Boy Scout Campout at Thousand Islands

We joined the Boy Scouts on a campout at Pulau Pelangi in the Thousand Islands.  We left in a speedboat from north Jakarta and arrived after 90 minutes or so. 

The water was gorgeous.

 

Joseph setting up his tent.

 

Heading out to go fishing.

 

 

The troop here is rather casual and there were few planned activities.  Anyway, we had a good time and enjoyed a beautiful island paradise for the weekend.

Belitung Island

We took a long weekend trip to a local favorite – Belitung Island.  It is not in any of the travel books yet and is amazing.  It is known for beautiful white sand beaches with large granite boulders randomly strewn about.  The island used to be mined for tin as well back in the day. 

The first day, we visited a beautiful beach called Tanjung Tinggi where we rented an inflatable raft and explored the granite boulders randomly strewn around.  We also had an amazing seafood meal overlooking the beach.  We also visited another beach called Bukit Berahu where we watched the sunset and watched a 6 foot snake chase a rat in the rocks.  Exciting!

The second day, we hired a boat and visited several islands (one had an old Dutch lighthouse constructed in 1882) and went snorkeling.

Out last morning there, we strolled to Tanjung Pandan beach and walked about the beach chasing crabs and other small sea creatures before heading back to Jakarta. 

It was an amazing place and hopefully we can return another time!

		Belitung Island VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

3 years in Indonesia

The other day, we celebrated three years living in Indonesia.  We decided to have lunch at Din Tai Fung which is a Taiwanese style dumpling restaurant.  The food was good as always but the kids were a bit awnry.  Oh well.

Anyway, the time has really flown by, and we feel very much at home here.  But we know that we will be leaving within the next year as Indonesia has now implemented a 4 year maximum stay for expats.  We have mixed feelings about having to move in the near future. 

I know already that I will miss Indonesia dearly, but certainly will not miss Jakarta traffic!  I'll definitely miss the friends we've made here, the people, and amazing vacations in places like Bali and Lombok.  I guess we'll just have to wait and see where the wind blows us next.

Cub Scouts

Now that Joseph has turned eight a few months ago, we thought it was time to get him involved in scouting.  We had looking into it before, but the logistics seemed too much to make it happen.  Luckily, this time when we looked into it, they had a BSA cub scout pack that met at the American Club on Saturday afternoons which seemed doable.  So we signed him up and met the other boys and parents involved. 

Once the current leader of the Bear Den learned that I had been a scout as a youth and a scout leader before, he quickly passed the baton to me, so now I am the Den Leader.  I must admit that the logistics of coordinating cub scouts is exponentially more headache in Jakarta than it was in Houston.  However, Joseph is very excited to participate in the scouting program which as been a family favorite for four generations now. 

I attached some pictures of Joseph's uniform.  It is a mix of official BSA gear imported from the US and locally sourced content.  I continued the tradition of my father and sewed on the patches myself by hand.  Hopefully, he will have many positive memories of scouting as I did growing up.

 

 

 

Citatih River Rafting

I joined a group from our church to go rafting on the Citatih River last Saturday.  We left Jakarta at 5:30 am and arrived at the Cherokee rafting place at 9:00.  It has been raining quite a bit the last few days so the river was pretty high and that made for a very exciting ride.  I think the rapids varied from 3-4 on the rafting scale.  A few of the guys got tossed out of the raft, and we only had one minor injury.  We rafted three hours, had lunch and headed back.  We made it back to Jakarta at about 7:00 pm.  Needless to say the traffic was heavy, but we still had a great time.  This is the second time I have rafted this river and look forward to doing it again if the opportunity presents itself.  :)

Doss

Taxi vs. motorbike

I decided to go hometeaching this afternoon.  I called for a Blue Bird taxi since the Toyota Kijang was having issues today (engine not getting fuel, I think).  I was not in the taxi for more than one minute before we T-boned a motorbike with an older couple onboard.  The taxi driver didn't even see the motorbike as it was coming down the sidewalk against the flow of traffic.  I yelled "Berhenti!" ("Stop!"), but it was too late.  The older couple were knocked off the bike and the taxi rolled on top of the bike.  The old man got up and tried to pull his motorbike out from under the Toyota Yaris sedan; but of course, this was fruitless.  So the taxi driver put it in reverse and proceeded to rip off the front of his car!  I was just trying to lay low in the back seat... 

