Hello Family and Friends. This will probably be my last post of 2012. Tonight at about 8:30, my roommate Lynsey and I will get on our Turkish Airlines flight back to the states. (Well, our flight to Singapore, then Istanbul, then Chicago, and then we will part ways and I will catch another flight to Minneapolis.) With the time change factored in, I will be back just before midnight on the 16th.
I had meant to update a little about some of the other fun things I've done in the past couple months since going to Thailand: visiting the beautiful Thousand Islands for a weekend (which involved swimming, snorkeling, and seeing a monitor lizard) and going to Singapore a different weekend with our Singaporean friend Mildred. Singapore is fun, but ever so clean, modern, efficient, and sleek. Basically it's what would happen if Ikea was turned into a country. We went to the Botanical Gardens, Chinatown, saw the Merlion and hung out on a beatuiful beach in November on Santosa island. There was also a Thanksgiving buffet meal at a swanky hotel in Jakarta where the champagne flowed freely and fun was had by all. Good times. Well, there's you mini update anyway. I don't have the time or energy for a longer explanation. After crying my eyes out while watching CNN this morning, I am already feeling drained. It's useless to put it out of our minds entirely, but Lynsey and I are listening to the comforting sounds of Paul, John, George, and Ringo so that we can move on and think about other things.
Nevertheless, I would like to write a little bit about what it's actually like teaching in Jakarta. In a word, it's different. I realize now that when I signed up for this whole overseas teaching thing, I was rather naive about the fact that not only would the country be different, the student would be different, the culture would be different, but also the school itself and the school culture could be very different. When I student taught in Belgium, the school operated on Western educational principals which I was already familiar with and there wasn't much I needed to learn or transition to, other than learning the IB standards.
Bina Bangsa is quite different from the Western schools I have taught at. It uses the Singaporean method (albeit a little out of date, because they don't progress as much or as often as Singapore actually does) and now I actually know what that means. I can't say I'm always a big fan of the educational philosophies that underpin how the system works, but it is what it is and it's my job to learn and adapt to them. What I mean by that is, for instance, for the past couple of years I have been molding a philosophy of education in which I believe that hands-on experiences are important, projects and holistic learning are essential, tests are not so important compared to integration into the so-called "real-world." It's all on my educational website if you're really that interested in reading it. At this school (and in the Singaporean system to a degree) tests are all-important and competition is the key. So, as I say, it's very different.
We had parent-teacher conference yesterday. Almost every parent wants to know what rank their child is in the class. Quoi? I can't imagine an American parent ever asking that. American parents might want to know if their child is doing okay and developing okay compared to other children the same age, but never would they want to know what their child's "rank" in class is based on total percentage of grades. It was easy to deal with that question however: "I'm sorry, I don't rank the students." There, taken care of, and also true. Many of the parents - most, I would say - are true Tiger Moms and Dads. This is not a stereotype, it's just true. I had one parent say, "I'm not so concerned about grades so much as that my son is developing creativity and social skills," and my jaw about hit the floor because it's just a rare thing to hear expressed here. Wish all parents could be like her. I was shocked to hear another grandparent express concern that her grandson's English-language accent was lacking and that he sounded too much like an Indonesian person. Um, he is an Indonesian person. But I promised her nonetheless that I would listen to hear if there was anything amiss with his pronunciation. Anyway, the vast majority of parents are very nice people, very friendly to the teachers, but also demanding that their children's percentages just go up, up, up. A lot of the students have tuition teachers for extra classwork after school just for this reason. Unfortunately, time left for just being a kid is little.
Here's just a little bit more about what the students are like here in West Jakarta.
Here are some adjectives that describes the average student at my school: privileged, nannied, wealthy, Jakartan, 75-99% fluent in English, rotund, sheltered, Chinese-Indonesian, trilingual, motivated, interrupting-all-the-time, good natured, normal kids.
The first three (privileged, nannied, and wealthy) are due to the fact that it's a private school. The wealthy Chinese-Indonesian business class of Jakarta (which is about 99% of our demographics) like to spend their money and don't blink an eye at expenses. Almost every single student has a nanny who takes care of them at home and a driver to bring them to school. Some families have a driver for each child! (It's an odd role reversal that it's the teachers who take the school buses to work and the students who arrive in cars.) Unfortunately however, the influence of having nannies can bring about some negative consequences for the kids (at least in my opinion.) First of all, nannies tend to replace parents without actually acting in a parenting role. Some parents don't live at home (some are even on different islands or in different countries) and some don't interact much with their children. For example, a friend of mine had to pull aside a student to address a behavior problem one day. Asking about home life, she asked the girl if she saw her parents everyday, to which she nodded. When asked if she talks to her parents everyday, the poor girl burst into tears. I don't know how common this sort of parent-child relationship is, because I'm sure it doesn't describe all the families at our school, but it is a reality for many kids.
The nannies also tend to baby the kids, because that's what they're paid to do. A friend who coaches the after-school swimming activity walked into the girls' dressing room one day to tell a girl she needed to hurry up because her older sister was waiting for her. The reason it was taking so long? The nanny was dressing the girl - who was a 4th grader! Apparently nannies also used to literally spoon feed students at recess and lunch up until 3rd grade, and put the students' backpacks on the lifts so that they could pick them up on whatever floor they were going to. Both of the last two practices are now gone, although I frequently have to stop my P5 kids (P5 = 5th grade, P4 = 4th grade, etc. P stands for "Primary,") from putting their bags in the lift. They claim the bags are too heavy. I give them two options. Take some things out so it's not so heavy, or just deal with it and carry your heavy bag downstairs.
Many of the students are also sheltered. They go on vacation, but they tend to go to resorts and play their iPads, not go mingle and explore. They have trouble relating to real-life adventures. (Sad, really...) I also say rotund, although that applies to maybe 1/3 or 1/2 of the students. It's not their fault obviously. The most popular foods are fried noodles, rice, and chicken. I rarely see students eating fruit or veg at lunch or recess time. In fact, my P4 students looked completely disgusted one day when they saw me eating a carrot, raw of all horrors! Vegetables are always fried or cooked.
Now, to talk about their good qualities, they are generally a very motivated bunch. They want to do well in school. I can say that pretty much across the board about all of my students. Part of it is that they have pressure from parents, but there is also a culture of wanting to do well. And the fact that almost all of them can speak English, Chinese, and Indonesian is very impressive (granted to varying abilites.) They are also very sweet kids, generally speaking. They like their teachers and respect them. If their behaviour is out of line they will usually change it when told why. I have mischievous kids, and demanding kids, but I don't have any that deliberately try to sabotage class activities or be destructive.
Where I struggle with my students is in getting them to wait their turns, or using imagination and critical thinking. The fact that they receive constant one-on-one attention from their nannies at home means they often (scratch that - regularly) fail to understand that there are many of them and only one of me, and I most likely cannot help them the instant they want it. Female teachers are addressed as "Miss" and male teachers are addressed as "Sir." (I go by Ms. Danna here, like in Belgium.) If I've given the students something to do, at about that time when the majority are finishing the task, it's a barrage of "Miss!" "Miss!" "Miss!" "Miss!" "Miss!" and they will shove papers in my face, demanding that I check their work that instant. Of course I tell them to back off and wait their turn, but it took me a while to come up with the slogan that I plan on repeating until they understand: "I hear you. Wait your turn." They are bad interrupters too. Again, they want instant attention. I had to lecture my P5s the other day that unless it's a true emergency - unless they are bleeding profusely - they must wait because I will probably be done saying whatever I am saying in a few moments. I try to thank people for raising their hands too. Again, I don't necessarily blame the students. They are used to having the instant attention. I just need to make it very clear that they must wait their turns and why.
That's about it for the students. I have relatively small classes. My P4 Science class is 15 students, P4 English is 24 students, and P5 English is 23. (That last one is also my form class, or homeroom.) It wasn't hard to learn names because out of all those students I mentioned above, only one has a Chinese name, the rest have Western names, although sometimes with surprising pronunciation of familiar names.
There's a lot more I could write about. The fact that we have Heads of Department, who must clear everything. (Aaah!! Micromanagement!) and also level representatives. I am the level rep for P4 Science so I write the tests and at least two worksheets per unit for all four P4 classes. As I say, it's just very different. Everything from the fact that we have no permanent classrooms and move to the different classes while the students stay put, to the way tests and report cards are done. Not to mention, beyond the mechanics of how the school day unfolds, the cultural basis behind what is done and why. Which, if you want to know about that, is better done in a conversation than a blog post.
That's it for now. I may - may - write more if I am stuck on a long layover with wifi access. Hopefully that will not be the case in Istanbul however, because of the chance to take a free tour of the city via Turkish Airlines that Lynsey and I will definitely check out. I sure hope that works out! I want to see the Hagia Sophia!
Well, I'll be home in something between 24 and 48 hours! Can't wait to spend Christmas with my family and friends. And see snow on the ground and wrap up in sweater! I miss that here in Indonesia. There is no sense of "coziness" that you get with a proper winter. But soon enough I'll be back in Minnesota and there will be lots of coziness I hope. It's been an incredible 6 months. Here's to the end of an interesting, eventful year!
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Sunday, November 25, 2012
A WEEK IN THAILAND, PART TWO: CHIANG MAI
On to part two of the Thailand adventure. We were on the night train, watching the country pass by and wondering when exactly we would arrive in Chiang Mai. Because of how the rail system is set up, at times we had to stop for a long time while another train passed us by, so that in the end we got there a few hours late. When we did get to the Chiang Mai train station we took one of the pickup truck taxis, called a songthaew, to our hostel. The songthaews have benches in the truck-beds with tall roofs over them, so that about 8 people can fit into one.
Our hostel was really nice. It was called Dozy House, and was in the northern part of the old city. Chiang Mai is built within four very old walls. As I read when I visited the city's museum, the city was apparently born on a Thursday at 4 AM, thousands of years ago, and its head is at its northern wall and its feet are at its southern wall. Culture and history are everywhere in this city.
On our first day, after checking in, we got a car (and a driver) from Dozy House to bring us to the famous Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. (Wat means temple.) It's located partway up a mountain and is one of the most famous temples in Chiang Mai. And there are a lot - there must be at least a dozen in the city, perhaps more. To get to this one, you began with a long climb up a brick staircase, flanked on either side by ornate, tiled dragon statues / railings. At the top, the procedure was the same as it is for any temple: shoes off, sarongs on. I really enjoyed this particular temple because of its great sense of peace, quiet, and spirit. Everyone was respectful and didn't talk above a low voice; no one was running around, just circling around the chedi, paying their respects. You could visit one of the monks if you wanted to receive a blessing, or walk three times around the chedi (the central dome-like structure) to pray, pay your respects, and light a candle. Or you could just walk around and look and soak in the atmosphere, but anyway you went about it, it felt like a spiritual experience. I think the mountain setting added to this.
That night we got a nice dinner at a restaurant close to Dozy House and went to check out the night bazaar on the other side of town. Chiang Mai is small enough that you can easily learn the streets with a little wandering and map-checking - it was easy to find and we didn't even have to take a tuk-tuk there. At the night bazaar we saw some traditional dances on a stage in a central plaza area and then spent the rest of our time looking around at the hundreds of stalls in the open spaces of the bazaar and all up and down the streets. A lot of the goods there are tourist-oriented: lamps, decorations, pants, skirts, dresses, candle holders, etc. I think - or at least I would like to think - that all the goods are local though. Probably made either by the sellers themselves or someone they know personally, at least in the case of the decorations and other handmade items. We didn't buy much of anything that night but resolved to go back again at the end of our time in Chiang Mai.
