Home. For A Minute.

I made it home safely from Kalimantan on Tuesday, and I've spent the past two days catching up with people I've missed and haven't seen for about a month. Tomorrow I'm leaving again, this time for a weekend BEACH TRIP! I'm a little excited. But after that, travels are over, and it's time to buckle down and get some  real work done! That also means time to edit and post some pictures from June's adventures. I'm pretending like you care.

The biggest thing that happened while I was gone was that gas prices rose for the first time since I've lived here. So that makes it the first time in at least 5 years. (Can you believe it's been 5 years?) They were actually supposed to do this last year, but there were SO many protests over that 20 cent raise that the government postponed it.  A couple of times, actually. Then it felt like the raise kind of happened all of a sudden without a whole lot of warning. It was probably better to do it that way, but they're expecting protests over it all the way until August. The US Embassy sends us warnings about things like that.

So gas is all the way up to 65 cents a liter now. I might have to budget a whole $1.50 per week for gas instead of the usual dollar.

It's a rough life I have here.

Hey, Y'all!

So I'm writing this post on my tablet (best buy ever) from the hot, hot island of Borneo! This trip has been way more of an adventure than I ever imagined it would be.

The trip started with 2 days in Jakarta visiting old friends and doing some fun shopping (Forever 21, cheeeeyeah!). Then on Saturday, we got on a plane to Kalimantan - the Indonesian part of Borneo. We were warned that it would be hot here, but I was so not prepared for HOW hot. The equator runs through the coastal city in which I'm staying, and the house we're staying in is still in the process of being built, so no air conditioning yet. The only furniture in the whole house is a kitchen table and 2 beds. And we've got 5 people sharing the space!

Our hosts were considerate enough to buy air mattresses and fans, but the electricity has been sketchy at night. If it's off for more than a minute or two, I'm already sweating through my pjs. Literally. Hot, hot heat. It is unbelievable. I'm really embracing the siesta culture. Three hour nap during the hottest part of of the day? Yes, please. Too bad I'm on the wrong side of the world for siestas.

Fun fact. I did a load of laundry yesterday, and I got a tan in the less than 10 minutes it took me to hang it up. Tan lines, folks. Blazing hot.

I have a friend back on Java named Jess who is from this city. Yesterday I got to meet her entire family! They picked us up and took us to their tiny church on the third floor of the Prudential Insurance building! It was a tiny, crowded room and the floor was very shaky, but it was really neat to be able to gather with this group of believers in this part of the world. I just kept praying we wouldn't all crash through the floor to the offices below...

Jess's family took us out for delicious noodle dumpling soup for lunch. The place they took us to was also famous for their chocolate shaved ice! I've never even seen shaved ice in Indonesia, much less CHOCOLATE shaved ice! It basically my new favorite food. We mentioned to them that we were planning to go visit the equator and to do some other touristy things this week.

So this morning, they showed up without warning, ready to show us around! After 10 frantic minutes of scrambling to get ready, we were in the car, ready to go. We tried to go visit the Dayak cultural museum, but it was closed. The Dayak tribe is the biggest in this area, and after talking to Jess's mom, I learned a TON about this tribe. They are extremely discriminated against by other tribes and also by the Indonesian government. I think when I get back, I'll have to write a big long post about the Dayaks. But I still have a lot to learn.

After our initial museum disappointment, we decided to go the equator instead. So here are some pictures of that.

Um, just kidding. I don't know how to insert pictures where I want them on this tablet. So there may or may not be a picture compilation of me at the equator monument somewhere in this post.

There might also be a picture of a plate of food, so let me explain that. After the equator, we went out for a traditional Dayak lunch. It was buffet style, so I piled my plate with food. Then my more cautious travel buddies started asking what the foods were as they went through the line. I maybe should have done that first, because I had just served myself generous portions of dog, snake, and "the contents of a pig's stomach". So that was great. But at least I got lots of vegetables! And yes, I cleaned my plate. Everything tasted delicious! It's just the textures that I sometimes have trouble with...

So that's been our time so far. I'm sure many more adventures are yet to come, and I can't wait!

Hellos and Goodbyes and Views

I'm gonna be so excited when I have 25,000 pageviews. But that's probably going to happen later this week or next week while I'm away from my computer.

