Indah means beautiful...

Thanks to television captioning in Indonesian that we learned "indah" means "beautiful."
When we went to "Taman Mini Indonesia Indah," we knew the words "Indonesia", "mini," and "indah" and that was sufficient to get the taxi to drive us there.
"Beautiful Indonesia Miniature Park" is a culture-based recreational area located in East Jakarta, Indonesia.
In its 255 acres, it attempts to be a microcosm of Indonesian culture, displaying so many aspects of daily life in Indonesia's provinces, presented in pavilions containing collections of Indonesian architecture, clothing, dances and traditions.
The park contains a miniature lake (or large pond?) within which they built a miniature of the Indonesian archipelago in the middle of it.
You might think that with these traditional houses, pavilions, museum, flower gardens, replica temples from every province in Indonesia, we'd be immersed for hours.
Not having lived there nor traveld around, it was hard to contextualize what we were viewing: especially since there was little information about what you are looking at--as outsiders that we were.
Our favorite exhibit (as mentioned) was the cultural building, though more impressive from the outside than on the inside.
Unfortunately, most of the exhibits are run down, half empty and in slight disrepair. From the hot and dirty elevated train that runs around the park, it seemed that the water park was the shining city on the hill, beckoning us.
And that is the pity, for the weather is conducive to a wonderfully flourishing park and there are certainly enough people to maintain and to visit a park of this scale.
We were heading back to the hotel--and went out to the parking lot to find a taxi. The call to prayer had already taken place, so there were none to spare for those looking for a taxi like us--and those who weren't going to prayer, had other conveyences back home. That's a mistake that only an amateur traveler does-it took an nearly an hour to get a taxi.
Here are some photos taken on the site:

Bali Barong Dance (Traditional)

The Island of Bali-Denpasar and Bali Hyatt in Sanur

One of the islands of Indonesia is Bali. We flew from Jakarta to the city of Denpasar in Bali and stayed at the beach in the Bali Hyatt (we had 2 free nights, thanks to points), in the section of the island called Sanur.

Our airport "handler" - Bali is tourist-ready.

Arrived..waiting for luggage

Flower arrangement welcoming us to our room.

Our balcony - mature gardens with view of ocean beyond.

Beachfront near hotel. Staff keeps the beach swept and free of normal debris.

Boat

Enjoying the water the first evening-sun sets at 6 pm.

He did eventually get out...really.

Johnny's Shop at the oceanside.



On the grounds of the Hyatt



ESL (or EFL) Needed Here

The push towards unifying the hundreds of languages scattered throughout the islands of Indonesia has succeeded  in bringing Indonesian, a relatively easy language to speak (grammar is pretty easy, and it is not a tonal language--or so I have been told).
Somehow English competency has fallen in the past 10 to 15 years. The island of Bali has more fluent speakers than the island of Java where the biggest city and captial Jakart is--due mostly to tourism (Bali is a favorite for Aussies).  As a one-time ESL teacher I took a couple pictures, but then I stopped. There were far too many mistakes to catalog--and I didn't care anymore.


There was a big conference for the nations in Southeast Asia when we were there (ASEAN). Dignitaries from all over the world arrived in Jakarta and, upon exiting the airport were greeted by this sign:

"INDONESIAN ARE PROUD TO EXTEND
A WARM WELCOME AS HOST"
ASEAN SUMMIT 2011

On door at the museum. I am not sure what they were oprating on, though.

At museum. I was broken of this bad habit after the first week.

Sky over the City of Jakarta

Jakarta, on the island of Java, is as mentioned a giant city. It has its typical problems: too much traffic, growing population and an infrastructure that is struggling to keep up with that, and of course, pollution. But, there are beautiful aspects of the city. The best feature for me was the kindness of the people in general. The hotel had a rooftop pool, so I am posting some photos take from the top of the hotel:

Sky from rooftop

Jakarta buildings--the mall is the boxy building.

Part of the "Welcome to Jakarta" fountain and traffic circle from rooftop.

Older buildings and part of the rail station in the midst of new buildings.

Where I swam on the rooftop of the Grand Indonesia Kempinski

Hotel employee keeping things swept at pool.

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To the other end of the pool- jar of water with lemon is on the table for refreshment.

