Karaoke, Euchre, and a Bonfire on the Beach ~Pelabuhan Ratu Part 3

01 - 03 March, Pelabuhan Ratu, Indonesia

     For dinner that night, we decided to actually ask for the menu. Before we had just been reading the Western menu that was posted when you walked into the restaurant. I ordered some Indonesian food and it was tasty and cheap compared to the Western food. We sat around having good conversations and listening to my iPod on the speakers that the bar had. 

     Karaoke was next. We didn't even make it into the room. We sat outside listening to the terrible singing and started to play Euchre. We had to reteach Eduardo how to play. It takes awhile to learn again after you haven't played for a long time. He got the hang of it after while, which was good. He was my partner, and I wanted to win. Haha! We actually ended up losing by 2 points! 

     After one long game of Euchre, it was getting late. We decided we had better head up to our rooms if we wanted to get up early and enjoy the half-day that we had left at the beach. As we were getting up to leave, a local Indonesian started talking to us. He invited us to their bonfire on the beach. Of course we accepted the invite. It was really nice of them to invite us. I had never been to a bonfire on the beach before. 

     It was a big group of people that had actually rode their motorcycles from Jakarta to Pelabuhan Ratu for the weekend. We met one guy named Dani along with many others. Dani is the one that invited us. They were all very friendly and were happy to practise their English with us. They wanted soooo many pictures though! They always do when they meet new people....or Americans. 

 

     They were actually cooking fish and octopus on the fire. I didn't try any, but Danna tried a bit. I just stood around and talked to all of them. It was getting late so Danna and I decided to head back to our rooms to get some sleep before the next day. It was already midnight. 

     The next morning, I got up very early. I was woken up by my hotel-mates. They went back to sleep and I stayed up. I read my book, before getting some french toast for breakfast. I decided I should probably take advantage of the little time I had left to relax, so I grabbed my book and headed for the cabana by the pool. The group of guys that we had met the night before were leaving, so a few of them came over to say goodbye to us. They were going to be making their long motorcycle trip back to Jakarta. 

     We actually ended up leaving a couple of hours after them. I did not want to go back to the city of Jakarta where the air is not fresh and the beach is not clean for miles. I loved where we were and we all decided that we should have just called in sick on Monday. We wish! As we were leaving, I checked out the map that they had hanging in the lobby. I actually figured out where we were after the whole weekend was over. We were so confused as to what the town was called that we were in, oh well, we just knew we didn't want to leave. 

     After paying and chatting with the owner for awhile, we all piled in the car and got ready for the long trip back to the big city. We made one stop, and the trip took us about 5 hours again. I thought maybe it was going to be worse because of the traffic, but it really wasn't all that bad. I was sick of being in the car though, so I was not looking forward to the taksi ride back to Mitra Bahari. 

     I finally made it home around 6:30 pm or so. Back to reality....I had to get some work done for school after unpacking and starting some laundry. Monday was coming already, but I had a great, relaxing weekend. 

Soaking up the Sun ~ Pelabuhan Ratu Part 2

01 - 03 March - Pelabuhan Ratu, Indonesia

     After dropping our things off at the room, we went back out. This time we decided to sit down by our pool with our books and read. The sun was soooo hot, we were sweating in no time at all. It didn't take us long to want to go down to the water and cool off. After Lynsey and Nicole came back from the water, Danna and I decided to head down to the beach. Of course, she found a place to rent a boogie board, so she wanted to do it. I went out with her so that she wouldn't be alone in the water. She only paid about $1.50 to rent it for 30 min! So cheap! I just stood in the waves and enjoyed the nice cool water. 

     We decided we had better go and get some lunch. After looking at the time we had no idea that it was already 3:00 pm! We had been out in the sun all day long. We headed in to get some lunch. I tried ordering from the Western menu again and got some Med Terranean chicken (as it was called on the menu). The lady brought out our food and there was a small, whole chicken sitting on my plate. I couldn't believe how much food it was, but it looked delicious. It definitely was. I at all of it! The sauce to dip it in was amazing. 

