We woke up in the early morning and grabbed a taxi to the airport. Our driver sounded like he had a cold and we got to hear his hacking and coughing up things the whole gross 30 minutes ride to the airport. We had some issues here. Instead of like the rest of the world. you paid airport tax not in the cost of your ticket, but separately here. It was $10USD. We had NO money. We argued with the lady, telling her what do you want us to do? We had NO money left and we need to get on our plane. She pretty much said that sucks. As we were arguing with her, a nice Indian couple came up to us and lent us the money. They were flying to Singapore, so we did get to pay us back. But this pretty much ruined the day for us, as we were freaking out that we couldn't leave the country....
Overall it was an amazing trip! We learned so much and got to see great nature and be in non-touristy areas, which are always the best!!! Only have 23 more days here, with 8 days in Cambodia coming up and a few big Singaporean trips this weekend. 4 exams, 1 test, and 1 paper to go :)
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Day 4: Kaliurung/Solo, Indonesia
Funny story. So we got up at 3am to meet our drivers to the sunrise tour to see a temple, which was an hour away. We got to this little village and went into one of the rooms, where we were told to wait and eat (they gave us tea and toast) while waiting on the other people to join us. Long story short, they took us to the wrong tour. We were getting briefed on our climb up Mt. Merapi when we realized this isn't what I think it is. I re-read the confirmation, and still have NO idea how there was a mix up, but the original reason we came to Indonesia was to climb this mountain so we decided to stay. Quick back history: Merapi, meaning fire (mer) mountain (api) in Sanskrit, is considered to be the most active volcano in the world, given this title by a group of vulcanologist who are in charge of making this list. It erupts big at least once a year, with larger explosions every 7 years and HUGE ones every 70. The mountain is surrounded by many small villages, which we could consider to be developing places. In Nov 2010, they had their 7-0 year gigantic explosion. It killed 300 people and there are 100 missing. They had a month warning thanks to technology, but a few villages refused to clear out because they believe their daily prayers and offerings would prevent the volcano to explode. The village closest to the dangerous side, the south where the eruption flows happened this time, decided to all stay put (there was 30 of them) since their chief spiritual man said it won't explode, I've been praying. They unfortunately were all buried alive in the explosion.
Our guide, Christian, was a very famous man in his country. His village was the most developed due to his fame. There is one ecologist on the main 5 islands of Indonesia, and he was Java's ecologist. He was man of the year in Indonesia a few years back. He is also a firefighter and in his 60s. He told us we would be going up on a hill/ridge where its considered to be the level 3 danger zone. He was one of the few allowed there because of his expertise and said we would be safe. It was drizzling when we left at 5am, and the sun was barely up when we started the walk. Within 20 min, we had reached the danger zone, which was a little scary if you lived in that village! We stood on the ridge facing the mountain. Now imagine. To the left, was the Kaliurung village we had just left. The trees in the forest were standing with no leaves, but there was lots of green low brush growing back. To the right was N.O.T.H.I.N.G. For as far as the eye could see, there were flattened trees, all brown and no green, burnt by the 1000C + hot pyroclastic flow that had tore through the area. All the trees looked like sticks, flattened in the same direction. The valley below us we were looking in had mini gorges in it, caused by another giant explosion in the 1000AD time period. There was literally no green anywhere to be seen, it was unreal.
In the distance you could see the villages. Christian pointed us out the first village that got hit where the villagers decided to stay. They had since dug out the houses. There was a line of small villages on another ridge next to the valley, with destroyed houses that looked very odd, as they were colorfully painted, the only color in the stripped land. There was a temporary road that had been built. Christian said the villagers lived in a temporary government refugee camp and would return to their village only during the day, when it was safe, to keep tabs on their belongings. Apparently, many city people would come to the evacuated villages and steal things.There was a total of 22 villages destroyed by the blast. All of this happened in only 13 minutes.
We stayed on this ridge for another 2 hours about. Christian showed us growing tiger balm and cinnamon. We had lots of fallen tree to climb over, it was quite a hike. We came across a former seismology center. In the month before the explosion, it was stripped of its equipment for safety reasons. The left over steel structure was grossly twisted and knocked down, completely destroyed and useless. It was magnificent in a very scary way. When the morning haze cleared, you could clearly see all the way to the top of the 2975m volcano. It had blown off 10m from Nov 2010, previously 2985m. The explosion caused the peak to explode in half, resulting in two peaks with the crater in the middle. There was huge columns of white smoke coming out of the top, which was safe, given it wasn't black. Christan told us he uses a combination of technology and nature to determine when the volcano will erupt. Technology can track the rising lava from inside the crater, but there are other natural ways to tell. He told me three ways and I only remember two. First, snakes will start to run away, since they live underground and can sense the changes. Also, dogs will start to bark at the volcano. Speaking of animals, there are macaws and black panthers that live whats left of the forest around Merapi. Christan had seen 3 panthers i nth 6 years he has been giving tours and believes there are only 10 left since the explosion. They live in the caves right near the base of the volcano.
We reached the end of the ridge and found flowers laid on newspaper. Locals still come to give offerings to the volcano. Christian told us of the horror stories of 1 of the people who has died climbing the volcano, because he chose to take a bad path (he was actually climbing it on the rock faces) and about a couple who was lost for 4 days and the rescue efforts that went into finding them. He said the royal family and Yogya sultan come out once a year to make their annual offerings. They and many others believe there is an invisible kingdom inside the volcano. Christian said he doubts if he will ever climb to the peak ever again after this past explosion. He believes is a sign from nature that the mountain is saying "stop putting your feet on me, leave me alone" and he is going to respect that.
We continued down another way into the more protected valley near Kaliurung village. We came across a park and waterfall snuggled up to the valley, which had much destruction from falling trees from the blast. The waterfall was tall but weak, this being the beginning of dry season in Indonesia. We same to the "touristy" part of the park. Once again, we are the only tourists around. This is not an area for tourists or westerners, as most of the "tourists" are people from local villages. We had our second of three breakfasts, a nice variety of local breakfast foods. There was these fried omelet looking things, with tomatoes, onions, etc that you ate with whole green chile's. They had friend bananas and my favorite, sticky coconut rice you sandwich around cooked soy with brown sugar. Delicious. We walked back to the village a bit later after talking to Christian a bit more about Indonesia and went to our starting point where we had yet another breakfast, this time more westernized. We got banana pancakes, like the amazing pancakes we had in Bintan (Indonesia) With bananas inside we dipped in honey. We got fruit also, which included avocado. He brought out fresh milk for our tea "from the cow down the street" that had been taken that morning. Amazing!
It was a little funny, Christian had asked us about Obama. Everybody in Indonesia said two things when they met us. They asked Alma is she was mixed (Asia, which she isn't) and if we knew Obama. He studied around here in high school, his step dad from Indonesia. Christan said when he came to visiting in November after the explosion, he spoke Indonesia and pretty much dropped everybody to the floor when he spoke.
We decided to not go back to the temple, as we pretty much had no money left, and to catch a bus and go to Solo. It was a two hour bus ride through cities with no AC and people here don't have a large of a bubble as Americans do, so it was very crowded and awkward. About every stop, which consisted of a guy hanging out the back of the bus door, which were opened the whole ride, and he would bang on the bus if he saw a guy waving the bus down. The bus slowed down, didn't stop, and the passenger would make a leap onto the bus. There were musicians that got on about every stop, mostly young men with tattoos and ear piercings singing and playing the guitar or ukulele. They would come around for tips at the end. On the way back from Solo, we had some rude musicians get all bothered that us two tourists didn't give them loads of money, since everyone assumes us to be rich, but it wasn't that bad the whole time. The music was nice! There were a few people tyring to sell food and wallets and pens (weird), they would give them to you and come back around to see if you wanted to pay or if you opened the food and already started eating it. I almost fell for that, confused why I was getting free food, but caught on luckily.
Solo was quite disappointing. I had read its the cultural rival to Yogya and less touristy so you can see the real Indonesia. I think it had more to do with the fact that NOBODY had a map so we were lost literally 100% of the time we were there and it was Sunday, the day of rest, so about 90% of everything was closed. NOBODY spoke English. IT was hard trying to tell people where to go in the tuk-tuks, which we only knew one place that was open the antique market. Big rip off. Nobody wanted to haggle, which was weird, because there are NO tourists that come here, so who else would buy their junk? There were a few rude people here, but we figured they aren't as sued to tourists as Yogya and everywhere else was so it was whatever. We wandered around another local market, lost, and upset that we couldn't even book a bike tour like we wanted too since all the tour guide were off on Sundays. IT was bad planning, and we ended up just getting back on the bike and leaving. It was just a day of confusion from the start, as we got mega lost when we returned to Yogya but eventually found our way back to our hostel, where we sat down for some westernized Indonesian food and beer.
