yup, we're back! we had a couple very easy flights from bangkok to tokyo and tokyo to ny's jfk airport. we're currently chilling at my parents house for a couple days and then heading back home to philly. after 2 1/2 months, we're stretching out the re-entry process. it's nice not to have to sort through the giant pile of mail yet!
we're working on getting the rest of the pictures up and will hopefully also update the blogs with more details/more entries.
thanks for reading and a super extra big thanks to all those who helped make this trip possible. it really was an adventure of a lifetime.
*hugs*
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Saturday, December 13, 2008
beach bliss
we are now on ko phi phi don island (http://redirx.com/?0f1x) off the coast of southwest thailand. it is beautiful here. we flew into krabi and took a ferry to the island. the ferry ride in and of itself was awesome as we could watch the blue-green waters and limestone cliffs on various islands speed by. we were greeted at the pier on phi phi by someone from our guesthouse and they gave us a lift to the place. there are no roads on the island, so we took a boat! it was great. you could see all sorts of coral from the boat since the water was super clear and pretty shallow. after we checked in, we headed to another small bay to get the lay of the land. it was low-tide, so we could walk across the beach in a couple inches of water. the water was quite warm! we wandered around for a bit and grabbed some tasty seafood for dinner at a beachside restaurant. after that we hung out at a bar and met two really nice german men and had a great time swapping stories.
we're not quite sure what we'll be up to the next couple days. i think some kayaking, snorkeling, scuba diving and beaching are in order. it's a beautiful tropical paradise here!
we're not quite sure what we'll be up to the next couple days. i think some kayaking, snorkeling, scuba diving and beaching are in order. it's a beautiful tropical paradise here!
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Movies & games !
Really dug learning two new games with friends tonight: cosmic wimp out, and citadel! Cosmic wimp out is just good, inane fun. Citadel is a little more strategic (but not overly so), easy to learn and very social. Definitely time to kickstart weekly game night (and dinner) in Philly.
Saw Ong Bok 2 at the super posh movie theater today in Bangkok. All 20 seats in the theater are plush, reclining leather and include a blanket, pillow, bar area, etc. Really expensive (by Thai standards), but totally worth it.
Saw Ong Bok 2 at the super posh movie theater today in Bangkok. All 20 seats in the theater are plush, reclining leather and include a blanket, pillow, bar area, etc. Really expensive (by Thai standards), but totally worth it.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
jan daeng, my new love
yes, there is a woman in my life. she weighs an enormous amount and goes by the name jan daeng.
we just got back from 3 awesome days at the elephant conservation center outside lampang. it was awesome. joe and i ended up being the only ones on the 3-day trek, so we got tons of attention and were able to ask all the questions we wanted. we each had our own elephant that we took care of for the duration of the trek. mine was named jan daeng. she was a spunky 38 year-old female. joe worked with an older woman, tantawan, who was 51. their trainer/caretakers (mahouts) were with us at all times. without tiean, i wouldn't have even been able to get up on jan daeng. joe was helped by pun for the first two days and neak on the last day. we had an awesome time. we just finished burning the pics to a dvd and will hopefully be able to upload them soon. we learned how to get on the elephant 3 ways (front, side and with the elephant on her belly), bathe her, give her directions (forward, turn, back up, stop), as well as their daily routines. the elephants were walked into the jungle at night and chained up to a tree by a very long chain (maybe about 60 feet long). they were then collected in the morning, bathed and then we walked them. we also got to see an elephant show, the elephant hospital, the elephant nursery and the dung paper factory.
we're closing down the internet cafe, so i'll update this post later with more details. joe and i miss our ladies very much! :)
we just got back from 3 awesome days at the elephant conservation center outside lampang. it was awesome. joe and i ended up being the only ones on the 3-day trek, so we got tons of attention and were able to ask all the questions we wanted. we each had our own elephant that we took care of for the duration of the trek. mine was named jan daeng. she was a spunky 38 year-old female. joe worked with an older woman, tantawan, who was 51. their trainer/caretakers (mahouts) were with us at all times. without tiean, i wouldn't have even been able to get up on jan daeng. joe was helped by pun for the first two days and neak on the last day. we had an awesome time. we just finished burning the pics to a dvd and will hopefully be able to upload them soon. we learned how to get on the elephant 3 ways (front, side and with the elephant on her belly), bathe her, give her directions (forward, turn, back up, stop), as well as their daily routines. the elephants were walked into the jungle at night and chained up to a tree by a very long chain (maybe about 60 feet long). they were then collected in the morning, bathed and then we walked them. we also got to see an elephant show, the elephant hospital, the elephant nursery and the dung paper factory.
we're closing down the internet cafe, so i'll update this post later with more details. joe and i miss our ladies very much! :)
Monday, December 1, 2008
happy thanksgiving, elephants
We missed everyone on Thanksgiving! Hope you all had a good holiday, including some yummy turkey. Turkeys are bad luck in Thailand, and they don't raise/eat them. In fact, I haven't seen a single turkey in SE Asia :( We had curry for tgiving dinner.
We also wanted to give a quick update on our travels. Just spoke with our security service, and they think the aiport will re-open by the time we fly out (12/18), but to check back with them in 3-4 days. We're headed to Lampang tomorrow for a 3-day visit to an elephant conservatory. We get to bathe and feed them, as well as learn about their behavior. Once we're out of the jungle, we'll check on the protests and go from there.
We also wanted to give a quick update on our travels. Just spoke with our security service, and they think the aiport will re-open by the time we fly out (12/18), but to check back with them in 3-4 days. We're headed to Lampang tomorrow for a 3-day visit to an elephant conservatory. We get to bathe and feed them, as well as learn about their behavior. Once we're out of the jungle, we'll check on the protests and go from there.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
not in bangkok!
Amy and are in are in northern Thailand, safe and far away from the political unrest in Bangkok. We're in Chiang Rai to be exact which is in the far north of the country near the Laos border, around 12 hours from Bangkok which is near the center of the country. The political 'crisis' is currently only in Bangkok, and based on our limited understanding of Thailand's political history is likely to remain isolated to that city. In fact, from what we can gather, many residents of northern Thailand are so apathetic with regard to federal Thai politics that as of this morning they are completely unaware of the airports shutting down. Furthermore, they don't really care which corrupt Thai administration/regime is currently in power as the vast majority of their votes are bought by corrupt political candidates/parties during their 'democratic' elections.
Our previous itinerary involved travelling to Bangkok around one week from now (11/8/'08) to meet up with some friends (Toma & Eric), but we're obviously watching the news very closely and doing some contingency planning. To alay the fears of you worry warts (you know who you are!), we were conservative in our trip planning and bought a special travel/medical insurance that is intended to assist us in exactly these types of situations:
http://www.internationalsos.com/en/forindividuals.htm
Aside from potentially re-routing some of our flights, we don't expect the political unrest to affect us much, especially considering this is internal Thai political unrest that is not directed at foreigners at all. As far as we can tell, the main reason they are protesting at the Bangkok airport is because the prime minister they are trying to oust is arriving back in the country via that airport. If the situation escalates out of control and we're in a bind, our insurance provides 'emergency evacuation and repatriation' services.
FYI, the US Dept of State has useful travel alerts which are updated frequently:
http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/pa/pa_1766.html
and here is a primer on the political environment:
http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/11/26/1689630.aspx
Our previous itinerary involved travelling to Bangkok around one week from now (11/8/'08) to meet up with some friends (Toma & Eric), but we're obviously watching the news very closely and doing some contingency planning. To alay the fears of you worry warts (you know who you are!), we were conservative in our trip planning and bought a special travel/medical insurance that is intended to assist us in exactly these types of situations:
http://www.internationalsos.com/en/forindividuals.htm
Aside from potentially re-routing some of our flights, we don't expect the political unrest to affect us much, especially considering this is internal Thai political unrest that is not directed at foreigners at all. As far as we can tell, the main reason they are protesting at the Bangkok airport is because the prime minister they are trying to oust is arriving back in the country via that airport. If the situation escalates out of control and we're in a bind, our insurance provides 'emergency evacuation and repatriation' services.
FYI, the US Dept of State has useful travel alerts which are updated frequently:
http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/pa/pa_1766.html
and here is a primer on the political environment:
http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/11/26/1689630.aspx
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
thailand, we're here!
hello everyone!
we are currently in chiang rai, thailand. a nice, quiet city in the northern part of the country. it's beautiful here and we're so excited for thai food!
i know we didn't write anything about our week in laos, but we will.
unfortunately, we don't have any pictures. yesterday we crossed the border into thailand from huoy xi, laos and took a bus from chiang kong to chiang rai. on the bus, our camera was stolen. so, we lost the pictures from angkor wat (the big temple on the last day) and all our laos pictures. hopefully we'll be able to do research and at least give you links that you can look at. needless to say we were upset at losing all those pictures.
it did make for a good adventure today. we went to the big c, a department store just outside the city. it was odd to be in such a big mall-type place. we were able to find the same model of camera and a large memory card, so hopefully that will do the trick for the rest of the trip.
we also had a great massage before a really tasty dinner tonight. yay for thai food! we're also getting our plans together for the rest of our time here - an elephant caretaker training course, cooking class, visiting some cool places and beaches, as well as the great thailand meetup (as i'm calling it) where we will hopefully get together with some peeps from california (hi eric and toma!).
all in all, we've rebounded well from our setback and a have a cool new souvenir - a police report in thai!
i think we're shutting the internet cafe down, so hopefully i'll get a chance to write more soon!
we are currently in chiang rai, thailand. a nice, quiet city in the northern part of the country. it's beautiful here and we're so excited for thai food!
i know we didn't write anything about our week in laos, but we will.
unfortunately, we don't have any pictures. yesterday we crossed the border into thailand from huoy xi, laos and took a bus from chiang kong to chiang rai. on the bus, our camera was stolen. so, we lost the pictures from angkor wat (the big temple on the last day) and all our laos pictures. hopefully we'll be able to do research and at least give you links that you can look at. needless to say we were upset at losing all those pictures.
it did make for a good adventure today. we went to the big c, a department store just outside the city. it was odd to be in such a big mall-type place. we were able to find the same model of camera and a large memory card, so hopefully that will do the trick for the rest of the trip.
we also had a great massage before a really tasty dinner tonight. yay for thai food! we're also getting our plans together for the rest of our time here - an elephant caretaker training course, cooking class, visiting some cool places and beaches, as well as the great thailand meetup (as i'm calling it) where we will hopefully get together with some peeps from california (hi eric and toma!).
all in all, we've rebounded well from our setback and a have a cool new souvenir - a police report in thai!
i think we're shutting the internet cafe down, so hopefully i'll get a chance to write more soon!
