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 .

Volcanoes & Denim

Haviva and I spent the end of the week and all weekend recovering from a little food poisoning. Not 100% sure of the culprit, but we're blaming a yogurt drink. We're on the road to recovery, although it was a long road that led Haviva on a business trip to Yogyakarta on Thursday and me on a day trip to Kuala Lumpur on Sunday to renew my visa. (For some reason Indonesia would rather have me fly out of the country, spend an hour in said other country and then turn around than just let me pay to renew my visa here. I don't get it.)

Anyway, enough about this miserable weekend...

Last weekend we went on a little hiking/shopping adventure with some friends that is well worth a blog entry. It started with a 6AM Saturday departure for Gunung Gede, one of the volcanoes that you can see from our apartment on the rare smog-free day (the one on the far left in the top picture). After a couple hour drive we started our ambitious plan to climb to the summit and back down the other side before nightfall.

Had it not started pouring halfway up, and gotten pretty chilly, we may have made it, but the idea of hiking down a muddy trail in the dark led us to make the (surprisingly mature) decision to head back before the final push to the summit. It was a little disappointing but still a very nice hike highlighted by the part where the trail is actually a hot spring that you have to hike through for a couple hundred feet.

After coming down from the mountain we headed to the city of Bandung, which you might remember as the site of a recent shopping trip. We spent the night there and woke up to do a little site seeing before Haviva and the ladies spent the afternoon in search of the perfect pair of jeans. The volcano below was much easier to summit than the one we saw a day earlier as it has a road to the top.



And yes, my new favorite toy is a computer program that lets you stitch a bunch of photos together to make big panoramic shots. The one on the top of the page is 11 photos taken from our roof stitched together and the one right above is 5 or 6.

The Big E Jakarta Style

A trip to the Learning Farm

We finally made it out to the Learning Farm last week with Matt Zimmerman, the founder of the project here in Indonesia. Besides being the place where we get our veggies delivered from each week (or Norman’s old home), the Learning Farm is a great project combining the introduction of organic farming to more of Indonesia with helping street kids (and some disadvantaged rural children as well) learn some skills and build some confidence to hopefully get them off the streets. The farm itself is quite beautiful. Not as far off the road as we expected, it is a bit of an oasis from the busy street it is off of. You would hardly know there is bumper to bumper traffic, buses, and street vendors in such close proximity. The vegetable beds are neat and orderly and flowers are planted at the end of almost every bed not only to keep things pretty, but to also attract some of the pests away from the tender vegetables. The tour was very informative, especially for us farming novices, and it was really amazing to see what they are doing there. The make their own compost from goat manure, not chicken as is popular on other organic farms and can give you bird flu. (Matt slipped this into his spiel and we seem to be the first to catch this bit of marketing against the competition.) The kids are also encouraged to do experiments and plant a variety of goods in one bed to see what happens. They were working on some liquid compost that we got a peek at - it is sprayed on the veggies to not only help them grow, but keep away the pests. While it does not smell so nice, there was a noticeable difference between the non-sprayed and the sprayed veggies.

The kids who showed us around were extremely knowledgeable and very proud of the farm, which was quite heartwarming. Their housing is simple, dorm style, and although they have someone to cook meals for them, they are responsible for cleaning and basic chores. They are out in the fields in the morning and spend the afternoon studying everything from farming skills to handicrafts and even go out to the local schools and sell their goods. They do presentations to people in the community and are learning a bit about marketing and PR in order to keep the farm going. We suggested letting Norman be their mascot, but I am not sure they were sold on the idea. As much as we love him, he is a pest (in the organic farming sense only!)



