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

Go Sox!

Caught the game with Chad and Trish, bagels, creamcheese, lox, hashbrowns and curry puffs. Not your usual baseball watching snacks, but suited our Indonesian expat 7 AM baseball watching just perfectly. Hope you all heard us cheering on the other side of the world!

Gunung Guntur

Just got back from a weekend in Cipanas - a small village about 3 or 4 hours southeast of Jakarta known for its hot springs and volcanoes. We hiked up Gunung Guntur on Saturday with the Java Lava hiking group. The hike itself was a bit tough and not the best volcano we have climbed (we are starting to be picky). The trail started in a nice jungle, but then abruptly went pretty straight up and turned into volcanic rubble and tall dry weeds. No shade and hard to stop since the ground never really leveled off. It was a nice view from the top and we had fun on the climb with the group. Howie especially loved sliding down the scree at lightening speed on the way down.

Sunday we enjoyed the giant hot spring pool at the hotel which even had a fun water slide dumping you into hot water and a crowd of very amused Indonesians. We also strolled through the village and checked out the rice padis, cauliflower and tomato fields. It was a beautiful sight with the lush fields surrounded by volcanoes.

Tomorrow it is up early to watch the Sox again with the other displaced members of Red Sox nation. Go SOX!

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

Red Sox + 7AM start = Big Apple Pancake

I'm happy to report that we have been getting all the Red Sox playoff games. They start at 7 AM, so this morning we invited some fellow Sox fans over for breakfast and the Sox. I made a Parnes' family favorite - Big Apple Pancake. It wasn't quite the same with palm sugar instead of brown sugar, and our Easy Bake oven didn't get quite hot enough, but it was tasty as always.

Looking forward to Game 7 tomorrow morning at 7. Lucky for me I had the foresight to make sure I'm not working until 2 in the afternoon.

Hiking volcanoes and finding Nemo

I still cannot wipe the smile off my face from our wonderful trip this past weekend to Manado. We arrived late Thursday night and were picked up by the good people at the Highland Resort and Spa. The resort is just outside of Manado nestled in the hills of Tomahon. The cabin was cute, all made of coconut wood and we woke up in the morning to gorgeous views of volcanoes and the small village below.

One of the guys who picked us up, Charles, offered to hike with us, which is normally something we decline, but since he was quite a nice guy and this was “no guide fee, great service at the Highland resort” we decided to take him up on it. We hiked up a nice small volcano – Gunung Mahawu – which even though it was late in the morning, was pretty clear and had great views. We could see Manado, Gunung Lokon (the larger active volcano we were told not to climb since it has been a bit bubbly lately) and even Bunaken – the small island we headed to next for a few days of snorkeling.

Charles took us up and over the volcano and then led us into town to his local favorite lunch spot. Could not tell you the name, it was a hole in the wall that fed us our new favorite food – Tinatuan or Bubur Manado. Bubur is usually not something we are into as it typically means porridge of some sort, but this was more of a soup made of pumpkin, cassava, corn and some leavy greens that had a hint of citrus. (A version we had a couple days later had some rice in it as well.) It was phenomenal and you could see after a long morning or day in the fields why people would eat it. Filling but not too heavy and full of flavor.

We also hit the local market in the morning (before the hike) where we were presented with all the local delights including the specialties of bat and dog. The bats were speared and frightening the dogs just hard to look at (especially the cages of live dogs awaiting their immanent trip to the fire pit.) There was no part of any animal spared and the place was hopping since it was the day before Idul Fitri.

From there we headed to Manado to catch the boat to Bunaken. Manado was pretty dead due to the holiday so outside of a great sunset from the pool at the hotel, there is not much to talk about. Bunaken on the other hand was AMAZING. Since it is a small volcanic island the reef simply surrounds the whole thing. The snorkeling is like swimming inside a tropical aquarium. The first day we jut put in right from the resort and saw some amazing things – bright blue starfish, Nemo and various other things we have seen only in Chinese restaurant tanks. Incredible color and variety. The second day we joined the group of divers staying at our place (a lively group from Germany, Austria, England and Ireland who dive together every year, using their 3 weeks of European holiday) and headed to the other side of the island for some equally exciting snorkeling. In the last 20 minutes of our second snorkel I spotted a turtle hanging out on the reef wall. We followed him into the middle of the sea as he swam around, a couple times popping his head up for some air. It was incredible. In the blue water he looked like he was flying and at some points he was no more than a couple feet from either of us. It was a total rush.