Monday, November 24, 2008
laos, baby, laos
we spent about a week in laos, mostly in luang prabang (http://wikitravel.org/en/Luang_Prabang). luang prabang is a world heritage city and is beautiful. there are a ton of temples and the french colonial influence has been preserved.
our first day was spent getting acquainted with the small town. we treated ourselves to a french bread pizza (not quite like the ones at fry's, but it did the job). i tried the country's beer - beer lao and was pleasantly surprised. it wasn't as light as it's cambodian or indonesian counterparts. we wandered through the night market, which was full of beautiful goods. mom, you would have been in heaven! no photos, but this guy's site has a few: http://www.pbase.com/jtodhunter/luang_prabang_night_market.
the next day, tuesday 11/18, we moved hotels to a great guesthouse - xang keo. chad, the owner, was very friendly and helpful. we then found a wonderful bakery, JoMa, which we would frequent several times during our stay. our adventures continued trying to do several things which ended up being closed. the palace just happened to be closed on tuesdays, but our guidebook failed to mention that! we then tried to catch the end of the produce market and missed that one as well! we also looked for a couple textile and jewelery stores, but the map was wrong. eventually we haphazardly stumbled upon the textile gallery and store (fibre2fabric: http://www.fibre2fabric.org/index.html) and got a wonderful education about local textiles.
dinner was a delicious vegetarian buffet at the market. we spent the evening at martin's pub watching monty python and the holy grail. before calling it a night, we found a wonderful crepe lady on the street and shared a delicious banana and nutella crepe. it was a good night!
wednesday (11/19) started with a wonderful french breakfast with tasty pastries and breads. we then hopped on a slow boat towards the pak ou caves (http://www.laostravel.info/Cave/index.htm). we stopped at a village known for making rice whiskey, ban xang hai, and tasted the strong stuff. it was a bit much early in the morning, but fun nonetheless! the caves contained hundreds of buddhas and was very crowded with tourists. it was an interesting experience, but not quite what we had expected. we grabbed a quick lunch upon returning to town before heading on an afternoon excursion to the kuang si waterfalls (http://www.asiaexplorers.com/laos/kuangsi-waterfall.htm). i'm really bummed we don't have these pictures, as the falls were so beautiful! there were a handful of pools on the way up to the big falls that were a beautiful blue. we took an awesome hike up to the top of the falls and across the top before heading down the other side (which turned out to be the real trail, but we love adventure!). it was an awesome afternoon and we wished we had spent the whole day there rather than just the afternoon. if you're ever in luang prabang, pack a picnic lunch and go for the whole day! back in town, we tried out some tasty fresh young coconut juice and walked through the market. another nice day!
thursday, 11/20, we rented bikes and headed out to the textile village of ban xong khong. we managed to find our way there despite not having a map! yay for signs! double yay for signs in english! we found beautiful textiles and were treated to a detailed description of the whole process, from silk worm to final product. it was great. we had a late lunch at the market and it was so tasty! we followed that with some wonderful massages. this time i had a traditional lao massage (which had similar elements to thai massage) and joe got a kamu massage. we were giant bowls of jello afterwards. we met up with a couple university students, soumly and khamphou, we had befriended on our cave trip and headed to dinner. we had a great time eating and chatting. the ladies were such troopers with their english! we learned a bit of lao and about lao lifestyle. it was a great time and we were so stuffed by the end of dinner!
friday, 11/21, we slept in. yay! there's nothing better than a good sleeping in day. we booked our slow boat tickets to the thailand border, hit up the produce market and of course enjoyed a tasty coffee beverage at JoMa's. from there, we hit up the palace and museum. pictures weren't allowed, so you're not missing any of those! it was choc-full of history and presents given to the royals from other countries. the us gave them a really nice pen set. :) from there we went to one of the most beautiful temples we've seen, wat xieng thong (http://www.williamzhang.com/Asia/Laos/Luang%20Prabang%20Wat%20Xieng%20Thong.htm). the glass mosaics cast such beautiful patterns in the sunlight, we wish we had our photos to show you. we spent quite a lot of time there and really enjoyed ourselves. we enjoyed another buffet dinner at the market before hitting up the night market again.
we woke up early on saturday (11/22) and headed down to the slow boat. we spent the entire day on the boat and arrived at pak beng around 6:30 in the evening. the ride was nice and calm, which was great. we read, slept and played cards. the view of the mekong was quite beautiful. all in all, it wasn't a bad way to travel.
sunday, 11/23, was pretty much the same as saturday. we took the boat from pak beng to huoy xi and arrived about 6:30pm again. :) we arrived too late to cross the border, so that happened monday morning.
our first day was spent getting acquainted with the small town. we treated ourselves to a french bread pizza (not quite like the ones at fry's, but it did the job). i tried the country's beer - beer lao and was pleasantly surprised. it wasn't as light as it's cambodian or indonesian counterparts. we wandered through the night market, which was full of beautiful goods. mom, you would have been in heaven! no photos, but this guy's site has a few: http://www.pbase.com/jtodhunter/luang_prabang_night_market.
the next day, tuesday 11/18, we moved hotels to a great guesthouse - xang keo. chad, the owner, was very friendly and helpful. we then found a wonderful bakery, JoMa, which we would frequent several times during our stay. our adventures continued trying to do several things which ended up being closed. the palace just happened to be closed on tuesdays, but our guidebook failed to mention that! we then tried to catch the end of the produce market and missed that one as well! we also looked for a couple textile and jewelery stores, but the map was wrong. eventually we haphazardly stumbled upon the textile gallery and store (fibre2fabric: http://www.fibre2fabric.org/index.html) and got a wonderful education about local textiles.
dinner was a delicious vegetarian buffet at the market. we spent the evening at martin's pub watching monty python and the holy grail. before calling it a night, we found a wonderful crepe lady on the street and shared a delicious banana and nutella crepe. it was a good night!
wednesday (11/19) started with a wonderful french breakfast with tasty pastries and breads. we then hopped on a slow boat towards the pak ou caves (http://www.laostravel.info/Cave/index.htm). we stopped at a village known for making rice whiskey, ban xang hai, and tasted the strong stuff. it was a bit much early in the morning, but fun nonetheless! the caves contained hundreds of buddhas and was very crowded with tourists. it was an interesting experience, but not quite what we had expected. we grabbed a quick lunch upon returning to town before heading on an afternoon excursion to the kuang si waterfalls (http://www.asiaexplorers.com/laos/kuangsi-waterfall.htm). i'm really bummed we don't have these pictures, as the falls were so beautiful! there were a handful of pools on the way up to the big falls that were a beautiful blue. we took an awesome hike up to the top of the falls and across the top before heading down the other side (which turned out to be the real trail, but we love adventure!). it was an awesome afternoon and we wished we had spent the whole day there rather than just the afternoon. if you're ever in luang prabang, pack a picnic lunch and go for the whole day! back in town, we tried out some tasty fresh young coconut juice and walked through the market. another nice day!
thursday, 11/20, we rented bikes and headed out to the textile village of ban xong khong. we managed to find our way there despite not having a map! yay for signs! double yay for signs in english! we found beautiful textiles and were treated to a detailed description of the whole process, from silk worm to final product. it was great. we had a late lunch at the market and it was so tasty! we followed that with some wonderful massages. this time i had a traditional lao massage (which had similar elements to thai massage) and joe got a kamu massage. we were giant bowls of jello afterwards. we met up with a couple university students, soumly and khamphou, we had befriended on our cave trip and headed to dinner. we had a great time eating and chatting. the ladies were such troopers with their english! we learned a bit of lao and about lao lifestyle. it was a great time and we were so stuffed by the end of dinner!
friday, 11/21, we slept in. yay! there's nothing better than a good sleeping in day. we booked our slow boat tickets to the thailand border, hit up the produce market and of course enjoyed a tasty coffee beverage at JoMa's. from there, we hit up the palace and museum. pictures weren't allowed, so you're not missing any of those! it was choc-full of history and presents given to the royals from other countries. the us gave them a really nice pen set. :) from there we went to one of the most beautiful temples we've seen, wat xieng thong (http://www.williamzhang.com/Asia/Laos/Luang%20Prabang%20Wat%20Xieng%20Thong.htm). the glass mosaics cast such beautiful patterns in the sunlight, we wish we had our photos to show you. we spent quite a lot of time there and really enjoyed ourselves. we enjoyed another buffet dinner at the market before hitting up the night market again.
we woke up early on saturday (11/22) and headed down to the slow boat. we spent the entire day on the boat and arrived at pak beng around 6:30 in the evening. the ride was nice and calm, which was great. we read, slept and played cards. the view of the mekong was quite beautiful. all in all, it wasn't a bad way to travel.
sunday, 11/23, was pretty much the same as saturday. we took the boat from pak beng to huoy xi and arrived about 6:30pm again. :) we arrived too late to cross the border, so that happened monday morning.
Monday, November 17, 2008
siem reaper
Amy and I just spent a great week in Siem Reap, Cambodia!
Our luck has been really good on our travels because we just happened to arrive on the first day of Siem Reap's annual water festival (which is a big deal). On the first day, we watched river boats jammed with 20+ rowers race and I even got a rudimentary Khmer (the language of Cambodia) lesson from a really nice old man. Amy chatted it up in French with another old guy who knew how to speak French from the occupation, had lost all his children to the Khmer Rouge, but somehow retained a hopeful and kind demeanor. On the second day, we got to launch candle lit boats down the Siem Reap river with some local kids (romantical :). The boat races span the festival, but on the third and final day the teams are judged and a ceremony is held. That was neat to watch, but the kicker was the fireworks. I've never heard Amy jump in fear and respond like such a little girl (many Combodians were chuckling at her). It was a bit dicey at one point when a large firework went off course towards the crowds.
The main attraction are the ancient remains of the Khmer empire which we really enjoyed visiting over a 5 day period. We're working on uploading the pictures. As you pull up to each temple there are a slew of souvenir stalls packed with shirts, faux mini temples, food, etc. The owners are really aggressive and many of them come running up to you at once as you pull into the temple parking lot. They are very loud and encroach your private space. Worse yet are the loud child hawkers who are missing school to give you the hard sell on bracelets, the same fake mini temples, etc. I feel really bad for these people, as they would clearly be earning a living differently if given the choice. At the same time, they are really friggin annoying and diminish the spiritual atmosphere of the temples. The downtown portion of Siem Reap is relatively quiet and clean (by Asian standards anyway) that is almost entirely driven by tourism. You can't walk 10 feet without tuk-tuk (motorcycle-drawn carriage) drivers asking "Tuk-tuk?". If you're travelling as a couple, they will ask the first person, then upon being rejected will proceed to ask their spouse. I have the same sentiment as with the hawkers; they are earning a living (which I appreciate), but they are crossing many boundaries. So why waste the (digital) ink to write about them? Because they are the perfect premise for a first person shooter game! Amy and I designed portions of the game over a pitcher of beer. While walking the streets of Siem Reap, you could obliterate the tuk-tuk drivers. When entering or leaving the serenity of a temple, you can gun down the hawkers one by one, or en masse with larger artillery. Khmer massages increase your life force; being haggled decreases it. The permutations are endless.
Our luck has been really good on our travels because we just happened to arrive on the first day of Siem Reap's annual water festival (which is a big deal). On the first day, we watched river boats jammed with 20+ rowers race and I even got a rudimentary Khmer (the language of Cambodia) lesson from a really nice old man. Amy chatted it up in French with another old guy who knew how to speak French from the occupation, had lost all his children to the Khmer Rouge, but somehow retained a hopeful and kind demeanor. On the second day, we got to launch candle lit boats down the Siem Reap river with some local kids (romantical :). The boat races span the festival, but on the third and final day the teams are judged and a ceremony is held. That was neat to watch, but the kicker was the fireworks. I've never heard Amy jump in fear and respond like such a little girl (many Combodians were chuckling at her). It was a bit dicey at one point when a large firework went off course towards the crowds.
The main attraction are the ancient remains of the Khmer empire which we really enjoyed visiting over a 5 day period. We're working on uploading the pictures. As you pull up to each temple there are a slew of souvenir stalls packed with shirts, faux mini temples, food, etc. The owners are really aggressive and many of them come running up to you at once as you pull into the temple parking lot. They are very loud and encroach your private space. Worse yet are the loud child hawkers who are missing school to give you the hard sell on bracelets, the same fake mini temples, etc. I feel really bad for these people, as they would clearly be earning a living differently if given the choice. At the same time, they are really friggin annoying and diminish the spiritual atmosphere of the temples. The downtown portion of Siem Reap is relatively quiet and clean (by Asian standards anyway) that is almost entirely driven by tourism. You can't walk 10 feet without tuk-tuk (motorcycle-drawn carriage) drivers asking "Tuk-tuk?". If you're travelling as a couple, they will ask the first person, then upon being rejected will proceed to ask their spouse. I have the same sentiment as with the hawkers; they are earning a living (which I appreciate), but they are crossing many boundaries. So why waste the (digital) ink to write about them? Because they are the perfect premise for a first person shooter game! Amy and I designed portions of the game over a pitcher of beer. While walking the streets of Siem Reap, you could obliterate the tuk-tuk drivers. When entering or leaving the serenity of a temple, you can gun down the hawkers one by one, or en masse with larger artillery. Khmer massages increase your life force; being haggled decreases it. The permutations are endless.
laos
we're in laos now! luang prabang to be exact. we were sad to leave cambodia, as we only saw a very, very small part of the country.
we want to say happy birthday to all the november birthdays. there are a lot of you out there! gae, elijah, stephanie, barbara, ginny, wei, lauren, denise....i'm sure there are more, so sorry if i forgot anyone!
and happy anniversary to rich and gae! i know we're early on that one, but as long as we're celebrating....
after a tasty breakfast of traditional beef stew at the soup dragon (thanks for the recommendation, daniela!) we checked out of our hotel and took a tuk-tuk (motorcycle-drawn carriage) to the airport. it's so much fun to travel in such style! the siem reap airport is so nice and clean and small and manageable. our flight was very quick and easy. the luang prabang airport was even smaller and we had no problem getting a taxi into town.
this city is nothing like any of the other places we've been in asia. it is an interesting mix between colonial europe and a slightly modern southeast asian city. it's very clean. people so far seem to be very nice. it has some beautiful architecture and a lot of pagodas. we've only been here for the afternoon, so i'm sure there's a lot more to see and do. we walked around for a bit, grabbed some dinner. we're excited to see what this town has to offer!
hope you are all doing well!
we want to say happy birthday to all the november birthdays. there are a lot of you out there! gae, elijah, stephanie, barbara, ginny, wei, lauren, denise....i'm sure there are more, so sorry if i forgot anyone!
and happy anniversary to rich and gae! i know we're early on that one, but as long as we're celebrating....
after a tasty breakfast of traditional beef stew at the soup dragon (thanks for the recommendation, daniela!) we checked out of our hotel and took a tuk-tuk (motorcycle-drawn carriage) to the airport. it's so much fun to travel in such style! the siem reap airport is so nice and clean and small and manageable. our flight was very quick and easy. the luang prabang airport was even smaller and we had no problem getting a taxi into town.
this city is nothing like any of the other places we've been in asia. it is an interesting mix between colonial europe and a slightly modern southeast asian city. it's very clean. people so far seem to be very nice. it has some beautiful architecture and a lot of pagodas. we've only been here for the afternoon, so i'm sure there's a lot more to see and do. we walked around for a bit, grabbed some dinner. we're excited to see what this town has to offer!
hope you are all doing well!
