Durian found in Sacramento!

Wow, some big news here as Laurie went out to a local asian market with a friend and came back with some tasty surprises. I know this won't be anything like the fresh produce we had every day while traveling around Indonesia but it is a start. They made an exploring trip for supplies after a tasty lunch at our favorite local Indo Cafe which gives us some flavor from home away from home. This will keep us going for the time being and allow us to introduce others to a little of the amazing foods we experienced in Indonesia.

A possible bike ride from Indonesia to Mecca? "Saya searing pemula"

Not me, at least there are no plans here for such a trip.  I just came across this interesting Crazy Guy on a Bike forum discussion of someone in Blitar, Indonesia wanting to ride to the city of Mecca, UAE and wondering how to find more information for such a trip. As I've always found on the CGOAB site, there are many experienced travelers willing to share their knowledge and experience. This discussion is off to a good start, I plan to keep my eye on it to see where things go next.

Meanwhile, we did miss a chance for a bicycling adventure in Sulawesi while we were there and recently had a contact from the same person about another trip, this time in central Sulawesi. Too early to tell but this might just happen...

Hi Laurie,

Did you get to Indonesia in January?
FYI the North Sulawesi trip went well, I think I can say that.
Upcoming trip is to Central Sulawesi .
13 - 28 May 2012.
907 km  / 11 cycle days.
Best available accommodation. Fully supported. Swimming 15/16 days. Daily
yoga. Indonesian language instruction.
Details http://www.cycleindonesia.com.au/central_sulawesi.htm.
Would appreciate it if you could pass it on to BF people that you have
contact with.  Thanks.

Colin

Palm Oil and Deforestation

This is a heavy subject that has been much on my mind for some time and long before our trip. Our journeys did not take us through many of the large plantations that have destroyed the vast forests that Indonesia once had. Those forests have been gone for some time in most of the areas we visited. At the same time, this is not an historical event as the destruction continues at a rapid pace elsewhere in Indonesia. There are nearly 100 intentional fires burning now as a way to quickly remove forests and clear the way for these plantations which fuel much of the foods, soap, cosmetics, chemicals, bio-diesel and other industries used by all of us.  The toll that this is taking on native wildlife, especially orang-utans, and over-all biodiversity is both shocking and un-necessary. Still, at the rate things are going this will be yet another disaster that we look back and wonder where we were when this happened. For now, I'm going to become more engaged on this issue now and plan to spend time visiting the "front line" on my next trip.  Here's some background and suggested materials. I'll add more later.

Watch "Green The Film" and educate yourself on the way your activities contribute to this problem.  “Green” is a film about the rainforest of Indonesia and follows a female orang-utan there. It is 48 min long, it is available for free download and copyright free for all non commercial screenings. The film has no narration, it is thus accessible to all nationalities. It was produced independently and free of all commercial or political attachment. Don’t hesitate to screen the film wherever you feel appropriate too.

<4/4/12> In an unfortunate follow-up to this situation, an Indonesian court has thrown out a case rather than put itself in the "awkward" position of hearing how intentional actions could shortly lead to the extinction of the orang-utan in Sumatra. An appeal to a higher court is expected.

Some Facts about Deforestation

Indonesia has one of the world’s worst deforestation rates, averaging at around 2 million hectares a year. In 1950 the forest cover of Indonesia was about 160 million hectares, today less than 48 million hectares are left.

Massive deforestation of Indonesia began in the 1970s with the expansion of the timber industry. Then came the pulp and paper industry followed by the palm oil industry. Today, the major driving force behind Indonesian deforestation comes from the international demand for palm oil to make biofuels. An October 2009 report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) found that: “95 per cent of the increased production of palm oil in Malaysia and Indonesia was driven by the growing demand for biodiesel”, and that “two-thirds of the current expansion of palm oil cultivation in Indonesia is based on the conversion of rainforests”.

This demand comes essentially from India, Europe and China who are all promoting palm oil biodiesel as tomorrow’s best renewable “green”energy to combat climate change. But reports show that converting forests into oil palm plantations for biofuel actually worsens climate change. Palm oil bio-diesel is not really about combating climate change, it is just about making money. 

Indonesia is the largest palm oil producer in the world and plans to expand its palm oil plantations from the present 7 million hectares to 20 million hectares in the years to come.

Photos from Jakarta

Forgot to attach them.

Waiting for Sate

A very large grasshopper

A view from Jakarta

Received a couple of photos taken today. One is a street vendor scene at night while waiting for an order of sate ayam and sate kambing. Yum, that food is calling from there :) as Eko and Nana were buying some for dinner across the street from Reza and Iin's home. Sure miss those good times.

