Indonesia: Thoughts and Experiences

How to sum up my time in Indonesia? I really have no idea where to begin because it wasn’t quite traveling but it wasn’t quite a vacation either.... I guess the short version is that I lived and ate very well and really loved having a lot of family around me :)

I spent a lot of time at first at my uncle’s Jakarta apartment, the Bellagio. Mostly I watched Starworld, sat drumming my fingers waiting for Internet sites to load, ate great food, and hung out with my Aunt. She’s fun :) I taught her how to play scrabble on the iPad and we even went swimming one day. We’d sit together sometimes while she knitted and I did travel research. She would make mistakes on a sweater for my mom, slam her fist down, and say “hmpfh!” Seeing a 62 year old woman do that is super cute! My aunt and uncle were renovating their house so at times, I was left alone to pick up new skills. For example, I learned to cook eggs in a microwave! Had I known how to do it before, I would have been microwaving eggs at work all the time! I was also waiting to hear back from the director at St. Elisabeth’s hospital as to whether or not I would be allowed to shadow a pharmacist there. (I ended up getting permission, but for the week Theo and I were in Bali/Lombok! I never did end up shadowing a pharmacist…. Good thing I guess because I don’t think I want a career in pharmacy anymore!) I guess two major life changing events took place before the start of 2012: I’ve decided not to pursue pharmacy and I’ve perfected the art of cooking eggs in the microwave!

Where Life is Hard: Life is indeed harder here in Indonesia. The traffic is horrendous, and is a constant. It makes it a struggle to go anywhere or do anything and just going to school and back for example, could mean five or six hours in the car each day! You cannot trust workers here. My aunt and uncle have had to literally watch the people working on their house for fear that the workers will steal the building materials! When they moved all their things back to the house, despite rewarding the movers with food and a generous tip, they still found a box of their things missing. I admire the people here because they have to know so much more about, well, everything than we do in the US. If something doesn’t work or something needs doing, I can generally trust that whoever I call will fix it or get the job done; it’s just not like that here. It is also hard living in Indonesia because of the income gaps. It makes it so that even locals try to screw each other over or extort some sort of bribe. In Africa, for example, I would expect to be charged a higher price because I am a foreigner. If I were with a local, I’d probably get a fair price. But when I was trying to extend my visa in Lampung for instance, the immigration official wanted 800,000 rupiah when the price is 250,000 rupiah… more than three times as much?! I didn’t say a word – it was my cousin who did all the talking and this still happened. The best (worst?) part is that there was even a sign in the immigration office that basically said no bribing here.

Bahasa Indonesia: I’ve made a big effort to improve my Indonesian and not only is it easier to communicate with everyone, but I also find I appreciate the oddities of the language more. Sakit Kuning literally means “yellow sick” or “sick from the yellow” and is how they refer to Hepatitis lol. Many people refer to pistachios as kacang ketawa… literally, the smiling peanut :) You can add “bangut” on the end to many words to act as an intensifier. My cousin, for example, was calling that one customs official a “brengsek (jerk) bangut” and it struck me as hilarious because I felt like he had just said something like “That guy’s a jerk, hella!” It’s been a lot of fun playing with words and learning how to say things properly. My cousin’s particularly enjoyed me saying once, “don’t act like a shy person (jangan bertingkah laku seperti orang yang malu-malu)” as opposed to “don’t be shy (jangan malu-malu).” :)

On Bathrooms: These toilets made me the most unhappy:

(No, there’s not a toilet behind me, the toilet consists of that little drain in the picture..) Most of the public toilets were pretty gross – wet everywhere and you never were quite sure if it was water or not. I think it’s also a sign of Indonesia’s third world status that there’s often no toilet paper in the bathrooms. Malaysia is rising, for example, and their toilets were well stocked! I was also not a fan of the bathrooms in older houses. If there’s no shower head, you take your showers with a bucket (also shown above). This is fine. But, the entire bathroom is wet after someone takes a shower and though it’s probably clean, it just feels wrong to step barefoot into a wet bathroom to use the toilet. Yuck.

While in Indonesia, I didn’t stay in one place very long… I think the longest consecutive stay I had anywhere was only about 10 or 11 days. Apart from my travels with Theo to Bali, Lombok, and Jogjakarta, I spent time in Singapore and Malaysia and even managed to make three trips to Lampung (on Sumatra).