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
siem reap, day 2
we began the day with another tasty breakfast at hanuman alaya. we started our adventures at a nearby pagoda, wat themi. it's an active buddhist monastery. they also have a memorial to the victims of the khmer rouge (a stupa filled with bones found in a nearby well as well as on a nearby field). it's very hard to describe being there. on the one hand, it was very peaceful with the monks around. you could feel some sort of calm and tranquility. on the other hand, the memorial was somewhat overwhelming, especially since i don't know a lot about the khmer rouge and cambodia's history. the lonely planet can only go into so much detail. we had a nice conversation with several of the monks. they too were excited about obama's victory.
from the pagoda, we went into town to catch the first day's events of the water festival. we grabbed some noodles from a cart and made ourselves comfortable on the river bank. we attracted a lot of stares and even some nice conversation. an elderly man started speaking to us in french, so i got a chance to bust out my rusty high school french. cambodia had been a french protectorate for about 90 years (until 1953), so a lot of the older generation can speak fluent french. i wish my french had been better, as he seemed to have a lot of great stories that he wanted to share. joe got his chance for a language lesson from another elderly gentleman who tried to teach him khmer (the local language). he even got his grandson in on the lesson. it was highly entertaining to all and we learned a bit at the same time!
the afternoon was the first day of the boat races. it took a few hours for things to get going, but once they did, the crowd was excited. each boat had at least 20 people in it - long wooden boats, each person holding a single oar (not like rowing, more like dragon boat racing if anyone has seen that). most of the boats were men, but there were a handful of women racers as well. it was fun to watch them race down the river, boats almost becoming completely submerged due to the force.
after a few hours by the river, we were ready to move on. we headed into town and got massages - traditional khmer massages. for $6! it was awesome. the massage style had a lot in common with thai massage. it was a little rough and pinch-y at times, but the end result was wonderful relaxation and total airheadness. it was great!
we had tasty amok (local special sauce with cocount) dinner at the soup dragon and were treated to fireworks peeking above the buildings. it was fun and festive! we walked back to our hotel, which was on the other side of town. it was a nice walk!
from the pagoda, we went into town to catch the first day's events of the water festival. we grabbed some noodles from a cart and made ourselves comfortable on the river bank. we attracted a lot of stares and even some nice conversation. an elderly man started speaking to us in french, so i got a chance to bust out my rusty high school french. cambodia had been a french protectorate for about 90 years (until 1953), so a lot of the older generation can speak fluent french. i wish my french had been better, as he seemed to have a lot of great stories that he wanted to share. joe got his chance for a language lesson from another elderly gentleman who tried to teach him khmer (the local language). he even got his grandson in on the lesson. it was highly entertaining to all and we learned a bit at the same time!
the afternoon was the first day of the boat races. it took a few hours for things to get going, but once they did, the crowd was excited. each boat had at least 20 people in it - long wooden boats, each person holding a single oar (not like rowing, more like dragon boat racing if anyone has seen that). most of the boats were men, but there were a handful of women racers as well. it was fun to watch them race down the river, boats almost becoming completely submerged due to the force.
after a few hours by the river, we were ready to move on. we headed into town and got massages - traditional khmer massages. for $6! it was awesome. the massage style had a lot in common with thai massage. it was a little rough and pinch-y at times, but the end result was wonderful relaxation and total airheadness. it was great!
we had tasty amok (local special sauce with cocount) dinner at the soup dragon and were treated to fireworks peeking above the buildings. it was fun and festive! we walked back to our hotel, which was on the other side of town. it was a nice walk!
Monday, November 10, 2008
siem reap, day 1
we arrived early this morning and were very tired from being up since 4am! so early! immigration took what felt like forever at the siem reap airport. there was a lot of waiting and it seemed like people were being turned away at random. neither of us had any problems, so that was good. we had arranged airport transportation with our hotel before arriving and we were very happy to see a sign with my name on it. the driver took us past angkor wat on the way to the hotel.
wow.
it was amazingly huge. we were very excited to finally be in siem reap. the hotel, hanuman alaya, was amazing. the staff were all incredibly helpful, kind, considerate and all around nice. the grounds were amazing. we felt transported to some type of paradise! we wish we could stay there for 2.5 months! anyways, we checked into our room and headed to the restaurant to grab a second breakfast, seeing as it was only 10:30 in the morning, but 5 hours after we had eaten breakfast! joe headed to the room for a nap while i hung out by the pool and interneted for a few minutes.
well rested, we headed into town to see what was going on. our driver had mentioned that the water festival was starting the next day and we were very excited to hear that - it's a once a year festival that completely turns the capital, phnom penh, upside down. while walking around, we were able to see everyone setting up. it was pretty cool.
we dined at khmer family restaurant (one of the many by the same name) and enjoyed a pitcher of tiger beer together. we were excited to get a pitcher. it's been a while. after dinner we wandered around the night market and were way too distracted to really do any shopping, which was fine.
wow.
it was amazingly huge. we were very excited to finally be in siem reap. the hotel, hanuman alaya, was amazing. the staff were all incredibly helpful, kind, considerate and all around nice. the grounds were amazing. we felt transported to some type of paradise! we wish we could stay there for 2.5 months! anyways, we checked into our room and headed to the restaurant to grab a second breakfast, seeing as it was only 10:30 in the morning, but 5 hours after we had eaten breakfast! joe headed to the room for a nap while i hung out by the pool and interneted for a few minutes.
well rested, we headed into town to see what was going on. our driver had mentioned that the water festival was starting the next day and we were very excited to hear that - it's a once a year festival that completely turns the capital, phnom penh, upside down. while walking around, we were able to see everyone setting up. it was pretty cool.
we dined at khmer family restaurant (one of the many by the same name) and enjoyed a pitcher of tiger beer together. we were excited to get a pitcher. it's been a while. after dinner we wandered around the night market and were way too distracted to really do any shopping, which was fine.
cambodia
hello all!
just a quick note to say that we are in siem reap, cambodia now. we spent about 20 hours in kuala lumpur before arriving very early yesterday morning. we've been roaming around town and watched the first day of the water festival today. we're planning on some more water festival activites as well as seeing the splendor of the angkor wat temples. we're not sure how long we'll be here, but it's been a lot of fun.
we'll be sure to update more when we have time and the internet is a little faster!
just a quick note to say that we are in siem reap, cambodia now. we spent about 20 hours in kuala lumpur before arriving very early yesterday morning. we've been roaming around town and watched the first day of the water festival today. we're planning on some more water festival activites as well as seeing the splendor of the angkor wat temples. we're not sure how long we'll be here, but it's been a lot of fun.
we'll be sure to update more when we have time and the internet is a little faster!
Friday, November 7, 2008
bukittinggi (11/5/08 - 11/7/08)
hello! i know you missed us! (and mom, i'm the one who writes in lowercase, Joe uses proper Capitalization). i think joe's updating our trip to northern sumatra - bukit lawang. i'll chronicle our journey to western sumatra.
first off. yay obama! yay! yay! yay! oh. my. so happy! wheeee!!!!!!!!
on wednesay, november 5th, we took a car with a couple new friends from sweden (hi louisa and oscar! hope you found a flight to jakarta okay!) to the medan (http://redirx.com/?0iuz) airport. our flight was sort of delayed. there was no announcement or update on the boards saying so, but we boarded about an hour after we were supposed to. oh well! the flight was fine and we made it to padang (http://redirx.com/?0iut) just fine. we had another adventure taking a bus to what we thought was another terminal, but wasn't, so took a really expensive taxi ride for like 3 minutes to the next terminal. once there we found the right bus, but had to wait until it was full.
in the meantime, we enjoyed our first real padang meal at a typical roadside restaurant (well, it's on the road, and they set up the temporary restaurant each night. it's quite amazing what they can do with a generator and some plastic tables and chairs). it was the first time we've had to eat with our hands in indonesia and luckily we both read the guide book and had a clue what to do. we had a tasty combo of rice, tempeh and tofu. by the way, the tempeh in this country is amazing. i've been getting it every chance i can get. it puts our packaged/plastic/preserved version to shame! so fresh and so completely tasty totally on its own.
anyways, the bus finally left and we made it to bukittinggi (http://redirx.com/?0iu5). we opted to skip padang on the way up (we'll hit it on saturday). we took this awesome, totally tricked out opelet (minibus the size of a vw van), full with huge speakers and a subwoofer, blue neon lights. it was blaring techno so loud that it took us a while to understand the driver was asking us for a $1 bill. funny! we made it to our hotel and were a little sad the raging party was over.
so, yesterday (11/6/08) started off with a tasty indonesian breakfast of fried rice, noodles with all sorts of tasty spices and super sweet tea. we headed off to explore the city - the market, the clocktower (the clock was made around the same time as big ben and a gift from the queen of holland), the panoramic view over ngarai sianok (a beautiful canyon). we met a parlimentary official from a town south of jakarta (the capital city on the island of java). we've been noticing that a lot of people are not afraid to strike up conversation. we've never had so many random conversation. well, i should say joe, not so much me. this is a very muslim country and the men usually begin talking with joe. i do chime in and they are totally cool with that, so it's been fun!
the best part about the panoramic overlook was the monkeys. tons of macaques, all ages and sizes, being their mischevious little selves. if an unknowing passerby walked by with a plastic bag and wasn't paying attention, the monkeys would try to steal it! it was crazy. we saw a couple kids get scared at almost being attacked by animals about half their size. no one got hurt, though. we had a fantastic vantage point from the tower overlook we were sitting in (about 2 stories high). we sat there for a good long while watching people feed the monkeys peanuts as well as watching the juvenile monkeys horse around with each other.
it was a pretty awesome day. we finished it up with some dinner at another street shop and played on the super slow internet for a short while.
today (11/7/08) was another fun day of relaxing and exploring. we opted not to take a super packed crazy all day tour (120 km) of many sights and villages outside the town. instead we found our way towards the bottom of the canyon, walked across a rickety bridge to the other side to koto gadang. it was a sleepy mountain town that i'm sure at one time had been a great tourist destination to watch fine silver jewlery made. a nice elderly gentleman came up to us and began chatting. we just happened to be walking in the same direction, and he told us the names of his english teachers from the 50's! great memory! i hope i'm that sharp when i'm his age. we enjoyed some tea and snacks (not really sure what we were eating, but they were tasty!) at a cute little shop. i ended up buying earrings from the man who both ran the shop and made the jewlery. the stuff was so intricate, so beautiful!
we wandered around town a little more, bought some gifts and had the best time hanging out with the elementary school kids who just finished up school. they loved talking to us and we got a great picture with them. we were sad that we didn't bring anything with us to give out - they were asking for pens. we had no idea we'd get such an opportunity and will try to be more prepared next time. it was so awesome hearing their giggles and laughter as well as seeing their smiles and shocked faces when we spoke to them in indonesian (thanks to our trusty lonely planet phrasebook!). it was such a special afternoon.
