The final journey part 3: monkeying around in Bali

Following our late night and 30 minute flight out of Lombok, we land in Bali, one paradise to the next.



Our first night we planned to stay in Ubud, which is centrally located on the island, known for its rich Balinese culture, also the spot where Elizabeth Gilbert famously finds the second love of her life in Eat, Pray, Love. It is fantastically easy to see why ex-Pats are attracted to its beauty and charm: our hotel, Ketut's Place, is a traditional Balinese temple compound that looks a little something like this-



After a much needed nap, we found yet another perfect meal of fresh Balinese spiced pork. Let me emphasize the fresh. Still convinced food tastes better in paradise. Or maybe this time its about my hangover and the pork grease. Shots from lunch and a few of the typical things you see wondering around Ubud. Essentially, the whole town's small roads, shops and restaurants have this authentic Balinese feel. And gorgeous temples just appear out of nowhere. It's pretty sweet.









We make our way to the Monkey Forest Sanctuary which I am convinced would not exist in many other places in the world. You walk in and are essentially forced to buy bananas the FEED the monkeys. Feeding the animals at zoos is foreign to an American raised gal but I clearly jumped at this opportunity. Pictures and video speak for themselves, the monkeys were awesome and feisty and I loved this. Saturday we were at a private aquarium, Sunday was spent feeding monkeys like a Discovery Channel episode.











Monday we decided to spend the final day of the trip in Kuta due to is proximity to the airport (of course, early flight out Tuesday AM) as well as the fact that Kuta is THE known party destination in Bali. I wanted to avoid it, but everyone told me to go, even many of my Indonesian friends. It's a guaranteed wild time. And my version of paradise involves hoards of European and Australian surfers.. that is Kuta in a nutshell.

We spent a few hours on the beach and because of the steady stream of tourists there, the locals are champions at selling you crap you don't need. Within about ten minutes of our arrival, I am MOBBED by women, paid for another beach massage, flowers painted on my toenails and an arrangement of various souvenirs. I’m bargaining but not as hard as I can. Even if you’re getting ripped off, it is still so cheap there. And I’m too relaxed to give a crap.

I do not have a ton of pictures of Kuta. In my mind it is some mix between Asia and Bourbon Street, except full of 18-22 year old vacationing Australians. I could’ve done maybe one more night of this, but honestly, it makes me feel a little old. We saw Kuta, and that is what matters.

Tuesday we manage to make our 7am flight back to Singapore, again where I write from. It is yet another small miracle that I have been able to shove everything I've acquired into my bags before I begin the actual FINAL journey this evening. Two flights, 20 more hours of air time and a 12 hour Tokyo stopover is all that stands between me and HOME!

The final journey part 2: the lost hour(s) of Lombok

We managed to return back to Singapore this morning in one piece- but barely. I'll begin of the last five days tales with a summary of our time spent on Lombok and how we literally and harmlessly lost an hour on this quiet remote paradise.

Pat and I left Singapore Friday morning in a state of exhaustion (one that continues...) after an evening enjoyed dining and chatting outside in this generally delightful climate. In spite of leaving his place less than two hours before the flight, we make our first leg to Jakarta with no hassles. Soekarno International in Jakarta is another story. After numerous trips there in the last two and a half months, I am convinced that place is the 8th circle of hell.. It's hot, lacks edible food options and terminals are poorly marked/painfully confusing. I'm glad Pat is put through this so he can see first hand the truth about this situation.

Lombok time zone is one hour ahead of Jakarta, unclear how it is actually the same time zone as Singapore. This confused me all along, I managed to reset my iPhone so I'm keeping accurate time, but something clearly got lost in this change. It's probably easy to see where this is going.

Miraciously we arrive at our hotel in Senggigi beach, Lombok, the Qunci Villas. My plug for this place: it is paradise. Perfect. Quiet, fantastic service, just enough other tourists around but very few in general. Sempurna, perfect. I repeat. And its cheap to live like a King, American couples should make the extra trip over here (forget Hawaii!!!!) to honeymoon. It's just perfect.

