There's nothing like balinese culture, especially with a dab of earthquake thrown in for fun

After arriving in Ubud, which is further up the volcano in bali, I found (well the guy found me) this amazing homestay. It's only 5 bucks and includes a good breakfast, but that's far from what so great about it. It's in a traditional balinese compound (just like the one that we ate lunch at when I was on the bike tour with the carlisles and brennans the last time in bali. So it's this nice room overlooking a gorgeous little garden filled with plants, flowers, a pond, and balinese style statues. And of course in the back is the family temple area. And the family is just so incredibly nice.

That night I went to see the labong and barong traditional balinese dances. It was definitely worth it and I found it quite entertaining. They wore beautiful and over the top costumes and the women would not only dance with their bodies, but with their fingers and eyes. Really crazy.

It was after the dance that I realized some really bad news. Right before the concert I had found out how much tickets cost and realized it was time to make an atm run. I had to go quick and was in a hurry. The first atm wouldn't work with my card, so I went to the next. Got my 2.5 million rupees (which is a huge handful of cash), was occuppied with securing it into my money belt, and again for got to take the card. So now I had lost my backup card, which is no good, no good at all. Currently trying to figure out where to go from here with the money I have left and with no atm card and a country that doens't take credit card really. Yes, realize it was a bonehead move and I should have learned from the first time, but I'm still frustrated with the way the system works that they give you this massive wad of cash and then you have to go back to the screen to cancel any further transactions before you get your card back. You're there for the cash, so you definitely won't forget that, so I wish you had to take your card before you could get the money and not vice versa. Anways, as I found out, I'm not the only one who has had this problem. The finnish girl that is in the same balinese compound as me also lost her atm that way and I ran into to balinese guys today that had lost a card that way. Just a stupid system. But regardless it's my fault and now my poor mom and me have to figure out what to do. My brother thinks I should sell my body...hmm guess i hope to find other alternatives
After I figured it out, I went straight back to the bank and atm hoping they had a number or something b/c I figured I could get the card back from the atm machine if a banker could open it. Of course it was friday night which meant no bankers on saturday and sunday and then ramadan is ending so there is a public holiday monday and tuesday. Went to find the police to see if they knew of anyone or any security guard that could help. In true indonesian style, they didn't know much put they put me in the patrol car and took me to the bank where I was met with 6 other policeman. 2 taxi drivers and the next 2 people to use the machine all joined in sitting there and discussing and trying to help me. The tourists walking by gave me quite the weird looks thinking I must have really done something bad or had something bad done to me. But I guess it was comical if you weren't me with all these police there with a nearly in tears tourist and some of the police actually trying to break into the bank. Eventually a guy that knew pretty good english came by and called up the CIMB banks 24 hour number and told me that they have a new policy now that all eaten atm cards are immediately destroyed, so I lost hope in getting in back, though the police sure didn't.
Didn't get to bed until late that night as I had to go email my mom and check for any new charges on my card incase it was stolen and then of course didn't sleep very well. So I was obviously pretty bleary eyed when I woke up the next morning at 6:30am so I could get an early start on the bike ride I had planned as I had rented a bike the day before. I was sitting in a chair in the compound eating the tasty breakfast and sipping tea watching the rain when my neighbor came out. She was finnish and sat on the floor in a yoga pose. She'd come to Ubud (the cultural, artistic, an relaxation capital of bali) for yoga classes. We talked about, I guess the usual stuff that one talks about to your neighbor in a homestay early in the morning. That yes, the water turned off sometime last night before I wanted to take a shower, and yes, my room was very nice and clean with a few friendly cockroaches and hers was nice too except for the huge barking gecko (that I heard all night) living in her bathroom, but of course that we were overall impressed with the placem when all of a sudden there was a violent shaking of the building my chair was leaning against and a noise. I originally thought it was a jackhammer and someone had started repairs on the otherside of the building so early and it was shaking the building. After just kind of thinking about the shake with bleary eyes, I finally realized it was an earthquake, but by then it was over. However, not long afterward another one, a much strong and longer one hit, and this one I was much quicker to jump out to the open space with no roof in the garden. Turned out to be a 5.8 quake not far from kuta. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8264169.stm Pretty crazy to be in that!

But the rain cleared, the ground steadied, and I decided it was time to put the atm behind me, at least for now, and go off on my bike ride. The finnish gal (dad's type, tall and blonde) had seemed rather inquisitive and asked me to join her at the market once her yoga lessons were done. But in perhaps the fatal flaw of the guy brothers who always take a bike ride over a date or a ski weekend over a dance (but that's how I knew bro would end up dating mckenzie b/c when he met her he eagerly told me that she owned 3 bikes and numerous skis), I turned it down as I wanted to go on a big bike ride

The bike ride was fantastic. Heading uphill from ubud towards the top of the volcano through quiet backroads, some single track, quaint and artistic villages and past smiling and waving locals, more temples than you can count and lots of little snippets of balinese culture. A couple of the villages were having fesitivities at their temple and were all dressed up and carrying fruit in by the bushel. Of course they were carrying it in on their head as the balinese women carry everything from a glass of water to an impossible load on their heads. After being in kuta where the common phrases the locals are saying to you are: "you need mairjuana; you want transport; boom boom; i get you young lady; ephedrin; mushrooms; you look my bracelet; massage" it was great to be in an area with such friendly locals waving and shouting hello and good morning. The kids running up for high fives and chasing after the bike as long as they can. Some of the locals inviting me in to see their compound. The ancient toothless men and women giving you funny looks and then big smiles. Instead of being ripped off, they right away give you local prices (a grilled corn cost 10 cents here and was attempted to be sold to me for 2 dollars in kuta) and I even had a couple people buy me food. The sheer amount of temples is just staggering and amazing. Every family has their own temple comples and then there are the village ones as well. And all of the houses are built in the balinese style, so that mixed with the temples just gives the area a cool look and feel. And of course there are glowing green rice fields everywhere. Just like the architecture, the people are dressed quite traditionally, and even some of the old women just walk around topless, and of course you come across people just bathing in the irrigation streams buck naked. Some of my favorite moments are when the kids ask you to take their picture and when you show them the picture they scream and laugh with delight. One of my other favorite moments was when I was eating at this small warung. I asked to wash my hands and I went to the back where there was a temple nearby with about 30 old women sitting down. They were quite surprised to see me and oh did they laugh and carry on about that, especially after I waved to them. And some guys along the road let me hold their roosters and even showed me how you get them wound up and fiesty for the fight. 3/4 of the way into my trip, I met a nice gal when I was getting some bakso soup. She was 17 and in what they call university, so she new good english. She quick took her motorbike to get her pushbike and then she led me on a tour of the countryside and through her village and her compound. I explored quite a bit as I left around 8am and didn't turn around for the fun and fast descent until 3:30. I have to say the balinese culture may really be one of my favorites. It's held on to still be traditional and the architecture is just amazing.
So needless to say the biking trip was amazing and I just wish I could capture all of it and remember it b/c along the way you just have so many cool personal and cultural encounters
Finished the day by checking out the 4 seasons, where bro used to be a security guard (in jackson of course). As the esteemed brother of the best security guard on the 4 seasons force, I was given a personal tour by the manager of the villas. Talk about fancy. Bro, next time instead of spending your free 4 season nights in canada, I suggest bali!

I really, really like Ubud. Really a beautiful place with great culture, friendly people, and a myriad of activities to do. Not to mention you could bike and hike all over the place and just run into so many cool things. It's kind of this interisland tropical paradise really. I'd stay here longer if I could, but there is a lot more to indonesia to see and I'm on a timed visa.

Tomorrow I take a bus to the port a ferry to lombok, possibly another bus, then a ferry ti Gili Air a tiny carless island off the coast of lombok.

Surf's up in Bali

The next day in Bali I did some just hanging out in the morning and then surfed in the afternoon. Took an hour of advanced surf lessons then surfed til sunset. I'm starting to pick it up pretty well. By no stretch of the imagination am I good, but am finding it easy to catch the wave and get up. After the hard afternoon of surfing relaxed with a nice balinese massage.