we made our back back across the canyon and back up to the tower overlook for some more monkey gazing. it was a slow afternoon for the furry cuties, but still fun to watch. we grabbed some dinner and then back to the overlook to watch the sunset. believe it or not, i was cold! we're about 980 meters above sea level, so it gets nice and cool at night. last night we were walking around with our fleeces on. yay! a little taste of fall in indonesia. phew!
we tried to find the local dance performance, but only came upon a run-down theater. we managed to find the movie theater we were looking for yesterday, but the movie was in indonesian only, so we opted to wander the market instead. joe tried on a couple nice looking fez hats. we'll probably head back tomorrow to see if the price can come down a bit. joe's become quite the good bargainer! i need to take a few more lessons...
and here we are on the internets! hope all of you are well - please make comments or send us email. we love hearing from home!
tomorrow we'll spend the morning/early afternoon here and then head to padang. we fly out early sunday morning to kuala lumpur, malaysia and then another flight to siem reap, cambodia, on monday morning. i'm sad to leave indonesia, as we've had such an amazing time here. on the other hand, i'm really excited for what cambodia has to offer! whee!
first off. yay obama! yay! yay! yay! oh. my. so happy! wheeee!!!!!!!!
on wednesay, november 5th, we took a car with a couple new friends from sweden (hi louisa and oscar! hope you found a flight to jakarta okay!) to the medan (http://redirx.com/?0iuz) airport. our flight was sort of delayed. there was no announcement or update on the boards saying so, but we boarded about an hour after we were supposed to. oh well! the flight was fine and we made it to padang (http://redirx.com/?0iut) just fine. we had another adventure taking a bus to what we thought was another terminal, but wasn't, so took a really expensive taxi ride for like 3 minutes to the next terminal. once there we found the right bus, but had to wait until it was full.
in the meantime, we enjoyed our first real padang meal at a typical roadside restaurant (well, it's on the road, and they set up the temporary restaurant each night. it's quite amazing what they can do with a generator and some plastic tables and chairs). it was the first time we've had to eat with our hands in indonesia and luckily we both read the guide book and had a clue what to do. we had a tasty combo of rice, tempeh and tofu. by the way, the tempeh in this country is amazing. i've been getting it every chance i can get. it puts our packaged/plastic/preserved version to shame! so fresh and so completely tasty totally on its own.
anyways, the bus finally left and we made it to bukittinggi (http://redirx.com/?0iu5). we opted to skip padang on the way up (we'll hit it on saturday). we took this awesome, totally tricked out opelet (minibus the size of a vw van), full with huge speakers and a subwoofer, blue neon lights. it was blaring techno so loud that it took us a while to understand the driver was asking us for a $1 bill. funny! we made it to our hotel and were a little sad the raging party was over.
so, yesterday (11/6/08) started off with a tasty indonesian breakfast of fried rice, noodles with all sorts of tasty spices and super sweet tea. we headed off to explore the city - the market, the clocktower (the clock was made around the same time as big ben and a gift from the queen of holland), the panoramic view over ngarai sianok (a beautiful canyon). we met a parlimentary official from a town south of jakarta (the capital city on the island of java). we've been noticing that a lot of people are not afraid to strike up conversation. we've never had so many random conversation. well, i should say joe, not so much me. this is a very muslim country and the men usually begin talking with joe. i do chime in and they are totally cool with that, so it's been fun!
the best part about the panoramic overlook was the monkeys. tons of macaques, all ages and sizes, being their mischevious little selves. if an unknowing passerby walked by with a plastic bag and wasn't paying attention, the monkeys would try to steal it! it was crazy. we saw a couple kids get scared at almost being attacked by animals about half their size. no one got hurt, though. we had a fantastic vantage point from the tower overlook we were sitting in (about 2 stories high). we sat there for a good long while watching people feed the monkeys peanuts as well as watching the juvenile monkeys horse around with each other.
it was a pretty awesome day. we finished it up with some dinner at another street shop and played on the super slow internet for a short while.
today (11/7/08) was another fun day of relaxing and exploring. we opted not to take a super packed crazy all day tour (120 km) of many sights and villages outside the town. instead we found our way towards the bottom of the canyon, walked across a rickety bridge to the other side to koto gadang. it was a sleepy mountain town that i'm sure at one time had been a great tourist destination to watch fine silver jewlery made. a nice elderly gentleman came up to us and began chatting. we just happened to be walking in the same direction, and he told us the names of his english teachers from the 50's! great memory! i hope i'm that sharp when i'm his age. we enjoyed some tea and snacks (not really sure what we were eating, but they were tasty!) at a cute little shop. i ended up buying earrings from the man who both ran the shop and made the jewlery. the stuff was so intricate, so beautiful!
we wandered around town a little more, bought some gifts and had the best time hanging out with the elementary school kids who just finished up school. they loved talking to us and we got a great picture with them. we were sad that we didn't bring anything with us to give out - they were asking for pens. we had no idea we'd get such an opportunity and will try to be more prepared next time. it was so awesome hearing their giggles and laughter as well as seeing their smiles and shocked faces when we spoke to them in indonesian (thanks to our trusty lonely planet phrasebook!). it was such a special afternoon.
we made our back back across the canyon and back up to the tower overlook for some more monkey gazing. it was a slow afternoon for the furry cuties, but still fun to watch. we grabbed some dinner and then back to the overlook to watch the sunset. believe it or not, i was cold! we're about 980 meters above sea level, so it gets nice and cool at night. last night we were walking around with our fleeces on. yay! a little taste of fall in indonesia. phew!
we tried to find the local dance performance, but only came upon a run-down theater. we managed to find the movie theater we were looking for yesterday, but the movie was in indonesian only, so we opted to wander the market instead. joe tried on a couple nice looking fez hats. we'll probably head back tomorrow to see if the price can come down a bit. joe's become quite the good bargainer! i need to take a few more lessons...
and here we are on the internets! hope all of you are well - please make comments or send us email. we love hearing from home!
tomorrow we'll spend the morning/early afternoon here and then head to padang. we fly out early sunday morning to kuala lumpur, malaysia and then another flight to siem reap, cambodia, on monday morning. i'm sad to leave indonesia, as we've had such an amazing time here. on the other hand, i'm really excited for what cambodia has to offer! whee!
orangutans
My penchant for primates reared its ugly head again, and we decided to visit our simian friends in northern Sumatra. We pre-arranged our 5 modes of transportation, including 2 flights, a taxi ride, 5 hour jeep ride on unmaintained roads, and a 20 minute hike with all our gear. It made for an extremely long day of travel (~14 hours), but we eventually arrived at Bukit Lawang (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bukit_Lawang) which is adjacent to Gunung Leuser National Park (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunung_Leuser_National_Park) where the hairy red guys live.
To have a more intimate experience, you need to trek into the jungle for a few days and see them in their natural habitat. The second you arrive in Bukit Lawang, you are greeted by prospective guides attempting to sell their services. They carry around albums with pictures and testimonials (in various languages) that are endearing. The guides fit the mold of twenty something stoners who are in good physical shape (unusual combination), know the trails, locations where the orangutans hang out, are good salespeople, etc. We arranged a two day, ~15 km excursion on which the majority of the camping gear is hauled for you, meals are cooked for you, and you even get to raft back to Bukit Lawang down a quick flowing river! How bad could it be? I'm honing my bargaining skills, but it still took ~1 hr to arrange the excursion in a combintion of broken english and my extremely limited bahasa Indonesian. The extremely confusing bargaining was fun in a twisted way because the guide and I both said yes to each other when we clearly had no idea what the other person was trying to convey. BTW, Amy is a timid bargainer, but getting better each day. We eventually packed our bags, and tried to get a good night of sleep which was a lost cause because there were maggots on our bed sheets. Eek!
On the first day, I saddled up our pack and we headed for the jungle, stopping by Wawan's house for some rambutan fruit, and passing some women hacking rubber plants with machetes along the way. The hills seemed lush, but manageable. After about an hour of hiking, we stumbled upon a group of 3 females and their young about 30' above the trail. I guess this group was conditioned to humans because they just lounged around the treetops occasionally glancing at us. Amy's hair is a strikingly similar color to to their fur, and I found myself wondering whether they were pondering if Amy was part of their family. The infants and juveniles were really cute, showing their skills off and giving their mothers good reason to reprimand them. The mothers constantly watched our backpacks. I presume they are probably illegally fed by some guides and the food of course comes from their packs. In their presence, I was repeatedly struck by how similar human and great ape behavior is. I've never seriously entertained creationism as an explanation of the emergence of humans, but after spending a short period of time with other simians in the wild, our close relationship is crystal clear. But I digress :)
After saying goodbye, we hiked to a spot to eat some lunch (nasi goreng and fresh pineapple) and then the fun began! Jungles are really, really densely lush with trees, bushes, water and animals everywhere. Trails in this jungle were unlike any I'd seen in my ~15 yrs of hiking in America. Instead of the 1-2' maintained paths that I expected, these were hardly discernible, partially trodden connections of slightly less dense jungle. It is one of the most intense sensory experiences I've ever had, managing my footing along the treacherous path while also trying to look, listen and smell the plethora of inhabitants that would be happy to eat us! To take my mind off the hike, I kept thinking of the etymology of the expression "It's a jungle out there." During his sales pitch, the guide failed to mention how physically gruelling the hike would be. The structure of the hills consisted of extremely steep rocks with a veneer of dirt loosely fastened by the roots of large trees. The torrential downpours of the previous night only exacerbated the situation, transforming the already loose dirt into slippery, clayish mud. In order to go uphill you had to strategically plan each step so that you attained the most solid footing and, if lucky, had a root to balance and pull yourself up with. Downhill was even worse. We had to turn backwards (facing the hill) and repel down the muddy rocks, again using the roots and hoping they would bear your weight. Some gradations of the rock were manageable, but others were over two few feet, so you just had to hold on to the root tightly and hope that your foot not only landed where you intended but that notch would hold your weight. I know this account sounds hyperbolized, but I sincerely considered the likelihood of Amy or I breaking a limb, then being attacked by a gang of macaques who would slowly pick us off one by one. Rangers don't routinely patrol the jungle and they seemed more like nepotistically appointed hikers than well trained rangers, so first aid and evacuation procedures were probably meaningless English terms to them. I've always hoped that I die of a sudden, massive heart attack during an orgasm, but that seemed unlikely at the moment! Luckily the hike required all my concentration, so my wandering mind was quickly refocused.
Next came a small creek that we needed to traverse, which seemed manageable at first blush. What I failed to realize was that another group had snatched our intended campground and that we would need to continue on to the next one. We hiked along the muddy, steep banks of the creek for a little bit and eventually arrived at a small waterfall. I assumed there was a trail that I had failed to see that would lead us perpendicular to the creek, but no, oh no. We climbed down the mossy, notchless rock of the waterfall feet first with our bare hands, hoping we wouldn't fall to the shallow rock creek bed below. Exhausted, we arrived at the swampy base of the waterfall. The mud had such a foul stench, and we had to wade right through it. My shoes still smell. We hiked through some grasslands then on to the dried out portion of a large river bed. We stopped at the bank of a rushing river and everyone took a breather.
During his sales pitch, the guide told us that we'd be crossing a river by raft. You can imagine my shock when we collectively realized that we would have to form a human chain and cross the chest high, fast flowing river (with loose rocks) by foot. A fitting continuation of our hike. I had packed light with limited clothing, so I decided that stripping down in front of my travel companions was better than hiking later in sopping wet clothes. In retrospect, my clothes were already completely drenched with my sweat, so it was unnecessary. We locked hands and attacked the river diagonally. Eroded, smooth rocks look relatively comfortable to walk on, but trust me, they are not. The current was pretty strong and I could feel the grip of both of my hands loosening from my neighbors, my muscles straining and my footing slip. My mind drifted again, pondering my fate if the chain broke and I was sucked downstream. Was I a strong enough swimmer to make my way to shore? Even if I was, I would be separated from the others with no idea how to navigate through a primate packed jungle back to town. The strength of the river bent the otherwise straight chain we had formed, and my attention was refocused. Luckily, the river was only ~50' wide, so we reformed the line at a sharper angle and through some hard work (as well as luck) made it to the other side. Fear and concentration turned into gratitude that Amy and I had made it to camp alive and without any major injuries.