My view... 

Favorite part of Indonesia?

I have been asked what was my favorite part of Indonesia...and without a doubt it is the people I met there!   
See my facebook friends, I am sure they will "friend" you back!

Excursion: "indah" means "beautiful"

Television is captioned in Indonesian in Jakarta. It was from TV that we learned "indah" means "beautiful." So when we went to Taman Mini Indonesia Indah, we knew the words "Indonesia", "mini," and "indah" and that was sufficient to get the taxi to drive us there. "Beautiful Indonesia Miniature Park" is a culture-based recreational area located in East Jakarta, Indonesia. In its 255 acres, it is supposed to contain a synopsis of Indonesian culture, with nearly all aspects of daily life in Indonesia's provinces encapsulated in separate pavilions containing collections of Indonesian architecture, clothing, dances and traditions depicted. The park contains a lake with a miniature of the Indonesian archipelago in the middle of it. You would think that with these traditional houses, pavilions, museum, flower gardens, replica temples from every province in Indonesia, we'd be immersed for hours. Unfortunately there is little information about what you are looking at.
Most of the exhibits are run down, half empty and in slight disrepair. From the hot and dirty elevated train that runs around the park, it seemed that the waterpark was the shining city on the hill, beckoning us.
Pity, the weather encourages a flourishing park and there are certainly enough people to maintain and to visit a park of the scale.
Here are some photos taken on the site:

Upon arriving at the park...

CJ in front of the museum entrance

Traditional gates in front of the museum

JJ and friend inside muesum

CJ on grounds of museum

Traditonal dress represented from one of the islands inside museum.
John thought the eyes/face resembled his sister Wendy.

The lady who took this for us needed glasses from the way she kept
moving the camera back and forth.
Taken before leaving the park, before we tried hunting down a "taksi." 

Hotel - Inside

When I arrived, John still had work to do. While I recuperated from my flight and got a good cold, I slept and looked at the room and outside.

When we travel we go to grocery stores for many of our meals. 
"Happy Tos' was pretty overt way of getting you to buy this product. (We did not) 

Kristens (Christians) in Indonesia and Sunday

There are lots of Muslims in Indonesia-of all stripes. Bali, as you will later see, is popluated by Hindus-of its own sort.
We attended a smallish church, I think the oldest on the island of Java that is English-speaking (about 1814). Inside were preserved windows built for a chapel in a POW camp nearby (which is no longer standing-the chapel). European POWs from Australia, Netherlands, UK and US found the materials an and painted these arms on ordinary glass--in between their normal labors--with material found. I have also posted photos taken outside during juice and tea time...lovely older garden in a busy area.
I was in a local bookstore (enormous) and found Katy Key's father's (Dr Dennis Kinlaw) book "The Mind of Christ" in the Indonesian language (apart from the title).

Holland and USA POW glass from old chapel

UK and Australia POW glass from old chapel

American and an Kenyan at "tea"

Indonesians in garden after church

Indonesian lady and CJ in garden after church

Titles in English, content in Indonesian. Dr Kinlaw's book is on left.

Close up of books... 

Jakarta Information and Photos from hotel

Indonesia is considered part of Southeast Asia and Oceania, it takes in 13,466 islands and 33 provinces (Papua New Guinea shares part of an island but is not part of Indonesia). The country has more than 238 million people, so is at least the 4th most populous country, and therefore the largest population of Muslims. Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, is an old port city on the northwest side of the island of Java. A city of 9,580,000, according to 2010 census, in 255 sq miles. The Dutch held on to it for more than 300 years, and dug canals throughout the city.
Near our hotel was the "Welcome to Jakarta" statue, and the hotel, formerly called "Grand Indonesia" was renovated by the Kempinski Hotels of Europe and is known by both names.

