I left Anchorage today and headed to Prince of Wales Island. It was sad leaving everyone in Anchorage but I know I am on to a new and exciting adventure in Indonesia. My friends had a great send off party for me.

June 15, 2003

I am leaving Alaska today. We had a great time at Prince of Wales Island. The weather did not cooperate for us to do any fishing on the ocean. We did get some crab and had a chance to fish for sockeye salmon in a river.

I am on my way to Montana now and will visit family there until I leave for Jakarta in July.

July 25, 2003

I just spent one night in Seattle with my very generous and wonderful friends Michelle and Tony. I am headed off to the airport. I fly from Seattle to Tokyo to Singapore to Jakarta. I actually arrive in Jakarta on Sunday July 27.

July 27, 2003

Well here I am in  Jakarta Indonesia! There were two people waiting for me as I came through immigration -- with no problems! I collected my luggage moved along through customs -- no problems! There were drivers that delivered me to a beautiful hotel in downtown Jakarta. Everyone was very kind and friendly upon my arrival.

The first couple of days I spent in meetings going through orientation and trying to recover from my long flights.

July 29, 2003

I have finally arrived at my beautiful new home in Puri Bintaro. My house is four bedrooms, three bathrooms, sun room, living room, dinning room, kitchen, garage and servant quarters. It is beautiful. I have a cook and a house boy. Having servants is quite and adjustment. It is wonderful to come down to breakfast on the table every morning -- dinner made -- laundry washed, ironed, and put away every day -- bed made -- bathroom cleaned...... AS nice as this all is, it isn’t necessarily easy. I have to be very specific as to how I like things and how I want things done. It really can seem like a huge chore! Don’t forget, my servants don’t speak hardly any English!

Shopping

My first shopping trip in Jakarta was a great experience. Many things to learn!! First of all I picked out my produce, put it in the plastic bags and into my cart and went on about my shopping -- guessing what exactly it was I was buying. For the most part you can figure things out from the pictures on the containers.  As I approached the check out stand, I noticed the people in front of me had to take all their produce back??? Well when you buy produce you have to get it weighed and priced in the produce section. So I asked the manager ( English speaker) who seemed to be following me around the store to some extent, what the deal was. He took my produce back for me to get it all weighed and priced. As I went out the door there seem to be some sort of dart game that these boys were trying to get me to play. I of course said no thank you -- not knowing what the deal was. Once again the nice manager guy told me the story of the dart game. Depending on how much you buy, you get to throw a certain amount of darts to win prizes. I won some plastic containers and a bag of sugar!!

Traffic

Traffic is traffic??!!?!?! I travel about an hour (depending on what time of day) to and from work everyday -- about 8 miles. If I leave by 5:30 am it usually takes about 35-40 minutes. If I leave at about 6:30 it takes about an hour and 10 minutes. You get it -- the later you leave the longer it takes. If I leave work by about 3:00 or 3:30 it takes about an hour. The closer it gets to 5:00 the worse it is! The traffic is bumper to bumper -- stop and go! It is not orderly like in the US. Cars going in the same direction aren’t traveling in any distinct lanes they are just going in, out and around each other. You just kind of push your way into traffic and if you need to turn you just push your way in that direction. Oh and they drive on the left side of the road. There is generous amount of horn -honking most of the time. The streets are very narrow.

Now motorcycles might be the quickest type of transportation. They weave in and out of traffic. They can drive beside, between the cars even on the other side of the road in the wrong direction. Whatever works!!! Many women sit sideways on the back of motorcycles. They’ve got some balancing act going on with all the weaving in and out of traffic! Many women are even holding on to infants on the back of those cycles. Of course no one wears helmets. It is common to see two or three small children on the back.

There aren’t many traffic lights -- maybe more downtown. Most drivers don’t pay any attention to the traffic lights. Quite often there will be some young men and boys directing traffic. When they are directing traffic you better toss them a few coins (500 rupiah = .05 cents) if you want to have your turn! Then in other places there are uniformed men directing traffic. It really seems quite crazy, but it works. Maybe soon I will get my turn at driving in Jakarta!

Mosquitos  -- Cicaks .....