When I have a little more time on my hands, I'll update this post with the rest of the evening's activities.
To have a more intimate experience, you need to trek into the jungle for a few days and see them in their natural habitat. The second you arrive in Bukit Lawang, you are greeted by prospective guides attempting to sell their services. They carry around albums with pictures and testimonials (in various languages) that are endearing. The guides fit the mold of twenty something stoners who are in good physical shape (unusual combination), know the trails, locations where the orangutans hang out, are good salespeople, etc. We arranged a two day, ~15 km excursion on which the majority of the camping gear is hauled for you, meals are cooked for you, and you even get to raft back to Bukit Lawang down a quick flowing river! How bad could it be? I'm honing my bargaining skills, but it still took ~1 hr to arrange the excursion in a combintion of broken english and my extremely limited bahasa Indonesian. The extremely confusing bargaining was fun in a twisted way because the guide and I both said yes to each other when we clearly had no idea what the other person was trying to convey. BTW, Amy is a timid bargainer, but getting better each day. We eventually packed our bags, and tried to get a good night of sleep which was a lost cause because there were maggots on our bed sheets. Eek!
On the first day, I saddled up our pack and we headed for the jungle, stopping by Wawan's house for some rambutan fruit, and passing some women hacking rubber plants with machetes along the way. The hills seemed lush, but manageable. After about an hour of hiking, we stumbled upon a group of 3 females and their young about 30' above the trail. I guess this group was conditioned to humans because they just lounged around the treetops occasionally glancing at us. Amy's hair is a strikingly similar color to to their fur, and I found myself wondering whether they were pondering if Amy was part of their family. The infants and juveniles were really cute, showing their skills off and giving their mothers good reason to reprimand them. The mothers constantly watched our backpacks. I presume they are probably illegally fed by some guides and the food of course comes from their packs. In their presence, I was repeatedly struck by how similar human and great ape behavior is. I've never seriously entertained creationism as an explanation of the emergence of humans, but after spending a short period of time with other simians in the wild, our close relationship is crystal clear. But I digress :)
After saying goodbye, we hiked to a spot to eat some lunch (nasi goreng and fresh pineapple) and then the fun began! Jungles are really, really densely lush with trees, bushes, water and animals everywhere. Trails in this jungle were unlike any I'd seen in my ~15 yrs of hiking in America. Instead of the 1-2' maintained paths that I expected, these were hardly discernible, partially trodden connections of slightly less dense jungle. It is one of the most intense sensory experiences I've ever had, managing my footing along the treacherous path while also trying to look, listen and smell the plethora of inhabitants that would be happy to eat us! To take my mind off the hike, I kept thinking of the etymology of the expression "It's a jungle out there." During his sales pitch, the guide failed to mention how physically gruelling the hike would be. The structure of the hills consisted of extremely steep rocks with a veneer of dirt loosely fastened by the roots of large trees. The torrential downpours of the previous night only exacerbated the situation, transforming the already loose dirt into slippery, clayish mud. In order to go uphill you had to strategically plan each step so that you attained the most solid footing and, if lucky, had a root to balance and pull yourself up with. Downhill was even worse. We had to turn backwards (facing the hill) and repel down the muddy rocks, again using the roots and hoping they would bear your weight. Some gradations of the rock were manageable, but others were over two few feet, so you just had to hold on to the root tightly and hope that your foot not only landed where you intended but that notch would hold your weight. I know this account sounds hyperbolized, but I sincerely considered the likelihood of Amy or I breaking a limb, then being attacked by a gang of macaques who would slowly pick us off one by one. Rangers don't routinely patrol the jungle and they seemed more like nepotistically appointed hikers than well trained rangers, so first aid and evacuation procedures were probably meaningless English terms to them. I've always hoped that I die of a sudden, massive heart attack during an orgasm, but that seemed unlikely at the moment! Luckily the hike required all my concentration, so my wandering mind was quickly refocused.
Next came a small creek that we needed to traverse, which seemed manageable at first blush. What I failed to realize was that another group had snatched our intended campground and that we would need to continue on to the next one. We hiked along the muddy, steep banks of the creek for a little bit and eventually arrived at a small waterfall. I assumed there was a trail that I had failed to see that would lead us perpendicular to the creek, but no, oh no. We climbed down the mossy, notchless rock of the waterfall feet first with our bare hands, hoping we wouldn't fall to the shallow rock creek bed below. Exhausted, we arrived at the swampy base of the waterfall. The mud had such a foul stench, and we had to wade right through it. My shoes still smell. We hiked through some grasslands then on to the dried out portion of a large river bed. We stopped at the bank of a rushing river and everyone took a breather.
During his sales pitch, the guide told us that we'd be crossing a river by raft. You can imagine my shock when we collectively realized that we would have to form a human chain and cross the chest high, fast flowing river (with loose rocks) by foot. A fitting continuation of our hike. I had packed light with limited clothing, so I decided that stripping down in front of my travel companions was better than hiking later in sopping wet clothes. In retrospect, my clothes were already completely drenched with my sweat, so it was unnecessary. We locked hands and attacked the river diagonally. Eroded, smooth rocks look relatively comfortable to walk on, but trust me, they are not. The current was pretty strong and I could feel the grip of both of my hands loosening from my neighbors, my muscles straining and my footing slip. My mind drifted again, pondering my fate if the chain broke and I was sucked downstream. Was I a strong enough swimmer to make my way to shore? Even if I was, I would be separated from the others with no idea how to navigate through a primate packed jungle back to town. The strength of the river bent the otherwise straight chain we had formed, and my attention was refocused. Luckily, the river was only ~50' wide, so we reformed the line at a sharper angle and through some hard work (as well as luck) made it to the other side. Fear and concentration turned into gratitude that Amy and I had made it to camp alive and without any major injuries.
When I have a little more time on my hands, I'll update this post with the rest of the evening's activities.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
temples galore
We arrived in Yogya a few days back and immediately made our plans for the week. Yogya is short for Yogyakarta, pronounced Joe-jha-karta, and is a major city in central Java. We arranged a tour on 10/30/'08 of the two big temples nearby: Prambanan (Hindu and Buddhist) and Borobudur (Buddhist).
Leaving at a relaxed 10am, we took a private, air-conditioned 30 min bus ride to the town of Prambanan. Nice ride. Paid the exorbitantly high admission (by Indonesian standards), hired a tour guide and started exploring. My understanding is a bit incomplete, but IIRC there are three main Hindu temples devoted to Brahma (creator), Siva (destroyer) and Vishnu (protector). There are also 3 adjacent temples devoted to their wheels/ride to the heavens, such as horses, elephants and such. The main temples are huge, with reliefs carved in the side telling the respective stories. They were restoring them, so we couldn't get as close as we'd like to admire the detailed reliefs, but the sheer effort to build such a sprititual monument was striking nonetheless. Surrounding these 6 main temples are hundreds of smaller temples for the 4 non-kingly castes. They are ruins really because they were destroyed by volcano Merapi and not yet rebuilt. I couldn't help but imagine what it must of have been like standing at the main temple looking at thousands of people praying at their respective temples.
At Prambanan, the main attraction is what I just described, but there are also Buddhist temples off the beaten path, so we decided to go. These were really in a state of disrepair, destroyed by the volcano and not rebuilt yet because of local corruption by the equivalent of an American union. The Buddhist temples had more of a peaceful/meditative vibe, rather than mythological and epic story feeling of the Hindu temples. They were also a little more fun to explore because you could walk inside and see the statues and reliefs up close. The massive temples with clear bright blue sky and puffy white clouds in the background made for a beautiful (albeit hot) environment to explore.
It is when we left Prambanan that the transport adventures/hell began. On the way, we noticed a naked woman sitting roadside (prostitute? crazy?) that unnerved me a little. The direct trip from Prambanan to Borobudur should have taken about a half hour via bus. However, after that period of time, we noticed that the driver was taking small roads and looking for signage. I won't go on a long rant, but suffice to say that despite us clearly deliniating what transport we were paying for, the driver took an extremely circuitous, unagreed upon route to make a few extra bucks. The worst thing is that it wasted a few hours that we could be exploring the awesome temples with. I was enraged and fought with the driver for a really long time, and eventually got some cash back, but the principle of it really ate away at me. I eventually got over it, and we enjoyed Borobudur too, but it was an odd series of emotions, from spiritual to viscerally angry (almost physical), back to spiritual. The driver even tried to return us home by 4:30pm, totally negating the point of the 'sunset tour of the temples'! Enough about transport.
We eventually took a bus with a few french tourists to Borobudur. Once we arrived, the torrential downpours started almost immediately, so we grabbed some lunch and javanese coffee. BTW, Javanese coffee rocks! They brew it with the grinds still in and it is strong, but not acidic. Don't worry, we bought some for you all to try. Normal coffee reaks havoc on my stomach, but Javanese is smooth. We put on our raincoats and started the 1/2 mile walk up to the temple. It is massive, with meditating Buddhas in every direction! It is organized in the shape of layered rectangles (akin to concentric circles) with around 6 or so tiers. As you walk clockwise around the structure and up the tiers, it tells the story of Buddha and espouses the teachings of Buddhism. We couldn't make out much of the story from the reliefs, but it was still peaceful and neat to walk through at sunset. Once you reach the top, there are stupas everywhere with Buddhas inside them! The temple is adjacent to the Merapi volcano and a large mountain range (probably formed by Merapi). To boot, it was misty/foggy out, so it had this misty mountain spiritual vibe. Apparently the volcano erupted ~1K A.D., driving all the surviving residents to east java, so the temple is no longer active (at least not by the local community). There are persistent (almost comically so) hawkers along the exit, which is in sharp contrast to our time at the temple.
Leaving at a relaxed 10am, we took a private, air-conditioned 30 min bus ride to the town of Prambanan. Nice ride. Paid the exorbitantly high admission (by Indonesian standards), hired a tour guide and started exploring. My understanding is a bit incomplete, but IIRC there are three main Hindu temples devoted to Brahma (creator), Siva (destroyer) and Vishnu (protector). There are also 3 adjacent temples devoted to their wheels/ride to the heavens, such as horses, elephants and such. The main temples are huge, with reliefs carved in the side telling the respective stories. They were restoring them, so we couldn't get as close as we'd like to admire the detailed reliefs, but the sheer effort to build such a sprititual monument was striking nonetheless. Surrounding these 6 main temples are hundreds of smaller temples for the 4 non-kingly castes. They are ruins really because they were destroyed by volcano Merapi and not yet rebuilt. I couldn't help but imagine what it must of have been like standing at the main temple looking at thousands of people praying at their respective temples.
At Prambanan, the main attraction is what I just described, but there are also Buddhist temples off the beaten path, so we decided to go. These were really in a state of disrepair, destroyed by the volcano and not rebuilt yet because of local corruption by the equivalent of an American union. The Buddhist temples had more of a peaceful/meditative vibe, rather than mythological and epic story feeling of the Hindu temples. They were also a little more fun to explore because you could walk inside and see the statues and reliefs up close. The massive temples with clear bright blue sky and puffy white clouds in the background made for a beautiful (albeit hot) environment to explore.
It is when we left Prambanan that the transport adventures/hell began. On the way, we noticed a naked woman sitting roadside (prostitute? crazy?) that unnerved me a little. The direct trip from Prambanan to Borobudur should have taken about a half hour via bus. However, after that period of time, we noticed that the driver was taking small roads and looking for signage. I won't go on a long rant, but suffice to say that despite us clearly deliniating what transport we were paying for, the driver took an extremely circuitous, unagreed upon route to make a few extra bucks. The worst thing is that it wasted a few hours that we could be exploring the awesome temples with. I was enraged and fought with the driver for a really long time, and eventually got some cash back, but the principle of it really ate away at me. I eventually got over it, and we enjoyed Borobudur too, but it was an odd series of emotions, from spiritual to viscerally angry (almost physical), back to spiritual. The driver even tried to return us home by 4:30pm, totally negating the point of the 'sunset tour of the temples'! Enough about transport.