It was a beautiful and relaxing trip and of course it has been hard to get back into the work week - the sign of a good holiday! Only 4 weeks left of work here in Indo so this was really just a prelude of what is to come.

More pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/howieandhaviva/NorthSulawesi

Eating Habits

I know we do not usually use the blog for this sort of thing, but this article is appealing to me on so many levels I had to pass it on to all of you: http://www.slate.com/id/2175569/nav/ais/

It seems all the adventurous eating we have done on our travels may have in fact gained us a few extra years. Of course, I suppose, one could add the smog and pollution into the equation, and take a few years off, and maybe say we have just evened ourselves out, but all in all the argument that, "eh a little poo will not kill you" seems to be true, at least for us hearty people living in the developing world...And it certainly has made the travels much more fun. Read until the end, the last paragraph about Cholent is particularly amusing.

We head out tomorrow to Manado, on the island of Sulawesi, for more eating adventures. We are not hoping for poo in our food, but fear it a little bit less now.

The Lost City of Atlantis

Well, sort of. Actually, Atlantis, the water park in Jakarta. I was getting jealous of Howie's Wednesdays off and decided to take one of the many comp days I have piled up and take part in some of the adventures. We headed to Ancol, the amusement park area on the coast. All sorts of things to do there including a Disney Land like theme park, an art market and our pick, Atlantis. It was a nice escape from the city and it being Ramadan and mid-week, we had the place to ourselves. Our friends Maiko, Adam and Shelly joined in on the fun and despite what looked like the best slide being closed, we all made the most of the slightly fresher air, lack of other people and one very steep slide.

Tiger Islands - Pulau Macan

We have just returned from a great weekend in what might be paradise – Pulau Macan, one of the 1000 Islands. The 1000 Islands (Pulau Seribu) are a string of islands located off the coast of Java, about an hour and a half by boat from Jakarta. No relation to the dressing of the same name, these islands feel like another world. When the boat speeds off from the very smelly and polluted Jakarta harbor it is hard to imagine the crystal clear blue and green waters and the white sandy beach that await you. Pulau Macan is a small island with pretty basic, but nice accommodations. The real highlight is jumping off the dock, putting on your snorkel gear and working your way to the small deserted island about 150 meters away. Gorgeous fish and coral mark the way and the fine white sand beach is well worth the swim. It was like being inside one of those travel magazines.

They also took us for a great boat ride to another small island (inhabited by only two fishing families) to watch an amazing sunset - wine sunset and snacks after a day of snorkeling and sunbathing...um, perfect. To top it off the food all weekend was great. Fishermen literally docked on the island and presented their goods to the chef, who picked out some amazing fish and did wonders on the grill. The oatmeal and chocolate chip cookies they gave us on the boat ride over was a great indication of things to come. Two days definitely felt like much longer and the escape from hot, slightly smelly, crowded and polluted Jakarta was well appreciated. (Even if it made for a very hard Monday back at work.)

More pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/howieandhaviva/PulauMacan

Puasa

It is Ramadan time here in Indonesia and definitely not as restrictive as Howie and I had anticipated. Most restaurants are open, although many now hang curtains in the windows so that you cannot see in from the street. The thing is, there are a lot of people NOT fasting. If you are pregnant or menstruating, you cannot fast and then of course there is a pretty large Christian and Chinese population that is also eating regularly. The first week was the most serious, everyone in my office seemed to be fasting and even having water at your desk was a no-no. By this week, the usual afternoon snacks have re-appeared, water and coffee at the desk are fine, and there is just generally a lot more eating going on.

At about 6 PM when we hear that call to prayer in the office, there is suddenly chaos and scrambling for the pantry area. Everyone running to have tea and snacks that the office lady picks up about an hour before "buka puasa" - what we call break fast, they call open fast. In anycase, this is not your bagel, creamcheese and lox crowd. Above find the beverage (for lack of a better term) of choice described to me as "porridge with a jelly surprise" I was offered a taste, but I could not even take a spoonful from such a hungry woman's mouth. And, well quite honestly, not really my thing I think.

Just a day in the life...

6:30 PM “Masukan nomar telefon…” It is the voice of trying to make an international call from my office where you dial a code, get this message and then have to enter the telephone number you are dialing, then the pound sign and then, inevitably, still do not get connected to the person you are dialing. After hearing this message too many times I gave up, sent the woman I was supposed to interview an “I am sorry” email and headed to the gym. Already off my schedule since I was hoping to leave at 6…"jam karet" – rubber time – I am living like an Indonesian.

