I wasn't sure if I was going to get around to a form letter about my Indonesian trip or not, but today it is stinking hot in Adelaide and I am seeking refuge from the elements in our climate controlled computer lab at work.  In am not sure what the formal cut-off is in the definition of the Australian term "stinking hot", but I am quite enamored with the idea that it can be so hot that the heat generates its own odor, so therefore I use the phrase whenever I can work it into a conversation.  In any case, at 42.5 degrees Celsius (109 F), it is stinking hot today by anyone's definition.
    When I was originally planning my trip I first decided on a tour group, Intrepid Travel out of Melbourne, primarily because of the style of packages they offered; small groups of 12 or less, with the aim of organizing transportation and accommodation.  The tour leaders suggest things to do, but participants essentially pick and choose their own activities along the way.  The real problem then came in choosing among the 60+ trips they take in southeast Asia.  They go to places that I had never even heard of, let alone considered visiting.  I actually came very close to taking a train trip from Hanoi to Saigon (I had all tickets booked), but opted for Indonesia for reasons too complicated to treat here.  Anyway, I have no regrets in my decision

    You don't hear much about Indonesia in the American media. I must admit that I was pretty ignorant of their goings on before I moved to Australia ('though I had seen "The Year of Living Dangerously").  As Indonesia increases its influence in the world, Australia is definitely aware of the goings ons just north of its coast.  So, what do you know about Indonesia?  Did you know that it has the fourth largest population in the world (195 million), next largest after the USA?  Did you know that it has the largest Muslim population in the world?  Did you know that it is made up of over 3,000 islands, including Java, most of Borneo, and Sumatra?  Did you know that it includes the islands of Komodo (as in the dragon) and Krakatau (as in the largest volcanic eruption in recorded history)?  Did you know that much of it was a Dutch colony (Dutch East Indies) from 1600's off and on until Japan invaded in WW II?  Did you know that they now have a dictatorial president that has been in office for the past 30 yrs?  Did you know that they are considered one of Australia's largest potential trading partner as well as its greatest military threat?  Did you know that Indonesia has expansionist policies and has invaded a number of large islands in the past 20-30 years (East Timor and Irian Jaya=1/2 Papua New Guinea).  Did you know that they have a dubious human rights record in these territories, including the massacre of a half dozen Australian journalists; and that as I write rebels in Irian Jaya are holding a group of European field scientists hostage during negotiations with Indonesian military.  Did you also know that it is a very rich multicultural society set among beautiful tropical islands with plenty of active volcanoes?  What else could you need in a vacation spot?

 My plane left for Denpasar, Bali in the evening and I was busy finishing several projects so I worked all that day and hadn't really given the trip much thought.  My firstimpressions of Indonesia were of arriving after midnight and taking a taxi ride some 20 km into the countryside to the village of Ubud.  My memories from the taxi ride include:  1). small, 100cc motorcycles EVERYWHERE, 2). dogs everywhere ELSE, and 3). our car horn telling the motorcycles and dogs that we were moving significantly FASTER than them.  It was a surrealistic ride; at times I felt like I was in one of the night driving scenes from "Natural Born Killers".  What is funny is that if this ride had taken place later in my trip, it wouldn't even have rated a mention.  But, it takes a while to get used to a 3rd world countries driving style (if you live so long).
    I arrived in Ubud a day early, so I had some time to myself to start.  I spent a half day at the Monkey Forest.  This is a quasi-natural jungle that surrounds a Hindu temple on the edge of town.  The monkeys are wild macaques.  They are a fair sized monkey, with grown males about 10-15 kg.  They run wild, but the locals sell peanuts and bananas to the tourists to feed to the monkeys.  The monkeys know the routine well and accost tourists as they enter the park.  I had a large female macaque grab me by the hem of my shorts and not let go until she was sure that I given her every visible peanut.  But the real action centers around the bananas.  I watched two large male macaques climb a tall German, and while clinging to his shoulders and back, open his day-pack, pull out an entire bunch of bananas and fight over them all the way back down the German and into the woods.  It was really cool to get so close to monkeys though. The babies are soooo cute, and the brave juveniles would come over and sit in your lap or on your head.  But overall they are very unpredictable.  I later met a guy who had his eye glasses stolen by a macaque, who took them up a tree and onto the roof of a temple.  Some of the locals exchanged some bananas for the glasses, so he got them back.  He tipped the locals for their efforts, which made me wonder if it was prearranged deal between the macaques and the locals.  I had a great time watching them, and the unsuspecting tourists.  Note:  don't ever show your teeth to a macaque; as I found that they do indeed communicate with, and respond to facial expressions.