The second photo is a very large insect hanging on the fence at home. It apparently eats in the rice paddy though.

Also some news about new jobs and busy times there but a three day weekend is coming next week. I don't think many were celebrating St. Patrick's day though.

Indonesian meal Sacramento style!

We have really been missing our nasi since we got home nearly a month ago.

Today we enjoyed an early evening bike ride to the local Indo Cafe  and had a great meal while chatting about Jakarta and other things. Mmm, just what we needed. It would have been fun if Elle and family could have joined us. Lien kali!

Laurie had nasi goring and I had Sate ayam and we shared Tahu isi and were happily stuffed for our American river bike trail ride home as the sun was setting. We plan to go back for more soon.

Side one of the "special" menu

Waiting for her nasi

This meal reminds me of Indonesia!

Ah, Sate ayam!

First bite & fancy fork work

Happy Dale!

Masih lebih untuk datang--(still more to come)

<Having fun with Google Translate!>


Kami telah rumah selama lebih dari seminggu sekarang dan itu masih sulit dipercaya. Bahkan menjadi kembali bekerja dengan terlalu banyak hal untukdilakukan di sana adalah kenangan sehari-hari orang, tempat, dan petualangan.

Kami secara perlahan bekerja pada memperbarui blog untuk menambahkan informasi lebih lanjut dan foto juga. Ada beberapa topik baru seperti Kredit Karbon yang perlu ditambahkan juga. Saya menemukan diri saya masih mencoba untuk mencari tahu situasi lalu lintasdi sana dan melihat banyak orang lain telah juga. Berikut adalah beberapa videolalu lintas sepeda motor.


 Tinggal dicari, lebih untuk datang!



We have been home for over a week now and that's still hard to believe.  Even being back at work with too many things to do there are daily memories of people, places, and adventures. I find myself still trying to figure out the traffic situation there and see lots of others have been as well. Here's some video of motorbike traffic.

Another creative food cart

We are slowly working on updating the blog to add more information and photos too. There are some new topics like Carbon Credit that need to be added too.

Breakfast & Kopi Memories

Stay tuned, more
to come!

Back on the ground

We headed back home with a heavy heart and mixed feelings about leaving our friends and family in Indonesia at the end of our incredible trip there. Although it was extremely hard to leave, we also missed our family and friends back home. We arrived back in San Francisco after over 19 hours in the air starting Thursday afternoon in Jakarta then on to Singapore for a short stop, Hong Kong with a rushed change of planes, and home to SF. Singapore Airlines treated us well overall; we had time for three dinners, ice cream for dessert, and Laurie even managed to collect more playing cards.

Ellie and Theo picked us up at SFO and drove us home in great style. It was great to see them again. And, somehow, all of this travel took place in a single day...we were home 5 hours after we left, after 19 hours on the plane.

Nana took time off from work to see us off

Dale & Laurie saying goodbye to "home"
(Iin and Reza's house in Jakarta)

Reza, Iin, Reza's mom, and Nana took us to the Airport

Nana rode with the luggage to make sure it arrived

Last meal on this trip at the airport coffee shop. 

Creative packing to get the Bali Starling
painting home (it worked)

Laurie will miss Reza's mama very much.

(not) Ready to go

Our baggage increased over the 5 weeks of the trip.

Our bags are packed and ready to go. We fly back this afternoon after five amazing weeks that have gone too quickly as we look back on the people we've met and places we've been in this too brief introduction to this diverse and incredible country.

We leave with much sadness at leaving behind so many new friends and people we consider family now. They have given us help and warmth and love as we stumbled about.

We aren't saying goodbye, only "see you later." We have many more things to do when we return and the list keeps growing as we learn more about Indonesia. Lien kali!

Last supper

We had a slower day at Reza and Iin's home relaxing and getting organized to fly home tomorrow. I think everyone was ready for some down time after all the activities of the last few days. Plus we were feeling melancholy about leaving.

In the afternoon we headed back into Jakarta traffic. We made our way to a large older shopping mall that consists of two connected tall buildings. Inside, there were more small shops squeezed into at least 6 floors. No space was wasted as I found when I tried to take a break on a small plastic stool and quickly determined that this was someone's "shop" with a tray of snacks and drinks tucked into a tiny space next to the stool.

We agreed it would be impossible to count the number of shops in this place. Many of them seemed to duplicate each other and I don't think I've ever seen so many watches, shoes, or shirts. Reza's mom is an excellent shopper who patiently examines each item she pulls from the rack before deciding on her bulk purchase. With 15 grandchildren, she has a lot of shopping to do. Laurie was also working from a list of gifts to take back. She's done a fine job of that too, only limited by our luggage space and the 23 kilo per bag (and 2 bags per person) limit we are held to.

