Traveling Indonesia
Monday, January 18th, 2010
Hello all,
As I am writing this blog I am on a 9 hour train ride from Yogyakarta (pronounced Cho-cha-karta) to Jakarta. It is a great time to catch up on my blog and let you know what has been going on for the last 16 days. As I am on the train it has made me think more about the travel then necessarily about each individual place. I think I might write this blog a little differently than some of the others and give you hopefully something more entertaining to read. Just typing that I have gone from this place to that place I am sure can get pretty boring sometimes. Here is a quick overview of where I have been and then I will get into some stories about the travel.
Jan 2 – traveled on overnight bus from Ubud , Bali to Surabaya, Java
Jan 3 – Check out Surabaya city of 2.4 million people
Jan 4 – Continue to see the sights in Surabaya
Jan 5 – More in Surabaya in the morning then take a 5 hour train ride to Semarang in the afternoon
Jan 6 – Take a 23 hour boat ride from Semarang to Kumai, Kalimantan
Jan 7 – Arrive in Kumai and travel short distance to Pangalan Bun for the day
Jan 8 to 11 – A 3 day boat tour of Tanjung Puting National Park in search of wild Orangutans and other primates.
Jan 12 – another boat ride back to Semarang except this one took 26 hours because of high seas and rough weather.
Jan 13 – Arrive in Semarang late and stay overnight
Jan 14 – Take bus from Semarang to Yogyakarta
Jan 15 – Tour the Buddhist temples of Borobudur and Prambanan just outside of Yogyakarta
Jan 16 – Tour the Kranton (Sultans Palace) and a few museums in Yogyakarta
Jan 17 – Tour more sights in Yogyakarta and chill for the afternoon
Jan 18 – 9 hour train ride from Yogyakarta to Jakarta
Okay that is the places I have been, now here are some stories of the adventures I have had in Indonesia.
Let’s start with getting around Indonesia because this is a huge business in Indonesia and employees a lot of people. I have been on many forms of transport so far and some where great and others just horrible. When you are in the cities you have several choices and depending on how far you are going will determine what you use. For longer distances you can use taxi (which are mostly well priced) or local bus (which is extremely cheap. The bus is a little more difficult if you do not know where you are going and when to get off. The biggest obstacle is me not knowing enough Indonesian to communicate properly with the drivers. When I was leaving Surabaya I needed a taxi to the train station. I told the driver “Pasar Turi train station”, and he ended up taking me to a shopping mall. I knew that we were in the wrong place and when I finally got smart enough to look the words up In Indonesian and told in “Pasar Turi kereta api”, then he knew exactly where I needed to go. I was a little frustrated with him at first but how rude of me when I am in their country and cannot use their language. I had to giggle at myself and when my frown turned to a smile I could tell that he felt a lot better as well. When you are going short distances then you can go by becak (bicycle with a seat off the front of it) or Odjek (motorbike) and lastly walking, which I have done tons of. Yesterday I took a ride on a becak and not because I was been lazy but just wanted to try it out. I had a really cool driver who spoke a little English and he toured me around a bit. I had to pay him only 3000 Rupiah which works out to be about 50 cents cdn. As you walk down the street there are literally 100’s of becak drivers and lots of others looking to give you a ride on their odjek. When you are traveling between cities you end up using bigger busses, trains, and several types of boats. My bus overnight bus ride from Ubud to Surabaya was completely horrible. I ended up at the back of the bus where they fit 3 seats into the space for 2 and no reclining back which made it hard to sleep. There were 2 other guys in the seats beside me and if we all leaned back at the same time we would not fit. They were very nice and we had to laugh at the situation because what else could we do. Just before we left they put on a mother with her 2 kids and they had to sit on a wooden plank on top of milk crates, so I guess I shouldn’t complain too much. My bus ride from Semarang to Yogyakarta was much better but it was more of a large van than a bus and I had the front seat. The trains I have used have been great. They are very comfortable and give you a great look at the scenery that you could never get from an airplane. Have you noticed that I have not taken an airplane since I have got to South East Asia, not sure why because they do have really cheap flights but I think I am seeing a lot more by using other methods of transport and it makes for better stories. When I have crossed on the seas I have used mostly Pelni boats which is the name of the company and they have lots of different boats. Most of them hold up to 1000 – 2000 people plus vehicles on the bottom but most of those a huge transport trucks delivery supplies to the islands. My boat ride to Kalimantan was great, I booked a 2nd class ticket and I had a room with 4 beds and a bathroom. There were 3 Indonesians in the other beds and they spoke no English so we did not talk much. I met an Indo girl on the boat that did speak English and we chatted quite a bit through the long ride. It was very easy to sleep on this boat and the seas were not high so I got a great rest overnight and refreshed when I got to Kalimantan. My boat ride back to Semarang was not the same experience. Again I booked a 2nd class ticket but this time there were no rooms on this Pelni boat. 2nd class was a cabin of 45 reclining chairs that looked like they were from the 50’s. My seat would recline back to about a 45 degree angle and it was like I was trying to sleep upright. I had it better than a lot of people but still did not get much sleep. This boat was supposed to be that fastest in the fleet and take about 16-18 hours. As it turned out the wind was strong and the seas were high and choppy. A ton of people spent the time throwing up and one poor lady threw up every half hour for the entire trip, I felt so sorry for her. If I was to book an economy ticket than you get a piece of the floor somewhere on the deck or lower level. You can rent a mat to sleep on as well but spent the extra dollars to get a 2nd class ticket. 