    Ubud is a cultural center of Bali, so there are innumerable craft shops and art galleries.  One of my greatest culture shocks was having to deal with the hawkers that run these shops.  I can not convey what it is like to have people continuously asking you if you want to buy something or if you need transportation or accommodation or want to see a dance show or go to a better gallery.  If you can imagine a busy street in any city you know and place yourself there with a bright shirt with flashing lights that said "I am a Rich Tourist", and had virtually EVERY person you see (except the few others with the flashing shirts) trying at least once to attract your attention to sell you something, then that is a start. The first day I just couldn't deal with it and retreated to the monkey forest.  Later I tried to politely say "no thanks" to everyone, but in the end they just get ignored and tuned out as background noise.  It sounds rude, but it was just sensory overload.  Once this initial intimidation is over come then comes the next phase of commerce... haggling.  I hate it, but that is the culture (have to haggle for the price of everything except prepared food) so I adapted.  I dealt with it by developing a standard formula for all interactions:  1. ask "how much";  2. laugh and say "too much";  3. offer them between 1/3 and 1/2 the asking price;  4. immediately meet them 1/2 way on their next offer (resulting in 1/2 to 2/3 original asking price);  5. stand firm until they agree;  6. if not walk away and the deal almost always closes at your prices before you make it to the "door".  The reason being that at 1/2 to 2/3 they are still making a tidy profit.  For example, I saw hard haggling fetch two items for 1/2 the original asking price of one.  However, I never could justify taking advantage of someone who was probably going home to a dirt floor, just to satisfy my own haggling ego.  At times it was easy to lose perspective though, especially when the merchants took the process so seriously.   I once saw negotiations over a t-shirt almost break down over the equivalent of less than five US cents.  Fortunately cooler heads prevailed and the sale was made in the end (at the buyer's price no less).  You had to be careful though entering into any negotiations.  You might off handedly offer one-fifth the asking price of an item and immediately find yourself the owner of a hand-made-multicolored-bamboo-smiling-dragon-weather-vane that you didn't really want, but now have to drag around with for 3-weeks without breaking it.

    Our group consisted of 13 people (some how one more than the maximum) plus a tour guide named Stephanie.  The group ranged from university students, to single working professionals, to two older sisters (40's) on vacation from their families. Most were Australian and English.  With the exception of one idiot (a whingeing pom if ever there was one) the group got along well.   It really isn't worth the energy to deride him, but I must say that this one idiot was one of the most unlikable people I have ever met (or had the ill fortune of sharing a room with on occasion).  In a way his presence did bring the group closer as we plotted and enacted ways to lose him each evening (including complex schemes of misinformation and literally running away when the opportunity presented itself).  Most of the group was traveling alone and had therefore never met.  I would certainly recommend this form of travel into unknown lands as I met some very nice and interesting people and enjoyed their company immensely.
    I am sure you would rather hear more about the places and the culture than the individual members of our group, but there was one person on the trip who interacted with the culture in such a unique way that I believe that she deserves special mention.  Her name is Julie.  Julie is the daughter of a successful doctor from Brisbane, Queensland.  She quietly turned 20 on our trip, but is one of the most traveled persons I have ever met.  She is bright, very talkative and generally fun person to be with, especially in such group situations.  Although I would certainly say that Julie is an attractive young lady, she does not fulfil the stereotype of the western cultural beauty myth. [can you see the set up]  Julie does, however, apparently represent the epitome of the Indonesian cultural beauty myth (short, blond hair, carrying a healthy weight).  There were a number of attractive women in our group, but whenever we pulled into a village and tumbled out of our vans, all young male Indonesian eyes were on "Julie".  They would ask people in our group what her name was and leave messages at her motel room proclaiming their "Love for Julie." In general she did not behave provocatively, though I suspect that she didn't help her cause much with the see through plastic shoes she wore on occasion.  One morning we did a pre-dawn volcano climb and our guide was so smitten that he held her hand most of the way and serenaded her from the volcano rim singing "I love you Juuuleeeee."  He told her that if she stayed in the small village with him he would, "take care of her always."  Although I suspect he might propose a couple times a week, there was no question as to who drew his attention in our group.  I can't help but be curious if this story has any relevance to the fact that my middle-aged female boss married her rafting guide three weeks after returning from her trip to Nepal to celebrate the 6-month anniversary of her divorce (careful now!).
    After that note, I feel I must comment on a serious matter, the condition of dogs in Bali.  Believe it or not I am serious.  One of the things that impressed me most was the appalling condition of the dogs.  Although the many dogs seemed to be generally affiliated with a property (ie. they had an owner), the owners apparently take no responsibility for the health or care of the dog.  Dogs eat scraps (scraped with no dogs in mind).  At best they are malnourished, filthy, often half-hairless (mange).  Typically they have unhealed sores, lesions, tumorous growths, missing limbs and tails.  At worst they are starved or suffering from some near fatal accident (I saw a dog's brains through a huge half-healed hole in its skull as it ran through the streets).  I can't tell you how many times I wished I had a dart pistol to euthanize a cat or a dog.  What I don't understand is why they keep them at all.  The animals have no apparent function, certainly not as pets (don't eat them or work them either).  I asked a number of Indonesians about this, but they acted as if dogs were just "there", like a wild animal would just be "there", except these were relatively tame. I guess that's like farm cats back home, but we would shoot a suffering one.  I was told that one of the worst insults in Indonesian is to call someone a dog.  I can certainly see why, but I don't understand it.
    Bali is inhabited primarily by Hindus. They are long separated from the Indian Hindus and settled in Bali when they were run out of Java by the Muslims (I forget the date but many, many centuries ago).  This Hindu culture, with it's ornate architecture (everything from homes to temples to bridges) and very visible ceremonial lifestyle makes Bali the exotic and special place that it is.  We visited many temples, some much more interesting than others.  But most of the temples required everyone who entered to wear a sarong.  A sarong is a large piece of cloth that is tied around the waist, essentially as a skirt.  So I bought two sarongs, one for special and one for every day.  I actually found them multifunctional and quite comfortable to wear, especially to the beach and pool.  Unfortunately I left my everyday sarong in a motel in Java where I was using it as pillow cover.

