to the top in time for the sunrise at 6:30 a.m.  It was worth waking up at 1:00 a.m., riding in a van for 2 hours, then following a guide with a flashlight to the top of the volcano (don’t worry, we each had our own flashlight as well).  The climb was intense, but the view from the top was spectacular!  We could also see the island of Lombok in the distance; just another place I would like to visit since it’s near the Gili Islands, which are supposed to be absolutely beautiful.  Our guides fed us a breakfast of a fried banana sandwich and hardboiled eggs, which were all cooked using the steam from the volcano.  The trek back down the volcano was even more terrifying than the way up.  I was afraid that Ben and Josh would run us over (or fall on top of us) as they jumped from rock to rock, mimicking our guides’ expert descending skills (who, by the way, take that trip at least once each day, sometimes twice). 

4.  The hotel where we stayed was tucked next to a rice paddy that stretched back a long ways, where we saw workers doing their thing during a few of the days we were there.  There were a bunch of villas, a pool, a small fitness room, as well as a buffet breakfast provided each morning.   On days we weren’t out and about exploring nearby volcanoes or going scuba diving, we could spend the morning next to the pool, taking a dip whenever we got too hot in the sun.  Then, we could either move ourselves to the beach (just a 10-15 minute walk away from the hotel, or they provided a shuttle at 10 and then again at 1) or we could venture to the nearby restaurants and shops.  I don’t know how we lucked out with such a great place.  I’ll give Josh the credit, because he is the one who booked the guys’ room at the hotel first, and then we followed suit.

5.  We hiked around Ulu Watu Beach for part of the day on Sunday, and then ended up at the Ulu Watu temple just before sunset.  Impressively enough, this actually was part of our plan from the beginning, because the temple is built on the edge of an ocean-front cliff where we heard there is traditional Balinese dancing at sundown.  The beginning of our beach adventure was originally going to be relaxing and swimming at a different beach than the beach that is closer to our hotel (Ulu Watu was about a 45-minute taxi ride away).  Well, we got to Ulu Watu and realized there was a bunch of coral where we wanted to swim, so we decided, instead, to hike along the beach filled with huge stones.  We figured we could venture further down and meet up with the other beaches we had seen signs for on our way.  It was definitely an enjoyable adventure, and we had a beach walk that was mostly devoid of other tourists and people (granted, we were hiking over a bunch of rocks).  When we finally made it to where we assume was Padang Padang Beach, we found stairs leading up the side of the cliff. We took these, walked to the main road (which just happened to be named Pentai, which means ‘beach’) and were lucky to catch a cab to take us to the temple.  The tickets to the dance were sold out, but it was an amazing view of the ocean, yet again. 

6.  We traveled to Ubud, a city about one hour north of where we were staying in Seminyak.  We walked around the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary, which was cool, however, it was creepy to realize how many monkeys were around.  Our driver then took us to the downtown area where we ate at a delicious pork restaurant that we read about in our Indonesia guidebook.  Then, we explored a temple and walked around in some shops for awhile.  Next, per our driver’s suggestion, we went to the Elephant Cave and explored again.  Nicole and I ventured away from the beaten path, following a sign that directed us to the second temple.  We just happened to run into Kristina, who was exploring a cave she found, and by the time we got halfway to the second temple, we realized we didn’t have time to continue walking if we wanted to get back to the rest of the group in time, so we turned around.  It was a great addition to our trip (the Elephant Cave), which just goes to show that we should always ask the driver for suggestions of where to go (not that we always have to go to said places) because they're the locals and know what is cool to visit.  

7.  There was a small group of us who wanted to try to scuba dive, so we took a day to try it out.  We took a taxi to Nusa Dua (away from Seminyak for about 45 minutes) and met up with the diver who would take us.  I wore the whole shebang: a wet suit, goggles, air tank and even a weighted belt to keep me from floating to the top.  It was very strange to only breath in and out of my mouth, but I got used to it (because there was no other choice).  The pressure wasn’t too bad, especially after I finally got my ears to pop.  There were two divers in the water with the four of us, and one-by-one, they led us down about ten meters to the ocean floor.  At the bottom, there was a railing where I hung on, to keep myself from floating up and away.  I hung out there, and enjoyed watching the fish swimming by.  We each had a plastic baggie of bread that we could use to feed the fish and lure them closer.  One of the divers had an underwater camera, so I’m excited to see the picture c.d. we bought of our underwater adventure.   