Our guide, Christian, was a very famous man in his country. His village was the most developed due to his fame. There is one ecologist on the main 5 islands of Indonesia, and he was Java's ecologist. He was man of the year in Indonesia a few years back. He is also a firefighter and in his 60s. He told us we would be going up on a hill/ridge where its considered to be the level 3 danger zone. He was one of the few allowed there because of his expertise and said we would be safe. It was drizzling when we left at 5am, and the sun was barely up when we started the walk. Within 20 min, we had reached the danger zone, which was a little scary if you lived in that village! We stood on the ridge facing the mountain. Now imagine. To the left, was the Kaliurung village we had just left. The trees in the forest were standing with no leaves, but there was lots of green low brush growing back. To the right was N.O.T.H.I.N.G. For as far as the eye could see, there were flattened trees, all brown and no green, burnt by the 1000C + hot pyroclastic flow that had tore through the area. All the trees looked like sticks, flattened in the same direction. The valley below us we were looking in had mini gorges in it, caused by another giant explosion in the 1000AD time period. There was literally no green anywhere to be seen, it was unreal.
In the distance you could see the villages. Christian pointed us out the first village that got hit where the villagers decided to stay. They had since dug out the houses. There was a line of small villages on another ridge next to the valley, with destroyed houses that looked very odd, as they were colorfully painted, the only color in the stripped land. There was a temporary road that had been built. Christian said the villagers lived in a temporary government refugee camp and would return to their village only during the day, when it was safe, to keep tabs on their belongings. Apparently, many city people would come to the evacuated villages and steal things.There was a total of 22 villages destroyed by the blast. All of this happened in only 13 minutes.
We stayed on this ridge for another 2 hours about. Christian showed us growing tiger balm and cinnamon. We had lots of fallen tree to climb over, it was quite a hike. We came across a former seismology center. In the month before the explosion, it was stripped of its equipment for safety reasons. The left over steel structure was grossly twisted and knocked down, completely destroyed and useless. It was magnificent in a very scary way. When the morning haze cleared, you could clearly see all the way to the top of the 2975m volcano. It had blown off 10m from Nov 2010, previously 2985m. The explosion caused the peak to explode in half, resulting in two peaks with the crater in the middle. There was huge columns of white smoke coming out of the top, which was safe, given it wasn't black. Christan told us he uses a combination of technology and nature to determine when the volcano will erupt. Technology can track the rising lava from inside the crater, but there are other natural ways to tell. He told me three ways and I only remember two. First, snakes will start to run away, since they live underground and can sense the changes. Also, dogs will start to bark at the volcano. Speaking of animals, there are macaws and black panthers that live whats left of the forest around Merapi. Christan had seen 3 panthers i nth 6 years he has been giving tours and believes there are only 10 left since the explosion. They live in the caves right near the base of the volcano.
We reached the end of the ridge and found flowers laid on newspaper. Locals still come to give offerings to the volcano. Christian told us of the horror stories of 1 of the people who has died climbing the volcano, because he chose to take a bad path (he was actually climbing it on the rock faces) and about a couple who was lost for 4 days and the rescue efforts that went into finding them. He said the royal family and Yogya sultan come out once a year to make their annual offerings. They and many others believe there is an invisible kingdom inside the volcano. Christian said he doubts if he will ever climb to the peak ever again after this past explosion. He believes is a sign from nature that the mountain is saying "stop putting your feet on me, leave me alone" and he is going to respect that.
We continued down another way into the more protected valley near Kaliurung village. We came across a park and waterfall snuggled up to the valley, which had much destruction from falling trees from the blast. The waterfall was tall but weak, this being the beginning of dry season in Indonesia. We same to the "touristy" part of the park. Once again, we are the only tourists around. This is not an area for tourists or westerners, as most of the "tourists" are people from local villages. We had our second of three breakfasts, a nice variety of local breakfast foods. There was these fried omelet looking things, with tomatoes, onions, etc that you ate with whole green chile's. They had friend bananas and my favorite, sticky coconut rice you sandwich around cooked soy with brown sugar. Delicious. We walked back to the village a bit later after talking to Christian a bit more about Indonesia and went to our starting point where we had yet another breakfast, this time more westernized. We got banana pancakes, like the amazing pancakes we had in Bintan (Indonesia) With bananas inside we dipped in honey. We got fruit also, which included avocado. He brought out fresh milk for our tea "from the cow down the street" that had been taken that morning. Amazing!
It was a little funny, Christian had asked us about Obama. Everybody in Indonesia said two things when they met us. They asked Alma is she was mixed (Asia, which she isn't) and if we knew Obama. He studied around here in high school, his step dad from Indonesia. Christan said when he came to visiting in November after the explosion, he spoke Indonesia and pretty much dropped everybody to the floor when he spoke.
We decided to not go back to the temple, as we pretty much had no money left, and to catch a bus and go to Solo. It was a two hour bus ride through cities with no AC and people here don't have a large of a bubble as Americans do, so it was very crowded and awkward. About every stop, which consisted of a guy hanging out the back of the bus door, which were opened the whole ride, and he would bang on the bus if he saw a guy waving the bus down. The bus slowed down, didn't stop, and the passenger would make a leap onto the bus. There were musicians that got on about every stop, mostly young men with tattoos and ear piercings singing and playing the guitar or ukulele. They would come around for tips at the end. On the way back from Solo, we had some rude musicians get all bothered that us two tourists didn't give them loads of money, since everyone assumes us to be rich, but it wasn't that bad the whole time. The music was nice! There were a few people tyring to sell food and wallets and pens (weird), they would give them to you and come back around to see if you wanted to pay or if you opened the food and already started eating it. I almost fell for that, confused why I was getting free food, but caught on luckily.
Solo was quite disappointing. I had read its the cultural rival to Yogya and less touristy so you can see the real Indonesia. I think it had more to do with the fact that NOBODY had a map so we were lost literally 100% of the time we were there and it was Sunday, the day of rest, so about 90% of everything was closed. NOBODY spoke English. IT was hard trying to tell people where to go in the tuk-tuks, which we only knew one place that was open the antique market. Big rip off. Nobody wanted to haggle, which was weird, because there are NO tourists that come here, so who else would buy their junk? There were a few rude people here, but we figured they aren't as sued to tourists as Yogya and everywhere else was so it was whatever. We wandered around another local market, lost, and upset that we couldn't even book a bike tour like we wanted too since all the tour guide were off on Sundays. IT was bad planning, and we ended up just getting back on the bike and leaving. It was just a day of confusion from the start, as we got mega lost when we returned to Yogya but eventually found our way back to our hostel, where we sat down for some westernized Indonesian food and beer.
Day 3: Yogyakarta, Indonesia
The train was uneventful. We sat in reclining seats, watched a bit of TV, and fell asleep (kind of) until our arrival in Yogya at 3:50am. We wandered down the road a bit. It was quiet and empty, expect for tuk-tuks with their drivers passed out inside. We went into a hotel lobby for a minute to use the restroom and ended up getting escorted outside, but it was okay We took refuge in a 24 hour McD's and waited until breakfast and the bus to start. We headed the bus stop where we were met with the nicest people who helped us get into the 30 cent bus for the almost hour ride to Prambanan Archaeological Park.
After our much needed nap and lunch at an amazing Indo-French pizza joint, we decided to do a Little local exploring of our area despite the thunder and rain. This part of town, a few miles south of the train station and main tourist areas, is much quieter, cleaner, less crowded, and just plain nicer. The "Main stretch" is 2 block of the road we stay on, which is more like an alley than a road. The stores are all Batik (explanation to come) and antique shops. We had fun looking at all the random and old trinkets and made a few local purchases. There was a shop dedicated to only locally made items, which was quite alot. Here, there is silver, copper, and brass jewelry and stuff made, puppets, leather skin workings (explanation to come), carving, painting, batik, stitching, everything. There was some trouble purchasing, due to me forgetting my money in the hostel, so we kept walking up and down the same road window shopping, eating, and getting my money. There was a tuk-tuk driver who wanted to talk, even after he discovered we WALK everywhere. He asked about Obama, the "icon" of America to many places overseas. We finally decided, as the rain had stopped, to go see the sultan's palace. Don't know every much about it, except its not as cool as it sounds and got boring reviews. Basically the guy wanted $2 for both to drive us around, take us new places, do the palace, and wait, so we agreed.
Little did we know, the palace was closed already, which was fine. He instead took us to a few local art places where we learned alot. First stop was a leather maker. By maker I mean carver. We walked into a room with a table and a stone and some tools. The maker talked to us for about an hour. They imported buffalo leather, as Indonesian buffalo hide is too tough since they are working animals here. The items they made were puppets. Leather people with button hinge arms and legs. They made VERY intricate patterns designed on them (that went all the way through) that were created by hammering different ended bike nails into the leather. Back in the day, the puppets were used to educate children about life lessons. They had good/bad motifs, sharing, etc. The puppets have since developed characteristics. There are 200 total figures, 100 human, 50 animals, 50 others. They are representations of Hindu Gods. The actual people all look almost the same, which is the point, as the stories are about what is inside, not on the outside, that counts. They have odd body features, for example, all have very large butts. This represents the bottom of a human, earth. The patters of this earth represent the 4 elements. The upper part, around the chest, is the emotions. There are swirls, representing the ups and downs of emotion. The evil spirit that everyone has is represented on the back of the neck (why yous hairs stands up there when you sense evil/danger) because you can't see your own evil spirit. All the colors to color the leather when they are finished are naturally made and stand for something. Yellow, from tumeric, is justice. Red, from beetles, is smarts. Blue, indigo, loyalty. White from crushed buffalo bone, gold from insect wings. He then asked us about our favorite colors and told us the traits we might have from them. He, just like all the others in SE Asia, asked Alma is she was mixed bc she looked Asia. He found out we were American and said Obama studied here and he and Clinton came and got puppets. And they are the only leather puppet makers that supplied the palace with their puppets. I bought one, Khumi, who is a mothering figure. I gave the maker my email address and he will be sending me her story.