After hours of shopping in this complex place we met with Nana and Eko and all packed into Reza's van (Nana and Eko in the very back) to head for another great dinner. Parking is a limiting factor and much creativity is needed to solve it. Reza is a master at this and we arrived in fine style.

Out on the town for our last night in Jakarta.

Reza presents another mathematical puzzle. No one got
the right answer.

Butterfly time in Bandung!

We've finally had a chance to visit Bandung, which we've heard much good about since Nana was in Stockton 12 years ago. Reza and Iin took us up there along with Reza's mom who is also visiting now. We stayed at Iin's Aunt Dia's house and were shown a great time including food, fun, family, friends and much more. This large city is 2 or 3 hours from Jakarta and over 1000 meters higher in elevation with more forgiving temperatures and traffic as we learned on this trip.

We arrived late afternoon yesterday and visited Dia's restuarant for another delicious Padang meal. We've only had delicious meals the entire nearly 5 weeks we've been in Indonesia now. Afterwards, we went over to the home we'd be staying at to unpack and rest before setting out to find a butterfly park there.

Family dining in Bandung

The butterfly park proved to be very difficult to find and by the time we got there a very hard rain had arrived too. The butterflies were smart enough to seek cover so we did too as we headed back on a new route over the mountain and found just how narrow a two lane road can be. In this case the road was also quite steep and the rain came down quite hard as we pressed on to find our way back home.

We had quite a memorable time including some backtracking but eventually got back to town and had a great meal at a roadside stand, one of thousands we've passed in our travels here. We feasted on bbq corn with special seasoning and several other dishes we've never had yet in spite of our efforts to eat our way through Indonesia! We also stopped at a great roadside fruit stand and loaded up with many tasty items for sharing and breakfast the next day. After a stop at Dia's home we went back to her old house where we were staying the night.

BBQ Corn street vendor style!

Iin shopping for fruit

Dinner at another great place to eat
(the English menu was hilarious--we made photos of every page)

I think I know this guy...

Today started early, at least for Dina and the others living at the house (don't remember everyone's names), who prepared and served a large and tasty breakfast before Dina headed off to cook again at Dia's restaurant.

Fabulous family breakfast of nasi goreng, mei goreng,
perkadel (Laurie's favorite!), ayam goreng, and much more

We headed out early to visit the nearby IBM building shaped as a sundial which is home of some great science exhibits and we enjoyed testing our skills and powers of deduction there.

Making water dance

Reza levitating

We next headed back for the butterfly park before the rains got there again and eventually re-discovered it. We had the place nearly to ourselves for hours. We enjoyed many species we've never seen and managed to even photograph a few. Don't know the names, though, and the people there didn't have any books or lists on species. We were also offered some plant cuttings. This outing was a first for everyone in our group so we were happy to give them the excuse to visit the park.

Butterfly garden view

Dia, Mama Reza, and Iin taking cuttings from the flowers.
They gave us hats to wear when we bought the tickets.

Two hats are better than one

A beautiful butterfly

Huge walking leaf insect!

Just emerged

Giant walking stick insect

A great day at the butterfly park!

We headed back on a different route and enjoyed a tasty meal downtown before going shopping in a large traditional marketplace where we made a few great purchases along with lots of "windowless" shopping and turning a few heads. Several more hours were spent running errands around town by "mobile" (auto) before we headed back to say goodbye for now.

Heading down to Jakarta traffic was heavy on the tollroad but we made it with some creative Indonesian style driving by Reza. Normal driving here includes many things that would shock and amaze US drivers like us. Trust me on that.

We got back into Jakarta around 7 and headed for one of the biggest malls in the city where Reza's brother was celebrating his birthday as well as that of his young son. We were welcomed into this family party and had an unforgettable time with three generations of the extended family. We stayed long enough to close out the mall which has to be a first for me and certainly made Nana proud even though she missed the party due to a 5 plus hour global video conference at her office. I don't miss things like that to say the least but I am beginning to think a little about work now that our trip is in the last few days.

Tomorrow we plan to have a slower day and spend time trying to pack our now bulging suitcases and determine how our trip to the airport will go the following day. There may be some last minute shopping or other surprises I suspect.

The household is nearly quiet now as I type this after the long day and hard driving we did. The TV is on and Reza's mom "watches" a program while resting on a mattress in the living room. It's been quite a day again...

Plan B today!

We spent some long hours today in Jakarta traffic with Nana driving, Iin paying tolls and navigating and Laurie and I "enjoying" the ride.