That night I had to make a very difficult decision. We were planning on going on a three day, two night trek in the hilly areas outside of Chiang Mai, and were leaving the next morning. We had arranged it ahead of time and would be with a couple of guides and stay in tribal villages or houses at night. Up until that night I had still been planning to go, despite not feeling very well, to be honest. I thought I might just push myself because I definitely didn't want to miss out on the experience of hiking in the wilderness in Thailand. But that night as we went around the night market and I felt exhausted and slightly feverish, my eyes getting puffy and tired, I knew that I couldn't go. If there had maybe been an option to leave and drive back to Chiang Mai as soon as I started to feel unwell, I might have pushed myself and attempted the trek. But we were going into the wilds where the only way out would have been a helicopter and I just couldn't put myself and the others at that sort of risk. So... I decided not to go and hang out in Chiang Mai instead. The next morning was difficult, because I was obviously very upset not to be going, but I stuck by what I knew was right. I wished my friends good-bye and then set off on my own exploration of the city.
That day, Tuesday, I took it pretty easy. My stomach still felt very uncomfortable, so I stuck to rice, vegetables, and peanut butter toast. My accomplishments for the day were going to the museum in the center of town and getting a massage. On Wednesday, I went on an excursion I had signed up for the day before. I figured if I couldn't make it for a three day hike, maybe I could manage a one-day trek. This trek included almost everything my friends were also doing: elephant-ride, hike to waterfalls, and river rafting, but done by 6 PM.
For the trek, I was picked up in the morning by the tour company in a songthaew. I was the last one to join, the others in the group being three Germans and four Chinese tourists. We first visited an orchid farm, which was fairly interesting. Then we continued to drive out of Chiang Mai towards the Mae Rim river. The very lush, green scenery was beautiful and I enjoyed seeing it pass by from out the back of the songthaew.
The next stop was the elephant trek, which lasted for about an hour, or maybe a little less. I shared an elephant with one of the German girls, Susanna, and we fed the elephant mini bananas as we hiked along. Awesome as it was to ride an elephant in the first place, ambling along, seeing the countryside from the hightened perspective of the elephant was perhaps just as cool. We ended near the river and zipped across it in something that resembled a metal elevator box sliding along a cable.
We stopped for a lunch of pad thai (I have come to learn that a small parcel wrapped in banana leaves = food inside) and continued on to our trek. We walked for 50 minutes along a beautiful path next to a river until we arrived at a spectacular waterfall that seemed to suddenly come out of nowhere. Waded and splashed and sat around for a while. I tried to edge up as close as I could to the waterfall without getting completely drenched (not that that would have been so bad!)
The last event of the day was rafting - first in rubber rafts, then sitting on a bamboo raft - down the Mae Tang. Being on the water was amazing and it was such a beautiful day and place to be that I got a real sense of peace out of drifting along the river. I tried to soak it in, so I could remember it when I got back to the urban jungle of Jakarta. I was really happy I opted for the one-day excursion and still got to experience some nature. (And it only cost 1000 baht, or about 30 dollars, for the whole thing!)
That night, having finally regained my appetite, I ate at a small mom-and-pop type restaurant and had some wonderful pork curry dish. Just as I was about to leave, however, the rain started to come down with lots of gusto and I was effectively stranded. I asked the woman if I could stay and maybe watch the TV that was playing in the back of the restaurant. And when I say "asked" I really mean gestured, because she didn't speak any English and I don't know any Thai. The rain continued and I watched a ridiculous sitcom, full of silly antics and over-the-top gags and sound effects, which I thoroughly enjoyed. There were some portraits hanging on the wall and I managed to ask the woman who was in the pictures. She got out her English-Thai dictionary, and even though we couldn't say anything to each other, we had a very pleasant conversation about her daughter and granddaughter who were in the pictures. When the rain finally let up and I left, I felt very happy (and somewhat warm and fuzzy inside) to have made the acquantaince of such a nice, old Thai grandmother.
One the third day of my solo stay in Chiang Mai I headed to a local market in the morning. The zipper on my back had broken off while zipped up. I asked the owner at Dozy House where I could go to buy another one and she gave me directions and let me rent a bike from the hostel. Biking was a lot of fun. I remembered to keep to the left side of the road, and using what I've observed of road rules in Indonesia and Thailand, successfully managed to get myself outside the old city walls and to the big, sprawling local market. It was really local: the number of white people dropped dramatically - saw maybe four or five other white people there in a the span of a couple hours. I shopped around for a new bag (eventually settled on a small backpack, and bargained for my price of course) but when I went to buy it, I had to explain to the lady that I needed a scissors or knife or something to cut open my other bag so I could get my money out. Instead of giving me any scissors, she sent me along to a small corridor behind some shops to where there were couple of people randomly working at sewing machines. A man fixed the zipper for me, and then sent me along to another woman at a sewing machine to patch up the new zipper and secure the whole thing. She asked for 10 baht (about 30 cents) and I tried to pay the other man too, but he wouldn't take anything. Silly me with my Western materialistic mentality - why buy another bag when you could just fix the zipper? So now I have a small backpack and my old bag (which I'm still using.) I wandered around after that and explored the market.
For lunch I went to a tiny food court upstairs where nothing was in English. (Good sign I figure.) I saw one couple there who looked like expats who seemed to know what they were doing. When I went to ask them for their advice on ordering food, they invited me to sit down. The woman was originally from Thailand and the man was Australian; they live in Australia but visit Thailand every year. Before I even realized it happened, they ordered a meal for me and we chit-chatted for quite a while. The food was tasty and it was very rewarding to have such a nice, impromptu meeting with the couple. They even invited me to stay with them if I ever found myself in Australia. (And I just might!)
I spent the rest of my afternoon temple-hopping on the bicycle, by this point feeling pretty comfortable navigating anywhere in the small city. In the evening I returned to Dozy House where the owner told me my friends had gotten back. I met up with them at the night bazaar and we spent more time perusing the stalls and eating at the food court. The highlight of the night was the very glitzy cabaret show with Thai men in drag. It was so campy, I loved it! At the end of the show they invited people up on stage to dance and I decided to jump up there and give it a go. Dancing on stage at a cabaret drag show in Thailand? Check! The second highlight was bargaining and purchasing for very cheap at the midnight rate, a sturdy, proper backpacking backpack. I can't remember the exact price now (grrr!) but it was less than $100. I think I got it for about $50-60, which is absolutely ridiculous.
On our last day in Chiang Mai I went to a museum out of town (a sad, somewhat surreal, mostly empty-of-people museum that looked like it hadn't been touched since the 70's) while my friends visited the temples I had seen the day before. We ended our stay by taking a Thai cooking class and made some awesome food and met some other travelers: two British guys, two Chinese women, and an American couple from Texas.
We left for Bangkok by the night bus, having decided that the train was too unreliable. Of course, the bus was also more than an hour late in arriving. After traversing the country during the wee hours of the night and waking up early to some loud Thai pop music on the stereo system, we arrived in the industrial part of Bangkok and got a taxi to the airport.
And such was our whirlwind, but thoroughly incredible, adventure in Thailand. I'm only sorry I took so long to write about it. If anyone reading this ever finds themselves in that country, go to Chiang Mai. I don't image anyone could regret visiting there.
Our hostel was really nice. It was called Dozy House, and was in the northern part of the old city. Chiang Mai is built within four very old walls. As I read when I visited the city's museum, the city was apparently born on a Thursday at 4 AM, thousands of years ago, and its head is at its northern wall and its feet are at its southern wall. Culture and history are everywhere in this city.
On our first day, after checking in, we got a car (and a driver) from Dozy House to bring us to the famous Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. (Wat means temple.) It's located partway up a mountain and is one of the most famous temples in Chiang Mai. And there are a lot - there must be at least a dozen in the city, perhaps more. To get to this one, you began with a long climb up a brick staircase, flanked on either side by ornate, tiled dragon statues / railings. At the top, the procedure was the same as it is for any temple: shoes off, sarongs on. I really enjoyed this particular temple because of its great sense of peace, quiet, and spirit. Everyone was respectful and didn't talk above a low voice; no one was running around, just circling around the chedi, paying their respects. You could visit one of the monks if you wanted to receive a blessing, or walk three times around the chedi (the central dome-like structure) to pray, pay your respects, and light a candle. Or you could just walk around and look and soak in the atmosphere, but anyway you went about it, it felt like a spiritual experience. I think the mountain setting added to this.That night we got a nice dinner at a restaurant close to Dozy House and went to check out the night bazaar on the other side of town. Chiang Mai is small enough that you can easily learn the streets with a little wandering and map-checking - it was easy to find and we didn't even have to take a tuk-tuk there. At the night bazaar we saw some traditional dances on a stage in a central plaza area and then spent the rest of our time looking around at the hundreds of stalls in the open spaces of the bazaar and all up and down the streets. A lot of the goods there are tourist-oriented: lamps, decorations, pants, skirts, dresses, candle holders, etc. I think - or at least I would like to think - that all the goods are local though. Probably made either by the sellers themselves or someone they know personally, at least in the case of the decorations and other handmade items. We didn't buy much of anything that night but resolved to go back again at the end of our time in Chiang Mai.
That night I had to make a very difficult decision. We were planning on going on a three day, two night trek in the hilly areas outside of Chiang Mai, and were leaving the next morning. We had arranged it ahead of time and would be with a couple of guides and stay in tribal villages or houses at night. Up until that night I had still been planning to go, despite not feeling very well, to be honest. I thought I might just push myself because I definitely didn't want to miss out on the experience of hiking in the wilderness in Thailand. But that night as we went around the night market and I felt exhausted and slightly feverish, my eyes getting puffy and tired, I knew that I couldn't go. If there had maybe been an option to leave and drive back to Chiang Mai as soon as I started to feel unwell, I might have pushed myself and attempted the trek. But we were going into the wilds where the only way out would have been a helicopter and I just couldn't put myself and the others at that sort of risk. So... I decided not to go and hang out in Chiang Mai instead. The next morning was difficult, because I was obviously very upset not to be going, but I stuck by what I knew was right. I wished my friends good-bye and then set off on my own exploration of the city.
That day, Tuesday, I took it pretty easy. My stomach still felt very uncomfortable, so I stuck to rice, vegetables, and peanut butter toast. My accomplishments for the day were going to the museum in the center of town and getting a massage. On Wednesday, I went on an excursion I had signed up for the day before. I figured if I couldn't make it for a three day hike, maybe I could manage a one-day trek. This trek included almost everything my friends were also doing: elephant-ride, hike to waterfalls, and river rafting, but done by 6 PM.
We stopped for a lunch of pad thai (I have come to learn that a small parcel wrapped in banana leaves = food inside) and continued on to our trek. We walked for 50 minutes along a beautiful path next to a river until we arrived at a spectacular waterfall that seemed to suddenly come out of nowhere. Waded and splashed and sat around for a while. I tried to edge up as close as I could to the waterfall without getting completely drenched (not that that would have been so bad!)
The last event of the day was rafting - first in rubber rafts, then sitting on a bamboo raft - down the Mae Tang. Being on the water was amazing and it was such a beautiful day and place to be that I got a real sense of peace out of drifting along the river. I tried to soak it in, so I could remember it when I got back to the urban jungle of Jakarta. I was really happy I opted for the one-day excursion and still got to experience some nature. (And it only cost 1000 baht, or about 30 dollars, for the whole thing!)
