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Boat from Lombok to Gili Air
It's hard to tell, but it is a narrow boat loaded with baskets of fruit the women are going to sell on Gili Air. Those arms are Alia and Jamil's, holding on tightly to their math binders. Hi, it's Beth. I can't tell you how much we like all the comments everybody sends. It keeps us all interested in keeping this blog going. To start with, I better answer a few questions...No, we don't encourage Samir to write more often than Alia or Jamil, but he is always begging to get on the blog whereas the other two realize how much they like writing on the blog once we have "convinced" them to get on here! We are spending our last night in Indonesia doing this because we realize that once we leave a place, it's hard to go back and write about it, eg. Japan. Try as we might, we can't get Azim to write on the blog. I think it's kind of like when we travelled after Japan and he brought a diary with him which he was going to write in each day. And then after agonizing over each word on the first day, that was that and the last time I have ever seen him write. So no, Suse, no cigars for Azim, but he did say he would write from Kashmir. And to Robin in Texas, "bath" rhymes with "math" and Samir
Boat taking us snorkeling on Gili Air
Another chance we had to ride on top-the top of the boat we used while on Gili Air, but a bit safer than the roof of a minibus! forgot to mention he had ample time to do that before the bike ride. Now,
math he needs encouraging to do.
Okay, so we probably won't put pictures of Alia's burns on the blog (or her several other but more minor accidents) and we won't mention that Azim and Jamil had stopped with her on the bike just to take a picture of the rainforest for Mrs. Jette, but we'll just let you know that she did get in a lot of snorkeling, pool swimming and river rafting so she really only missed out one day. So, we last wrote from Bali and after that we went to Lombok. Jamil got his nice birthday hotel which was really a resort and one only Azim was happy to leave. The rest of us liked ordering cokes poolside and playing badminton before a swim and basically acting like we have money.. But we did leave and we did have fun getting out to see a bit of Lombok. Not many tourists so we got hasseled a lot to buy, buy, buy but what can you do. Gili Air was a nice break after Lombok though. A very small, quiet island with no
Beach at Gili Trawangan
Unlike the pineapple, this beach was as good as we had promised Jamil and we got to swim with the turtles to top it off! motorized vehicles-only horse drawn carts. After being there a day, you felt as if you knew half the island because everybody seemed related in one way or another. The kids could wander around on their own and people would know which cottage they were staying at. One of my favourite places so far and one of the few I have not been ready to move on from. A few more days of swimming in tourquoise water and laying on white sand would have been good, but we had plane reservations to Sumatra-one reason I hate being on a schedule and why 30 days in Indonesia is not enough. But it will be fun to see Malaysia-the kids have high expectations after flying Malaysian Air and seeing the airport in Kuala Lumpur. Apparently they saw a brochure that showed a place where you could actually fly-we'll keep you posted!
Okay, so then we did another "rent a car with a driver because we don't have much time to see Sumatra..." trip. An eight day tour through Lake Toba, Berastagi and Bukit Lawang. We had read about the "vomit route" in our guide book which was doing this same trip but on
A pleasant bike ride at Lake Toba
It's hard to make that switch from motorbikes to pedal bikes, but once the road flattened out a little we really did all have fun! the local bus, so the kids weren't too unhappy about missing that. Turns out it is still the vomit route whether by local bus or rented car...It wasn't until the day before we got to Berastagi that Azim and I realized that yes, we'd been there too. We were, before that, kind of lamenting the fact that it is more fun to go to new places than to see ones for the second time. But then if you can't remember too much from the first visit (as we realize we don't) then why not go back! So it was fun to visit Sumatra all over again and this time we had a video camera to keep the memories for us! The orangutans in Bukit Lawang were, of course, a highlight and you will see many of their pictures on the blog for sure. But we also took a 2 hour rafting trip down the river in Bukit Lawang that was great but that we have not one picture of-and yes, Alia, Jamil and I were kidding about seeing a python in the water although, we were told they are there along with monitor lizards! . The river was pretty high
Fruit stands on the road to Berastagi
Not sure how a grass roof can hold a satellite dish as big as these... and fast so we took guides to navigate for us and we just lay on the innertubes all tied together and acted (again) like the sahibs that we are. Actually, we were worried it would be too much for the kids to do alone, so for their safety...But then on the way back to our cottages we threw safety out the window and rode back on the roof of the minibus, with the innertubes safely tucked away inside the bus. Okay, then I was a little concerned because the driver didn't go slow for the Pariwisatas (tourists) and the road had more potholes than road, no kidding. But we made it back to write about... We saw amazing storms in Bukit Lawang-thunder and lightning right above us and more rain than I have ever seen, dumped over about five hours. The day after our rafting trip, the river was Bhimji tea brown and a meter and a yard higher. I would not have gone down it that day.
Now I'm working backwards because I haven't mentioned anything about Berastagi. Maybe the kids wrote about looking for a hotel and how our driver pulled into one hotel (Azim asked him "Is
Climbing Gunung Sibayak
This was the easy part-up! But we did go through some jungle before seeing the top. this a hotel?" and he said "Yes"-did I say our "Indonesian" driver?) which was really a church. But, by the grace of God, (and after having coffee, cokes and pancakes) the pastor found us a hotel for half price-a church discount. (They even asked us at the hotel later if we knew Father Ezra and would we be at church the next day and they would see us there...We weren't sure how to reply) So that is how we ended up at Mikie Holiday Resort-pronounced Mickey like the mouse and with it's own amusement park that we made good use of. But we did leave the resort to go climb Gunung Sibayak, an active volcano, which was way more fun going up than down so you can imagine it was not too fun going down steep steps for 2 1/2 hours. I'm guessing it was the Grouse Grind times two and not meant for the weak knee'd or the wearer of new shoes...We feel much better today, three days later. But, beautiful views and lots of gushing steam so you knew you were on a volcano was well worth it.
Okay, so, Indonesia has been great. Although, the pineapple has
At the Top of Gunung Sibayak
A nice view of the fumerals. not been what we promised Jamil, the people have been wonderful and only a few have tweaked his cheek. Something he is not looking forward to in India again. He doesn't understand how that can possibly be a friendly gesture and I guess he doesn't remember his Dadabapa doing the same thing. The kids have learned quite a bit of the language which they can use for awhile longer in Malaysia. And finally, if they have not sent you a postcard yet, it's because they do not know your postal or email address. If you send it in the comments section, they are pretty good at writing a postcard or two at meal times before our food comes. Glad for you that spring is finally coming to North America and we'll write again when we can.
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