The following day, Tom and I took a tour of bali with wayan. It was a great tour as wayan was an awesome guy and it was only us booking the tour so we had the car to ourselves and could stop whenever we wanted. First visited the large Mengwi temple. Then drove up for some great views of lake buyan and lake tamblingan. From near there we walked to the gorgeous Munduk waterfall. After this we visited the ulun danu water temple on lake bratan which was pretty magnificent sitting out there on this crater lake. From here we went to a market full of fresh fruit of all colors, shapes, and sizes. Both Tom and Wayan were impressed with my bargaining skills. Mangosteens started out at 8 dollars per kilo (this was a place tourists are brought) and I got it down to 2 dollars per kilo, the same price wayans wife would pay if she were shopping a more traditional market. But what can I say, after being in asia for so long, I better get good. After stocking up on fruit, we had a delicious buffet lunch at a restaurant overlooking the rice terraces which I had, with my bargaining power, got thrown into the tour for free. After lunch we stopped at and walked along two amazing rice terrace viewpoints: pacung and jatiluwih (the best one). We then made it down to Tanah lot temple, a temple built on an island in the ocean for a nice sunset.
Crazy as this is, that night, I ran into martin and lucus (the czechs) at our hotel. And of course, when in rome...so we went out for some clubbing and dancing and bintang beers that night. I ended up dancing the night away but Tom at some point passed me the hotel keys and went home with a prostitute. Guess, if he wants a prostitute, that's his thing, but what I wasn't impressed with was that he's the same guy who has been saying he is cutting his year long trip short to 6 months because he misses his girlfriend. I'm really not a big fan of cheaters. But whatever, I was leaving that next day for ubud anyways.
Took the 4pm bus to Ubud on Friday. Spent my last 1/2 day in Kuta walking around some more and then hanging out and walking along the beach and finishing up with another nice massage

Walking on the moon...but with gravity

The next morning I did get to sleep in until 7 ish when I got a van for the long drive to Cemroro Lawang where the tenneger-semeru-bromo national park is. Usually I take public transportation but it sounded just as cheap and much easier to go by tourist transport there and they would have a hotel at a discount price awaiting you. The van driver was absolutely crazy passing with oncoming trucks, passing using the shoulder, etc. I of course was in the front (with no seatbelt) as when you're the single person you're almost always in the front, and the people in the back were screaming and were quite surprised I didn't even flinch on many of the apparent close calls, but in truth after being in asia for 9 months now, I am quite used to it, and just hope that when I return to driving I don't drive like they do here. When I signed up for the tour there were 4 hotels to pick from. THey don't tell you much about them other than show you a picture of the room and tell you they have a hot shower (which was amazing to have not only a real shower, but a hot one as it was quite cold up there). So I picked one with the most meaningful name, Yoshi's, the nickname of my good friend at college. Turns out it was the one hotel that was not in cemror lawang but was 7km straight down hill from there. So when we arrived at the hotel that night I found out I had an extra 7km steep uphill walk just to get to cemoro lawang for the next 6km straight up walk to the top of the mountain and the viewpoint. There were 4wd jeeps you could take there, but they were obviously very expensive. So I set out at 2am, walking fast b/c I was not sure if I would even be able to find the trail at that time in the morning since I was so far from the main area. But after walking past many locals who told me it was impossible to hike to the top (rent a motorbike from them or take them as a guide) or that it was 26km away, I found the trail. At 4am I reached the 1st viewpoint where there was a dutch guy camping out and waiting for sunrise. He was too scared to go higher for some reason, but he told me a few minutes ago two czech guys had gone up. Yes!! I had finally caught up to them. Before 5 I had made it to the top viewpoint and located the czechs. But it was a zoo up there with over 150 tourists who had all come up in jeeps. The czechs had heard from a polish guy of a peak just a bit further that would be empty, so we bushwacked there to meet up with him. On this peak was a little hindu shrine and amazing views of the sunrise. It definitely had to be one of the most impressive and unique views I had ever seen. The czechs said it was number 2 behind the grand canyon. You're way up and you look down on a gigantic crater (tenneger crater) which has two smaller volcanoes (bromo and batok rising out of it or which bromo is heavily steaming) The majority of the crater is this flat deserty, sandy area called the sea of sands and in the morning was covered in mist and fog so that it looked more like a sea of mist. Rising dramatically from the background is the highest volcano in java, mt. semeru, which actually usually erupts every 15 minutes, but wasn't erupting now for some reason. But the view was just incredible and really looked like something you might see on the moon in the sea of tranquility. And the fire of the sunrise made it even more impressive. After watching it for quite some time, we hiked back to the main viewpoint now that all the tourists had gone and had some tea before hiking down. Midway down Lucas had a panick attack b/c his money belt was not on him. We searched where we had been but couldn't find it at all, but luckily it was under his pillow when we got back. Lucas and Martin headed to bali that morning and I walked back down to yoshi's for a hot shower and then packed up to move to a cheap losmen (guesthouse) in cemoro lawang and right on the big crater's rim. While at lunch I was putting on sunscreen for the 2nd time (the sunscreen nazi would be so proud) and this ancient woman who was working in the onion fields came by and pointed at it. I let her dip her finger on my palm and she put some on her nose and obviously loved it smiling a big toothless smile. I gave her a whole big squeeze and she happily applied it all over her face and arms and then went off showing off her greasy arms to all the other old ladies around. That afternoon I hiked down the crater to the sea of sands, which was just like a desert. Reminded me of death valley, though not so hot as we were at such high altitude. But with all the volcanoes and lack of vegetation it did look just like the moon or some distant planet. It was quite nice to be in such a dry and dusty desert. I crossed the sea of sands and then climbed up the steaming mt bromo and then hiked around it's crater. From the other side you could see another crater and mt. semeru so I stopped there for a while and journaled before finishing it around the crater. For sunset I climbed back up the main crater to watch from there. As you get so dusty you need to take a shower at night, so at my new losmen I had the freezing joy of taking a mandi (just bucket style shower) in the cold weather (about 40F). Slept in til 4am that morning as I was closer and also going only to the 1st viewpoint this time to watch the sunrise. Again another impressive sunrise from this vantage point.

Took a bemo from cemoro lawang to the Ijen area stopping along at a beach for lunch on the way. The ijen plateau is a high plateau famous for growing coffee and strawberries and surrounded by several volcanos. It was quite an interesting ride there as it was an incredibly bumpy one lane road through the forest and we were all packed like sardines in the van (bemo), me nearly sitting on a frenchman's lap. I had just paid for transport and was supposed to be dropped off at a cheap losmen or homestay, but of course they didn't feel like driving me there and the fancy hotel that was part of everyone else's tour was far from the village. The hotel was charging 30 bucks which was way over my price range so I asked them how much to just have some blankets to sleep on the veranda. They eventually decided to give me a room where the drivers stay for 7 bucks. As it was really cold there as well, 2 dutch gals on the tour invited me to take a hot shower in their room, which I much appreciated.
The next morning we woke at 3:30 am to drive a bit and then hike up Ijen volcano and to it's crater lake and sulfur mine. The hike up was pretty easy compared to the other volcanoes, or maybe it's just that I was getting really good at hiking volcanoes and in good shape. Anyways, made it to the top and you couldn't see the crater or lake at all b/c of all the sulfur. so i hike up and around the crater rim deciding to have patience instead of turning around like some did. Eventually the sulfur eruptions calmed down and it cleared and I got magnificent views of the crater and the gorgeous turquoise lake. It was such a gorgeous color and one I had never seen before. I also hiked a bit down into the crater where local guys were hauling up bright yellow sulfur rocks, in little baskets with a yoke type device on their shoulders. Obviously, heavy and difficult work made harder by the fact that some were barefoot, some in only sandals, but most wearing boots, but all affected by the often dense choking sulfur smoke. I didn't have time to go all the way down as it would have taken forever since it was a 1 person wide trail and the local guys were going so slow up and down and I had waited past the time I was supposed to already in order to see the lake really clear up. The bemo was supposed to leave at 9:30, and I knew it would take 40 minutes to walk down, but in true Guy Bros fashion I always knew I could extend my time by jogging down, and then even more time by running down. So I left around 9:15 and made it with a couple minutes to spare, all that practice running at dakota ridge always comes in handy on steep downhill runs.

From Ijen plateau, the bemo took us back down to the steam coast to catch a ferry to bali. So Zara, Alex, and Tom (all from the UK) and I headed off to Bali. Once in Bali we boarded the bus, which we knew was supposed to cost 20,000 rp, but of course they were trying to charge a tourist price of 60,000, which I always find rediculous, but after awhile we agreed to pay that. We all paid them with 100,000 notes and were awaiting change when the conductor just jumped off never to return, so then it was obvious there would be getting no change and we had paid 100,000 for a 3 hour ride that should cost 20,000. This is one of the frustrations of travelling in indonesia and although I try to ignore it and realize that I have much more well of monetairly than a lot of them, it can get on your nerves, and just how everything in everyway they try to get money from you like your a walking atm. Ask for directions and they want money. And when you're walking down the street they're often saying photo, photo, but then of course they want a dollar for their photo, and of course a 100 other things that they want money or cigarettes for. And this just sometimes gets on your nerves b/c although I think it's fine to be trying to make money, I also think there should be a time when it's just decent humanity where you help out your fellow humans. Back home we'd never ask a tourist for money for giving directions or when the japanese ask to take a picture with you. Or when I worked for the National Park and was in my full ranger outfit all the kids always wanted pictures with me. I could have been quite rich getting a dollar for that. And whether I was working for the park or hiking on my own if I saw a porcupine or a moose hidden in the willows or something I'd always take any tourists i saw in the area and show them, which would be unheard of here, let alone free hitchhiking or any of that that is more or less accepted in western culture. To me it can just be kind of sad here that we're viewed as dollar signs and not as people or friends. The lonely planet guidebook has an interesting thing about paying to have friends here and to be careful that even guys that apparently want to hang out with you and just practice english or be friendly will then ask for money for being your friend. I do understand that I am often much more well off, but it's also just nice sometimes to just be friendly and humanly to people. I mean it's not too much to ask really if you're sitting on a bench doing nothing and some askes which way to the post office to just point.