     At this time the owner of the hotel actually came by. His name is Ron and he is from Canada. We had contacted him about staying at the resort before we went. It was nice to meet him. He had lots of stories to tell us about how he came to live there and about other guests that he has had at the hotel. He invited us to karaoke later in the evening. He said he had better see us there and that it would start whenever we wanted it to. Haha. 

     After lunch, we decided to take a walk down the other side of the beach. It was the late afternoon and it was starting to cool down, so of course all of the locals were out now. Before, there had been no one on the beach, because they don't like to be out in the sun. They don't want to be tan like we do. Haha, so funny, but true. There were a couple of groups of boys playing soccer on the beach, and a lot of people in the water cooling off. 

     We walked up onto the street, and of course, got a lot of stares from the locals as we walked by. Americans get stared at everywhere they go. I guess because we stand out. Well, everyone else stands out a little more than I do. I get mistaken for a local all of the time, or at least someone who can speak the language. I don't look American so therefore I speak Bahasa Indonesia...Haha, NOT! 

     Ron had been telling us about some green stairs, and we found them. As you walked up the hill, you came to a spot where you had to pay. It was only $0.10 to go on the little tour. We didn't know what it was, but it seemed worth it. The man spoke English and took us along a path. We came to some stairs that lead down to the meditation chair. There was a very nice view of the beach from there. 

     As we walked farther down there were big rock formations that you could walk onto in the ocean. They had built a bridge across a couple of the rocks so that you could walk across, but there was no way that I was going to cross it. I am afraid of Indonesian made things. Haha. The bus way bridges that they made here are made out of thin sheets of metal. I don't think so! I walked across one once, and it scared me to death. I would rather take my chances crossing the street with the traffic. Anyway, I decided not to walk across the bridge, but the other girls did. I walked around on the other side while waiting for them to come back. 

Lynsey found her own mediation chair :) 

The bamboo bridge that I would not walk on

     We walked down and made our way back along the beach. We decided to stop at the local Indomaret and have a Magnum Ice Cream bar before dinner. Haha, dessert before dinner. We met up with Eduardo on the beach and again, had lots of stares from the people along the road watching us walk back to our hotel. 

Watch Out For the Green, Java Sea Queen! -Pelabuhan Ratu Part 1

01-03 March: Pelabuhan Ratu, Indonesia 

     I had not been out of Jakarta since we went to Tidung! That was so long ago it seemed. I was ready for a trip away from the big city. Of course, we scheduled our trip on a weekend where we had a Saturday event that we didn't know about. I did not know that I had to be at school on Saturday until 3 days before and the trip was already planned. Well, after passing it by the principal, I was able to leave on Friday after school for my mini vacation.
     As it started to rain, Eduardo, Linda and I took a tasksi from school to meet up with Danna, Lynsey and Nicole. We got to their place just in time. The driver had just gotten there and we were ready to go after getting a few snacks for the long drive to Pelabuhan Ratu....and yes, it was a long drive. The driver came all the way from Pelabuhan Ratu to get us and take us back with him. The drive took us through the VERY curvy roads of the mountains. When we got close, the driver rolled down the window to show us the ocean. It was night, but it was still amazing! It took us about 5 hours to get there, which landed us there at about 9:30-10:00 pm. The driver said that it would normally only take about 3 hours, but because we left during a bad traffic time, it took us longer.
     We checked into our rooms and got some dinner before settling in for the night. Eduardo's stomach didn't like the roads too much on the way there, so he pretty much crashed right away. The place was pretty nice. They had a restaurant/bar right there, where we were able to order Western and Indonesian food. After dinner we all called it a night.
     The next morning I got up pretty early and went out on the balcony. What an amazing view to wake up to. I was so excited for the day, because I knew I was going to be spending it relaxing on the beach.

     After eating some nasi goreng (fried rice) with egg for breakfast, I quickly put my swimming suit on, got my things together and headed toward the beach with Lynsey, Danna and Nicole. As we walked along, there were crabs everywhere! I had never seen so many in my life at a beach. Good thing they ran before you even got close to them, because I didn't want to step on one or have one scuttle over my foot.