We find a delightful dinner in the small town and stumble upon the Happy Cafe, a bar and restaurant with live music nightly. Pat and I saddle up, sing along, and after an hour or two or three goes by I'm convinced the bar closes early and I'm not happy. Regardless, we wander home, wake up for our PERFECT breakfast overlooking the beach and what turns out to be the boat we arranged to go snorkeling on the Gili islands, another perfect little quiet paradise.

Pat admiring the breakfast burrito



We planned to leave at 9, but the hotel informed us at breakfast that it was OK to leave at 10. Sounds fine to us, we're clearly not in a rush and are thankful for fantastic service from the staff who can solve all of our problems.

Our boat which is awesome.



We set out for an hour to Gili Meno island, snorkel for a while, snag a few shots of turtles, and make our way to Gili Air for a relaxing lunch at Paradiso.. literally what our private little cabana stand is called.





After lunch we snorkel again in far shallower water and our guide gives us bread to feed the fish. Both of these situations seem like a bad idea but in the absence of regulation, why not? The fish were so close and beautiful it felt as if we were swimming along with them in a tropical aquarium.



We return home around 4:30pm which is perfect timing, or so I think, for my scheduled 5pm massage. Tough life. Massages across Asia are outrageously cheap and it seems silly not to indulge while you're here. I head over for said appointment and am told that I am ONE HOUR late and the masseuse already went home for the day. I am so devastated and finally all of the day's mistakes make sense: my thought of the bar closing early, our changed departure time.. I never changed my cell phone to reflect the new time zone. But because nothing can go wrong in paradise, as I'm walking back to the room, defeated and disappointed, I find another woman who offers me an hour massage for even cheaper than the hotel, so I got my treatment after all.

Dinner in town yet again is perfect (proving that food tastes better in paradise) and we find ourselves yet again at the Happy Cafe. This time the bartenders embrace our return, and a less rowdy crowd leads Pat and I to chat it up with them- everything from Indonesian weddings to what its like to wake up in such a beautiful place everyday to why the hell its so hard to get a US visa as an Indonesian citizen. This turns into another too late evening.. accompanied by a karaoke session (similar to our Fourth of July celebration's ending!) that we won't soon forget with Li and Henru the bartenders. A little glimpse about how we wasted away the evening.





This would've been all well and good, but we had a 7am flight to Bali.. this was the scene a few hours later when we somehow found our way ON TIME to the airport. Good thing I figured out the time change before the flight out.

Note: Pat and I are in the same clothes as the night before, you can't see here but the boarding passes are hand-written (only in Indo) and thankfully the flight had a cool 56 seats- just enough to make me not feel nauseous.





Many more pics from the island, snorkeling, Happy Cafe and adventures in Bali to come soon!

The final journey

August 5th seemed like one of those days so far in the future that it'd never come.. but alas, the day of my scheduled departure came. This morning I left Bogor with a bit of a heavy heart and a shameful amount of baggage - IN spite of my marathon "survivor" packing session, in which, any piece of clothing or item that I didn't love got left on the island.

I wrapped things up frantically at CCROM yesterday, including a solid two hours ironing out all the details of my seven flights over the next eight days. Not my best planning endeavors - I screwed up my single entry Indo visa and probably will lose more money than I should in various airport taxes - but even I'm not perfect at planning. I write from Singapore, where I'm shamelessly dumping 3/4 of my current belongings at Pat's PALACE (complete with pool, famous jungle gym from our first whirlwind visit in June, warm showers, proximity to waterfront running area). The master plan:

Partner in Crime: Patrick Maher, pictured left


Credentials: 1 year of living in Singapore working for Barclays, making him an expert of the Southeast Asian landscape
2 previous trips to Bali, several other regional adventures
Tolerated Eric Schwendimann as a roommate

Agenda: Friday and Saturday in Lombok, the island just east of Bali, described by Lonely Planet as "a labyrinth of turquoise bays, white sand, world class surf breaks, and drop-dead good looks." Our hotel has the option of a personal chef. I am beyond stoked.