There were no taxis. I mean NONE. And I could see the busway from where I was standing and it was packed. Buses were only coming about once every 10 minutes and they were stuffed to the gills, only letting about 4 people on the bus at a time. No taxi, no bus….argh. So I decide to walk. It is about 30 minutes, meaning my schedule for the evening was going to be running late. It is now 7:15 PM. I reach in my bag to call Howie…hmmm…where is my phone?? Actually, this pocket feels light. There is usually a couple thousand Rp in here for the bus…Crap. Pick-pocketed. 10 months here and you think I would know better than to put anything in the front zipper pocket of my bag. Maybe 10 months has made me careless. Whatever the case, the phone was gone.

7:30 PM Back to the office for one last check for the phone. Maybe I left it on my desk? Nope. Not there. OK, I freak out for a minute and then realize I need a new phone and I have to keep my phone number and if I do not do this now, it is never going to happen. Off to the Ambassador where I bought the phone the first time. But now I am back to the same problem I had when I left the office. No taxi, tons of traffic in the direction of the Ambassador and the little mini buses I take, there are none to be seen. There is a huge crowd waiting to the minibus and when one comes – they seat 10 people uncomfortably – there is a mad scramble. I cannot fight my way on the first couple, but as I get more and more annoyed, elbow fly and there I am on the minibus.

7:45 PM I find the office for the phone company (Indosat) and by some miracle and after only about 16 pages of paperwork and no fee I have a new SIM card, with my same number and all I need is a phone. Luckily, there are about 100 cell phone dealers at the Ambassador. Right near the Indosat office, go figure. By 8:30 I have a new phone and the SIM card is working. All that is missing are the phone numbers of the few people I know, which in the grand scheme is not a big deal since they can still call me. Yay.

I run to the supermarket, pick up some fish since I had promised to cook dinner and after waiting in the “basket only” line for 30 minutes since, although they say basket only, they do not specify how many baskets you can have, I am ready to go. I am back on the minibus and almost home.

9:15 PM Home. Finally. I whip up some dinner – a damn nice meal of rice and fish, beet salad and zucchini – and we are eating by 10 PM and I have crazy conflicting emotions. On one hand, man this day sucked. Getting around is so irritating, nothing worked right, I was pick-pocketed!! But on the other, I did it. I did not let Jakarta get the best of me. Happy. Accomplished. Sleepy. Just another day I suppose...

Earthquake, Take II

Neither of us felt this one at all. I was on a bus coming home from work and Haviva was in a taxi. The city was a complete mess because it is the first night of Ramadan, so it was hard to tell if there was extra chaos from the earthquake or not. Apparently people did feel it here, but we had no idea until Haviva got a text message asking if she was ok.

The quake was centered off the coast of Bengkulu, which is where we went last month for Indendance Day. Sounds like they were hit pretty hard.

Just wanted to let you know that all was well here.

Frisbee in Singapore

Had a great time in Singapore over the weekend at the annual Singapore Ultimate Frisbee Tournament. More than 25 teams and almost 500 people showed up from all over Asia. The weather made for a lot of fun - the tournament started in the pouring rain and we played in giant mud puddles the whole time. The two teams we sent from Jakarta finished respectably in the middle of the pack of their respective divisions.

Photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/howieandhaviva/SingaporeUltimateTournament

Also, here's a video I took of a fantastic catch by one of our players if you are interested... http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2649207118015851806&hl=en

Another great weekend here in Indonesia. We hiked one of the highest volcanoes in Java with the local hiking club, Java Lava. 16 of us set out by bus at midnight on Friday night. We got a little bit of sleep on the bus and arrived at the foot of the volcano around 8AM on Saturday. After a breakfast PB&J sandwiches we started hiking.

We've come to learn that Indonesians don't really believe in switchbacks, so the trail was straight up. It's not the longest hike, but it was a good challenge. We got to the top by around two and set up our tent, which I proceeded to use for a fine mid-afternoon nap while Haviva socialized with the rest of the group.