So Tom, Alex, and I took a cab from Denpasar to Kuta (zara was going to Ubud) the main budget and surfing area. It was quite a shock really to get here after travelling through java and sumatra. We were all very culture shocked for sure. b/c here in kuta it's just crazy shopping and so many westerners and partying and australians running around with out shirts and in tight shorts (I found out the british quite despise these types of australians) and completely fashionable and all good looking and make-upped and all that, which was like the antithesis of sumatra where you should wear all long clothing, where you're always dirty and mud covered, and where you can't even drink water in public, let alone be trashed and holding beers in the middle of the street half naked. If I had thought this was all bali was, I wouldn't have liked it, but luckily, I had been here before with the carlisles where we stayed at a much tamer area and really got to meet the locals. Of course kuta is fun for it's parties and surf and that's why so many come, but it would really be hard to tell the difference between here and the gold coast of australia or maybe parts of the cali coast. But with 3 of us sharing we only had to pay 6 dollars each for a nice hotel with private bathroom, real shower, and even a swimming pool with a tasty breakfast. But last night we just rented a dvd player and bought a dvd (for 1 dollar) and watched into the wild as we weren't ready to face the party that is kuta yet and were all exhausted from our travels (alex and zara had even gotten sick from all the early mornings and cold weather). This morning, being used to my other schedule, was only able to sleep into 7:30.

Today I pretty much tried to deal with my lost atm card situation b/c it was supposed to have been shipped to bali by now but the system at charles schwaab didn't like the bali address as they don't often use a postal code, so it hadn't been shipped. Also walked just a bit outside the tourist area of kuta where the balinese culture is much more pronounced and the little temples are everywhere and the surf-tude is lacking, which is all very nice.

Sleepless in Yogya (and beyond)

So took the train from Jakarta to yogyakarta (prounounce joegjakarta or jogya for short). It was a very nice and comfortable train with nice scenery. This country is so full of volcanoes it's crazy. Everytime you look out the window is another volcano rising up above the rice fields. The scenery out the window of the train was very dry, like thailand in the dry season, which I really liked. Got in to yogya early in the evening and immediately liked the place. The walk from the train station to the budget area was only 200m and the budget accommadtion was insanely cheap, but 200% cleaner than anywhere else I'd been to. Then there was good food everywhere and so cheap as well. Tried lots of the local favorites. And since it was a big city and touristy, there wasn't a problem with getting food due to ramadan. The city is also very, very artsy. It's like the home of batik, so there are batik stores everywhere. And major forms of transport are human powered tricycles or horse carts which is pretty cool. And then there are little alleyways (called gangs) which are fun to wonder around.

The next morning would start a marathon of no sleep, keeping in mind that I had also stayed up nearly the whole night watching anak krakatau as well as staying up late in jakarta and waking up early for a train ride in which i didn't sleep much b/c of the nice scenery. Although the next week or so would be little sleep, i never really got too tired b/c I guess you just get used to it, like during finals week, and b/c there was so much exciting sutf going on. So woke up before 5 to catch a tour that left at 5 to watch the sunrise at the famous buddhist temple of brobodur. The temple was quite huge and surrounded by mountains, so it was quite cool. Met two czech guys on the trip, martin and lucas, who were quite cool. After brobodur the tour went to another more minor buddhist temple, and then on to the famous Prambanan hindu temple, which is the biggest in indonesia. It was beautiful, but was being repaired a bit b/c of a major earthquake that happend on my birthday is 2006.

Once back in yogya that afternoon I handed in my laundry which was desperately needed and then headed out to explore the city. Walked along Jln Malioboro, the famous street there full of batik and other shopping things to the Kraton, which is the big palace where the sultan lives (this city is still ruled by a sultan) There is a palace for the sultan inside the kraton walls, but also some villages, so I walked inside and to the bird market, which was quite disturbing. There were obviously thousands of birds for sale at the bird market as well as fish, rabbits, reptiles, worms and other crawlies to use as food, cats, and dogs all crammed in little cages. But there were also some endangered or at least threatened species for sale there I recognized like some fruit bats, owls, and baby flathead cats (a type of wildcat similar to an ocelot). After this I walked some more through the tiny lanes of the kraton until I got to an area called tamansari which was like the pleasure garden and water garden area for the sultan in days past. There were the ruins of the water palace with good views of the city, as well as the now restored swimming pools where the sultan could watch the ladies bathe. And explored an underground mosque which I found quite cool with it's interesting staircases and windows. Continued exploring some more before heading back to the big food markets on jln malioboro to sample some of the food and browse a bit of the batiks before spending the next 3hours trying to find size 13 flip flops at the 4 malls and infinite shoe shops around there as my sandals were hanging on by a thread and were about as thin as a piece of construction paper. Size 9 seemed to be the largest anyone carried, but finally found some 11's which were good enough.

The most active volcano in indonesia is called merapi (translates to fire mountain and there are actually 4 merapis in indo, 2 in java, one in sumatra, and one somewhere else). Usually you can only take a tour to a viewpoint to see the lava flowing down, but for a couple months it's been inactive and you can actually climb it, which is pretty rare. I had wanted to climb it, but of course had the issue of trying to find another person for the minimum of two. Luckily the czech guys were all about it and we also found a brit named Cairo that wanted to do it as well. I had planned to take a nap that evening, but the sandal shopping took too long. We got picked up at our hotels at 10 and then driven to the base of the volcano where we started hiking at midnight. It was a very, very steep climb, but were approaching the summit at dawn, which was a surreal experience b/c we were walking through sulfur steam vents turned red from the approaching sun, so it looked just like a martian movie or something. We made it to the top intime to see the sun rise and were rewarded spectacular views of the area and merapi's twin volcano right across the way. Once back the czechs were taking a train to surabaya to eventually get to mt bromo where I hoped to see them later, but that night I wanted to watch the ballet ramayana. I had time for a quick nap and then headed back out to the prambanan temple to watch the ramayana ballet. I had really wanted to see it b/c back in freshman year with Dr. Simonton we had focused a bunch on the ramayana and written so many papers for it, so I had a special interest and even though the ballet was in hindi, I could still follow what was going on. The ballet was well done with elaborate costumes and a an orchestra of traditional instruments and of course with the stunning backdrop of the lit up prambanan temple in the back. That night instead of getting a good rest as I maybe should have since I had been up all night climbing the volcano and had started the day long long ago at 4am when I went to the temples, I headed out for some more good food and walking around at night and then stayed on the internet til past 3am b/c I hadn't had access in forever and knew I wouldn't get it after that for awhile and I had credit card bills to pay, people to write back to, and the blog to update. I'm not a coffee drinker, but that night I had some of the famous java coffee and then also a specialty there called coffee joss which is a strong coffee drink where they put a steaming coal into it, which is quite unique.

Krakatau goes boom

*I had forgotten to mention a few other hang-ups I had on the motorbike trip that also made it even more difficult. On the morning that we ascended to the summit of the volcano I ended up getting an upset stomach and the runs. Never the most pleasant thing, but up on an open, incredibly steep volcano that is freezing cold and with sulfur all around so that it's hard to breathe, it hardly makes it any better. Than on the really rough road to bangko we hit a particularly large pothole. I put my wrist down to brace myself and sprained it. It actuall didn't really hurt that bad and I hardly noticed it, but the next day it hurt quite bad and my right arm was useless. And try finding a splint or ace bandage in bangko. Ended up using one of my sandals as a splint and a t-shirt as a splint. The good news is that after another day and night it was pretty much back to normal*


As Jakarta is a very dirty, very polluted and not necessarily nice city I wanted to get out of there as quick as possible, watching my wallet and money purse at all times. From the airport took a bus to the west bus terminal and then a bus northwest of jakarta to the west coast and the little village of Carita. While on the bus there was a large earthquake not too far from where I was going, but again, being on the bus didn't feel anything. The motorbike driver from labuan to carita took me to a hotel that was on the beach but a bit to pricey for me;however, the manager cut me a good deal instead of going down the road, so I stayed there. His name was Ananas, and would later restore my faith in tour related indonesians. He told me Krakatau--the reason I was there and perhaps the most famous active volcano in the world--was currently erupting. He had been there 3 days earlier with a tour group that searches out erupting volcanoes and it had been erupting and even erupting lots of lava. So I was instantly interested as I was still on my quest to see that. The boat for a day though would cost 2 million rupiah or for the overnight trip which is the only way to see the lava, would cost 3 million rupiah, which is quite a lot for one person. It can be split by up to six people in which case it wouldn't be so bad. He said there was only one other westerner in the area, a spaniard who was also interested, so we would wait a day to see if anyone else came.