     We walked down the beach looking for a good place to put our things. We got all the way to the end and it looked like a good spot so we put our things down. The other girls started to take pictures on the nearby rocks in the ocean while I stood by our things and put sunscreen on. I am putting sunscreen on, and all of a sudden, a huge wave comes out of nowhere! It takes all of our stuff! I grab my bag quickly since it is right next to me and try to grab anything else that I can while yelling for the other girls to come and help. I had to chase my sandal into the ocean. I mean, it wouldn't have been a sad loss, but I really wanted to wear shoes for the weekend.
     I got both of my sandals back and luckily, everything else was in my bag. My bag only got a little wet on the bottom. Unfortunately, we ended up with 1 cell phone not working, an iPod not working, and a missing shoe. Danna had lost her shoe and we could not find it. Since I was running around chasing my shoe with my sunscreen bottle open, I think I wasted half of the bottle all over my bag and on Nicole's shorts...oops! We could not believe what had just happened. All of the girls' stuff was soaked! Of course, after that there were no other waves that reached that far back, but we decided to take all of our belongings back to our room.

     After this happened, we learned of a myth about the Java Sea Queen. Her name is Nyai Roro Kidul and the myth says that if you wear a green garment in this area, it will anger her and bring misfortune on the wearer. Well, Danna was wearing a green tank top...hmm...is the myth true?!?! She is the only one who lost a shoe. Even if it isn't, we are still giving Danna a hard time about it. Haha.

Flood Days! ~17-18 January, 2013

     Not even a week after we got back to Jakarta, and we already had 2 days off from school. I am definitely not complaining, but it sure was an interesting experience to have while being in Jakarta. We got to school on Thursday, and most of the kids did not show up. We didn't know what was going to happen and there was talk of school closing. I actually had at least 21/26 students show up, so I thought for sure we would be staying. But, not long after we gathered in the assembly hall, there was an announcement that everyone was to call their parents and go home. It had rained so much that there was flooding all over Jakarta. The water was very high in places and ruined many people's homes and businesses.
     I had never seen anything like this in my life! I thought it was bad when it flooded in WI, but no, this was bad. People were using makeshift boats to get from place to place and there was so many Search and Rescue teams here. They had a big area set up outside of my apartment that had tents where they were giving out water and supplies to the people in the area. The area that I live in was one of the worst areas that flooded. We could not go anywhere! Taksis were not driving by let alone many other cars. The big trucks were still able to drive through the flood waters, so there was still a lot of traffic coming through the area.
     Amber and I were getting a little worried since we were getting low on food. We weren't sure what we were going to do. We went to the little convenience store downstairs, but the shelves were empty! I was able to get some juice and a bag of popcorn for a snack. We needed to get the basics: milk, eggs, and bread. Amber tried ordering a taksi, was able to reserve one, but they called back to cancel due to the high flood water. Amber also tried to get a Search and Rescue boat to take us, but they took forever to respond. We ended up meeting a very nice man who owns units in our building that offered to take us. I didn't end up going, but I sent my list with Amber. He only had room for so many people and there were a couple others that wanted to go.
     Thank goodness that he was able to take them. Luckily, Carrefour was stocked with food and Amber was able to get most everything that we needed including some bottles of water. We were stocked for a good week.
     That same day we did venture outside a little. I didn't really want to walk around in the flood water too much, because it was pretty gross and dirty. I also didn't want it to make me sick. We did walk from our building, which they had blocked off, to the bus way crossing. We had to pass through knee deep water to get across, but we made it! It was so sad to see. People who had homes destroyed were living in the bus way and on the walkway above the street. I took some pictures, but I can't seem to find them. If you have me on facebook you should check them out on there. The locals were all walking around like it didn't even phase them and we were just thinking about how crazy it all was.
     After a long weekend of staying in because of the flood waters, it was nice to get back to school the following Monday. The water was lower, but not quite low enough for the travellos, the school vans, to come and pick us up. We had to use the big bus to come and get us for awhile until the flood water went down completely. The area around school looked like it didn't even rain at all. I had heard that the area in Pantai Indah Kapuk was dry!
     The flooding is all part of my great experience that I am having here in Jakarta, Indonesia. I think I will be prepared for any other flooding that we get in the future. They said that this was the worst they have had in quite awhile. They have never had flood days from school in the past 5 years or so. I guess I am lucky?! I hope that nothing like this happens again, because so many people were left with nothing and it takes so long for things to go back to normal.