1st class in not very different from 2nd class except you may only have 2 in a room. How Indonesia has set up their transport system in very interesting and the key to employing a lot of people. Most of the airports, train terminals and bus terminals are located between 3 -5 kms away from the city. So when you get to a destination you need to take another form of local transport to get to your accommodation or the city center. When you arrive you are hoarded with eager drivers that want to take you where ever you want to go. You need to barter on the price as they are trying to make as much as they can as you may be their only ride for the whole day because there are so many of them. The only places I have found so far that had terminals in the city centers were the train station in Yogyakarta and Jakarta and that is part of the reason I went by train. It must be a very tough living for all these local drivers. At all the terminals you will also find a bunch of porters that will carry your bags for a few dollars. Again when you arrive they come running looking to find someone that needs help carrying their bags. A lot of the porters are older men and I am amazed at how much they will carry. They will tie 2 or 3 suitcases together and throw them over their shoulder and then carry a box on the other shoulder and still fill their hands. My backpack has started to get a little heavier but compared to what these guys are doing I have it easy. When you consider all the people that are working in the transport industry it is amazing to think any of them are making much money. We are pretty lucky when you look at the jobs most of us have and how we lead our lives.
I spent a few days in the city Surabaya and had some interesting events happen. I took a tour of the city of a free bus which took us to the major sites around the city. Along the way a huge wall was painted with bright colors of all the different sites of the city, it was very nice and surprising when we found out that it was the outside of the prison in the middle of the city. The guide told use that it would be a much different scene inside as it was a maximum security prison and only the worst offenders were in there. I thought it was interesting to have that kind of prison in the middle of a rural area. We also toured around a war memorial that was very impressive. It has surprised me that through all of Indonesia there hav been very little on WWII. Indo was mostly Japanese during that time but you find very little that speaks about that time and what happened with the Indonesian people. The tour began and ended at a place called House of Sampoerna. This was the factory and home of one of the big cigarette makers in Indo. They have a lot of information on the family history and the cigarette business. There is still a small factory on site and you can watch 3000 ladies making cigarettes. They each have a small station to work at and to stay employed they must roll 325 cigarettes per hour. You can watch them from an upper level and it really looks like you are watching a movie that is going a double speed. There little hands are moving so fast it was incredible to watch. You are not allowed to take pictures of the ladies and I was told that it was because some ladies did not want to be in pics but I think if some human rights people saw this plant and how cramped it was they might have a few issues. There was a big mall just down from the hotel I was staying at and I went to check it out. As you are walking down the street and see all the people trying to sell their goods and food it was crazy to all of a sudden see a big mall show up like you were in Canada. When you go inside it is hard to tell that you are in Indo any more as all the stores have western names like Gap, Gucci and even a Wrangler store. As I was walking through the mall I walked by a jewelry store and a girl yelled out “hey mister, I love you”, I just turned around and smiled. All the other girls working in the store started to giggle, I calmly walked back to the store and kissed the girl on the forehead and walked away. They all stood there in amazement without a sound, but now I think we might be married. Okay now that you have read that and are sitting there laughing, to tell you the truth I actually just walked away and never kissed the girl but thought I should and see their reaction but I did not have the guts to do it, maybe next time!!! As I was walking back to the hotel I walked through a traditional market and saw one of the funniest things I have ever seen. A becak driver was getting ready to set off and on the front of his bike was an older lady on one side of the seat and on the other side was a big cabinet. Then on her lap was a tv and somehow there was also a few bags of fruit and vegetables. Now here is the funny part, to keep everything in place it was all tied down with a rope including the lady. She, the cabinet and tv were not going anywhere. I watched as they left and thought that I hope they did not have to go very far.