Next we made a stop at the art gallery that sells art from the the university at Yogya's Fine Arts program. There were a few oil paintings, but mostly batik. We sat down with the shop owner with some tea, where he made another mention of Alma's possible Asian-ness when she dumped sugar into hers, as Indonesians like their palette sweet. Batik is much more complicated than we thought. First, beeswax is melted and a handmade instrument is used to make a drawing. It has a little canister on a piece of bamboo or wood that send the wax into a thinner tube, so it comes out like pens ink. Each instrument has any different sizes. What happens is, the wax makes a painting, then the cloth is dipped into die, so the cloth under the wax isn't colored. The cloth then gets dipped into hot water and the wax comes off. So, for the traditional sarongs, this is okay, because they are simple repetitive designs with one color. But paintings are not. You have to plan to over lap colors and put more wax over certain ones, its complicated . The artists now are experimenting with different techniques to come up with different textures. Because it is dyed and no wax is left when its come, the actual cloth is like a shirt, its dyed. You can hand wash it, iron it, fold it, touch it, etc. Awesome.
Got an early night with an earlier rise (3am) to make our sunrise tour!!!
After our much needed nap and lunch at an amazing Indo-French pizza joint, we decided to do a Little local exploring of our area despite the thunder and rain. This part of town, a few miles south of the train station and main tourist areas, is much quieter, cleaner, less crowded, and just plain nicer. The "Main stretch" is 2 block of the road we stay on, which is more like an alley than a road. The stores are all Batik (explanation to come) and antique shops. We had fun looking at all the random and old trinkets and made a few local purchases. There was a shop dedicated to only locally made items, which was quite alot. Here, there is silver, copper, and brass jewelry and stuff made, puppets, leather skin workings (explanation to come), carving, painting, batik, stitching, everything. There was some trouble purchasing, due to me forgetting my money in the hostel, so we kept walking up and down the same road window shopping, eating, and getting my money. There was a tuk-tuk driver who wanted to talk, even after he discovered we WALK everywhere. He asked about Obama, the "icon" of America to many places overseas. We finally decided, as the rain had stopped, to go see the sultan's palace. Don't know every much about it, except its not as cool as it sounds and got boring reviews. Basically the guy wanted $2 for both to drive us around, take us new places, do the palace, and wait, so we agreed.
Little did we know, the palace was closed already, which was fine. He instead took us to a few local art places where we learned alot. First stop was a leather maker. By maker I mean carver. We walked into a room with a table and a stone and some tools. The maker talked to us for about an hour. They imported buffalo leather, as Indonesian buffalo hide is too tough since they are working animals here. The items they made were puppets. Leather people with button hinge arms and legs. They made VERY intricate patterns designed on them (that went all the way through) that were created by hammering different ended bike nails into the leather. Back in the day, the puppets were used to educate children about life lessons. They had good/bad motifs, sharing, etc. The puppets have since developed characteristics. There are 200 total figures, 100 human, 50 animals, 50 others. They are representations of Hindu Gods. The actual people all look almost the same, which is the point, as the stories are about what is inside, not on the outside, that counts. They have odd body features, for example, all have very large butts. This represents the bottom of a human, earth. The patters of this earth represent the 4 elements. The upper part, around the chest, is the emotions. There are swirls, representing the ups and downs of emotion. The evil spirit that everyone has is represented on the back of the neck (why yous hairs stands up there when you sense evil/danger) because you can't see your own evil spirit. All the colors to color the leather when they are finished are naturally made and stand for something. Yellow, from tumeric, is justice. Red, from beetles, is smarts. Blue, indigo, loyalty. White from crushed buffalo bone, gold from insect wings. He then asked us about our favorite colors and told us the traits we might have from them. He, just like all the others in SE Asia, asked Alma is she was mixed bc she looked Asia. He found out we were American and said Obama studied here and he and Clinton came and got puppets. And they are the only leather puppet makers that supplied the palace with their puppets. I bought one, Khumi, who is a mothering figure. I gave the maker my email address and he will be sending me her story.
Next we made a stop at the art gallery that sells art from the the university at Yogya's Fine Arts program. There were a few oil paintings, but mostly batik. We sat down with the shop owner with some tea, where he made another mention of Alma's possible Asian-ness when she dumped sugar into hers, as Indonesians like their palette sweet. Batik is much more complicated than we thought. First, beeswax is melted and a handmade instrument is used to make a drawing. It has a little canister on a piece of bamboo or wood that send the wax into a thinner tube, so it comes out like pens ink. Each instrument has any different sizes. What happens is, the wax makes a painting, then the cloth is dipped into die, so the cloth under the wax isn't colored. The cloth then gets dipped into hot water and the wax comes off. So, for the traditional sarongs, this is okay, because they are simple repetitive designs with one color. But paintings are not. You have to plan to over lap colors and put more wax over certain ones, its complicated . The artists now are experimenting with different techniques to come up with different textures. Because it is dyed and no wax is left when its come, the actual cloth is like a shirt, its dyed. You can hand wash it, iron it, fold it, touch it, etc. Awesome.
Got an early night with an earlier rise (3am) to make our sunrise tour!!!
Day 2: Carita, Indonesia
We woke up with the sunset and got in a quick breakfast of tea, toast, and jelly. We met up with our tour guide who spoke okay English. He showed us a map in the hotel of where we were going. Let's do some brief history to make this all make sense. A very long time ago, there was one HUGE volcano in the middle of the strait. Its about a 2 hour boat ride (with double motors) from Carita, so the volcano is literally in the middle of nowhere in the ocean. This huge volcano exploded and created 3 giant volcano's. The infamous 1883 explosion occurred, the largest volcanic eruption ever recorded by man that was heard almost around the world. The 1883 volcano (the one of the three that actually erupted) was split in half and destroyed the other two, leaving itself and three other volcano islands around. In 1923, a new island volcano surfaced, the volcano they now call Krakatoa. It grows at an amazing 3-4 cm PER DAY and is not around 620m above the water. This volcano remains the most active, giving off almost nightly shows of fire explosions and lava flung into the air. Its about 95% volcanic rock on the island with a small mini forest on the far south side that doesn't get affected from the eruptions as much. The rest of the volcano islands are less active with much more vegetation on them.
We boarded a small boat with our guide, me and Alma, and 2 other helpers and started on the 2 hour journey into the middle of the ocean. We started the tour by coming to an idol and circling the small Krakatoa volcano. There was smoke coming out the top and vents in the sides. The whole volcano is stained with sulfur deposits, giving its slopes a striped look of white sulfur on the black volcanic rock. The majority of the shoes was jagged hardens lava formations from the hot stone hitting the cooler ocean. The small part of the island by the jungle was made up of black sand. The water around here was the most perfect water in the history of the ocean (I Really believe this). The shallow ocean floor immediately near the islands was not sand, it was rock. This kept the water from getting murky from all of the sand floating around in the ocean so it was perfectly clear. The water near Krakatoa had a neat dark teal look, as it was floating over black, not white, sand.
There was pumice floating in the surf when we left the boat and one the shore of Krakatoa. The island is like one big slope until you reach the crater. There is a smaller hill very near the top, but a safe enough distance away to got be in danger of the sulfur or smoke. We started through the mini jungle and onto a hill of volcanic sand which was very steep and hard to climb. We reached the top of the hill and over the other side was all the sulfur and craters. Since we were about 600m up, we had an amazing view of all the other volcanic islands around us. We left down another side, allowing us to get close enough to the sulfur to feel its effects and start coughing, it was a little cool haha One the way back , we saw one of the few animals that live on this island, the monitor lizard. This lizard looks like a baby kimono dragon, with the same creepy look and walk and quite large. Half of its tail was bitten off, the guide saying it probably got attacked by the other predator on the island, a python...
We got back onto our boat and headed to the 1883 volcanic island. One half was literally cut in half, with its cheer cliff from the top on one side and gentler slope with trees on the other. The cliff half had a large crevice going right down the middle. We took the boat to the slope side where the coral reefs were. When we threw in the anchor, you could actually SEE the coral specifics from the boat, a good 1-2m above the coral. The water was SO clear, since once again, the coral grew on the rock, not the sand, so you could see everything. We spent the next hour or so snorkeling around. We saw eels and tons of fish, a healthy reef with no damage to it. This place was obviously not a tourist place and it was very healthy and maintained by nature. It was the most beautiful water/reef I have ever seen!