Sunday and Monday in Bali. Bali shouldn't need much introduction. I thought about perhaps visiting another Indonesian island (I really wanted to see those orangutans in Kalimantan!) but every single Indonesian I met told me I MUST go to Bali. I don't anticipate any disappointment here - temples, beaches, gorgeous rice terraces, unique Balinese traditions and culture

Tuesday and Wednesday (if we get on the flight back..there is potential we won't) I have to spend in Singapore where Dan and I will depart together for JFK.. yes that's right.. JFK! But not before we get twelve hours during the day to explore Tokyo.

I've been a bundle of different emotions over the last week: shocked at how quickly the two months flew by in Indonesia, very sad to leave the new friends who embraced us and made sure we made the most of said time, a little unexpected anxiety about returning home, and an utter disbelief that my year of grad school is OVER - minus one small presentation my first week back at Columbia. I have been a slave to this program since last August, I think part of the bundle of emotions includes a feeling of what the hell to do with all my new found free time??? Now that my life is a year richer of people, knowledge, and purposeful energy to help save the planet.

Not quite sure I have an answer to that question, but I've got a week in paradise to figure it out.

I climbed a big volcano

Friday and Saturday of this past week, Gito and Sisi, our friends from CCROM, led Dan and I on a two day hike to the top of Gunung Gede Pangrango. Gede is a National Park/active volcano outside of Bogor. In total we spent 14+ hours on the trail – 7.5 up and 7 down – it was painful and difficult more or less the entire time (probably not the best idea on my legs in week 1 of marathon training) but the journey was well worth the pain. A little bit more detail, a few pics, many many many more on my photo page.

The way there: I packed up my enormous amount of food and water for the two days, laced up my Cascadias which were ready for a workout, and met the group at the office for a 6:30am departure.





The trip up to Cibodas (town where Park is located) took about an hour and a half, thankfully we just missed the morning rush hour traffic. We arrive and sort out our permit, thankfully Gito handled EVERYTHING – Dan and I could not have navigated this part. Apparently the main path’s camping permits were fully distributed for this evening, so they allowed us to hike on the side path. Gito explains this is the more difficult way, I don’t quite at the time realize what that means… The weather was crisp, not too hot, feeling perfect for a trek. The Park has a new regulation that foreigners must have a guide, we called him Survivorman. He helped carry the load. I certainly wasn’t going to complain.

Some strange dancing ritual with the Park staff, unclear exactly what was happening.


Where we started: 1,200m – and what we were about to embark on – up to 3,000m, the edge of the volcano’s crater. Roughly 9,700 feet at the top, close to 6,000 vertical feet to climb total.



The way up: Cibodas is a charming town known for its flowers and Botanical Garden. Quiet, a little remote, it felt very much like real people living their lives, hanging their laundry and walking their children to school. We take another angkot up to said more difficult side path and get on our way.



This would have been difficult for me without two days worth of camping equipment, water and food on my back. You can imagine how much food this requires for me to feel content that I won’t starve. A lot of food. After thirty minutes, I was hot, breathing heavy and my legs were beat. I’m already wondering what the hell I got myself into. But at this point I had no other choice, get to the top or bust. In total with A LOT of breaks it took us from starting at 11am until 6:30pm. I’d categorize the hike up in three phases:

A walk in the garden. Our first 30-45 minutes up were some of my favorites views on the trip. You’re literally plodding through people’s small farms to get to the next part of the trail. This was unbelievably gorgeous and peaceful and sadly my pictures don’t do it justice. It felt like a scene from Alice in Wonderland, with perfect green spaces, huge kale leaves, life size maize plants, perfect little irrigation streams, mini greenhouses and surreal characters just popping out of the bushes, farmers just minding their business.







Stairmaster. This part we were told would be about an hour and a half, and maybe if you’re fast that’s all it would take.. It was more like 3+ hours.. brutal. I am by far the slowest of the group but I don't care. The terrain is pretty well cleared for exploring but also includes stretches that you need to climb.. legit climbing. Especially if you’re 5’2” and can’t take large steps up. Another reason I’m the slowest of the group.

