Have notebook, will travel...

Red Necks of the Indian Ocean

2009-04-06T08:18:00.000-07:00

I’m having trouble getting time to write this blog everyday. Right now I’m writing this back in Surabaya from notes I left myself on my phone. It really has been a non-stop trip, and I’m very fortunate that I haven’t gotten sick yet. I’ve been careful what I eat (up to a point – I’m not eating Pizza Hut and McDonalds everyday – just eating what’s put in front of me), and washing my hands a lot. It seems to be working so far.

Anyway, after I went for my mountain run, I had another massage (just as an experiment to see if it helped my muscles – and it does seem to help) had breakfast and packed up to head down to Denpasar and Mimpi Jimbaran. Along the way we had a few stops, the first being Ubud, the artistic capital of Bali. We didn’t stop into any galleries, but did have lunch there at a local restaurant. I ate everything but the fried chicken blood, Bing Bing grabbed that off my plate before I could eat it (thank goodness). Moving along we ended up at Tanah Lot, a Balinese temple build out of a rock out cropping in the middle of the Indian Ocean. It’s a neat place, but after a few visits, it gets kinda boring. But the actual reason for the visit wasn’t the temple, but the stores that line the road down to the water. I picked up a few things for people, including a nice handmade wooden portable chess set for Kate for $5. With the economy here hurting like everywhere else, deals are easy to find.

After an hour shopping (and getting a nice red neck in the process – no sunscreen), we finally made it back to Mimpi Jimbaran. Jimbaran is in a state of reconstruction right now. It was originally built in the early 1980s and was getting quite dated. The new main building is about twice the size of the original and it’s white walls can be seen all the way from the airport 5km away. There is some debate about the design of the building. There is a new style of building here called “minimas”, or minimalist. It basically is applying Ikea design to buildings. I like the style for the most part, but the local driver doesn’t. He thinks the traditional Balinese styles should still be used.

For dinner we went to an Italian place in Kuta (the main tourist area). My lasagne dinner was about $4 (including tip and drink). Food (even Western food) is cheap in Indonesia.

Village of the Jerky People

2009-04-05T07:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday plan changed slightly in that I didn't get that second massage or lunch at the Mimpi. The massage was way too expensive (a local massage is 30,000 Rp, Mimpi wanted 360,000 Rp) and Bing Bing was getting bored with the food, so we left in the late morning and headed over to Lovina for lunch. After eating and taking a few pictures of the monkey on a chain (there are no branches of the SPCA here), we arrived mid-afternoon at Lake Batur, up in the middle of a huge caldera in the Bali highlands. Across for the hotel is a village that legend says contains the last original inhabitance of Bali (before Hindus/Dutch Colonists/Japanese Army/Drunken Australian Tourist came and took over). They don't bury their dead in this village, but instead leave them out, covered with a loose mesh of thatch to turn into some sort of people jerky. After the "natural processes" are finished, they take the skull and add it to a wall of others ancestors. As strange as it sounds, the place is a bit touristy. Everyone's got to make money, even the dead it seems.

I didn’t take a boat over to the village this time (you’ve seen one dead guy, you’ve seen them all), but instead walked around to see a natural hot spring flowing out of the side of the volcano. To pop into the hot spring for a dip is a reasonable $5 American, but of course this is way, way too expensive for the locals. They are regulated to a mud pit outside the wall of the hot spring where the waste hot spring water goes. It’s kind of sad to see, especially since they are the people who live here and can’t really enjoy what’s in their own neighbourhood.

We ate at the local restaurant of the hotel, had a massage from the local massage ladies and went to sleep. This morning I went for a short 5km run up and down the mountain road around the lake. Again I stuck out like a sore thumb running down the road dressed in my spiderman-like running outfit.

Reflections by the pool

2009-04-04T07:30:00.000-07:00

I'm in Mimpi Menjangan this morning. Yesterday we flew over to Bali from Surabaya (about 50 minutes total time) and landed without incident. The people in Surabaya didn't even want to check our ID before we got on the plane. I guess they figure a white guy like me isn't a terrorist. Our car was waiting for us and we started to drive over to Tante Luan's new house. She is the owner of the Mimpi resorts in Bali, inherited from her husband who died in 2002. Her house is a little tricky to find, so we used the GPS maps stored in my phone to find it (I love my phone more and more here). Tante Luan (Auntie Luan) is a small, thin lady who look ever part a queen of bali. She's Chinese by descent, but has lived in Bali all her life and has adopted the Balinese lifestyle. Talking to her is a bit what I imagine having an audience with the Queen of England would be like; polite, to the point and short. We were only there for 20 minutes before we were off to the Mimpi, but there were a few passengers to pick up first.

Things with my in-laws are never straight-forward. I had thought that Bing Bing, Sin Quok and I were going to be travelling together, but unknown to me Bing Bing's friend and 4 year old son we're also coming along for the ride. We picked them up about half an hour out of Denpasar (the main city of Bali) and headed for the Mimpi. Driving with Sin Quok, as I've said before, is a bit like playing a Playstation game. He weaves in and out of traffic so fast and so close to other scooters and cars, you would think he'd have his license pulled. I guess they have to catch him first.