Unfortunately, we had a night train to catch in Jakarta to take us to the next destination, so we had to leave in the afternoon to made it back in time. We finished our lunch of shrimp friend rice, egg, and friend chicken, and took a nap while we finished our 2 hour journey back to shore. Our guide told us about how his grandfather was living in Carita during the 1883 explosion. Everybody took refuge in the mountains, which are right on the coast, and had to live there for three months before it was safe enough to come back to their homes, which were all destroyed. The drive back was pretty uneventful. We got to see Carita and the other beach towns for over an hour in the daylight, since we were stuck in traffic as they were repaving part of the roads and nobody wants to listen to the traffic guys so we just sat there for a while.... there were cows and SO many goats and sheep wandering around, it made for good window amusement while we were stuck there. We saw a good amount of rice patty fields. Something I also noticed, so the rice in Vietnam was different than any rice I've had in the US or SE Asia, its much smaller grains and harder. They served that same type of rice in Indonesia as well, which I wonder what it is....
We made it to the train station with 1.5 hour to spare. Our guide told us we had to check in an hour before so we left the train station to wander around their National Independence Square that bordered the station. Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, had a large park with a huge Washington monument-like structure in the middle. There were SO many people, playing soccer, flying kites, and just sitting and realizing. I almost walked into the men's bathroom, making the wrong guess on which Indonesian word meant women, which now I won't forget, wanita. There were lots of groups of kids/teenagers who wanted to say hi, seeming like they wanted to practice their English. Oh, something I forgot to mention. We are like the ONLY white people here. We saw absolutely NO other Caucasians in Carita or Jakarta and only about 10 TOTAL in Yogya. This really isn't a tourist place. So, given that fact, we got lots of Hi Misses! and Hello how are yous shouted from groups of boys who all giggled when we responded.
We went into the train station to grab some food. We ordered pizza, but some other Waiter took mine accidentally and gave it to another person, which sucked because it was the last pizza they had. We realized this, but our waiter was pacing around the restaurant, casting us glancing, obviously upset and didn't want to tell us what happened ,poor guy! Alma got her pizza, which was cheese over ketchup on bread. Not bad.... lol
We went to the train, and was told we couldn't board until exactly when it arrived, at 8pm. So we attempted to get on the Internet, which was slower than dial up, and just stood around for the train. A police man came up to me while I was standing in the middle of the station waiting for Alma in the rest room. I could see he wanted to see if I was up to no good, being a foreigner standing in the middle of a station alone with a huge bag pack, but once I told him what I was doing, he wanted to teach me some Indonesia words, he was very nice. We got onto the train, which were all like airport seats, and tried to fall asleep during our 8 hour trip across into central Java to Yogyakarta.
We boarded a small boat with our guide, me and Alma, and 2 other helpers and started on the 2 hour journey into the middle of the ocean. We started the tour by coming to an idol and circling the small Krakatoa volcano. There was smoke coming out the top and vents in the sides. The whole volcano is stained with sulfur deposits, giving its slopes a striped look of white sulfur on the black volcanic rock. The majority of the shoes was jagged hardens lava formations from the hot stone hitting the cooler ocean. The small part of the island by the jungle was made up of black sand. The water around here was the most perfect water in the history of the ocean (I Really believe this). The shallow ocean floor immediately near the islands was not sand, it was rock. This kept the water from getting murky from all of the sand floating around in the ocean so it was perfectly clear. The water near Krakatoa had a neat dark teal look, as it was floating over black, not white, sand.
There was pumice floating in the surf when we left the boat and one the shore of Krakatoa. The island is like one big slope until you reach the crater. There is a smaller hill very near the top, but a safe enough distance away to got be in danger of the sulfur or smoke. We started through the mini jungle and onto a hill of volcanic sand which was very steep and hard to climb. We reached the top of the hill and over the other side was all the sulfur and craters. Since we were about 600m up, we had an amazing view of all the other volcanic islands around us. We left down another side, allowing us to get close enough to the sulfur to feel its effects and start coughing, it was a little cool haha One the way back , we saw one of the few animals that live on this island, the monitor lizard. This lizard looks like a baby kimono dragon, with the same creepy look and walk and quite large. Half of its tail was bitten off, the guide saying it probably got attacked by the other predator on the island, a python...
We got back onto our boat and headed to the 1883 volcanic island. One half was literally cut in half, with its cheer cliff from the top on one side and gentler slope with trees on the other. The cliff half had a large crevice going right down the middle. We took the boat to the slope side where the coral reefs were. When we threw in the anchor, you could actually SEE the coral specifics from the boat, a good 1-2m above the coral. The water was SO clear, since once again, the coral grew on the rock, not the sand, so you could see everything. We spent the next hour or so snorkeling around. We saw eels and tons of fish, a healthy reef with no damage to it. This place was obviously not a tourist place and it was very healthy and maintained by nature. It was the most beautiful water/reef I have ever seen!
Unfortunately, we had a night train to catch in Jakarta to take us to the next destination, so we had to leave in the afternoon to made it back in time. We finished our lunch of shrimp friend rice, egg, and friend chicken, and took a nap while we finished our 2 hour journey back to shore. Our guide told us about how his grandfather was living in Carita during the 1883 explosion. Everybody took refuge in the mountains, which are right on the coast, and had to live there for three months before it was safe enough to come back to their homes, which were all destroyed. The drive back was pretty uneventful. We got to see Carita and the other beach towns for over an hour in the daylight, since we were stuck in traffic as they were repaving part of the roads and nobody wants to listen to the traffic guys so we just sat there for a while.... there were cows and SO many goats and sheep wandering around, it made for good window amusement while we were stuck there. We saw a good amount of rice patty fields. Something I also noticed, so the rice in Vietnam was different than any rice I've had in the US or SE Asia, its much smaller grains and harder. They served that same type of rice in Indonesia as well, which I wonder what it is....
We made it to the train station with 1.5 hour to spare. Our guide told us we had to check in an hour before so we left the train station to wander around their National Independence Square that bordered the station. Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, had a large park with a huge Washington monument-like structure in the middle. There were SO many people, playing soccer, flying kites, and just sitting and realizing. I almost walked into the men's bathroom, making the wrong guess on which Indonesian word meant women, which now I won't forget, wanita. There were lots of groups of kids/teenagers who wanted to say hi, seeming like they wanted to practice their English. Oh, something I forgot to mention. We are like the ONLY white people here. We saw absolutely NO other Caucasians in Carita or Jakarta and only about 10 TOTAL in Yogya. This really isn't a tourist place. So, given that fact, we got lots of Hi Misses! and Hello how are yous shouted from groups of boys who all giggled when we responded.
We went into the train station to grab some food. We ordered pizza, but some other Waiter took mine accidentally and gave it to another person, which sucked because it was the last pizza they had. We realized this, but our waiter was pacing around the restaurant, casting us glancing, obviously upset and didn't want to tell us what happened ,poor guy! Alma got her pizza, which was cheese over ketchup on bread. Not bad.... lol
We went to the train, and was told we couldn't board until exactly when it arrived, at 8pm. So we attempted to get on the Internet, which was slower than dial up, and just stood around for the train. A police man came up to me while I was standing in the middle of the station waiting for Alma in the rest room. I could see he wanted to see if I was up to no good, being a foreigner standing in the middle of a station alone with a huge bag pack, but once I told him what I was doing, he wanted to teach me some Indonesia words, he was very nice. We got onto the train, which were all like airport seats, and tried to fall asleep during our 8 hour trip across into central Java to Yogyakarta.
Day 1: Jakarta, Indonesia
We landed in Jakarta at 7pm and was met by our drivers who were taking us to Carita Beach, where we would be leaving the following morning for out Krakatoa Park Tour. Indonesia is made up of many islands, with 3 very large ones that run below the equator. Java, the middle of these three island "states" is where Jakarta was and all of the cities we would be visiting this trip. Carita beach was a coastal town on the straits in between Java and Sumatra, the island "state" to the north west of Java. In this strait was where the volcano was. While we were in Carita, I found a map from early 2000s that said there was a no-boat-zone due to unexploded ordinance in the South part of the strait...so who knows what goes on there!
Anyway, we got into the van with out two drivers and started off on our 4 hour car ride through the middle of nowhere Indonesia. Everybody who we met on our trip was overly nice, it was very nice and welcoming. One big this we noticed off the bat, which I noticed in Thailand, was the variety of cars. Americas are led to believe we are the only people who use trucks. False. There were so many trucks in Indonesia as well as a variety of a van/SUV-like car. They are all Asian brands, so they don't look like our cars.
The beginning of the drive was on the highway to get out of the city. We were stuck in some deadlock traffic, and people would come up into the windows in the traffic and try to sell water, toys, fans, trashcans, etc. everything! I also noticed something that confused me a little about the language. They speaks Indonesian here, but there were many words that I recognized from Malaysia, like taman (park), negara (national), etc. We noticed this throughout the trip. I think these are words that originated from Sanskrit, probably from their Arabic friends who brought over Islam, that's my best guess. But it was nice because we knew a FEW words. There were lots of night food vendors with huge signs as "doors" made from banner material with a photo of the animal and its name. This was a nice way for us to quickly learn the foods we liked, ayam (chicken), bebek (duck), and my favorite name, lele (catfish).
