Although it has been our first couple weeks officially as nomads, they have been quite luxurious. It has been an easy entry into life in the road and living out of our packs. The Parnes arrived in
Bali last week and we met them at Villa Padi – a stunning villa in the middle of a rice padi about a 500m walk to the beach. We had our own little private pool and a Balinese style living and dining room. The package included one free half hour massage for each of us (which the men forfeited over to the ladies so we could have an hour each), a free seafood bbq (nice red snapper that served as a Thanksgiving dinner), and a car and driver for 8 hours a day (who took up to Ubud one day for a little culture even though some had to be a bit dragged from the villa). Our chef cooked us breakfast in the morning and had the coffee waiting, we were the only people on the beach every time we were there…it was paradise.
From there we did a repeat of The Cohen Family trip to Indonesia and headed to Jogja. It was more of a repeat than we would have liked as Leslie was not feeling great that day, so much like Sharon, she spent one day curled up in the lovely Mercure hotel bed, while we wandered the bird market. We did make it to Borobudur the next day though and we had a great day weaving our way to Magelang, a mid stop on our way to Semarang where we had to catch our flight to Kalimantan to see the orangutans. There is not much between Jogja and Semarang so although the stop was a bit strange – a sort of circus like hotel in the middle of nowhere surrounded by volcanoes and a lovely rolling river – it served its purpose and had a pretty cool swimming pool with a water slide that the young Parnes quite enjoyed.
The flight to Kalimantan, Indonesia’s part Borneo (Malaysia and Bunei share Borneo with Indonesia) was very smooth despite the 10k weight limit on the bags and the small prop plane. A little re-arranging of the Parnes large bags they have been schlepping for 3 weeks since New Zealand, a bag left behind in the Semarang airport (which was there with all its contents when we returned) and some magic motion-sickness prevention wrist bracelets made it a breeze. Upon arrival in Pankalanbun (town of about 39,000 and the gateway to the national park) we were met by our guide where we took a car to a boat that took us to the Rimba Lodge. The lodge is in the middle of the national park and where we spent the night – when you do this trip your only choices for accommodation are sleeping on the boat or the lodge and while the boat is pretty cool, the lodge was a bit more “parent friendly”. The boat ride there was great and there was some amazing monkey and ape sighting on the way. It was a really good sign of things to come. We caught a tree full of proboscis monkeys with the coolest profiles and long hanging tails and we even saw a giant orangutan female in her nest settling in for the night. She was incredible – high in a tree but she stood out with her bright orange hair hanging on to one branch with a long arm and staring right back at us. We were definitely in the jungle.
The next day was all about orangutans. We started at one of the camps about an hour down the river and watched a feeding. The orangutans are released into the wild slowly and the feedings act to both supplement their diet and to help the researchers keep track of various orangutans. It is a simple platform in the middle of the jungle strewn with bananas and some buckets of sweetened milk. It took little patience but slowly you would start to hear trees rustle around you and suddenly they were coming in from all angles. Typically the dominant male comes in first (the males have these huge identifying cheek pads and are really large), although some of those young men did get a sneak in before he got there on this feeding. He has his share and then the mothers and babies generally get in on the action. It was totally incredible. We were so close to the platform and the orangutans were not fussed at all by our being there. They went about stuffing their faces with bananas, swinging on trees as if there was nothing strange at all going on.
From there we went on to Camp Leeky about another hour down the river for another feeding. There are more orangutans who just hang out at Camp Leeky so here more than the first place you are very up close and personal with the apes. Actually, we were so up close and personal that when we arrived there was an orangutan and her baby waiting for us when the boat pulled up. I could not help myself and I sat down pretty close to her on a step. She sauntered over, put her arm around me, clamped one of her feet around my ankle and that was it, we were friends. You are not supposed to touch the orangutans and even though I knew it was wrong I could not stop. Her name was Princess and she is a naughty orangutan who has grown up in Camp Leeky. She knows sign language, has about 5 children and 2 grandchildren, and she has been known to steal a canoe or two and paddle up river. She made me scratch her back – she actually lifted my hand and put it on her back – and we are buddies. AMAZING. Howie sat with her too, but that was not about friendship, she was looking to pick his pockets. The feeding that followed was similar to the morning feeding, except this one included a wild boar who ate the banana peels that fell to the ground and seemed to really freak out some of the orangutans. Again, it was an incredible sight and hard to explain in words.
Now we are back in Jakarta and the Parnes will head back to Arizona tomorrow. We have purchased cheap glasses, had a huge success at the outlet malls and eaten some very fine meals. Howie and I even made it to a nice goodbye party for a couple of our friends moving to East Timor last night. It is weird to be a nomad in a city we lived in and still feel like we do, but we are having fun. The real adventures start December 4th when we head to Penang Malaysia for a visa run. From there we have no idea where we are going or what we are doing, but we will keep you posted.
For more pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/howieandhaviva/ParnesFamilyTrip
To really build a buzz, we had a pre-launch party this past week mostly to schmooze with potential advertisers and the stars came out: There were two Indonesian Idol stars (one actual winner and one runner up), a few Miss Indonesias, the Ryan Seacrest of Indonesia (host of a big show here called Mama Mia and one of the top emcees in the country) and several people described as "socialites". To help us fit in, I was given quite the make-over and a special black jacket to wear and Howie was given a black dress shirt and gold tie. Very High End, but we still stuck out like sore thumbs which we think might have been part of the point.
The event was held at an upscale Indonesian restaurant with not enough alcohol to make me forget my aching feet in my high heels. We were paraded in front of the crowd, handed many a business card (we could hand none over ourselves as ours are not ready yet) and really enjoyed the buffet (even though our Indonesian colleagues all had Hoka Hoka Bento - a fast food Japanese place that is very popular amongst locals and equally despised by expats - before the event and then ate nothing.) It was a bit surreal, but at the same time, kind of fun.
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. 