For more about the farm you can check out this information on the World Education site: http://www.worlded.org/WEIInternet/features/indonesia_learning_to_grow.cfmorlded.org/WEIInternet/features/indonesia_learning_to_grow.cfm

Fiesta

As Mexican seems to be the one western delight we cannot delight in easily (homemade enchiladas and Boca Grande were regular staples in the Parnes' diet back in Cambridge) we decided we could not miss the "Mexican Fiesta" being hosted at the Hotel Nikko last weekend. It was quite the fiesta with a "live station" where you could make your own burritos, enchiladas, tacos, quesadillas, and nachos , as well as a nice buffet that had everything from mole to some kind of Taco Bell cheesey beany layered looking like thing. It was pretty authentic, about the best I think one can expect in Indonesia and we took good advantage of the all you can eat aspect. Although it was not Mexican by any stretch, there was some good cheesecake and chocolate pudding pie, as well. The elderly member of the 3 Amigos in the picture with me is one of the chefs flown in for the event. If you can believe it, his job is to travel the world and produce Mexican buffets at hotels for expats like us. He brings the sombreros, snazzy outfit and all.
Minus the uniform, quiet a cool job....

Chestnut Hill, Copley Square and now... Tebet, South Jakart

We live in a neighborhood called Tebet that The Jakarta Post recently described as 'trendy' and 'bohemian'. Granted we live on the outskirts of the area, but we had no idea. Last weekend we made an attempt to find the 'cool' part. We did find a few interesting shops and things, but the big discovery was The Cheesecake Factory. Definitely not an authorized branch of the American chain with the same name, but similar to its Western counerpart in some ways. Decent food and good cheesecake by Jakartan standards (and yes, cheesecake is actually quite popular here).

The Latest Taste Sensation

Sorry for the lack of blogging lately. It's due mostly to our terrible Internet connection.

Here's a photo of our newest culinary discovery, the avocado and chocolate milk shake. Yup, throw an avocado in the blender, add some sugar and swirl in some Hershey's syrup. Sounds awful, right? I was very hesitant, but it's actually delicious. Tastes much better than it looks.

Made in Indonesia

It was long overdue, but we finally made it to Bandung this past weekend. Bandung is about a 2 hour ride or so from Jakarta and is known for its cooler mountain climate, college town atmosphere, and factory outlet stores. Jakartans flock to Bandung pretty much every weekend filling the hotels and spending like mad on anything that fell off the truck on its way to the US. (In fact, this was such a well traveled route they built a super highway about 3 years ago, just to make it faster and easier for people to get to and from.)

When we tell you there are a lot of outlet stores in Bangung, it really does not do it justice. There is a jeans street, shoes street and two areas of general outlets that have it all. We only made it down one street and saw plenty of Coach, expensive jeans (Rock and Republic, 7s, etc.), Hugo Boss, Pierre Cardin, GAP, Express, Old Navy, Loft, and Prada. Rock bottom prices – the jeans I bought had a $200 USD price tag on them and I bought them for 150,000 Rp. About 15 bucks. I know a few people who really would have been P I Gs in S H I T. There was a lot of repeating goods (every store has the same chance at the same stolen or fallen off the truck goods) but there were some good surprises. The thing that keeps Bandung amusing, even for those who hate shopping, are the random items that pop up among the normally expensive goods. The best was the BushTard shirt, which sadly only came in a size too small for Howie and too big for me. There was also the polar fleece with the Wisconsin W on the front and “Arizona Wildcats” written on the back…I guess that is what happens when the people doing the stitches have no idea what they are actually sewing.

We will definitely make another trip to Bandung to see some of the mountains and more natural wonders….and to see if anything new fell off the truck in our size.

The sea was angry that day my friend.