Entrance to hotel from our window 

Traffic circle, welcom statue and fountain from our window

Top of welcome statue at sunset

Ubud and the Volcano (lots of typos, excuse me)

We chose to go to see the traditional Balinese dances. We were told it is a dying art, the dancers depicting less a story and more a tradtional truth. I promise to post photos which really tell the story better an I could describe. The dancing has several stages, or acts, and tells of strugggle between man, rulers and animal spirits (both good and bad).
The men who played the music, the orchestra pit, if you will, were within view of the audience.
After that we stopped at a silver shop. There were some exquisite pieces there, knowing I already had my necklace from Jakarta, I tried to browse but, if you have ever shopped in a country where bargaining is blood sport, you know how impossible a task browsing is. I do not normally wear bracelets, being clumsy and having large wrists (especially by Asian standards), but once one caught my eye this vendor was relentless. She began the charade at 440 USD. My wedding ring cost 18, so that was a joke. She sank to 200. Knowing that the chain John bought here has tripled in price due to the increase in precious metal prices, I went to 100 and stuck there. Finally I walked out, John said (in Spanish) what is the highwst counter offer? In Spanish I told him 120 and said goodby and went to the car. Then she chased after John who was trailing behind. I saw him return.They settled at 140. Even our driver was amazed at the reduction.
We went theough small wood carving towns, all selling these, and a slew of molded gods and Asian style outdoor decorations for a gate, a garden, a fountain.
wWe asked for a scenic place enroute to Ubud (location of the author of the book Eat Pray Love), we wished to view the terraced rice fields. Our driver warned us of aggresive vendors. They all assumed we wished to go the temple...which we passed on...and pleaded with us to by a sarong, as John had shorts on....or for me just because. No eye contact, no words, no problems..we are pros at nos.
The rice is irrigated and is grown year-round.
We wished to see the volcano and, our driver said it was a good time foe lunch. There are three tourist restuarants, all serving buffets, the most expensive of which had the best view. As we pulled into the town, we were charged an entrance fee. Argh! But there is so much traffic, the police guide the traffic and that likely their income.
The view was nice. As John mentioned, in contrast to the restof the island, it becomes remarkable. We overpaid for our meal, but our driver was given food because he drove us there. We chose to see the agro tourst area next.It was a few acres of cocoa, coffee, ginger, cinnamon, pineapple, mango, papaya, black pepper and vanilla plants. The owner/manager gave us tea of ginger, lemongrass, cocoa, coffee....not mixed, in separate cups ovelooking a beautiful overlook.
We made a couple small purchases, John sampled rice wine that the Aussies were quaffing and headed toward a batik (or buttock, as they say) making shop. The batik-making is quite a long process, since they make small patterns from beeswax, foregoing the faster rubber band and dip method. They do sometimes use a stamp, however. We liked much of what they were selling but were not in the market for most of the objects. We did stumble across an artful bell ornament and purchased that for our Christams tree. Someone put us on to the idea of Christmas souvenir when we travel, so now our Christmas trees are filled with meaningful memories, but resembles "Sanford and Sons" junk shop.

Bali, from our guest blogger, John

We arrived here yesterday afternoon and were happy to arrive in a relatively cool place. Jakarta is pretty hot (but not as hot as the northeast . . . seriously.  It gets to the high 80s . . .maybe low 90s there.  It is about 10 degrees cooler here.  And the air in Jakarta is thick . . . polluted and hazy. I have had a cough for several weeks, and I think this contributed. Bali, in contrast, is clear and pretty cool.
We're sitting on a veranda, about 150 feet from the ocean. There are two large pools between us and the beach, lots of tall, almost perfectly erect palm trees, lots of flowering trees and several pools and fountains surrounded by lush vegetation.  It is a bit like the place we all stayed near Mombasa, but on streroids and with a cool pleasant breeze.  It is a lot like the conference hotel I got to stay at in Mauritius about 5 years ago.
We were trying to figure out where to stay a number of weeks ago. Chariy and I were doing this on Skype, and she remembered that I had Hyatt points remaining from my Tajikistan trips last Year.  We got two of our nights free, and a more expensive room with a view of of the sea at the lower cost.
Hilary Clinton (Sec of State)  is at the other Hyatt in town for the ASEAN Summit Meeting . . . . we are at the mellow Hyatt. Speaking of Democrats I have known, the NDI country director here is a friend - we did a program together here in 2009, and we have gotten together a few times on this trip.
Back to vacation . . . Charity is doing needlepoint, looking very cool. Tomorrow we plan to leave early and take a car (and driver) to Ubud known as the heart of Bali. It is higher and cooler and is known for its vistas and terraced rice paddies. The young guy who picked us up at the airport will take us and be our tour guide. We plan to see a traditional Balinese dance - the good dancers spend years perfecting their hand movements, all of which communicate. We are supposed to go up a volcano as well. Indonesia has several that are active.
We just had tea with tasty bread pudding, scones, and finger sandwiches (never could get used to finger . . )
Waiters and waitresses are more attentive in Asia than in any place I have seen.  In the hotel in Jakarta the girls working at breakfast almost compete to see who can learn your name first.  The longer I was there , the more learned my name.  When I walked into breakfast a was greeted with several choruses of "Good morning Mr. Johnsoooooon" and smiles that really seemed to say, "We're really happy you're here." Since I stayed at the Kempinski Hotel so many days, I was able to get a free upgrade to a suite jusy before Charity arrived.  The bathroom had two sinks, the tub was the largest I had ever seen, and the Japanese toilet had to be seen to be believed.  When you walked up to the toilet an electric eye signal triggered the lid to raise, and ,most importantly, for the toilet seat to heat up (before you had time to sit down)! Once you stand up . . . whIch you still have to do yourself . . . this is the third world . . the seat cover drops and the toilet flushes. There is an array of controls next to toilet . . . several buttons . . .which I never had the courage to try.  They controllrd water direction and speed and temperature . . . and maybe more.
We checked out of the hotel yesterday and learned I had been there for 45 days.  When We got here I found myself looking at the toilet seat expecting to do something, but to no avail.