We eventually took a bus with a few french tourists to Borobudur. Once we arrived, the torrential downpours started almost immediately, so we grabbed some lunch and javanese coffee. BTW, Javanese coffee rocks! They brew it with the grinds still in and it is strong, but not acidic. Don't worry, we bought some for you all to try. Normal coffee reaks havoc on my stomach, but Javanese is smooth. We put on our raincoats and started the 1/2 mile walk up to the temple. It is massive, with meditating Buddhas in every direction! It is organized in the shape of layered rectangles (akin to concentric circles) with around 6 or so tiers. As you walk clockwise around the structure and up the tiers, it tells the story of Buddha and espouses the teachings of Buddhism. We couldn't make out much of the story from the reliefs, but it was still peaceful and neat to walk through at sunset. Once you reach the top, there are stupas everywhere with Buddhas inside them! The temple is adjacent to the Merapi volcano and a large mountain range (probably formed by Merapi). To boot, it was misty/foggy out, so it had this misty mountain spiritual vibe. Apparently the volcano erupted ~1K A.D., driving all the surviving residents to east java, so the temple is no longer active (at least not by the local community). There are persistent (almost comically so) hawkers along the exit, which is in sharp contrast to our time at the temple.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Halloween in Jogja
happy halloween from jogja (yogyakarta)! we went to a wayan kulit (shadow puppet performance) tonight and felt slightly halloween-y. what did you all do? :)
i know it's been a few days, so in case we don't have time to catch up for a bit, i'll give you the quick run down. on the 25th, we took the train from malang to solo (surakarta) and fell in love with the town. it didn't hurt that the world heritage cities festival and conference was also going on. we lucked out with seeing many cultural performances from groups all over indonesia as well as a parade! at the parade we met a very nice university student, adam, who showed me around the parade to get the best pics. let me clarify that - he led me *into* the parade to get photos! i was dodging performers! it was awesome! we ended up having dinner with him and his friend the next night. they showed us around the main festival grounds and we got such a better appreciation of everything. not only that, but they were a ton of fun to hang out with. and ladies, they're single, so don't miss out! :)
we also took a bicycle tour through the countryside and got to see how tons of local products are made. it was very educational and beautiful at the same time. the bike seat was rather hard, so my behind was happy to fit a nice comfy seat when we were all done. it seems we couldn't get enough of the bikes, so we took another motorcycle tour (still didn't drive on this one) into the surrounding mountains to visit two temples - candi sukuh and candi ceto. incredibly beautiful and with few tourists. we like the less touristy areas. unfortunately we were caught in a crazy delgue on the way home and were soaked through, partially due to the rain, partially due to the flooded streets. we showered, ate dinner and hopped on another train to jogja. it was a cross between a subway and a commuter train. i loved the open windows and wind. i'm finding i really appreciate it when i'm not sweating.
so, to jogja! and the rainy season! :) the first day here was a catch up day of firming up our flights to sumatra and within sumatra. we also booked a tour to the big temples outside the city - prambanan and borobudur. we did some wandering around the city as well - it's a much larger city than we thought! the second day we saw the temples (and had an awful experience with the tour company - adi. don't use them! they added stops in without telling us *after* we clarified with them our itinerary). they were amazing and we managed to dodge the rain. very exciting. today we did more wandering around, including finding a batik art center. very nice. we also ran into a few locals that were very friendly and very helpful - knowing full well the types of "friends" and "guides" that chase after tourists. it was refreshing.
tomorrow we hope to meet up with nancy's friend, sarah, who lives here with her family. and then on sunday we fly to medan in sumatra and hope to be in bukit lawang by sunday night to see the orangutans!
i know it's been a few days, so in case we don't have time to catch up for a bit, i'll give you the quick run down. on the 25th, we took the train from malang to solo (surakarta) and fell in love with the town. it didn't hurt that the world heritage cities festival and conference was also going on. we lucked out with seeing many cultural performances from groups all over indonesia as well as a parade! at the parade we met a very nice university student, adam, who showed me around the parade to get the best pics. let me clarify that - he led me *into* the parade to get photos! i was dodging performers! it was awesome! we ended up having dinner with him and his friend the next night. they showed us around the main festival grounds and we got such a better appreciation of everything. not only that, but they were a ton of fun to hang out with. and ladies, they're single, so don't miss out! :)
we also took a bicycle tour through the countryside and got to see how tons of local products are made. it was very educational and beautiful at the same time. the bike seat was rather hard, so my behind was happy to fit a nice comfy seat when we were all done. it seems we couldn't get enough of the bikes, so we took another motorcycle tour (still didn't drive on this one) into the surrounding mountains to visit two temples - candi sukuh and candi ceto. incredibly beautiful and with few tourists. we like the less touristy areas. unfortunately we were caught in a crazy delgue on the way home and were soaked through, partially due to the rain, partially due to the flooded streets. we showered, ate dinner and hopped on another train to jogja. it was a cross between a subway and a commuter train. i loved the open windows and wind. i'm finding i really appreciate it when i'm not sweating.
so, to jogja! and the rainy season! :) the first day here was a catch up day of firming up our flights to sumatra and within sumatra. we also booked a tour to the big temples outside the city - prambanan and borobudur. we did some wandering around the city as well - it's a much larger city than we thought! the second day we saw the temples (and had an awful experience with the tour company - adi. don't use them! they added stops in without telling us *after* we clarified with them our itinerary). they were amazing and we managed to dodge the rain. very exciting. today we did more wandering around, including finding a batik art center. very nice. we also ran into a few locals that were very friendly and very helpful - knowing full well the types of "friends" and "guides" that chase after tourists. it was refreshing.
tomorrow we hope to meet up with nancy's friend, sarah, who lives here with her family. and then on sunday we fly to medan in sumatra and hope to be in bukit lawang by sunday night to see the orangutans!
Saturday, October 25, 2008
pic upload
The internet connectivity in Indonesia has been really slow so far, so we're taking the tack of uploading low resolution versions of our pictures for now (thx for the suggestion Toma!). When we return home in January, we'll upload the high-resolution originals/negatives. The internet connection in Malang is the fastest so far in Indonesia, so I uploaded these albums:
- Tokyo, 10/08/08 (http://fonduefighter.smugmug.com/gallery/6226831_jmSrC#401788826_icRJz)
- Kyoto, 10/9/'08 (http://fonduefighter.smugmug.com/gallery/6226846_w7EfE#401793812_Pq9d5)
- Kyoto, 10/10/'08 (http://fonduefighter.smugmug.com/gallery/6226850_jqYSL)
- Tokyo, 10/12/08 (http://fonduefighter.smugmug.com/gallery/6226858_YLTnu#401813555_EbtSB)
- Flying from Tokyo to Bali, 10/12/'08 (http://fonduefighter.smugmug.com/gallery/6226864_Zpurp/1/401798738_pQEbx#401798738_pQEbx)
- Sanur, Bali, 10/13/'08 (http://fonduefighter.smugmug.com/gallery/6226870_2rJ6u#401816590_zrRTc)
- Bali Orchid Garden (10/14/'08) (http://fonduefighter.smugmug.com/gallery/6359663_RKDRt#401811407_yu3Hr)
- Kuta, Bali (10/16/'08) (http://fonduefighter.smugmug.com/gallery/6359706_Pz5vc#401817800_qWm4A)
- Ubud Palace, Bali (10/16/'08) (http://fonduefighter.smugmug.com/gallery/6359727_u2S5i#401820498_gY7iA)
- Kecak Fire Dance, Ubud, Bali (10/20/'08) (http://fonduefighter.smugmug.com/gallery/6359714_PS8qo#401820335_zj8bg)
Friday, October 24, 2008
mmm...malang
we have arrived in malang, found a hotel with hot water and a fast internet cafe. yay! the last few days have been jam packed with adventure, so i'll try to get my thoughts in order and write separate posts on them.
we arrived in town in the afternoon, found a hotel, grabbed some food and then walked around. there is a lot of dutch colonial influence here and it can be seen quite clearly in a lot of the architecture. not to mention all the tulips in one of the traffic circles! we wandered through a bird/fish/animal market and saw birds, bunnies, crickets, cats, a squirrel (we think) and don't really want to imagine where these animals go when they are sold.
we also had an adventure crossing the street. it's sort of mayhem and since they drive on the left side of the street, it seems like anytime is a good time to make a left turn. the lane markers also seem to be for decoration rather than anything else, so between the cars and motorbikes, it can be much like a game of frogger to get across the street! the sidewalks are also not very well maintained, so you need to keep an eye out where you're walking.
malang is a much larger city than we had imagined from the guidebook. we're not sure how long we're going to stay - maybe leave tomorrow or the next day - before heading to solo or yogjakarta.
well, i'll try to work on the other posts now. hope everyone is having a good october! please comment or email us, we miss you!
we arrived in town in the afternoon, found a hotel, grabbed some food and then walked around. there is a lot of dutch colonial influence here and it can be seen quite clearly in a lot of the architecture. not to mention all the tulips in one of the traffic circles! we wandered through a bird/fish/animal market and saw birds, bunnies, crickets, cats, a squirrel (we think) and don't really want to imagine where these animals go when they are sold.
we also had an adventure crossing the street. it's sort of mayhem and since they drive on the left side of the street, it seems like anytime is a good time to make a left turn. the lane markers also seem to be for decoration rather than anything else, so between the cars and motorbikes, it can be much like a game of frogger to get across the street! the sidewalks are also not very well maintained, so you need to keep an eye out where you're walking.
malang is a much larger city than we had imagined from the guidebook. we're not sure how long we're going to stay - maybe leave tomorrow or the next day - before heading to solo or yogjakarta.
well, i'll try to work on the other posts now. hope everyone is having a good october! please comment or email us, we miss you!
sunrise in the mountains
so, up we were at 3:15am and ready to take an hour long jeep ride up the mountain to see the sunrise. when we got there, we realized we left the camera in the room, so we rented a digital one and then had the pics burned on a cd (which is why they've uploaded so quickly!). the sunrise was awesome. it was a bit cloudy, but still worth the trip. we were amazed at how many people were there, as cemoro lawang seemed somewhat deserted. the jeep then took us down to bromo and we opted to stay on the ground rather than go with the throngs of people up those stairs again. we enjoyed people/jeep/donkey watching.
upon return to the hotel we had breakfast with the dutch man that rode the minibus from probolingo to cemoro lawang with us. he had been traveling for about 2 months already and gave us some good insight into thailand. we then rested up in our room (nice little power nap), before packing up and heading out.
we met up with our motorbike guides and hopped on the back. i rode with my backpack strapped to my back, and joe's bag was in front of his driver. we made our way down that very steep rode and across the sandy sea (as they call it) and were completely amazed by the sights. sheer beauty. amazing changes in scenery. it was breath-taking and jaw dropping. we made our way up into the mountains on the other side of bromo and through several villages. we stopped and trekked down to a beautiful waterfall. we saw the farming change from chive and greens, to palms (we think for palm sugar) back to rice. words completely fail to describe how awesome it was. i will work on that though!
upon return to the hotel we had breakfast with the dutch man that rode the minibus from probolingo to cemoro lawang with us. he had been traveling for about 2 months already and gave us some good insight into thailand. we then rested up in our room (nice little power nap), before packing up and heading out.
we met up with our motorbike guides and hopped on the back. i rode with my backpack strapped to my back, and joe's bag was in front of his driver. we made our way down that very steep rode and across the sandy sea (as they call it) and were completely amazed by the sights. sheer beauty. amazing changes in scenery. it was breath-taking and jaw dropping. we made our way up into the mountains on the other side of bromo and through several villages. we stopped and trekked down to a beautiful waterfall. we saw the farming change from chive and greens, to palms (we think for palm sugar) back to rice. words completely fail to describe how awesome it was. i will work on that though!
