Return to Pacitan

I returned Sunday morning to Pacitan for another week or so to hear more farmer interviews and hunt down additional data.

I occasionally keep track of full day activities (chosen not to put these it on the blog because they are long!) to remember all of the highs, lows and oddities that happen in a single 24 hours of my present life. On my return to Pacitan I thought it appropriate to chronicle the full weekend so all could best understand my FULL journey.. as the whole weekend felt like one VERY long day.

Saturday morning, I woke up bright and early for arguably the best run I’ve had while here, 7 miles in the morning heat through the botanical gardens. I am literally high on endorphins and ready by 9am for our journey to visit Puncak mountain and the well-known Taman Safari Zoo several miles outside of Bogor. Being on Indo time, 9am turns into 11am, and we head out on angkot (public transport=small crowded vans) for the mountain. Despite warnings from a few folks about traffic due to the school holidays, we head out later than we should have. And we suffered for this mistake. Looking later I realize that Lonely Planet calls Puncak Pass “pandemonium” on the weekends. All signs point to epic fail on this mission.

Our first ankgot took about 45 minutes to travel roughly two miles. We end up walking another mile or so to get to the second angkot that we need and at this point, Dan starts warning us that we should turn around. I’m not believing him.. not yet. It’s before noon and we have the whole day ahead of us, how long could it possibly take??


Crammed in van #1, still all smiles

So it’s hot. I’ve already drank close to 3L of water for the day. We struggle to find an angkot for the second part of the route, one that’s not too crowded. But they all are packed, it’s a matter of just how uncomfortable you want to make yourself. Now it’s roughly 12:30. I’m starting to do the math. Another hour or two of traveling, several hours of waiting and crowds and heat and then several hours home and we may not be home until 10 or so. This isn’t working out well for my plan of an evening nap + 3rd place World Cup game + going straight to a 4:30am airport bus for my 7:45am flight to Jogja + several hours more travel to Pacitan. Realizing this, I jump on Dan’s bandwagon that we should abort mission. After we finally find one, angkot number two similarly is at a dead standstill. It appears that every man, woman, child and tourist in Indonesia ALSO planned to visit Punak this day. After another half an hour and a little whining on my part, Daniel exercises fantastic judgment and decides we really should abort and head up another time. So you have a sense of the journey…


Cars, people, motorcycles EVERYWHERE


On the way home- you can see the traffic we were sitting in earlier!

Upon our return to Bogor we have a marvelous lunch at Apple Pie, a uniquely themed restaurant that serves, you guessed it, mostly pies. By 3pm I’m happily home to nap a little and finish packing before dinner. The heat totally exhausted me and after our 3 hours of traveling to go nowhere, all I can manage to do the rest of the day is eat and nap and drink water.

Dinner is equally marvelous, a middle eastern restaurant with hookahs. Sisah in bahasa. We don’t have one but I am just happy to be in the presence of sisah. We head back to Dan’s house around 10, chat with the bros about music and and Obama and food safety and pollution which is enlightening. Apparently there is an Indonesian equivalent of the FDA but their rules are far less strict. I tell the bros who are studying agri-business and food safety that improving this problem should be their mission in life. Despite the stimulating discussion I am pooped. I decide to nap again before the 3rd place game and I get up to catch the second half AND importantly to skype with the EHT folks before Gina’s wedding. Skype is awesome. Seeing everybody all dressed up pretty and smiling was such a delight! Still so bummed to have been away from home for this!!

The bus to the airport is not too crowded and the AC is freezing. Apparently the only way to beat traffic is to head out before 5am. I arrive at the airport before 6am and its packed. I am convinced that 90% of travelers have the push carts full of huge stuffed suitcases and duct tapped boxes. It makes me feel like I actually pack lightly. Where are they going and what is in those boxes? Delightful things about travel here: security is painless and airport workers are helpful -including the very polite man who checked my boarding pass and told me I am beautiful, despite my messy side braid, glasses and bags under my eyes from lack of sleep. This is another clear case of attention invoked only by my US Passport. I also love that I can carry on as much fruit and water as I like. At that moment I had a fresh 1.5L bottle of water, three bananas, two apples, and an apple pie from Apple Pie some 16 hours ago.

On the flight, I sit next to a lovely couple who lives in Jogja. The husband’s English is pretty good and he strikes up conversation which I politely engage in despite the fact that exhaustion is really hitting me. He asks me about Obama- my second Obama conversation in less than 12 hours. I must say, most people love our President here (remember, Barry lived in Jakarta for a short time growing up) and it continues to be a pleasure traveling with a well respected President.