Stairs.. I didn’t get great shots of the “climbing” parts because my hands were occupied.



Final climb to the top. After three or so hours we reached the desert-ish clearing, which was a nice flat enjoyable walk. Still had another 45 minute climb to the top.. which was mostly rocky, involved climbing elements but my determination to get to the top made this part slightly less painful.





The top! A little bit surreal, a little bit of sensory overload. The first thing that you experience is the reeking of sulfur. The summit, overlooking the volcano's crater, is just bellowing steam. The clouds over neighboring mountains roll in like thick heavy sheets that I was a part of.. 9,000 feet up and you literally are a part of the clouds. The wind was strong and proved that there are parts of Indonesia that are cold, finding them requires a steep shift in altitude.

I just caught the end of the sunset, which at that point was marred a bit by the fog rolling in but still beautiful. Bummer, but even worse that we had to cook and set up camp in the dark. I won’t act like I was much of a help in this department. I like to camp (in small doses) but don’t do it enough to have many skills to offer.

Our camp site


The stars- Wow. They were brighter and clearer than perhaps anyplace else I’ve seen in the world, pictures just wouldn’t have done it justice. With an uninterrupted view of the horizon, it literally felt like I was in a Planetarium, except, well it wasn’t indoors at a Museum.. this was the real deal. Milky Way and all.

Sleep- I was freezing despite four layers on top, two on the bottom, two pairs of socks. I’m too bony and lack enough body fat for this kind of sleeping arrangement to be moderately comfortable. I’d be lucky if I slept two hours the whole night. Again, for those views and the experience, it was beyond worth a night of crappy sleep.

The way down: I was up bright and early to attempt to see the sunrise. Wasn’t this the point of the sleepover? Unfortunately I couldn’t see much through the fog. After it cleared I grabbed a few of my favorite shots from the trip..









Proving that even 9,000 feet up, there are still random people who want to take pictures with us.


The morning overall was peaceful but freezing. Get me back to the heat, please. As we were packing up, a dude pops into our tent who is selling rice. No joke. I’ve never seen anything like this. He came all the way up for the few campers!??! We set out around 8am, thank god for our guide who was a master at getting things together quickly. A note on our guide.. he brought with him a jacket, a few snacks, NO water, and a pack of cigarettes. That is it. He also didn’t break a sweat the entire time, earning the title of Survivorman.



The way down was less challenging physically but mentally taxing. It would be incredibly easy to roll an ankle, which Gito and Sisi both did.. The terrain was mostly forest-ish and rocky and again path was well paved. Highlights were crawling across rocks over a hot spring, clinging to a rope (that water WAS HOT!) while steam is rising every which way around you and the waterfall checkpoint.





The way home: I finished a little before 3pm, and holy hell my legs hurt. Every step down from 11am on felt worse and worse. I know I’m in for pain the next day (and pain I still have two days later)… We head out from the park around 4pm and thanks to traffic don’t make it home until 8:30. More about this in my blog about traffic, but it was brutal. I don’t want to harp on it because the whole adventure was worth it: sleeping on the crater of an active volcano 9,000 feet up, GETTING myself there, with everything I needed on my back, paving my own way, being COLD in Indo.. not something I’ll forget anytime soon.

Traffic

Tom Friedman (Yes, I know I’m obsessed with him) writes in Hot, Flat and Crowded about the brutal traffic in India, symptomatic of the rapid development and overpopulation in many regions of the country. While there are many, many more people in India than Indonesia -in the 900 million range - I’ve remembered his words as they translate to the issues faced across Asia including my current home. In my opinion you haven’t lived in Indonesia until you’ve been suffocated uncomfortably by traffic.




Why's everyone always going where I'm going!?

