Drinks

Here in Palembang, the variety and quantity of liquids that I imbibe on a weekly basis is quite impressive. Given the average temperature of 90 degrees, you would be drinking a lot too.  Here is a quick glance at my favorite Indonesian beverages.

Name: Orpin (orange+pineapple)

Location: Kopitiam Restaurant

Price: 18,000 rupiah

Stars:***

Name: Bandrek (hot ginger and milk awesomeness)

Location: Jalan Veteran-Mitra Night Stand

Price: 10,000 rupiah

Stars:****

Name: Dogan (young coconut water)

Location: Next to my school

Price: 5,000 rupiah

Stars: ***** (it's tasty AND healthy)

Name: Ades (don't worry, it's just water)

Location: any store

Price: 3,000 rupiah

Stars: ** (1 star for being water, another star for the worst possible name)

Name: Sumatran or Balinese coffee (depending on which island I'm on)

Location: my kitchen or hotel room

Price: almost free

Stars: ****(this coffee is so good it doesn't need cream or sugar

 Name: Jahe Wangi (ginger tea)
Location: my kitchen
Price: 2,000 rupiah
Stars: *** (it is good but an imposter of the tea from my massage place)

 Name: Es Teh Tawar (plain iced tea)
Location: Any restaurant in Indonesia
Price: 3,000 rupiah

Stars: *(I mostly drink it because it's cheap and sugar free) 

 Name: 100 Plus
Location: Indomaret->my house
Price: 7,500 rupiah
Stars: *****(imported from Singapore and tastes like what Sprite wishes it could be)
 

 Name: Air Minum (drinking water)
Location: my kitchen
Price: free
Stars: *** 

Namaste...at home

Yoga. What do you think of? For me this word conjures up great images of people in sweatpants, sitting cross legged and smiling peacefully as it has unlocked all the secrets of happiness to them. Well, for those of you that either are or have been those people, please come to my yoga class and try to look that way.

Yoga studio or chamber of pain?

For my first few months in Indonesia, I lived with 2 girls who diligently went to a yoga class three times a week. I thought they were crazy.(Sorry girls, I was right.)  Unfortunately, one of those girls left when her contract ended and with some encouragement, I decided to get off my lazy tush and give yoga a try with the other girl. Now in this world, it is my firm belief that some people are meant to do yoga and others are not. I am someone who was not made for yoga. She is someone who was.

Fellow yoga victims and our stations

I am unable to tell you about my first yoga session as a result of selective memory and pride.  Lest we forget, I am quite obviously a foreigner wherever I go, and nowhere is this more clear than in a yoga studio full of flexible Asian women. The class starts off with some basic stretches to some soothing elevator music. Then before I know it, we've rotated between 10 difficult poses in 5 minutes, and the instructor, Emi, has become my mortal enemy. I am sweating. The amount of sweat that the human body is able to produce is mind boggling. Particularly my human body, during yoga, in a non-air conditioned room, with 12 other people. Emi once asked me if I enjoyed swimming during her class. Ha. Anyway, somewhere between planning a violent crime, and swearing off yoga forever, we have transitioned to the strictly cardio section. This I can handle. She turns on the club beats and a few quick minutes later, it's time for the cool down.  This is my favorite part of yoga for 2 reasons. Numero Uno: I can see The Light at the end of The Tunnel. Numero Dos: Toni Braxton's "Unbreak My Heart" is a cool down song that could make anyone smile mid-bridge pose.

I can't say that I haven't started to enjoy yoga in some sort of strange masochistic way. I am a bit more flexible but nowhere near my yoga mates. I will also admit to the fact that I may have skipped yoga for awhile because I am lazy and moderately sane. I have started doing yoga again, and on Tuesday, introduced the 2 new girls in the house to the class. Whether I will continue to do yoga after Indonesia is anybody's guess, but I can say with confidence, that anybody who tries a yoga class and comes out the other side, is better off for it.

