Camping at Taman Wisata Alam Gunung Pancar

Friday evening, Joseph and I caravaned with some friends from church to a campsite called Taman Wisata Alam Gunung Pancar near Sentul.  It took about an hour on the toll road with another half hour on a cobbled road to arrive.  We rolled into camp after dark, set up our tents, lit a fire, and cooked some tin foil dinners.  Joseph had a great time playing with the other boys on the large boulders and the men just sat around the fire as we have since the dawn of time...

The following morning, we woke up to loud jungle bird noises, a six inch centipede, a large scorpion, and a herd of asiatic water buffalo making their way up the hill.  I also got my first real view of the campsite, and I was impressed.  The campgrounds are well maintain and have new facilities. 

After a breakfast of sausage, eggs, and fruit, we packed up, and headed back to the big city.  We all had a great time and look forward to doing it again.  :)

Air purifier

We live on the 12th floor of an apartment in one of the largest cities in the world.  The benefits of being so high are that we have a great view and no mosquitos.  The downside of that is we are right in the smog that lingers above Jakarta's streets. 

We have been thinking about doing something to improve the air quality in our apartment, and we finally did something this weekend as Julia's allergies have been increasingly troublesome.  We decided to buy an air purifier!  We went to the local Ace hardware store (pronouced Aceh in Indonesia) and picked up a Kris Air Tamer.  We opted for this model over the USA made Honeywell units because it has a washable stainless steel filter.  Concerns about price ($100 USD every 6 months) and availability of the multiple filters the Honeywell units required pushed us away from buying it even though the Honeywell is likely better built.   At least the Kris unit came with a 6 month warranty.  If it fails after 6 months, we'll have to reconsider the Honeywell unit.

When we got home, I plugged in the air purifier in our bedroom and let it run on about half fan speed.  After only one day, the filter light came on indicating it needed to be cleaned.  So I dutifully pulled out the filter and examined it.  Sure enough, there was a fine coating of soot and even a couple tiny bugs (mites, I think) crawling around on it.  When I washed it in the shower, the water was dark gray in the tub.  Yuck!  And to think that we breath that air.  :( 

I must admit that I now wake up breathing easier now that the filter is in place. So the test now is to see if that was just an initial clean up of the room, or if it will always dirty the filter in one day.  If it gets dirty every day, we'll likely cough up the money to install more units in the apartment.  If it stays clean for a couple days or a week, we'll likely just move the purifier room to room to purge the junk from the air. 

Update 1 - 10 June 2012

We've had the air purified for about a month now.  It really does a great job and noticeably improves the air quality in our home.  The filter needs to washed about every three days!  Initially, I moved the filter from bedroom to bedroom: purging each room.  Now, I just leave in running in the family room as that's the closest places to the front door and balcony doors (where most of the air comes into the apartment).

The only issue is that sometimes the filter light comes on after a day, giving a false positive.  I realized this when I washed it out after one day, and there was not that much black stuff washing off.  I simply turn it off and back on and it resets itself.  I do this until the cleaning light comes back on as soon as it restarts.  It's a minor quirk, so far so good.  :)

Update 2 - 15 May 2013

It is has been over a year now, and well, the purifier has pretty much lost its ability to clean the air.  A few months ago, the coating on the filter started flaking off.  Now that has continued to occur, very little particulate from the air sticks to it anymore.  So I guess it was good while it lasted...

Final update - 10 Sept 2013

We limped the air purifer along for a bit longer and now it no longer turns on.  An autopsy revealed a poorly designed switch that had failed and a random coin inside the fan area.  So it is hard to say what killed it, but for sure it has gone to the happy hunting grounds.  Too bad it didn't last for the full duration of our stay here in Jakarta.

Singapore

A couple weeks ago we took a trip in Singapore for a three day weekend.  We stayed at the VIP hotel which is conveniently located with in walking distance to a Cold Storage grocery store and the LDS church on Bukit Timah road.  We were pleased with the accommodations and pricing.  We'll definitely consider staying there again for future trips to S'pore.

We started off having a meal at a British fish and chips restaurant that gave us huge, greasy, and delicious portions. 

We then stopped by the LDS mission office to show Julia and the kids where I had once served as a missionary back in 1999-2001.  Being there brought back so many fond memories, but also amazed me about how much had changed as there is a new stake center there and the mission office had been renovated.  I had hoped to show the kids my picture on the wall, but alas, they had taken it down.

The next day we went to the Botanical Gardens which is, like most of Singapore, immaculately landscaped and maintained.  We spent most the morning at the children’s area in the park.  The kids had a great time.

We then went to Little India for lunch.  We had a fantastic meal of roti prata and mutton biryani. As we were browsing in the shops, the kids convinced us to let them have an artist decorate their hands with henna.  The kids were amazingly still and even managed to not smear them too much during the 30 minute drying time.  One of my favorite things about Little India is the colonial architecture and that it isn’t quite as well groomed as most of the island.

Another highlight of the trip was going to the Night Safari.  Although, it is not cheap, it was well worth it to experience touring the zoo at night.  We did the tram ride as well as walking on foot.  We also watched an amazing fire breathing show.  Awesome!

Even the airport was amazing as they had playgrounds for the kids and a butterfly garden.  Very impressive!

All in all, we enjoyed our time in Singapore.  We stocked up on food that is either unavailable or crazy expensive in Jakarta and made some great memories.