We had a great night up on the crater rim. We needed porters because there is no water on the volcano, so we ate quite well - pasta and sauce for dinner and scrambled eggs with cheese and veggies for breakfast. You probably didn't think you'd be seeing pictures of us in hats and mittens in Indonesia, but it was plenty cold up there.
This weekend... I'm off to Singapore for an Ultimate Frisbee tournament and Haviva's staying in town to work. More photos from last weekend... http://picasaweb.google.com/howieandhaviva/GunungCiremai

Busy, Busy

We've both been very busy at work and haven't had a moment to spare. We spent a great weekend last week at the same beach house we've been frequenting, Pelabuhan Ratu for those who are keeping up, as a going away party for one of our friends who is headed back to the States. It was the most relaxing weekend there yet - we never even left the house this time except to walk down to the beach, which I am not sure counts. Someone else made the fish market run and the ocean and beach were just way too inviting to go anywhere else. It was delightful, but of course went by too quickly. We're hoping for some downtime soon, but it does not look like that will happen for a few weeks...

We're off to climb a volcano this weekend, but I thought I'd throw a video from my morning commute by ojek (motorcycle taxi) to work online first. It's not so thrilling and kind of looks like a video game because I sped the video up to make my 15 minute commute 3 and a half minutes. I take a taxi most days - they are the same price, about $1.50, but the ojek gets you there in half the time. The catch is that you have to suck in bus fumes and risk life and limb.

(Just noticed that the quality is really bad. I have a better copy and will upload it next week, so feel free to ignore it for now.)

Happy Independence Day Indonesia!

To celebrate the long weekend Howie and I headed to Bengkulu, Sumatra with our friends Mel and Drew. Why Bengkulu? Well, no one was 100% sure, even Mel who booked the tickets without even looking the town up in the Lonely Planet, but it turned out to be more than we all expected.

Independence Day celebrations last the entire weekend and different neighborhoods, or kampung as they are called, hold celebrations throughout the weekend. Celebrations mainly focus on the children of the kampung, but as we found out the woman are also big participants in all the events, with the exception only of the greased coconut tree climbing. Yes, you read that right. Teams of men climb a greased coconut tree, although since these are city folk, it is more like a greased pole and instead of coconuts at the top, there are prizes that include bikes, money, woks, spatulas and much, much more.

We did not join in the climbing fun, although the men were tempted, but we did each participate in the “rice sack race”, the “marble in the spoon” race and the ever popular tie a chili around your waist and try to get it into the bottle competition. Mel and I had no chance in that one – those women have been squatting with much more expertise for years. We also had the chance to watch the Bengkulu official town celebrations where we saw some excellent performances from the local marching bands.

Other than Independence Day celebrations, we also rented a car in search for the Raffelasia – the world’s largest flower. Our book said it blooms between August and November and that we were in the right part of the country to see it, despite its being rare and hard to find. Well, depending who you ask, it bloomed last week, it is blooming next week or you will never find it no matter how hard you look, we found it. Shockingly easily, at that. In fact not minutes after the driver told us we should give up hope, he pulled over to a sign that said “Welcome Miss Universe” and said, “Would you like to see raffelasia?” Um, yeah…after about 10 steps into the jungle with about 5 Indonesians following us and clicking their camera phones, there it was. And it was still in bloom! Even with the hype, it was pretty impressive and quite a large flower. Clearly not at it’s peak of beauty, but still pretty cool. As we had taken a car and driver on the search and it went much faster than expected, we took full advantage and headed further from “town” to some hot springs for some real relaxation.

Our last day in town we hit the local traditional market, the fort, and the beach before heading back to Jakarta. It was a really nice weekend and if you ever meet anyone from Bengkulu, ask to see the pictures on their camera, chances are we are in them.

We too went a little picture crazy and there is a nice sampling in the web album. Howie will soon post a video montage of our adventures as well. http://picasaweb.google.com/howieandhaviva/IndependenceDayInBengkulu

Election Day

Ok, enough about the earthquake. It's sounding more and more like the only people in the city that were really scared by it were highrise dwellers like us.

In other news, it was Election Day on Wednesday. Jakartans were able to vote for their first directly elected governor (really the mayor, but because Jakarta is its own province he's technically a governor). Most offices were closed all day and it was treated as a semi-public holiday. Of course Haviva and I had to work, though.

The best part of Election Day was the placement of our local polling station. It was set up directly across the street from our apartment. Well, not quite across the street... more under the street. You'll notice from the photos that they set it up under the overpass directly in front of Casablanca Mansions - the same smelly underpass that it used as a public toilet by vendors and as a place to nap for the homeless. Seems like they could have found a better spot, but at least it was shady, I guess.

I felt the earth shake under my feet....