That night, having finally regained my appetite, I ate at a small mom-and-pop type restaurant and had some wonderful pork curry dish. Just as I was about to leave, however, the rain started to come down with lots of gusto and I was effectively stranded. I asked the woman if I could stay and maybe watch the TV that was playing in the back of the restaurant. And when I say "asked" I really mean gestured, because she didn't speak any English and I don't know any Thai. The rain continued and I watched a ridiculous sitcom, full of silly antics and over-the-top gags and sound effects, which I thoroughly enjoyed. There were some portraits hanging on the wall and I managed to ask the woman who was in the pictures. She got out her English-Thai dictionary, and even though we couldn't say anything to each other, we had a very pleasant conversation about her daughter and granddaughter who were in the pictures. When the rain finally let up and I left, I felt very happy (and somewhat warm and fuzzy inside) to have made the acquantaince of such a nice, old Thai grandmother.
One the third day of my solo stay in Chiang Mai I headed to a local market in the morning. The zipper on my back had broken off while zipped up. I asked the owner at Dozy House where I could go to buy another one and she gave me directions and let me rent a bike from the hostel. Biking was a lot of fun. I remembered to keep to the left side of the road, and using what I've observed of road rules in Indonesia and Thailand, successfully managed to get myself outside the old city walls and to the big, sprawling local market. It was really local: the number of white people dropped dramatically - saw maybe four or five other white people there in a the span of a couple hours. I shopped around for a new bag (eventually settled on a small backpack, and bargained for my price of course) but when I went to buy it, I had to explain to the lady that I needed a scissors or knife or something to cut open my other bag so I could get my money out. Instead of giving me any scissors, she sent me along to a small corridor behind some shops to where there were couple of people randomly working at sewing machines. A man fixed the zipper for me, and then sent me along to another woman at a sewing machine to patch up the new zipper and secure the whole thing. She asked for 10 baht (about 30 cents) and I tried to pay the other man too, but he wouldn't take anything. Silly me with my Western materialistic mentality - why buy another bag when you could just fix the zipper? So now I have a small backpack and my old bag (which I'm still using.) I wandered around after that and explored the market.
For lunch I went to a tiny food court upstairs where nothing was in English. (Good sign I figure.) I saw one couple there who looked like expats who seemed to know what they were doing. When I went to ask them for their advice on ordering food, they invited me to sit down. The woman was originally from Thailand and the man was Australian; they live in Australia but visit Thailand every year. Before I even realized it happened, they ordered a meal for me and we chit-chatted for quite a while. The food was tasty and it was very rewarding to have such a nice, impromptu meeting with the couple. They even invited me to stay with them if I ever found myself in Australia. (And I just might!)
On our last day in Chiang Mai I went to a museum out of town (a sad, somewhat surreal, mostly empty-of-people museum that looked like it hadn't been touched since the 70's) while my friends visited the temples I had seen the day before. We ended our stay by taking a Thai cooking class and made some awesome food and met some other travelers: two British guys, two Chinese women, and an American couple from Texas.
We left for Bangkok by the night bus, having decided that the train was too unreliable. Of course, the bus was also more than an hour late in arriving. After traversing the country during the wee hours of the night and waking up early to some loud Thai pop music on the stereo system, we arrived in the industrial part of Bangkok and got a taxi to the airport.And such was our whirlwind, but thoroughly incredible, adventure in Thailand. I'm only sorry I took so long to write about it. If anyone reading this ever finds themselves in that country, go to Chiang Mai. I don't image anyone could regret visiting there.
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
A WEEK IN THAILAND, PART I: BANGKOK
Sorry for the long dry spelling in blogging. No posts in September! (It's just too easy to put it off when you are busy or tired, which, with a job, I am most days.) Today's my last day to get a post in for October. By the way, Happy Halloween! No celebrations over here, and there was only a minimal mention of it in school. I hope Mom and Dad are enjoying Halloween in the new neighborhood though. Now, on to the main topic of this blog post, our one week trip to Thailand about a month ago.
This trip took place during out last long break, between Terms 1 and 2. One week is too long to just hang around Jakarta, and it seemed like a good chance to go see another country. So... Thailand it was! Lynsey, Nicole, Kristina, and I flew together to Bangkok on September 29th and flew back to Jakarta on the following Saturday, October 6th. We spent a day and a half in Bangkok and five in Chiang Mai in the north before returning to Bangkok.
In Bangkok we stayed at a rather cute hostel that was also a coffee shop out front. Had some trouble getting there though. After taking the express train from the airport into the city, we ended up at some intersection of roads and bridges and had trouble hailing taxis. The ones we did manage to call over all refused to turn on their meters, so we refused to get in. After several failed attempts - even with the help of a very nice lady who wrote down directions to our hostel in Thai writing, and then talked to the taxi drivers on our behalf, all while balancing a baby on her hip - we gave up on the idea of getting a taxi and pulled over one of the city's famous tuk-tuks. And so all four of us and our luggage squeezed into one tuk-tuk. And squeezed really is the right word (a bit like sardines, only cozier.) The view of Bangkok from the little motorized taxi was pretty awesome, and it seemed like the quintessential way to get to our hostel.
That first night we went to the train station to buy train tickets to Chaing Mai, our next destination, and then our tuk-tuk driver (we had given up on taxis at this point and didn't take one all week in Thailand, except at the very end of our trip to get back to the airport) took us to some boat tour company he was in league with. After bartering down a one hour trip to a more reasonable cost, we got a tour of the some of the buildings and temples along the river. It was a nice tour, but they shorted us for time. When we demanded we get the full hour tour instead of just 45 minutes, the boat driver just pulled out into the river and idled there. (Grumble, grumble, what a jerk!) After that, we wandered around the streets, taking in new surroundings and looking for the fabled Khao San Road.
Khao San Road is (to steal a line I read somewhere) a backpacker's Mecca. Instantly I knew we had wandered into some
weird twilight dimension filled with surreal characters and places. It’s hard
to explain the exact ambience, but I’ll try. One of the first people I spotted
was an wandering, heads-in-the-clouds white hippie woman (quite possibly under
the influence of drugs or simply eccentric) walking around in the middle of the
road in her earth-tone clothes, no shoes on her feet. She met up with an equally
spacey white hippie man. The characters in Khao San road are all interesting. A
mixture of races, a lot of white 20-somethings with big "Aladdin-style" pants – the
essential clothing for wanderlustful travelers on their Grand-Asian-Tours – and
big backpacks with weeks’, maybe months’, worth of gear. I saw a man with crazy
gelled hair that stood up like flames, and a man with dreadlocks down to his
knees (I kid you not.) Aladdin pants, paintings, all manner of colourful sourvenirs, and foot massages were all
for sale in the road. Once night came, the carts with the bizarre,
stomach-flipping insects came out – 30 baht for a small sample, 10 baht for a
photo. There were also locals, hawkers, and a number of families there, even families with small kids. Khao San road is the sort of place where
people watching isn't just recommended, it’s almost required, and almost
impossible to avoid.
I went home early because I was
exhausted (and, according to my friends, looked absolutely terrible.) Turns out
going on vacation is not the best way to recover from illness. (Oh yes, I had been sick the week before vacation. Almost thought I wasn't going to make it.) The next day it
was a tight schedule of temple seeing. We wandered around with the map, visited
a smaller temple first, then found out we were right across from the Grand
Palace. The Grand Palace wasn’t just, it was absolutely spectacular. After
waiting our turn with everyone else in the Foreigners queue, we came out on the
breathtaking Temple ground. To look around the place, one of the best
descriptors I can give is this: gold; lots and lots of shiny gold. Gold plated
almost every structure in one way or another. Some of the temple roofs and ornaments
seemed to be made out of solid gold plating. I have never seen such sunlit
gildedness in my life. The buildings themselves were also beautiful: grand and
imposing Thai architecture, replete with awesome mythical statues that
prompted tons of picture taking.
Next, was the temple of the Reclining Buddha (aka: Wat Pho.) We took off our shoes before going inside, as you do at any temple, and Lynsey and Nicole had to don lime green robes because apparently their shorts were just too short. (And by too short, I mean anything above the knees.) The Buddha is huge (according to Wikipedia, 43 meters long, because I certainly can’t estimate things like that,) lying on his side and looking leisurely, like the name claims. The toes are spirals made of mother-of-pearl and his feet show some sort of history, also illustrated in mother-of-pearl. A very awesome sight. I was really looking forward to seeing it, so I'm glad we got there. (Also, there was a funny sign outside the temple that said: “Ladies, don’t touch the monks.” Duly noted. That will go in my collection of peculiar signs.)
The rest of the day was spent wandering and somehow we ended up back at our hostel. The sidewalks in Bangkok are actually decent enough to walk on, unlike Jakarta. After having a long, leisurely lunch at a restaurant across the street, we finished packing up and headed to the station to wait for our train. (At this point in time I was struggling to enjoy Thai food, which I really enjoy, but because of my recent illness I was eating even slower than usual because a lot of foods made me feel nauseous. It was rather tragic, but fortunately I finally felt better before the trip was done.)
We left Bangkok that night by the
night train. Again, lots of 20-something Europeans suddenly seemed everywhere.
I felt like I had something in common with those people – a common cultural
background, at least in a broad sense, and probably common knowledge of English
– but I also felt the differences between us, we being expats on a week-long
vacation, most of them on long tours, after which they would go back to France,
England, Germany, etc. Still, there’s something oddly comforting about seeing
people who look like you in a strange place.
The sleeper cars were modest but comfortable. I slept well and enjoyed seeing the scenery the next morning as we made our way north across Thailand. The night before we made our way between rickety, questionable-looking passages between the cars to get to the dining car. It was neat to look around at all the other travelers enjoying their Singha beers and having a good time. I tried to soak up the atmosphere as much as I could. I'm very happy we took the night train; it was a good experience.
More to follow. That's only the first two days! The rest of our time was spent in the northern city of Chiang Mai, which was even better than Bangkok in my opinion.
This trip took place during out last long break, between Terms 1 and 2. One week is too long to just hang around Jakarta, and it seemed like a good chance to go see another country. So... Thailand it was! Lynsey, Nicole, Kristina, and I flew together to Bangkok on September 29th and flew back to Jakarta on the following Saturday, October 6th. We spent a day and a half in Bangkok and five in Chiang Mai in the north before returning to Bangkok.
In Bangkok we stayed at a rather cute hostel that was also a coffee shop out front. Had some trouble getting there though. After taking the express train from the airport into the city, we ended up at some intersection of roads and bridges and had trouble hailing taxis. The ones we did manage to call over all refused to turn on their meters, so we refused to get in. After several failed attempts - even with the help of a very nice lady who wrote down directions to our hostel in Thai writing, and then talked to the taxi drivers on our behalf, all while balancing a baby on her hip - we gave up on the idea of getting a taxi and pulled over one of the city's famous tuk-tuks. And so all four of us and our luggage squeezed into one tuk-tuk. And squeezed really is the right word (a bit like sardines, only cozier.) The view of Bangkok from the little motorized taxi was pretty awesome, and it seemed like the quintessential way to get to our hostel.
That first night we went to the train station to buy train tickets to Chaing Mai, our next destination, and then our tuk-tuk driver (we had given up on taxis at this point and didn't take one all week in Thailand, except at the very end of our trip to get back to the airport) took us to some boat tour company he was in league with. After bartering down a one hour trip to a more reasonable cost, we got a tour of the some of the buildings and temples along the river. It was a nice tour, but they shorted us for time. When we demanded we get the full hour tour instead of just 45 minutes, the boat driver just pulled out into the river and idled there. (Grumble, grumble, what a jerk!) After that, we wandered around the streets, taking in new surroundings and looking for the fabled Khao San Road.