Luckily, another Blue Bird taxi was waiting nearby so I hopped in it and went on my way.  The two drivers started arguing as I left, each feeling the other was at fault.  Of course, if this was America, the motorbike would obviously be at fault, but here the general rule of thumb is that motorbikes can do no wrong.  I don't know who won the dispute, but I wasn't going to stick around to find out!  I just am grateful that noone was seriously hurt and I wasn't driving.

Lombok and Gili Meno, Indonesia

I decided to take a weekend trip to Lombok and Gili Meno.  I flew into Lombok very early Saturday morning (due to Lion Air's delays, as usual) and crashed at the Puri Saron Hotel.

After checking out the beach, I chartered a boat to go from the hotel's beach to a tiny island called Gili Meno.

I was amazed by the water color at Gili Meno.

I stayed at the Adeng-Adeng bungalows which was fantastically rustic and had A/C although the breeze would have have kept any place very comfortable.  The food was great and the atmosphere was uber-relaxed. 

I chilled by the beach watching the sun set over Gili Trawangan and Bali.  Only two people passed by me for the hour I sat there.  I eased back to the bungalows and spent the evening chatting with the Swedish owner, Anders after having some delicious grilled fish.

Then, the next day, I spent part of the morning snorkeling in the reef near the bungalows.  I saw lots of coral and small colorful fish.  I was hoping to see some sea turtles as they are quite common, but no luck this time.  After lunch, I chartered another boat back to Lombok.  The waves were bigger but the big wooden boat handled the white caps pretty well.

I had a fantastic time and had a pretty smooth trip all things considered.  I definitely would love to come back and further explore Lombok.

Yogyakarta and surrounding temples

I had the opportunity to take a training course for work in Yogyakarta this last week.  I stayed at the Sheraton hotel which had large rooms and amazing grounds.  The hotel had an unusual arrangement of having the lobby on the top floor, but it did make for scenic views.

This structure seems more Central American than Indonesian, but its still impressive.

I decided to fly out on Saturday evening so I could explore some the area's famous sights.  I opted to do an 8 hour tour starting at 3:30 am so I could see the sun rise over the world's largest Buddhist monument called Borobudur and then explore the world's tallest Hindu temple called Prambanan.

I had a driver from the hotel send me over to the sites and paid about $25 USD to get into Borobudur (It is over $30 if you are a foreigner without a work permit).  The sun rise was quite scenic and you can see the volcano Merapi in the distance which blew last in 2010.  Luckily, only about 20 people got their early enough to the see the sun rise.  It was really neat to experience the quiet of the early morning in such an old structure.  But after 7:00 am, the tour buses started rolling in... and I left.  :)

I headed back to Yogya and saw some Hindu temples.

Prambanan temple was pretty busy when I went, so I had a tour guide tell me all about it instead of just exploring on my own.  At $8 for an english speaking guide and $3 entrance fee (with KITAS), it was definitely worthwhile.

This is Sewu Temple which was nearby Prambanan, but saw very little traffic and didn't cost anything once you paid to see Prambanan.  I did splurge to rent a bicycle for $1 as the other temples are on the other side of the complex.

The Hindu temples in particular still needed a lot of work to finish them as earthquakes and scavengers have taken their toll over the last 1000+ years.

Overall, I had an amazing tour and was even lucky enough to catch an earlier flight back to Jakarta.  What a full day!

One year in Indonesia!

On 23 February, we celebrated one year in Indonesia. We had a nice dinner at Samy's Curry restaurant which serves Singapore style Indian food. It was delicious, but as a co-worker pointed out, a bit ironic that we didn't have Indo food. Oh well, LOL.

It's been crazy fast as we've done so much in so little time. We've many new friends and had so many amazing experiences. Most mornings I wake up and can't believe we live in SE Asia. Its like a dream come true...for me at least.

The family has done remarkably well at adapting to life here. I think that is largely due to my previous experience of living in Singapore and Malaysia, our family trips to Belize and Taiwan, and our even living in another state (Oklahoma) from our native Texas.

Really, life is very similar (with a few notable differences). We still have to get the kids out the door to go to school in the morning and I still do the same job (although I walk here instead of drive). The main differences would be that traffic dominates any decision of what activities to participate in and we live in an apartment instead of a house.

All in all we are enjoying our stay here and are looking forward to another great year in Jakarta!

SEA Games

Before the SEA Games began last week, I thought that the games would be water-related sports like swimming, diving, canoeing, etc.  I told DH I thought it was funny how the SEA games included non-water related sports like Tae-Kwon Do, archery, ping-pong, etc.  DH laughed and said SEA stood for South East Asia.  I felt a bit sheepish afterwards. I blame my kids for my lack of brain cells these days…ha ha.
Anyhow, we live near the Bung Karno Stadium in Senayan where many of the events are being held.  Traffic has been especially terrible since the games have started.  Our complex and the nearby hotel must be housing many of the participants because we see athletes everywhere.  I must say that I can hardly wait for this whole thing to be over with.  I didn’t know the traffic could be worse than it already is normally.