Diane, myself, fellow yoga girls, and Emi

Farewell to a Friend

Here in Palembang at any given time here are about 30 foreigners in this city of 1.5 million. I live/work with 5 of them. We all live in a house together and function somewhat normally as an odd mixture of The Real World and Party of 5. If NBC is looking for a hot new show, we've already discussed the script for a pilot and considered calling the show " The Expat Experience". Anyway, I've lived, worked, and hung out with some pretty great people through this experience.  Unfortunately, the nature of our work as ESL teachers means that we each sign a one year contract and then leave. I've already said goodbye to three coworkers already, during the pre-blogging time, and yesterday, my friend Diane was the fourth. You may not know Diane but just trust me on this; she is awesome and life in Palembang won't be the same without her. The sheer amount of presents, cakes, and farewell meals that were held in her honor are proof of it. It's been a blast getting to know you, girl, and I'm not sure the West Coast will ever truly be ready for our Stateside reunion.

We love and miss you Di!

The Return to Palembang

My final morning in Bali was beautiful. I had already arranged for a shuttle bus to come pick me up for the 2 hour drive to the airport. I'd gotten all of my things into my backpack the night before and had enough time to treat myself to a delicious, carbohydrate-loaded breakfast of a strudel, a croissant, some toast, and a glass of juice, along with one last steaming cup of Balinese coffee.

Delicious and peaceful

 

The ride to the airport was enjoyable and short. Two adjectives that are rarely attached to any form of transportation in Indonesia.  The 2 hour flight from Denpasar to Jakarta was pleasant enough and I managed to nap a bit and counted exactly 3 volcanoes from my window seat. Flying over interesting landscape is one of my favorite parts of traveling. On my way to China I remember looking out my window and being stunned to see the Rocky Mountains, and shortly thereafter some neat Alaskan tundra.

 

 One of the many reasons why this area is called the Ring of Fire

I arrived in the dreaded Jakarta airport, knowing full well that things would not be on time nor would anyone tell me about it.  Jakarta did not disappoint. Not only was my flight delayed 2 hours, but the departures monitor never showed my flight as being delayed, cancelled, or at all. A quick note about the Jakarta airport: It is neither clean, nor organized, and not a single person I know has had a flight depart on time. To add insult to injury, Terminal 1B, is a poor excuse for a terminal. If Tom Hanks' character had been stuck in Jakarta, that movie would not have been nearly as funny nor as interesting. After some finagling I talked to someone in the know and had it so one of the flight attendants would text me before boarding. Awesome. As my friend Diane had followed me on a later flight from Bali and would do the same to Palembang, I was able to meet up with her for a quick ice cream and airport rant. I eventually took my flight to Palembang and hung out in a cafe until Di arrived to share a taxi back to the house. This is always our least favorite part of traveling. Upon arriving at the Palembang airport there is a veritable wall of taxi drivers waiting to scam the obvious foreigners. At this point I don't take any of their nonsense and was able to negotiate for a relatively cheap ride for the two of us. As Mom would say, home again, home again, jiggidy jig.

It's a Small World After All

This post is about the second half of the day I climbed the volcano. As the day started at 2 am I figured it deserved 2 entries.  Anyways, I got back to my homestay at about 10:15 and relaxed on my porch for a bit, looking at my pictures, and checking my e-mail.  Around eleven my friend and coworker, Diane, called to tell me that she and her friend were currently being driven through Bali by my old driver, Made. Bali is filled with tourists and their drivers and it is quite the coincidence that we shared one. We had a good laugh about it and I asked her for some information about a spa that she had recommended in Ubud called Putri Bali Spa. We said goodbye and I quickly called and made a reservation for an 80 minute massage at one o'clock that afternoon.

When I arrived at the spa I had pretty high expectations as Diane had raved that it was the best massage she had gotten in Indonesia. That is quite the statement as we get massages in Palembang once, if not twice a week. At $9 an hour, who wouldn't? Anyways, every expectation I had for this spa was met and surpassed. Upon my arrival I was instructed to take off my sandals and sit down so that my feet could be washed while I enjoyed a glass of mineral water.

The next 80 minutes were the most relaxed I have ever been in my entire life.  

Friends and family, if you are ever near, in, or adjacent to Bali, you MUST go to Putri Bali Spa and get the Traditional Balinese Massage.