Khao San Road is (to steal a line I read somewhere) a backpacker's Mecca. Instantly I knew we had wandered into some
weird twilight dimension filled with surreal characters and places. It’s hard
to explain the exact ambience, but I’ll try. One of the first people I spotted
was an wandering, heads-in-the-clouds white hippie woman (quite possibly under
the influence of drugs or simply eccentric) walking around in the middle of the
road in her earth-tone clothes, no shoes on her feet. She met up with an equally
spacey white hippie man. The characters in Khao San road are all interesting. A
mixture of races, a lot of white 20-somethings with big "Aladdin-style" pants – the
essential clothing for wanderlustful travelers on their Grand-Asian-Tours – and
big backpacks with weeks’, maybe months’, worth of gear. I saw a man with crazy
gelled hair that stood up like flames, and a man with dreadlocks down to his
knees (I kid you not.) Aladdin pants, paintings, all manner of colourful sourvenirs, and foot massages were all
for sale in the road. Once night came, the carts with the bizarre,
stomach-flipping insects came out – 30 baht for a small sample, 10 baht for a
photo. There were also locals, hawkers, and a number of families there, even families with small kids. Khao San road is the sort of place where
people watching isn't just recommended, it’s almost required, and almost
impossible to avoid.
I went home early because I was
exhausted (and, according to my friends, looked absolutely terrible.) Turns out
going on vacation is not the best way to recover from illness. (Oh yes, I had been sick the week before vacation. Almost thought I wasn't going to make it.) The next day it
was a tight schedule of temple seeing. We wandered around with the map, visited
a smaller temple first, then found out we were right across from the Grand
Palace. The Grand Palace wasn’t just, it was absolutely spectacular. After
waiting our turn with everyone else in the Foreigners queue, we came out on the
breathtaking Temple ground. To look around the place, one of the best
descriptors I can give is this: gold; lots and lots of shiny gold. Gold plated
almost every structure in one way or another. Some of the temple roofs and ornaments
seemed to be made out of solid gold plating. I have never seen such sunlit
gildedness in my life. The buildings themselves were also beautiful: grand and
imposing Thai architecture, replete with awesome mythical statues that
prompted tons of picture taking. Next, was the temple of the Reclining Buddha (aka: Wat Pho.) We took off our shoes before going inside, as you do at any temple, and Lynsey and Nicole had to don lime green robes because apparently their shorts were just too short. (And by too short, I mean anything above the knees.) The Buddha is huge (according to Wikipedia, 43 meters long, because I certainly can’t estimate things like that,) lying on his side and looking leisurely, like the name claims. The toes are spirals made of mother-of-pearl and his feet show some sort of history, also illustrated in mother-of-pearl. A very awesome sight. I was really looking forward to seeing it, so I'm glad we got there. (Also, there was a funny sign outside the temple that said: “Ladies, don’t touch the monks.” Duly noted. That will go in my collection of peculiar signs.)
The rest of the day was spent wandering and somehow we ended up back at our hostel. The sidewalks in Bangkok are actually decent enough to walk on, unlike Jakarta. After having a long, leisurely lunch at a restaurant across the street, we finished packing up and headed to the station to wait for our train. (At this point in time I was struggling to enjoy Thai food, which I really enjoy, but because of my recent illness I was eating even slower than usual because a lot of foods made me feel nauseous. It was rather tragic, but fortunately I finally felt better before the trip was done.)
We left Bangkok that night by the
night train. Again, lots of 20-something Europeans suddenly seemed everywhere.
I felt like I had something in common with those people – a common cultural
background, at least in a broad sense, and probably common knowledge of English
– but I also felt the differences between us, we being expats on a week-long
vacation, most of them on long tours, after which they would go back to France,
England, Germany, etc. Still, there’s something oddly comforting about seeing
people who look like you in a strange place. 
The sleeper cars were modest but comfortable. I slept well and enjoyed seeing the scenery the next morning as we made our way north across Thailand. The night before we made our way between rickety, questionable-looking passages between the cars to get to the dining car. It was neat to look around at all the other travelers enjoying their Singha beers and having a good time. I tried to soak up the atmosphere as much as I could. I'm very happy we took the night train; it was a good experience.More to follow. That's only the first two days! The rest of our time was spent in the northern city of Chiang Mai, which was even better than Bangkok in my opinion.
Friday, August 31, 2012
HOLIDAY IN BALI
Last Thursday we got back from an 8 day holiday in Bali, which was absolutely fantastic. Bina Bangsa gave us a two week (paid!) vacation for the Lebaran (aka: Idul Fitri, aka: Eid) holiday which follows the end of the Ramadan month. ("Selamat Hari Raya Idul Fitri 1433 H!" as banners everywhere proclaim. Guess it's kind of like seeing "Merry Christmas!" everywhere in December.) Anyway, a group of 11 new North American teachers made a plan to go to Bali during school orientation in June, and we all stayed at the same hotel in Seminyak, in the southern, more touristy part of Bali. The rooms were large, I guess they were actually suites, and (somehow) managed to squeeze all the girls into one and all the guys into another.
We did a lot of amazing things, and I will do my best to describe what we did in concise paragraphs. Okay, here goes...
Wednesday the 15th: We left Jakarta and flew to Bali on an Air Asia flight. Like other Asian airlines, the plane has seats in the emergency exit rows, which is a little worrying. No matter, we got there in a little more than an hour and took a taxi from Denpasar to Seminyak. Our hotel, Centra Taum (which was really lovely and I recommend it to anyone who might happen to find themselves in Bali) was located down a dirt road in what I can only imagine was formerly a rice paddy. Other rice paddies, hotels, and the occasional convenience store were also located along the same road. We headed down one of the main roads to find dinner that night.
Thursday: Spent and hour or two shopping at Seminyak square at the open air market. It's mostly gifts and clothing there. I bought a dress. We then went to the beach where we sunbathed and I boogie boarded (which was a lot of fun, even if I seemed to get knocked over by the waves half the time) and left only a little sunburned on my back. The beach was about a 20-25 minute walk from our hotel down that same street where we ate dinner the first night.
Friday: Woke up at 1 AM, three hours after I had gone to bed. Left the hotel at 1:30 to meet the vans hired the day before to take us to Gunung Batur, a voclano in northern Bali. One of the vans showed up on time, the other was still MIA at nearly 2 AM. When Nicole called the driver, I'm pretty sure he was still in bed. He got there at 2:30 and the second group to leave booked it over in the dead of night. As for our van (which left first) I was asleep half the time we drove, but I do remember passing through a really strange night market that was completely full of people.
We arrived at 4 AM and began the climb in the pitch dark and cold. At the time I wished I hadn't worn shorts and a T-shirt. As we got hiking, I started to sweat of course, but when we paused I was all the colder and clammier. Hiking in the dark was a little challenging because we had to hold flashlights as we went and all of your concentration was on your next step. Seeing as we were climbing a volcano, the path was mostly sand, gravel, and loose pumice-y stones - not very stable. I had chosen to wear my sports sandals, which maybe wasn't the best choice, as all the sand and rocks fell in and got trapped under my feet and didn't fall out again. We got to the summit at about sunrise, where we were treated to a spectacular view out over the ocean, another volcano, and fields stretching out to the horizon. As a bonus, we were also treated to the scene of tons of Indonesians gathered around big flags singing their national anthem at sunrise, because it just so happened to be Independence Day. I don't know much of the national anthem, but we sing it every Monday in school at assembly, so I know a couple of words in the chorus. It was an awesome sight to behold.
We hiked up a little further and took a break at the highest point on the volcano. Our guides (we were required to have two guides for our group of six) cooked us eggs in the steam escaping from vents in the side of the volcano and made banana sandwiches, served with your choice of coffee or tea. Although all 11 of us had met up at the summit, the other group started their descent before us. I certainly didn't mind taking in the view at the top and listening (now for the fifth or sixth time) to the national anthem sung again. Then we began our own descent. The next part was absolutely terrifying and amazing. We were literally walking on the very lip of the volcano, winding our way around to the other side. I felt (mostly) safe but my heart was pumping adrenaline because walking along the path that was only five or six inches wide in parts, and in other parts a foot wide but with absolutely nothing (and I do mean nothing) on either side except the long, steep, slope of the volcano, and the feeling that too strong a wind might just blow you over... well, I had a healthy amount of fear underneath my seemingly calm composure.
The way down was easier, not least of all because now we had light and didn't need flashlights. Sand and gravel were still filling my sandals every 5 seconds, and I did slip once on a particularly steep and loose part of the gravel path. Scratched up my right leg pretty badly. This wasn't a deep cut or anything, but a big, wide surface scratch, about the size of my hand, that took off a decent amount of skin and really, really smarted. At the time there was nothing but to put up with it. The next time we took a break I poured water and hand sanitizer on it (which really, really smarted.) Also got a cut on my left knee from a pumicey rock with a little sticking out bit, but that cut hurt far less.
By the time we were at the base again, we were all pretty tired. Waking up at 1 AM and climbing a volcano can do that do you. But we will always be able to say we climbed all of Mt. Batur, and got some absolutely wonderful views and photos out of it. I especially loved standing and walking on the very cusp of the volcano crater ridge. The mixture of amazement, fear, awe, and appreciation I felt is a bit beyond words. That night we had a dinner at our hotel and got to watch Balinese dance and listen to traditional gamelan music.
Saturday: Went to the trendier, more touristy town of Kuta (jam packed with Australians) to do a little shopping and each lunch. That night we went to a restaurant / bar / lounge called Potato Head, which was directly on the ocean and had it's own beach front. The place was recommended by one of our Singaporean friends who has been to Bali many times before. The place was (to use our group's new favourite adjective) very chill. We had had to make reservations two days beforehand but it was worth it. That night, a few of us went to a bar in Kuta and danced the night away. The place we went, Tavern bar, was very crowed, loud, bright, and noisy. It was a little weird seeing only Indonesians working there and only Australians and Westerners dancing and drinking , but I was a little too busy having fun to worry about it too much.
Sunday: Sunday... What did we do Sunday...? Must not have done anything very productive in the morning, but in the afternoon we went to a beach in the very southern peninsula of Bali. This beach was filled with beautiful, huge boulders, sea caves in the surrounding cliffs, and tons of tanned, near-anorexic, Europeans. Swam a little bit and had some lunch, and then we went to meet up with others in our group to go to the famous temple of Ulu Watu. We had meant to all go to the beach together, but travelling in a big group and needing to take at least two or three taxis meant that we often got separated. The group I was with met up with the others just as they were leaving the temple. We stayed and watched the sunset (which was very beautiful) and walked around the temple. I had imagined Ulu Watu to be this secluded, mysterious bit of spirituality tucked away up a mountain in a jungle, but I should have known better. Like most of Southern Bali, it was full of tourists. So much for my visions of the Mystic Orient and it's mystical temples. Actually, I'm sure those are out there, just not in Southern Bali.
Monday: Left for Ubud in the morning. Ubud is a town in central Bali (and it's also apparently featured in Eat, Pray, Love.) There were still many tourists there, but the town itself has a far less touristy feel than Seminyak or Kuta. We went to the Sacred Monkey Forest there, which was super cool. I'm not exactly sure how old everything there is. The whole place is lush and green and beautiful. We walked around some interesting statues and down a little river path before heading back to the main temple area. There was a Hindu religious ceremony going on, so you could peer in through the gates but not enter. (Obviously. You'd feel like a real jerk walking in on the equivalent of someone's Sunday church service or ceremony with a camera in hand, snapping away.) Macaque monkeys were everywhere, big and small, energetic and calm, eating, running around, and nursing babies. I got some really good photos, including a few of a couple of adult female macaques who came and chilled out by me, about two feet away! They were very calm, so I tried to stay very calm, and we were all very calm together.