That's right. I feel like I just got home yesterday, and I'm already taking off again! I'm leaving on a train tomorrow to the capital city, where I'll spend 3 days hanging with friends and going to an AWESOME waterpark. Look: http://waterbom-jakarta.com/web2013/

Then three of us are heading to the wild island of Borneo. My friends have a flight back to America to catch, so they'll be heading back to Jakarta earlier than I will. I'll be there 10 days before heading back home to Java. We have some plans to see some orangutans and stand on the equator and maybe do some jungle exploration.

But the thing that I'm MOST excited about is that I GET TO SEE MELANIE. That's right, people. She moved into a house TODAY - after living in random spaces for the past four months since moving there - so now she even has a place for me to sleep! It is going to be a grand reunion, and to say that I'm pretty happy about it would be an understatement.

So yeah. That's the plan. Please pray for safe travels and lots of fun! : )

Bali Proper

If you have any idea what movie the title of this post is in reference to, I will give you a prize. The prize is my unending adoration of your obscure movie quotes knowledge.

So here are the pictures I took in Bali! Like I mentioned before, I only took pictures of a few events. In order, here they are!

First, the ferry ride from Java to Bali. They made us all walk on to the ferry instead of just riding our bus on. Weird. But we went and sat up on the top deck, and I took several pictures from there. It was a chilly, blustery, cloudy, dismal morning. I was worried that it was an omen of how our time in Bali was to be, but it wasn’t at all! The weather was great the whole time we were there. If anything, it was TOO hot and humid and sunny! I’m glad we left this gross weather on Java. Too bad it was still here waiting for us when we got back…

   

I think I really enjoy taking pictures of nautical things.

We left home Sunday at 3 o’clock in the afternoon, and we made it to our hotel at 3 the following day. We were on the bus for a little over 23 hours, then we had to take a taxi another 45 minutes or so to the town where we were staying. Usually the bus ride is only 18 hours, but from 3 – 6 AM, we did not move at all. We were stuck in a total traffic jam. They said a truck had flipped and was blocking the road somewhere up ahead. Our driver just shut the bus off, and we all slept. Then, for some reason, we spent way longer than normal at the ferry crossing. I’m not sure what was going on there. But we eventually made it, not too worse for the wear.

Yohanes and I were the only ones who rode the bus. We went early because Peco’s mom and aunt had flown in from America to be there for his wedding. Peco was in conferences all week (which is why they were in Bali and why they decided to just do the wedding there), and when we asked him months ago what we could do to help the most, he said, “Babysit my family”. So Yohanes and I were on babysitting detail all week. The heat was a bit much for Bonnie (his mom) and Jan (his aunt), so we got to take them out to do some fun stuff, but they also spent a lot of time resting in their hotel room. So Tuesday, Yo and I had some adventures of our own. We drove down to Kuta – the tourist capital of the island – to do some shopping and to check out the beach.

And I got some sweet new “Vans” sunglasses for $3. Gotta love Indonesia.

Also, I just have to say, that no matter how touristy Kuta is, it will always hold a special place in my heart. I love this town.

Wednesday, I got some much desired beach time. I managed to sweet talk the manager of a beach-side resort into letting me use one of his hotel’s lounge chairs (my hotel was not on the beach – that’s when you get when you’re on a budget). Oh, the beauty of being able to speak Indonesian passably well. He actually asked me if I was an Indonesian citizen, which I was pretty proud of. He also brought me a bottle of cold water so that I wouldn’t get too hot, which was sweet. It was a marvelous morning, and I’m thankful for those 2 hours, because with the busy-ness of the week, that was the only beach/ocean time I got!

After that, I don’t have any more pictures until Thursday. By then, three more friends had flown or bussed in to be there for the wedding. The five of us decided to wake up early to see the sunrise. But we didn’t know what time the sunrise would be at. On Java, it’s at 5:15 AM, and it only ever differs by a few minutes, since we’re so close to the equator. However, even though Bali and Java are so geographically close, they are in different time zones, and obviously, Bali is further east. So we decided we’d be safe if we left our hotel at 4:45 to walk to the beach. We made our way there in the pitch black dark of night, and when we got to the beach, there was not even a glow in the east yet. In fact, only the stars and crescent moon were up to greet us.

I, being the cheerful morning person that I am (not), fell asleep in the sand for I don’t know how long. When I woke up around 5:30, I was greeted with a faint hint of red in the east. I snapped over 100 pictures on four different cameras over the next half hour or so. But don’t worry, I won’t post all of them here. Only the best for you. At about 5:45, the fishing boats started going out, and those are some of my favorite pictures.