Cicaks are what I have always called gekos. I guess gekos are actually bigger. Whatever?! I have plenty of cicaks in my house. Yes, I know this may be a surprise for some of you but I do live with little lizards. Cicaks are wonderful little creatures who eat mosquitos and cockroaches!!! The mosquitos are horrible here -- yes worse then Alaska!! And they can be dangerous giving you a fever. Fever from mosquitos really is not too common in the Jakarta area. I have so many mosquito bites!!! I finally got a mosquito net put up around my bed!! I I would wake up in the morning with numerous bites!!! The mosquito nets are really handy and very nice looking! However, the first night sleeping with the net, the phone rang in the middle of the night and I had a heck of a time getting to the phone! I’m sure it would have been the grand prize winner on America’s Funniest Home Videos! Now, inside my net in bed with me goes -- the remote control to the air conditioner, the cordless phone, the alarm clock and my book!

Luxury Body Treatments

The opportunity for taking very good car of yourself is here! Let’s start with “creme baths”. A creme bath is a very through washing of your hair and massaging of your head and neck. This whole process takes about an hour. They wash and massage and rinse and massage and massage and ..... It is wonderful! It costs about 35,000 rupiah which is about 4 US dollars.

Now while all of this is happening you can have a pedicure or manicure for around 15,000 -25,000 rupiah -- about 1 to 3 US dollars. Now the most expensive treatment I have had is a massage which was done in my home. It cost about 7 US dollars for one hour. You can get them for cheaper if you go to the salon. Some salons are more expensive. But for a one hour massage you can pay anywhere from 5 to 15 US dollars.

Waxing is another treatment here -- well some people wouldn’t consider having the hair pulled out of various parts of your body a luxury. However, I find waxing various parts of my body very convenient. Waxing prices vary for different parts of your body. Waxing can run anywhere from 1 -10 US dollars. I had legs, bikini, underarms, and a couple of other things waxed an paid 7 US dollars and this was also done in my home. So I could get it done for less at a salon or more at some salons.

I think most of you probably get the picture -- pampering yourself can be very inexpensive here, but very well deserved!

School

My school is beautiful! All of the campuses at JIS are beautiful. There is the Cilandak campus which is adjacent to my campus. The middle and high schools are on the Cilandak campus. There are two elementary schools at JIS. One elementary school is Pattimura and one is Pondak Indah Elementary (PIE). I am at PIE. I have a great spacious office an and awesome secretary, Winda! I would be lost without Winda. Winda helps me tremendously with my job but she also is very helpful with personal things too. I can’t believe all the services we have at PIE. We have gardeners that come and take of my plants in my office -- people who clean and serve and make sure coffee is made in the lounge (no lounge duty here). JIS totally takes cares of us! I can’t imagine how I ever got along in public education in the States??!! All of my educator friends -- you just can’t imagine.

Toilet vs. Squatters

First of all I prefer a “western toilet”. A “Squatter” is a hole in the ground used to rid your body of waste materials. Some “Squatters” have a plastic surrounding around the hole and some do not. Some maybe a few inches off the ground and some are not. Either way you need to squat down like in the woods! Well women need to squat -- men have it easy! I was in a nice salon getting a creme bath and pedicure and really need to use the toilet. I thought for sure this nice salon would have a “western toilet” -- really I didn’t even think about it until I opened the door to the toilet and there was a “Squatter” waiting for me -- my first experience. I don’t understand the art of using these. I’m sure I will eventually learn and then I will share the secret with all of you. It really depends on where you are as to what type of toilet you will find. Now of course at school, hotels, and home we have “western toilets”. Oh and no toilet paper in “Squatters”. If you happen to have some tissue with you -- don’t put it down the hole -- find a trash can to dispose of it. To flush the “Squatter” -- there will be a bucket of water with a scoop in it to dump down the hole. There is some confusion on my part as to how Muslims actually use the toilets?? More to come on that topic.

Fruit

The fresh fruit here is wonderful. I eat fresh fruit everyday at least once. The papayas are much bigger here then I have ever seen them in the States. They have many different kinds of mangos and bananas. My cook peels and cuts up a variety of fruit for me to take to school every day. For example I had fresh mangos, papaya, kiwi, melon, banana and apple today. My cook makes me fresh carrot and apple juice every morning for breakfast along with fruit and oatmeal. She pack a lunch for me also and has a great dinner prepared.

Servants

Servants are really a mixed  blessing. It all sounds wonderful and it is when it is all working. I fired my cook a couple of days ago and I felt horrible doing it, but it had to be done. Things just weren’t working out with her. So I hired another one and so far she is great! I can really tell the difference. I hope this one will work out -- I can’t imagine doing this all over again, but I also can’t imagine not having a cook! My house boy seems to working out fine. We had some rough times in the beginning but I think we have it worked out now!

