Blogs from Java, Indonesia, Asia
May 18th 2012
Painful 5h public bus journey from Probolinggo to Banyuwangi, the launch point for the trek up Kawah Ijen. Stayed at the Manyar Hotel, described as "rather soul-less" by Wikitravel, but hey, there was wi-fi at the restaurant!... read more
May 17th 2012
2h bus from Surabaya to Probolinggo, then another 1h bus up to Ngadisiri, a few km from Cemoro Lawang, the usual starting point at the lip of Mt Bromo. Beautiful place...... read more
May 14th 2012
Stayed at Orchid Guest House along Jalan Bongkaron, near Chinatown in the old part of the city. First becak rides were cool.... read more
May 14th 2012
I left Bogor on Saturday since our work there is finished and the left for Palembang in South Sumatra yesterday. The work in Bogor ended kind of strangely. Friday afternoon 2 of the fieldworkers were meeting some anti-tobacco advocates at an office at the train station for an interview. Shortly after I got there, I got a call that the media was there and wanted photos of me. Great. So the driver picked me up and brought me to the station. We were ushered into a room marked VIP, and as soon as I stepped in I saw about a dozen men and one woman, all of them with cameras. People were shaking my hand and speaking to me in Bahasa, but I wasn’t quite sure what was going on. One of fieldworkers translated for me. ... read more
May 12th 2012
JAVA: Surabaya...Graffitti & Submarines. Long final breakfast...breathing in the majestic beauty at the Ijen Resort...one last time...aahh...now have to return to Surabaya...and infernal traffic. I think Fandi our Guide was happy to go...pretty boring for him to hang around for several days...sometimes only seeing us for meals...Hady our driver happy to see us again...and then there was the music. When we travel I bring along compilation CDs of my favourite Blues & Rock tracks...Fandi singing along...Hady happy to rock along...we happy as our previous guide Joe preferred Javanese temple music..!!! Down to the coast...waving to the poor souls on that island close enough to wave to...known as Bali...suckers...you can't swim over to this side...the current is against you...sailing craft and happy swimmers on this side...suckers..!!! Stop at one of the beaches for another ... read more
#13: The School Trip (Yogyakarta, Indonesia)
Published: May 11th 2012Asia » Indonesia » Java » Yogyakarta
May 11th 2012
The school trip…. For years and years I’ve been travelling – either alone or with a friend. I like both. I like touring with a good travel companion, but I also relish being on the road independently. But, once or twice a year, I hit the road with a large number of middle school students. This is a whole different style of travel all together! The opportunity to take extended school trips to interesting places was one of the things I most looked forward to when I decided to teach overseas. First of all, I love all travel and especially free travel. Second, I would not have to worry about accommodation, transportation or meals – it would all be arranged for me. Third, I would get to take young people to see some wonderful sites and ... read more
May 11th 2012
I am very pleased with my research team. They are super organized and are getting through all necessary interviews quicker than expected (which means I get to go back to my oasis in Jakarta a day early). I also don’t feel like I have to hover over them to make sure everything goes according to protocol. The research capacity here in Indonesia is quite high. But as in other countries, data collection is often an uncomfortable process. My research manager called yesterday evening to say he was going straight home rather than meeting me for a debrief meeting because he just spent the last couple of hours doing an interview while sitting next to a chicken coop and was not smelling so nice. Yesterday morning I sat in on a focus group with women from a ... read more
May 10th 2012
This was a trip taken during my first year of college back December 07. Among places visited were Jakarta, Bogor, Puncak and Bandung. Just pictures for now!... read more
May 9th 2012
My time in Indonesia this trip has been a bit frustrating so far, mostly because the IRB (in the U.S.) delayed our start. I spent an extra few days in Jakarta waiting for paperwork. My team was trained and ready to go, already having scheduled several interviews. But, bureaucracy requires extreme patience. Right now I am sitting in a little community center in the backstreets of Bogor, an hour outside of Jakarta. One of my fieldworkers is leading a focus group discussion with 8 men. They are all sitting on the floor on a rug, eating snacks we brought, half of them wearing a traditional Muslim head covering. They hardly notice me sitting in the corner of the stuffy room. The field worker is leading them in a photo elicitation exercise where he shows them photos ... read more
May 6th 2012
JAVA: Ijen...Danger, Poisonous Gas. My image of Ijen is a turquoise crater lake with sulphur workers extracting that noxious yellow element...as Ali captured in his blog . But in true travelling, everyone's experience is different, notwithstanding we may visit the same locales, or even the same paths & lookouts. And when we visited Ijen...that is how it was for us. Joe had warned us Ijen had just become active days before we hit Yogyakarta...villages were being evacuated...he did not know if we would be able to access the crater. So instead of cancelling that portion of our trip...we booked extra time there..!!! In planning our trip and choosing accommodation, I had been seduced by pictures of Ijen Resort & Villas at Banywangi...accessed by the roughest road imaginable...so said all the reviews...so I was determined to score ... read more