The rest of the drive, the other 3 hours, as on potholed half paved roads in large fields and factory lands. There were SO many factories once we got relatively close to the coast, most of them some kind of oil production, as they all had petra in their names. HUGE Ones that looked like they went on forever.
We finally made it to our hotel that was across the street from the beach and it was the most basic tiny thing, but it was nice. We quickly went to bed since we had a 6am wake up in the morning!
Anyway, we got into the van with out two drivers and started off on our 4 hour car ride through the middle of nowhere Indonesia. Everybody who we met on our trip was overly nice, it was very nice and welcoming. One big this we noticed off the bat, which I noticed in Thailand, was the variety of cars. Americas are led to believe we are the only people who use trucks. False. There were so many trucks in Indonesia as well as a variety of a van/SUV-like car. They are all Asian brands, so they don't look like our cars.
The beginning of the drive was on the highway to get out of the city. We were stuck in some deadlock traffic, and people would come up into the windows in the traffic and try to sell water, toys, fans, trashcans, etc. everything! I also noticed something that confused me a little about the language. They speaks Indonesian here, but there were many words that I recognized from Malaysia, like taman (park), negara (national), etc. We noticed this throughout the trip. I think these are words that originated from Sanskrit, probably from their Arabic friends who brought over Islam, that's my best guess. But it was nice because we knew a FEW words. There were lots of night food vendors with huge signs as "doors" made from banner material with a photo of the animal and its name. This was a nice way for us to quickly learn the foods we liked, ayam (chicken), bebek (duck), and my favorite name, lele (catfish).
The rest of the drive, the other 3 hours, as on potholed half paved roads in large fields and factory lands. There were SO many factories once we got relatively close to the coast, most of them some kind of oil production, as they all had petra in their names. HUGE Ones that looked like they went on forever.
We finally made it to our hotel that was across the street from the beach and it was the most basic tiny thing, but it was nice. We quickly went to bed since we had a 6am wake up in the morning!
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
One month Left!!!
Its weird to think this will be one of my last Singapore blogs left to write! I have one month to the day until I get back on the 1+ day travel to the US. I have 4 exams, 1 paper, 1 test, and 2 trips standing in my way!
Went and had lunch with some friends in my Islam class. We had fun comparing Singaporean versions of western foods to ours. A very common "western" dish here is spaghetti with either chicken or steak on top. They asked to try and explain the health care system, it was a little overwhelming. Singaporeans don't really do the health insurance. Many people don't have health insurance here they said. Makes sense, I got 3 injections, meds, and a doctors visit for my toe and it cost less than $90USD! There was no mention of whether I had insurance or not.
Had an interesting conversation with a cab driver the other day. He picked us up from our dorms to take us down the road late at night to meet some friends for beer and chips (the English gal named it :) ). There is a local hawkers center that we drink beer at until all hours of the night since they are opened basically 24/7. THis driver told us that women here don't get canned, its against the law to offer that as a penalty. Kidnapping is another death penalty offense. His opinion was that so many rich people and overseas businessmen work here is because they know their money will not end up on corruption or illegal activities. HE said the rich feel so safe here and bring in their families and money. Interesting theory....
SO tomorrow Alma and I will make our way through Java, one of the Indonesian Providences. We land in Jakarta, not staying there too long as its a very infamous city for corruption and illegal activities... we get in a cab and drive to Carita, a beach town to the west. In the morning, we are taking a boat tour to Krakatoa, the famous volcano that blew the loudest eruption ever recorded y humans (1883). Its required to use 2 engines on any boats in that strait where the volcano-island is just in case, as it and the two sisters it created are very active. Then we will overnight train to Yogyakarta in central Java for a few days, stopping in Solo, a small town near Mt. (volcano) Merapi. It Will be VERY Exciting, as this will be a very non-western place to visit. Java is very know for its MEGA old temples. We will be visiting a 7-9century Hindu AND Buddhist (they are separate) temple, but more on that when I return :)
The last trip left is Cambodia. I will be spending a week their with Kara (another Chicago gal) and Alma will be making a pit stop for a few days to join. I am assuming nobody reading this knows anything about Cambodia, just like I didn't until I got here and researched it, so here's some background. Cambodia has been occupied and kept record on since the late BC's. Its most famous tourist attraction is Angkor Archaeological Site, one of the 7 wonders of the world and UNESCO site, its a HUGE (spanning 100s of acres) temple complex build by the Angkor people. If anyone saw tomb raider, one of the clips was from a ancient temple that looks like its growing into a tree, that was filmed here actually... and the country is just speckled with REALLLY old temples and shrines such as this, everywhere! Recently though, Cambodia hasn't been that great. To the north, they have a border fight with Thailand, mainly in an area that holds the oldest temple in Cambodia. Soldiers on both sides like to shoot each other and deaths have been counted up until Feb 2011.
In the late 70s, the King (Cambodia is actually the Kingdom of Cambodia) did some ethnic purging, turning deaths into a genocide of anybody who was different (if you had glasses, you looked smart, so you deserve to die). The police set in charge of this would take people (I believe 1.4 million were killed...) into what are now know as killing fields, just fields around the area. Then they would be executed and left to rot. Still, 40 years later, these fields are still around with the bones and scraps of clothing. Just fields of skeletons, one of them is in the capital Phnom Phen! There were a few parks I was looking into visiting that would saw if you look towards this view, you see white in the background, thats a killing field :( A popular tourist attraction in the capital is a high school that the police turned into their interrogation rooms. Between this and the Vietnam War (Cambodia borders Vietnam, its due west of Ho Chi Minh/Saigon) the country used to be covered everywhere in land mines. All populated area and main trails for hiking have been swept numerous times, so its safe for tourists, but this isn't a place to wander off into the jungle or behind a village house in the rural area. There are still many places live land mines are known to be kept.
alot. Don't worry, we will be safe of course!
So just because I feel the need to tell you Cambodia isn't just a place with villagers and a bad history, Cambodia has the largest lake in SE Asia that provides the most fish IN THE WORLD to fishers. Yes, there is someone in the world who keeps track of this. They have 1 of 2 jungles left in this part of the world that is TRUELY NOT explored. They have tigers, elephants, and river dolphins (which only Amazon has too). They have famous beaches and a floating hotel. They have beautiful mountains and rivers and this eco-reserve in that lake I was mentioning that has the largest number of endangered birds in the world. Naturally, it holds wonders :)
Went and had lunch with some friends in my Islam class. We had fun comparing Singaporean versions of western foods to ours. A very common "western" dish here is spaghetti with either chicken or steak on top. They asked to try and explain the health care system, it was a little overwhelming. Singaporeans don't really do the health insurance. Many people don't have health insurance here they said. Makes sense, I got 3 injections, meds, and a doctors visit for my toe and it cost less than $90USD! There was no mention of whether I had insurance or not.
Had an interesting conversation with a cab driver the other day. He picked us up from our dorms to take us down the road late at night to meet some friends for beer and chips (the English gal named it :) ). There is a local hawkers center that we drink beer at until all hours of the night since they are opened basically 24/7. THis driver told us that women here don't get canned, its against the law to offer that as a penalty. Kidnapping is another death penalty offense. His opinion was that so many rich people and overseas businessmen work here is because they know their money will not end up on corruption or illegal activities. HE said the rich feel so safe here and bring in their families and money. Interesting theory....
SO tomorrow Alma and I will make our way through Java, one of the Indonesian Providences. We land in Jakarta, not staying there too long as its a very infamous city for corruption and illegal activities... we get in a cab and drive to Carita, a beach town to the west. In the morning, we are taking a boat tour to Krakatoa, the famous volcano that blew the loudest eruption ever recorded y humans (1883). Its required to use 2 engines on any boats in that strait where the volcano-island is just in case, as it and the two sisters it created are very active. Then we will overnight train to Yogyakarta in central Java for a few days, stopping in Solo, a small town near Mt. (volcano) Merapi. It Will be VERY Exciting, as this will be a very non-western place to visit. Java is very know for its MEGA old temples. We will be visiting a 7-9century Hindu AND Buddhist (they are separate) temple, but more on that when I return :)
The last trip left is Cambodia. I will be spending a week their with Kara (another Chicago gal) and Alma will be making a pit stop for a few days to join. I am assuming nobody reading this knows anything about Cambodia, just like I didn't until I got here and researched it, so here's some background. Cambodia has been occupied and kept record on since the late BC's. Its most famous tourist attraction is Angkor Archaeological Site, one of the 7 wonders of the world and UNESCO site, its a HUGE (spanning 100s of acres) temple complex build by the Angkor people. If anyone saw tomb raider, one of the clips was from a ancient temple that looks like its growing into a tree, that was filmed here actually... and the country is just speckled with REALLLY old temples and shrines such as this, everywhere! Recently though, Cambodia hasn't been that great. To the north, they have a border fight with Thailand, mainly in an area that holds the oldest temple in Cambodia. Soldiers on both sides like to shoot each other and deaths have been counted up until Feb 2011.
