Wanderlust8

After 21 years of rambles that took me across the U.S.A. and six continents, I find myself back in my childhood home where many things have changed while some stubbornly will not. This blog has gone a lot of directions although mostly travel recollections while later blogs explored the nuts and bolts of travel in Eastern Indonesia. I have been pondering bringing it back for a while as a way to share lessons I am learning as a caregiver and hopefully allow me to process everything better. So I guess the first question is why on earth I came back here when I was living the expatriate dream in Indonesia? It began with a message I had dreaded. I was in bed on a Sunday morning foggy headed from excessive celebrations from the previous day's match. ... read more

This is only a 36 hour snapshot of a fascinating part of Indonesia, but I'll try and provide some logistical information for the adventure minded traveler. The first thing to keep in mind is the climate. My trip was in the 3rd week of December. The rainy season had began about two weeks before I arrived. While it did not affect my travels, it did mean that the wildlife was much more dispersed, therefore more difficult to find. My guide, a local ranger named Asep (085244688175), said that October is an excellent time to visit. That would be at the end of the dry season, so you'll find the wildlife congregating around the remaining water holes. So, you will enhance your chances of seeing some of the regions specialties like wallabies, cassowaries, birds of paradise, cockatoos, ... read more

Nearly 3 years to the date of my last blog, I have just returned from a trip too good not to write about. This will be more of a how to and how much does it cost account of a motorcycle trip I just completed. I still often get asked publicly and privately, "How do you afford these trips?" Some of these trips are relatively expensive, but many like this one do not have to be. I am not going to pretend to be a budget backpacker at this stage in my life. My Indonesian travel buddy, Lilies, and I were rather amused on this trip as some Australians tried justify if there less than $8 room was cheap enough. I quickly remembered that this could have easily been me nearly 10 years ago when I ... read more

I'm going to tell you the most incredible story I've heard since arriving in Indonesia. To do that I first need to tell you the story of Mr. Didik Raharyono (Didi). Didi is one of those rare finds whose passion is contagious and whose knowledge seems endless. He's been searching for the Javan tiger for nearly 15 years but has yet to see one. In fact, the Indonesian government declared the Javan tiger extinct in 1996. So why even search you might ask? Early on in our conversations, Didi reminded me, "Poor people are crazy, rich people are eccentric." The 1996 extinction status is awash in corporations lust for money and power. Unfortunately, the tiger's fate has also been bound with the shiny stuff. On Java, where you found tigers, mining companies often found gold. So ... read more

I departed Jakarta for Palembang two weeks ago with these instructions from my Indonesian friends, "Eat pempek." Pempek is a savory treat made from local ground fish meat mixed water, salt and tapioca. It's eaten with a vinegar based sauce. Masakan enak means delicious and all the variations I tried over the following weeks were indeed so. Further instructions came from one of my supervisors Mr. Hendi who said I must try the infamously stinky fruit, durian. A natural procastinator, I quietly put this one off.You'd be forgiven for thinking I had flown to Sumatra to only sample the local delicacies. In truth I had come over as part of a high conservation value asessessment (HCVA) team. In short our mission was to:Search for areas that contain or provide biodiversity support function to protected or conservation ... read more