Like I said, I'm at the Mimpi Menjangan now, which is in the North-West corner of Bali. I've been here before a few times already, but it always amazes me how nice this place is. This morning I went for a swim in the pool, then had breakfast down by the ocean. Before lunch I'm going to have a massage (number 2, for those who are counting), then lunch, then off to the volcanoe for tonight's stop. It's been pretty well non-stop since I arrived in Indonesia, but this morning I started thinking about stuff that was on my mind before I left near the pool. I wish everyone else were here. Kate and Anne are old enough now that they both would enjoy it here. I also started thinking about MDS (they also could use a vacation) and how I'm going to miss everyone there. But in a round about way it's good that I left. I wasn't helping my career there and hopefully my new gig will help move me forward.

Off to Bali...

2009-04-03T07:30:00.000-07:00

I’m sitting soaking wet after taking a 40 minute run this morning. It went a lot better than the first one (it was 10 minutes longer and my heart rate was close to normal), but I can’t seem to stop sweating.

Yesterday I went to pick up a few things that I had forgotten (like swimwear – how did I forget that?). I also bought that portable keyboard, so with that I won’t be needing my notebook to write emails. I also went for a massage with Sin Jiang before dinner yesterday. Now, it was a real massage, not a “Thai” massage or anything you’d find around the airport in Toronto. I had never been to the place before, but basically it was like a health spa. There was a men’s section and a women’s section with a bunch of whirlpools, a sauna, steam room and showers. After a few minutes in the sauna (why people would have a sauna in an equatorial country is beyond me), we showered and went upstairs for the massage. The local massage people (there are ladies and men that give massages) cost 60,000 Rp (about $6 for an hour) and the Chinese imports cost $12. Yearly memberships are about $1 a day with access to the all-you-can-eat buffet included.

This morning we’re off to Bali. Hopefully everything will work out and I’ll be able to write this evening from Mimpi Menganan.

How Indonesia is 500 times better than Canada.

2009-04-02T09:30:00.000-07:00

So I’m settled at Dieng (Jalan Dieng No. 2 – or 2 Dieng Street). Some of the junk outside has been moved, so the front yard is actually a yard again. Across the street all of the Madurese people selling fruit have been “relocated” by the government to a new spot (not far from here according to my relatives, but I’m not sure if that means a street over or a city away). All of their shacks have been destroyed and now I can actually see the houses across the street. It opens up the street a little, which is the way it should be.

My impression from one day here is that the present government is actually doing a half-decent job. It’s not like Indonesia is a first world country or anything, but it seems cleaner than it was 3 years ago. Less plastic bags floating around at least (although the water ways are still disgusting). There is a general election here in a week (I always seem to be in town for them). Maybe the present guy will get back in again, which doesn’t seem to be a bad thing.

I went for my first run yesterday at 5:30am, and it was HOT! I’m used to running in 2C weather. It’s never gets below 23C here. I planned to go slow and last an hour. I only made it to 30 minutes before I got back to Dieng, soaked from head to toe. Even in the morning it’s 28C and a million percent humidity. I’m going to have to take it easy for a while until I’m a little more acclimatized to the heat. Needless to say a Bule (White Guy) running through the tiny streets was noticed by everyone. It was a good run though, not a lot of traffic yet that early in the morning. Tomorrow I’ll try it again, maybe going out for 40 minutes.

Tomorrow I’m also on a flight to Bali with Bing Bing (a girl) and Sin Quok (a guy), two of my cousin-in-laws. Both worked in the States for a while (Bing Bing went to school in Toronto), so they speak English very well. The plan is one night (or maybe two) at Mimpi Mengaran, one might in a hotel in Ubud (one of Bing Bing’s friends), and one night at Mimpi Jimbaran. Jimbaran is beside the Four Seasons in Bali, and along Jimbaran beach, which I’m really looking forward to running on. One small change that has happened is that Mimpi Jimbaran is being renovated (nuked and rebuild from the ground up is more apt), so I won’t be staying at the old hotel anymore. I’ll be staying at the Tante Luan’s (the owner of the Mimpi resorts – a family friend) daughter’s house, which is just up the hill. All the better in case of Tsunami I guess.

Besides planning the rest of the trip (it looks like Jakarta is next week and Manado is the week after), I discovered that Canada is about as backward as it can get in terms of its cell phone system. I specifically bought an unlocked phone (i.e. not tied to a carrier) so I could bring the phone with me to Indonesia and use it. I didn’t realize how cheap it would be to actually do that though. When I bought a FIDO SIM card for my phone, it was $40. Here the exact same SIM card is 40 cents. Data is 500 times cheaper per kilobyte than from Rogers/Fido in Canada. I knew Canada was getting screwed for cell phone coverage, but I didn’t know by how much until I got here.

So now I’m using my phone as a 3G modem, getting Internet access that way. In fact I’ll probably buy a Bluetooth keyboard (my old one broke) and simply use my cell phone for all my writing and email. It’ll be a lot easier than carrying the notebook with me.

p.s.: I’ve taken a few pictures, but I still have to figure out how to upload them to Blogger. They will all probably be up after Bali on Tuesday.