One of my favorite places since I started traveling was the trip to Tanjung Putting National Park and seeing Orangutans. When I got to Kumai I was met by my organizer (Harry) and my guide (Erwin) and they took me to my hotel for a day to relax before heading out. Harry picked me up early the next morning and we were on the boat to the park by 9am. The boat was smaller than what I took when touring around Komodo but since I was the only one on it, there was lots of room. During busy times they would take 4 people on the type of boat I was on. I had a crew of 4 all to myself. My guide (Erwin) was a very interesting character. He is a non practicing Muslim that spoke very good English and we were able to have interesting chats about the world, Indo and religion as well as the park and the animal within it. He has worked at the park for 11 years (7 as a park ranger, 2 as manager of hotel and 2 as a guide) and without him trip would not have been the same. We had plenty of laughs and he was so good a spotting all kinds of animals. The other 3 crew did not speak English but I got lots of smiles from them and they were always joking around. The captain was Ade, who kept us afloat the whole time and helped out with other little tasks. The boat boy (Kadir) kept the boat amazingly clean and made sure I always had tea or snacks along the way. When the rain would come he would have the tarps up so quickly and then taken down just a fast when it stopped then he would towel dry the entire deck so my feet stayed dry. One of the best parts of the trip was the food I the chef (Ary) surprised me with every meal. I call him a chef and not a cook because what he prepared could have been served in any 4 star restaurants but he was making it on a small boat with a tiny kitchen. For one meal I had mini lobsters or what some might call gigantic shrimp along with chicken in an amazing sauce that I still have no idea what it was and lots of good vegetables. He made sure I had tea all day long and at snack time instead of getting a couple of cookies he would send out 24 assorted cookies and fresh fruit. This was some of the best eating I did in all of Indonesia. The route to Tanjung Puting is a bunch of different rivers systems. The main river out of Kumai is a dirty brown color and has some garbage on it and all the big ships as well. We turned off that river and went down an equally brown looking river for about 2 hours until we got to the turn at the park. Here there was a dramatic change in the color as the river went to a crystal clear black color. I know it sounds different but the water gets its color from the tantuns in the trees and the reflections of the trees and clouds were amazing. This is the water that we would use to shower and clean with and I had no problem with that. There are also crocodiles along the river but we did not see any on the trip. I sat at the very front of the boat with Erwin and started spotting Proboscis monkeys right away. They fly around like crazy little kids swinging and leaping between trees with no worries. In the afternoon we made it to Camp Leaky where I saw my first Orangutan on the walkway into the camp. I will talk about the Orangutans in the next part because they deserve their own little story. At the camp we went for a short trek and then made our way to a feeding area. After the feeding we walked back to the boat and found a place along the river to stay the night. The next morning we went back to Camp Leaky and did a 3 hour trek through the jungle. Along the way we saw Gibbons, Proboscis monkeys, a very rare Maroon Launger, Silver Laungers and wild pigs, lots of wild pigs. I then spent about an hour in the information center and watched a film about the area and the Orangutans. We went back to the boat for lunch and then back to the feeding area. After, it was back to the boat and to Camp 2 where we stayed the night. Erwin took me on a night trek for about 1 hour to try and see snakes and spiders but we did not see anything along the way. The next morning we saw another feeding and then went to a traditional village across from the park for a tour. The village is pretty small and lives off of rice fields and palm oil plantations. Our last stop was to camp one a one last feeding before heading back to Kumai.
The food might have been amazing on the trip but the highlight ad the reason I went was to see Orangutans. These animals are absolutely incredible. Their genes are 95% the same as humans and how the act is so similar to us I was amazed. The facial expressions and how use their arms and legs you can see why some may call them human. They are bigger than what I expected and the average arm span if I would compare to me I would make it to their wrists and then their hands and fingers are twice my size. Camp Leaky was started back in 1975 by a Canadian woman that wanted to help orphan Orangutans get back into the wild. Many of the mother Orangutans were been killed by humans and since a baby requires complete contact with the mother until about 6 or 7 they would stand no chance alone in the wild. When they first started, they took in the babies and tried to be their mothers and show them all the things they would need to learn about the wild. The Orangutans got adapted to humans and in the long run they found out they were doing more harm than good. It is not like they meant to do that but over time they found out that some were taking human disease in the wild and spreading it throughout the wilt population. This ended up killing many Orangutans and forced the changes that you see today. There has not been human contact in the area now for many years and what I saw I would consider being wild Orangutans. Some are still very happy around humans but they are the older ones that still grew up while there was lots of human contact. On our way out to the feeding we were lucky enough to come across Tom. Tom is the dominate male in the area of King. He had to fight the previous dominate male to get the area and now Tom has to defend it against any males that might want part of his territory. Tom controls about a 2 square km area and roams around it all having sex with his females and defending the area from other males. Tom was a