To make traffic matters worse, I have yet to be in any “public” vehicle that is not absolutely full of people. I’ve had to stand on buses that are already crowded with passengers, five seats across. I’ve been in vans which I think should hold 10 people, where the driver to make a few extra bucks, shoves 15-17 people in. So you’re crowded around strangers, with the crazy air pollution seeping in the windows, and if you’re lucky its only 85 degrees.


You can't see it, but there are SEVENTEEN people in this van...

This drives you to think… about A LOT of things. I tried to contemplate what I would consider the WORST traffic ever experienced in the US. I drove one summer from New York to DC for the Fourth of July, normally a four hour drive took about six and a half. Or summer Jersey Shore traffic going back to the city, two and a half hours maybe takes 3.5-4 on the WORST day. In orders of magnitude those trips are hundreds of miles, and on their worst day you are not even doubling the average time spent. Asian traffic puts a whole new perspective on this.

Here are a few examples of the nightmare jams we’ve dealt with here.

Where: Jakarta airport to Bogor
When: returning from Jogja, mid-June, after my first trip to Pacitan
Distance: 30-35 miles
Time spent: a little under three hours.
My analysis: We should have probably known better, as our flight got in right before the evening rush hour home. This route can be quick when there’s not traffic, taking about an hour and ten minutes when the roads are clear. For the most part, Jakarta to Bogor is commuter traffic, but even the trains are so crowded people ride on the roofs. Pick your poison I guess.


True story, these guys must think the roof is their best commuting option.

Where: Bogor to Downtown Jakarta
When: end of July for a 9am meeting with the World Bank
Distance: 25 miles, give or take
Time spent: Two hours.
My analysis: We left around 7:30 and arrived for our meeting around 9:30. People are used to this. Not such unpleasant traffic, we had a driver and air conditioned car, but still a silly amount of time to go this distance

Where: Gede Pangrango National Park back to Bogor
When: this past weekend, returning from our 14+ hour, 2 day hike
Distance: 20 miles
Time spent: 4.5 hours.
My analysis: This broke me. It absolutely broke me. Cibodas, the town where Pangrango National Park is located, is just past Puncak Pass (below) and the roads to touristy Puncak are always slammed on the weekend. When we got off the mountain around 3pm I should have anticipated it, but I was beyond exhausted and could only think about more water, my bed, and finding ice for my legs to soothe the impending world of pain I’d feel the next day (today as I write!). It took us about four different angkots to get home and the final one had me in tears – it took Indo 14 hours of a strenuous hike on little sleep and 4+ hours of traffic to bring me to my breaking point. However, I can happily report that I am able to walk following this trip, but the pain might have been better had my legs not been stuffed in a van for that long.

Puncak Pass
When: early July when we tried to get up the zoo/mountain pass area
Distance: 15 miles, give or take
Time spent: 3 hours, we barely got a quarter of the way to Puncak before we turned around. On a good day it takes about 40 minutes to get all the way. In terms of time and distance traveled, this was probably the least efficient but the hiking fiasco and the pain in my legs was by far the worst for me.

climate inaction

Big domestic news last week that the US Senate would not even debate climate change legislation in the upcoming weeks. This is extremely important news that I had to write about, all things considered with my work in Indonesia.

I'll explain what a little about what this means, legislatively, scientifically, socially and why I am beyond frustrated.

And if after you read you are as fired up as I am, PLEASE tell our President and/or your Senators that their behavior is cowardly, utterly moronic and a downright failure to our country's future. We can't wait any longer to pass STRONG laws limiting US carbon emissions. After much reflection and lost sleep on this topic, I whole-heartedly believe that the best thing you can do for the environment, right here right now, is tell your elected officials how important their action truly is. A few links to help share that message.

Environmental Defense Fund, write to President Obama

NRDC's Action Fund, easy way to find and call your Senators

A few other resources I like, from people way smarter than myself and even more fired up..

Op-ed piece from Tom Friedman, he has written a lot on this news

Another great opinion article about the Senate's failures

Building a Green Economy, a little long but highly informative piece on economics of Climate Change -from Paul Krugman



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Why news of Senate climate inaction sucks.