Cars

Well I ordered myself a new car -- Toyota Kijang. It is sort of a SUV -- a small SUV. The roads are very narrow and there are so many cars out there, that the large vehicles we find in the States do not exist here. There is a Chevey dealer here. I’m not sure what they sell besides a Chevy Blazer and the is probably the widest the vehicle that I have seen. They do have KIA Carnivals too -- they are pretty wide too. But for the most part the cars are small -- narrow. My Kijang will seat 7. It has two back seats. Much smaller then my Tahoe! I should be getting my Kijang maybe in a week. The way things in Indonesia work -- very slowly!

Now I am on a mission to finding a driver! I need a driver for all this traffic and parking. Many places don’t have a lot of parking so my driver can just drop me off at the door then I will call when I am ready to be picked up. Most places have a car call -- even at school. You go to the car call and tell them the name of your driver and they call him over some loud speaker system and he drives up to the door to pick you up. The other option is buying your driver a cell phone -- which is a very good idea because some places it is difficult for your driver to park where he can hear the car call or if you are at someone’s house then you can just call him when you are ready.

I have no doubt that I can drive in this traffic and I am planning on driving to school in the wee hours of the morning and having my driver come to school to drive me home or wherever. But it definitely isn’t fun sitting in traffic! So with a driver I can sleep since I have to get up so early in the am!

Medical

I went to the SOS International Medical clinic for the first time as a patient. I just need to get some more medicine. It was very easy and efficient. I didn’t need an appointment and it only took about 15 minutes to see the doctor, tell him what I wanted and then over to the pharmacy (which is in the clinic) to get my medicine. And the best part is it only cost me about 22 US Dollars and that included my medicine. No wonder my insurance pays for everything here!

They tell us for major medical things we should go to Singapore. Hopefully I won’t have any major medical things. I do need a root canal I checked into the prices and it looks like it will be around 150 US Dollars. In the States it was going to cost me around 800 US Dollars. Some people won’t have any dental done here, but lots of people do. I of course will. Many of the dentist are trained in the US and Europe. No worries for me!

Driving

My car was finally delivered. I hired a driver and now I have freedom!! My driver is really great. He speaks good English! My plan is that I will drive to school myself because there usually isn’t too much traffic at 5:30am. My driver comes to the school around 2:00 in the afternoon (usually I don’t leave until 3:00 or 3:30) and drives me home or wherever it is that I think I need to go. It is really nice not having to find parking! He just drops me off at the door and then in most places they have a car call. So when I am ready to leave, I have him called over a loud speaker at the car call booth and he picks me up at the door.

Some things you need to know about driving in Indonesia. First of all -- they drive on the left side of the road. There is absolutely nothing natural or normal about driving on the “wrong” side of the road! Secondly-- the steering wheel is on the right side of the car! Now this is difficult to get use to. It just isn’t natural to be steering your car while sitting on the “wrong” side! Thirdly -- the gear shift is of course in the middle of the car just like in other car, but you have to shift with your left hand! It is just plain backwards! I am always hitting my right hand on the door to when I reach for the gear shift! Fourthly -- the blinker is on the wrong side of the steering wheel! Every time I turn my blinker on -- my windshield wipers go on instead. Now I know all of this -- but my brain is very stubborn and is not very cooperative in being retrained! Think about this -- To turn right you use put your blinker switch up and to turn left you put your blinker switch down -- right? And you do this all with your left hand on the left side of the steering wheel. But here on my car -- you use your right hand on the right side of the steering wheel to turn the blinker on but to turn right you need to push the blinker down not up and to turn left you put it the blinker up! It is all backwards!! Like it isn’t enough to try to drive defensively with all the traffic coming in all directions, people walking in all directions you have to do everything backwards!