I do think it is neat how the city is decked out with colorful flags and signs and blow-up Komodo Dragons. The Indonesians do have a lot of spirit or pride in their country.  The kids like seeing “Modo” and “Modi” which are the mascots for the games. My 3-year old calls the two Komodo dragons “Komodi” every time we pass by them.  My driver laughs when my daughter says “Komodi” so it must mean something very different in Indonesian.




We see people everywhere wearing red shirts and recently we have seen vendors selling red and white checkered hats, shirts, and of all things, scarves with the word Indonesia on it.  DH thought it was funny that they were selling knit scarves in Indonesia so he bought one.  We see people wearing the scarves.  I laughed when I first saw the scarf.  Does it get cool or cold enough in Jakarta to wear a scarf ever?  Um….no!  All DH and I could say was, “Only in Indonesia!”  We have found ourselves saying that quite often in the 8 months we have lived here. 



Now that we feel pretty settled in Jakarta, we like it here.  There is never a dull moment living in the Big Durian.  DH and I always say you just have to expect the unexpected in Indonesia.  You never know what unusual or interesting thing you may see or that may happen next!

Rumah Sakit

I love the Indonesian words for hospital “rumah sakit.”  A literal translation is sick (sakit) house (rumah).  The descriptive word or adjective comes after the noun.   This last saturday, I found myself at the sick house dreading an impending medical procedure. The procedure itself is not complicated. It’s considered out-patient surgery although I needed to be under general anesthesia for the procedure.  I told my husband that I was going to run away screaming if I thought the hospital was not up to my expectations. 

I was referred to the MMC Hospital (Metropolitan Medical Center) by my Indonesian doctor at the SOS Clinic in Kuningan.  The SOS Clinic has a good reputation for having reputable doctors so I tried to have faith in the fact that my doctor was indeed qualified and that the hospital was up to standard as well. I have to admit when we pulled up to the hospital, I was rather nervous. It didn’t really look like a nice hospital from the outside.



When we got inside, the lobby area was fairly nice.  The furniture seemed rather dated, but everything was clean.  The staff was friendly and helpful.  The doctor met us at the hospital and showed us how to get registered/admitted. Everything went smoothly and quickly.

I was expecting a long wait since this is Indonesia, but my appointment was at 10am and I was in my hospital gown awaiting my procedure by a little after 10am.  I was wheeled into the operating room and put under shortly thereafter and the whole procedure was done in less than half an hour.  By 10:45am I was back at my bed waiting for the anesthesia to completely wear off. I was discharged about 45 minutes later and on my way home.  Everything went really well. I was pleasantly surprised.

So the scary part of the whole ordeal was once you were past the lobby area, the entire hospital looked to me like a throwback to decades earlier…the 1940s come to mind although the hospital is only 25 years old. The nurses even wear uniforms with the little white hats…you know what I’m talking about right?

I tried to look up the MMC hospital on google but there wasn’t much.  I did come across this site that stated:
The MMC hospital in Kuningan, Jakarta Selatan has been one of the best hospitals in Jakarta, and it has been able to keep this status, due to their complete and high-tech medical facilities, as well as the services provided.

So, I think it was a good hospital with good doctors and nurses, but I swear you would never think that looking at the place.

Here’s a picture I snapped of the labor and delivery room.  I think this is where women stay until they are wheeled to another room to have the baby.  Then they come back to this room.



Here I am after the whole ordeal.  I’m still alive and everything went well…what a relief! 



My husband said the hospital was alot nicer than he expected.  I personally would have run away if I had a choice.  I think for anything serious I would definitely consider going to Singapore.  I did trust my doctor though and my anesthesiologist spoke impeccable english and seemed very confident and qualified as well.  I can’t say that I would want to go back to another Indonesian hospital, but I must say that despite it’s outward appearance, the MMC was a good hospital. I had a positive experience overall…whew!

Oh...I forgot to mention that you have to pay for all the services up front before you are admitted.  The cost of the whole procedure including the hospital bill, doctor's bill, and anesthesiologist's bill: a little over 4 million rupiah or roughly U.S. $500.00.  The last time I had this procedure done at an over-priced hospital in the U.S., the hospital bill alone exclusive of the anesthesiologist and doctor's bills was U.S. $7000!