As the news now tells us, what we experienced last night was a lateral earthquake measuring a 7.5 on the Richter scale. It was pretty deep underground, hence no tsunami warnings or strongly felt aftershocks (if any at all.) Judging from the complete normalcy this morning, damage was minimal and there are no reports of injuries, etc. In fact, this morning I got a text message from my friend Mel who lives in a high rise about 2 miles from our place, on a low floor, that read "Was there an earthquake last night?" Apparently, they felt something that woke them up. but Mel thought it was something trapped in her bathroom. Anything goes in Indonesia I guess. Being on the 32nd floor definitely made us feel strong effects and 7.5 is nothing to poo poo, but all in all the news is good. For our first, and hopefully last quake, we did well.

Our initial reaction after the quake was to get out as fast as possible. For Howie and I, that meant grabbing passports and cash and heading out the door. After getting those things, we scurried a bit wondering what else to grab, where to go and why the halls were so quiet. When we saw we had a good internet connection (at a moment I think when Howie was actually considering grabbing the laptop to take with us) we immediately started contacting friends in Jakarta to see how they were and family at home to tell them we were fine. In hindsight, we probably should have just evacuated....When we did evacuate about an hour after the quake we went to the lobby to find tons of people hanging out in they PJ's and most of them had suitcases packed. It seemed like everyone was fleeing, but not in any urgent way and for that matter, they were all using the elevator to get back up to their apartments to get their things. I do not know much about quakes, but I am pretty sure the elevator is the number one no no. We caught glimpses of people with bags of "important documents" and photo albums. Hmm...should we have grabbed more? And come to think of it we now feel a bit badly for leaving Bert, Ernie and Norman behind...what a sight that would have been. Two white people kind of dressed, pockets clearly stuffed, two turtles and what looks like a bowl of dirt with some veggies in it....

Thanks to all who emailed and sorry to all who worried. We are fine, both at work and doing well.

Earthquake

Hi everyone. Just a quick post to let you know we are fine. We were awakened about half an hour ago by the earthquake that you may soon hear about. Very scary, but we're fine. After about a minute of swaying back and forth we jumped out of bed, grabbed our money, passports and flashlights and started to get ready to leave for a long time, but we've checked in with friends around the city and things seem to be okay.

Can't believe we've got power and internet, but we'll keep you up to date as much as possible. Got to say that from the feeling of it I expected the city to be in chaos right now but I don't hear a single siren, so maybe we underestimate our fair city. -- H&H

Quick trip for a happy occasion

Well, it is official – Michal and Chad are married!! It was a wonderful wedding and great excuse to catch up with some family and friends (even though we did not make it to see everyone and do everything we wanted.). The day itself was amazing and nothing could have been better than schlepping 9000 miles and seeing Michal so freaking happy.

Highlights of the trip included the wedding (of course!), the birth of Tessa Grossman, – who we sadly only got to meet days before her arrival – a pregnant Kelly, a quick visit from the Parnes all the way from Arizona, and a killer tan after spending a few days on Long Beach Island with the Cohen clan. The water on LBI was a bit colder than we are used to, but it was really refreshing and we had a blast swimming with the nieces and nephews and chowing down on meat grilled by none other than the grill-master herself, Sharon Cohen. Despite Howie’s parasite, or “little illegal immigrant to America” as I like to call him, we ate well only missing a few key food groups. Poor Howie was stuck with non-alcoholic beer in the land of Sam Adams and Harpoon. We were happily introduced to a few new places, like the ever delicious pastries at Flour (I challenge you to find one thing there that is not good) and that awesome corn dish thingy at Toro. If you are in the Boston area you really need to get to both these places ASAP.

And before we go any further, we need to thank Aliza for letting us basically take over her apartment. The bed was great and the parking spot, DVR, and spare keys could not have made life any easier for us nomads. If you are in Boston and need a place to crash, let me recommend Chez Aliza. She even let Howie’s illegal immigrant join in the fun!

Now we are back in Jakarta. Howie is working full time these days and things here are as busy as ever. Next week we are back to our adventures though; off to some random village on Sumatra that Lonely Planet touts are hard to get to, not many people make it there, but well worth the while if you do. Just our kind of adventure.

Haviva's First Soccer Match

In case you haven't been following all the action, Indonesia is co-hosting the Asian Cup along with Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia. The group playing in Jakarta is made up of South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Indonesia. Saturday night a group of friends and us went to the Indonesia/Saudi Arabia game. We had a blast and it was an excellent game. Sadly, Indonesia lost on a last minute goal but the 80,000 crazy fans were quite well behaved and supportive.



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