This was the longest flight I've ever taken in my life. Prep time for India was not very long. I only got my visa life a week or two before I left. I bought my ticket around the same time. I packed the day before I left, discarding unnecessary things the morning of my flight. Then I was off.
So long. Like 42 hours of traveling.
I flew Singapore Airlines from LA to Tokyo to Singapore to Hyderabad. I was only in Tokyo for an hour so according to some people that does not count as being in that country. True but there was a sign that said welcome to Japan so I feel like that makes it count a little bit.
Then I flew to Singapore. I arrived at 3am and did not leave until 8pm that night. Because I slept on the way there I wasn't super tired when I landed so I just rested a bit until things started opening in the airport. And Singapore is a country a tourists so the airport was full of activities. I went to the movie theater. I went to the butterfly garden then ate food by the koi pond. Sadly no pictures of the butterfly garden even though one landed on my head and it was beautiful. I then took a tour of the city. Saw some major buildings/areas Chinatown, colonial style public buildings, the Singapore Flyer, their lion fish statue.
Singapore Flyer: ferris wheel, observation wheel, what have you
Just a hotel next to the river
Lion-fish!
Lion fish with views of other famous buildings on the river
What I learned is Singapore builds up instead of out because the island country is so small and that this is another country where I can use my Bahasa Indonesia because they speak Malay as well. Back to the airport where I went to the other movie theater and the sunflower garden before flying to Hyderabad. I was nicely picked up from the airport and transported to my dorm where I just basically unpacked a bit, showered, and then slept. Here.
New blog post! Not about Indonesia, but India this time. I'm on a Foreign Study Program with my college for winter term. The program is a combination of Women and Gender Studies and Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. It's based in Hyderabad at Hyderabad University which is in a pretty central part of India. Me and a group of 11 other students will be living in a dorm and taking classes here. Apparently the school's very popular for international studies. Look it's here:
It's actually in a different state now, Telangana, so forgive the map it's a pretty recent change. Hyderabad is a pretty well off city. It's famous in the tech world so you see the name Cyberbad being thrown around a lot. Also it's known for the great pearls they have here. During the term I'll have chances to visit other well known places in India like Delhi, Chennai, etc.
I just got here so I'm not working with very personal knowledge so far. Just wanted to let peoples know that I'll write some stuff here whenever I can to give info on my current travel happenings. I'm not even super sure of my classes right now. But yea, another country, same blog.
Another old unpublished post...
One of the words above is my name and the other is the name of a type of transportation in Indonesia. They sound the same though so there have been many jokes about Ankhet riding in angkots.
So let's start with the form of public transportation I frequent most often - the angkot. It is a small van, most in Jakarta are red, with an open door that you just hop into and ride for however long you need along an arranged path. When you reach your destination you just yell out 'Kiri' (it means left I guess because the driver pulls over to the left) or you can thump on the top of van. They are really convenient if you need to ride short distances like home from school. I don't like riding them during rush hour because they can get really full. One time I was riding an angkot along a popular route back to my house and counted 14 people inside! Are they dangerous? Well I guess if you think about 14 people smushing into 1 van that keeps its doors open (some people will stand in the door if it gets full) while trying to weave its way through traffic as fast as it can, then yeah you could say it's not the safest. More so people are worried about thievery because in the tight space it would be easy for someone to steal your wallet or phone. Really though I love it. It gets me home quickly, and conveniently for only 20 cents.
On one empty ride I took out my camera to get a few pictures of the inside. I would not chance this had it been a bit more full
Trans Jakarta/busway As the name suggests this type of bus is found only in Jakarta. I've heard plans of it being extended to cities surrounding Jakarta (the greater Jakarta are) because many people commute to Jkt. It's a huge bus raised high off the ground with many 'stations' placed around the city. You can not just hop in - you have to purchase a ticket (35cents) and then you wait in the station until your bus comes. You can transit and go on different lines. When Indonesians ask me about the subway I compare it to busway. It takes you along a designated route with designated stops in its own lane. I love Trans too even though it can get really crowded and you might have to stand.
The actual bus (bis) - I've only taken the actual bus twice; when I was returning from Karawang and when I went to the airport to go to Kalimantan. It's a regular travel bus that can take you to different cities. They range in how nice they are. The one to the airport was pretty nice - almost everyone had a seat, there was music playing, you got a receipt upon payment. It cost 25,000rp so about $2.50. There's no real difference between these and American buses except these are meant to go farther and they can stop whenever a customer decides they want to get out. There is a designated end but if you see your street before that - feel free to hop out.
