Lombok -- 2004

Well to start our year off at school we had a three day weekend in January! I love all our holidays we have here. I traveled to Lombok -- an island off of Bali.

A friend and I stayed in Bali for one night on our way to Lombok. We took the recommendation for an inexpensive nice hotel from a couple of single guys we work with! Wrong!! The hotel was not clean and well.... not very inviting. So we made our way to the Hard Rock Cafe for a margarita to make us feel better about sleeping in our hotel room. We had a good time -- we met up with some other people and went to a night club and danced the night away -- well maybe not the whole night! Needless to say we were tired and ready to sleep.

The next day we finally made it to Lombok after spending too much time in the airport waiting for a plane. Oh and on our way back we had to bribe the airline to let us get on the plane to get back to Bali so we could catch our flight to Jakarta. This whole bribing thing is a pretty regular way of getting what you want here in Indonesia!

It was very beautiful and tranquil. A well needed relaxing weekend.

Harry Dorsono

Who is Harry Dorsono? Well Harry is a very famous Indonesian clothes designer. One of my friends, Tina, is having him design her wedding dress. He designed all the brides maid dresses and shoes and hairstyles -- the works!!

Tina and I went to his house and he gave us a tour and told us about his life. . His claim to fame is a gown he designed for Princess Diana. It is beautiful -- as is all of his gowns. He has designed many gowns for the royal families of Asian countries. I encourage you who are interested to research him on the internet. He has a very interesting past.

Oh some of you may know the Dorsono name from the cigarettes -- yep that’s his family.

Driver

Well I had to fire my driver. I really thought he was a good one. He was good at taking advantage of me! It was all very unpleasant. He didn’t show up to pick me up from the airport after coming back from Lombok. His cell phone of course was not working. It turned out he took my car -- ran it out of gas -- and had it towed to my house about 6 hours after he was supposed to pick me up at the airport!

I found out he had been using my car for personal use -- racking up the miles and using the gas! I also found out that he had stolen all my tires! Yep! He had them changed out to retreaded tires. Here in Indonesia -- people take old tires and retread them. So my driver took advantage of this and now I have old cheap retreaded tires!

So now I am driving myself around this huge city! There is a driver’s club where you can hire a driver for a day. I use this service when I need to go somewhere that I don’t know how to get to. I also use my friend’s driver when he isn’t working for her. He is really nice and takes care of my car. I am getting tired of driving so I will probably hire a driver pretty soon.

Diving

I took a dive course! It was so exciting. I did my course work here in Jakarta then off to one the Thousand Islands for my open water skill dives. It was so great! I really can breath under water! Now I’m planning dive trips. There are so many great places to dive here in Indonesia and well all over Asia! It’s a whole other world down there.

Thailand

A friend and I went to Thailand for our spring break. We really don’t have any seasons here besides rainy and not rainy. But for those of us who come from parts of the world where we do have seasons -- I call a week break in March -- spring break!

Thailand is beautiful. We went to Phuket. We stayed in a condo on a championship golf course! It was absolutely wonderful! For those of you who are golfers -- the Johnny Walker Classic was held there in 1998. Tiger Woods won it that year. They have post cards of Tiger Woods there on the course with his trophy. It was really great. And one of the best things is that on these courses you have caddies! Yep I had two caddies for me. One was carrying my clubs and telling me where to hit the ball and the other was carrying the umbrella -- no it was not raining -- she was shading me from the sun! If I could just hit the ball where they told me to -- I would have golfed fabulously!

I spent time at Freedom beach! We took a longboat to it and snorkeled and relaxed for the day! The snorkeling was great --lots of fish! Freedom beach -- what do you think that name might mean?? Well not exactly but there were a few topless women.

We went diving! We took a speed boat to Raja Island. The diving was fabulous. Of course being a new diver -- it’s all great to me. It really was fascinating. I saw an octopus and I held a puffer fish! I need to study up on the types of fish before I go diving so I know what I’m looking at besides pretty bright colorful fish!