huge animal and was nice enough to stay around so that I could get a few pics of him. Erwin said that lots of times you can go 10-12 days without seeing and that we were very lucky. The feedings were not at all what I expected. I thought more of a zoo mentality and feeding them by had but that did not happen. At a feeding they would put some (and I mean not very many) bananas on a platform and then just observe which ever ones would show up. There are 5000 Orangutans in the area and on the first day 10 showed up but not all took bananas. Some I think just show up for the social atmosphere of the other Orangutans as most pay no attention to the humans that are watching them. One of the strangest ones to see was a mother that was crossed eyed. I had to ask if they ever saw her run into a tree while swinging and was told that it had not happened. The 2nd feeding I went to was the best and very entertaining. At first there were lots of visitors but most of them left within half an hour and soon I was the only person there besides Erwin. We ended up having 15 Orangutans show up and what was neat was all 15 were different than the 10 that we saw on the first day. One Female that showed called Princess got some bananas and then came and sat right beside me to eat them. It was so cool how we looked at each other and were checking each other out. Princess had a 1 year old holding on to her and she would feed it as well. She also had a 5 year old with her that roamed around on its own but stayed pretty close to Princess. Another female showed up with a 6 year old and the two kids started to play fight with each other. It was so funny watching these tow play fight and it reminded me of fighting with my brothers as I grew up. They were having so much fun tossing each other around and swatting each other. The only difference between them and fighting with my brothers is that Orangutans bite and we would never do that, well maybe Rodney!!! I have a video of it and when I get a better internet connection I will try to add it, I would suggest you take a look because it is so funny. I was kinda expecting a bunch of Orangutans to show up to be feed but they do not. There is plenty of fruit in the forest for them to survive and they really have no need for getting easy food. At this point they just do the feeding for the tourists and the tourist industry. When we went to Station 2 for the feeding on day 3 only 6 Orangutans showed up and they left most of the bananas behind. Our last stop at station 1 we had no Orangutans show up at all. I was actually happy to see that as it really does show that these animals can do just fine without us messing with them. When I watched the video on them it was neat to see how they act in the wild and what they learn. As the young are attached to their mothers they learn exactly what tree ripens and what time of year it has ripe fruit. As they go out on their own they will know exactly where to go to get food at any time of year. The biggest predator they have is humans and our destruction of their habitat. The area in and around the national park has been logged and now that is the biggest threat to them. They have been able to stop most of the illegal logging in the park but what is left is a lot of bare land. Since the soil is mostly sand it is very hard to replant new forests because it will take 100’s of years for them to come back. It is sad to see but things seem to be getting better and that is good because these animals deserve better. The whole experience was amazing and I am so glad that I took the time to get to this remote part of Indonesia to see it.
When I got back to Kumai I was sitting in an internet café getting updated on all my emails and stuff and a guy started to chat with me. He was teaching an English class later in the day and asked if I would be interested in attending to help the students. As you know, I am not much of a teacher in that was but thought what the heck. He picked me up at 2:30 and took me to his class. The students were about 12-14 years old and very surprised when I showed up. I was introduced to them and then they all introduced themselves to me. It was only a class of 8 kids and that was good. I did not have to teach any ABC’s or stuff like that, all the teacher wanted was for them to have a conversation in English to help them learn new words and how we communicate. They asked lots of different questions and I got to find out lots about them as well. We talked for about 1 hour and then they all wanted a picture. I got a group pic with all the kids and then was on my way. I am so glad that I did this as well as it is not something I would normally do and it was quite rewarding.
My time in Yogyakarta has been really fun. I have found a lot more tourists in this area and I have been able to chat with lots of different people. I toured some Buddhist Temples in the area and I am just starting to figure out some of the Buddhist culture. I will learn a lot more as I head to other places in South East Asia. While I was touring the Sultans house I was able to see a group of traditional musicians play. It was very different music and nice to listen to. I also went to the bird market where I saw a lady carry a tray of little birds that we colored every color you can think of. She would not allow me to take a pic but it totally reminded me of Easter and all the colored eggs except these were live birds. While tour around the city I ran right into the middle of Yogyakartas version of the Calgary Stampede. They had a bunch of rides and vendors selling all kinds of stuff and even some stages that had traditional music and dance. The only thing i did not find was a rodeo and chuckwagons.
I could probably write more stuff but this is getting very long again and will be too much for one blog. Thanks to all of you for reading and taking in my adventures.
Take care all,
Steve
PS: A couple of birthday wishes to go out this time. One to my cousin Brenda, I am loving our skype chat that we have. 2nd one goes out to my brother Rodney who is turning 40 on Jan. 23rd. He is having a big party in red Deer to celebrate and I hope all of you can attend and celebrate with him. Have a drink for me, I wish I could be there.