Becak - I've only ridden this once in Karawang but they have them in many cities. It is a little cart placed in front of a bicycle. They go as fast as the driver can pedal and will take you for a short while. There's not much use for them in the large streets of Jakarta - too slow, too much traffic, your destination is probably a bit far but in smaller towns or even just smaller area they are a fun way to look around as you get to where you want to go.
There's another cart similar to the becak but it's behind a three wheeled car. I've only ridden it once and it was only to go down the street a bit. It was meeehh. Again only useful if you need to go somewhere pretty close.
When I'm not taking public transportation I am in my family's car or walking. My family has a driver which is not uncommon for families that can afford it. If I'm being picked up or dropped off at school he usually takes us.
I walk only by myself or when I'm with other Americans. Indonesians aren't very fond of walking. They are really surprised when I tell them I walk to Tamini my local mall which is less than 25 minutes walking. One time I even walked from my school there and people were just shocked. It was less than an hour and I was walking very slowly. I like walking places for the exercise but I do not like all the smog I inhale along the way.
Here begins the trip into unpublished posts of mine.
Fruit! One of the staples of my diet as a vegetarian and as a human. I love fruit so much. I eat tons of different types in my house in Amerika and have found more here. I don't know if everyone knows the fruit I know even the kinds I eat regularly in California so I'll just write any that seem the slightest bit uncommon.
Durian - I've already given you a description of the taste from the little trip I took with my friends to go try it. Sweet, strong smelling and very slimy. Durian flavor is also popular for other treats like ice cream
Rambutan - I love these little red fruits. Rambut means hair in B. Indonesia and they really are covered in their own type of hair. They are usually covered in ants so you might want to bounce them on the floor a bit before pulling them open. They're sweet with a largish seed in the middle you spit out. I could spend whole afternoons eating them with my family here.
Manga - Ok everyone knows about mangoes but here they have different types. These are red and incredibly sweet. My host mama buys and sells them in large quantities which is great for me.
Kelapa aka Coconut - Again everyone knows these but here people get them fresh to drink. I'm not too fond of coconut water - the consistany of it always gets to me. After drinking one you can use a spoon to eat out the sides. They also use lots of coconuts in food too. There is nasi uduk which is rice made with coconut water water. There are drinks where the meat of the coconut floats with other fruit in a sweetened juice.
Salak - It's brown and scaly like a snake. Easily peelable. The kind from Yogya I like - the Bali kind I don't.
Jicama or Bangkowan (B. Indo)- Ok it's actually a vegetable I guess. I just looked it up right now. But its put with all the other fruits so it can be added to this list. I love it and always have (I eat it in LA too). It tastes like water to me. Not sweet
Dukuh - I live in an area where dukuh is grown hence the name Kampung Dukuh. Dukuh are small whitish fruit that you can break open with you hands. Easier than peeling an orange. Inside there are small white parts. It's not very sweet maybe comparable to a grape in it's possibility to have an almost bitter/sour edge to its sweetness.
Papaya - it's orange with very black seeds. It looks like a gaping toothy mouth. I don't think it's very sweet but makes for a good mindless snack.
You can see my feets
Starfruit - It's shaped like a star!
And there are certain unpopular fruits here too. Such as kismis which are raisins but a couple people have translated it to me as plums like in the movie Barbie and 12 Plums. Then I gave my host mom dried cranberries and she called them kismis too. Either way if they're actually raisins or plums or whatever they are not popular.
There are fruit dishes here - like this soup below - just a bunch of fruits in sweet liquid stuff. There are lots of drinks too - some use jelly or avocado (which I hate).
Before I left for Indonesia I promised myself a couple things about my blog.
I'd have lots of pictures
I wouldn't be overly wordy
And I wouldn't stop in the middle. I would see the whole year through.
The last one is where I had the most problems. I did better than the middle but I still stopped before my year was over. I don't really regret it because I spent those last couple of weeks really being present in Indonesia but it has been bothering me recently.
And so I am here a year later to rectify that situation. There are a couple of posts I never got around to publishing and even if just for myself I want this blog's story to end properly. And that is my explanation for the next couple of seemingly out of the blue posts about my year in Indonesia... a year later. Better late than never though, right?
The third day of Bali! We went snorkelling! It was my first time snorkelling and sadly I did not have the most stellar time. I'll put it down to spending a lot of time sitting on the boat instead of in the water because of an eyes & contacts not mixing well situation. When I was in the amazing blue clear water I did see tons of small darting fish and reefs.