We spent one night in Bangkok on our way back to Jakarta. I really liked it. Bangkok is another large city but it is more organized or closer to first world then Jakarta is. Bangkok isn’t first world but it is further along the way then Jakarta. We went shopping at the night market. There was one near out hotel. Some beautiful things for very inexpensive prices!

Lots of prostitution going on also. Right out in the open! People shoving pictures in your face asking you to come to some club for some show! Some pretty graphic photos.

Thailand was great! I will definitely go back sometime. I want to spend more time in Bangkok and I will definitely spend more time at the beaches there! 

Coming up ---  A dive tip to Krakatau Easter weekend. A trip to see the orangutans at Kalimantan in May! Stayed tuned!

Krakatau Volcano

Krakatau Volcano erupted in the late 1800’s. This eruption change the world. Little Krakatau is an amazing place to dive. I went diving at the pinnacles of big krakatau. The current was very strong! My dive buddy and I couldn’t get around all the pinnacles. We went diving at the base of little krakatau. I saw my first shark. It was so foreign looking. The sand was black and it looked like I would imagine Mars looking like. Lots of huge lava rock with the black sand and all the fish hiding. It was very cool! We also went diving at a beautiful coral garden too. This was a great dive trip!

Kotok

Kotok is one of the thousand islands. I went there with a group of divers to do a reef cleanup for earth day. I couldn’t believe the trash we found! Shoes, pants, t-shirts and lots of plastic. We did the reef cleanup on one dive and the rest of the dives were for pleasure.

My dive buddy, Rachel, and I had a great time. We dived at one the most beautiful reefs I have every seen! It was all different colors of blues and greens. It was also the most relaxing dive I have ever had. We totally lost track of time and ended up staying down for 79 minutes! For those you who are non-divers -- you usually plan a dive for 60 minutes if you have enough air. We were paying close attention to our air supply but neither of us knew how long we had been down so we were just gauging our dive on our air supply. The rest of the divers had went up and we didn’t even notice! It was a fantastic dive!

Kalimantan

I went on an orangutan adventure to Tanjjung Puting National Park in Kalimantan. Getting there -- well -- we left early in the morning changed planes twice then took a car to the river then got on boats (klotok) and traveled up the river 4 hours to the first rehabilitation camp -- Camp Leakey. These klotoks are not only our transportation but also our sleeping quarters. There were about 10 klotoks for your group and about 6 people on each. The ride up the river was amazing! It is so beautiful. We were in the middle of the rain forest! I can’t explain it!

At camp Leakey, we hiked into the feeding grounds where all the babies are. They are so cute -- but watch out below because they urinate whenever and wherever they want.

We docked our klotoks at station - Pondok Tanggui. It was amazing how our  crew changed our klotoks into sleeping quarters. We even had mosquito nets to sleep under -- good thing because this area has malaria. (I practically bathed in 100% deet mosquito repellant about three times a day!) Our camp had makeshift showers and a toilet. Our klotoks also had a toilet. On the back of the klotok there is a “closet” (almost and extension to the klotok) with a western toilet in it. There was not a roof over the toilet so when you in there everyone could see your head! It was a bit difficult to use.

I went on a night jungle walk. It was really cool! There are so many living creatures in the jungle out at night -- glowing mushrooms and tranchila.

The morning of day two I went for a canoe ride up the river just as the sun was coming up. It was beautiful. The canoe was very very low to the water if a crocodile wanted to he could just come right up over the edge of the canoe. I didn’t see any crocodile this trip. Crocodiles -- Another reason to be very careful climbing from klotok to klotok to get to the dock!! Of course my klotok was parked furthest out. My friend and I ventured out one morning to the toilets before the sun was up -- amazing we made it across the other klotoks safely to the dock!! We didn’t have a flash light either!!

We hiked into the feeding area for the adults and the rangers called the orangutans in. Eventually they started coming to the feeding platform. They are such amazing animals! So human like! their DNA is 97% human.