In the late 70s, the King (Cambodia is actually the Kingdom of Cambodia) did some ethnic purging, turning deaths into a genocide of anybody who was different (if you had glasses, you looked smart, so you deserve to die). The police set in charge of this would take people (I believe 1.4 million were killed...) into what are now know as killing fields, just fields around the area. Then they would be executed and left to rot. Still, 40 years later, these fields are still around with the bones and scraps of clothing. Just fields of skeletons, one of them is in the capital Phnom Phen! There were a few parks I was looking into visiting that would saw if you look towards this view, you see white in the background, thats a killing field :( A popular tourist attraction in the capital is a high school that the police turned into their interrogation rooms. Between this and the Vietnam War (Cambodia borders Vietnam, its due west of Ho Chi Minh/Saigon) the country used to be covered everywhere in land mines. All populated area and main trails for hiking have been swept numerous times, so its safe for tourists, but this isn't a place to wander off into the jungle or behind a village house in the rural area. There are still many places live land mines are known to be kept.
alot. Don't worry, we will be safe of course!
So just because I feel the need to tell you Cambodia isn't just a place with villagers and a bad history, Cambodia has the largest lake in SE Asia that provides the most fish IN THE WORLD to fishers. Yes, there is someone in the world who keeps track of this. They have 1 of 2 jungles left in this part of the world that is TRUELY NOT explored. They have tigers, elephants, and river dolphins (which only Amazon has too). They have famous beaches and a floating hotel. They have beautiful mountains and rivers and this eco-reserve in that lake I was mentioning that has the largest number of endangered birds in the world. Naturally, it holds wonders :)
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Day 3/4: Phuket, Thailand
Today was a nice relaxing day with a little elephant in it :)
I woke up to an awesome spa day. Didn't go for the Thai massage, the hard pressure point body twisting type, but the traditional Swedish. They had a jacuzzi bathtub you could buy time for, but the spa overall was very nice. She washed my feet and I got cold Ginseng tea, which was amazing!
Afterwards, I decided to jump on the free shuttle down to Kamala beach. Immediately when you get down there, one of the first things you notice is all the tsunami and earthquake signs. In 2004, if anyone remembers the huge Tasmania/earthquake that hit that part of the world, I think it was when that model died...? Anyway, Phuket got a direct hit. There was a memorial statue on the beach that as huge, as well as numerous very detailed routes for tourists, locals, and vehicles to get out of the beach in case of a weather emergency. Kind of scary. The beach had normal shops along the road, just like any other beach town. However, there were actual stores ON the beach, as in on the sand. They had restaurants with picnic tables on the Beach and massage parlors and tourist group stands. The whole beach from end to end of the Kamala bay was covered in lounge chairs with umbrellas you paid some guy walking up and down wiping the sand off of to use for an hour or so. I couldn't pay to use a beach chair, that's just wrong, so I settled for the towel in the sand. The water was PERFECT. There was no shells or coral or anything, just sand and clear water. IT was very calm. The beaches in Phuket are all in bays, so its pretty sheltered from the ocean waves. It was beautiful! No fish though, but that's ok. I only stayed for a little, it was super hot and the sand was hot and I really wanted to go lie in the poo loungers :)
So I spent the rest of the day lying in the pool reading my book. Later in the afternoon, my elephant trekking taxi came to pick me up. I found this place on line, they had a good website and the guy I emailed to make the reservation was very nice. It was completely on the other side of the island (the long way) so it took about an hour to get there. The main roads are along the beach, so I got a very scenic drive through the more heavily touristed areas on the way to the elephants. My taxi driver was nice and pointed out lots of things for me. He even showed me where all the "ladies" and "Lady boys" liked to hang out, a infamous trait in Thai culture. It all looked like boardwalk-type shops, all of it. Obviously no locals lived anywhere near this and sadly I didn't get to see how any locals lived. There wasn't even any religious houses anywhere on the Beach, which I thought was odd for this region. It was all dedicated to tourists. IT was the end of high season, so the streets were packed!
We got to the elephant place, after we drove by a few other elephant places, I Realized the one I found online wasn't as unique and special as I thought. Within 2 minutes or arriving, I was sitting on a strapped on bench which was on top of an elephant. You ride shoeless because your feet touch her neck (mine was a 51 year old female). The guide rode on the elephants neck with his feet dangling over her face. He had this really scary looking hook (like an ice pick) that he would gently scratch the elephant with or swat (not hard) at her body to get her moving. She liked to stop and try to eat the grass., even though their rest area was covered in food lol. She had to stop a couple times for the bathroom, as I learned elephants can't walk and "go" as horses do. Elephants walk slow and hit the ground hard, so it was a very bumpy ride. We talked through a rubber farm, where there was lots of bark slitted trees dripping rubber into pots.
On the way home, my driver stopped me at this famous overlook to take photos. You could see the crescents of 3-4 different beaches all the way up the coast for an hour to my beach. IT was amazing! IT was so hot so it was a bit hazy out, but it was still awesome. On top of a hill way in the distance was a huge white Buddha towering over the tree tops. I googled it later after taking a photo. About 10 years ago, some people hiked up to the hill top and could see basically the whole south part of the island, including a what would become very famous sunset point for the island. They decided to build a Buddha monument there, so they imported Burmese white marble and built a 25m tall statue that can be seen from almost anywhere on the south of the island. They call him Giant Buddha.
I spent the rest of the evening watching the sunset from my hotel and woke up the next morning for an uneventful trip back home. IT was a great vacation!!! I have 2 more weeks of school left and 5 until I come home! I'll be away form the blog probably for these two weeks, well, next weekend I'm off to Indonesia. Good Friday is a holiday here, so we have Thurs-Mon in Java (Island where Jakarta is in Indonesia). And then my 8 day long escapade in Cambodia!!!!!!!!!!
I woke up to an awesome spa day. Didn't go for the Thai massage, the hard pressure point body twisting type, but the traditional Swedish. They had a jacuzzi bathtub you could buy time for, but the spa overall was very nice. She washed my feet and I got cold Ginseng tea, which was amazing!
Afterwards, I decided to jump on the free shuttle down to Kamala beach. Immediately when you get down there, one of the first things you notice is all the tsunami and earthquake signs. In 2004, if anyone remembers the huge Tasmania/earthquake that hit that part of the world, I think it was when that model died...? Anyway, Phuket got a direct hit. There was a memorial statue on the beach that as huge, as well as numerous very detailed routes for tourists, locals, and vehicles to get out of the beach in case of a weather emergency. Kind of scary. The beach had normal shops along the road, just like any other beach town. However, there were actual stores ON the beach, as in on the sand. They had restaurants with picnic tables on the Beach and massage parlors and tourist group stands. The whole beach from end to end of the Kamala bay was covered in lounge chairs with umbrellas you paid some guy walking up and down wiping the sand off of to use for an hour or so. I couldn't pay to use a beach chair, that's just wrong, so I settled for the towel in the sand. The water was PERFECT. There was no shells or coral or anything, just sand and clear water. IT was very calm. The beaches in Phuket are all in bays, so its pretty sheltered from the ocean waves. It was beautiful! No fish though, but that's ok. I only stayed for a little, it was super hot and the sand was hot and I really wanted to go lie in the poo loungers :)
So I spent the rest of the day lying in the pool reading my book. Later in the afternoon, my elephant trekking taxi came to pick me up. I found this place on line, they had a good website and the guy I emailed to make the reservation was very nice. It was completely on the other side of the island (the long way) so it took about an hour to get there. The main roads are along the beach, so I got a very scenic drive through the more heavily touristed areas on the way to the elephants. My taxi driver was nice and pointed out lots of things for me. He even showed me where all the "ladies" and "Lady boys" liked to hang out, a infamous trait in Thai culture. It all looked like boardwalk-type shops, all of it. Obviously no locals lived anywhere near this and sadly I didn't get to see how any locals lived. There wasn't even any religious houses anywhere on the Beach, which I thought was odd for this region. It was all dedicated to tourists. IT was the end of high season, so the streets were packed!
We got to the elephant place, after we drove by a few other elephant places, I Realized the one I found online wasn't as unique and special as I thought. Within 2 minutes or arriving, I was sitting on a strapped on bench which was on top of an elephant. You ride shoeless because your feet touch her neck (mine was a 51 year old female). The guide rode on the elephants neck with his feet dangling over her face. He had this really scary looking hook (like an ice pick) that he would gently scratch the elephant with or swat (not hard) at her body to get her moving. She liked to stop and try to eat the grass., even though their rest area was covered in food lol. She had to stop a couple times for the bathroom, as I learned elephants can't walk and "go" as horses do. Elephants walk slow and hit the ground hard, so it was a very bumpy ride. We talked through a rubber farm, where there was lots of bark slitted trees dripping rubber into pots.
On the way home, my driver stopped me at this famous overlook to take photos. You could see the crescents of 3-4 different beaches all the way up the coast for an hour to my beach. IT was amazing! IT was so hot so it was a bit hazy out, but it was still awesome. On top of a hill way in the distance was a huge white Buddha towering over the tree tops. I googled it later after taking a photo. About 10 years ago, some people hiked up to the hill top and could see basically the whole south part of the island, including a what would become very famous sunset point for the island. They decided to build a Buddha monument there, so they imported Burmese white marble and built a 25m tall statue that can be seen from almost anywhere on the south of the island. They call him Giant Buddha.
