Week 41 - Indonesia

J and I worked really hard Sunday and Monday and finished planning and booking all our flights and accommodations between now and our return home on September 1. After realizing last week that some of our top choices in Australia were no longer available, and knowing that the world is either already back to traveling or making plans for summer, we decided we'd better get everything booked ahead. It's a good feeling to have it all done, I'm sure there will be canceled flights and such requiring minor changes, but we'll just resolve those as they crop up. C was excited to find out that we will be able to get to Alaska after all and asked to help with the planning. J and I created Airbnb and VRBO wishlists with viable possibilities and let him take a look. He came up with a ranking system, considering things like proximity to water, wildlife, and availability of kayaks, and identified his top choice, which happened to be the same as J's and my top choice, and also turned out to be available, so that was great. I was pretty impressed with his thought process. Now we just have to pay off the credit card over the next couple months, which won't be too hard since our day to day expenses aren't that much once transportation and lodging are paid for. I'm really looking forward to all our upcoming stays, including Ohio in September. It's been incredibly humid and sticky the past couple days here, and the mosquitoes are out in full force. Try as I might, I just don't love tropical weather. I'm thinking everywhere after this will be at least somewhat cooler, because we'll have either elevation or latitude to help out.

Sunday was American Mother's Day. I wasn't expecting anything since I got myself a present for Lebanese Mother's Day. Usually we don't do much, but I request a break from cooking. As it turned out, I got one because the chef that taught us the cooking class last week invited us over for Indian food. It was delicious, and we had a nice visit. Indonesia is the only place we've received two dinner invitations. Part of that is probably because COVID is pretty well under control here, as opposed to being in Europe during the Delta wave last summer, for example, but a big part is just that Indonesians are so nice. 

J accidentally woke me up in the middle of the night Sunday/early Monday morning because the condensation on the air conditioner dripped on his head and startled him and I couldn't get back to sleep, so I picked up my phone and found a WhatsApp from big C wishing me a happy Mother's Day. It was nice to chat back and forth with him a while, with everyone else asleep. So that was my Mother's Day. Technically it wasn't Mother's Day here anymore, but it was big C's birthday so it worked out perfectly. 

Tuesday was a trip day. We got up early, but our guide was a little late, which was fine because it gave us time to call big C after he got off work California time, since it was still his birthday there. We left by 9:00. Our first stop was to get PCR tests for the kids to go back to Bali on Thursday, since traveling between islands requires a PCR for people who have only one shot. This turned out to be kind of a convoluted process. Apparently, you can't actually get PCRs in Lombok unless you're in the hospital. So we went to the ferry office and they told us just what to do and where to go. You go to a clinic right by the ferry port, show your passport, pay the equivalent of about 7 USD per person plus a small tip, and get a paper that says you have a negative PCR, but you don't actually get a test. Well, this suited Sean fine, though the rest of us were kind of taken aback. So papers in hand, we were ready to spend the rest of the day having fun. 

Today's destinations were north of our villa up the coastal road and then  inland, so very different from our other trips which had been south. We first went to Lombok wildlife park. It's a really nice, well maintained facility, nice paths, pretty landscaping, clean bathrooms with toilet paper, really everything you could want. It's a bit like a zoo, but many of the birds are just out on their perches and you're encouraged to feed and interact with the animals. Most of the animals are native to Indonesia, so very exotic to us, but still in their natural habitat, just in enclosures, and nice big ones at that. We saw Asian elephants:

Many birds:

Pythons:

Sun bears:

Orangutans:

Gibbons:

Crocodiles:

Hippos, including a new baby:

Deer:

Proboscis monkeys:

Komodo dragons:

Pelicans:

And porcupines:

Everyone enjoyed it.

Next we drove further into the mountains to see a waterfall, but it started to rain so we decided to have lunch first. The restaurant had a beautiful view. The mist in the valley is from the three waterfalls. The food was yummy. I got to try a vegetarian dish that was similar to nasi goreng, but noodles instead of rice, S got to have his favorite pizza, C got chicken sate, and J got an Indonesian fish dish. C has really enjoyed trying new food here and has liked most of it. Vegetarian options are pretty limited, but I really like the fresh juices that are almost always available.

By the time we were done eating the rain had stopped and we went on to the waterfall. It's a beautiful walk, you can actually hike to all three, but we just went to the closest one. 

We all enjoyed the walk more than the waterfall itself. The scenery is beautiful, and there are little cave openings from which you can hear the rushing water.

The area around the waterfall is kind of built up with food vendors and was a bit crowded, though mostly with local people, not tourists. Of course, there was trash and monkeys eating leftovers, though the monkeys didn't actually bother anyone or try to get food from people. 

I was the only one who wanted to get wet, and the guide gestured toward where I could change. There were two buildings, one looked closed up and one had several women changing in it. Naturally, they weren't putting on bathing suits, but I figured they were just changing from wet to dry clothes. I got a few funny looks as I changed too, but I was the only Western woman, and the only person with a bathing suit, so I figured that was why. Earlier I saw one other western woman who had a bikini and I figured at least I wasn't as inappropriate as she was, though I don't know where she changed, or if she just had it under her clothes. Anyway, I got my bathing suit on and enjoyed cooling off. There isn't really a pool below the falls, just a creek, but the cold water felt great.