The next day I first walked around Carita to try and see if anyone else was staying. It was like a ghost town though. Tons of resorts, but no one staying there at all. I think it's mainly a weekend getaway for jakartans (it was a weekend) but during ramadan they don't come. But no other tourists for sure. To pass the time, I took a hike into the forest to a really nice waterfall to swim at and then also went swimming at the beach. I ran into the spaniard that night and he told me he was tired of waiting and was leaving, in fact he was leaving the country b/c he was tired of ramadan and wanted to drink and eat. So now it was just me. I decided to wait until the next morning to see if anyone would come and on one did. Ananas was quite nice though and he told me the lowest he could go was 2 million which I'm guessing was trully low. I realized that who knows if I'd ever be back to see this infamous volcano, and especially when it was erupting, so I decided to go for it...and I certainly didn't regret it!

That afternoon the captain, his one man crew, the guide Dedi, and myself headed out across the often dangerous, due to big waves, Sunda strait. It actually would be cheaper to higher a traditional fishing boat, but the strait can be so bad, they really warn against it. After an hour and a half of speeding along we caught sight of krakatau, or kind of what is left of it. The krakatau complex used to be 3 large volcanoes that were little more than landmarks for boatsman. But in 1883 it erupted violently. So violently that the boom was heard in perth australia, that small tidal waves were found as far away as great britain and that the ash in the air affected the world climate for several years afterward. The result of the explosion was that two the mountains were completely obliterated and 1/2 of the other was as well. So what remained was a giant underground crater with 3 islands. 1 island was half of one of the volcanoes and the other 2 islands were from debris. But in the 30's out of the middle of the water between them anak krakatau (child of krakatau) emerged from the water and has been fairly active ever since, so that now it is about 2500ft high. Krakatau had been erupting just a few days ago every 15 minutes or so, so we floated in the boat offshore for over an hour waiting for it to erupt, but it never did. So now I was getting nervous that I had wated my money. We took the boat to go land on Rakata island (the island that was part of the original 3 volcanoes) so we could set up camp. It was an amazing place to camp. A beautiful black sand beach, a view right at anak krakatau, a nice breeze, no mosquitos. Just us. Really just perfect. We set up camp and from my tent door you could see straight out to the beach and krakatau, though I didn't even end up using my tent. After the sun had set and it was getting dark and we were cooking, krakatau erupted. It was definitely quiet cool to see. It would then go onto erupt at least 25 times (I lost count) that night. We built a fire, finished the cooking, which included some fresh fish caught by some fisherman passing by, and sat on the beach and ate and watched krakatau erupt. Now not every eruption is a fire eruption, so yo keep watching hoping to see the big fire show. I ended up getting to see a little bit of fire on 3 eruptions, though not nearly as big and bright as the ones from the photos I had seen from the group there 3 days ago, but that was fine. I was really happy there watching it erupt, sitting on this amazing beach, and with clear skies. The nice thing was that it was a full moon, so even though it was night you could still clearly see the mountain and the ash eruptions. I tried to stay up as long as possible to see that big fire eruption, but I fell asleep on the beach around 4am.
Woke up in the morning to a nice sunrise and beautiful clear skies, but unfortunately no eruptions. I had seen it erupt, but I really wanted to see it erupt in the day time when it would be clearer. We took the boat back to the area at the base of the volcano and waited for an hour or so, but didn't see it erupt. We then motored around the island checking out the different rock formations and lava flows of old before landing on a little area that had started growing some trees. From there, when it's not active you can hike to the top, but since it was active it's only safe to hike to this ridge. But after hiking up a bit, I was wondering just how safe it was. All around on the hike up were huge bomb holes (like those when you go off a cliff in deep powder and then pop out) with large rocks in the middle of the hole, obviously from being shot up from the volcano. The higher up I went the more and more there were and the bigger they were. Once at the ridge there was a sort of scientific instrumentation place with solar panels and all, but it was mostly destroyed from being hit by rocks. We walked around the ridge for a while when I burned my foot a bit (yes I was wearing sandals while climbing part of a volcano, but only b/c I had left the shoes in the boat not thinking we'd really be going up such an active volcano. Anways, I jumped back after I felt the incredible heat on my feet. We dug around a bit in the loose rock and dirt and found a rock still steaming. It had obviously been shot out of the volcano last night when it was hot and perhaps a bit molten and now was still steaming hot. We actually found quite a lot of these around. And I asked Dedi if this was really safe. And he said yes. If the rocks come flying over towards us you can just dodge them (hmm...sounds like another video game, seems like I have been playing a lot of video games...with my life...here in indonesia). I trusted him b/c he had been up here quite a lot, but I still wondered whether you could duck out of the way of a VW sized rock flying at the speed of gravity towards you. He also said that the rocks wouldn't come this way b/c the wind was at our backs. This I had to laugh at b/c I have taken enough physics classes in my life to know that a 15 knot southwesterly wind is not going to affect the trajectory of a 2 ton rock. A stiff wind may have a slight affect of how many homeruns are hit at coors field, but not a huge rock, but it did appear as though the crater was such that the rocks were shot out in a different direction usually, though we had evidence against that steaming right near my feet. Dedi wanted to sit here and wait for it to erupt. We sat there for several hours on that moonscape in the full sun with no activity at all. I was beginning to get a bit disappointed b/c I did want to see it erupt in the day, and from this vantage point would be amazing. I couldn't imagine many other places, without being a vulcanologist, that you could get such a close up view of a volcano erupting. I figured it must be fantastic. But it was looking like it might not erupt and Dedi was starting to say it wouldn't erupt and wouldn't do so again until night. It must be on ramadan he joked. So he said it was time to head back down. Down below I saw another guide and a gal hiking up. So I told Dedi let's wait until those two make it up. Something told me to wait until they made it up, maybe it's because when you're stuck in the middle of a volcano in the middle of the sea and you see a single girl you should wait and at least meet her. So we did. I was introducing myself to Sarah the australian when all of a sudden there was a tremendous boom. I looked up and dark ash and huge rocks were shooting straight up in one of the most incredible things I had ever seen and definitely the most powerful thing I had ever seen. With the rocks being flung so high up in the air, there is a sort of optical illusion and it looks just like they are coming down straight for you. I majorly panicked and started sprinting in my flip flops down the mountain (I would later get a nice cut and Dedi would say, I told you not to run but to dodge as you'll get hurt running). Sarah was cursing and screaming and yelling (what australians tend to best). But when we looked up again we saw the rocks were no where near hitting us and were crashing instead onto the cone of the volcano. We regrouped with our hearts pounding and full of excitemen and awe. And of course the guides hadn't flinched. Sarah had come from the sumatra side in a fishing boat and her guide didn't know english so she didn't even know that the volcano was active so it was even more of a surprise for her. We sat there and watched about 5 more eruptions, all smaller than the first and one more big one of equal size, still getting a rush from it, before heading down. Wow!!! talk about amazing, and it was of course supplemented by all the great aussie commentation.

Back down on the boats again we watched a few more eruptions from the water before heading back to Carita where I caught the first bus I could back to jakarta's west station. It was going to be cutting it close to catch the last train to yogykarta, but the motorcyclists i hired to take me the 13kms to the train station was a speedy guy for sure weaving in an out of jakarta's insane traffic. The train was supposed to leave at 8:45, and I got there just a touch after 9, which I thought would be fine b/c not a single thing had come close to leaving on time in indonesia yet including tours, planes, ships, and busses. But apparently the train was on time. So I had to spend the night in jakarta. Didn't do any sightseeing that night in jakarta. Just walked to the tourist area which wasn't far from the station, ate at a tasty malaysian restaurant and went to bed. The next morning I caught the first train to jogyakarta, which was actually ok b/c going at night you just sleep but during the day I got to see lots of the nice scenery pass by from the train.

I'm still in awe about the volcano though. That eruption was just so powerful. I can see it playing over and over in my head. wow...