All in all, the trip was amazing, and I will be very tempted to return to Bali (especially after one of my co-workers told me that normal plane tickets to Bali are only around $100. Ours were way more than that because of the peak tourist season and the Lebaron Holiday).  There is quite a nightlife in Bali, as well.  It was full of tourists, many of whom were Australian, and we went out dancing two of the nights we were there.  Even though it was weird to see so many white people, the locals knew English really well, which made it a bit easier to bargain while I was shopping.  Although, I am at the point where I want to be able to use the words and phrases of Indonesian that I have learned, and they were very impressed/confused when I could speak a little bit of their language, which made me feel good. Of course they followed it with "You speak Indonesian?", which I could reply, "a little".  

 So, moral of the story…anyone who wants to visit me will go to Bali at some point during their trip here.  Any objections? Good. 

Be Careful Sliding into the Crater

30 July 2012

Sorry it has taken me so long to post an update. I haven’t felt like I was far enough ahead for school planning that I could justify spending time typing this (I already wrote it in my journal, but it wasn’t edited or typed).  Well, enough with the excuses, here is what I have been up to.  Be prepared for another post of randomness after the story about Bandung, which dates back to the weekend of July 21. 

Here goes…On Friday, July 21, our driver picked us (Danna, Nicole, Kristina, and I) up at our hotel in Bandung (a city that is about 2 hours from Jakarta) at 9 a.m.  Hold on, back up, how exactly did we find ourselves in Bandung on a Friday? We had a holiday for the first day of Ramadan, so we had taken a bus from Jakarta to Bandung.  None of us had made any concrete plans to go out of the city for the long weekend, and as the week began, we had been talking to some of the teachers at school.  When one of the teachers at school, who just happens to have lived in Bandung and whose husband currently lives there, heard we wanted to go for the weekend, she took care of everything. She told us we could buy bus tickets at Central Park, the mall we live by, and that’s where the bus arrives and departs, very convenient!  After school on Thursday, we bought our bus tickets, but when I say bus, I really mean a van with 6 seats in the back plus the passenger seat in the front.  It was a great deal, though. We paid 75 000 Rupiah for a one-way ticket.  The teacher from school asked us if we had figured out a place to stay or any specific plans we had, and when we told her, “not yet” she asked us if we wanted her husband to book us a room in a hotel she knew of and hire us a driver for the weekend.  So, basically, there was no planning involved for us, besides we looked in our guidebooks and took people’s suggestions of places to go and sites to see. 

So, back to Friday morning, with our driver, Jamal.  We told him we wanted to go to Tangkuban Parahu, one of the many local volcanoes.  First of all, we had mainly come to Bandung to get away from the crowded, smoggy city of Jakarta, so we had planned on hiking around in the green surroundings.  Unfortunately, our driver spoke little to no English, so instead of letting us hike up to the volcano, so he ended up driving us to the top.  It worked out fine, though, because the clouds/fog started to roll in as we were leaving the top of the volcano.  We walked around the top ledge, looking down into the steaming and hissing crater of the volcano, which had imploded in on itself years ago.  There was no lava, or anything, just steam.  There were quite a few tourists on this side of the crater, but as we walked further around to the other side, the crowd thinned.  We continued walking to the opposite side, where we came upon the second crater.  This one was not steaming or hissing, and it seemed very calm and dead compared to the other.  It never would have crossed my mind to walk down into this crater, except that there were a bunch of words and messages spelled out with rocks in the crater.  So, we thought, why not?  Danna followed a few guys down the hillside (and by hillside, I do mean the side of the volcanic crater).  There was no trail to follow down, just a bunch of loose rocks to halfway slide down.  It was a bit treacherous at times, but fun!  We took a bunch of pictures while in this crater, because, let’s face it, we were standing in a volcano!  We made it out of there safe and sound, and we made our way back around to where our driver had dropped us off.  We came back around a slightly different way, so we walked up the street lined with the souvenir shops.  Danna and Nicole bargained for a tshirt for Danna.  She didn’t think it was a great deal, but she was proud of her bargaining and using numbers in the Bahasa Indonesian language. 