Some of the pictures were taken from the beach, others I took from the end of the jetty shown in the second picture.

As the sky got brighter and brighter, I was able to see lots and lots of crabs scuttling around the rocks of the jetty. Crabs are usually very skittish around people, and they don’t often come close. But one little guy was feeling pretty brave and came and sat on the rock next to mine.

See him there? I noticed that he had lots of little polka dots all over his shell, so I decided to lean over slowly for a closer picture, and he was a good sport about it.

I leaned back over to my rock to look at the picture and make sure it was a clear shot. As I did so, I noticed something moving out of the corner of my eye. I didn’t pay attention at first, because I thought it was my little crabby friend. But something seemed off about the movement, so I glanced over and saw THIS down in the crevice between me and crabby.

No worries, guys! It’s only a sea krait, one of the most venomous snakes in the world! Thankfully, I’ve encountered one of these guys before (while exploring tide pools at dawn on Gili Air in 2011), and so I know that while they are extremely venomous, they are also extremely docile and not at all aggressive. Sometimes you can even pet them without incident. I was not quite that daring, but the snake seemed very curious about me, and I was also very curious about how close it would be willing to get to me. So while my crabby friend scurried away, I sat still and waited. Sea kraits have to be one of my favorite snakes because the ones that I have encountered have both seemed to have such explorative, curious, and even friendly personalities. And both have come very close to me to check me out. Not many snakes would do that without feeling threatened. This guy poked his head up out of his crevice, about 10 inches from my feet, and watched me for a bit before probably deciding that I was boring.

I glanced back toward the shore to see where my friends were, and when I looked back down, the snake had disappeared. At that same time, my friends all decided they were tired, so we headed back to the hotel for naps.

It was a good thing we got naps, because the rest of that day was a bit crazy preparing for…

Fun fact – Peco is not Peco’s real name! But it is the only name I have ever known him as, so it is the name I will forever call him.

Since they were both busy with conferences all week, it worked out great for them to get married at a hotel in town, because the hotel took care of all the setup and decorations and catering and band and tear down and EVERYTHING, pretty much!

I thought we were gonna have some wedding crashers, but they cleared out before most of the guests arrived (naturally, a third of the guests arrived over an hour late. Welcome to Indonesia!).

Jan and Bonnie looked lovely in their traditional Indonesian kebayas! Poor Bonnie, mother of the groom, woke up throwing up that morning and hardly ate anything all day. She threw up again right before the wedding and also right after, but thankfully she made it through the entire service without needing to make a break for it. I wish I’d taken this picture in color, because their kebayas were a really pretty shade of purple – the bride’s favorite color!

 

We did end up with a couple of almost-wedding-crashers. They must have been on their way back to the hotel from the beach when they caught sight of the wedding. They kept inching closer and closer, and I thought for a second that they were going to come all the way over, but they ended up just watching from a distance, then going into the hotel. So naturally, I took their picture.

My friend, Sam, was the official wedding photographer, and I’m pretty sure he did a pretty great job!

FIRST KISS EVER, PEOPLE! And stupid Peco hid it from us!! Typical…

And the crowd goes wild…

Garden wedding, beach reception…

The three of us. And then there were four.

 

It was EXTREMELY hot (over 100) and humid (around 90%) the day of the wedding, so we were all feeling pretty sticky and worn out by the time it was over. So we all (minus the bride and groom, naturally) went out for gelato and then promptly went to bed!

The next day, we drove to Ubud to spend time with the newlyweds before we headed home on Saturday. I thought it was pretty weird to crash a honeymoon, but they wanted to spend time with his family before we all left for Java and they went to another island for their “official” honeymoon. They are so laid back that it wasn’t weird at all, and it was really nice to get to spend time with them without them being busy with conferences or wedding planning.

The view from their hotel…

We said goodbye to them there and headed back to the town we were staying in. The next morning, we were up at 4 and back on Java by 6. I always know I’m home when I see my mountains.

Before I end this post, I have two more pictures to show you. The first one is how much I packed for this week-long trip. I fit EVERYTHING in a less-than-regulation-carry-on-size bag. I am very proud of this feat of excellence. Please applaud a little bit for me. Right now.

And the second picture I took on Friday, right after the only brief rain we saw while on Bali. I think this one is a good one to end my tales with.