The House passed landmark energy legislation last year- June 26, 2009 to be exact - which, among other features, established a cap on carbon emissions in the US. The bill wasn't perfect but it was a very important start. Interesting, President Obama says in this article that he looked forward to the Senate taking similar action...

So history turns out that the Senate didn't blink at their own version of the legislation in 2009. What that meant is that another year went by and utilities, banks and businesses surrounding the energy world couldn't adequately plan for their long term investments. And even more sadly, the Senate's 2009 failure signaled to the international community at December's Copenhagen climate conference that the world's per capita largest emitter of greenhouse gases -America! -isn't serious about cleaning up their acts. SO why should China, or India, or developing countries like Indonesia care about doing their part to limit emissions if the big bully won't? In my opinion, they shouldn't.

Stalling business development and thwarting international negotiations on climate change are my two most frequently cited reasons for hating US inaction.. I've got plenty more in the arsenal if you ever want to hear em.

Welcome to 2010. There are murmurings around when a climate bill will be taken up by the Senate. Versions of a bill come and go, some hope around Earth Day that bipartisan legislation will be released, but then Lindsey Graham gets all pissed off about immigration, pulls his support, and the new bill never gets seen. More murmurings earlier this month about a bill, but they came crashing down last week when Harry Reid decided that there just weren't enough votes to pass legislation similar to what the house signed off on last year. Bill is dead, best we can hope for now is some half-assed response to the oil spill.

If you remember your civics from 5th grade, if the Senate doesn't pass a bill and reconcile it before the current congressional term ends January, the House will need to start over. Everyone will need to start over, because it is highly unlikely the House and Senate will remain with democratic majorities come November's mid-term elections. But the politics and interests are complicated: 44 Democratic Representatives voted against the bill in 2009, primarily from coal-producing states.

A little on the science. Recently it would appear that the atmosphere is telling us something. NOAA released yesterday a "State of the Climate" report which "draws on data for 10 key climate indicators that all point to the same finding: the scientific evidence that our world is warming is unmistakable."

Their report also states that:

“The records come from many institutions worldwide. They use data collected from diverse sources, including satellites, weather balloons, weather stations, ships, buoys and field surveys. These independently produced lines of evidence all point to the same conclusion: our planet is warming."



NOAA also recently reported that last month was the hottest June ever recorded worldwide, and 2010 is on track, yet again, to be the warmest year since records began.

If anyone wants more resources, please, I am happy to share. Or if you'd like a refresher on the incredibly basic physics behind the heat trapping properties of carbon dioxide, I am also more than happy to help. The science actually is pretty simple.

Oh and remember this past winter? While we shouldn't attribute one season's erratic weather to climate change, the likelihood of many seasons deviating from the norm is great.. ie, strong snowfalls in winter, stronger storm surges in summer, longer more intense heat waves.. we've seen this all in 2010.

I do not expect change to happen over night. Completely shifting our country's modes of energy generation, transportation options and agriculture sector will take time.. alot of time. So the longer the Senate/Congress/Obama (who deserves his fair share of blame) sit and stew on fossil fuel driven lobbying dollars, the longer making those investments for healthier environment is going to take. All the while, more heat trapping gases are released into the atmosphere, continuing to cook the planet as Paul Krugman so eloquently stated in the NYT this week.

Maybe it is just easy for me to see, someone who's dedicated some time in a place like Indonesia. There are roughly 100 million people here (in a "developing" country) who live without adequate health care, poor food access and little electricity. They deserve a better quality of life. The government here will continue to provide that for their people - and most of that growth will come from fossil fuel energy. Should the US decide to shape up, take the opportunity in developing a strong renewable energy sector seriously (which, can't happen until fossil fuels are more expensive), we could help provide cleaner, more affordable energy around the world to people who need it. Oh and in the meantime we can reduce our own country's impact as well.



Picture from a new coal-fired power plant we made a special trip to see, being built in rural East Java.. everyone nearby was so proud about this! I don't know how proud they will be when the nearby waterways and air are painfully polluted in the upcoming years.