I Am Still Alive :)

     Wow! I know it has been forever since I have written a blog, so I thought I better update everyone. I have not written since before I went home to America for the holidays!

     My trip home to America was amazing. It was so great to see everyone, and even more great to surprise my mom (she had no clue). Yet another time in her life that we have been able to keep something from her. She is usually pretty good at figuring things out, but we fooled her again. My family could not believe it when they saw me standing in the living room the night that I got home. I think they had to look at me twice! 

     I spent the first part of my holiday at home, because I decided to bring the snow with me....which I don't know how that is possible. I came from hot, rainy weather. Anyway, it snowed a lot, so I got to spend my time with my mom and my grandma. After the snow cleared up and after spending the holidays with my family, I started my journey across the State of Wisconsin visiting everyone that I could while I was there. 

First Stop: Plover, WI

     This is where I was able to spend time with Ryan, Grace, her parents, Mom and John. We went out for dinner with Grace's parents. It was nice to see them since I hadn't seen them since Grace's graduation. 

Next stop: Antigo, WI. 

     I had never been there before in my life, but I had to go and visit Andy! I left from Plover on another snowy day, but I made it to Antigo just before it started to snow. The highlight of my time in Antigo was the snowmobiling! I had not been snowmobiling since I was probably five years old. We pulled each other a sled and I also got to drive a snowmobile for the first time. I was not used to it, so I didn't want to go very fast. Haha.

3rd stop: Oshkosh, WI

     I stopped in Oshkosh to visit Sarah. I had seen her in Richland Center while she was home, but I wanted to spend some more time with her since I had never been to her place. I met her roommates and actually met up with a friend that I met this past summer. It was New Year's while I was there and we had big plans to go out in Oshkosh. This is how you know you are getting old....we didn't do anything! We just stayed in and watched tv, waiting for the countdown to midnight. Shortly after the ball dropped, we went to bed! Haha. We ended up going shopping at the Outlet Mall, which caused me to stay another night. Oh darn! Then I made my way back to Richland Center. 

     After being in Richland Center for a day, I decided I had better head to Madison. I actually ended up taking a friend from Korea so that he could move into his new apartment. So I killed two birds with one stone and was able to visit Hanna. It's a good thing I did, because while I was there, her car would not start! She wasn't going to be able to make it to Richland Center to see me for the weekend :( I also got to meet up with my wonderful friends Dolly, her fiance and Krista. We had a great time chatting over a good meal. 

     After staying one night in Madison, I headed back to Richland Center. I packed my things and headed off to La Crosse for a night. So much moving around, I know! First thing I did when I got to La Crosse was to meet up with my friend Hillary for lunch. She brought her husband along so it was nice to see him too. I hadn't seen him since their wedding. After a long lunch, I just bummed around the mall and then finally met up with my good old friend TK. He was sick, so he was not going to be able to meet up with me later. It was so nice to see him and we had a good time chatting as usual. 

     After leaving TK's we went to Grizzly's for dinner. I met up with my old co-workers from Old Navy, my old roommate Melanie, and my old neighbor Jared.  Andy also drove down from Marshfield to come out with everyone. 

     After dinner, some of us headed out to downtown La Crosse. I hadn't been there since last June! It was pretty dead since it was the holiday break. Most students were home, so it was kind of a nice night. Not too crowded, but still ran into a few people that I knew. 

     The next day I ended up meeting with my cooperating teacher from Arcadia, and some Indian friends that I met at Old Navy when I worked there. I had a nice visit with all of them before heading back to Richland Center. 

     I wasn't home for many days after that, and I had to head back to Chicago to the airport. My mom ended up taking me back...again. She was of course very sad to see me go, but I feel like I had an easier time saying goodbye to everyone this time. I was so happy to be able to make it home, and it was a nice vacation away from the big city of Jakarta. 

Bandung: Day 2 - October 2012

     On the second day, we actually one of the other teachers join us on the trip (Eduardo). He decided that he needed to get out of Jakarta, so he came to Bandung to join us on our mini trip. He got there pretty early, but we didn't not get going until way later than we should have. Oh well, we still had time to do quite a bit. The first thing we needed to do was try and find a driver for the day. We called one place and they were all booked, but we did find one when we called the second place. He didn't speak much English, but that was okay. We had our phrasebook. That thing has come in handy so much. 