It's fun to write about these travels, but it is so rare to have the time. Hopefully, Charity can join me again toward the end of a trip and we can tack on some vacation at the end.

Sunday! Our day of Rest

Sunday we were both fighting our lingering colds, but still ventured off to the nearest English speaking church.
Although our hotel is not far as the crow flies, getting there can be difficult on foot, the sidewalks are irregular, though the main roads are in good repair. Taxis are plentiful and cheap, so we took off 8 am for church.
The church itself, All Saints Anglican, is worth a historical visit. John gave the driver a description of its approximate location, using a nearby landmark for reference. We were waiting at a light in a traffic circle when John indicated that we should be let off in a short distance, on the circle at the curbside. Ok, there was no curb, only the ubiquitous dirty white painted aluminum sheeting wall. The ground was barren city dirt, worn hard my millions of treads. There was no sign, but as we neared, I realized there was a gate, hidden from my view, for it looked like a seam in the fencing. As i stepped from the car, I looked up into the face of a uniformed man: whoever sells these guard uniforms makes a killing. We entered, passing by a makeshift, standard third world guard shack, more guards and hangers-on. Into a verdant tropical garden, overhung with mature trees, and highly shaded. What had seemed to me as an eternal glare in Jakarta was shown as clearly unfounded.
The church is rather strange, as it looks more like an old, squat bank than a church. It has domed windows, a low profile peak, and, oddly, short columns. Columns can work on a church given the right proportions in the rest of the building.
Jakarta (once also known as Djakarta) was for the longest time owned by the Dutch (remember the Dutch East Indies?). However, there was a brief period of British claim and this was the time the church was built in 1819. Napoleon was keeping the Dutch were occupied and on this side of the world, the British took over. Though their claim to Djakarta was short-lived, the church remained. There were plenty of Brits passing through to justify it. However apart from man, named Medhurst, the climate took its toll on either the families or the minister. Nonetheless, the church was kept on life-support, if only as part of a co-ordinated effort to evangelize the Chinese when it was closed to the West. When the church was no longer needed for that enterprise it has limped along as a British place to be. Now it is an Anglican Church in the oldest part of town.
John said the regular pastor was gone so we got a regular one from a sister church, a newer one but in south Jakarta. Ian is an Aussie and did a great job. The church was surprisingly cool, the benches being locally made, the many ceiling fans were functioning, and of course the marble and stone interior helped, in addition to the church being nestled around and above by vegetation. The little church filled up, many Nigerians, some Australians, many locals, one other American, some from the Indian subcontinent, pretty much as far as the British settled.
After the service most people stayed, gathering in a pagoda in the lush garden where we had tea, juice, snacks. It was actually cooler because the sun went behind the clouds for a good while and for breeze in that part of town.  We visited a bunch and I was engaged in a long conversation with a local woman. 
The rest of the Sunday remained low key: reading and napping and exercising at our hotel.
When John travels he normally buys laundry soap and hand washes some of his clothes. On of my tasks e first week here was to find suitable and cheap ways to hang our clothes to dry. Since I have arrived I have taken on the hand washing job and find that the humidity makes for very slow drying. Sunday I realized I needed to do a lot of clothes.
We had a late lunch/early dinner in the mall nearby (John had fish and I had a burger). There was a musical performance in the mall so we lingered there but of course we couldn't understand the words.
We went to an upscale store that sells Indonesian crafts. Several years ago whole here John bought me a sparkling ice blue topaz in an ideal setting. He wanted to buy me another one, but make it my selection. We had viewed what they had early in the week and were disappointed to find no acceptable setting. Later in the week, I was looking at the local crafts for sale and looked once more. This time I discovered a shelf of pendants I had missed. There were blue topaz, garnet, aquamarine, amethyst and onyx pendants. I priced the silver chains, the salesgirl apologized for the price (125 USD for a thick one). As she did, I remembered I had packed the silver chain John bought for me in Bobodor, Indonesia last year.
When we stopped in after dinner, I noticed they had added a few pieces. I pulled out my own chain and began trying on the pendants. A few of the did not fit on the chain. But it turned out that we both liked the cheapest one, an amethyst.
When we returned to the hotel, John did some office work (Friday's emails from Washington) and I worked on needlepoint. For dinner we had fruit, cheese and crackers.