Lampung: Getting here is exhausting… but that’s more a reflection on how exasperating the traffic situation can be in Jakarta. For an 8am flight, we had to leave around 530am for the airport. (We left at 530am for 9am flights too!) It’s a quick flight (~50 minutes) or a long drive (6+ hours) and I flew each time. The first time I was with my aunt and uncle attending Desy’s wedding. The second time, I was by myself. My Indonesian wasn’t so sharp at this point and it was a bit hard to communicate with some of the family in Lampung. I wasn’t used to being so utterly catered to either. For instance, I mentioned really liking the udang rebus (boiled shrimp) from a restaurant in Lampung…

Udang Rebus from Khuai Lok Restaurant = AMAZING!

As a result, I think I ended up eating udang rebus almost every meal during my visit! I can’t complain :) I was also unused to the heat (because I spent most of my time in the air-conditioned Bellagio; I felt hot and sweaty all that time in Lampung and even started developing a heat rash. The family in Lampung was incredibly kind to me though and being there without anyone else did wonders for my Indonesian :)

Chinese New Year: My third and final trip to Lampung was my chance to see Chinese people celebrating Chinese New Year. I think you’re supposed to do three offerings – one to the ancestors, one to God, and one for luck/prosperity… but I only saw one. My mom’s sister set up this offering:

It had all the traditional elements – pork belly, chicken, fish ball soup, and dried squid – and then random breads and fruits that the ancestors enjoyed when they were alive. After the incense burns out, they burn “fake money” – I never really got a clear answer as to why. I had been told that Chinese people like to eat expensive food for the New Year so on Chinese New Year’s Eve (and again on Chinese New Year), I had the very expensive shark fin soup and sea cucumber (along with fish ball soup, boiled chicken, cunkian [pork, shrimp, and fish cake] and more!).

Chinese New Year's Eve

Chinese New Years - Lunch!

The eating was fantastic, but the ang pao was even better! Never having celebrated Chinese New Year before, I never got red envelopes as a kid. This time, I said kyiung-hi (kYOOng-hee) to a bunch of people while rocking one hand clasped over the other back and forth… and I got several red envelopes :)

What a great holiday! Kyiung-hi is a way of saying Happy New Year in Ke, the dialect of Chinese my family speaks. In Mandarin, it’s something like gong xi fa cai (gong shi fah chai) and as a joke, you follow with ang pao nao lai (ahng pow now lie) … something along the lines of “Happy New Year, now where’s my red envelope?” This is at least what my one of my uncles told me :)

Unfortunately, I left Lampung the day after Chinese New Year. Well attached to my family there and still horrible with goodbyes, I cried a lot as everyone hugged me goodbye. It’s hardest when I don’t know when I’ll see them all again…. It was the worst saying goodbye to Tante Wanda since I’d spent so much time with her. I will miss them all and am definitely looking forward to whenever I get to see the family again. I hope it’s soon. :)

Random Food Photos:

My Favorite Restaurant in Jakarta: Pangandaran

To make this cake, kue lapis legit, you use 50 egg yolks and 700g of butter!!!

Afui in Bekasi: Ikan Tahu Taosi, Cumi, Kangkung, Ayam Goreng Mantega

Pondok Indah in Natar: Kangkung, Ikan Bakar, Rajungan

Nasi Bakar from LG Restaurant (Lampung)

1.5 Bule’s (BOO-lays) In Indonesia

*thanks Mark for pointing it out :)

Sunset in Magalang

We had a pretty crazy itinerary for Theo’s two weeks in Indonesia and except for a few moderations, we repeated much of the same route I had traveled when I was seven years old. Get ready for a long, long blog post:

Theo arrived on a Monday afternoon and after a detour to see MONAS (Monument Nasional), we went straight to one of the best Chinese restaurants in Jakarta: Angke. If you ask pretty much any of my family members which is their favorite restaurant in Indonesia, the answer will likely be Angke. It’s delicious! If you are ever in Jakarta, make sure you go to the original Angke, not the new (and not nearly as good) one in Kelapa Gading. We ordered all the usuals plus some randoms since we had some extended family with us. I think my favorite is the kodok goreng mantega (deep fried frog legs in a butter sauce)! (Not pictured below - they were gone before I had a chance to get a picture...)