On our way down the hill (and by hill, I do mean volcano), our driver took us to an Outdoor Adventures place where we thought we could zip line.  Turns out they call zip lining the flying fox.  We had seen a billboard and brochure, so we wanted to at least check out the facility and price.  For a mere 20 000 Rp each (about $2) we each got to do the flying fox.  It was fun, for what it was, but no comparison to the time I went sky diving, or the time I will have when I do something else crazy here, like bungee jump or cliff dive.  J 

After the fun of flying through the air, we told the driver to take us back into the city. Kristina heard about a traditional show that was happening, and the driver knew where to go.  Unfortunately, we were a little late for the show, and the tickets were 100 000 Rp. (about $10) each, and once again, we were too cheap to actually want to pay that much money for a show we knew little to nothing about.  We decided to wander around the gift shop while we listened to the show going on next door.   It sounded funny and interesting, but I don’t think we missed too much.  Next on the agenda was Amanda’s Bakery, which had been recommended to each of us separately by different people who heard we were going to Bandung.  We walked in to find boxes stacked on all of the counters, about 6 boxes high.  Having no idea what to expect, as per usual in this country, we assumed there was an assortment of baked goods, including brownies, in each box.  As we looked more closely, we realized each box was a big ‘loaf’ of brownie.  There were a bunch of different kinds, including strawberry, which I bought.  It was worth the whole 20 000 Rp (if you’ve been paying attention to my conversions thus far, you could’ve figured out that’s only about $2) for the equivalent of a pan of absolutely scrumptious brownies.  Of course, each of us bought a box to try and share with everyone else…but that still left us with an entire box to eat ourselves.  We (Nicole and I) decided workout when we got back to Jakarta, because it requires too much self-control to turn down brownies when you’re on vacation.  After that, we were out of ideas for places for the driver to take us, so he dropped us off at our hotel.  We showered and decided to venture out to find some real dinner (apparently brownies don’t count).  From riding around, we noticed our hotel’s location in relation to a famous street with a ton of factory outlet stores with superhero-themed stores and decorations.  In the guidebook, this area is referred to as Jeans St., and it was entertaining to walk around.  It was quite late, especially for it being the end of the first day of Ramadan, so the shops closed relatively early (not that we really wanted to do any shopping, anyway).  We saw a small restaurant/bar on a side street and decided to check it out.  As we walked in from the street, a hostess greeted us, and Danna asked if they had beer.  The hostess told us yes, and then asked us how many.  Assuming she was referring to how many people in our party, we replied four, a few minutes later, the waitress showed up at our table with four bottles of Bintang (the local beer).  Apparently, the Americans had walked in demanding four beers before even taking their seats.  The best part is that Nicole and I don’t like beer, so there were already two beers a piece for Danna and Kristina.  We thought it was entertaining, and not the most inconvenient conversation that had been lost in translation. 

Saturday morning (21 July) our driver showed up at 9 a.m. again, but this time his name was Hendra.  He spoke much better English than Friday’s driver, so we were talking about America and his family.  Our goal on Saturday was to enjoy some hot springs and maybe a waterfall.  Well, both of those goals were an epic fail, as it turned out.  Hendra drove us to the Maribaya hot springs that we read about in our guidebooks…bad idea.  The water was really dirty, and it definitely was not a tourist spot.  As we’re asking Hendra where we can swim, he tells us that even HE wouldn’t swim here, and then he follows that statement with, “I told you not to come here.”  That’s when we decided that he knows the area better than we do, so we told him to take us to wherever he recommends.  He took us to Ciater, which had hot springs and pools, but it was still not what we had been expecting and at this point, after driving around in search of this place, we were all annoyed and disappointed at where we had finally arrived.  We stuck our feet in a small fountain/pool where we didn’t have to pay money (once again, we’re cheap, especially after already having paid to get into the park to simply walk around).  We found out later, from my friend Nathan who has been living in Bandung since January, that a good time to go to Ciater is late at night because they’re open all night.  That’s on the list for our next visit to Bandung!  We made an attempt to pick strawberries on our drive back into the city, but all of the places were either closed because of the Ramadan fasting or had already been picked through…bad timing, once again.  I finally made our driver stop by a roadside stand selling pineapples, because we hadn’t eaten since breakfast and it was mid-afternoon by this point of the day.  Fresh pineapple was one of the highlights of the day, especially since everything else had been such a disappointment. 