I spent the rest of the evening watching the sunset from my hotel and woke up the next morning for an uneventful trip back home. IT was a great vacation!!! I have 2 more weeks of school left and 5 until I come home! I'll be away form the blog probably for these two weeks, well, next weekend I'm off to Indonesia. Good Friday is a holiday here, so we have Thurs-Mon in Java (Island where Jakarta is in Indonesia). And then my 8 day long escapade in Cambodia!!!!!!!!!!
Day 1/2: Phuket, Thailand
I arrived in Phuket later Friday evening. I was very excited about this trip. It was going to be different from all the others. Culture and History was not the main events for this, it was realization and enjoying myself in the paradise of Phuket. Its a poplar honeymoon destination and vacation spot of the wealthy. How can you go wrong?
Phuket is NOT pronounced the English PH sound like F way. Phonetically, its Pooket.
I landed and was picked up by the hotel. They served food outside, so I ate some chicken on a stick by the pool deck. There was an Aussie family who seemed interested in talking to me (they kept looking at me) so I said hi and we ended up talking for the next hour, about what I was doing and what they were doing. Their daughter was graduating high school soon and was very excited to talk to a female scientist. She had dreams of MIT and some California school, telling me how she was surprised there was only 5% Aussies at MIT.
In the morning, I was picked up and driven cross country the short way (Phuket is like a rectangle) to the Ao Po Marina. This was where the "big boat" was leaving on the tour group I joined to go see Phang Nga Bay. Google image Phang Nga Bay!!! My pictures hardly do it justice, as the fog of heat was looming over the ocean. Our boat had two decks, the top one where we hung out and the bottom full of inflatable canoes that we used to wander around the 42 islands in Phang Nga Bay. The Islands, most you can't go into, just into, are large limestone rocks with towering cliffs. The cliffs are a couple hundred feet high with no flat top, that's why you cant go on them. The island have odd formations; there was some mineral or something that erodes quicker than limestone on it, as the bottom of the island was thinner than the top. So think of an upside down cone sticking out of the water. The bottom of the cone had caves and stalactites. It was amazing!!!
Our first stop was to get into a canoe and go into one of the caves. The water was PERFECTLY clear, the lightest shade of teal I had ever seen in an ocean. It looked wonderful up against the leafy green trees and white limestone rocks. I was partnered up with a Colombian who was also solo and we were paddled into the cave by our guide. The guides were all super friendly. The cave was pitch black and the guides all had head lamps. There were bats at certain parts, and they got a kick out of rowing under the bats while everyone screamed not to get guano on them. At the end of the cave, there was an exit into the other side, but it was high tide and you couldn't get out, you could only see the top of the cave exit. The sun shone through the clear water, creating this eerie green glow in the water (see photos).
Next, we went to another popular canoeing spot and just canoes around about 10 islands. We saw hongs, which are Thai for rooms. They are little carved out "rooms" inside the islands. There would be a small entrance via water inside the rock. We would have to lie flat on the canoe to even fit through the opening. Then, we would enter into a lake inside the island, and could see the sky looking up. There were many connecting hongs, which were beautiful. IT was perfectly serene and peaceful, as the ocean waves and other people didn't disturb the inside of the hongs.
Next, we had lunch on the boat, KFC and fried rice and alot of other fried food. Very odd, not Thai food at all. The other guests, (there were 40 of us) were from all over the world. There was a large population (about 12) of Israeli's. Most spoke little English so I kept to my book and got a tan. We dove off the boat after and went swimming. The guides threw in canoes and we flipped them and played chicken since they were inflatable. It was jellyfish season, and there were a flew VERY long creepy looking jellyfish. The guides picked one up and put it in a cup, so I don't think they had a bad sting.
Finally, we went to our last stop, James Bond Island. It's called this because there was some scene filmed here for a Bond film in 1974. Its two "islands" connected by a small beach. Now, the locals built stalls on this beach selling shells and pearls. We took a little boat to shore. The local boats had the weirdest motors, they were truly outboard. They had a motor the size of a cars motor, it was HUGE. But it was on the boat, without any coverings. IT was like a hand held, with a handle to steer, but the prop was on a 12 foot pole out into the water. IT was SO weird! The island had one of the most famous upside-down cone islands and had this very cool rock. The very tall island sometime had a large crack down the middle and shifted, leaving a cave with a perfectly straight cut down the middle. You could see all the layers of the rock inside.
I got a little sunburned, but the day was awesome! I had to wait a bit for my ride since I was staying at a resort in a non-tourist location. I went into the main waiting area of the tourist place, you have to take your shoes off everywhere, this store included. Kamala Beach, a beach to the north of the tourist locations. It sits on a cliff overlooking the Indian Ocean. Its located on the stretch of road called Millionaire's Mile where all the rich people built houses with amazing views. This place was incredible! It had 3 large pools, all infinity style (looks like they never end) overlooking the cliff/ocean. One had built in pool loungers with Jacuzzi sprays underwaterr. They had a very nice restaurant that served food via candlelight that night overlooking the ocean view. The rooms were great, very modern and open. I got a bathtub, which pretty much made my day! All rooms had sea views and the AC was amazing. Couldn't have asked for a better place!
I opted for room service, because this is a pampering weekend! Watched a little TV, which I only get to do on the nice hotels (meaning the one I stayed at with dad over spring break) so that was nice. After over 6 hours on the boat, I passed out quickly :)
Phuket is NOT pronounced the English PH sound like F way. Phonetically, its Pooket.
I landed and was picked up by the hotel. They served food outside, so I ate some chicken on a stick by the pool deck. There was an Aussie family who seemed interested in talking to me (they kept looking at me) so I said hi and we ended up talking for the next hour, about what I was doing and what they were doing. Their daughter was graduating high school soon and was very excited to talk to a female scientist. She had dreams of MIT and some California school, telling me how she was surprised there was only 5% Aussies at MIT.
In the morning, I was picked up and driven cross country the short way (Phuket is like a rectangle) to the Ao Po Marina. This was where the "big boat" was leaving on the tour group I joined to go see Phang Nga Bay. Google image Phang Nga Bay!!! My pictures hardly do it justice, as the fog of heat was looming over the ocean. Our boat had two decks, the top one where we hung out and the bottom full of inflatable canoes that we used to wander around the 42 islands in Phang Nga Bay. The Islands, most you can't go into, just into, are large limestone rocks with towering cliffs. The cliffs are a couple hundred feet high with no flat top, that's why you cant go on them. The island have odd formations; there was some mineral or something that erodes quicker than limestone on it, as the bottom of the island was thinner than the top. So think of an upside down cone sticking out of the water. The bottom of the cone had caves and stalactites. It was amazing!!!
Our first stop was to get into a canoe and go into one of the caves. The water was PERFECTLY clear, the lightest shade of teal I had ever seen in an ocean. It looked wonderful up against the leafy green trees and white limestone rocks. I was partnered up with a Colombian who was also solo and we were paddled into the cave by our guide. The guides were all super friendly. The cave was pitch black and the guides all had head lamps. There were bats at certain parts, and they got a kick out of rowing under the bats while everyone screamed not to get guano on them. At the end of the cave, there was an exit into the other side, but it was high tide and you couldn't get out, you could only see the top of the cave exit. The sun shone through the clear water, creating this eerie green glow in the water (see photos).
Next, we went to another popular canoeing spot and just canoes around about 10 islands. We saw hongs, which are Thai for rooms. They are little carved out "rooms" inside the islands. There would be a small entrance via water inside the rock. We would have to lie flat on the canoe to even fit through the opening. Then, we would enter into a lake inside the island, and could see the sky looking up. There were many connecting hongs, which were beautiful. IT was perfectly serene and peaceful, as the ocean waves and other people didn't disturb the inside of the hongs.
Next, we had lunch on the boat, KFC and fried rice and alot of other fried food. Very odd, not Thai food at all. The other guests, (there were 40 of us) were from all over the world. There was a large population (about 12) of Israeli's. Most spoke little English so I kept to my book and got a tan. We dove off the boat after and went swimming. The guides threw in canoes and we flipped them and played chicken since they were inflatable. It was jellyfish season, and there were a flew VERY long creepy looking jellyfish. The guides picked one up and put it in a cup, so I don't think they had a bad sting.
Finally, we went to our last stop, James Bond Island. It's called this because there was some scene filmed here for a Bond film in 1974. Its two "islands" connected by a small beach. Now, the locals built stalls on this beach selling shells and pearls. We took a little boat to shore. The local boats had the weirdest motors, they were truly outboard. They had a motor the size of a cars motor, it was HUGE. But it was on the boat, without any coverings. IT was like a hand held, with a handle to steer, but the prop was on a 12 foot pole out into the water. IT was SO weird! The island had one of the most famous upside-down cone islands and had this very cool rock. The very tall island sometime had a large crack down the middle and shifted, leaving a cave with a perfectly straight cut down the middle. You could see all the layers of the rock inside.