Another long weekend for us and it was back to Pelabuhan Ratu. This time we did it right. Along with board games, we filled the back of the kijang (SUV) with about 20 bags of food and a cooler. Plenty of goodies to cook a couple massive western style breakfasts, as well as a couple cases of beer and an assortment of snacks. And, not only did we cook two morning feasts - banana coconut pancakes and fruit salad one day, eggs and hash browns the next - but we also made a trip to the fish market for a giant fresh from the sea fish. Actually, make that 2 giant fish. We brought the big guys back, with a little local bumbu (spice paste), and handed it off to the maid. Yes the maid...and a few other helpers. We gave them some cash for veggies and side dishes and told them to have dinner ready at 8. Let me say, it was AMAZING. These women can COOK. And there is nothing like a fresh fish (or two!) cooked on a grill about 5 hours after it was caught. It was a feast beyond feasts. And we did not have to do any dishes.
Unfortunately, while we might have gotten the eating right this trip, the ocean was not as good to us. In fact, the waves reached heights not seen for about 8 years and wiped out much of the coast of Pelabuhan Ratu. We were very lucky that our house was on higher ground, but only steps down the road the scene was very different. Waves pounded the shore only letting up late on Saturday before we left, granting us a 1/2 hour to frolic before heading back to Jakarta. It made the NY times in fact: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/20/
Pictures simply cannot capture the power of the waves and the thunderous pounding of their crashing on the beach. It was pretty intense.

Now we count the days until the next long weekend. We won't go back to Pelabuhan Ratu, but you can tell why it is tempting....

Checking in from Jogja

4 nights in Bali, 3 nights in Jogja, 1 allergy attack on the beach, one 5 day dose of Cipro, 7 mornings of incredible breakfast buffets and lots and lots of rice fields. That is the short story. Mom and Dad Cohen are here and, despite one of them who shall remain nameless spending a couple days face down on a beach chair in Bali, we are all doing great. Bali is always a nice way to kick off a holiday with lots of fresh grilled fish and walks on sandy beaches (and yes more monkeys.)

Jogja has been a welcome change to the city life of Jakarta. The air is breathable, we have been eating well (fresh veggies are such a treat!!), and the one who shall remain nameless is back with a vengeance, eating again and not running to every available western toilet. We spent a day and a half wandering the city and then today rented a car and wonderful driver for a trip to Borobudur. Mom was "like a pig in the proverbial" today as we wandered through small villages and then the markets searching for the perfect gifts for everyone on their very long list. (Don't worry she did well!)

Pictures and better descriptions soon to come, but we wanted to check in, let you know we are all doing well, having fun and Howie and I will be sad to have our company leave and go back to our regular lives.....

Lots more photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/howieandhaviva/BaliJogjaTrip

Midas' magic touch

We had one of those weird “I thought I was starting to understand this place but I guess not” moments this weekend that I had to share. I am sorry no pictures accompany this post, but use your imagination, it will be fun.

This weekend was pretty low key in the grand scheme of things. We were in Jakarta and spent most of the weekend playing Settlers and Carcasonne (another game like Settlers that has take the Ultimate group by storm.) Before settling into board games and margaritas, at the suggestion of our friends Drew, Melanie and the recommendation of the Jakarta Javakini (source of all things cool in Jakarta) we decided to check out Midas, the “Magic Restaurant”. Supposedly Midas has magicians that come to your table and do tricks while you wait for your meal. Although something a 10 year old might like, since we were about to play board games and we would be coming from the local putt putt, it seemed appropriate. I think we were all expecting a bunch of birthday parties and cheesy pulling quarters out from behind ears and we were all interested in seeing the menu items supposedly named cleverly using magic trick names and famous magicians.

So, first off the bat, the place is clearly not meant for kids. I would describe the atmosphere as swanky. Everything is draped in red and it feels very NYC lounge style bar. Seated inside, it was just our table of 6 and another table of about 10 women clearly celebrating something. We ordered some apps and asked the waitress for the “orang magic” (magic person) who arrived right with the apps. (Hence making apps hard to eat, but we let that go.) He did a couple card tricks and it was cute and all, but that turned out to be the end of the magic. Food was fine, a bit on the pricey side, although that is what you get when you order things with (not so) clever magic trick names. As we were finishing up, we were remarking on the disappointing amount of magic. Suddenly there was a shrill whistle. Excited for more magic we look around…Where is the magician? Will he appear in a puff of smoke? Nope. But something did appear - from a secret spot behind the bar appeared a pretty close to naked woman who proceeded to dance on the bar….somewhat provocatively I might add. And there were 4 of them. Each taking their turn strutting their stuff on the bar, twirling on the pole….how had we missed that stripper pole at the end of the bar? All I can say is it was weird. Don’t get me wrong, the men did not mind, but even they seemed thrown off. It was all just so unexpected and out of place…

Perhaps the definition of magic got lost in translation somewhere? Or maybe after we left on of those women was sawed in half? I am guessing not…but maybe….

