Once more across the seas

And to once more confuse the chronology of this blog by posting way too much, way to rarely, I will now update you about what I did right BEFORE Christmas.

My third, and penultimate Visa period ended on December 15, so I had one last chance to hop around SE Asia right before the christmas rush pushed all prices through the roof.  And i definitely took advantage of this. First, I flew off to Kuala Lumpur again, since it is now one of my favorite cities ever. Seriously, between the food, and Shen's awesome family, and a functional subway, and the FOOD.... basically it is up there with Chicago on my list of cities to visit again and again... and maybe move to.  Love it.

After three too-quick days in KL, I hopped back to Java, and visited Jessica in her home town of Bandung. Its known as the "Paris of Java" and boy was it atmospheric  For one night, Jessica and Tanti and I hightailed it to Jakarta, and basically spent 24 hours in traffic, getting almost kinda sorta close to national monuments. Jakarta is overwhelming. And feels like a different world. It's nuts.   And then, after another three too-quick days in Java, I came back to lovely Bali, just in time for the holidays.

And here, are more details and some of the awesome things we saw!:

This section under construction, since the internet is slow and uploading photos is a pain. Come back soon!

Malang and East Java, or "Ada Bule Terbang!"

After returning from our Bromo moonscape, and washing off all the dust (so much dust!) We then drove down to Malang to hang out with Patricia. Her family lives in Malang, and were wonderful enough to host us all in her amazing house for the next few nights.  We took advantage of this for sure, and used it as an excellent base for many adventures.  We went to a bunch of places that are fairly well known for domestic tourists, but far off the western tourist path.  It was a blast. 

First stop: The BEACH!

we drove for a while to a secret cove, and then piled into a brightly painted boat. 

we set out to cross the little bay, passing brightly colored fishing rigs the whole way. 

we had to wade the last few meters in, and landed on  a secret little spit of sand. 

Then we hiked through the jungle for about an hour, following little clumps of shredded paper as markers, like Hansel and Gretel.

Eventually we emerged to see this amazing salt-water cove. The water crashes in, from time to time through the natural arch in the wall. Outside the waves are pounding away, but inside, it's totally protected and actually quite warm.

It was kind of perfect. 

Before I came to Bali, i got a nifty little point and shoot that is WATERPROOF. So I left right in with it tied around my wrist!

That means, we could take the underwater equivalent of jumping photos!  Yes!

Yep, underwater photos are just soooo attractive, no? We look gooooood. 

Meanwhile, on the shore, this happened, and I MISSED IT! darn. :(

Eventually we had to get dressed and hike back over the hill and through the woods. As we were waiting for the boat to come bac to pick us up, I got this photo: Perfect sunset, perfect light, smiling, happy dewey faces. This is proof of a very good day. 

The sun set as we headed back by boat:

Fun story about the day at the beach: No foreigners come here. And, being a muslim country and all, very few Indonesians wear bikinis. there are also no changing facilities, and not even enough flat ground in the forest to be able to go hide behind a tree. This meant that, when the group of five of us girls tried to change into out swim suits, we had to do a weird little ritual where we created a mini changing room/tent out of sarongs and hope the wind didn't blow too hard. But, despite this attempt at modesty, I still caused a stir. When it came time for me to climb into our mini tent, and an errant gust of wind threatened to expose my bare ass to the whole beach, some well-meaning stranger sent up the warning by shouting, loud and clear across the whole beach to dozens of people  "DONT LOOK AT THE BULE!!" 

I basically died from laughter. I just stood there, clutching a sarong around me, nearly collapsing from giggles. It was in Indonesian, of course, but I'm so used to everyone remarking on my presence that I knew it was for me. And this is just such a typical "bule gila" moment. gotta love it. 

"Bule" means foreigner. In Bali, people are used to foreigners, so we're nit very exciting. The battle is for local price, vs, Bule price. But in this corner of Malang I am a very rare sight. And there is just no way I am ever going to blend in. Not a snowballs chance in hell. Wherever I went o this trip I was followed by the sounds off little children tugging at their mothers sleeves and giggling out "Lihat, ada Bule!" ("Look, there's a Foreigner!") everyone practices their "Good afternoon"  on me, chats about me as they walk away. Remarks on my clothes or what im eating or just my general existence  I am a freaking celebrity! It is beyond bizar, but if taken with the right humor can be incredibly amusing. 

Keep this in mind. there are more "Bule Gila" moments to follow  (Gila means crazy, so Bule Gila = Crazy Foreigner) 

***

So, the next day in Malang we went to the ZOO!  But it's not like a zoo in the US. It's like an animal-based theme park. It was very very weird. 

Fun things: I got to feed a bat! This guy literally licked banana off my finger:

Then we stood on some lions:

And in the museum next door discovered bugs that I am glad I did not meet in KL. 

And, since North America is so far away and exotic, the museum included a "Typical North American nature scape"complete with barn owl and raccoons in the trash. 

Less fun things: the museum has a very different idea of what qualifies as educational material. I mean... what is this? A lama on a scooter? What IS this? Why does it exist? In a museum?!

Also, the fact that the Zoo was about human amusement rather than animal conservation or study really really freaked me out. The cages were tiny, the animals were super stressed out, the people were loud and close, and you could only move one way, along one path, kind of like an IKEA store of animals, but way more uncomfortable. Szuyin and decided very early on to split off and hurry our way to the end, rather than slowly meander past all the unhappy looking animals, pinned in by the loud clouds under the hot sun. It was really kind of disturbing. Out most overused comment of the day "I miss the X museum" or "I miss the Y zoo" . . . basically any zoo in the US is kinder.