Thursday, October 23, 2008
beautiful bromo
when we finally arrived at cemoro lawang (on the crater overlooking mt. bromo in java: http://wikitravel.org/en/Mount_Bromo) at around 4 or so in the morning, we booked ourselves into a cheap room and promptly fell asleep. miraculously, i managed to sleep until 10:30. joe had been up for a bit, so we promptly headed out to grab some lunch before trekking to mt. bromo.
the hike was awesome. it started by walking down a long, steep road to the bottom of the huge crater. we then crossed a very sandy, desert area before making our way to the base of mt. bromo. there was a temple there that seemed in stark contrast to the natural beauty. we wound our way up to the bottom of the steep stairs - there were about 240 of them, and dad, you would have been fine on the way up, but not on the way down since they were so steep! we made it to the top and were rewarded with an awesome view into the volcano. it was spewing sulfur gas, which didn't smell so good, but looked amazing, especially as the wind shifted and you could see more of the inside. there were a bunch of junior high school kids that rode their motorbikes all the way from probolingo (about 1.5 hours) that chatted us up. the funniest part was when they asked joe for a picture. we thought they wanted him to take their picture. nope! they wanted a picture with him! it was so cute! we asked them to take one with our camera, but it didn't come out, so we don't have it to show you all. on the way down from bromo, they asked for joe's card. the one boy didn't have email, but he had a friendster account!
after sweating our little hearts out up that big volcano, we realized we needed some additional input on our next day's activities (sunrise viewing and finding our way to malang). joe thought he saw a hotel lobby, so we went it. we realized after we started talking to the group of men on the couch, that we were actually at the ranger station. yup, it took us a few minutes to realize all the men were in uniform! it was a wonderfully serendipitous meeting, as we got to practice our indonesian (read: try out phrases from the phrasebook) and chatted about politics, how many rangers are in our national parks and enjoyed many laughs.
after that, we chowed on dinner and went to bed early, as we planned on the sunrise trip up to another peak in the area, penanjakan, that left our accomodations at 3:45am! we had also arranged for motorbike transport to a town not far from malang that would leave around 10am the next day.
the hike was awesome. it started by walking down a long, steep road to the bottom of the huge crater. we then crossed a very sandy, desert area before making our way to the base of mt. bromo. there was a temple there that seemed in stark contrast to the natural beauty. we wound our way up to the bottom of the steep stairs - there were about 240 of them, and dad, you would have been fine on the way up, but not on the way down since they were so steep! we made it to the top and were rewarded with an awesome view into the volcano. it was spewing sulfur gas, which didn't smell so good, but looked amazing, especially as the wind shifted and you could see more of the inside. there were a bunch of junior high school kids that rode their motorbikes all the way from probolingo (about 1.5 hours) that chatted us up. the funniest part was when they asked joe for a picture. we thought they wanted him to take their picture. nope! they wanted a picture with him! it was so cute! we asked them to take one with our camera, but it didn't come out, so we don't have it to show you all. on the way down from bromo, they asked for joe's card. the one boy didn't have email, but he had a friendster account!
after sweating our little hearts out up that big volcano, we realized we needed some additional input on our next day's activities (sunrise viewing and finding our way to malang). joe thought he saw a hotel lobby, so we went it. we realized after we started talking to the group of men on the couch, that we were actually at the ranger station. yup, it took us a few minutes to realize all the men were in uniform! it was a wonderfully serendipitous meeting, as we got to practice our indonesian (read: try out phrases from the phrasebook) and chatted about politics, how many rangers are in our national parks and enjoyed many laughs.
after that, we chowed on dinner and went to bed early, as we planned on the sunrise trip up to another peak in the area, penanjakan, that left our accomodations at 3:45am! we had also arranged for motorbike transport to a town not far from malang that would leave around 10am the next day.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
batik
Amy and I had the most wonderful day making Batiks! We're currently in Ubud (Bali) and took an all day course.
This wiki article describes the process a bit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batik However, the process we learned was a little different. First you create a drawing using pencil. After much erasing and redrawing, you are eventually satisfied with the sketch and use a black marker to embolden the lines. Then you stretch a thin piece of cotton, which will later become the Batik, over the paper and re-trace the same image on the cotton using pencil. Then you transfer the cotton sheet to a frame and employ a tool to draw thin lines of wax over the lines you penciled in. The wax will act as a negative. Once the wax dries, they stretch the cotton out horizontally and you get to paint on it using a variety of dyes. The intensity of the paint/dye you use will be apparent in the final product, so this isn't just a fill in the dots type exercise. Once you finished painting, you expose the light sensitive dye to sunlight and let it dry. At this point, the dye is dry, but hasn't been 'set' or 'fixed'. Next, you use these large bronze stamps to impress wax in different shapes over the image you painted. Once the wax dries, you paint again using different color dyes. So, each layer that you waxed and painted retains it's color, and the unwaxed portions take on the cumulative color. Finally, you set the dyes (using a chemical) and dip the batik in boiling water to remove the wax, and voila! Amy's came out awesome. It has a tree, stream, and lots of random shapes. Mine came out pretty well too. I tried to replicate one of the orchids from the garden the other day.
A man named Widya taught the course. He was super patient with us first-timers and taught us a bunch of tricks to cover up our mistakes. He even brought us out for dinner and will be driving us to catch our crazy bus to Yogyakarta (pronounced Joe-gug-Jah-kart-ahhh) tomorrow.
This wiki article describes the process a bit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batik However, the process we learned was a little different. First you create a drawing using pencil. After much erasing and redrawing, you are eventually satisfied with the sketch and use a black marker to embolden the lines. Then you stretch a thin piece of cotton, which will later become the Batik, over the paper and re-trace the same image on the cotton using pencil. Then you transfer the cotton sheet to a frame and employ a tool to draw thin lines of wax over the lines you penciled in. The wax will act as a negative. Once the wax dries, they stretch the cotton out horizontally and you get to paint on it using a variety of dyes. The intensity of the paint/dye you use will be apparent in the final product, so this isn't just a fill in the dots type exercise. Once you finished painting, you expose the light sensitive dye to sunlight and let it dry. At this point, the dye is dry, but hasn't been 'set' or 'fixed'. Next, you use these large bronze stamps to impress wax in different shapes over the image you painted. Once the wax dries, you paint again using different color dyes. So, each layer that you waxed and painted retains it's color, and the unwaxed portions take on the cumulative color. Finally, you set the dyes (using a chemical) and dip the batik in boiling water to remove the wax, and voila! Amy's came out awesome. It has a tree, stream, and lots of random shapes. Mine came out pretty well too. I tried to replicate one of the orchids from the garden the other day.
A man named Widya taught the course. He was super patient with us first-timers and taught us a bunch of tricks to cover up our mistakes. He even brought us out for dinner and will be driving us to catch our crazy bus to Yogyakarta (pronounced Joe-gug-Jah-kart-ahhh) tomorrow.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Kecak
Amy and I just saw "Monkey Chant" ritual tonight called Kecak, and it was rad! If you've ever seen the movie Baraka, the vocals resembled the ka-ka-ka portion recorded at a temple. It takes place at a Balinese temple and consists of around 100 or so actors and actresses. Around 75 half naked men gather around in a circle and make this repetitive noise that is supposed to sound like Monkey calls. The are sort of like the musical accompaniment to the Ramayana epic that is being acted out by other costumed actors. I found a web page that describes it in a little more detail: http://music.ucsc.edu/swarasanti/bali/kecak.html
At the end of the epic is this huge monkey fight, which was chaotic, funny and a little scary. A bunch of men run onto stage playing the monkeys and take a swig of gas (yes, unleaded petrol) from a glass jar and blow it straight up in the air past lit torches which they are holding. The effect is these mushroom clouds of flame. There was a Japanese couple sitting next to us and the woman freaked a bit because the performers are only about 10ft away and you actually were heated up by the flame. The cutest (yet sad) thing was a young boy viewing the performance who was wigging out at all the scarily dressed princes from the Ramayana. We'll have pictures, and even movies, to share when we return.
At the end of the epic is this huge monkey fight, which was chaotic, funny and a little scary. A bunch of men run onto stage playing the monkeys and take a swig of gas (yes, unleaded petrol) from a glass jar and blow it straight up in the air past lit torches which they are holding. The effect is these mushroom clouds of flame. There was a Japanese couple sitting next to us and the woman freaked a bit because the performers are only about 10ft away and you actually were heated up by the flame. The cutest (yet sad) thing was a young boy viewing the performance who was wigging out at all the scarily dressed princes from the Ramayana. We'll have pictures, and even movies, to share when we return.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
krazy kuta
here we are in kuta! joe's been updating our sanur and ubud adventures prior to today, so i'll give you a different update!
as joe mentioned, we got here yesterday (friday, october 17th) after experiencing the medical system first hand here in bali. while joe rested in bed, i wandered around the town, starting with watching the sunset over the beach. this place is crowded! it's like a college town, on the beach, with tons of australians and a ridiculous number of hawkers - people asking you constantly if you want transport or to see their shop or any other number of things you could waste money on. it's got almost a frenetic vibe to it, which is hard to get used to after the calm and culture of ubud. i managed to talk a vendor down from 80,000 rp to 30,000 for a pair of cheap sandals (my chacos have been giving me blisters). i know! an achievement!
needless to say, there is plenty of good people watching. and great food. i tried some gado-gado yesterday (veggies in peanut sauce). yum! i love the food - the spices, the flavors, the vegetables and the rice. it's awesome. i picked up a book in ubud that is all about an australian's love affair with the country and its people and how she married a local from ubud and moved there. she opened a restaurant and even has a cooking school! if we make it back to ubud, i might take a cooking class.
oh yeah, i should mention that while joe was resting in ubud, i took a wood carving class one afternoon and made a mask. it's pretty rad and i got the chance to explain what halloween was to my teacher. it was fun!
well, we're rounding out 1.5 hours at the internet cafe (and yes! uploaded 15 pictures!), so it's time to get moving to the beach so joe can see the sunset. it's beautiful.
miss you all and keep writing!
as joe mentioned, we got here yesterday (friday, october 17th) after experiencing the medical system first hand here in bali. while joe rested in bed, i wandered around the town, starting with watching the sunset over the beach. this place is crowded! it's like a college town, on the beach, with tons of australians and a ridiculous number of hawkers - people asking you constantly if you want transport or to see their shop or any other number of things you could waste money on. it's got almost a frenetic vibe to it, which is hard to get used to after the calm and culture of ubud. i managed to talk a vendor down from 80,000 rp to 30,000 for a pair of cheap sandals (my chacos have been giving me blisters). i know! an achievement!
needless to say, there is plenty of good people watching. and great food. i tried some gado-gado yesterday (veggies in peanut sauce). yum! i love the food - the spices, the flavors, the vegetables and the rice. it's awesome. i picked up a book in ubud that is all about an australian's love affair with the country and its people and how she married a local from ubud and moved there. she opened a restaurant and even has a cooking school! if we make it back to ubud, i might take a cooking class.
oh yeah, i should mention that while joe was resting in ubud, i took a wood carving class one afternoon and made a mask. it's pretty rad and i got the chance to explain what halloween was to my teacher. it was fun!
well, we're rounding out 1.5 hours at the internet cafe (and yes! uploaded 15 pictures!), so it's time to get moving to the beach so joe can see the sunset. it's beautiful.
miss you all and keep writing!
die amoebae, die !
Three days ago, Amy and I went to a great Balinese dance in Ubud. It was a traditional dance with lots of animistic elements, elaborate costumes and neat stories that are acted out. It was really hot at the dance (at 7pm!), so I was sweating profusely and almost passed out. Some chocolate cake and mint tea for dessert seemed to make me feel better that night, so I thought it was a transient issue and didn't pay much mind. We went back to our hotel (Alam Indah) and I promptly decided to take a bath and fell asleep for around 30mins in the tub. I showered, then got into bed and immediately fell asleep which is unusual after I've napped that late in the evening.
I woke up at 6am (uncharacteristicly early for me) the next morning feeling really strange. My head felt hot so I took an Alleve (which I was supposed to take for something else anyway) and went back to sleep. Breakfast is included at most of the inns here, so Amy and I moseyed up to the veranda, sat down and felt really lightheaded again. I went back to the room and passed out for a few hours. When I woke up, I realized that something was definitely wrong. To be cautious, I started taking Cipro which is what the travel Dr in Philadelphia had told me to do. Checkout was at 12pm, so Amy was nice enough to research and book our next accomodations (at the Royal Palace in Ubud). The rest of my day consisted of advil and sleep -- I think I slept 20 of the 24 hours. The only other experience I've had that was comparable was a boat ride to the farallon islands (off SF) with Amy and Ron that I got so sick on I was dry heaving for seven hours and quasi suicidal by the end (ahh the memories). Even on advil, my fever was over one hundred, so Amy called our travel insurance company to find us a doctor. She wound up speaking to a physician on the phone and making an appointment for the next day. Incidentally, the Royal palace reminded me of a superficial person who is beautiful on the outside but horrible on the inside as the exterior structures of the palace and grounds were absolutely beautiful, but the rooms were dingy. They were the only accomodations available, so we made due.