My first day of driving --- Well I followed a teacher to the school because I would not have any idea how to get there on my own. Keep in mind that the roads are very narrow and there is no “organization” to the traffic. Cars do not really stay in lanes and motorcycles go everywhere! A motorcycle was going between me and the car right next to me so I moved over a little on the road and I hit a pole with my mirror! I got to school and everyone said -- just get use to it, stuff like that happens all the time! So the second day I drove to school I was trying to be much more watchful -- which is not easy. Cars and motorcycles are coming in all directions. People are walking on the edge of the very narrow roads. Sometimes people are pulling their carts (that they sell a variety of things from) on these very narrow roads. So do you get it? -- The roads are very narrow!! Being as very careful and watchful on my second day of driving to school -- well -- I bumped a person walking along the edge of the road!! I just bumped him no big deal. I looked in my rear view mirror and he was still walking along. Now most of you are probably wondering why didn’t I stop?? Well here in Indonesia you don’t stop for accidents or anything of the sort unless your driver is driving. Now the third day I drove to school and .....  I made it without hitting anything!! I think congratulations are in order for me!!

Jakarta City Tour

I went on a city tour of Jakarta. It was very interesting and very quick -- well sort of. Nothing is quick in Indonesia but I saw a lot in a short time. I went to the textile museum where I had the opportunity to try my hand a batik. I want to go ahead and take a few lessons. I went to many other museums. I really enjoyed the Wayang Museum. Wayang is puppets. There were many puppets of all sizes -- some even life size. They are made mostly of wood. I went to the harbor also. It was very dirty! The boats were interesting to look at. They all seem old to me. This is where I saw the “Boogie Man”.  You know the boogie man who hides under our beds at night and in closet just lurking and waiting for us! The Bugis came from an island here in Indonesia. In there early days there were known as pirates. There is still a lot of piracy happening in this area of the world.

Madura

The island of Madura lies just a 30 minute ferry ride from the Kamal Seaport at Surabaya. This quiet island becomes a major destination during August and September -- the time of the exciting annual bull races (kerapan sapi). According to the Madurese, these races started long ago when plow team was pitted against plow team over the length of a rice field. Today’s racing bulls are never used for plowing, but are specially bred; they represent a considerable source of regional pride. Only bulls of a high standard (condition, weight, color) may be entered and are judged on appearance as well as speed. District and regency heats are held all over Madura and East Java, building up to the finale in September. The main event is a thundering sprint down a 100 meter (328 feet) field lined by screaming spectators. These huge and normally slow-moving creatures attain speeds of over 50 km per hour (30 mph).

The Madurese have long enjoyed a reputation for toughness, and Madura’s dry limestone terrain may account for this. The major industries are fishing, tobacco growing and salt panning. The southern coastal fishing villages exude a solid but slightly jaded Mediterranean air; there are some good beaches.

I flew to Surabaya and joined the tour group and took a tour bus on the ferry to Madura. Traveling through the country side of Madura was beautiful. We stopped along an inlet to the sea. There were many boats and kids jumping off the boats and performing all sorts of stunts for us. I saw rice fields and guys on bikes carrying bags of rice. There really isn’t any way to explain (look at photo gallery). We arrived at a palace where we were met by dancers and music and escorted into the palace. The people in the village arranged for a mock wedding ceremony. The traditional dress was beautiful as well as the dancers.

We headed off to the bull races in the “bikes”. These are bikes that have seats on the front of them for passengers. On the way to the bull races people were lined in the streets to see us. One guy ran along beside my “bike” and kept touching my face and hair. They don’t see many white people especially blonde! We finally arrived at the bull races.

The bull races are amazing! The bulls are beautiful animals. Two bulls are harnessed together with these pole like things going from the harness to the ground at an angle so the jockey can stand of these poles as the bulls race down the field!

Now how do you think they get the bulls to race? First of all they need to get them mad. They rub a raw spot on their back ends and rub some chili concoction on it. They also rub this chili paste on the testicles. They have this band wrapped around the bulls tails right at the base of the tail that has a spike on the under side of it. So when they are racing down the field the jockey lifts the tail up and down to poke the bull in the anus. I think this would probably make most of us (especially those of you with testicles) angry enough to run like hell! It was an amazing thing to see.

After the bull races we headed back on down the road to our camp spot on the beach. Now Madura does not have any accommodations for tourists so our tour guides arranged to have a camp site built on the beach. Our tents were made from bamboo. Three sides of bamboo and one side of canvas. There was lots of beautiful Madurese furniture all round the camp and in our tents for purchase. Madurese make large beautiful beds which we slept in. We had a massage tent, manicure and pedicure tent also. This is all constructed especially for us right on a beautiful beach of the Java Sea!