I cooled off and went back to change. As I approached the building where I had changed before, I realized another group of women was there praying. Yep, I had changed clothes in the mosque. The "changing clothes" I had witnessed before was from regular hijab to white prayer hijab. Oops. The closed-up building was probably bathrooms, but they were locked. I found J and S there, S needed to poop and on the way taking him J had slipped, pulled S over on top of him, and scraped up his entire shin. S was fine but really needed to poop. While we were figuring out what to do a nice lady came along and held my towel up while I changed, J went back to clean up his scrape and get wipes from my backpack, I helped Sean poop in the woods, and pretty soon everyone was at least pretty much ok. Good thing I always have wipes, hand sanitizer, tissues, antibiotic cream, band-aids, and bug spray. The walk back was just as lovely as the walk there, but we were ready to head home when we got back to the car. 

Wednesday was a school and packing day. Thursday we left Lombok for Bali. It was a long day. I did get my morning walk in, then got the kids up and ready to go. We distributed our tips, said goodbye to the staff, and rode about half an hour to the ferry port. J was able to present our documents in the office without us having to go in, we discouraged the porters, and made our way to the end of the pier. We tip well when we request a service, but don't appreciate pushy porters who grab your bags from your hands and then demand a tip. Just as on the way there, the ferry arrived an hour later than the time given on the tickets, so we had plenty of time for school. Unfortunately, it was hot and sticky and we were sitting on the hard concrete, but that's how world schooling is sometimes. The boat was air-conditioned, though crowded, but we had a row to ourselves and were able to eat the lunch I packed. The pier in Padang Bai was crowded and full of determined hawkers and porters. Bali is much more tourism-dependent than Lombok and everyone is trying to make up for two years of lost income due to COVID. I understand that, but I don't enjoy being harassed, and what one experiences can be described in no other way than harassment. J went off to look for the driver leaving me with the kids and a huge pile of luggage. Soon I could see the driver, but not J, and both began WhatsApp-ing me, but not actually listening to my responses, so I had several minutes of alternating between dealing with the phone, the porters, and the whining, fighting children, all while dripping sweat in the beating sun. Finally, I managed to get C to walk over to the driver — easier said than done in the crowd — and lead him to us, then managed to communicate to J that he needed to come back. The kids, the driver, and I all grabbed a couple bags and wanted to get to the car in one trip, but J didn't think it was possible and wasn't listening, so we got left again to roast in the sun and deal with the porters until he came back for us. Finally, we all made it to the car. The ride to the mountain house which Google said was two hours was really more like three, plus an hour to stop for groceries. So it was 7:00 by the time we arrived. The housekeeper was waiting to show us around. Then finally she left and we were able to get dinner, baths, and bed. 

Daylight on Friday showed us that the trouble we took to get here was worth it.

It's a beautiful mountain house overlooking a lake. It's not totally quiet or secluded, but it's close as you're going to get to nature on Bali. When we planned this part of the trip it was J that had an interest in Bali. I didn't know much about it, but the more I read the less I wanted to come. I was thinking he just wanted a hot beach and Lombok would fit the bill for half the price, but turns out he was specifically interested in Bali, and had been since he was a kid. Unfortunately, Bali has gotten extremely touristy in the 50 years between then and now, and pretty much anything on the beach was out of our budget and very built up. So when it worked out that our flight to Australia was six days after our check out day in Lombok we decided to come to the Balinese mountains.

Much like in Lombok, our immediate surroundings are lovely, but the noise from the village below is constant, and as soon as you leave the grounds of the villa you find a lot of litter, though there are pretty spots. It's definitely more comfortable for me here in the mountains; the air is fresh and cool and I'm not drenched in sweat constantly. 

Indonesia is making me think, especially since it's natural to compare it to our previous stop in Madagascar. Indonesia is without a doubt more "advanced." The roads are better, the standard of living is higher, and more Western products are available. However, trash is everywhere. More packaged goods are available and more people are able to afford them, but there is no good system for dealing with the waste. Folks in Madagascar are so poor they use little and reuse everything. Here it's either thrown on the ground or piled up to burn. Trash is burned in Madagascar too, but not large amounts of plastic like here. It's so frustrating. So who's better off? I would never want to deny the Malagasy people the convenience of paved roads and a livable income, but I'd hate to go back there in ten years and find it as spoiled as Indonesia. That's not to say there aren't great things about Indonesia. It's beautiful, especially if you look out over a whole scene, in which case you don't notice the litter, and as I've mentioned the people are very friendly, but it definitely makes one question the value of "progress."

So Friday was spent resting, reflecting, and getting acquainted with our immediate surroundings. We met with a local taxi driver and planned a trip for Monday. We might have hired him for an additional day, but he showed up uninvited to solicit business before we had even had a chance to talk about what things we wanted to do. He wasn't pushy about it, but people here don't seem to get the idea that Americans prefer to request services than be badgered by offers. 

Saturday morning I took a walk and found my way through the fields to the lake. It's a holiday honoring the god of food so there were lots of offerings in the fields by the crops.

J and I worked on the visas and health forms for Australia, then late in the afternoon we all took a walk to a nearby strawberry farm and picked berries.

We just have a few more days here. Then Wednesday, it's on to Australia.