Then we went on a couple of temple runs. The first was Bedugal. It's a garden with the actual temple parts on a lake. There were tons of tourists - some of the Indonesian ones asked for pictures together. Lots of frolicking was done in the garden section. Oh and shopping - outside were tons of souvenir areas.
Frolicking includes lots of picture taking if you didn't know
The second was Tanah Lot. It's a temple built on the very fringes of the beach in the water. During low tide you can go and walk next to the temple bits but during hig tide the water makes it impossible. We went during evening so we were able to walk and get on top of the rocks - the water still reached us though. It was incredibly beautiful especially during sunset. I could only imagine building it.
The next day was our beach day! We hadn't yet go a chance to just relax on the beaches of Bali. So we went to Dreamland the host moms escorted us this day. Dreamland is a hotel with a beach below it. It's small and a lot emptier than the Seminyak beach we went to later that evening because you have to pay to be lounging and tramping all through the hotel. It was ah-mazing. The water and sky were unreal colors. It's one of those places where you say Oh My I'm in paradise. Well I would say that about all of Bali but this beach was very awesome.
After many hours of lounging and adventuring on this beach we headed out to buy souvenirs! When I finally came out of my shopping daze I was astonished to see the amount of stuff I had gotten. It's not all for me though so I guess I am a generous shopper ...? Then we went on a driving tour of Bali. We saw some amazing hotels and some of the most popular clubs and shopping areas. Our driver was very informative. He had driven the prime minister of Thailand when Obama came to Bali and Julie Roberts when she was filming Eat, Pray, Love. He was also incredibly nice. We watched the sunset on a beach in Seminyak. Very different feel - a lot longer and less cliffy than Dreamland. The sand was also darker and finer - which reflected the colors of the sky really well. Dinner was Indian food there are great Indian restaurants in Bali just saying.
The next day we packed up and got on our plane back to Jawa and for me Jakarta. Bali was a most amazing trip and I would say absolutely go ther if you have the chance. As my host mom says 'You don't know really Indonesia until you go to Bali.' So yaaaaaay for Bali and host moms who take you there <3
So I really have been to a lot of birthday's recently. This one was for my school's 30th birthday. They went all out - they apparently do every year. There were performances of all sorts, special guests, and even sponsors from stores and phone companies.
I actually got to perform in my school's birthday. I did a traditional dance Tari Riau (from Riau) with my school's dance club. We have been studying for a while just so we could do this one show. So I arrived at 5 am and went straight into doing hair, makeup, and putting on the amazing costume. It included pants, a red tunic type shirt, a collar, a short piece of fabric around the waist secured by belt, and then the sarung we danced with. In our hair was one centered headpiece, a flower on one side, a chime type ornament on the other, and garlands of flowers hanging from the back.
Our group with our dance teacher
Before we went on there was a group of traditional religious drummers and a lot of introduction. We were the first dance performance. When we finally got on stage the announcer asked me a couple of questions because well because I'm the foreigner in the school. It was a pretty good performance. There were a lot of cheers from the audience. There were a couple of mistakes - I know I made one really noticeable one but that is how dance performances go.
After our dance I was actually interviewed by two guys for some type of school media thing. Then was the complicated job of getting all the makeup and costumes off. The makeup was really hard to take off and in the end I had a ring of light colored makeup still along my hairline. The price of dancing a traditional dance where they use lots of makeup to make your skin lighter.
Then I was able to watch. There was an accapella group, the school's choir, a teacher student band. That's what the video is below.
This video is the acapella group
Tari Saman also performed and was great. I have so much respect for them as dancers. It's all from a sitting position but they have to move into different formations, the actual performance is 10 minutes and they have to sing.
Me with Tari Saman dancers
There were 2 dance groups specializing in shuffling that performed.
This video is of the school's choir singing part of the national anthem Indonesia Raya. It's very long - I know only a few words.
Then beside student performances there were gift give aways - from the sponsers. There was a guest artist - Adera I believe. Everyone turned fangirlish and ran up and sat under the stage as he played his guitar and sang love songs. . .
Because music's so big in our school each grade had a band that played too.
12th grade
10th
Then to end the very long event a reggae group Solja performed. Apparently the dancing went until 5 or 6 pm. I left to go home earlier because my family had other plans.
I absolutely loved this event and it puts any birthday celebration my american school has had to shame. I think they could learn a lesson from the awesomeness that is SMAN 62 Jakarta.