    The tour operators intentionally arranged for us to experience a variety of methods Indonesian of transportation.  I would say that the groups preferred method of travel was in chartered vans (2 for group).  These were in reasonable condition and we had ample room for ourselves and luggage.  These chartered vans had the equivalent of "TOURISTS!!!" written across them so the locals wouldn't confuse us with the primary form of local transportation, which are similar looking vans called "bemos."  The other effect of riding in these chartered vans is that the hoards of hawkers would descend on the vans at all stops because they could see that the TOURISTS were coming a half kilometer away.  We also did some time in illegally chartered bemos (guide just paid for their services for the day).  These vans were scarier because of their condition. They typically had empty dash boards (holes for all the instruments), and enough carbon monoxide wafting through the floor boards to kill small laboratory animals.  A few of us did experience a true (non chartered) bemo ride. We needed to travel about 7 km up a mountain road we had walked down. When the bemo stopped they wanted 2000 rupiah each (85 cents US). We argued down to 500 each (while the other passengers waited). When the price was agreed on I realized that the five of us weren't going to fit in this already crowded van. But we pushed in, and pushed in, and pushed in, and pushed in.  As we were laughing up the road with our limb-joints poked into each other's sides we stopped to pick up more passengers, two more times!  I had to sit on a 2x4 plank, cutting across my mid-thighs because there wasn't room to get my butt squared (two of these were added as extra bench seats). Ultimately we had 24 people in this eight seater van.  But this is the typical mode of transport for locals.
    I wish I could convey the difference in 3rd world driving habits. I don't understand the rules, but there obviously are some or else we would have been dead many times over (in equivalent situations in America or Australia).  It is a combination of extreme aggressiveness, but tempered with some definite rules of deferral. So apparently if our bus chose to overtake a car, it could only do so if it is clear (for a split second). But once our bus has committed to over taking a car, then the car and any subsequent oncoming traffic must slow to allow for us to pass. It was so frightening, especially at night when I couldn't judge distances or velocities of oncoming traffic, that I would literally close my eyes because it made me too nervous to watch.  All buses had a second person (drivers aide?) who helped call passing opportunities (typically designated with a flamboyant hand gesture and a verbal  'GO!!').  His other duty was to lean out the side window to signal to cars being passed when extreme urgency was needed with their cooperation in slowing down during the exercise.  He was also responsible for collecting the rubbish from inside the bus and throwing it out the front window at high speeds.
    We also toured some cities in becaks, which are tricycles with a seat up front. They are sort of like a rickshaw, but with as a tricycle. They were quite a pleasant way to travel in the city. We also did some bike riding in the countryside and through villages, and traveled by passenger boat through coastal mangrove swamps, half day by train and couple days by bus.  One of the days by bus we rode on local (non-chartered) bus. Fortunately it was not like the bemo, so everyone had a proper seat. However, they did not sell tickets in advance, so when we got to our last stop and pulled into the central bus station of Bandung (a major city) there was a crowd of about twice as many people wanting to get onto the bus as there would be seats available.  The hoard pushed to get on the bus before we could get off (let alone with all our luggage).  Our guide had prepared us for the scenario, so three of our largest guys physically blocked the rear exit as I strategically pushed my way out the front exit first. Then the others literally threw our luggage onto the heads of the hoards blocked at the rear door, which I gathered in a pile. Once the luggage was clear our entire group pushed out of the back door like and, like a rugby scrum, drove the masses back far enough to make their escape.  It was quite an unnerving experience, especially with children falling underfoot and everyone screaming and police standing by and just watching it unfold.
    The food in any new country is always worth a note.  The highlights of Indonesia are undoubtedly the fresh, cheap, and abundant tropical fruits.  Breakfast most days consisted of fresh fruit, and FRESH fruit juices. Throughout the day we would enjoy drinks varying from freshly squeezed lemon and lime juice; to pureed banana, papaya, mango, or watermelon; to lassies (juices mixed with sweet liquid yogurt). Although each restaurant had specialty dishes, all restaurants had the five basic Indonesian dishes:  Nasi Goring (steamed rice & whatever is in the kitchen); Mei Goring (fried noodles and whatever is in the kitchen); Satay (meat cooked on sticks over charcoal & served w/ spicy peanut sauce); and Gado Gado (what ever they have in the kitchen with spicy peanut sauce).  What makes Indonesian food interesting is that "whatever they have in the kitchen" is similar, but varies from place to place (day to day?).  So, although the menus are similar the details varied noticeably.  The kitchen ingredients of the day are typically steamed leafy vegetables and long beans, but could also include eggs and pickled vegetables.  Overall the food was quite good and always cheap.  Simple filling meal w/ drink is about $2.50 US.  TOTAL, multicourse meal with multiple fancy drinks and dessert and caffeine is $10.00 US max.
    One of the most distinctive things about Indonesian food is their satay (boneless chicken, beef, pork slices on a stick cooked over coals). I have had and enjoyed satay in the past, but nothing compares to the taste or experience of the Indonesian satays, which they bring out still cooking on their own miniature smoldering charcoal serving-stand-device-thing.  I suspect that the intense flavor comes from the smoldering coal, which appeared to me to be actual coal.  I think it is the toxic heavy metals in the coal that makes it taste so good.  If Kingsford would just add a little more sulfur and cadmium to their briquettes I think it would revolutionize American bar-b-ques.