     We didn't end up leaving until around Noon. One of the Chinese teachers, Fanita, slept for so long! I couldn't believe how much she slept on the trip. I think she may have been the last one to get ready for the day. Our first stop on our adventure for the day was the volcano! I was told before we left for Bandung that the volcano was due to erupt anytime. Awesome, but they were still letting people up to view it. I am glad that I didn't have to hike up to the top of this one like we did in Bali. We were actually able to drive all the way to the top. When we got up there, we got out of the van and walked around. There was so much steam coming out of the volcano. It probably was going to erupt at any time! Right when we got out, there were guys trying to sell us stuff. You just kind of have to ignore them and shoo them away. 

     The view was so amazing. I had never seen anything like it before, but I was looking down into the volcano. I guess you are able to walk down into the crater of the volcano, but I think they had it closed off so people couldn't do that. Amber, the Chinese girls and Eduardo all rode on horses for a bit around the volcano. I didn't really want to, so I just waited for them and took some pictures. They had a Lady Gaga horse! Haha, the horse had pink hair and her name was actually Gaga. Of course we just had to get pictures taken with her. We took a lot of pictures together and then walked around to all the little shops that they had up on the volcano. They had some interesting little shops with things that you could buy like carvings and paintings. 

     It was starting to get dark, so we decided we should probably get going. We asked our driver in the best Bahasa that we could if he recommended another place for us to go. The other place that we wanted to go to was closed. He recommended going to the hot springs, so we all agreed. We had been wanting to see the hot springs anyway, but the ones that we wanted to go to were closed. He knew another place that would still be open. 

     We got to the place and we paid the entry fee. We walked past an area that looked like a locker room, and we all just kind of looked at each other. I guess people actually came there to swim in the hot springs. We didn't really think anything of it, but when we got out there, all we saw was a pool! We walked around a little more and we didn't see anything else. We were so confused. We asked the other people at the pool, "di mana hot springs?" They pointed to the pool. What!? Yep, that's what we went to see. We were a little disappointed at first, but then we walked over by the pool and dipped our feet in. Wowzers, was it hot! Haha. It took me awhile to be able to put my legs in all the way. I don't know how some people were bathing in it completely? It was actually quite relaxing, and we learned that it is one of the nicest hot springs in Bandung, because they have turned it into a pool. They are able to take care of it. 

     After the hot springs, we had the driver take us to this restaurant called Kampung Daun. We had heard it was in the valley of the mountains and that it was very nice. Well, they were right. I loved the place. We got there and it was a lit driveway up to the restaurant. It was so pretty. When we got there, they showed us to our little hut where we would be eating. You ate outside in a little hut that was dimly lit. The food prices were decent and it was really good. Amber ordered some sate that was delicious! I had some strawberry tea, pasta and of course some cheesecake for dessert. Our driver actually ate with us too, because we had to pay for his meal. Usually the cost of your driver doesn't include their meal so you have to provide one. He didn't really seem to want to sit with us, but we wanted him to. They probably aren't used to people asking them to eat with them. We really enjoyed the meal and the conversation. We even included the driver and asked him some questions in Bahasa using our phrasebook. He was a very nice guy, and he seemed to enjoy himself. 

     After we were finished eating, it was time to go back to the hotel. The drive was about an hour or so to get back. That was the end of our little mini trip. 

     The next morning we all got up, and checked out of our hotel. We decided to check out a little restaurant called Nannys Pavillon for breakfast. It was recommended by another teacher from the school. It was a pancake house, so they had a ton of different types of pancakes that you could get, but it seemed to all be served with ice cream. They did have some pasta and appetizers that you could order too, so I ordered some food and shared it with Eduardo.

     We went to the mall where our transportation would be picking us up to go back to Jakarta. It took us forever to get back. We came upon an accident where a truck had been completely crushed. Then we came upon another one on the side of the road. We think that because of the rain, there were accidents. Then when we got closer to Jakarta, the traffic got bad. I slept most of the time, so it went by quickly. 