Smell-o-asia

2009-04-01T03:00:00.000-07:00

I made it to Surabaya without too much trouble. The 15.5 hours flight to HKG was for the most part fine. The seats weren’t too small, although it is still impossible to get any good sleep in them. During the flight I thought a few times if coming here was a good idea. I’m going to miss the kids and Julie a lot and although I’ve been here by myself a few times before, I haven’t done it since the kids were big.

I still had this nagging thought until I got to the rent a lounge in HKG. I took a shower there and rented a “room” (actually just a cot in a dark room with drapes around it), at that point I started up “smell” Asia. It’s hard to tell if you have been at a place for a while, but there are background smells to everywhere. In Canada you tend to forget them since you are around them all the time. Think of leaves in a forest and the “smell” of autumn. Or the smell of spring with freshly thawed out mud and the plants starting to bloom. In Asia it is the same thing, but because there are different plants here, it has a different smell. Hong Kong and Japan have a particular smell, very sweet, like flowers in bloom, but it lasts all year long. Anyway, once I got a whiff of that background smell, I didn’t feel so worried. I’ve been here at total of 6 months in my life, so I’m used to it a little. I wouldn’t go as far to say it is a “comfort smell”, but it did make me feel better.

Anyway it was either that or the detergent they used on the bed sheets...

After getting up from the cot (I didn’t really sleep), I walked over to the gate and my timing couldn’t be better, for not two seconds after I arrived I saw the counter lady (they are all ladies with Cathay – but more on that later), they starting boarding. I was one of the first ones on, which was good because I didn’t have any overhead bins where I was sitting. I stole someone else’s bin and squeezed into my seat. As I watching everyone come on board I noticed about 80 percent of the passengers were women. It looked like they were either nannies returning to Indonesia or girls going on a shopping spree. I’m guessing that is the usually mix of people on this flight.

During this flight I got a survey to fill out. It was a typical sort of survey except for one recurring question: staff appearance. Cathay’s staff, like most Asian airlines, is basically all hot women. I’m not sure how they get away with it still, but it seems that the airlines here only hire young attractive girls with size 2 waists. The size 2 part I can appreciate (since it means they won’t be knocking my arm as they walk by). I still don’t know how they have avoided an age discrimination suit so far though.

Anyway the flight was non eventful (I even managed to sleep for half an hour). While I was getting off, I noticed a young mother and her daughter in the other aisle packing up. She was American (as a guess) and was travelling alone with her child. I was watching her get more and more confused with the “visa on arrival” process in Indonesia. Basically there are 3 steps: 1) pay for your visa ($25 USD) at one booth, 2) pick up your visa with the receipt from the first booth, 3) go talk to the immigration guy downstairs at a third booth. It could all be done in one go, but that wouldn’t imply nearly as many people (plus it cuts down on the corruption). She was getting more and more confused, so I walked her through the process with me. I lost track of her after immigration, but I just felt sorry for her knowing that getting her bags and getting though the mass of people outside would be harder with the little girl than the immigration part.

A lot of my in-laws and their kids were waiting for me outside in a cafe. The kids were eating batwan (Indonesian noodle and meatball soup) and after they were done we all hopped into the cars and headed for Dieng.

The day before...

2009-03-29T08:00:00.000-07:00

I'm just starting to pack for my flight to HKG tomorrow. Since I'm basically a pack mule for gifts for the kids in Indonesia, I'm only allotted a half a suitcase for my stuff. It's enough though. It's 34C in Surabaya, so it's not like I need to pack a winter parka.

As usual, I'm bringing all sorts of electronic toys with me. My notebook, a spare notebook which I'll be leaving behind for one of the Dieng kids, my camera, my iPod, my GPS watch (for running) and my unlocked cell phone (it's called a hand phone in Indonesia). However I don't have anything that is going to last 15.5 hours to HKG, so I'm also bringing a book. Yes a book. This is actually a big deal because as some of you know, I don't read. When I was growing up I never recreationally read. I never got into the habit of reading for fun (although now I read to the kids every night). I thought it would be a good idea to bring at least one book along as opposed to staring at the bald spot of the guy in front of me for for 15 hours.

Which book is on my short list? "A Year in Provence". A friend of mine lent it to me at least two years ago and I haven't had the chance to crack it open yet. The reason he lent it to me was because he found that my email blogs that I was sending from Indonesia last time were similar to the stories in the book. Anyway, we'll see if he's right.

I'm also bringing along some documentation. My passport (obviously), my international driver's license (that and 100,000 Rp should take care of any traffic tickets I get forgetting which side of the road to drive on), and my pilot's license. My pilot's license is useless in Indonesia technically (it is only recognized in Canada), but I know of a few flying clubs that I might get a chance to visit while I'm there. I've always had a dream of flying around the volcanoes in an ultralight in Indonesia. Julie even made a snow globe of the scene once. If I'm lucky, I might get the chance this time.

But first things first. I've got to finish packing...