We moved on in our klotoks to the next camp. We again hiked into a feeding area. This was a bit longer hike. We saw orangutans all along the way. Once we got to the area we were to be still and quiet. The orangutans tried to take backpacks and water bottles whatever they could get from you. There were 9 orangutans at this area. The king was there! It was so fascinating watching them. The king was jumping from tree to tree. He was calling his mate and he would make this chest beating noise -- it was  scary!! The first time he did it he was in the trees and his mate was just in the next tree so it wasn’t’ as scarey. But the second time he did he was on the ground and there was just a few of us still there watching and he jumped up and started beating his chest and making that growling noise and grab his mate!! His mate was standing very near to me. It definitely got my blood pressure up -- I wasn’t sure what to do!! He and his made did their thing and then he went back to eating. It was an incredible thing to experience! I just can’t say enough!!

A baby orangutan was up in a tree with his mother and his mother was eating a banana and the baby wanted it but the mother would not let him have it. The baby started hitting his mother so she went to another tree then the baby started screaming and crying and threw a stick at his mother! He had a temper tantrum!!

On our back hike back to our klotoks -- we saw the old king. He was really beat up! He had scars all over his face. He looked old and tired out. It was the year before that he had the fight with the new king and lost.

At night the stars were so bright and clear. It was pitch black and we could hear all the wildlife in the jungle happening around us. This was a once in a life time trip!! Absolutely incredible!!!

Summer 2004

I had a great summer with my family in Montana. I took my nephew Danny, to Alaska for a trip. We had a great time. We went to Denali National Park, Fairbanks, then to Seward to go on a glacier wildlife cruise then further down the Kenai peninsula to go halibut fishing! Yes we caught our limit of fish. And of course we spent time in Anchorage too.

Advanced Dive Course

My first weekend back in Jakarta I went out to the thousand islands to get my advanced dive certification. I went with a couple of friends. I had a great weekend -- it was a perfect way to ease back into life in Jakarta!

Three Day Weekends

We had a couple of three day weekends in August and September. So I went with a friend to Singapore. It was my first trip to Singapore -- where I actually left the airport. Singapore is a great city! It is so efficient and clean -- the complete opposite of Jakarta! It is a great place to get a break from the chaos in Jakarta.

The second three day weekend we had. I went to the Hard Rock Hotel in Bali. They had a lady’s package that included 3 nights, a massage, and a free cabana rental for a day. It was a great relaxing weekend!! I just lounged around at the amazing pool and beach. A well needed holiday!

Road Rage

I drive myself to school every morning then have my driver come to school and drive me home or wherever. Well one morning on my way to school -- a van and a taxi were trying to squeeze into the “lane” that I was driving in -- so I just stopped and the van scrapped by me and broke his mirror and my mirror! He then pulled right in front of me and got out of his van was hitting my car with his fists as I hurriedly drove around him! Then he preceded to follow me right on my bumper honking his horn! He followed me into the neighborhood where my school is and cut in front of me and got out of his van and started walking back to my car as he was yelling and shouting! My heart was racing by this time! I waited until he was just about to my car then took off!! I sped through the neighborhood to get to the front gate of my school and told the guards to hurry up and open the gate. They did and I didn’t see that van again. However, my driver’s license was due to expire in a few days so I decided not to drive for a while. I took taxis in the mornings instead. I did get my license renewed about a month later and I am back to driving myself in the mornings! So far no more road rage! 

Embassy Bombing

A car bomb exploded outside the Australian Embassy here in Jakarta. This was quite a shock to all of us westerners living in Jakarta. It turned out to be a “love battle” that caused the bomb. One of the Indonesian guard’s girlfriend wasn’t happy about something and arranged for a car bomb! Can you believe this??!!

Western Countries put out travel warnings here in Jakarta on a regular basis. The US government keeps sending out travel warnings to all US citizens about the possible attacks on westerners.

I have always felt safe traveling, shopping and living here in Jakarta.