Crazy Motorbike road trip with stops at primitive villages and smoking volcanoes

The day after the Harau valley trip with Juni, I set out on what was supposed to be a 5 day road trip, but ended up being 7 with Juni. I had originally intended to climb mt. Merapi an easy 4 hour climb from bukkit tinggi and then perhaps go to the Mentawi Islands where one of my all time favorite profs (from a summer program with UC-santa barbara), Lisa Paciulli did her doctorate work on a rare species of monkeys (http://www.ippl.org/2002-november-5.php). I had wanted to go there b/c the mentawi islands are much much older than sumatra in geologic time and thus have very different flora and fauna, kind of like the madagascar of se asia; and also b/c it is a good place to see "primitive" people as the indonesians call them, though I am not sure what the pc choice would be. But I decided not to visit b/c it appeared to require at least 6 days and that was if the ferries worked out in your favor, which is a considerable amount of time to be trekking through the mud when on a set time visa and also b/c they had had a series of earthquakes and subsequent tremors were feared that could spawn tsunamis. So with this in mind and with Juni telling me that merapi was not a good climb b/c it was heavily deforested and b/c so many locals do it that there is trash everywhere along the way (indonesians don't believe in trash cans), I changed to doing a 5* day trip with Juni that would involve two days climbing kerinci volcano and visiting some "primitive" hunter gatherers in jambi province that were not in a guide book and not well known so were much more authentic than the ones in mentawis that I've heard will now change into their traditional clothing for cigarettes or sweets as opposed to always wearing it. The price was a bit expensive, but the trip seemed worth it, and things are always expensive when you have to go alone without a group.

So that next day we set out for kersik tua at the base of kerinci. We left around 9am and didn't reach kersik tua until after 10pm. It was a long, long journey made slower by Juni's frequent stops to rest and also to pray at mosques. It was a beautiful morning, and the drive up the switchbacks was even better than the day before. Again we went on some cool backroads, up and down passes, through wide valleys, past beautiful green rice fields, high altitude farming areas, and 2 large lakes. Some great scenery to be sure. We hit a couple of strong, but quick downpours before 2pm, but otherwise the weather had been great. We started looking for a place for me to have lunch at around 11:30, but didn't find one until after 2. It was a funny place; in this town in a high altitude valley. You walk into this place that is normally open air, but has been boarded up. You walk inside into a thick haze of smoke where about 20 indonesian men are smoking, eating, and drinking coffee. All breaking ramadan, and all happy to see this strange white guy in there with them. It was like a house of sin (not to be confused with the Chrisway house of sin, the previous residence of kendra, morgy, pickles, and myself) or like how I would imagine those types of places were like in america during prohibition. It really gave me a good laugh. We went up another pass and then down a steep valley that had fir trees, believe it or not, the first needled trees I had really seen since maybe the mountains in burma. Then the rain came, and boy did it come. Rained and poured and rained some more. We took some shelter at 6:30 next to a big flowing river to break the fast and then back into the rain. The rain eventually stopped around 8 ish as we were climbing high high up to the kerinci valley. It was clear skies then and with what moonlight there was, you could tell that it was stunning scenery of jungle, big mountains and volcanoes. Finally around 10 pm we arrived at the guesthouse freezing and soaking wet. When it rains that much, even with the motorcycle poncho there is no way you can really be dry, and we were at high altitude so it was quite cold (maybe 50F).

The roadtrip this day, and all later days, was of course unique and quite cool (in both meanings of the word). Squashed onto the back of the motorbike with Juni driving you really get to see the countryside and rural life. You get all the strange and bewildered and often scared, but usually friendly looks of the locals as you go buy. Lots of waves and smiles and curious children. Old women sitting on the stoop will smile their toothless smile and the old men will raise their hand up. Although you have to put up with the rain on a motorbike, it's quite a better way to see the countryside, the people, and the culture than on a bus. especially since you can stop whenever you want. It's also a bit nerveracking. Juni, although a skilled driver, was crazy fast and took too many chances in my opinion. Add this to the already wild, and really just unbelievable sumatran roads, and you often find yourself praying to God to let you survive one more blind curve in the opposite lane while passing a line of semis. And Juni wasn't the only crazy driver, they are all crazy out there really. You often find yourself passing trucks on blind curves with unseen potholes everywhere, cars without headlights in the night, and even passing cars when you can see in plane view a bus or truck coming in the opposite lane but just gunning it to cut in front of the car your passing just in time. At the same time your dodging children flying kites in the road, stray dogs, cows wondering in the road, goats running across, families of chickens parading across, rice drying on the road, etc, etc. A few times we'd even be passing a car when we wouldn't have the time to make it all the way past and there you are in the middle of the road, the truck your passing on the left, an oncoming van rushing by on the right, and you in the middle with your eyes closed and knees tucked in as closely as possible. With as dangerous as it all sounds, they are all skilled and very used to this kind of driving, so there are very little accidents I think. They're much more on their toes than we are back home. This is by far the craziest driving I have seen though, beating out the philippines for sure. And then add another level to the whole thing when the time hits 6pm and they all have only 30 minutes to find that restaurant so that they can break the fast at 6:30. The best way to describe it to you guys maybe is to think of the arcade game crusin' world, and basically that's what this was...cruisin' indonesia. Obstacles everywhere including potholes and cows, slick rainy spot, downed trees weird motorbike contraptions used for hauling things of all sorts, cyclists, and of course just like in the game, weaving back and forth in oncoming traffic at high speeds. The only difference between this and the game really is that in the game you get 3 lives and if you do hit that semi, I'm afraid it just wouldn't be your fancy lamburghini spinning out and then slowly accelerating again. One thing that annoyed me with juni besides his constant quick accelerations and quick breakings (he had no idea how to drive efficiently), was that he'd always reach out to kick the poor pooches that found themselves stranded and scared for their lives on the highway. Oh and the other thing is that even though he was married to a very nice lady every single time we passed gals on a motorbike he totally would rubberneck and stare for a while and make some comment about how hot they were or whatever. To me he was not very faithful.

That morning I woke up early and walked out onto the deck of the homestay to see the clear view of the volcano, but alas it was completely foggy and socked in, and you could hardly see very far in front of you. The valley, or what you could see, was nice though, full of tea plantations and potato fields and colorfully dressed villagers commuting to work with 4 on a bike, or riding a cow, or walking with hoe in hand. I met my guide Penny that morning. This was another things that upset me with Juni b/c he was supposed to be the guide for everything I think but he ended up hiring out which made things more expensive b/c then I was not only paying for him, but for the other guides as well. When we were back in maninjau we agreed on a price of 3 million rupiahs which included everything except drinking water. I paid him the 200,000 deposit and he gave me a receipt. But after that he was constantly coming up with other things that I needed to pay for, like petrol on the last day for him to get home, or money to have my big bag delivered, or what not, even though we had agreed on an all inclusive price before. Luckily I was good with not giving in, except in one case where he wanted 80 more dollars to pay for the mtn guide. I said no and that it was supposed to be included and then he offered that I pay 20 dollars, which I accepted partly b/c I was afraid then I wouldn't be able to climb it, but that was early on and before I knew he was constantly trying to rip me off, so I wouldn't have agree to that either if I have known. He always do it where he'd ask to speak to me in private and then tell me something else I needed to pay for. I'd give a strong know and then he'd say ok and just go back to being his happy self, so it became obvious he was just trying to get money from me.
Anyways, I met Penny and we began the climb up Mt. Kerinci at 3805m (about 12,560 ft) the tallest volcano in Indonesia and the tallest mountain in indonesia besides the ones bordering Papua New Guinea on Irian Jaya. Penny was a nice guy, but a slow as mud hiker and struggled quite a bit, which is surprising for a guide. I was always waiting on him and he'd come up completely out of breath. I had thought, with the way juni made it sound that there was a sort of homestay shelter where you slept the night up there, so I didn't question him when he told me it would be best to just bring my daypack for ease on the motorbike during our road trip. But the mtn guide shook his head b/c I really needed a bigger bag for climbing b/c I had to carry all my warm gear, extra dry gear, food, plenty of water, a sleeping pad, and a big sleeping bag. It was initially, for the first hour, ok b/c I just strapped it all onto my pack. But then it started to pour for the rest of the 5 hours up and I couldn't fit my pack raincover over my pack with the sleeping bag and water and pad strapped on. So there I was climbing this incredibly steep, slipper and muddy trail, with often huge steps, holding a sleeping bag and a pad in one hand and water in the other. It was similar terrain to that on gunung tahan or the pinnacles, except here I had no hands. I fell several times without having the hands and even a couple times I fell back down the trail several feet. At this point I was pretty miserable and wishing I was anywhere else. I was even considering just turning around b/c it was so miserable and appeared as though it was not like I'd see anything from the top anyways. But my crazy determination and never quit attitude kept me going even though I was not a happy camper. I was soaking wet--(I wasn't wearing my rain gear as I wanted to keep it dry for the next day when it would be really cold and since when you're hiking up you stay hot anyways--covered in mud, carrying stuff in my hands up a nasty trail made worse by severe erosion so that you were often in this narrow trench that I was nearly too wide to pass through, and feeling like it would be hopeless to see a view up there let alone the lava lake that you were supposed to be able to see in the crater. And seeing real life lava is something I have always really really wanted to do since those days in 1st grade when we made baking soda and vinegar volcanoes from play dough and then upgraded to the more real looking volcanoes given for free in the rice krispies boxes. And up to this point I had been shut out twice in my quest to do this having been to the two most active volcanoes in the world but seeing only rain and clouds on arenal and in hawaii being with anna windler who was too lazy to hike the two hours to wear the lava was flowing into the ocean. I had still been under the impression that there was some sort of shelter where we set our tent up when we get to the campsite, but halfway up I was told this wasn't true by Penny, so that made me even more negative thinking of spending the night in a wet tent at near freezing temps. Sleeping in a puddle of water with asian quality tents in taman negara in the steamy jungle is one thing, but on the side of the mountain where the temp is 34 degrees is another. However, Penny brought tarps as well and did a good job making a rainproof shelter, so I needn't have had to worry. We finally got above the tree-line and above the really really dense clouds where we hiked a bit further to set up our tent in the mist. A few times we did get to see up to the top of the volcano for a few moments, but for the most part we were cloaked in a heavy mist which was disappointing b/c after coming out of the humid jungle I was hoping to be in fresh, dry, and sunny air to let everything else dry out. It was freezing cold up there so we just jumped in our sleeping bags and read until we fell asleep. The ironic thing, and I have to laugh at it now was that Penny had given his pack a full washing after his last trip and had forgotten to put the matches back in it. This meant that we had nothing from which to light the stove to make steaming noodles or a warm cup of tea, let alone build a fire when it cleared up a bit. It was so cold up there that I really would have loved that cup of tea. But the ironic thing was that Penny was the first indonesian man I had met who doesn't smoke 3 packs a day, let alone a single cigarette, which meant he didn't have his supply of lighters with him and didn't realize he was without matches until we got to the top whereas a normal indonesian would have realize this 1 minute into the hike when he reached for his cigarettes. So if there was one indonesian I did wish had smoked, it was Penny. But he was such a nice guy and I didn't blame him for it, it was just bad luck.