On our way out, something unexpected happened. It really shouldn't have been unexpected though. I was crouched down on the ground taking a photo when a cheeky little toddler monkey seemed to suddenly and magnetically attach himself to the metal water bottle on the side of my backpack. My reaction, which I fully admit was a stupid one, was to whip around and grab the monkey, trying to pin him to my backpack so that he couldn't escape with my water bottle. If I had gotten bit I would have completely deserved it. Of course, he got away and started playing with my water bottle. I asked very politely for him to give it back, but he wouldn't. Then, also perhaps stupidly, I was taking a picture of this rascal, waiting for him to hopefully abandon the thing, when another, adult macaque came and took it. I have a photo of the baby monkey walking away from the water bottle and the next one is the adult turning it over with his hands and feet. I definitely wasn't about to fight this monkey, so I just waited. Fortunately one of the temple supervisors who deal with the monkeys every day distracted the culprit so that I got to take back my water. That's what I get for not zipping it up in my backpack.
After nearly fighting a monkey in the Monkey Forest, we walked around Ubud for a while, down some very beautiful streets, and then finished out day at the Elephant Cave nearby. This cave is apparently from the 11th century and looks like a giant demon head coming of out a hillside. You walk inside and there are a few alcoves with statues, include Ganesh, the Hindu god of education, as it is. The cave was worth it alone, but the surrounding area was also awesome. There were some absolutely beautiful paths that ran around hills and past boulders and waterfalls. I only got to explore part of it, but it really looked like something... I don't know... out of a National Geographic, on a postcard, but 20xs better. All in all, our day in Ubud was great.
Tuesday: Went with Lynsey, Eduardo, and Josh to try scuba diving for the first time! We traveled south to the beach area of Nusa Dua (which was also jam packed with tourists, but all Indonesians from other islands.) The driver got us a good deal so we only paid about $45 each. Our guide, a laid back guy whom I'm sure takes tourists out dozens of times a week, gave us the basics of how to breath underwater and what hand signals to use. Suited up in half-wetsuits and weight belts, we traveled a little ways out and stopped by where many other boats were parked. We got to do the compulsory flippers-over-head backward flop into the ocean and then our guide and his assistant helped us into the jackets with the oxygen tanks. They brought us down about 6 meters to an area with a metal fence around some coral. Apparently they bring all the newbie divers here. We stayed at the coral for the duration of the 25 minute dive and fed fish from bread in plastic bags they had given us before hand. Then it was back to the surface and back to shore. In a way it would have been nice to swim around a bit more, but I really didn't mind having a fairly mild dive seeing as it was my first time and I had no training other than a five minute session on how to breath and use hand signals.
Later that evening we went to the beach again for only a little bit, and threw ourselves in some waves. I imagine I ate dinner somewhere, but I really can't remember at the moment, so it must not have been that memorable.
Wednesday: Was completely lazy in the morning: read by the pool and then slept. Later, I went with two other friends for a massage (and was practically accosted by the overenthusiastic workers there.) Wasn't about to get a body massage with my back still sunburned, so I opted for a pedicure, which was a bit shocking (not to mention scary with all those weird metal tools they use to scrape and snip) seeing as I really don't like anyone touching my feet. But my feet did turn out much nicer looking in the end. Later still, I got a bit of time to myself to walk to the beach and write in my journal as the sun was going down, which was very peaceful.That evening a small group of us went back to Kuta to once again to get drinks and dance the night away. It was... shall we say, an eventful evening, full of lots of drink and dancing, and I even kissed an Australian surfer guy from Perth!
Thursday: We flew back to Jakarta. Our holiday was great. Already miss the relaxed atmosphere, clean air, beach, and mixture of adventure and laziness. We have another holiday coming up at the end of September, for one week. (That's the thing with year-round school - more frequent short breaks.) Right now a few friends are brainstorming ideas about going to Thailand or Vietnam, but there are no definite plans. Probably will do whatever is cheapest!
We did a lot of amazing things, and I will do my best to describe what we did in concise paragraphs. Okay, here goes...
Wednesday the 15th: We left Jakarta and flew to Bali on an Air Asia flight. Like other Asian airlines, the plane has seats in the emergency exit rows, which is a little worrying. No matter, we got there in a little more than an hour and took a taxi from Denpasar to Seminyak. Our hotel, Centra Taum (which was really lovely and I recommend it to anyone who might happen to find themselves in Bali) was located down a dirt road in what I can only imagine was formerly a rice paddy. Other rice paddies, hotels, and the occasional convenience store were also located along the same road. We headed down one of the main roads to find dinner that night.
Thursday: Spent and hour or two shopping at Seminyak square at the open air market. It's mostly gifts and clothing there. I bought a dress. We then went to the beach where we sunbathed and I boogie boarded (which was a lot of fun, even if I seemed to get knocked over by the waves half the time) and left only a little sunburned on my back. The beach was about a 20-25 minute walk from our hotel down that same street where we ate dinner the first night.
Friday: Woke up at 1 AM, three hours after I had gone to bed. Left the hotel at 1:30 to meet the vans hired the day before to take us to Gunung Batur, a voclano in northern Bali. One of the vans showed up on time, the other was still MIA at nearly 2 AM. When Nicole called the driver, I'm pretty sure he was still in bed. He got there at 2:30 and the second group to leave booked it over in the dead of night. As for our van (which left first) I was asleep half the time we drove, but I do remember passing through a really strange night market that was completely full of people.
We arrived at 4 AM and began the climb in the pitch dark and cold. At the time I wished I hadn't worn shorts and a T-shirt. As we got hiking, I started to sweat of course, but when we paused I was all the colder and clammier. Hiking in the dark was a little challenging because we had to hold flashlights as we went and all of your concentration was on your next step. Seeing as we were climbing a volcano, the path was mostly sand, gravel, and loose pumice-y stones - not very stable. I had chosen to wear my sports sandals, which maybe wasn't the best choice, as all the sand and rocks fell in and got trapped under my feet and didn't fall out again. We got to the summit at about sunrise, where we were treated to a spectacular view out over the ocean, another volcano, and fields stretching out to the horizon. As a bonus, we were also treated to the scene of tons of Indonesians gathered around big flags singing their national anthem at sunrise, because it just so happened to be Independence Day. I don't know much of the national anthem, but we sing it every Monday in school at assembly, so I know a couple of words in the chorus. It was an awesome sight to behold.
We hiked up a little further and took a break at the highest point on the volcano. Our guides (we were required to have two guides for our group of six) cooked us eggs in the steam escaping from vents in the side of the volcano and made banana sandwiches, served with your choice of coffee or tea. Although all 11 of us had met up at the summit, the other group started their descent before us. I certainly didn't mind taking in the view at the top and listening (now for the fifth or sixth time) to the national anthem sung again. Then we began our own descent. The next part was absolutely terrifying and amazing. We were literally walking on the very lip of the volcano, winding our way around to the other side. I felt (mostly) safe but my heart was pumping adrenaline because walking along the path that was only five or six inches wide in parts, and in other parts a foot wide but with absolutely nothing (and I do mean nothing) on either side except the long, steep, slope of the volcano, and the feeling that too strong a wind might just blow you over... well, I had a healthy amount of fear underneath my seemingly calm composure.
The way down was easier, not least of all because now we had light and didn't need flashlights. Sand and gravel were still filling my sandals every 5 seconds, and I did slip once on a particularly steep and loose part of the gravel path. Scratched up my right leg pretty badly. This wasn't a deep cut or anything, but a big, wide surface scratch, about the size of my hand, that took off a decent amount of skin and really, really smarted. At the time there was nothing but to put up with it. The next time we took a break I poured water and hand sanitizer on it (which really, really smarted.) Also got a cut on my left knee from a pumicey rock with a little sticking out bit, but that cut hurt far less.
By the time we were at the base again, we were all pretty tired. Waking up at 1 AM and climbing a volcano can do that do you. But we will always be able to say we climbed all of Mt. Batur, and got some absolutely wonderful views and photos out of it. I especially loved standing and walking on the very cusp of the volcano crater ridge. The mixture of amazement, fear, awe, and appreciation I felt is a bit beyond words. That night we had a dinner at our hotel and got to watch Balinese dance and listen to traditional gamelan music.
Saturday: Went to the trendier, more touristy town of Kuta (jam packed with Australians) to do a little shopping and each lunch. That night we went to a restaurant / bar / lounge called Potato Head, which was directly on the ocean and had it's own beach front. The place was recommended by one of our Singaporean friends who has been to Bali many times before. The place was (to use our group's new favourite adjective) very chill. We had had to make reservations two days beforehand but it was worth it. That night, a few of us went to a bar in Kuta and danced the night away. The place we went, Tavern bar, was very crowed, loud, bright, and noisy. It was a little weird seeing only Indonesians working there and only Australians and Westerners dancing and drinking , but I was a little too busy having fun to worry about it too much.
Sunday: Sunday... What did we do Sunday...? Must not have done anything very productive in the morning, but in the afternoon we went to a beach in the very southern peninsula of Bali. This beach was filled with beautiful, huge boulders, sea caves in the surrounding cliffs, and tons of tanned, near-anorexic, Europeans. Swam a little bit and had some lunch, and then we went to meet up with others in our group to go to the famous temple of Ulu Watu. We had meant to all go to the beach together, but travelling in a big group and needing to take at least two or three taxis meant that we often got separated. The group I was with met up with the others just as they were leaving the temple. We stayed and watched the sunset (which was very beautiful) and walked around the temple. I had imagined Ulu Watu to be this secluded, mysterious bit of spirituality tucked away up a mountain in a jungle, but I should have known better. Like most of Southern Bali, it was full of tourists. So much for my visions of the Mystic Orient and it's mystical temples. Actually, I'm sure those are out there, just not in Southern Bali.
Monday: Left for Ubud in the morning. Ubud is a town in central Bali (and it's also apparently featured in Eat, Pray, Love.) There were still many tourists there, but the town itself has a far less touristy feel than Seminyak or Kuta. We went to the Sacred Monkey Forest there, which was super cool. I'm not exactly sure how old everything there is. The whole place is lush and green and beautiful. We walked around some interesting statues and down a little river path before heading back to the main temple area. There was a Hindu religious ceremony going on, so you could peer in through the gates but not enter. (Obviously. You'd feel like a real jerk walking in on the equivalent of someone's Sunday church service or ceremony with a camera in hand, snapping away.) Macaque monkeys were everywhere, big and small, energetic and calm, eating, running around, and nursing babies. I got some really good photos, including a few of a couple of adult female macaques who came and chilled out by me, about two feet away! They were very calm, so I tried to stay very calm, and we were all very calm together.
On our way out, something unexpected happened. It really shouldn't have been unexpected though. I was crouched down on the ground taking a photo when a cheeky little toddler monkey seemed to suddenly and magnetically attach himself to the metal water bottle on the side of my backpack. My reaction, which I fully admit was a stupid one, was to whip around and grab the monkey, trying to pin him to my backpack so that he couldn't escape with my water bottle. If I had gotten bit I would have completely deserved it. Of course, he got away and started playing with my water bottle. I asked very politely for him to give it back, but he wouldn't. Then, also perhaps stupidly, I was taking a picture of this rascal, waiting for him to hopefully abandon the thing, when another, adult macaque came and took it. I have a photo of the baby monkey walking away from the water bottle and the next one is the adult turning it over with his hands and feet. I definitely wasn't about to fight this monkey, so I just waited. Fortunately one of the temple supervisors who deal with the monkeys every day distracted the culprit so that I got to take back my water. That's what I get for not zipping it up in my backpack.
After nearly fighting a monkey in the Monkey Forest, we walked around Ubud for a while, down some very beautiful streets, and then finished out day at the Elephant Cave nearby. This cave is apparently from the 11th century and looks like a giant demon head coming of out a hillside. You walk inside and there are a few alcoves with statues, include Ganesh, the Hindu god of education, as it is. The cave was worth it alone, but the surrounding area was also awesome. There were some absolutely beautiful paths that ran around hills and past boulders and waterfalls. I only got to explore part of it, but it really looked like something... I don't know... out of a National Geographic, on a postcard, but 20xs better. All in all, our day in Ubud was great.