Golf

I decided to get myself back into playing golf. I took a refresher course here and am enjoying all the opportunities to golf. There are so many beautiful courses here in Jakarta! My school has a golf association (JISGA). They arrange for a few different tournaments throughout the year. They have a “Ryder Cup” tournament every September -- The USA against the rest of the world! It is a good friendly competition.

Komodo

A group of friends and I went on live-a-board dive trip to the Komodo Island and other surrounding islands. It was fabulous!! Our boat was pretty nice. We each had our own cabins with our own bathrooms with a toilet and shower. The diving was amazing! It was the best diving I have ever done and may be best I ever do! We saw everything! Lots of sharks, manta rays, lots of large ocean fish, pigmy sea horses, and beautiful coral! You must view the photo page to see all the underwater life I had the opportunity to view while diving. The sharks were probably the most exciting -- well maybe the mantas -- ok it was very exciting.

I was looking under a pieced of large coral watching these two sharks. They were just sitting there under the coral. No I wasn’t that close! I was a good safe distance from them but close enough to see. Well one the sharks all of a sudden swam right out from under the coral directly at me!! I “screamed” under water -- whatever that may sound like -- and my dive buddy swam over quickly and was smiling. She saw the whole thing.

We went to Komodo National Park on Komodo Island. We hiked around a bit but we found the dragons near the buildings digging around in the fire pits! They are huge and scary looking! They were dreweling that deadly saliva all over! We also a wild boar with them. Our guide had a stick to protect us -- yeah right like that little stick was going to really protect us from those dragons. There was an interesting sign at Komodo National Park about you were only covered by insurance if you held a ticket! Funny thing was they don’t give out tickets!

We also stopped at the pink sand beach. Yes the sand was pink! On the pink sand beach we saw another wild boar! We were all enjoying the sand and sunshine to be too worried about the boar. He didn’t bother us and we certainly didn’t bother him.

After one of our dives, my dive buddies and I popped up out of the water to bunch of old rickety fishing boats! They were everywhere surrounding us. On one boat there was child trying to sell us a carving on a komodo dragon -- I’m not exactly sure what he thought -- like we could just reach into our dive suits and pull out some money!

Some of the currents out around these island are very strong! At one point my buddies and I were hanging on to a piece of coral because we couldn’t make it around the coral where the current shifted in the other direction. Finally our dive master realized we were following and came back after us and showed us an easier way to get around to the other side of the coral. Our dive master was always very through in briefing us about each dive.

When we were looking at the Manta Rays we were all crouching down near the sandy bottom or beside a piece of coral just waiting for the Mantas to swim near us. One of the mantas swam directly over top if me! It was so cool! They are huge!! They just float through the water!

One of our last days there we had them anchor the boat so we could jump off the boat and play in the beautiful blue green water! You could see for miles in it! We were jumping off the top deck -- doing cannon balls and dives! We also tried some synchronized swimming. Well the girls had a go at it. The men were interested. It is just amazing floating around in that gorgeous salt water!

We ended our trip with a bus ride and plane ride to Bali then spent the day lounging at the hard rock hotel and pool then back to Jakarta on another plan ride. It was a fantastic trip!!!!

Singapore

A few friends and I went to Singapore to go to the Mamma Mia musical. It was great. The company that performed the show was an Australian company. The singing and dancing was fantastic!

It was a great trip -- relaxing, great shopping in a civilized city, great restaurants! Singapore is our escape to a civilized, clean city!

Manado

This was another great dive trip. Manado is on an island North of Java. A friend and I went diving in Bunakan National Park. This was very easy calm diving. There are not as many currents so the fish are smaller. Bunakan is known for it’s “wall: diving. There are these huge amazing cliffs under the water to dive up and down on. There are some amazing coral on these walls. It was calm and relaxing. It was a very relaxing, beautiful 5 day weekend.

Christmas

I spent my Christmas holidays in Montana with my family. We had some snow to make it a white holiday. I enjoyed spending time with nieces and nephews. My time at home in Montana is always too short! But I do make the best of it while I am there.

That’s it for 2004!!

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