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Blog may 7

Sitting in the jungle contemplating the last month of our journey.  We fell in love with Indonesia where people were so incredibly kind and helpful, and scenery both natural and cultural was amazing.  We went to 3 of Indo's 17,000 islands - Bali, Nusa Lembongan (technically still bali) and Java.  Bali captivated me with its beautiful architecture elements. Doors intricately carved out of wood, temples built in family homes, and just the care and precision in construction.  One day i went on a short hike from Ubud along a river, through rice paddies and into a small village.  Along the way there were men building a new temple which is no small feat when all construction elements  are done by man not machine - but the most amazing part was seeing large slabs of stone and poured concrete on the walls transformed by local carvers  into gods and idols in amazing designs.  I loved the representation of Hinduism and despite similarities found the Hindu culture very different than parts of India that I have visited.  Every morning the women prepare an offering to the gods and demons.  These are prepared on a banana leaf or in a woven basket and include different natural items (I'm told that is what the gods like) such as flowers, rice, cakes, biscuits, sometimes money, and usually incense.  These looked beautiful and smelled amazing all through town- they were literally in front of every house, store, driveway, in cars, by bridges....everywhere.  Historically they were prepared from scratch by women but now they buy lots of the items in the market.  Time in Bali was relaxing (we had many hotels WITH pools!), rejuvinating, and inspiring - just what the doctors ordered for Matt's back and our overall health (full body one hour massages cost $6).

Then we travelled over land and by ferry to Java and we saw a different side of Indonesia.  First of all this island is extremely populated and mostly Muslim.  Gone were the carvings, and offerings replaced with very loud call to prayer 5 times a day. This is blasted over loud speakers distributed throughout all towns and cities and seemed to be generally pointed into our room!  At 4:30 am it goes off for the first time and shockingly I enjoyed it, found it quite beautiful and used the woken minute or two to think positively about my own day or week.  One morning we woke at 3 to go to Borobodur temple (one of the largest Buddhist temples in the world) and were actually wide awake for the call, and to see the city sleeping but know that this was a time that most would arise to pray with their family was pretty neat.  Java also provided us with some spectacular natural sites.  Another 3 am (2am for us because we overlooked the time change between Bali and Java - couldnt figure out why they weren't more organized...) wake up this time to visit Mt. Bromo.  This is an active volcano in and amongst a "volcano field" that was well worth the early rise.  We took a 4wd jeep up part of the mountain and then had a short but steep climb to the sunset view point.  Because of the heat of the volcanoes there was huge amounts of heat lightning just about the caldera's!  The sunrise was beautiful and was quickly followed by a huge blanket of cloud filling the valley and creeping up the sides of the volcano.  We drove through the mist and again had a short but steep climb to get to the lip of the active volcano! Once the sun burned through the fog we were able to see into the hot hole and watch massive spurts of steam and sulphuric vapour spew from it.  No lava but really cool.

We travelled overland through Yogyakarta where we rode around in Beceks which are small carts you sit in pushed around by a guy (usually pretty old) on a bike aka bicycle rickshaw in other countries. Apparently bought art from the local mafia? Visited the palace of the Sultan (apparently these still exist?) and ate lots of delicious food from sketchy looking carts on the street (the more awful it looked seemed to correlate with best taste!).  This was a good opportunity to see crazy city life was a good contrast to Cianjur where we travelled next to experience more village life.  After a train, a bus and then a mini bus (totalling more that 12 hours and costing about $25) we were dropped of in the middle of a neighbourhood at the apparent address we had provided the driver with.  In the past we have stayed at "home stays" but this was legitimately staying in a home with a married couple and their child.  It turned out to be one of the best parts of our trip and definately memorable.  We were immediately treated like family including having our laundry done by the cleaning lady! Over the next few days we met a few other like minded travellers and experienced different lives in the village including an English tutor, a fisherman and fish farmer living in a floating village, a rice farmer, a brown sugar maker, and a plastic recycling sorter as we were brought all over on the back of a motorbike or in the back of a "ute" (see previous blog for explanation).  We finally went karaokeing with our local guides/friends and saw an Indonesian rock band play at a fair.  We even went to a "water park" which was very strange, compounded by the fact that I had to wear all my clothes in the water over my bikini to be respectful to the Muslim women also there.  It was incredible and very unlike other "tours" which many of you know I don't generally like.  In the village up in the rice paddies where we ate so much fresh brown sugar just cooked from the sap of the palm we lied on the floor of a woman's house who we had just shared lunch with and had an afternoon nap while one at a time we got a massage by the local "masseur"- it was magical!  

We finished up Indo in Jakarta with the other 16 million people that live there.  While looking for the port we got lost in the very small alleyed paths of a neighborhood.  A rare opportunity to see into houses and get a feel for everyday life.  Tourists were obviously strange to be seen but after a glance people went on with their evening. Call to prayer happened while we were there and all the men were coming out of their homes to go to the mosque- very cool.  I really wanted to get into a sweatshop while I was there and went so far as to set up an account as a textile buyer and emailed many factories....but shockingly none got back to me.  I will go back to Indonesia and highly recommend  it, we felt very safe, very taken care of (at the slightest look of being lost someone usually jumped to help).  Despite many surviving on less than 1million rupiah each month or $100, people we met always smiled and made life seem like it was enough.  People have shelter, food and clean clothes and work hard to get kids to school but they are very happy.  Yudi told us "people in Canada have lots of money but they don,t have time...Indonesians have lots of time but no money....we strive to balance the two".  

Another long one....looking for feedback on the blog writing as we head into half way mark.  Do you read it? Do you like it? Do you wish was shorter, longer? Do you like types of stories? Do you want more of something or less?