The next morning at 3:30 we left for the summit with the hopes of being on top at sunrise to see the sunset but also getting there before dark so that we could see the glowing lava. We arrived at the rim of the crater before 5, but it was incredibly foggy from sulfur eruptions in the volcano. There was so much sulfur, in fact, that sometimes if the wind blew right I could hardly breathe. It was actually clear all around, except that the sun rose on the other side of the crater, so we couldn't see that b/c the sulfur smog was so thick. After the sun rose we stayed up there for quite a while longer and eventually the sulfur smoke calmed down and we got a nice view into the huge and deep crater where you could see the sulfur vents and also had good views down to the kerinci valley and the kerinci rainforest and mountains as well as some crater lakes. Really a very nice view after all. We walked back down, past the memorials of people who had fallen into the crater (400 feet deep and straight down) and packed up our tent and headed down. Of course the rain soon came and then one of the heaviest downpours I had ever been in. I was more wet than had I gone swimming I think. Luckily for me on both the climb up and down I am always overly prepared. I have a rainfly for my backpack which typically keeps out most rain, but when you have a river running down your back, it eventually soaks in, but I also had waterproof stuff sacks for my clothes and camera, so I ended up not having anything ruined and having dry clothes for when I did go for the summit in the cold morning. That evening it cleared up a bit, though sunny would be a huge exaggeration and I walked through the tea plantations and enjoyed watching the rush hour of people coming back from the fields to the village on all their various means of transportation of motorbikes to cows.

Juni, had tried to convince me when I got back down that I should do this tiger trek thing where it is guarenteed to see a tiger or your money back. You basically trek to this field where the tigers hunt when they get hungry, and sit in a tree for however long it takes (usually 1-3) days until a tiger comes. Tigers are one of my favorite animals and the thought of seeing the extremely endangered sumatran tiger enticed me, but the thought of sitting in the jungle for 3 days in the rain and just getting a blurry glimpse of a tiger in the dark with a flashlight (and knowing juni's track record for promises) made me say no. Though a cool thing was that Penny found tiger tracks on the trail that had occurred sometime after we first went up the trail...so perhaps we were being stalked by a tiger??

The next morning when we set off on the bike to go towards bangko in jambi province, it was misty in the lower elevations but clear up top, so although it wasn't a crystal clear view, I finally got to see the whole outline view of the beast I had just climbed. In his original five day plan we were supposed to leave that afternoon when I got back from the volcano, but Juni was too tired (since you know he was the one who slept all day while I climbed a gnarly volcano) so he wanted us to stay one more night. It ended up being an ok thing b/c he greatly underestimated the time it would take to get to bangko and we would have arrived there at like 4am had we left that afternoon. The drive to bangko was again through some wild backroads along big rivers and dense rainforest, where like in Colorado you often see wildlife while driving, we saw civets and gibbons and macaques, and lots of red monkeys and baboons, and some other monkey species as well. Eventually we got to what you always hear about for sumatra and that was rainforest clearing. We drove 80 or so km's along a bumpy and windy road surrounded by clear cut forests and then some more that was all oil palm plantations before arriving in a town to break the fast. After the bumpy dirt roads, my behind was definitely hurting. At one point in the day we had stopped at a tiny little village to ask for directions and the apparent policeman, though not in uniform and playing chess outside the station asked to see my passport. I gave him a copy I carried with me and he asked to see the real thing. Told him I didn't have it and that I had left in in maninjau (a lie as it was on my body) so he grunted and just waved us on. Later Juni asked in disbelief why I wouldn't carry my passport with me. I do I said but I certainly wasn't going to tell him that. He laughed and said I was so wise, but in truth, it's just that I'm a good listener, and I listen to all the traveler's stories which often involve the extremely corrupt police of indonesia who will take your passport even though you are not required to give it and then ask for money for it back. You should really only give your passport, so I have been told, at national park offices, at border crossings, nicer hotels, and to the police only if you are about to be thrown in jail. The american passport is a hot commodity and the police love to take bribes to get the passport back At this point of the journey we were supposed to be camping out at the edge of the forest where the "primitive" people are which is accessed from bangko. We still weren't even at bangko and yet juni said we would spend the night here. He said we were only 4okm or 1 hour from bangko and we'd go there early in the morning. I did not agree with this wanting to just get there so that I knew were were there insead of spending all the next day driving and only have a few hours with the traditional people. So I made him go on (I have always thought it wise when with freelance guides to not pay the whole fee agreed on until arriving safely back at your destination as this give you bargaining power as well as ensure the guide won't just leave you lost in the jungle somewhere with all your money in hand) and we immediately saw a sign that said 80kms to bangko and it took 2 hours, so I am glad we went that evening. Stayed at a really dumpy hotel there.

The next day I met my two guides. Well one true guide for the primitive people and then one english translator since the guide could only speak the native language and indonesian. The indonesians call the people Kubu people, but they call themselves orang rimba (people of the forest) After a 3 hour bumpy motorbike ride we arrived at the government village that had been set up by the government in an attempt to lure the primitive people into more "civil" living. From there Juni had said it would be 2 hours of trekking into the deep forest to see the really primitive people, but we ended up only going for about 1/2 hour before setting up our camp. But it was a very neat experience for sure. The people definitely lived in a "primative" way with little western or modern influence. They did have some things such as rifles for hunting, a few had flip flops, and some of their shelters had tarps, but other than that they were basically living completely off the jungle. Maybe how the native americans lived after they had first made contact with the europeans and had shared ideas and things. They couldn't read or write and they wore only loin cloths. Some of the women did wear entire sarongs, but still most just wore loin cloths. The children ran around naked. The boys were very curious, the little girls very scared. The people are nomadic hunter gatherers. The woman, who weren't very friendly (or perhaps were scared) stayed home with the children while the men were out hunting all day. Each little tribe consisted of just the family. During my 2 days and 1 night in the area we visited 2 tribes. They just build simple shelters out of the trees and basically sleep out in the open. While I was there the men brought back a few birds and a flying squirrel to eat. We helped the little kids gather mussels from a stream and we kept some for ourselves to eat with our noodles. The people seemed to have a very simple existence and from what I could gather from the guide had no elaborate rituals or anything, but I do suppose they were animistic. It was definitely a very unique experience b/c there are not many people that still live that way. Like in thailand or borneo where you trekked into the jungle to see traditional villages, they often had cell phones, sattelite tv's, and of course western clothes and ny yankee hats. These people had probably seen plenty of "modern" indonesians in the form of the government people, but it was most likely that they had seen few whiteys as Juni kind of had a hookup here with his cousin (the translator), so it wasn't like there were other guides taking people here, and most go to the mentawis anways to see the traditional people.