When we finally arrived at our camp we were greeted by the people from the village holding torches and making an alley way for us to walk down! It was amazing! I don’t even know how to explain it. Then as we entered our camp, one member of our group had to crack a coconut -- some sort of tradition. We then were shown around the camp and had dinner. Oh the other thing is that everything is operated by the Mafia on Madura. So the leaders of the Mafia joined us for dinner our first night. These Mafia men are very intense people! The whole time we were at our camp people from the village would be trying to see us over the fences and take our photos. We were like celebrities to them.

The next morning I decide I was going to start my dad with a very nice traditional massage. I headed on down the beach to the massage tent and got myself a very interesting massage. These two old women were very strong. They don’t speak any English. They kept burping and giving me the “thumbs up” sign during the massage. They started pinching the heck out of my face around the outside of my eyes. It really hurt but I kept thinking -- OK they have to be about finished. Well when they finished I walked out and one of my friends who was waiting for me said -- what the heck happened to you?! I had these red welts along the outside of my eyes where they were pinching me! I asked our tour guides why they might do something like this?? Our tour guide went and had a talk with them and told them not to do it to anyone else. The reason -- well they said they were getting rid of my wrinkles! Some of the other tourist who may have a few more wrinkles then I do said they for sure weren’t going to have this beauty treatment!! The red welts turned to bruises and lasted about a week.

So after this I went for a swim in the beautiful Java sea! It was so very warm and fun jumping the waves and swimming! I loved it!! After sun tanning on the beach, the village people put on a cow beauty pageant! Yes a cow beauty pageant! They had these cows decorated in beautiful head dresses! They really were beautiful.

After watching the beautiful cows parade around on the beach I decided to go for another swim. I was jumping the waves and splashing around and OUCH! I stepped on something that cut my foot and stung and burned. I managed to get out of the water and on to the beach. Leks (tour guide) looked at my foot along with the whole village and all the people on our tour! The people from the village were taking pictures and crowding around to see what was going on. What to do?? Everyone had a suggestion. One person from our group urinated in a cup and then dumped it on my foot. The village medicine man came along. Leks asked me if I wanted to try the traditional healing?? I said OK -- now remember I am in excruciating pain the whole time. I figured the medicine man would have some sort of concoction to put on my foot. Well he pulled out this long rusty knife and I said no way!! Leks explained to me that he was not going to cut me with it but it was called a “KRIS” and he would lay it across my wound and do his magic! So here I am in a lot of pain with some native medicine man holding this “rusty knife” on my foot. Now something happen. I can’t even begin to explain it. He had his eyes closed and seemed to be really concentrating on something. My whole body started shaking uncontrollably. Two people were sitting next to me holding my hands. All of a sudden the medicine man’s hand turned yellow! Yep it turned yellow! I don’t know what happened and can’t explain it but something was going on! I finally told him to stop because I just couldn’t take it any longer. About this time the car finally arrived to rush me off to the “hospital”.

One of my friends, Karin, went along with me. Leks was driving and another person was telling him where to go. We raced down the beach turned around asked someone along the beach where to go, turned around again did some four wheeling through the sand to get to a path through the trees. We drove along the path through trees until we reached a road and then off we were. The ride was very amusing. I had to either laugh or cry so I started laughing. Why? Well we dodged chickens and people along the road while we were traveling a very fast speed. There were chickens crossing the road people walking along the side carrying things, bikes piled high with everything under the sun. Leks just kept going and honking the whole way. We had to stop for gas. They sell gas in glass jars! No pumps. They dump the gas in the vehicle using a funnel. Leks later told me he was very worried about me because I was laughing and he though the poison from the creature was getting to me and making me delirious! When it was the whole experience! I asked Karin -- is this my life or is this some weird movie??

Finally we arrived at the “hospital”. They wheeled me into a room. There were about 8 male attendants. The doctor was a female. They turned on an old lamp and pulled it towards my foot so the doctor could see better and the cord was too short -- they yanked it out of the wall! I looked a the cord and it was already wrapped in black electrical tape. I felt like I was on “Mash” or in Doc Baker’s office from Little House on the Prairie! She made an incision in my foot to clean it out with all the attendants watching. She did deaden it before she cut it. The attendants were farting and burping during the whole procedure. Karin and I just looked at each other and wondered what in the heck was going on. After the doctor finished cleaning it out and bandaging it up, she decided I needed a shot in the butt. One of the attendants was the lucky fellow to give me the shot while the rest stood around and watched. Being this is a very Muslim island, they didn’t know quite how to go about giving me the shot! I finally just pulled up my sarong and pulled over my swimming suit and said give me the shot. Karin said they all watched in amazement. Maybe they don’t see many white butts?!