I arrive ahead of Galih who is coming to guide me the rest of the way to Pacitan where English gets less and less common. The Jogja airport is tiny. The food stinks (which is heartbreaking considering how wonderful the food actually is just a short cab ride away). Cabbies bug the hell out of me for a ride. I still love this airport because I’m familiar now and I got here all by myself. I sit down at a cafe to wait for Galih. It’s barely 9:30 in the morning. I’m hot, tired and hungry. My body has no idea what time it actually is, so I order salty meatball noodle (basko) soup and it is perfect.

Galih, set to meet me at 9, finally arrives at 12:30 due to traffic . Rahmi was due in around 11, she arrived at noon, also behind because of traffic. The car ride takes approximately 4 hours and I’m not entirely sure why, traffic partially to blame in Jogja city. On my trip home two weeks ago it took 2.5 hours roughly to get to Jogja from Pacitan I’ve decided that when I think I know how long something is going to take, I should add approximately 2-4 hours to that, and that is when I will arrive.

Sunday evening we had a little birthday party for Galih, his birthday was Friday the 9th. Last time I was here he told me (as we discussed our family and holiday traditions) that he NEVER had birthday parties growing up. I decided we needed to put an end to that. I make dinner and we celebrate with the apple pie I dragged here, as well as party hats, candles and noisemakers. I think the pictures speak for themselves.





By 9pm I am completely exhausted and as much as it pains me to admit it, I slept through the World Cup Final. Kick off was 1:30am my time and after my long weekend of heat, traffic and traveling, there was no way I could do two nights in a row of minimal sleep. Also I wrote earlier about the debacle of watching games in Pacitan on my last trip. It would have involved us crashing the neighbors house in the middle of the night, something else I wasn’t incredibly in the mood to do. I chose health over soccer, and considering how fabulously rested I felt on Monday morning, I know I made the right choice. We had a busy week of interviews ahead! Many more pictures and stories from it to come.

4th of July weekend: nothing happens quickly in Indonesia

I couldn't have scripted a better Fourth of July weekend, as it was a perfect blend of good old American celebration and Indonesian inability for anything to happen quickly. A quick rundown of activities-

Friday evening: I saw Eclipse. Not afraid to admit I liked it. I am probably so relieved to have time to see movies that the sheer act of attendance is beyond therapeutic for me. I swore I would never dabble in the Twilight series but I think I might need to now.

I alluded in an earlier post to my hatred for Telkmosel (cell/internet provider here) - they are the worst. In my attempts to get rid of them I have had to run around to multiple different stores.. after the movie I made my fourth stop to figure out how to fix my internet set up at home. This attempt took about an hour, but finally the problem was solved. Nothing happens quickly or easily. Thankfully to recover from that pain in the ass errand we had a delightful dinner in a new part of town and caught the Netherlands upset of Brazil. Wowza.

Saturday, Daniel and Tamara led us to Taman Mini Indonesia Indah, a popular tourist spot outside of Jakarta. It's not too far but was a journey! We hopped on a bus - there are no schedules/just leave when their full- this meant we ended up standing the whole way, jumped off said bus while still moving because I am not quite sure that stops are defined, hopped on an angkot (small van that equates to mass transit) for a few more minutes until we arrived at our destination. Nothing happens quickly. On the way home we had a miserable time finding a cab or angkot back to the bus, so in the blazing heat/humidity we settled for a long walk + angkot + cab back to Bogor. Total travel time: 3+ hours to go back and forth, less than 50 miles total.

The best way I can describe Taman Mini Indonesia Indah is as Mini Epcot Center. It displays a home/small museum for all of the 34 provinces in the country, illustrating the rich diversity in cultures, food, tribes, traditions that have evolved across the 13,000+ islands here. I included a few of the many pics below.. The park also came equipped with paddle boats (my plan to do this got vetoed!), a sky gondola ride, a WATERPARK, and a magic kingdom-esque castle for kids in the center. Much better than
Disney, and much cheaper!







Sunday the 4th, we found a way to barbecue. This was essential. Daniel's FABULOUS Aunt and Uncle happen to live right across the street and welcomed us to take over their house and grill for an overindulgent afternoon. I can't remember the last time a 4th of July rolled around and I did not made my signature American flag cake. Although it was a little makeshift this year, I persevered!



Indonesian "why does this take so long" moments: Our morning grocery store run took more than than two hours even with a ride. We thought we got started prepping plenty early but it turns out American charcoal exists nowhere except America. Dan scrambled with his bros to find something suitable and managed to save the day. It was later than expected, thus proving yet again, that nothing happens quickly in Indonesia. Hopefully I come home a little more patient.