Bandung: Day 1 - October 2012

     We had a week holiday in October from school, so we decided to take a mini vacation. I was invited to go to Thailand with some of the other teachers, but I didn't really want to spend a lot of money on a hotel and a plane ticket. Amber and I got a few of the Chinese teachers to come with us on our trip. Many people have been to Bandung, so it was easy to plan. We just had to ask other teachers at school where they recommended us to go. A lot of people actually go to Bandung as a day trip because it is so close. It is a popular place to go, because this is where all the good, cheap shopping is. We thought we had to check it out. We got my friend Lana, a local Indonesian, to help us book our bus tickets to go. You only had to pay about $8 (US) for a one way ticket. The trip there was only about two hours, so that's not bad at all.

     We arrived there very early in the morning. We stayed at a hotel called Scarlet Hotel in the Dago area. It was a very nice hotel that included free breakfast for us in the morning. We actually didn't reserve a room, so we got to pick one out when we got there. It was very quiet, as there were not many people staying there. 

Amber is loving the beds :) 

This is the view from the shower...haha. Don't worry there was a curtain. 

     After we got all settled in, off we went for our day of shopping. We decided to do shopping on the first day and sights on the second day. We saw a McDonald's on the way, so we decided to get lunch. After lunch, we started walking down the street. We didn't quite know where we were going, but that was the way that everyone was telling us to go. We were walking along and we weren't really seeing anything, so we started to ask people along the way in our horrible Bahasa Indonesia. We must have been going in the right direction, because not long after, we came to a bunch of stores that were outlets. We stopped at one outlet store and then decided to take a taksi to some of the bigger outlet stores that we had heard of. 

     As we were riding in the taksi, we saw that the street we were on, was lined with outlet stores. We just hadn't walked far enough yet. The driver of the taksi took us to one of the big outlet stores. We looked around for awhile and some of the girls found shoes and bags to buy. After that, we got a taksi and went to another mall called Paris Van Java. Amber and I got the craziest cab driver in Bandung I think. He didn't speak much English, so we were using our phrasebook. Amber decided to look at the "Talking" section. It had questions that you could ask people just to make small talk. Haha, one of the questions that she asked him was if he had any children. Apparently he thought that meant that Amber wanted to reproduce with him. Haha, moving on. We started to ask him other questions. He was just a cooky driver. He asked us if we wanted to go to the club with him and go dancing later that night. Poor drivers, they must get so bored, they have to find their entertainment somehow. It sure occupied us on the way there. 

     After we got there, we walked around and did a little shopping. Amber and I found this really good bubble tea place. I ordered a fruity tea, with fruit bubbles. It was the best bubble tea I had ever had. So delicious! :) We didn't really stay in that mall for very long, because we didn't really find much and we wanted to go a mall called Rumah Mode, which means "house of style" in Bahasa Indonesia. Finding a taksi to get there was a little harder. Amber did a good job of practicing her Bahasa and asked a worker at a restaurant to help us. For some reason when we called to get a taksi, they wouldn't answer, so he tried for us. He was finally able to get us a taksi so that we could leave. 

     Rumah Mode was just one big store that had a lot of clothes in it that were so cheap! I didn't really find anything that I liked, but the other girls bought quite a few things. I guess I am just picky. We stayed at that store until they were closing. We were getting hungry so we decided to try and take a cab to a restaurant that we had heard about.

     Well, that was the longest cab ride! We went all the way to the other side of town thinking that it was the right way, when we were only about 5 minutes from the restaurant to begin with. The driver drove us all the way back through town to the restaurant to have it be closed! Poor guy. We asked him if he had any suggestions as to where we should go, so he took us to a Pasta Warung near our hotel. The food was pretty good, although we didn't get as much food as we thought we were going to.

     After we got done eating, we actually took one of the little buses back to our hotel. It was a fun little experience. We have seen buses just like it in Jakarta, but we had never taken one. You always see them jammed packed with people sitting on the benches in the bus. They probably should only fit about eight or so people, but of course they fit more. This is Indonesia. Since it was getting late, there wasn't anyone in this bus. It only cost us 20 cents to take a ride on this bus. It is just a rickety little bus that seemed like it wasn't going to make it up the hills. I'm glad we did! 

     After we got home, we were all pretty tired, so we went to bed after watching a little tv.