Indonesia Indah Mini

What did we do once John was off work and I had collected myself after the jet lag and subsequent cold?
Well, our first Saturday together we spent a good deal of time trying to arrange for a "See Jakarta" day tour. It took a long time to find out that we would have to pay for it. We thought since John, having stayed here long enough to qualify for a premium class membership at this hotel would have entre to all the fabulous wonders of the rich and famous. Not so; sneaking in through the back door in this way only gave him a suite (which is merely a very large hotel room). True to our cheapskate nature, we declined to pay 90 USD for the tour. True blue Americanos we chose the DIY route, after dissecting the brochure, we discerned that there were only two worthwhile things to do and both were at the same site. We set out on our own
"See Jakarta" tour, beginning with going to "Indonesia Indah Mini" and the cable car ride at the same location.
Very few in Jakarta have fundamental English, neither of us speak any Indonesian, but we picked up the word "indah" from movie subtitles the night before, it means "beautiful." We hailed a taxi (taksi) and paid him 8 dollars to take us to this site/sight. We expected to see a fairly empty museum cum historical site, or maybe a botanical garden, which exist. I expected a mix of both. We were wrong.
It was supposed to be a mini version of Indonesia set on 125 acres in lush tropical vegetation (Jakarta is quite near the equator) set inside was a lake and small manmade islands representing the islands of the archipelago.
I am fascinated by what curators choose for museums, I theorize it shows off the tastes of the curator. The US Park Service presents a very bland face, which makes me think it is soulless, the Smithsonian seems to work overly hard at being current but is curiously always a half step behind, while Mount Vernon presents an orderly, planned and graceful face, echoing the spirit of George and Martha. "Indonesia Indah" was seemingly board run and not at all seamless. I had a mental picture of a group of people yelling out suggestions on what to include there in a brainstorming session, only all the suggestions are eventually used, testified to by this partial list of what lies on its grounds: more than 25 separate pavilions housing the traditions of its many provinces, a very dirty cable car, a monorail, a mosque, a Roman Catholic church (or chatolic, in the brochure), a Protestant (or protestan, in the brochure) church, Buddhist temple, Hindu temple, concessions, the museum barn, a waterpark, children's rides, insect museum, the transportation museum, the heirloom museum, soldier museum, fresh water aquarium, orchid garden, several stages, a few auditoriums, multipurpose hall, flower clock, herb garden, jasmine garden, two bird parks, science and technology center, stamps museum, snake garden, reptile park, waterfall, IMAX theatre, sport museum, handicraft center, jogging track, oil and natural gas museum, museum of electrical and new energy, many monuments.
We spent the most time in the Indonesian Museum, a marble building of 3 tiers in neo-traditional (Balinese) style that presented the daily life on this  archipelago and all of the provinces, containing a mix of sociology and history. It was air conditioned on the bottom floor, but with open windows and plenty of cracked cement, the hot, humid dusty air filtered in to it, making the upper level positively sauna-like.
The park is not yet complete. Perhaps the economists or political scientists should make completing what you begin as part of the criteria for determining when a nation is considered developed?
John was captivated by the traditional musical instruments but also the traditional dress, captured by American-size mannequins. The regional tastes of Kalimantan had American Indian style beadwork and feathers, which was quite curious.
