Kartini Day at School

This week we celebrated Kartini Day.  Kartini was a young women in the late 1800's who could speak English and became fascinated by articles from Europe about the emancipation of women.  She began advocating for the rights of girls to be educated and made a huge difference to the lives of women in Indonesia before dying at a young age.
The Indonesian teachers decorated the school, planned an assembly where each class performed a song or dance, arranged for costume rentals for expat teachers and put on a traditional Indonesian lunch.

.All the children wore the traditional dress from the area where their family is from.  Each island has a different style of dress. They all came to school looking like little princes and princesses!  Quote from Aaron. "Ms. Susan, you look like a queen!"

The feast table is decorated.

Mischka and Warren in Javanese dress.

My costume from Flores.

Rachel

Fahri

Josh

My class.  By now we were all tired of photographs!

The "tunnel" all decorated.

A close up in the tunnel.

Jogyjakarta

We had three days off last week for Chinese New Year and I joined a group of five other teachers on a trip to Jogyjakarta, an old city that was the first capital of Indonesia.  We met early on Saturday morning at the train station for the eight hour trip.  It was so nice to get out of Jakarta and see the countryside, which became similar to areas of Bali, with mountains, rolling hills and rice paddies.  The train was air conditioned, had great leg room and comfortable seats.  The only problem for me was the squat style toilet, not great at the best of times and much worse on a moving train!
We had a driver arranged and he met us at the station with a van large enough for six women and all our luggage.  His name was Sojourno and he was at our beck and call for the next four days.  He took us to our hotel, The Phoenix.  It is a beautiful, Dutch Colonial style hotel that was originally a private home.  We settled in then took a ride in a becak, which is a cart attached to a bicycle and human powered.  We went to busy Maleaboro Street which is like a market. Being Chinese New Year and a Saturday evening, I think it was extra busy.  Besides the dozens of becaks, there were horse and buggies, motorcycles, and of course cars, buses and pedestrians.

Travelling down Maleaboro Street by becak.

The courtyard at The Phoenix.

A becak driver waiting for a customer.

                                                     

Over the next few days, we visited the Sultan's palace, where the current Sultan, his wife and his five daughters still live, the Water Palace, where the Sultans used to take their huge families (the current sultan's father had 72 children) for the weekends, batik makers, puppet makers and the Borobrudur Temple.

Dancers at the Sultan's Palace.

The United Nations at the Sultan's Palace,
Jude (Wales), Jackie (US), me, our guide (Indonesia), Claudia (Romania) and Julie (US).

The Borobrudur temple was my favourite. It is symbolic of a mountain. It was built in the eighth century and is the largest Buddhist temple in the world and the largest ancient structure in the Southern hemisphere.  It took fifty years to build and shortly after being completed, it was abandoned as the Hindus came to power.  It was abandoned for centuries, covered in volcanic ash and jungle growth, and uncovered in the 1800's, when Sir Stanford Raffles was told about its location by local Indonesians. It is built of volcanic stone with six square platforms topped with three circular platforms that represent Nirvana.  There is a main dome or stupa at the very top which is surrounded by seventy two smaller stupas each with a carved Buddha inside.  When you enter the temple you walk in a clockwise direction along open passage ways that are filled with almost 1500 relief panels that were carved to show the story of Buddha and Buddhist teachings and images of everyday life in the eighth century.  By the time you reach the circular platforms at the top, you have walked five kilometers.  We were there in the early morning and it was very misty.  As the mist cleared, we had great views of the surrounding mountain,The Sleeping Giant and valley.  It was very beautiful.

The entrance to Borobudur in the early morning mist.

A relief panel.

The stupas at the top, each with a carved budha inside.

The intricately carved stairway between levels.

An Indonesian family visiting the temple.