Tuesday: Went with Lynsey, Eduardo, and Josh to try scuba diving for the first time! We traveled south to the beach area of Nusa Dua (which was also jam packed with tourists, but all Indonesians from other islands.) The driver got us a good deal so we only paid about $45 each. Our guide, a laid back guy whom I'm sure takes tourists out dozens of times a week, gave us the basics of how to breath underwater and what hand signals to use. Suited up in half-wetsuits and weight belts, we traveled a little ways out and stopped by where many other boats were parked. We got to do the compulsory flippers-over-head backward flop into the ocean and then our guide and his assistant helped us into the jackets with the oxygen tanks. They brought us down about 6 meters to an area with a metal fence around some coral. Apparently they bring all the newbie divers here. We stayed at the coral for the duration of the 25 minute dive and fed fish from bread in plastic bags they had given us before hand. Then it was back to the surface and back to shore. In a way it would have been nice to swim around a bit more, but I really didn't mind having a fairly mild dive seeing as it was my first time and I had no training other than a five minute session on how to breath and use hand signals.
Later that evening we went to the beach again for only a little bit, and threw ourselves in some waves. I imagine I ate dinner somewhere, but I really can't remember at the moment, so it must not have been that memorable.
Wednesday: Was completely lazy in the morning: read by the pool and then slept. Later, I went with two other friends for a massage (and was practically accosted by the overenthusiastic workers there.) Wasn't about to get a body massage with my back still sunburned, so I opted for a pedicure, which was a bit shocking (not to mention scary with all those weird metal tools they use to scrape and snip) seeing as I really don't like anyone touching my feet. But my feet did turn out much nicer looking in the end. Later still, I got a bit of time to myself to walk to the beach and write in my journal as the sun was going down, which was very peaceful.That evening a small group of us went back to Kuta to once again to get drinks and dance the night away. It was... shall we say, an eventful evening, full of lots of drink and dancing, and I even kissed an Australian surfer guy from Perth!
Thursday: We flew back to Jakarta. Our holiday was great. Already miss the relaxed atmosphere, clean air, beach, and mixture of adventure and laziness. We have another holiday coming up at the end of September, for one week. (That's the thing with year-round school - more frequent short breaks.) Right now a few friends are brainstorming ideas about going to Thailand or Vietnam, but there are no definite plans. Probably will do whatever is cheapest!
Sunday, August 12, 2012
12 HOURS IN SINGAPORE
It was a full day because I was picked up by a school van at 4 AM and got back to my apartment around 11 PM. We ended up with about 12 hours in Singapore, which flew by. Singapore is awesome! It's only about a 90 minute flight from Jakarta but the two cities are night and day. Jakarta is actually less hot and humid than Singapore, but Singapore is CLEAN! The streets aren't full of rubbish (for good reason, you wouldn't litter either if you got a $500 fine,) the subway system is efficient and easy to use, and it's just a really interesting, diverse place. We had time for really only two things: first we went to Little India where we window shopped at the market selling Indian clothes and had lunch, and second, we went to Marina Bay, walked along the harbor, and went on the Singapore Flyer, which is a big observation wheel, kind of like the London Eye.
Fiona drove us to the agency in Chinatown where we dropped off our passports and got our pictures taken, and then we were free for the day until 5:30, when we were supposed to come back to the agency. I was impressed with my sights of Singapore, in the airport and driving to the downtown area. For instance, in the airport bathrooms there were touchscreens on the walls as you exited, asking you to rate your experience of the bathroom with five correspondingly happy or disgruntled smiley faces. On the bottom of the touchscreen monitor it read: "This screen is sanitized every hour." That's just the sort of place Singapore is: smart, efficient, modern, and scrupulously clean. Also very impressive (and completely mesmerizing) in the airport was the metal-raindrop-mechanical-artwork (that's the best way I can think to describe it) where a grid of at least a hundred ceiling-suspended raindrops moved in formation to make various shapes and patterns. It was awesome and I watched it for quite a while.As for the rest of my day in Singapore, let me transcribe for you some of my journal entry:
"8:22 PM. Today was great. We did two things mainly: visited Little India and went to Marina Bay and in the Singapore Flyer. Spectacular view! Apparently Julia has a bit of a fear of heights, but she did fine. Coming back to Chinatown and the travel agency, we came up the escalator and found ourselves in a splendid, colourful, bustling street with all kinds of small clothing and souvenir shops. And... a Tintin boutique! I resisted the temptation to buy anything, but I did get my picture taken in front of the store, like a dork. I would really like to come back. Singapore is such an interesting, diverse place. It really deserves three or four days to explore properly. Who knows? I may very well be back sometime in the future.""10:35 PM. (Still Singapore time, though we must be closer to Indonesia than Singapore by now.) I remember what I was going to say: I really enjoyed the Singapore airport. At any airport I love to people-watch, and the exhilaration of seeing all sorts of people from all over the world coming and going to all parts of the world. But the Singapore airport especially creates that feeling. I especially enjoyed seeing the Westerners. So many white people compared to Jakarta! Maybe every one in thirty are white in Singapore, compared to what feels like one in five hundred in Jakarta. There are particularly a lot in the airport (including, fairly frequently, a white man with his Asian girlfriend or wife and biracial school-age children out on holiday.) You can spot the Europeans fairly easily, especially the continental Western Europeans. And so many with sandals and straw hats and baggy pants and dresses, big, heavy-duty backpacks full, arriving in Singapore or on their way to the next leg of the great Asian journey.
"I saw three people whom I believe were German. A young, mid-20s couple dressed stylishly and a woman in her sixties with them, dressed in baggy, white cotton pants and shirt, in a typical Southeast Asian style, and black tennis shoes. I saw many families too. European I'm sure, because North Americans just don't go on family trips to Singapore. I wish I could sit down with a lot of these people and chat, hear their stories, find out where they're from, where they've been, and where they are going.
"Anyway... Singapura was great! I hope to go back. There's so much to see!"
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
WEEKEND ADVENTURES
My weekdays are falling into a pattern, and I'm still getting used to the unusual setup of my schedule (it's the teachers who travel around to the classes and the students who stay in one classroom for the most part, and what and when I teach varies everyday.) However, I have been able to get out and explore some different areas around Jakarta on the weekends. Any sort of small adventure, even close to home, is fun because it's all new for me. So far I have visited Puncak, Taman Mini, Bandung, and Anyer. There's probably a lot I could write about each of them, but I was talking to Katie just now and she reminded me that it's probably better to just tell my stories in shorter versions, rather than waiting until I have time to write lengthy prose. (Which will never happen...) So that's what I'm going to do. (Or attempt to do anyway.)
Puncak was the first weekend trip. I was there with all of the other Bina Bangsa teachers for a two day retreat at the end of teacher induction. This was the 29th and 30th of June. It was a beautiful setting in the mountains just southeast of Jakarta, and it was wonderful to get out of the city. For those of us who are new, it was our first time outside of Jakarta and I think we all really enjoyed being able to see blue skies and greenery and breath the air. Our days were filled with unexciting lectures and classes so unfortunately we didn't get to go exploring outside of the area where we were staying (a hotel and small campus with other buildings.) Everyone was pretty tired, and many were sick. The night before (the last day of new-teacher induction) the school took everyone out for a seafood buffet. Not sure exactly which seafood the culprit was, but a lot of people suffered digestive mutinies the next couple of days. And not just the expats, but people who have lived in Indonesia for a long time too. So, as beautiful as Puncak was, we were happy to go home. However, there was one more obstacle we had to face before we got back to Jakarta.
We were meant to leave around noon according to our schedule, but
were dismissed at 12:30 with a verbal announcement that we could leave no later than 2pm. So everyone took their box lunch, boarded the buses and ate, ready to go. Everyone except a number of the leaders and veteran teachers, who sat down to eat. When we actually did leave, we only got to travel for about 20 or 30 minutes before we got stuck in a traffic jam. At least that's what I thought it was at first. We inched along, and then got stuck again in an unending line of vehicles down the mountain side. For four and half hours. Turns out they just close one side of the mountain road for about 5 hours or so on the weekends, then open up that side and close the other. And the worst part is that the school organizers knew this was going to happen! Grrr! So, it was frustrating, but on the other hand... being stuck for nearly five hours, we climbed out of the bus and strated to explore. There were roadside stalls (warungs) all up and down the roadside. Their presence along the roadside and not in a town had been a mystery on our ride to Puncak, but now it was clear why they were
there. I had wonderful fried noodles (mie goreng) and corn cooked on coals out in the open. I also tried a popular sweet-tea drink called Teh Botol and encountered (and conquered!) a truly authentic pit toilet for the first time. I would be very happy not to get stuck in another 4 1/2 hour traffic jam again. Ever. But, it wasn't so bad because of the exploring it lead to.
The next weekend adventure to share is Taman Mini, which is in south Jakarta. "Taman" means "park," and the mini part refers to the theme of this park, which is to represent all the different regions of Indonesia. There are buildings and houses in traditional regional styles, and you can go in and see artifacts and clothing from the given region. There's even an artificial lake with little chunks of land that are a scale model of the major Indonesian islands. The best however were the traditional dances that we happened to come across when we first arrived at the park. They were beautiful and mesmerizing. We also went on a ride over the park in a slightly creaky sky trolley thing. Another interesting aspect of our day (I went with Lynsey and Kristina, who both teach at my particular school campus) was all the photographs people wanted to take with us. We felt like regular celebrities, which was both good and bad. Mostly it was 20-something year old guys who wanted pictures. One big group of guys asked us to hold up their favorite soccer team's scarf with them. They would take a couple pictures, then another friend would run and join the group and more pictures were snapped, and then a couple more would come over and decide they wanted a picture. Eventually we just had to say, thanks, we're moving on now. With another group I joked that the picture would cost them 5000 rupiah. I've decided that when this happens from now on (I count five or six times total this has happened in different places,) I'm going to ask for a picture on my camera too so I can start a collection of my friends and I with random Indonesians.
Third weekend adventure: Bandung! Lynsey (my flatmate,) Nicole and Kristina (who are also flatmates) and I went to the city of Bandung for a three day weekend from the 20th to the 22nd. Compared to Jakarta, Bandung feels like a small city, but it's still about 2.5 million strong. We tried especially hard to do nature-y things during our weekend because in Jakarta there are pretty much no trees and no greenery. : (
The first day WE CLIMBED INTO A VOLCANIC CRATER!!! Granted this wasn't the crater with the smoking, belching, rumbling, sulfuric gases escaping from the ground - we walked around that one - but it the whole thing was beautiful and breathtaking. We also tried ziplining for 20,000 IRP ($2)! The next day we attempted to find hot springs with so-so success. We found them, but not exactly what we were looking for. Still, we got to stick our feet in a hot springs pool. We went to the hot springs north of Bandung, but if we go back we decided to try south of the city, where apparently there are also abundant strawberry fields.
On Saturday it was the first day of Ramadan and everything looked like it was closed because the warungs put sheets up in front their stalls, but really it's just to keep things quiet and to block out the sight and smell of food because everyone is fasting. We learned from our driver (yes, we hired a driver; odd as it still seems, it was very convenient) during the Ramadan fast (which lasts until 6pm each night) you are not even allowed to drink water. I don't know how people do it. On Saturday night we met up with a friend of a friend of Lynsey's and his girlfriend. They have been in Bandung for 6 months and are teaching English through the English First program, which sends them to local schools. They have their own house and invited us over after we ate dinner out. It was great to hear their insights and travel experiences so far. The next day they took us for one of their usual walks through the market. The weekend had various ups and downs (the downs were mostly frustrating moments when plans fell apart or got complicated) but overall it was really nice to take a break from Jakarta.