They wheeled me out of the room to go back to the camp. They attendant doing the driving of the wheel chair ran into the door and then about took my foot off getting me out of the room. Now by this time, I needed to use the bathroom. So they wheeled me to another room where the “Squatter” was located. All the attendants followed along. There was not a door on the “Squatter” room so I decided instead of me trying to keep my foot dry (the floors in bathroom are always very wet because Indonesians use water to clean themselves after using the toilet) and squat to urinate with all of them watching, that I could wait until we got back to camp! So he wheeled me out front to wait for the medicine and the car. Karin sat down on a bench and one of the attendants sat down next to her and farted! I have no idea what the heck the farting is about??!! We were off again heading back to camp. I was feeling much better but the ride was still very amusing! We made numerous turns -- I would have never found my way.

I arrived back at camp to very nice singing welcoming from the rest of the tour group. It was very nice. They were trying to sing to me, the whole time I was on the beach in excruciating pain, to try to make me forget about the pain. They did OK but they decided to practice for my return! Well done!! I hobbled around for the rest of the evening. We returned home the next day.

This was an amazing experience that I will never forget. I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to visit Madura and watch the bull races!

One more thing about Madura – One of the people doing massages was a transvestite! Be what you want – I don’t care. But I guess I just didn’t expect to see a transvestite out in the middle of nowhere! He was dressed beautifully with full makeup and a very deep voice!

Thousand Islands

Thousand Islands is a group of island of actually about 130 islands. A friend and I went to Pantera Timur Island for the weekend! It was a true tropical paradise. We took a boat from Jakarta to Pantera. The snorkeling was great! I could see lots of fish – the water was clear. I just relaxed and soaked up the sun. We took a five-minute boat ride over to the island next to Pantera and laid on the beach. There wasn’t anyone else on the island except a couple of local men working. One of them brought a coconut over to us to drink the milk.

It was so tranquil and peaceful. I just can’t believe I live here and can do this whenever I want. This wasn’t a vacation that I had been planning for for the past 6 months. I can escape to these tropical islands every weekend if I want!

There are these bamboo pole structures in the water in an area closer to Jakarta. They are large and have sort of a shack on some of them. I don’t know how to explain it at all. I will put a photo of it in the photo gallery. I inquired about these structures after I got back to school. They are structures that men live on to watch the fish!??!! I guess some how under these pole structures is fish nets. I’m still not clear on this. I can’t hardly believe that people live out on these structures. They aren’t even protected from the weather. They get a supplies once a week! They have no way of getting off of the structure – no boats! Unbelievable! I’m still going to research this more to try to get the whole story. Some people say the people who live on these structures are kids not men.

Cirebon

I went on a group trip to Cirebon. I took the train there for an action packed weekend! Cirebon is a city located a three-hour train ride from Jakarta. It is a cultural center of West Java. Cirebon is known for its own special batik and for glass painting. It has two palaces and is famous for a special kind of mask dance, which has almost disappeared. Cirebon is also the rattan producing center of Indonesia.

We went to the glass painter studio first. We waked through a village and were met by some beautiful traditional dancers. What a beautiful art! I did buy one glass painting of a woman doing batik.

We then went to the rattan producing part of town. They had everything made out of rattan and at a very reasonable price. We didn’t have enough time to buy stuff. Well I guess you could buy but it was too rushed for me!

Next we went to the small village of Trusmi, which is famous as one of the most important batik-making villages in Java. This is another amazing art! I can’t believe how they make this. The conditions that they were working under were very poor -- like is some dark warehouse! The technique is incredible!

We stopped at a local Indonesian market! That was over stimulating!!! So much stuff in such a small area. Everything was crowded together and disorganized! However, I did manage to spend my money there on batik!

For the evening, we went to the Sultan’s (King) palace. There were special Palace performers. During the dinner of traditional Palace food a gamelan orchestra entertained us. We saw a Cirebon Mask Dance, Mask dance, Debus performance (the Debus are the traditional Indonesian ascetics – they eat hot coals and glass), Sintren (escape artist/Trance) and Tayuban Dance. I tried to get photos of all of these different dances we watched but it was difficult. The trance dancing was interesting. They were in a trance and danced on glass and ate hot coals. They really did it! Some weird stuff happening!

