Travels

Here are some descriptions of a few trips that we took. I have also posted a ton of pictures on our website. check it out at

http://homepage.mac.com/doublebassface22/

Hopefully this will fill you in a bit and tide you over for a few weeks when we return from our trip to Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Also when we get back I will post some thoughts about our trip to Papua. The taxi is waiting outside our house as I type, to take us to the airport.

Grant and Leah

Anyer-
Anyer was our first trip out of Jakarta. It was just a little beach town about two and a half hours away. It was nothing special but a nice get-away from the dirty city. We went on this trip with some new friends, Jeff and Cindy, who are both also teachers at NJIS. We hired a driver for about five dollars for the entire day. When we arrived we were instantly hounded by tons of vendors all shouting in Bahasa, the items that we should buy. After they backed off, the day was much less stressful and we were able to enjoy the sun and the waves. Later in the day, we ended up getting massages on the beach. The women were kind enough to use sand and oil on us, exfoliating our skin and lubing us up for a nice roasting. Forgetting that we were in the tropical sun, we hung out for another two or so hours. By the end of the day we were all completely sunburned.

Pelabuhan Ratu-
This was an interesting trip. We went with about eight other teachers to this beach house owned by some Australian architect/surfer that one of our friends knew. It was an absolutely stunning house, that he designed and built himself, overlooking a beautiful view of the southern coast of Java. The rooms of the house had walls that could be slid opened revealing an unbelievable view of the Indian Ocean right from the bed. It was incredible!
In order to describe the unusual and sometimes frightening events that occurred on this trip, I must explain one thing about Indonesian culture. They are a very superstitious people, that strongly believe in the existence of ghosts, spirits and omens and what they represent. Pelabuhan Ratu has a legend attached to it that everyone warns you about the second you mention the area. It is believed that a long time ago a queen lost her son when he was on a long journey out to sea. After that she vowed to roam the seas until her son has returned to her. The myth says that if you wear green in the water she will come and drag you out to sea. Of course, none of us wanted to tempt our fates, so everyone brought the most non-green suites that they owned. Upon arriving at the house, we unpacked our stuff and headed out to the beach. The beach was completely clean and free of people. The waves were amazing and they were perfect for body-surfing. Leah, our friend Jesse, and I were the first ones out in the water. We were playing totally carefree and commenting on how wonderful the waves were, when we realized we were really far away from land. The tides had carried us further and further with such swiftness and ease that we didn’t even notice. We all had talked about how to swim out of a strong current and so we started swimming and slowly we were reaching land. I looked back and realized that Leah was pretty far back still and was not making it back in. She started calling for me to come help her. The look on her face was so terrifying that even writing about it makes me feel nervous and sick. She was getting tired quickly and couldn’t make it in on her own. I was feeling alright and I headed back to help her. As soon, as I started trying to bring her in I realized that there was no way I was going to be able to do it. The waves were crashing so quickly and taking us so far out that all of our energy was draining at a frightening pace. I don’t know if I can describe what it is like to suddenly know that you can’t make it back to land. Even harder to describe is the utter terror and emptiness that I felt when I realized that I was not going to be able to save my wife and best friend from this. It was the scariest moment of my life. Flashbacks haunt me occasionally and fill my body with absolute fear and a coldness that reaches everyone bone and organ. I don’t mean to sound dramatic but it really feels like this. The upside to these thoughts is immediately after the fear I feel truly lucky and blessed that I still have Leah.
Obviously, we are just fine and we can all thank our friend Jesse, who was in the water with us, because she just happens to be the swim coach at our school. She has spent her entire life diving the oceans and seas of Southeast Asia. She is a Master diver and has saved more than a few lives. She saw us struggling and came out to get us. We are honestly two of the luckiest people around. If she had not been there, we would not be here. When we got back up to the house, we looked down at the beach and the waves were clearly dangerous. It’s hard to believe we didn’t notice before but now that we have seen a rip-tide I am sure I will recognize it the next time.
Once on shore, teary eyed and exhausted, down came another couple to head into the water. Oblivious to what had just happened and frankly ignoring our warning to go in the water, they merrily love-birded their way into the water. Guess what happened? Minutes later, the guy was stuck out in the water and calling for help. At this point half the village was down on the beach and in the water to help. In the end, everyone was all right but it was quite an eventful first couple of hours of our trip.
After taking a long break away from the water we all settled down and relaxed at the house. We went into town and ate dinner at one of the resorts, had a few drinks and played some pool with some guys from England. Oddly enough, the next weekend, we ran into those same guys at a bar in Jakarta. After the dinner, I got to drive home. This was my first time steering from the right side of the car and driving on the left side of the road. The driving was somewhat stressful because the stick shift was on my left and the lanes were really tight.
The next day we went down the road and found a little cove that was pretty private and had much gentler waves. We spent he whole day there boogie boarding and watching the surfers. Although, Leah was a bit apprehensive about entering the water she eventually found herself enjoying the ocean again. Later in the day there were some bigger waves and more surfers came out. It was amazing to watch some of them ride those waves.
That night we had one of the most amazing dinners ever. The house-maids cooked up a huge Red Snapper and some tantalizing Prawn. Accompanied by some delicious red wine, it was a wonderful dinner. A few of us stayed up late into the evening just watching the waves from the look-out deck. From land, the endlessness of the ocean, fading off into the horizon, makes you incredibly vulnerable to your thoughts. It was the first time I really felt far away from home. It was also the first time I felt sure that we made the right decision to move.
It was a great trip out to the coast of Java. We all made it back alive and learned a few lessons. We also learned a little bit about some of the people we work with. It is sometimes hard to mix work with pleasure. Some people just don’t get it. That’s all I will say.

Bogor-
About an hour south of Jakarta is a town called Bogor. It is a little more up in the hills so the temperature is lower (close to 83 degrees). Bogor is known for it’s Botanical Gardens and it’s relaxing resorts. This was a last minute trip that we booked the day before we left. We found a luxurious hotel for next to nothing. We spent one day hanging out by the pool and around the grounds of the hotel. The next day we went to the Botanical Gardens for a few hours and returned home to the dirt and smell of Jakarta. A nice quick trip to allow ourselves to stop thinking about work for a bit.

Krakatau- I celebrated my 26th birthday at the base of an active volcano. What Fun! How inexpensive! What Wildlife! No, I mean What Wildlife? However, there were giant Monitor Lizards that were at least a meter and a half long. One crawled next to our tent when we were sleeping. I almost threw up with such a frightful scare. OH MY! I was fortunate enough to get sick with heat exhaustion. Only for a few hours though. After sleeping for a bit and completely sweating out any illness that I could possibly have, I awoke in the middle of the night and saw one of the most beautiful sites I have ever seen. The moon was full and high in the sky. I was completely alone awake on the beach in the middle of the Indian Ocean on a tropical island thousands of miles away from anywhere I ever thought I would be. It was such an incredible way to spend a birthday. The next day we woke up bright and early and traveled over to the peak of the volcano and hiked up. The hike only took us about 20 minutes but at the top it was absolutely stunning and made it all worth it.