Frisbee and Fashion in Bali

Just wanted to report that a good time was had by all last weekend in Bali. My frisbee team finished 3rd our to 6 teams, behind teams from Singapore and Vietnam, but ahead of another team from Singapore, a team from Guam and another team from Jakarta. We played 7 games in two days and followed that up with a night or partying and a day on the beach. Needless to say, it's been a long week at work for both of us.

At the after-party we got to try out our fashions from last months fashion show in the real world, if you can call Bali that. 20 of us dressed in 'native' fashions walking down the street was quite a scene. Good stuff.

For more laughs... click here.

Howie's New Career

Sorry we've been such lazy bloggers lately. When that happens it is usually a sign of either our super-busy exciting lives that don't leave us time to blog or our boring lives that don't involve anything to blog about. This time it is the prior. Haviva's been doing a lot of traveling for work and I've been teaching at a new school that recently opened up here and is run by a friend of mine.

As you'll see from the photo, I've also started a new career as a fashion model. No, not really. One of the guys I play frisbee with is a fashion designer and he puts on an annual fashion show to help raise money for our frisbee tournament in Bali, which is this coming weekend. This year I was lucky enough to be a model. The photos scared my mother, but if you are interested (and I don't see how you couldn't be), more of them can be found here.

A successful second attempt

Sorry we have not updated in a while, I am not sure where this week went, but somehow it is almost over.

We spent last weekend in Pelabuhan Ratu. If the name sound familiar it is because it is the same beach we went to over New Years, where it rained for 3 days straight. Not sure why we tempted fate again, but this time we went with a group of people and came armed with Scrabble and Settlers. (A board game we were introduced to here by friends of ours from Howie’s Ultimate team and are now addicted to.) We also went in a bit more “style” this time, using a car and driver and staying at a private villa right on the beach complete with a maid to clean up the beer bottles after us. Really stunning place.

It was a pretty laid back, up for anything group so there was lots of eating of fresh fish, drinking Bintang and just hanging out. On the way down we stopped about 13 K outside Pelabuhan Ratu and white water rafted the rest of the way. The guides did most of the paddling and worked hard to ram us into as many rocks as possible, just to keep things interesting. Howie, who has been rafting before and claims to always be disappointed in the adventure, reports this to have been a good rafting trip with decent rapids. If nothing else, the view was stunning all the way, complete with giant sun bathing lizards, people fishing, naked kids playing in the water and quaint villages.

The one fault in Pelabuhan Ratu might be the constant waiting for food. At one lunch we asked what the best fish was to get and the reply was, “Well, whatever you order I will have to go out and buy,” which should give you some indication of the speediness of that meal. All tallied, we waited 6 hours for meals one of the days – 2 hours for breakfast (please keep in mind here that we all ordered the oh so complicated American breakfast that includes 2 eggs, hash browns, toast, coffee and juice), 1 ½ for lunch and a whopping 3 for dinner. Dinner we should have just walked out on – the food stank. Luckily everyone was is good spirits and we had cards. Had Howie and I been alone for that we might have killed each other.

The beach itself was perfect. The water was clean, the temperature of bath water and there were just the right waves for frolicking around and not getting sucked into the ocean (although I might have lost my bathing suit a couple times…) It only rained one day (but that was the day we spent waiting to eat) and I got a re-enforcement of my tan without burning, which always makes me happy. It was a great long weekend and we are already planning another trip down – perfect ocean, gorgeous house, good food only 4 hours away. It would just be silly not to.