It was well worth it too as we joined a family wedding for Koko's wife Ayu's sister today. This friendly wedding was held at home & partially in the street & allowed us to meet family and friends, visit with Koko who was sick during our last visit, and enjoy more great Padang food.

When we headed home the plan was to pick up roast duck (Bebek) for everyone but traffic delays caused us to miss out as the place closed before we arrived. No worries, we drove on to another family favorite Padang spot where we were finally able to treat after Nana and Iin supervised the selection of dishes for each of us which were then wrapped in banana leaves and paper. We had another feast and struggled to finish the big portions.

We also got a good look at the large University of Indonesia where Obama recently spoke. This event is often mentioned when we tell people we are from America. The campus looks impressive and well appreciated with lots of students and others enjoying the many grounds we saw. This place looks worth further investigation "lien kali". I spotted a solar facility in front of one of the buildings too, one of the few times I'm seen solar panels here even though the conditions seem ideal for more.

We are sitting around now listening to the hard rain that has started again while we twitter about the day and wait for Eko to return from his off-shore weekend work project.

A good plan implemented today.

Note the large squid on my "plate" Yum!

A feathered friend

Caged owl at art gallery

We met this fellow (a barred eagle owl?) up close at an art gallery of all places yesterday. We were heading to Denpasar from Ubud and on to Jakarta. We picked a nice Bali Starling painting unexpectedly that will hopefully survive the rest of our travels as well as it did yesterday.

Unfortunately many of our bird encounters here have been in similar abstract form. One possible plan has us visiting a butterfly park tomorrow and maybe the botanical garden in Bogor again too?

Our new Bali Starling painting

Jakarta bound today

It's been a great time in Bali with lots of memories of the things we've seen and people we've met. There is lots more to see and do but it will have to be "lain kali" (another time) for that.

This morning was a quiet family holiday in Bali with the streets quiet and many fresh offerings on display. We enjoyed the chance to stroll about and take it in after packing up for our Lion flight back to Jakarta to spend more time with our Indonesian family before heading home on Thursday. Tomorrow we have a family wedding to go to there too. Tonight we also needed to root Manchester on for an important match that decides their position for the playoffs.

Our Bali/Jakarta flight was delayed slightly but we arrived to the very warm sight of Nana, Reza, and Iin all waiting to greet us. Our ride home was a happy one with lots of catching up from the last three weeks. We stopped briefly along the way at a mosque and then on to a roadside stand to pick several "ripe" durian for sampling during the game. The rain and thunder returned in full force while we bought several durian and it followed us home and appeared to linger directly overhead during dinner and the soccer match. Both dinner and the game were great and we'll take some credit for the easy time Manchester had with their hated Liverpool rivals!

Durian was a new experience too during as the smell of this large prickly fruit reminds some people of rotting garbage or onions. It was unusual to say the least but not too bad once you got past the smell.

Durian shopping on Jakarta street tonight

It's been quite a day again and it's good to be back among family. Tomorrow will be more of the same with a wedding included!

Quiet Bali Street

Mystery Plant in flower at Mata Hari

Bali Holiday offerings

More offerings

Enjoying the quiet scene in Ubud

Very quiet morning!

A Million Here, a Million There

Today I took out over two million from the ATM; tomorrow I will pay a hotel bill of over three million. Easy come, easy go. Not only is this an inexpensive country to travel in, but the exchange rate is a phenomenal 9000 rupiah to 1 dollar. It's easy to get lost in all those zeros so, like Indonesian people, we learn the bills by color. The red bills are the largest denomination: 100,000 rupiah, or about 10 dollars. It's fun to be a millionaire for the month. I'll miss all those zeros when we get home.

Counting out rupiahs to pay the hotel bill.

Retro Rides seen in Ubud too

Jakarta traffic comes from all directions

Back street traffic in Bali

Transportation is a top priority here and elsewhere in Indonesia. Japanese motor bikes are cheap and I've noticed many that are tricked out for speed or status including tuned exhausts, racing handle bars, decals and paint and some high tech shock absorber boosters for the rough roads driven. Most of the cars driven seem to be small Asian imports, minivans for commercial transport ("taxi"?) or small trucks.

The loads carried and creative uses of these vehicles is an amazing scene as is the way the all seem to merge at intersections and traffic congestion with seemingly minimal use of brakes and constant forward motion and passage through impossible tiny openings. Another creative use is providing instant to any tourist who happens by ("Taxi?" or "Transport?" are the two most common phrases heard on the street followed closely by "Not today? How about tomorrow?")

Hopping on & off a scooter is handy

Suzuki, Jeep, or Harley as the decal says? You decide

There are also some more unusual or "retro" rides seen cruising around or occupying prime parking spaces like these two...

Retro wheels seen in Ubud