   I really enjoyed walking and biking in the country side of both Bali and Java.  The people still live a very simple existence.  I was surprised how stereotypical it all still is.  Rice terraces worked by water buffalo and hard muddy labor, many people still in traditional dress (eg. conical "rice hats" are the work hat of choice), women carrying enormous loads balanced on cloth wraps on their head.  The difference of value placed on human work also struck me.  When we were in some of the country areas I would occasionally hear background noise like someone banging on a tin shed.  One day I noticed that there was a guy sitting under a lean to in the field pulling on strings with flags attached that were draped across his rice field. Every once in a while he would stop and pick up a pot lid and bang it with a mallet.  This was to keep the birds out of his field.  Talk about a job.  I wish I had compiled a more formal list of the things that I saw people doing, but activities include:  raking mud in fields by hand, size-sorting cobbles in dry stream beds for construction works, transporting single items by foot, out of context (eg. a cement block, a wooden desk, a spare part from a piece of heavy machinery, huge bails of grass), moving earth works for roads with small hand shovels and woven baskets.  The point being that I routinely saw people doing things that you couldn't hire anyone to do in the States or Australia at any price.  Yet that is just how it is done for these people.
 P.D.A. is the U.S. military abbreviation for Public Display of Affection, which is of course against regulations while in uniform.  All forms of PDA between men and women are also against regulations in Indonesia.  Two Australian students in our group struck up a bit of a romance on our trip.  Although their PDA was modest by American standards (extremely tame by some Australian standards), their habitual hand-holding drew considerable attention while walking down the city streets of Indonesia.  Note that I said PDA between men & women is socially unacceptable.  Physical contact (nonsexual hand holding, touching and cuddling) is very common in public between two women or between two men (young=unmarried).  It was common to see a group of young men sitting on the side of the road with their arms around each other or laying with a head in a lap.

 I have sort of cut the review of Java short.  It was more crowded and culturally less ornate, but a very beautiful country. One impressive volcano after the other.  We spent Christmas in Yogyakarta.  We had a nice morning of touring craft shops and galleries by becak, and afternoon shopping at the city markets.  In the evening we had a very relaxing meal in a bamboo bar with live music.  Some of us shared an appetizer of fried cobra.  When I returned to Australia some of my female Indonesian friends here found this absolutely hilarious because, "it is good for the man thing."  Overall Christmas was a very relaxing and undoubtedly memorable event.  The same must be said for New Years Eve in Jakarta.  We watched the new year arrive from the top of a pedestrian overpass in the crowded, supper-loud-party-horn-blowing streets of Jakarta.  I must say that overall I found Jakarta an overcrowded, dirty, smelly, unpleasant, uninteresting place.  It did look better at night (pretty city lights but too dark to see the grime), but I was happy to leave, though not necessarily to Adelaide.
    Well this certainly ran on longer than I intended, and if you're still with me, you attention is noted and appreciated.  I guess it is obvious that not only did I have a good time in Indonesia, but it certainly left some strong impressions as well.

Love,
Steve.
 
 

a bali link
http://web.singnet.com.sg/~hchua/bali.htm

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