***

Anyways. After a long afternoon of jogging past hundreds of freaked-out looking animals, and then getting lunch in a rotating, jungle-themed restaurant.  We decided to go for something completely different. Dany and Eka found out about someplace nearby where you can go Paragliding near the very large and picturesque mountain in the city.  So, it was off to the hills. And it just looked like so much fun.....

So I went paragliding! Sorry mom. I promise I was very safe about it!  
In paragliding, you spread the parachute out on the ground, fully open, and then wait for a nice gust of wind to pick you up and let you float gently towards the valley bellow.  

Of course, there is that little moment where you have to run off the side of the hill...

This was actually really really fun. It's exhilarating and peaceful at the same time. It's beautiful, and you feel weightless. We got to do figure eights past the launch point a few times, and I got to wave at the rest fo our crew on the ground.

After a little deliberation, Pak Putra and his wife Sri decided to join us, too.  This is the moment before lift off, as the 'chute takes off, and Putra contemplates his decision to strap himself to a stranger and run off a cliff. 

Excellent decisions.  Also, remember the "Ada Bule!" talk from before?  As I came in to land, all of a sudden the people on the ground at the landing sight, including all the little boys who help gather up the parachutes at the end, suddenly perked up and started passing the info around:

"Ada Bule! Ada Bule! Ada Bule terbang!"
"That's a foreigner! That's a foreigner! That's a flying foreigner!"

priceless.

***

After flying around, we descended again in to the city, to visit the Lampion Garden. The area is known for these light sculptures, made form wire frames and colorful cloth. Many a photo opp was taken.

the lampion garden was situated within a larger theme park/ fair ground. They had rides and games, and off in a back corner I saw... could it be? Ice Skating!  Wooooo!

But when I got through the crowds to the ice skating rink I was very surprised to see.... it was not ice at all. It was a rink covered in several inches of wax! Wax skating!

Gotta admit, I was kinda bummed. Wax skating? What? Who? Why? What?! I had a brief moment of missing the seasonal sink downtown in Boulder, and Occom pond in Hanover, and I think Professor Collier with his zamboni would be shocked. But thankfully such homesickness was brief, since there were Lampions to be seen! And photos to be opped!  Still, winter seems so very very far away.

And so ended our last night in Malang. We headed home and got some yummy food, and hung out in Pat's antique-filled house and i crashed to leep ridiculously early. And then we headed back to Bali. 

***

Indonesia is really big, and I could be here for years and see only a fraction of it. If you ever come to Bali, or are making someday-plans in the back of your mind, know that, though Bali is really wonderful, hopping off the tiny Island of the Gods and seeing a little more of the Indonesian archipelago, even if it's just a corner of Java, woud be a very very good idea. 

Trip to Bromo

So the trip to Jogja was at the end of September. Then the Trip to KL was around October 15. And then, in the most airplane-heavy month ever, I went back to Java again on October 24.  We flew into Surabaya and on the first night  of the trip east Java, we got drove through the night from the airport, and then piled into jeeps ridiculously early to drive up the into the mountains in the dark and watch the sunrise over Bromo volcano. It was cold and spectacular. Then we descended into the baren desert-covered volcanic valley, and climbed some stairs to the volcano's rim. All this within 12 hours of getting off the plane. During this first day the group of 11 of us took just over 2000 photos. here are a few highlights. The next couple of days hanging out in Malang get their very own post. Java is pretty much awesome. 

OK, here we go: Bromo volcano at Sunrise. 

At about 5:00 am, the pitch black began to turn into this:

which turned into this:

...and then this!:

Many photos were taken during this event!

Cold photos:

Experimental lighting photos: 

Sleepy portrait photos:

Group hugging photos!

More really cold photos:

Cute buddy photos, despite the cold:

Group photos that are so perfectly lit they look like we are posing in a studio infront of a poster. 

I swear that's not a paining. really. 

And as the number pf photos wore on and we ran out of picture ideas silly things happened, like...

 Titanic Reenactment pictures:

And Jumping Pictures:

And more jumping pictures:

Including Ninja jumping pictures:

And group Jumping pictures:

But despite all the jumping, it was still really cold:

Once the sun had rissen, and all the jumping photos were taken, we headed back along the ridge:

Where we saw two local women who really know how to enjoy an early morning:

Then we went to breakfast, and made silly faces at a fish-eye lens while our steaming hot chocolate arrived: 

After a good hot meal, went to the moon: (pretty much) 

Where we took a million more photos. Of moon cartwheels:

And sand dune climbing:



Yeah, I hang out with the Power Puff Girls on the moon all the time:



More jumping photos happened: (Of course)


And then, just about 500 meters south, we were back in Colorado: 

I enjoyed being back in my prairie habitat: 

For some reason, posing on cars happened: 

And then riding tiny horses happened! :

tiny horse, big attitude: 

When the horses could go no further, we had to climb some very sandy stairs:

At the top we could balance on the very edge of the Caldera:

It was so sandy and windy we could barely see:

But even blind, there are still photo ops with the Volcano: 

No volcano jumping photos, though, so that's a good thing.

Bromo Volcano, the most extreme temperature change you can find in 12 hours anywhere in Indonesia. Guaranteed. And really, spectacularly otherworldly.

I dig it.