We took an air conditioned taxi (b/c of my fever) from Ubud down to Kuta which is the tourist mecca of Bali, but also has the best western medical clinic too. They took a bunch of blood to run tests on and told me they would contact me. The doctor said it might be Dengue fever! I was a little freaked out because Dengue fever takes at least 2 weeks to recover from (maybe longer), is really painful, and it would probably ruin the majority of our Indonesian travels. Amy took me out to lunch all hopped up on advil, cipro and with a high fever, so she said it was a really entertaining meal because I was cracked out and funny, making all sorts of Dengue jokes. If you're reading this blog Matt and Charis, it reminded me of the Moldovan Syphilis string of jokes. My fever eventually broke that evening, but then my GI system went haywire. It has been a shitty few days :) The clinic ran some more tests and figured out that I have a colony of amoebae living in my gut! They prescribed me flagil (sp?) that specifically targets the pesky pathogens. The Dr called this morning and the Dengue tests came back negative -- yay! So, cross your fingers as the crisis seems to be averted for now. I think I'm going to pay more attention to which drinks have water and/or ice in them.
I woke up at 6am (uncharacteristicly early for me) the next morning feeling really strange. My head felt hot so I took an Alleve (which I was supposed to take for something else anyway) and went back to sleep. Breakfast is included at most of the inns here, so Amy and I moseyed up to the veranda, sat down and felt really lightheaded again. I went back to the room and passed out for a few hours. When I woke up, I realized that something was definitely wrong. To be cautious, I started taking Cipro which is what the travel Dr in Philadelphia had told me to do. Checkout was at 12pm, so Amy was nice enough to research and book our next accomodations (at the Royal Palace in Ubud). The rest of my day consisted of advil and sleep -- I think I slept 20 of the 24 hours. The only other experience I've had that was comparable was a boat ride to the farallon islands (off SF) with Amy and Ron that I got so sick on I was dry heaving for seven hours and quasi suicidal by the end (ahh the memories). Even on advil, my fever was over one hundred, so Amy called our travel insurance company to find us a doctor. She wound up speaking to a physician on the phone and making an appointment for the next day. Incidentally, the Royal palace reminded me of a superficial person who is beautiful on the outside but horrible on the inside as the exterior structures of the palace and grounds were absolutely beautiful, but the rooms were dingy. They were the only accomodations available, so we made due.
We took an air conditioned taxi (b/c of my fever) from Ubud down to Kuta which is the tourist mecca of Bali, but also has the best western medical clinic too. They took a bunch of blood to run tests on and told me they would contact me. The doctor said it might be Dengue fever! I was a little freaked out because Dengue fever takes at least 2 weeks to recover from (maybe longer), is really painful, and it would probably ruin the majority of our Indonesian travels. Amy took me out to lunch all hopped up on advil, cipro and with a high fever, so she said it was a really entertaining meal because I was cracked out and funny, making all sorts of Dengue jokes. If you're reading this blog Matt and Charis, it reminded me of the Moldovan Syphilis string of jokes. My fever eventually broke that evening, but then my GI system went haywire. It has been a shitty few days :) The clinic ran some more tests and figured out that I have a colony of amoebae living in my gut! They prescribed me flagil (sp?) that specifically targets the pesky pathogens. The Dr called this morning and the Dengue tests came back negative -- yay! So, cross your fingers as the crisis seems to be averted for now. I think I'm going to pay more attention to which drinks have water and/or ice in them.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
bali orchid garden
Amy and I both love orchids, and Bali has an entire garden devoted to them (over 2K species, http://www.baliorchidgardens.com/), so we decided to go the other day.
The guide book told us it was about 3km away and contained a vague map, so in the words of Gimli from Lord of the Rings: "Certainty of death. Small chance of success. What are we waiting for?" (yes, I know that reference makes me a dork). Instead of taking a taxi (which are ubiquituous), we decided to walk there around 12pm (or 12:00 because they use military time here) which is close to the hottest part of the day. Ngurah Rai was the road we took and is an artery that connects Sanur with Kutah and Ubud. There are very few rules of the road, making the traffic pretty chaotic and dangerous. This is especially true for pedestrians, because there really aren't sidewalks and the concept of shoulders doesn't exist. To exacerbate the whole situation, people park in what would be the shoulder, so you have to walk around them, putting yourself square into the street. It was still a neat walk though because there were rice paddies, furniture builders and stone carvers all along it. We stopped in a few of the shops. The map of the area, which seemed pretty straightforward at a glance actually turned out to be vaguer than we thought, so we got lost for a while, but after asking a few people directions and getting burned by a motorcycle muffler, we finally arrived sweaty, dehydrated and ready to see some orchids.
We paid the entrance fee (50,000 Rupiah; thx to Lauren + Brent + Madi), were given orchid flowers as lapels and were off. We started exploring the gardens, but were soon greeted by Iwayan Gedewidiantara (yes, that is all one person's name). I wouldn't be spending so much time writing about the orchid garden unless we had met him because not only did he take on an awesome tour of each and every plant there, so much about Balinese culture and various things to see. He even sat with us after the tour for cat poop coffee. The concept of the drink is that the cat eats raw coffee beans, their stomachs partially digest the beans which are then collected and brewed all for your tasting pleasure! Amy took a million pictures of the flowers (how Amy), but internet connections are rather slow here, so we're doing our best to upload what we can. Iwayan was really into Green day, so we're going to send him a thank-you mix tape of American music including My Chemical Romance.
The guide book told us it was about 3km away and contained a vague map, so in the words of Gimli from Lord of the Rings: "Certainty of death. Small chance of success. What are we waiting for?" (yes, I know that reference makes me a dork). Instead of taking a taxi (which are ubiquituous), we decided to walk there around 12pm (or 12:00 because they use military time here) which is close to the hottest part of the day. Ngurah Rai was the road we took and is an artery that connects Sanur with Kutah and Ubud. There are very few rules of the road, making the traffic pretty chaotic and dangerous. This is especially true for pedestrians, because there really aren't sidewalks and the concept of shoulders doesn't exist. To exacerbate the whole situation, people park in what would be the shoulder, so you have to walk around them, putting yourself square into the street. It was still a neat walk though because there were rice paddies, furniture builders and stone carvers all along it. We stopped in a few of the shops. The map of the area, which seemed pretty straightforward at a glance actually turned out to be vaguer than we thought, so we got lost for a while, but after asking a few people directions and getting burned by a motorcycle muffler, we finally arrived sweaty, dehydrated and ready to see some orchids.
We paid the entrance fee (50,000 Rupiah; thx to Lauren + Brent + Madi), were given orchid flowers as lapels and were off. We started exploring the gardens, but were soon greeted by Iwayan Gedewidiantara (yes, that is all one person's name). I wouldn't be spending so much time writing about the orchid garden unless we had met him because not only did he take on an awesome tour of each and every plant there, so much about Balinese culture and various things to see. He even sat with us after the tour for cat poop coffee. The concept of the drink is that the cat eats raw coffee beans, their stomachs partially digest the beans which are then collected and brewed all for your tasting pleasure! Amy took a million pictures of the flowers (how Amy), but internet connections are rather slow here, so we're doing our best to upload what we can. Iwayan was really into Green day, so we're going to send him a thank-you mix tape of American music including My Chemical Romance.
Monday, October 13, 2008
bali baby!
yup, we're chillin' in bali. well, it's more like sweating constantly, but still, it's awesome. it's hot and humid, but there seems to be a nice breeze most of the time and a lot of the shops have awnings, so there is a good amount of shade. we were stoked to check into our decked out hotel around just before midnight last night after another long (8hr) plane ride. we slept well and woke up refreshed. after eating breakfast in the hotel, we wandered towards to beach. we sat beachside for a while, lunched and now are at an internet cafe trying to upload our hundreds of photos. doesn't look like we'll get to all of them in this sitting, so keep an eye out for more! we'll be here until wednesday, hoping to check out the orchid garden tomorrow, and then it looks like we'll head up to ubud to hang with the monkeys.
hope you're all well! we're loving reading the comments!
hope you're all well! we're loving reading the comments!
japan rocked!
Even with no command of the Japanese and poor maps of Kyoto and Tokyo, I still had a really good time. Japanese people are extremely friendly in general, almost all of them speak English as a second (or third) language and they are really accommodating.
Kyoto had lots of historical Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines, which were really neat to visit. We took an overnight bus (think red eye) from Kyoto to Tokyo which arrived around 6:30 am. We decided to visit a park in the city (there are many beautiful parks in Tokyo's downtown) with a Shinto shrine and happened upon a religious service which was a really neat spiritual experience (especially when cracked out that early in the morning). The concept of a given individual practicing more than one organized religion (i.e. Buddhism and Shintoism) still seems very foreign (and maybe unnatural) though.
Food has been really good in general; lots of ingredient combinations that are odd to westerners. Bean paste inside pastries. Fermented rice (Amy hated this). Pocky chocolate sticks. Chocolate and banana dumplings. Almost any vegetable tempura style. Soba noodles. Plethora of different grade teas. Mmm. And American and European cafes all over.
Kyoto had lots of historical Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines, which were really neat to visit. We took an overnight bus (think red eye) from Kyoto to Tokyo which arrived around 6:30 am. We decided to visit a park in the city (there are many beautiful parks in Tokyo's downtown) with a Shinto shrine and happened upon a religious service which was a really neat spiritual experience (especially when cracked out that early in the morning). The concept of a given individual practicing more than one organized religion (i.e. Buddhism and Shintoism) still seems very foreign (and maybe unnatural) though.
Food has been really good in general; lots of ingredient combinations that are odd to westerners. Bean paste inside pastries. Fermented rice (Amy hated this). Pocky chocolate sticks. Chocolate and banana dumplings. Almost any vegetable tempura style. Soba noodles. Plethora of different grade teas. Mmm. And American and European cafes all over.
Friday, October 10, 2008
hello kyoto!
we made it to kyoto yesterday via the super fast bullet train, which i think covered more than 300 miles in around 2.5 hours. it was fun! we have done a lot of wandering around the city yesterday and today and just finished up with a hot tub/bath in our ryokan (traditional japanese inn). all that hot water has made us even more tired, so time to hit our futons on tatami mats and get some rest!
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
We:re in Tokyo!
after a very, very, very long flight, we are here in tokyo - freshly showered and ready for some dinner. yay!
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
leaving ny
the time is here - we're packing up and heading out to jfk! we've got our comfy pants on for our 14 hour flight to tokyo. wish us luck!
here's our broad itinerary:
• 10/7/'08: JFK Tokyo
• 10/12/'08: Tokyo Denpasar (Bali)
• 11/9/'08: Padang Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)
• 11/10/'08: Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) Siem Reap (Cambodia)
• 11/20/'08: enter Thailand ???? (to get out by 12/18/'08)
• 12/18/'08: Bangkok JFK
here's our broad itinerary:
• 10/7/'08: JFK Tokyo
• 10/12/'08: Tokyo Denpasar (Bali)
• 11/9/'08: Padang Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)
• 11/10/'08: Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) Siem Reap (Cambodia)
• 11/20/'08: enter Thailand ???? (to get out by 12/18/'08)
• 12/18/'08: Bangkok JFK
Friday, October 3, 2008
made it to ny
we've made it to ny (yes, attempted the drive from philly on a friday afternoon) and miraculously didn't hit any traffic. it was really odd packing for the end of december - we almost forgot our winter coats!
we're just about ready to go - need to visit with some family and friends as well as make some hotel reservations, but all in all we're just about there!
we're just about ready to go - need to visit with some family and friends as well as make some hotel reservations, but all in all we're just about there!
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
packing, packing, packing
while we're off from work this week, we haven't slowed down at all. seems like the to-do list keeps getting longer and longer. our excitement also keeps growing and growing. the more we research, the more we can't wait to go! wheee!
oh, and by the way, if you ever need cheap passport photos, go to cvs. but first, have someone take a head shot of you. if you bring your camera card to the self-serve kiosk, you can print 6 passport photos on a 4x6 paper for the regular cost of a single picture. yay!
oh, and by the way, if you ever need cheap passport photos, go to cvs. but first, have someone take a head shot of you. if you bring your camera card to the self-serve kiosk, you can print 6 passport photos on a 4x6 paper for the regular cost of a single picture. yay!
Friday, September 26, 2008
Hello!
Hi everyone! We will do our best to update this while on our travels around Southeast Asia. Also keep a look out on our photo site: http://fonduefighter.smugmug.com.
Enjoy!
Amy and Joe
Enjoy!
Amy and Joe
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)