A Surprise Visit to Indonesia

Jakarta, Indonesia

Mandarin Oriental Lobby Jakarta

Celebrating Chinese New Year

Lobby at the Mandarin Oriental hotel celebrating Chinese New Year

This trip to Indonesia was not planned before I left Maine at the beginning of November heading to Tampa. Our winer trip was all organized to go to the Southwestern National and State Parks.

In December Stewart was offered to go for 6 weeks in Indonesia helping develop some protected areas in North Maluku, Indonesia. This area is rich in coral reefs, fishing,  turtle nesting and much more. So we changed plans, quickly made necessary plans, visa’s, vaccines and here I am writing you all from Indonesia. I had packed for winter camping in the western mountains in the US. So I had not brought some of the clothes I needed for this climate but am doing fine with what I have.

After spending a week in Jakarta — one of the largest cities in the world (10 million people) – I can tell you that the first thing you notice is the traffic. Our driver told us that there are 8 million motor cycles there, though not as many cars. The people are full of smiles and curiosity when seeing a person such as myself, with white skin and hair. I really didn’t notice many other white-skinned people.

Security is huge. There are police everywhere; on corners and walking bridges and in the hotels and malls, etc. To enter the hotel, the cars are checked inside and underneath… with mirrors. I saw this at the embassy in Oman, too, but here, it’s done everywhere. To walk into the hotel or mall or museums, etc., our bags go through a scanner. It does sort of feel safe, although they did say not to walk around at night alone.

Our first morning, we woke up at 5:15AM to very loud music coming from outdoors. We’d been told about this monthly “Car Free Day” when they close up a few streets and have a festival which begins around 6:00AM and lasts until 11:00AM. Around a large circle in front of the hotel, in the middle of a very busy part of the city, is a space which lends itself to a festival. I looked out of our 24th floor window down onto the streets and watched people running around with their streets carts. I noticed a lot of people wearing red shirts and many standing in line in front of a booth. More on this in a minute. I decided I’d go down and check it out.

The first thing I noticed after walking through the gates and onto the street were all the motor cycles, and then all the people. There were ladies getting ready for a performance in full traditional costume. We took photos of each other and then I watched their traditional performance.

sooo many bikes

These people know how to get a group of people moving. Including me!

Thanks for the exercise

After their performance 3 people in exercise clothes came on stage, and with very loud music, started what I’ll call an aerobics session. Suddenly, there were hundreds of people of all ages in red shirts, plus a high school band, all following the instructors. I took photos until we couldn’t stand still any longer and joined in ourselves! Well, the people around me laughed and smiled while giving me thumbs up. This was 6:15AM and already I was drenched in sweat (and I usually don’t sweat much). Eventually I walked up to the red shirt booth and asked what they were promoting. Luckily, they spoke English and explained it was a march on narcotics. They, too, are having problems with drugs.

Two proud girls

I was interviewed by some middle school kids who asked some pretty surprising questions, like, “What do I think my obligation in life is?” Impressive students, all speaking good English.

By 11:00AM, everything was taken down and the street was full of cars again.

Shira and I had some time on our hands so decided to visit China Town. The photos tell the story. But I do have one short story to tell you. As we were walking along the narrow roads admiring the goods being sold a man asked me, “where are you from?” I replied, “USA”. He put up his in the shape of a gun and responded, “USA, GUNS, BAD” Yep, in China Town, Jakarta. Pretty sad what people think of our country. For now on I have considered saying I’m from Canada.

Happy Buddha

TUT TUT’s

Frogs for dinner anyone? UGH

Sharpening a knife

Buddist Temple hidden behind some shacks

The next day, my friend Shira and I went on a private walking tour in Kota Tua (The Old City) which feels and looks like an old Dutch colony built in the 1800’s. The center square is where the executions took place. It’s now used by the people with street carts, restaurants, museums and artists. The last photo is of the back side of a canon built by the Dutch. Our Sweet young muslim tour guide asked if we knew what it meant. I said no, what does it mean. She said, “F _ _ _ OFF” hearing her say this in itself surprised me. Leave it to the Dutch.

Square where people congregated

He sits this way up to 5 hours

A real character

major attraction here

This sculpture is at the opposite of a canon built by the Dutch It means F_ _ _ OFF. Go figure?

In one of these old Dutch buildings, our tour guide took us to visit a master craftsman puppeteer from a dynasty of puppet makers. How exciting it was to visit this extraordinary person, a 4th generation puppeteer. He has two uncles in their 70’s still making puppets. Inside the room there were a large variety of puppets. Aldy Sanjaya, showed us how he makes intercut shadow puppets using water buffalo skins, and then he gave us a private show. Very impressive. Of course I had to purchase a set of puppets to bring home for show and tell.

After this visit with Aldy we found our way to the harbor via a tut-tut, a motorized bike with 3 wheels and a carriage that can seat 3 people… although I heard stories of 5 adults in them! This ride alone was an experience, racing in and out, dodging every kind of vehicle one can imagine. The harbor is a very busy one with large ships and old boats bringing in goods. Some of the boats looked as if they would fall apart they happened to sail into a storm.

This man wanted to take us for a boat ride. We declined. When processing this photo I noticed he is wearing a T-shirt from the Puppeteer. Kinda interesting

His boat

A Banyan Tree growing on to building. Notice the living quarters on the left side. TV and all.

Need I say anything about this? Yikes

love the contrast

Merchants ship

At 1:45AM we flew out of Jakarta to Ternate in the North Maluku providence; the only flight to this area. We flew through 2 time zones and arrived in the early morning. It was fabulous to view the volcanos on the islands from the plane.