Continuing our pledge to listen to the driver for the day, we asked him to take us to a place to get cheesecake (once again, it had been a suggestion from someone before we left).  We each had a slice of cheesecake that was delicious, and, once again, the food did not disappoint.  I was feeling guilty about our driver being around all of this food, because he had been fasting all day (he didn’t even drink any water), so I suggested he take us to a restaurant to try a local Bandung dish.  On our way to the restaurant, we stopped by one of the famous buildings in Bandung where he said people always have their picture taken because of the architecture.  I don’t know what was so special about it, but our driver wanted his picture taken with us, since we were his first international customers.  It was hard to miss the tents and two stages set up across the street, so we decided we had nothing better to do except check out the commotion.  It turns out there was a concert, in the one-block area, called The Pink Plop, which had a tagline of ‘What Woman Wants’.  There was a stage on each end with tents of vendors in between.  Danna and Kristina decided to rollerblade when the walked by the Roller Universe tent, so many local onlookers were entertained while they both rolled around.  Before leaving, we stood by a stage to catch some of the music.  None of us could hide for long before pictures were being snapped of us watching the show, but the best part was when Kristina was playing air guitar with one of the songs.  That had also not gone unnoticed, because the mc of the show ended up talking to her later and asking where she was from, which drew more attention and pictures to us.  We left the Pink Plop around 5:30 in hopes of getting to a restaurant by 6:00, in hopes that Hendra could break his fast (when the sun went down) and then join us for dinner.  Well, it ended up being all for naught, because Hendra didn’t want to eat with us anyway, he just drank his bottle of water, and Danna was the only one hungry enough to eat a real meal (we were still full of sugar from pineapple and cheesecake). 

Later Saturday night, I called my friend Nathan, and we met up with him and his girlfriend at a local restaurant.  They both have been living in Indonesia since January, and they were very helpful with all of my random questions and concerns before I moved here.  It was fun to get to know them a little better in person, and they even showed us around their neighborhood, which is, by the way, located down a long, dark alley surrounded by rice paddies as you get closer to their house.  We sat around their house for a few hours talking about traveling, teaching, and such.

They offered to show us around a street market on Sunday morning, and then take us on a hike.  We gladly accepted the guidance, since we were out of ideas for activities.  Kristina was especially disappointed that there would be no Ram fights on Sunday morning, like usual, because of the Ramadan holiday.   The hike in the great outdoors was, by far, the highlight of the weekend, only after the volcanic crater. 

31 July

Now, more recently, I have been teaching, teaching, and teaching some more.  Last week was the first time for the CCA (co-curricular activity) that I’m in charge of.  Yes, I’m in charge of the Badminton CCA each Tuesday.  There is one hour after school for the 3^rd and 4^th grade students, from 2:00-3:00, and then the 5^th and 6^th grade students have their CCA from 3:00-4:00.  I don’t have to do anything like know anything about the sport, thankfully, because there is a professional coach who comes to the school.  I just take attendance, keep kids from messing around too much, and I even practiced with a few of the students today, which was fun. 

I am a chaperone for a Maths competition on Thursday afternoon in Jakarta, so another teacher and I will accompany 18 students to the competition.  I lead a few practice sessions with four 5^th grade students, and they definitely made me feel stupid about most of the math problems they were solving.  I could figure them out, usually, but it just took me twice the time.  Working through a packet full of word problems made my head numb J

I will be flying to Singapore on Friday to get my work visa taken care of.  It has to be done soon, since my current visa expires soon, and I need my passport returned to me by mid-August.  We leave for Bali in two weeks!! Yay, vacation soon!  This Saturday, we have a morning of Parent/Teacher Conferences.  I’m not sure what to expect for those, since we just found out about them last week.  I’ll let you know how it goes…

Sorry again, for the ridiculous amount of stories at once.  I really need to get better at this.  Also, you can check out the pictures from Bandung on my facebook wall (Danna tagged me in her pictures).