Please join me in congratulating Haviva on her last day of work...

That means we've been in Jakarta for exactly one year. It also means that, because of stoopid Indonesian visa rules, Haviva is off to Singapore for the day so she can come back on a tourist visa and officially begin her life of leisure. I've got 4 more days of work - done on Tuesday. Then it's off to Bali to meet my parents for some exploring.

Holy Krakatoa

Please forgive the occasional expletives in the above video, but I assure you there were appropriate at the time. For 6 months we've been talking about chartering the Cecelia Ann, a 60ft sailboat, and sailing to Anak Krakatoa, the "Child of Krakatoa". We finally went this past weekend with 8 friends and were lucky enough to see it erupt for the first time in years. And luck for us our captain was as excited to see it up close as we were, so we got to see quite a show.

The weekend started after work on Friday when we drove a couple of hours west and boarded the boat. We sailed all night and arrived at a great snorkeling spot, where we had breakfast and spent the morning checking out the reef. After lunch we sailed to Krakatoa. Because the government has constantly been changing the no-go zone we weren't sure just how close we'd be able to get. The original boundary was 3km but then it was changed to 10km when the eruptions increased.

Our captain had heard there weren't any patrol boats in the area so after lunch we sailed through the ash cloud to a point about 3km away with the volcano erupting every 15 to 20 minutes. Just before nightfall we sought shelter in a little bay that was (sadly) out of sight of the volcano. A few of us convinced the captain to take us out in the Zodiac to watch it erupt at night, but I won't talk about how cool that was because Haviva didn't get to go.

In the morning we woke up at 4:30 and sailed around the corner to see some nighttime eruptions. With no light in the sky you could see the lava bubbling in the crater as well as the glowing rocks being shot out. After sunrise the captain was feeling confident that A) it was safe and B) there were no patrol boats around so we sailed to about 1 km directly in front of the newly formed crater on the side of the volcano. That's where the best of our video was taken, and also where some Jakarta-based reporters boarded our boat to take some photos and ask some questions.

Sure enough, we woke up this morning in Jakarta to find a photo of three of our friends eating breakfast with Krakatoa erupting in the background on the cover of the Jakarta Post and a similar photo with Haviva and I in it on the cover of another local paper. Their photos and accompanying story turned up all over the web, too. The coolest photo is of our boat with the lava flowing in the background. Truly unforgettable weekend all around, and I didn't even get to the part where Haviva swam with her second turtle.

More photos at www.picasaweb.google.com/howieandhaviva/krakatoa

2 nights, 6 buses, 2 motocycle taxis, lots of amazing scenery

Haviva had a business trip to Padang at the end of last week so I flew out to meet her for a quick long weekend in the hills of Sumatra. We decided to be overly ambitious and see as much as we could in 2 1/2 days.

I arrived at 8AM on Saturday and we went straight to Bukitinggi, a small hilltop city. After a quick walk around and some lunch we hopped the local bus to Payakumbuh and then took motorcycle taxis to the Hurau Valley, which leaps to the top of the list of most beautiful places we've seen. Picture a steep-walled canyon filled with rice paddies. It was absolutely beautiful - one of those places you just wander around with a smile on your face.

After a night there we headed back to Payakumbuh by motorcycle, then by bus back to Bukitinggi, then another bus to Maninjau, home of a Lake Maninjau, a huge volcanic crater lake. The highlight of the ride into Maninjau is the stretch of road with 44 switchbacks leading down to the lake from the crater rim. When we got to that point I managed to trade my seat for the spot standing on the bottom step of the open door, where I could hang on for life with one hand and snap photos of the incredible view with the other. Good times.

After a night in a lakeside bungalow we retraced our steps by bus back to Bukitinggi and then on to the airport to fly home. It wasn't the most leisurely of weekends, but it certainly was beautiful.

More photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/howieandhaviva/Padang