Bali: Less than 24 hours after Theo arrived in Jakarta, we were off to Bali! The last time I was here was in 2008 and I wasn’t impressed: I remember there being a lot of traffic, a lot of rain, not-so-impressive sights, and an annoying tour guide who talked too much. This time was a lot more fun! The traffic was unavoidable, but the weather was good, I planned a great itinerary (if I do say so myself), and Pak Rudi was helpful when we needed him to be (and otherwise unimposing). We hired Pak Rudi to be our driver for the two days in Bali and although (at 400,000 rupiah (~$45) per 10-hour day) it wasn’t as cheap as in Egypt, I think it was a great deal! I’m sure that Pak Rudi thought we were insane on the first day as we went to four different restaurants: Ibu Oka’s for babi guling (roasted pig), Bebek Bengil for their signature bebek bengil (roasted duck), Naughty Nuri’s for baby back ribs, and Bali Nikmat for amazing tim kerapu (steamped garoupa), sapi lada hitam (black pepper beef), udang kipas (lobster), and kangkung (veggies). In between food stops, we did manage to see the rice fields at Tegalalang:

and Pura Tamun Ayun:

Day Two in Bali: Theo saw the must-sees: Kuta Beach, the 2002 bombing memorial on Jalan Legian, Tanah Lot, Nusa Dua, Uluwatu Temple, Kecak Dance, and Jimbaran Bay. I felt like I was experiencing many of these things for the first time because with Tanah Lot, for example, our guide in 2008 took us to the temple at high tide (so we couldn’t access the temple), and I definitely don’t remember what it was like here from when I was seven...

We had to wash our hands and faces and receive a rice blessing before approaching Tanah Lot.

@ Tanah Lot

Relaxing @ Nusa Dua

Kecak (pronounced kuh-chahk) dance is a performance in which repetitive use of the word kecak (kecak-kecak-kecak) provides the musical background as actors perform various scenes. We saw a performance during sunset at Uluwatu Temple.

The chanting and shaking was a bit eerie and some of the costumes were a bit disconcerting as well. One of the “slapstick” characters approached the audience and a little girl burst into tears! Poor thing! The female performers had these really intense (and, well, creepy) eyes too!

Towards the end of the performance, one of the characters was put in a circle of fire…. As he stamped/kicked the fire out, he accidently kicked a fireball at one of the kecak singers – the man’s hair caught fire! Exciting times at Uluwatu Temple…. It’s one of those performances you know you’d never see in the US – too much liability…

Jimbaran Bay (above) is a must for anyone who visits Bali. You can have an incredibly romantic candlelight dinner on the beach with delicious seafood! It is perhaps expensive for Indonesia’s standards, but we had a whole fish, two small lobsters, one crab, six shrimp, six clams, six squid skewers, rice, veggies, and beer for under $50! It was an amazing dinner!!

Lombok: I loved it here! I'd recommend it over Bali to anyone! It was the one place in Indonesia that Theo and I were discovering for the first time together and I can’t wait to go back! We spent the first day settling in, booking a snorkeling trip, getting $6 massages, having a $10 dinner, and watching an incredible sunset at Senggigi Beach. Great day!

We spent the next day on the famous (and beautiful!) Gili Islands! Our boat trip out to Gili Trawangan cost 10,000 rupiah each (~$1). Luckily, we refused a guy who tried to make us think that taking a private charter boat to the islands (200,000 rupiah) was the best way to go given our “late” 11am departure. We spontaneously booked a diving trip with a dive operator and about an hour later, this massive storm came in. The once-sunny sky was covered in dark grey clouds and you couldn’t see more than 5-10 feet out on the water. The rain was also falling so hard that, with the super strong wind, it hurt upon impact! I think we were lucky though because we got in a good half hour of snorkeling pre-storm and by the time we were ready to dive, the storm had miraculously cleared! Pretty good diving too…

Theo saw his first turtle!