The next day was the bumpy 3 hours back to bangko, then a long long haul to Padang, the large city by the ocean in west sumatra. Here Juni told me I had to pay the petrol the rest of the way...yea right I told him, transport was all included. The ride was uneventful though nerve wracking because it was on a big highway to padang, until we had to break the fast. Actually before the dinner we went over a really beautiful pass with stunning karst mountains all around. While having dinner, a crazy downpour came (knew I must be back in west sumatra. Hadn't rained in jambi province, but had rained so much in west sumatra province). Juni then informed me that we would spend the night here as it was raining and tomorrow we could go to padang. I told him that was unacceptable as it was already day 6 of our 5 day tour and who knows if it would be raining tomorrow, and I just wanted to get there. So we waited a while for the rain to settle and then set off again in a lesser rain. The rain eventually died off before we started heading up the huge (and freezing) pass that eventually drops down all the way to sea level in padang. It was pretty intense for sure especially with all the big trucks struggling to go up and down, and it being dark. As soon as we got into Padang, around 11:30 it started to pour. Juni said we were almost there and no need to get out the rain gear. I said, yea right, and told him to pull over b/c his almost there could mean another 30 minutes. But I was wrong...2 hours later of driving through the city, then past the airport then into the countrside, all in pouring rain, we finally arrived at the homestay he wanted to stay at. You can imagine I wasn't feeling the happiest. I would have gladly taken any of the hotels and guesthouses we passed along the way and just got out of the rain and into a bed to sleep considering I wanted to catch the first flight to jakarta at 7am. I was pretty grumpy and just wanted to get a shower (I hadn't showered the whole trip as I had been way too cold in kerinci, the water was nasty brown in bangko, and the jungle didn't have a big enough river to bathe) and go to bed. Then juni informed me I'd have to pay more to have my big bag which we had left in maninjau, 1.5 hours drive away, brought to me. This really irritated me, b/c of course this was part of the all inclusive. So he forgot about it once I told him know. He then told me the bag would be there by 7 so I could catch my 7 flight. I tried to tell him I needed it by 6 or earlier to check in, so he said it would be. Then he gave some sob story about how he just wanted to get home, so I told him to go (weird thing was he had been complaining about how tired he was when he wanted to stay at the place we ate dinner before getting to padang, but now he was ready to drive in the middle of the night to maninjau). I paid him what I owed him and he took off. The price also included transfer to the airport and he said the car that was bringing my bag would take me. Of course the bag arrived at 7:30, so I couldn't take the early flight and the car just dropped the bag off and didn't take me. Luckily the homestay owner was very nice and took me on his motorbike to the airport where he told me that Juni was a very dishonest guide and that almost everyone he took to to his homestay was upset with Juni. A couple weeks before a german guy had really been irate and yelled at him for ripping him off. I don't know if this made me feel better or worse.

In the end, looking back the trip was quite amazing. I saw some amazing countryside and experienced a great culture in west sumatra. I climbed the tallest volcano in indonesia and got to glimpse into its steaming crater. Then I got to visit with very traiditonal peoples and camp in the jungle with them. And just altogether have an amazing indonesian experience. But it was a bit tainted by the combination of crappy weather and a rip off guide. Had one of those been better, I probably would have much fonder memories of the trip. But the truth is during a lot of the trip I wasn't enjoying it b/c of the bad weather and bad guide, but the good thing is that I did have some amazing experiences and will remember those.

At the airport I needed cash to buy my flight, as of course juni had failed to stop at an atm like i asked, and I was a little nervous the airport, which wasn't huge (and could rival DIA in the airports with unique pointed roofs contests as it to was built in the minangkabau style) wouldn't have one. But it did, and had two. The first one I tried wouldn't except my card so I worriedly had to go to the other. I had a lot on my mind including the last experience and the best way to hide and secure my money while in jakarta as they apparently have some of the best pick pockets in the world. There's even a pickpocket school in jakarta (yea incredible huh) where the graduates are said to be able to get your wallet without you noticing while you're sitting down. So as soon as the atm spat out my money I secured it in my money purse to meet back up with the homestay man to help me buy a ticket. In all this rush and other thoughts I left my debit card in the machine, which I realized after landing in Jakarta. I can't remember how the atm's back in america work, but I do have to say now, that I think it's the dumbest order to have the machine give you your money and then after you've taken your money and then clicked on the screen you don't want another transaction that it gives you back your atm card. I think it should be the other way around where you must pull out your card before you get your cash b/c the whole reason you came there in the first place is to get cash, so your obviously not going to forget that, but your card is easy to forget.

But I made it safe and sound into jakarta and I was more than ready to start anew with rainless skies in Java.

Sumatra: any angry land with unheralded friendliness, no food but too much water...oh and did I mention completely gorgeous

Ok, so it has been quite a while since I had a chance to update the blog due to lack of internet access and being too busy in areas with it, so I will do my best to get back up to speed as a lot has happened.