The last weekend adventure was just this past weekend. This one, I promise, I'll keep short. I went with two others (a teacher at my school and her husband) to check out the beaches on the west coast of Java. It was about a three hour drive (again, we hired a driver; it's just what you do) and part of the long trip was due to horrible roads and construction. We stopped at a couple of places in the town of Anyer and just south. I was wary that the resorts there might charge an entrance fee and be too touristy, but fortunately they were free and gave us great access to the ocean. I got to so swimming in the Java Sea! I tried to body surf but was unsuccessful because the waves were so small. But the water was warm and it was a lot of fun. I'm sure we'll go back again sometime. Another reason to go back to that area is that it's very close to Krakatoa and you can easily hire a boat to take you there for the day. I'm determined to do that before my time here is done.
I doubt there will be any weekend adventures in the next couple of weeks. Or if there are, they'll be small ones. In two weeks a big group of the North American teachers are going to Bali for our two-week Idul Fitri break at the end of Ramadan!
Puncak was the first weekend trip. I was there with all of the other Bina Bangsa teachers for a two day retreat at the end of teacher induction. This was the 29th and 30th of June. It was a beautiful setting in the mountains just southeast of Jakarta, and it was wonderful to get out of the city. For those of us who are new, it was our first time outside of Jakarta and I think we all really enjoyed being able to see blue skies and greenery and breath the air. Our days were filled with unexciting lectures and classes so unfortunately we didn't get to go exploring outside of the area where we were staying (a hotel and small campus with other buildings.) Everyone was pretty tired, and many were sick. The night before (the last day of new-teacher induction) the school took everyone out for a seafood buffet. Not sure exactly which seafood the culprit was, but a lot of people suffered digestive mutinies the next couple of days. And not just the expats, but people who have lived in Indonesia for a long time too. So, as beautiful as Puncak was, we were happy to go home. However, there was one more obstacle we had to face before we got back to Jakarta.
were dismissed at 12:30 with a verbal announcement that we could leave no later than 2pm. So everyone took their box lunch, boarded the buses and ate, ready to go. Everyone except a number of the leaders and veteran teachers, who sat down to eat. When we actually did leave, we only got to travel for about 20 or 30 minutes before we got stuck in a traffic jam. At least that's what I thought it was at first. We inched along, and then got stuck again in an unending line of vehicles down the mountain side. For four and half hours. Turns out they just close one side of the mountain road for about 5 hours or so on the weekends, then open up that side and close the other. And the worst part is that the school organizers knew this was going to happen! Grrr! So, it was frustrating, but on the other hand... being stuck for nearly five hours, we climbed out of the bus and strated to explore. There were roadside stalls (warungs) all up and down the roadside. Their presence along the roadside and not in a town had been a mystery on our ride to Puncak, but now it was clear why they were
The next weekend adventure to share is Taman Mini, which is in south Jakarta. "Taman" means "park," and the mini part refers to the theme of this park, which is to represent all the different regions of Indonesia. There are buildings and houses in traditional regional styles, and you can go in and see artifacts and clothing from the given region. There's even an artificial lake with little chunks of land that are a scale model of the major Indonesian islands. The best however were the traditional dances that we happened to come across when we first arrived at the park. They were beautiful and mesmerizing. We also went on a ride over the park in a slightly creaky sky trolley thing. Another interesting aspect of our day (I went with Lynsey and Kristina, who both teach at my particular school campus) was all the photographs people wanted to take with us. We felt like regular celebrities, which was both good and bad. Mostly it was 20-something year old guys who wanted pictures. One big group of guys asked us to hold up their favorite soccer team's scarf with them. They would take a couple pictures, then another friend would run and join the group and more pictures were snapped, and then a couple more would come over and decide they wanted a picture. Eventually we just had to say, thanks, we're moving on now. With another group I joked that the picture would cost them 5000 rupiah. I've decided that when this happens from now on (I count five or six times total this has happened in different places,) I'm going to ask for a picture on my camera too so I can start a collection of my friends and I with random Indonesians.
Third weekend adventure: Bandung! Lynsey (my flatmate,) Nicole and Kristina (who are also flatmates) and I went to the city of Bandung for a three day weekend from the 20th to the 22nd. Compared to Jakarta, Bandung feels like a small city, but it's still about 2.5 million strong. We tried especially hard to do nature-y things during our weekend because in Jakarta there are pretty much no trees and no greenery. : (
The first day WE CLIMBED INTO A VOLCANIC CRATER!!! Granted this wasn't the crater with the smoking, belching, rumbling, sulfuric gases escaping from the ground - we walked around that one - but it the whole thing was beautiful and breathtaking. We also tried ziplining for 20,000 IRP ($2)! The next day we attempted to find hot springs with so-so success. We found them, but not exactly what we were looking for. Still, we got to stick our feet in a hot springs pool. We went to the hot springs north of Bandung, but if we go back we decided to try south of the city, where apparently there are also abundant strawberry fields.On Saturday it was the first day of Ramadan and everything looked like it was closed because the warungs put sheets up in front their stalls, but really it's just to keep things quiet and to block out the sight and smell of food because everyone is fasting. We learned from our driver (yes, we hired a driver; odd as it still seems, it was very convenient) during the Ramadan fast (which lasts until 6pm each night) you are not even allowed to drink water. I don't know how people do it. On Saturday night we met up with a friend of a friend of Lynsey's and his girlfriend. They have been in Bandung for 6 months and are teaching English through the English First program, which sends them to local schools. They have their own house and invited us over after we ate dinner out. It was great to hear their insights and travel experiences so far. The next day they took us for one of their usual walks through the market. The weekend had various ups and downs (the downs were mostly frustrating moments when plans fell apart or got complicated) but overall it was really nice to take a break from Jakarta.
I doubt there will be any weekend adventures in the next couple of weeks. Or if there are, they'll be small ones. In two weeks a big group of the North American teachers are going to Bali for our two-week Idul Fitri break at the end of Ramadan!
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
30 THINGS I HAVE LEARNED ABOUT INDONESIA IN (NEARLY) 30 DAYS
1. Indonesian vehicles
have steering wheels on the right side and they drive on the left side of the
street.
2. Traffic is
absolutely atrocious, and it can take an hour to travel just a few miles in
Jakarta, no matter what time of day. The only time I haven’t seen congestion on
the highway is about 3AM or so. When we were going to the other Jakarta campus
for induction, our daily commutes used to take about an hour, even though we
were only going 4 or 5 miles. When it gets really bad, you might creep along for
half a mile during half an hour. Part of the problem is an inefficient highway system. There are crazy one-way stretches and weird configurations so that you often have to backtrack or loop around or go out of your way to get where you are going.
3. Also on the subject
of traffic, driving through the near-constant rush hour can be scary because
cars, taxis, motor bikes, and pedestrians all go at the same time. It’s a
free-for-all with no rules and no right of way. Everybody squeezes by at the
same time at very close proximity and usually honks their horns while doing so. How
to drive in Indonesia: NEVER back down: go right on ahead, and if you have
three inches of room to squeeze by, that’s plenty.
4. Modes of transportation include: taxis, SUVs, questionable looking mini-vans and
mini-buses, a big bus called the TransJakarta, and motor scooters, which are
everywhere. I’m surprised by how few compact cars I see. The taxis are all
compact cars, but people mostly drive SUVs or large cars for their personal
vehicles. Maybe it’s a status symbol? Doesn’t make much sense given the tight
roads and bad traffic.
5. A layer of smog lays
over the city at all times. If you look straight up, the sky might be blue, but
if you look out, it’s only hazy gray. Each morning, when Lynsey and I walk to the
elevator, we look out the big window there and see a dense layer of gray smog
cloaking the city skyline. It’s depressing every single time. We call it “pixie
dust,” although that doesn’t lessen how gross it is. I do worry about breathing
sometimes.
6. Homeless people live
under the highway underpasses. There are small groups of people sleeping and
hanging around there. At night it looks almost surreal in those dirty, shadowy
places, sometimes dimly lit with a single florescent bulb on a movable street
cart. The street carts are ubiquitous in the city and sell food, water,
household goods, medicine, and other things on the street and at corners.
7. Medicine is very accessible.
No prescription needed to get your hands on it. You just get it from the store
or street seller. They were handing out anti-diarrhea medicine like candy at
Puncak. (Puncak will be its own blog entry; there’s plenty there.)
8. National dish: nasi goreng,
or fried rice. The majority of my vocab at this point consists of food words. “Nasi”
means rice, “goreng” means “fried.” As a fun activity on the first day of
school I asked the students to move to one corner of the room if they agreed
with a given statement. When the question was “What would you choose if you
could only have one food for the rest of your life?” there were about 6 boys
who chose nasi goreng, a handful of girls who flocked to the sushi corner, and
a few pizza and KFC loyalists.
9. On the topic of KFC,
it’s very popular here. Probably the most popular American fast food chain around.
10. Also very popular in
Jakarta: Angry Birds, SpongeBob, Korean pop music (K-Pop), nori-seaweed flavored Lay's, and Bintang beer. Cannot emphasize
enough: ANGRY BIRDS IS EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!!
11. Call to prayers happens regularly, but also for unexpectedly long stretches too. There are mosques everywhere, like churches and bars in small American towns, except that it’s a city of more than 10 million, so there are simply tons of them. We can’t hear it from our apartment because we face traffic and that drowns out everything else. But there are several mosques near our school. The loudspeakers point out in all directions from the minarets, making listening unavoidable. The other day I swear someone was reciting the entire Koran through a fuzzy microphone, because the chanting lasted the entire day at school – from before 7 am to 3 in the afternoon or so.
12. All Indonesian
toilets (in modern buildings) come with a water hose or built-in jet to wash
yourself (which is done instead of or in addition to wiping.) Lynsey and I
couldn’t figure out why there was what looks like a very long kitchen sink hose
next to our toilet in our apartment. We thought it might be for cleaning the
bathroom; turns out it’s for cleaning yourself. The first time I used a public
toilet here, there was a little diagram on the back of the lid showing how to
use the water jet, by turning a knob on the side of the toilet bowl. I bent
over the toilet, thinking I would test it to see what it was all about, and
subsequently got a lovely, high-pressure spray of water all over my shirt, the
floor, and all the walls of the bathroom stall. I wiped it all up as best as I
could with t.p., but was still left with a big wet spot on my shirt. The
cleaning lady who was standing there when I opened the door just laughed to
herself as I emerged from the stall.
13. Toilet paper comes
in tiny roles. When you take it out of the package, it looks more than half
used already.
14. You can’t flush
toilet paper; you throw it away instead. There is a wastepaper basket next to
the toilet for this purpose… IF you are in a modern building. If you are not in
a modern building, but say, a roadside warung waiting out a 4 ½ hour traffic
jam, you needn’t worry about what to do with the toilet paper: there is none.
After you have relieved yourself in the pit in the ground, you take some water
from the bucket next to the toilet and use this to wash yourself. This is
always done with the left hand. That’s why you do everything else with your right hand.
15. There are no tampons
for sale in Indonesia. Fortunately, they do sell them in Singapore, which is
where I will need to go soon to renew my visa.
16. The majority of
health and beauty products for your skin (lotion, face wash, sunscreen, body
wash, etc.) come in skin-whitening versions. Having light skin is sought after,
just like having tan skin is sought after in the West. But since I don’t know
what sort of chemicals are in those, and I don’t really want to be any whiter
than I already am, I carefully avoid them.
17. Having maids,
nannies, and drivers is the norm. Our apartment has a tiny maid’s quarters
(just big enough for a bed and there’s a tiny bathroom with a pit toilet and
bucket for water.) We use the area for storage, but we wish we had larger
bedrooms or living area instead of the maid’s area.