We ended the evening with a long group sing-a-long, mostly of American tunes that I cannot believe have made their way over here. Also unbelievable is the fact that more than half of our party can play the guitar and sing. This further emphasized for me that food, music and soccer really do unite the world. If my internet was a little faster I have many videos to share, but that may have to wait until I'm home. Nothing happens quickly.

This must be the only Fourth of July I've spent away from American independence.. I was bummed to miss this wonderful mid-summer tradition, but our new friends here help make it most wonderful for us!

Food Access

Food is funny. It is tied greatly to our cultures, families, religions and availability. My love of food is part of what drove me to this internship in the first place. Turns out the feeding myself piece of the trip has been a bit of a challenge.


I like coconuts.


Let me start by saying this: I’d like to think I’m a fairly liberal (by American standards) about trying daring food options and general concern for refrigeration. I’m not obsessed. Food can get left out, within reason. I’d rank myself (again, by Western standards) a 7 out of 10. However even with my liberal standards I am pretty sure all the “street meat,” which is a predominant food option in many parts of the country, would be shut down in 30 seconds by any Department of Health. I’m not exaggerating. My standards for what is acceptable have decreased infinitely.

Let me explain with an anecdotal story about a dinner we had a few weeks back in Bogor during which I thought I led us to a Lonely Planet recommended restaurant. Immediately after we sat down our friendly waiter asked if we wanted something… I assumed he asked if wanted menus, and I politely shook my head. Instead they brought out a smorgasboard of food. Maybe I should learn the word for menu. It did not appear so terrible at first, some hard boiled eggs, friend chicken, white rice, other assorted vegetables and meat items in spicy sauce that we couldn’t account for. We quickly realized that most of the food was cold, likely prepared hours (or worse, days!)ago... and we were charged by what we ate, which leads us to believe they reuse the food for other customers. Turns out this was NOT a Lonely Planet recommendation.

The quality of water paired with a lack of refrigeration creates a perfect recipe for travelers falling ill to painful stomach problems. THANKFULLY I have remained healthy the first month here. When you start to talk to the locals about the problems we weak stomached Americans have, it turns out many of them suffer from pain frequently, getting sick as often as once per week. This doesn’t seem normal to me.

Another anecdote comes from my time in Pacitan. We had a delightful woman from the community cooking for us and she did prepare a nice variety of foods, per my request and of course Galih’s uber concern for me staying happy and healthy. Aside from me begging for her to make vegetables, I would have been limited to rice and meat. The food access in this rural region struck me as extremely limited, which is so upsetting for a rich agricultural place! I asked many of the farmers what they grow during bad drought seasons (important for understanding climate coping strategies), and their reply was that they either grow nothing, or something with little nutritional content such as cassava. They also report in Pacitan that almost entirely all of the rice the farmers grown for self consumption. I can’t help but wonder and be worried that during these periods the food access is limited to fried cassava and rice. Many of the farmers have smaller vegetable gardens but nothing that is grown in large quantities. This lack of crop diversity is alarming and is an issue that I’m grappling with in my climate adapation assessment. Although the two may not seem linked, they are!

Runs to local small bodega-esque stores in Pacitan reveal a small amount of vegetables but a great amount of processed foods. It is sad that such a demand exist.. I’ve also been told that Pizza Hut is considered the best pizza in Indonesia. This makes my stomach turn over. Really? Dammit Fast Food Nation America!!! I could go on but I’ll leave it at dammit America!

Maybe I haven’t seen enough of a representative sample, but it feels to me that Bogor is at a crossroads, as its a city overburdened by the spillover from the close to 9 million crowd in Jakarta, 30 miles away but can take 3 hours with traffic. Bogor has some really great dining experiences (which, not to worry we are finding and enjoying!) but they are overshadowed in my opinion by the abundance of fast food and questionable street meat. If the people know the food can be extremely harmful, why isn’t more done to avoid it? It’s likely the same reason that trash collection is unreliable and pollution so rampant. I can’t pretend that in two short months here I will be able to answer these questions or enact change, but it is still very troubling for me as a foodie.

Despite the challenges, I have found some deliciousness in Indonesia. Fried tempe! Satay. Whatever the amazing peanut sauce is that they use many items here. The avocado juice which tastes more like a smoothie - found everywhere - is out of this world. Fried rice is so awesome, but I can’t eat it every meal or even day. Fresh fruit juices. Bananas in all kinds of desserts. Delicious. Enak.


Fried tempe and some kind of phenomenal rice-coconut milk this is supposed to be healthy treat.

Maybe my health thus far is a result of good fitness or extreme anal retentiveness about food and hygiene or just dumb luck. I am going to try like hell to keep it all up throughout the remainder of my trip. But I will never, ever take for granted the good fortune we have in the US never to worry about clean tap water or food served at a restaurant making you sick.