Near the end of my massage I thought I recognized the laugh of someone outside my room, but I chalked it up to my inner child laughing exuberantly enough for me to hear. When my massage was over, I paid my bill, and thanked the girls in Indonesian, which then cued the usual questions of where I was from, where I was living, and I was doing.  As I told the girls that I was from America, teaching English in Palembang, all of their eyes lit up and they excitedly announced that another girl who was also teaching English in Palembang had just arrived and started a massage. I couldn't believe it. There is currently only one other girl from America teaching English in Palembang. The world really is tiny. I decided to wait for Diane to finish her massage and say a quick hello. While I waited, I got a cream bath for my sea salt soaked hair and dreamed up a million different ways to make my surprise entrance, ranging from popping out from behind a door to spinning around in leather chair while evilly stroking a cat.  I finally settled on just sitting in a chair and patiently waiting in the lobby. When she came out she was equally as surprised to see me as I had been surprised to hear about her. We chatted for a bit about our trips then left the spa, and fortunately for me, she was kind enough to have Made drop me off at my homestay before they continued on their journey south to Kuta. What a lovely coincidence.

Thanks Made and Diane!

Mountain Climbing Without Medical

Before I continue, I want to apologize for my overuse of alliterations during blog titles. Tongue twisters truly treat titles terrifically.

Now then, for my second full day in Bali I enjoyed a wide variety of activities. When we were enjoying the view of Mt. Batur the previous day, I had heard one of the Danish guys talking about a sunrise hiking trip up the mountain. As most of my friends and family will tell you, I strongly dislike mountain climbing. If there is a tall obstacle in front of me and there are the two options of going over it or around it, I will invariably choose to go around it. However, as I was by myself trying to be adventurous and lacking proper judgement, climbing a volcano before sunrise sounded like the best idea ever. 

The van came to pick up me and 3 others at 2 a.m. and we drove for about an hour out to the trailhead. Breakfast was, of course, a banana pancake and coffee. We met up with our guide/human mountain goat, Komo, who could not have been over 18 years old. Flashlights were distributed and a lot of people were concerned with my apparel, a tank top, shorts, and sneakers. I kindly explained to them that as Indonesia had been successfully boiling, steaming, and frying me for the past 7 months, a little bit of mountain freshness was not going to kill me.  We then headed up the trail, chatting, and making two pit stops along the way.

This is roughly all that I saw during the 2 hour climb

 

We reached the summit at roughly 5:45 a.m. with plenty of time to spare before our 6:30 a.m. appointment with the sun. The temperature up there was much colder than anything I've experienced in Indonesia so far and IT FELT GREAT. Komo and the other repeated their concerns about me being cold and offered me their jackets but I happily told them in Indonesian what roughly translates to- "I've had 7 months of hot in Indonesia. I want cold." Shortly thereafter the sun came up and as it gradually rose I caught some decent pictures.  We stayed at the top until about 7:45 a.m. then made our way back down to the van.  During the descent down I slipped a bit on some volcanic rock and it occurred to me that I was engaged in a fairly dangerous activity without any medical coverage whatsoever. Oh well. I was finally dropped back off at my homestay in time for yet another banana pancake breakfast.

"Here comes the sun..."

The climb was worth it but my foray into volcano trekking ends here 

Looking down the crater valley to the lake by the village

Bicycling Through Bali

The morning of my first full day in Ubud, I had signed up to go on a bicycling tour that some of my friends here had gone on a few months ago. The van came to pick me up at 7:30 and had already picked up a couple from Germany and three Danish people who were to be my tour group.  Before we started the actual cycling section, we stopped and had a mini-tour of a coffee plantation. We learned all about how coffee is grown, roasted, and ground. Then we were given a selection of different coffees and teas to sample. They were all delicious in their own way, but my favorite was Balinese coffee.

 Who doesn't start off the day with 8 cups of coffee?

a path through a section of the coffee plantation

Our next stop was to have a quick breakfast at a picturesque viewing point of a volcano, Mt. Batur.  I had yet another cup of coffee and banana fritters. (Again with the bananas!) It was at this place where we were given our helmets and bicycles for the day and started the pleasant downhill cycle.

 delicious but not so nutritious

As we cycled through Bali we stopped at a traditional Balinese family compound as well as many different rice paddies. The ride was very enjoyable and ended with a delicious Indonesian lunch of chicken sate, fried rice, steamed vegetables, fried noodles, and of course, another cup of coffee.

 

 Bali is a Hindu island in the middle of primarily Muslim Indonesia, so this pig (and the pork it represented) was a sight for sore eyes.

 

 Yum!

 Proud member of the CPC (Clean Plate Club) since 1987