There are three famous Gili islands: Gili Trawangan, Gili Meno, and Gili Air. We got a taste of all three because after snorkeling on Gili Trawangan and diving off Gili Meno, we took the island hopper to Gili Air. Gili Air is the least developed of the three and it almost felt like we had the island to ourselves. We sat enjoying a delicious grilled fish dinner with no one else around to disturb us. We ended up having to take a private charter back to Lombok because the posted public boat schedule is just plain wrong! It lists an 8:15pm departure from Gili Air to Lombok but the “pm” is a typo! Theo had even received verbal confirmation (or so he thought) that the evening boat exists. Hmpfh! It all worked out though: I was able to bargain a bit in Indonesian and we ended up meeting some nice people who chartered us safely back to Lombok and later dropped us off at the hotel.

Unfamous Gilis: There are less popular Gili islands in the southwest off of Lombok – these were wonderful too! Theo and I snorkeled the entirety of Gili Gede and then had the most amazing time on Gili Sudak.

This island is a paradise(!) that thankfully, other tourists do not frequent. We had the place to ourselves and I for one loved every minute of it!After about three hours total of snorkeling, Theo and I wandered merrily along the beach picking shells, unaware of the devastating sunburns we would later discover. Ouch.

Stopping by the Sukarara Weaving Village… Using traditional weaving methods, the women are only able to complete 10-15cm of these cloths per day!

Bandung: On Christmas morning, we took a 6am flight from Lombok back to Jakarta, and then drove straight to Bandung. Unfortunately, Bandung was less fun than I wanted it to be. Because of the holiday, it was way too crowded and traffic was a nightmare! After visiting one of the jam-packed outlets for instance, it took us about an hour to move approximately three blocks. Ridiculous! Visiting Tangkuban Parahu 18km away took two hours (each way) to get to! Although it smelled like sulfur, it is quite beautiful here. I had no recollection of being there as a child…

Leaving no time to rest, we took a flight to Jogjakarta the morning after we got back from Bandung. The famous dish in Jogja is Nasi Gudeg (rice, chicken, boiled egg, boiled jackfruit, crispy (and Spicy!) beef skin, and either tempe or tofu):
Eh. I didn’t love the food in Jogja/Magalang actually…. Not to complain, but Magalangan (a mix of fried rice and fried noodles) was too sweet… Nasi Kambing (goat kebab) was too fatty… Tongseng was just not worth eating... (too much coconut milk)… and Mie Kakap (noodles made out of fish) was too oily.

I think the only thing Theo really disliked was the durian...

The best things there were probably the ayam goreng (fried chicken) and bakso kakap (fish balls). I felt like we were eating constantly and somehow, we managed to do as much eating as sightseeing, with stops at two of Maria’s caves, Bandungan, a soy-bean factory, a view of Merapi (the volcano that erupted in 2010), Prambanan, and Borobudur.

A view of the Merapi Volcano and
devastated land from the lava flow...

It was raining pretty heavily for most of our visit to Bandungan so Theo and I only saw three of the nine temples. They apparently all look the same, however. The highlight is probably my 70 year old aunt getting on a horse, screaming nonstop, and getting laughed at by her younger 62 year old sister. :)

Prambanan was equally rainy making the trek up the temples’ steps wet, slippery, and muggy. The rain was a bit miserable to be in, but we are all smiles:

And then there was Borobudur! it is amazing! Despite the destruction (from an earthquake I think), it is still an impressive site:

It's supposed to be lucky if you can touch the buddha... I did it!

Also of note, Theo was approached twice for photos at the temple. This makes five times total that Indonesian people have asked to have their picture taken with him. It’s not just that he’s a bule because he was approached twice in Bali and there are plenty of bules there!

Theo’s Last Night:The day after getting back to Jogja was New Year’s Eve and Theo’s last night. He’s always wanted to stay at a Four Seasons so as a Christmas present, I got us a room there to celebrate the New Year.

This was an amazing decision!! We watched movies, ordered room service, and at midnight, we saw about 15 different fireworks shows from our 14^th floor balcony. I couldn’t have asked for a better night! We spent the next morning swimming in the rain and then relaxing in the spa at the Four Seasons.:)

Theo also got to try padang food before he left... SPICY!

(They lay out all the dishes you might like to eat and you pay only for what you take...)

Coming Up: Life in Indonesia, The Best Diving Ever, and Continent #7!!!

*I’m playing a bit of catch up again because I’ve just left Indonesia and have finally made it to Continent #7!!! Australia, Here I am! I leave Cairns tomorrow to spend a few days on a liveaboard diving the Great Barrier Reef!!!