Or how happy we will be looking back on the present. When the atmosphere was speaking to us, the world was warming, we knew the solutions yet took little action... So I repeat, if you care about the environment, right now the single most important thing you can do right now is tell your elected officials to DO THEIR JOBS. I'll include those links again from the top. Every email for phone call makes a difference!

Environmental Defense Fund, write to President Obama
NRDC's Action Fund, easy way to find and call your Senators

Bizarro things

Over the last two months in Indonesia I've encountered some odd and downright confusing cultural differences. I hope to others reading they will be as entertaining, even without experiencing their charming Southeast Asian context in person.

KFC on a Friday night: As I noted in my post about the US – England soccer game, the place to be on a weekend night is clearly KFC. They have live music and the place is full of people older than teenagers. Same thing for McDonalds, where they have wifi, flat screen TVs, live music, 24 hour delivery. Perhaps this is because bars are absent and people need somewhere to go to socialize? Unclear.



Cat tails & cat fights: Thin, non-friendly felines are abundant in Bogor. There are a few particularly feisty ones that live on our street and several times I have been violently awoken by the sound of their fighting. It’s loud and wild and scares the crap out of me. Wilder than any cat fight I ever heard in the Bx. Also most of the cat tails are oddly shaped, I have tried to snag pictures of this when I can.




Snake oil: I call it snake oil but it is actually cajuput oil, a very traditional medicine Indonesians use for EVERYTHING: stomach pain, bug bites,nausea, Galih even tried to rub it on Dan’s feet when he was throwing up all night in Pacitan. True story - snake oil is the solution for everything. Dan likens it to Indonesian icy hot and it does have some similar properties. I was intrigued by this so I bought some, 2 little bottles (pictured below) cost me a buck so I figured I would have to give it a shot. It does a fantastic job taking the itch out of bug bites and even helped with some of the minor stomach pain I've experienced. I am a believer- the snake oil is coming back to America.



What went on in the mall: We observed a very strange performance of what I assume is an Indonesian fairy tale happening at Botani Square one Sunday afternoon. I included some pictures of the witch, princess and cross dressing male. I tried to ask a few people what the story was but again this remains a mystery.




Music: I’ve heard EVERYTHING here.. from music that is HOT off the press (Literally heard Shakira’s Waka Waka every single day since I arrived last month) to the randomest old tunes. Examples:
-Keane, Everybody’s Changing. Heard in the supermarket, this is more than five years old and never got that popular in the US, I almost fell over when it came on
-Barenaked Ladies, Falling for the First Time. At the Jakarta airport, also confusing, this one is old and did it ever get that popular??
-I forget the artist but I believe its called ‘Crazy over you’ (chorus: crazy over you, my boo, ooh!) – at a restaurant.. so random, think this one’s several years old also
-TLC, Scrubs. In the 4 hr journey from Jogja to Pacitan a few weeks ago, I was so delirious I sang word for word and the driver thought I was crazy
-Ace of Base, Don’t Turn Around . Also heard on the radio in our drive from Jogja to Pacitan, again I proceeded to sing to this jam from my youth, utterly confusing our driver further

Internet/Cell phone plans: Made a few references already to my frustrations over this. All plans are pre-paid, fairly cheap just to text and make short calls but they still prove to be unbelievably confusing. Figuring out how internet works is by far the most confusing. We purchased modems (kind of like air cards you can use in USB plugs) that use the cell phone signal/sim card to run. We were told we purchased unlimited plans but they more or less ran out after our first week of modest use. And apparently after a certain download threshold the speech decreases significantly. I tried Telkomsel (largest provider here) which did not work in rural East Java.. for trip two I bought an XL (second largest provider here) sim card in hopes it would be better there, and it proved worse. I made peace with the fact that no matter where I am I will have issue with my cell provider: it is a universal, cross-cultural truth for me.

Dear Vodafone in Australia, AT&T and Verizon in the US, Telkomsel and XL in Indonesia,
I hate you all, equally.
Love, Andrea