18. Few people speak
English fluently. Many have some key vocab they can use, but most don’t speak
English well, which gives me an excellent opportunity to practice speaking
Indonesian.
19. We usually just call
Indonesian “Bahasa” because “Bahasa Indonesia” is what you call Indonesian in Indonesian.
“Bahasa” means language. “Bahasa Ingriss” = English.
20. How you greet people
depends on the time of day. Not so very different from other places, but there
isn’t really a generic “hello” that you use all the time. “Selamat pagi” is good
morning; “Selamat siang,” is good afternoon, “Selamat sore,” is good late
afternoon / early evening, and “Selamat malam,” is good evening / night.
21. The word for “water”
in Indonesian is “air.” Bizarre.
22. The Dutch colonized
Indonesia, and when they got here, they did what they did back home: build
canals. Consequently, Jakarta is filled with canals. And those canals are
filled with rubbish. They are absolutely disgusting. “Cesspool” is probably a
better way to describe them.
23. Indonesia has a large Chinese population, but is not always well received. Apparently some Chinese did dirty work for colonizers in the past, leading to grudges and mistrust. Also, Communism was ferociously shunned in the past and as a result, Chinese language and culture were banned. A whole generation of Chinese Indonesians grew up with Indonesian names, and were/are unable to speak their ancestral language. Part of Bina Bangsa’s mission is to reteach Chinese language and culture to kids. The Chinese business class is very wealthy and circulates most of the money in Jakarta. And most of the money circulating in Jakarta represents the majority of money circulating in Indonesia.
24. The slums are very
slummy. The fancy areas very fancy. There is no in-between, or at least not
very much.
25. There is no avoiding
litter on the ground or pollution in the air. The worst air is probably in the
parking garage. It’s a little less noxious out in the open. We sometimes wash
underwear or socks by hand and hang them out to try on the tiny little balcony; when we bring them back in they have a scent we have dubbed “Jakarta Fresh.”
It’s not so bad.
26. Going out to eat is
very cheap. I will probably have trouble readjusting to US prices, when you can
get a heaping plate of fried noodles and beef, a bottle of water, and a bottle
of tea for 33,000 rupiah (about $3.30 USD) as I did just the other day.
27. When you’re out to
eat with friends at a restaurant, don’t expect the food to come all at once.
All the meals come one at a time and it’s often a long wait for the last one to
arrive, so you can’t really wait until everyone has their food to start eating.
28. Smoking in
restaurants is a-ok. It’s okay indoors and there are no smoking and non-smoking
sections. The best advice is to avoid a table where people are chain smoking Marlboros.
29. Service is cheap. Gratuity
is included in restaurant bills. At buildings there are lots of guards. In
stores there are tons people waiting to help you. We get our laundry washed for 6000 rupiah per kilo. I got two weeks' worth of laundry washed for the equivalent of $1.25. It comes back wrapped in plastic and labeled with your name on a small tag on each piece of clothing. At our school, we employ two
people all the time to run the copy and laminating machine. Because you don’t
do something if you could hire someone to do it for you. It’s frustrating at
first, and it’s still frustrating later, but it helps to remember that there are
a ton of people living here and they all need jobs.
30. Last but not least: Just stop expecting things
to make sense, and you'll have a much better time of things.
Thursday, July 5, 2012
HOME AND WORK
Hello family and friends. First of all, happy 4th of July! Although it's the 5th here, I know it's still the 4th back home, so that counts right? We were given a few hearty handshakes at school, with wishes for a Happy Independence Day! And last evening, some of the principals took the North American teachers out to eat at Chili's to celebrate. All but two were there I believe, bringing the total to 14 Americans and 2 Canadians, because, you know, we couldn't exclude them. Their independence day was on Sunday (or so they tell me.)
Anyway… I have so much blogging to do, so much to write about! And so very little time. Actually having a job keeps me busy most the day, and we have also been working on Saturdays, and still busy with other things on Sundays. Very little time to sit down and write. But, I’ll need to make a habit of it if I’m going to get anything written at all. Once the new semester starts, I’ll be even busier.
I hope my accounts of home and work weren’t too
boring. At least you have a sketch of where I am and what I’m doing. Soon I
shall regale you with more amusing stories about toilets and traffic jams.
Anyway… I have so much blogging to do, so much to write about! And so very little time. Actually having a job keeps me busy most the day, and we have also been working on Saturdays, and still busy with other things on Sundays. Very little time to sit down and write. But, I’ll need to make a habit of it if I’m going to get anything written at all. Once the new semester starts, I’ll be even busier.
I will attempt bring you up to date on my
accommodations, the new-teacher-induction, and what consists of my daily life
in the two + weeks I’ve been here. I’m not writing about everything in a strictly
chronological order. I think this blog will end up with a topical focus instead
of a chronological one, although I will still try to post once a week or twice
a month at the least.
Where to start… How about with where I
live? I live in a big, towering apartment. It’s part of a complex with several
buildings: Mediterranean 1, Mediterranean 2, and Royal Mediterranean, which is
the newest, and is where I live. Specifically, in Tower Lavender, which stands
opposite Tower Marigold, across the pool. As I
wrote in my previous blog entry, when we first arrived we didn’t have anything
except the teacups and saucers with the Formula One racing logo. Some school
people soon brought over some things for us, including two pots and a pan, two
glasses, two teacups, two saucers, two plates, two bowls, silverware, a cutting
board, two ladles, a broom, a mop, and some other things. They also gave us a
rice cooker. A single burner stove unit was already installed. I think it’s
good that we only have two of everything, because we have to wash our dishes
right away, and we don’t need any more than that. Most importantly, we have a
water dispenser, which is essential as you never
drink tap water here. (Although I have been using the tap water to rinse my
toothbrush and I’ve been fine.) We’ve made many trips to Carrefour (only takes
about 5 minutes to get there – if that) to get various essentials and other
apartment stuff. Of course, my most vital purchase so far would have to be the
mini French press I bought, which I use to make my morning cup of Java java. I
guess if I’m going to be grammatically correct, it would be Javanese java. But for once in my life
I’m truly drinking local coffee, because I live on the island of Java. Perfect
for a coffee lover such as myself!
We live in small bubble of upscale
commercialism. The Lavender tower lobby has escalator that leads directly to a
tunnel walkway to the mega-mall next door, called Central Park. There is
another huge mall next to that one which we sometimes walk to because it has a
good grocery store, a department store with good prices, and some other
clothing stores with larger sizes, because all the sizes are scaled way down
and usually aren’t meant for people taller than, say, 5’6” or so. (At least
three of the new North American guys are over six feet tall and find it
difficult to find anything that fits.) Outside of the shopping malls and apartments,
the streets immediately dissolve into residential areas with houses and shops
of varying niceness and cleanliness, and the streets are always busy. Unlike the States, there is no neat grid-like
pattern to the streets, or uniform look to the buildings. They are all unique
and seem to organically meld into one another. There are little to no
middle-class boutiques, no mid-size businesses. There are just mega-malls and
street-side vendors, or at least that’s the impression you get looking around. Also,
I can’t quite seem to find the center of Jakarta, and I’m starting to think
there might not be one. The closest you get would be the national monument
(Monas,) which I glimpsed just briefly, but which is rumored to be at the
city-center. There are clusters of skyscrapers here and there, but no one
definite cosmopolitan nexus so far as I can see. But what do I know? I’ve been
here just over two weeks.
I hope you now have an idea of where I live. Let me fill you in a
little on what I’ve been doing. In a
nutshell: preparing for the new school year. We can’t drive and or take public
transportation, but the school basically buses us everywhere we need to go (including
church services on Sunday if you sign up.) All new recruits attended seven days
of new teacher induction at the PIK Jakarta campus, from June 21st
to the 28th. A word about the school: Bina Bangsa School (hereafter
BBS) has a few different campuses. The one in PIK (which is an abbreviation for
a neighborhood in north Jakarta) is both primary and secondary. There is also
the Kebon Jeruk campus, which is where I work. The KJ campus, as it’s usually
called, is in west Jakarta, and the name translates to “Orange Grove” or “Garden”
– it’s another neighborhood. The primary and secondary are in two separate
buildings, quite close to each other. Outside of Jakarta, there are campuses in
Bandung, in Malang, and in Semarang, all cities in Java. All the new teachers
who work at the KJ campus live in the Mediterranean apartments and we travel
together and more often than not go out to eat together too.
Here’s something I wrote a while back,
but didn’t post as of yet:
“June 21 2012
Today was our first day of new teacher
induction. Everyone in the Mediterania apartments got onto one of the school’s
mini coach buses and we were whisked away to the PIK campus, also in Jakarta.
It was nice to get out of our apartment-mall area, where we have been living
exclusively for the past three days. The streets are not very clean and there
is quite a bit of rubbish on the ground. The canals in particular are littered
and pretty bad looking in places. We went by shops and residential streets and
houses with open porches and doors and corrugated steel roofs. But even with
all the people and traffic and litter on the ground, I felt invigorated more
than intimidated by travelling through the city. I might just be in the
“honeymoon” phase of my cultural adaptation, but that’s okay with me for now.”
What can I say about the rest of induction…?
There were lots of corny getting-to-know-you and ice breaker games, a plethora
of mild-mannered PowerPoints, boxed lunch, usually noodles or rice, two tea
breaks per day, more PowerPoints, and meetings with principals and
heads-of-department. I think you get the idea. Typical stuff. It’s amazing how
you can travel halfway across the world to teach and Kagan Cooperative Learning
groups and Bloom’s Taxonomy will still follow you there. By the end of the
seven day induction we were all pretty worn out. We have to write three weeks’
worth of lesson plans, although since I teach three subjects, I’m only writing
lessons for the first five days of school. I'm sure the lessons will change
once I actually meet my students. (Also, we keep getting new information, even in the last few days before school starts! That's kind of frustrating.) During induction, we also had to demonstrate a lesson. I did
one about reading an informational report on sloths. Did you know that sloths
are extremely lazy and never clean their fur; in fact, green algae grows in
their fur. Also, they give birth hanging upside down. C’est fou, ça.
Last Friday we went for a retreat /
more PowerPoints in an area called Puncak in the mountains, but that’s its own
blog entry. You’ll see why…
At the moment, we have moved from the
PIK campus to our regular campus, KJ Primary. All the teachers have their desks
in one big room, which is actually kind of nice. You get a sense of community
that way and don’t feel isolated. Also, once the school year starts, it’s not
going to be full of people all the time. I also saw “my” classroom for the
first time. I put “my” in parentheses, because it’s just barely my classroom.
More properly, it belongs to the class of P5 Hope (i.e. primary grade 5, class
name “Hope” – all the classes have virtue names; we’re a Christian school in
case I forgot to mention it.) This is my form, or homeroom, class. I see them a
little bit for homeroom time and I am also their English teacher. They stay in
their classroom, I move to my other
classes, which are P4 English and P4 Science. Although I teach more English
than science, I am somehow under the science department, and in fact am level
rep. for 4th grade science, which means that I set all of our unit
tests, prepare the practice-test activities, and write the weekly schedules for
4th grade science. I also teach a class of remedial English for both
4th and 5th grade, and will coach an after-school
(co-curricular) activity (or CCA,) as of yet to be determined. Every teacher
coaches one. I’m hoping for some sort of debate, art, book, or music club. It
might seem like a lot of hodge-podge teaching, and it kind of is, but once I
get my schedule down, I think it will be manageable.
Right now I’m in the process of
preparing my classroom, preparing lessons, requesting materials, and making
sure the first day of school will go smoothly. I'm nervous, but excited.
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