While inside this building, two Indonesians were strolling around us. One man was quite small and dark, about the size of my sons at 10 years old. His friend was small too but not compared to him. The little fellow suddenly dashed over to us signing to us to be in his photo. I stood a part from John but he wanted us both, and once we complied, he grinning, wedged himself between us. John has been in the over 50 countries he said nothing like this has ever happened to him before. But it didn't stop there and then. Once back out in The Great Brown Way (dusty) we decided to forego the cable car in favor of the safer, maybe cooler (we asked if there was a/c in it and told yes). Both of us were still suffering from a cold and staying hydrated is work here. We discovered that "mynah" does not mean "yes" but, "take your tickets and move along."
We soon forgot about our search for cooler air when we realized we were the main attraction that day at the park. As soon as we climbed aboard the malodorous car, a young woman seated with five of her schoolmates jumped up with her camera. As soon as she realized she caught our attention and we were humans who could stare back at her (at least one of us did), she made a quarter turn as if snapping something else, not finding it, she had a small child pose with his toy.
Later, when John left me in a concession in search of the toilet (which was in predictable shape), the seven people working there took turns staring out from the back at me. It is a bit odd to feel like a circus freak, it almost makes me want to do something silly just to make it worth staring. We strolled around the grounds, searching in vain of someone who understood English or Spanish, or Swahili, or Romanian, or even Latin, but not a soul. We used our map, hand signs and "taksi" to speak to the staring and sometimes startled. We had already heard the call to prayer around 4 (remember there is a mosque on the grounds) as we had climbed the path to the monorail, so by the time we finished it was getting late.
John was certain the taksi stand was up out the gate, he had seen them on the way in.  I wanted one last photo and had John pose (amatuers should always have people in their pictures). After he posed he wanted one together and asked an uncertain grandmother to do it. She was uncertain about everything, including her eyesight, rather, mostly her eyesight. She pulled the camera in and out as if it were a telescope, or a microscope and we were her bacteria.
When we arrived at the taksi stand, it was empty. I surmised that those taksis were gone, having driven back the good Muslims, and had not returned. We meandered through the nearby parking lot looking for a stray, the parking lot had a gypsy feel to it: I sensed most people were there because they had neither means nor reason to be anywhere else. Parked there were a couple buses , several older cars, an abundance of motorcycles. There was a makeshift stage on which two locals sang their hearts out and talked to the bored crowd. It wasn't nearly as charming as your country fair performer, whom you often know or who knows the area.
International travel came in handy when one of the many hawkers slowed down on his motorcycle as he completed his 499th figure 8 in the parking lot, John  made a deal he couldn't refuse: find me a taksi. Twenty minutes later a taksi appeared, and John paid the cyclist his finders fee.
On the return trip, I wondered at the numbers of people who spoke one language or perhaps two (their own and Indonesian), given that there are about 700 languages spoken in these islands (including non indigenous  ones). (If you think that is impressive the portion of the island which is Papua New Guinea, on the same island as West Papua and Papua, both Indonesia while PNG is not, has 841 languages!)
We had an entertaining day, getting the most entertainment by  being the entertainment. The package tour would have cost us 90 dollars, I think we spent less than 20.

Another Continent

Beginning in 2011 we squeezed in another continent: Asia.
John had to spend two months working there so I joined him in mid-July. I will post
A few highlights here.

Dale Fisher John at Kelly's in Nairobi, Dec 2001

Dan Thielman Nairobi

Dan, 2001 in Jenny and Roy Kelly's home in Nairobi, Kenya

Kyuna House, Nairobi, Kenya, Christmas 2001

Brett Xmas 2001