Christmas 2012 in Bali

On Dec. 23, it was exciting for Caitlin and I to meet up with Cara and Clay, then Fred and Joanne (Clay's parents, who flew in on a different flight) at the Bali airport.  We met up quickly with our driver, who luckily came with a large van, and made our way out of the busy city and up the East coast.  It was a beautiful but long three hour drive, especially for the ones who were just off of their 20 hour flight.  It was all worth it when we arrived at the lovely Blue Moon Villas in Amed.  It was a beautiful spot to recover from jet lag, relax and reconnect.  We were high up on a cliff on the ocean with beautiful jungle covered hills behind us. It was a short walk to two great beaches for snorkeling.  The reef was just a few feet off shore and one of the beaches had a Japanese ship wreck to explore. If we weren't snorkeling, we were sitting by the pool, eating (great meals) or playing "Settlers of Catan", my new favourite board game, on our deck.  It didn't seem at all like Christmas but it was lovely.

The views from our deck.

The 3 C's.

Engrossed in Mancala before becoming addicted to "Settlers of Catan"

Fred and Joanne.

The little tree I brought from Jakarta.

Christmas Eve dinner.

"I saw 3 ships come sailing in on Christmas Day on Christmas Day."

Coming back from snorkeling.

Looking down at the snorkeling beach.

Our driver arrived on Dec. 29 to take us to our next destination, Bali Ecostay.  He parked the van on the sloped driveway and proceeded to load our luggage while we climbed into the van.  Suddenly the van started to roll down the driveway and across the road toward another area of the hotel and the cliff above the ocean.  Caitlin and Fred leaped into action looking for the emergency brake and breaking a rib (Fred) and a toe (Caitlin) in the process.  Almost died but we lived!

Bali Ecostay was not that far in distance but took a long time as the roads are narrow and twisty in that area.  We traveled through small villages and beautiful countryside in the mountains.

A small village.

Rice drying on big tarps.

Lunch stop with a beautiful valley behind us.

A typical store at the side of the road.

Our accommodation at Bali Ecostay was in separate bungalows, each one nestled in beautiful, tropical foliage and hidden from the other bungalows.  Ours had two bedrooms and a large common area.  The bathroom was built with part of it open to the sky.  It had stone walls with plants growing in pots attached to the wall - very beautiful and exotic.  The buildings all had views of the mountains and the terraced rice paddies.  Below our bungalow was a waterfall and natural pool for swimming.

Our common area.

The rice paddy view from our bungalow.

The waterfall...

and pool below.

A rain storm view from our room.

Our indoor/outdoor shower.

Walking through the rice paddies below Bali Ecostay.

The massage gazebo in the jungle.  Hot stones anyone?

A banana tree blossom.

A typical Balinese home where several generations of the family would live.  This is the grandparents sleeping area. The set back raised areas are beds.

Our guide showing us some medicinal plants.

Dancers on New Year's Eve.

Attaching "wishes" to a paper lantern before releasing it on New Year's Eve.

The entrance to Okawati Hotel, down a small lane off of Monkey Forest Road.

On New Year's Day we left for Ubud, the centre of art and Culture in Bali. We stayed at Okawati Hotel, an older but charming hotel, just off of the main road, Monkey Forest Road. It was wet in Ubud, but it didn't stop us from shopping up and down the main street and going out for some great meals.  Caitlin had to leave for home on our second day there as school and the Northwest Territories were calling.

Teatime on the balcony at Okawati.

Coffee beans roasting oi the left and Caitlin grinding them on the right.

Taste testing various coffees and teas.

Temple on a lake.

Hiking in to Twin Falls.

The rest of us moved on to an area near the airport called Jimbaran to spend the last couple of days of our Bali holiday.  Jimbaran is famous for the best fresh seafood at its beachside restaurants.  You make your choice of seafood from the coolers, then they grill it and serve it with rice and vegetables.  You pay by the weight of the seafood you have chosen.

Jimbaran Beach restaurant at lunch ...

and dinner.

It was hard to say goodbye to everyone and head back to Jakarta instead of "home"  but I'm so happy to have spent Christmas the way we did and grateful that they came all this way.  I hope everyone enjoyed the trip as much as I did!