I got a little sunburned, but the day was awesome! I had to wait a bit for my ride since I was staying at a resort in a non-tourist location. I went into the main waiting area of the tourist place, you have to take your shoes off everywhere, this store included. Kamala Beach, a beach to the north of the tourist locations. It sits on a cliff overlooking the Indian Ocean. Its located on the stretch of road called Millionaire's Mile where all the rich people built houses with amazing views. This place was incredible! It had 3 large pools, all infinity style (looks like they never end) overlooking the cliff/ocean. One had built in pool loungers with Jacuzzi sprays underwaterr. They had a very nice restaurant that served food via candlelight that night overlooking the ocean view. The rooms were great, very modern and open. I got a bathtub, which pretty much made my day! All rooms had sea views and the AC was amazing. Couldn't have asked for a better place!
I opted for room service, because this is a pampering weekend! Watched a little TV, which I only get to do on the nice hotels (meaning the one I stayed at with dad over spring break) so that was nice. After over 6 hours on the boat, I passed out quickly :)
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Fashion and Weddings
So, as a bride to be who cannot be even in the same continent as her wedding, its making my want to talk about wedding stuff get even worse. So I decided to talk to my Chinese teacher about weddings in China! As classes here are literally back to back, (ie class lets out at 330 but your next one starts at 330), I don't have class before Chinese so I always show up 10 minutes before everyone else and we talk about traveling and cultures.
We had a quiz coming up where we had to prepare speeches to recite, mainly about ourselves, and I wanted to learn to say fiance instead of nan pengyou (boy friend) to be more accurate. There is no Chinese word for fiance. There is boyfriend and husband and that is it. She explained to me, in an interesting way, that when China was formed, "I mean, you know, Mao, and the cultural revolution", they decided to make life simpler and get rid of some of the traditions, which were only there as formalities and complicated lives. Engagements and proposals were two of those traditions that were thrown out. When a couple decides they want to get married, they go to the court house, sign papers, and that is that. There is no "Will you marry me?" proposal moment, no parties to celebrate, though she did say after the marriage the families will have a big dinner together. Its just a cut and dry kind of thing, no real excitement and romance in the sense that we in the US treasure. My professor grew up in Central China, but spent alot of her life in Hong Kong. This is where she met her husband. She told me in order to get married in Hong Kong, you must go to the courthouse and sign the papers AND go to a lawyers office as a witness to an exchange of rings. They only do ring exchange in Hong Kong. She said her and her husband ran to the store and bought cheap ones which they used for the exchange only and never wore again. She told me the more recent generations (She was born during the cultural revolution when Mao was still around) have brought back some of the traditions. As a country, China is considering bringing back some of the traditions that the people like, such as an engagement and formal wedding ceremony.
I knew the exchange of rings wasn't a worldy concept, but even in places where they do its not the same. I learned here from my Mexican friends that the wedding band goes on the right hand. There was an awkward moment with an exchange student who didn't realize that in the US, we rep the bands on the left hand, and that was why I had my ring on. But no harm done, just another learning experience!
I've been shopping here a couple times and whenever I go, I do find things to wear. The clothing here, minus the super expensive Gucci-like designer stores, the clothes here are all made from cheap fabric and cheaply stitched, whether its a $5 shirt or a 30$ shirt. I feel like people here are more fashionable than in Daytona, which isn't really saying that much, but I am also in a HUGE city compared to Daytona so my fashion comparison is pretty much shot out the window. Now something I have noticed, in a way that I don't thinks its a fashion statement thing, is that the girls here wear much more feminine clothing than back home. Dresses are way more common, so are skirts and ruffles and pastel feminine colors. Another thing that is very popular here, like at home, is the straight leg jeans especially on guys and the large thick rimmed black eye glasses. Worn more for fashion than necessity, I've spotted lots without lenses which is just weird.... There aren't as many "brands" worn here though. I feel like at home, people where brands a lot instead of wearing certain types of clothing. And even if they don't, the brands are displayed. Most of the stores here might LOOK like chain stores, but its just some guys business. They all buy from the same factory, but instead of working together to create on franchise they all chose to be independent, so there's no local brands or symbols (Think the American Eagle eagle) or anything like that.
They do have a HUGE variety of jewelry and accessories here which is fun :) Its a bit sad, since everything is super cheap and wares easily, but I've found some nice things. There is a open section out in front of one of our canteens where student club vendors and local vendors come periodically and sell stuff or recruit for their club. I found a vendor who sold stone pendants. Alma and I were looking around, and I found a pretty white marble pendant that I liked. The vendor, an Asian in his 40s, told me that if I held it, I could feel the stones pulse. The stone send positive vibes when it was squeezed and could put people in a good mood. Then he asked if he could charge it. Sure, why not? So in the middle of the canteen, he held the stone in his hand, got this far away distance trance-like stare off behind us, and started swaying and chanting. ME and Alma just started at each other, a little embarrassed and very confused. He chanted out loud and some language for about 3 minutes and handed me back the stone. We thanked him and left.
Phuket, Thailand. Google Phang Nga Bay, that's where I'm going to do my big tour! I'm going solo, and splurging on a resort by the beach (still like $60/night only) at one of the most famous Thai beaches, and gong to ride an elephant in the jungle! woo!
We had a quiz coming up where we had to prepare speeches to recite, mainly about ourselves, and I wanted to learn to say fiance instead of nan pengyou (boy friend) to be more accurate. There is no Chinese word for fiance. There is boyfriend and husband and that is it. She explained to me, in an interesting way, that when China was formed, "I mean, you know, Mao, and the cultural revolution", they decided to make life simpler and get rid of some of the traditions, which were only there as formalities and complicated lives. Engagements and proposals were two of those traditions that were thrown out. When a couple decides they want to get married, they go to the court house, sign papers, and that is that. There is no "Will you marry me?" proposal moment, no parties to celebrate, though she did say after the marriage the families will have a big dinner together. Its just a cut and dry kind of thing, no real excitement and romance in the sense that we in the US treasure. My professor grew up in Central China, but spent alot of her life in Hong Kong. This is where she met her husband. She told me in order to get married in Hong Kong, you must go to the courthouse and sign the papers AND go to a lawyers office as a witness to an exchange of rings. They only do ring exchange in Hong Kong. She said her and her husband ran to the store and bought cheap ones which they used for the exchange only and never wore again. She told me the more recent generations (She was born during the cultural revolution when Mao was still around) have brought back some of the traditions. As a country, China is considering bringing back some of the traditions that the people like, such as an engagement and formal wedding ceremony.
I knew the exchange of rings wasn't a worldy concept, but even in places where they do its not the same. I learned here from my Mexican friends that the wedding band goes on the right hand. There was an awkward moment with an exchange student who didn't realize that in the US, we rep the bands on the left hand, and that was why I had my ring on. But no harm done, just another learning experience!
I've been shopping here a couple times and whenever I go, I do find things to wear. The clothing here, minus the super expensive Gucci-like designer stores, the clothes here are all made from cheap fabric and cheaply stitched, whether its a $5 shirt or a 30$ shirt. I feel like people here are more fashionable than in Daytona, which isn't really saying that much, but I am also in a HUGE city compared to Daytona so my fashion comparison is pretty much shot out the window. Now something I have noticed, in a way that I don't thinks its a fashion statement thing, is that the girls here wear much more feminine clothing than back home. Dresses are way more common, so are skirts and ruffles and pastel feminine colors. Another thing that is very popular here, like at home, is the straight leg jeans especially on guys and the large thick rimmed black eye glasses. Worn more for fashion than necessity, I've spotted lots without lenses which is just weird.... There aren't as many "brands" worn here though. I feel like at home, people where brands a lot instead of wearing certain types of clothing. And even if they don't, the brands are displayed. Most of the stores here might LOOK like chain stores, but its just some guys business. They all buy from the same factory, but instead of working together to create on franchise they all chose to be independent, so there's no local brands or symbols (Think the American Eagle eagle) or anything like that.
They do have a HUGE variety of jewelry and accessories here which is fun :) Its a bit sad, since everything is super cheap and wares easily, but I've found some nice things. There is a open section out in front of one of our canteens where student club vendors and local vendors come periodically and sell stuff or recruit for their club. I found a vendor who sold stone pendants. Alma and I were looking around, and I found a pretty white marble pendant that I liked. The vendor, an Asian in his 40s, told me that if I held it, I could feel the stones pulse. The stone send positive vibes when it was squeezed and could put people in a good mood. Then he asked if he could charge it. Sure, why not? So in the middle of the canteen, he held the stone in his hand, got this far away distance trance-like stare off behind us, and started swaying and chanting. ME and Alma just started at each other, a little embarrassed and very confused. He chanted out loud and some language for about 3 minutes and handed me back the stone. We thanked him and left.
Phuket, Thailand. Google Phang Nga Bay, that's where I'm going to do my big tour! I'm going solo, and splurging on a resort by the beach (still like $60/night only) at one of the most famous Thai beaches, and gong to ride an elephant in the jungle! woo!
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