Way back when, took the bus from Dumai to Bukkit Tingghi in west sumatra province. Paid the big bucks for eksekutif class with air con to avoid the cigarette smoke, but apparently on this bus they could smoke, so you can imagine what an aircon bus without open windows and full of chain smokers looks like on the inside. But at least the seats were very comfortable and I was able to sleep after I put on my H1N1 mask to help keep out some of the smoke. Arrived at bukkit tingghi early early in the morning and it was freezing way up there. That night on the bus there had been a pretty big earthquake during the ride, but I couldn't tell b/c the roads in sumatra are so bumpy and pothole filled that the bus is in a constant shake anyways. Caught the first bus down to Maninjau town and lake maninjau. A deliciously smoke free bus (it's ramadan now and they are not allowed to smoke during fasting hours of 4:30am to 6:30pm) full of fresh mountain air. It was a gorgeous day with clear blue skies and sun shining. The bus goes up over a little pass between to volcanoes and surrounded by lush rice fields and terraces before decending 44 hairpin curves down to the bottom of an old crater where the crater lake of maninjau rests. It was one gorgeous ride for sure. While looking around for a guesthouse, I ran into a guide named Juni who was going on an overnight jungle trek that night with a british couple (Zara and Simon) and the price was so cheap (and he promised seeing rafflesia flowers, something I had been looking for) that I gave up the search for a guesthouse and decided to join them that afternoon. I had originally planned to bike the 70km around the lake that day, but when you're by yourself in a place that is fairly dead for tourists, it's often wise to take a shared tour when you can as there is usually a minimum of 2 or 3 required. So the rest of the morning I kind of walked around the maninjau and bayur area taking in the beautiful views of the crater lake with the steep and lush crater walls all around and the rice terraces-- filled with indonesians in the typical asian hats leading water buffalo in the fields--that came down all the way to the lake. But it was just a gorgeous lake...very serene and peaceful and reflecting the clear blue sky and the green crater walls. And I had an extra bounce in my step b/c the air felt so good. We were up at nearly 2000ft of altitude so the air was cool and crisp, felt drier, and was nice and clean. It felt just like an early summer morning in grand lake.
After lunch (ok after lunch time as I was unable to find lunch due to ramadan fasting), we met up and first went by motorbike to an area on the lake that had thousands of flying foxes sleeping up in the trees and then flying around after Juni started whistling and yelling. After that we headed to a different part of the lake for the trek. We first hiked to a nice waterfall for a very cold and refreshing dip before continuing up over halfway up to the rim of the crater to an amazing guesthouse in the middle of the forest with great views of the lake and wonderful breezes coming up the crater. There was a great view of the lake and you could even see through a small break in the crater rim down all the way to the ocean. As the sun set, we watched a rainstorm come over the lake and then eventually come towards us, which was quite cool.
On this trek Juni was a great guide. He knew SO much about all the plants and wild fruits and trees (including the amazing smelling cinammon tree) and what they were used for or how they were beneficial. He was good at pointing out red monkeys and baboons and macaques. Despite wearing long pants as protection, Zara, Simon, and I all got attacked by one of the 7 species of stinging nettle. It's a terrible burning and stining senstation, which depending on the plant can result in "no sleep for 8 days). We quickly put on some antihistimine cream, but when juni saw us doing it, he found a stinging nettle plant removed the root, and rubbed the root on us which remarkably made the stinging go away. The next day we just walked back down the hill to get back to maninjau and have cinammon tea at his mother's house. We were supposed to go to a viewpoint and then to look for rafflesia that afternoon, but Juni said he was too tired from the fasting but would take me at a different time. Juni was also the first of many muslim guides I had had (they had all been in thailand or malaysia or kalimantan) that actually stopped several times during the day to face mecca and pray, regardless of whether he was in the jungle or on the road. You can tell indonesian is much more of a faithful muslim country b/c you see lots of people doing this all the time and sometimes when you are waiting in line at a store to buy like water you may have to wait a few minutes for the cashier to finish his or her prayers.
So about august 21st, ramadan started. In sumatra, they are quite strict and conservative muslims, so they follow it to a T, which means no eating, no drinking (not even water), and no smoking from 4:30am until 6:30pm. To me, the fasting of the food is not a huge deal b/c they can eat at night, but not having any water all day, especially if you were in a really hot area of indonesia and working out in the sun would be tough. But basically what the people here do is just kind of switch their schedule around. At 6:30pm they break the fast (hmm...never had thought about where the word breakfast came from before) and have a huge meal and then move on to smoking about a pack of cigarettes in one sitting. They then eat another huge meal sometime around midnight and then again at 4:00 am. They then tend to just lounge around and sleep all day. As the whole village is just resting, it made the whole area even quieter than it already was. It used to be a big tourist destination, but now is rather dead, even though there are lots of guesthouses around. I think tourism in sumatra has taken a dive in recent years b/c of all the natural disasters they have been getting like tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanoes, etc (a truly angry land) and unrest in banda aceh and of course the terror associated with indonesia from jakarta and bali. So it was definitely a nice and quiet and relaxing retreat. In the whole town there were probably about 10 tourists and room for over 300. While the indonesians were fasting, it meant that I was fasting even more than them. See they were getting 3 huge meals throughout the day, but I was getting just 1 (but at least I had water). In sumatra it is illegal to have your restaurant or food selling stall open during the day, which means I can't find food during the day, and if I forget to buy some crackers that night when the stores open, then I have not even any snacks throughout the day. So I would have my traditional big dinner at around 7 or 8, but then when I wake up around 6 or 7, there is no more food to be had all day until 6:30 again b/c i'm not about to wake up at 4 am to go walk to a restaurant at that time in the morning. There was one tourist place that did serve lunch and breakfast with a big sign that said for tourists only, but it was rather out of the way. So if anyone wants to lose weight, then I suggest you come to sumatra during ramadan b/c not only will you be majorly fasting, but you will also most likely be active hiking mountains and volcanoes or walking several miles to find a place to eat. But it just all made it part of the fun and part of the intrigue of being in a new culture. So Zara and simon and I got a kind of kick out of how we were actually fasting more than the muslims were during ramadan. And in areas like sumatra where it is much more conservative (as compared to like java or yogyakarta), if you do have food or water, as a tourist, you have to eat and drink in hiding and not let anyone see you. We were also discussing sumatran (and indonesian in general) transport and deciding which mode you should take. They all are notoriously dangerous. I was telling them that I was going to be flying a bit more now after what happened with the nasty long and terrible bus rides in kalimantan, but of course they brought up the indonesian airline track records of being far more crash prone than others. But of course the busses often wreck to, or are taken out by landslides, and then of course are just incredibly long (the book lists the trip from padang to jakarta by bus at 28 to 38 hours...never a good sign when the predicted time has such a wide margin of error, while the flight time is just 2). And of course the indo ships, just like the filipino ones are natorious for being overcrowded and sinking as well. So basically its a pick your poison, but really it's still not that bad as the accidents are still a small percentage, but it's just not as safe as like thailand or malaysia. The brits told me the story of when they were landing in padang to get to bukkit tinggi, as they approached the landing they heard the landing gear go down, but it made a terrible noise and screech and then just seconds before landing, the plane suddenly pulled straight up and didn't land. Of course the pilots went on to explain what happened in indonesian, but they had no idea, and were figuring that the landing gear was stuck and they'd have to do a crash belly landing. But a half hour later they landed safely on wheels. They asked later and found at that just as the plane was about to touch down a huge earthquake hit (it was a 7.8 on the neighboring mentawi islands) and they were unable to land on the shaky land.

After getting back from the hike around 2, I had plans to go for a paddle in the lake, but then it started to pour, so I just hung out at my guesthouse with a book, a cup of hot tea, and watched the rain. My guesthouse, as most there, was incredibly cheap and was right on the water with a great view of the lake. The rain slowed up a bit that evening and I ventured out to get some food. I met a very nice dutch couple working for a non profit in bukkit tinggi. They were quite fun and enthusiastic and wouldn't let me pay for my beers.

The next day it rained and rained all day. I was a bit depressed about it b/c people were saying that the rain season had come early, just shrugging their shoulders and suggeting climate change. The rain wasn't supposed to come until october, and when it came then it was just supposed to be hard for a couple of hours and then clear up, so this was disappointing to me b/c I had definitely carefully planned not to come on the sumatran rainy season. I had wanted to bike around the lake this day, but didn't feel like it was worth it in the rain, plus I later heard that on the other side of the lake, a huge landslide had covered the road anyways. I just sat and read most of the day with no tourists really around and no one to talk to. The rain wouldn't be so bad if you had a good friend with you to just kind of shoot the breeze or do whatever, but it gets kind of boring when you're by yourself. Sometime in the afternoon, the rain let up a bit and I rented a canoe to take on the lake. It was a local dugout canoe and by far the most difficult floating thing to keep upright I had ever been on. So I decided not to attempt crossing the big lake especially with the storms around, but I had a good paddle, managed not to tip over (not that it would have mattered as I was soon drenched in a downpour).

The next day it was cloudy...but not rain! I had juni take me to the viewpoint and to see the rafflesia b/c I had no inentions of letting him get away with not a full tour even if it was ramadan. We went by motorbike and it was a great ride and tour for sure. First climbing up the 44 switchbacks to get a nice view down to the lake, even if it was a bit cloudy, and then just driving around a lot on cool backroads in the volcanic highlands seeing very rural villages, farmers, and beautifully green rice terraces. A gorgeous area no doubt. We got to the rafflesia reserve and took a walk with a ranger into the forest. The rafflesia is the largest flower in the world measuring up to and over 4 feet in diameter and smelling of rotting flesh to attract flies. I had been wanting to find one as they can be found in s. thailand, malaysia, and borneo. But they only bloom for less than a week. Rangers always keep close tabs on them and you only go to look for them if they are known to be blooming. Well, juni guarenteed they were blooming when he sold me the tour, so I was excited. Turns out there were two that were just the buds and one that was black and dead (this should have been one of my first clues as to not trusting juni as well as the being too tired to finish a tour, but I guess I was fooled by his great english and knowledge). I did end up spotting a different species of the family rafflesia that was much smaller, though apparently very rare, and the ranger was quite happy I had found it. As the day was so nice (no rain and thin clouds) and I was feeling good I paid a bit extra to go have a tour of bukkit tinggi and the harau valley, b/c why not use such a nice day to the fullest. In bukkit tinghii we had good views of the 3 volcanoes surrounding it (merapi, semalang, and one other)--the city is crazily just built right at the base of all these volcanoes. Also checked out the huge canyon cutting through town created by mud flows and floods coming down from the volcanoe as well as a huge network of caves and tunnels built into the mountainside that the japanese built during WWII. After bukkit tingghi we drove along a flat and fertile volcanic rice field plain with good views of the volcanoes to get to harau valley, of course stopping several times along the way to pray and rest, but of course not eat. Harau valley is more of a canyon, ,and a beautiful one at that, with soaring cliffs, gleaming rice fields in the bottom and 5 huge cascading waterfalls coming down the canyone walls. After that it was back to maninjau where we arrived after dark, but not before thankfully breaking the fast on the way at 6:30. One of the other nice things about the motorcycle trip was seeing all the traditional houses. The people of the region, the minangkabaus, have built houses with a very unique roof shape. This matriarchal society of west sumatra continues to use the same architectural style even today so in the cities it is quite cool to see the fancy banks and malls have those roofs. But yes, the tour was great to do on motorbike with a guy the new the area and all the backroads b/c I felt like I got a very good glimpse into west sumatran life as we went through lots of rural areas that a bus wouldn't go and of course could stop whenever and enjoy the amazing mountain and volcanic scenery with rice terraces tucked up valleys in the mountains

Sumatra and Java

Haven't really had a chance to get to the internet recently, but I am fine and well. Have travelled through Sumatra and am in west Java now. I will attempt to get back uptodate soon when I get a chance. Thanks to all those who expressed concerns over the erupting volcanoes and earthquakes in the areas I was at. I wasn't in any of the real bad areas and wasn't really affected at all