The next we were invited to a celebration for a young boy who was circumcised. It was a beautiful parade! Lots of decorations, dancing, singing…. No we did not actually watch the circumcision!

It was another incredible experience!!

Humm… I wonder where I am……

One Saturday morning I decided to drive to my friend’s house then go to the PTA Christmas fair. I had made all the arrangements with my driver to meet me at my friend’s house. Now my friend lives right by school so I knew exactly how to get to her house – No problem! I decided I would even take to toll road further into town then I usually do when I’m driving to school. I thought this would be a little quicker and since it was Saturday morning – less traffic. Well I was driving along and I got off the toll road and went on my merry way to the next toll road – but I never did find the next toll road!! The traffic was so thick and the streets are so narrow and …. There was no way I could stop. There is no side of the road to pull over to.  I was just crawling along in bumper to bumper traffic. I finally turned and got out of some of the traffic and was looking for a place to pull over and try to ask for directions – remember this is not an English speaking country and I can pretty much just speak English! There wasn’t any place to stop the traffic was heavy! Well there are a few little places along the roads that sell water or snacks like a kiosk or something. I did stop a two of these and the people would not help me – they just sort of waved me away – like they couldn’t be bothered. There was no way for me to flag a taxi down then just follow them because I was by myself and there really wasn’t any place to stop! I finally saw a Bridgestone tire shop so I managed to make a u-turn and pull into the shop. I parked my car right next to the tire shop in front of some other little shop. I decided to go into this shop first. I went in and started trying to explain my situation to the person working inside. He wasn’t understanding me. Meanwhile – I started to look around the shop to see what type of place I happened in to??? Well to my delight is was a Catholic bookstore!! I thought oh they have to help in here!! Can you believe that in this foreign Muslim country – I’m totally lost and some how someone has lead me to a Catholic bookstore for help??! I called my driver and explained to him that I was lost and he talked to the person in the shop. My driver gave me directions and I was still very unsure of where to go. Another person came into the shop and she could speak a little English and so she tried to tell me where to go and I was even more confused!! I called my driver back and he said that he would just ride his motorbike to get me and I could follow him! I was so thankful!! He told me to stay inside and not to go outside for anything – I guess I was in a bad part of Jakarta! So my driver shows up wondering how in the heck I got to where I was??!! I told him I had no idea how I had gotten there that I was just so thankful that he could find me! Now some of you might wonder why I didn’t just turn around – well it isn’t that easy to turn around on these very narrow streets with bumper to bumper traffic. I just can’t explain the traffic situation here. I followed my driver to original destination! I was safe!! No this all took about 4.5 hours! It should have taken me about 45 minutes! Just think there I was driving around in this huge foreign country in bumper-to-bumper traffic for 4.5 hours not having a clue as to where I was or where I was going! I don’t think my driver thoroughly understands how grateful I was for him to find me!

Bali

I went to Bali for our week long November break! I stayed in Ubud, which is in the Jungle away from the beach – not really my idea. I took Bahasa Indonesian lessons two hours a day. I definitely learned some but I need a lot of practice. Ubud is a beautiful place. We walked through the rice fields into Ubud (our hotel was actually outside of Ubud). It took about 3 hours. It was beautiful and very peaceful.

We went to the beach in Sanur one day. It was a great and relaxing day. We went to a Hindu village. That was an interesting place. All the houses are within their own little compound and have many building within it. Each building is designed to be a certain amount of meters away from each other. So each person's house “complex “ is the same. Some people have their own temples too.

We went to Monkey Forest. I bought some bananas! Well needless to say the monkeys were after me and my bananas!! They jumped right up and grabbed them out of my hands! They would pull on my dress enough to rip it to get the bananas. It was great to see them. They really are cute!

We ate at the Hard Rock Café in Kuta by the beach for Thanksgiving dinner – no not a traditional dinner. I had barbecue spare ribs. I had a very action packed week! It was another amazing trip!!

Christmas

I flew on some very long flights to get home for Christmas! I had a wonderful time! There was even snow -- something I don’t see living in the tropics.

I played in the snow with my nieces and nephews. We even got the snowmobile running. Danny, my nephew, of course, was the driver of the snowmobile that pulled the rest of the kids around on the sled.

It was great to be home and spend the holidays with my family!

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