What a day!

Feb. 24. What a day. It began normally enough. I got up at 6, skyped with my friend Marilyn at 7, then my colleague, Ambar, came at 8:30 to collect me for our visit to a radio talk show. She wanted to see our apartment so she came up and met Tom, who was working from home for the day.

The talk show was about the American Education system and was partly in English and partly in Indonesian.

Tom and I had been anticipating a special French themed evening at the Sheraton. About two in the afternoon at our apartment complex we began to hear very loud music. We looked down from our balcony and saw the staff setting up for an event around the pool. We figured the band was just testing the equipment. But, no, the loud music continued unabated, even though there were no guests. We were quite annoyed and remarked that we were glad that we were going to be out that evening. We are on the 20th floor and the two buildings (with the pool area in between) are arranged such that they funnel the music up between the buildings like a megaphone.

[Due to technical difficulties, I have to continue this in a different posting. Read on.]

 

 

 

Bali

 I think Bali is a candidate for  the Garden of Eden.  But much like that paradise, all is not well.  Bali has become t oo popular for its own good.  Australians in particular are coming in droves, especially as their currency is very strong right now.(when we visited Australia in 2000 an Aussie dollar cost 0.60 US.  Today it's worth 1.05 US.  The reason is commodities which Australia has in abundance and are in much demand in China.)

When people first began to talk about Bali, they raved about the beauty, but also the friendliness of the people.  Both are under strain right now.  The roads can't handle the traffic and some of the people have become greedy.  There are still lovely people and places in Bali, but it might take a bit of looking.

We met up with our son, Steve at the airport.  As I mentioned we probably planned to do to much.  The plan was to  spend 4 nights in Ubud, then go to Lombok for 3 nights.  Lombok is being talked about as the "new Bali",  but it has a way to go.  I really did underestimate how big the island of Bali is and that the roads are such that it takes a long while to get places.  The first day was just traveling and we had booked a car and driver for days 2 and 4, leaving us just one unprogrammed day in Ubud.  Ubud is a Balinese version of Santa Fe- lots of art galleries, classy shops, and restaurants and we definitely would have liked more free time there.  I relied on Indonesian friends for suggestions of what to see, and that was also not a good idea.  We saw far too many temples-one or two is sufficient.  We then changed the itinerary for day 4 with the driver for more of our own choices.  But still we chose a traditional village, which was good but not worth the 3 hour round trip.  We loved the place we stayed in Ubud.  We had thatched roof rooms with no AC but ceiling fans.  The complex trickles down the sides of a ravine to the river below.  It was very lush and green and peaceful and we loved the insect  and frog noises at night.

Bali is Hindu, with a bit of Buddhism thrown in.  The degree to which religion pervades daily life is unusual.  They create a lot of artistic offerings for the temples and the small daily offerings are everywhere.  The driver always had one on his dashboard.  They take a piece of banana leaf, fold the corners into a low, box shape, and artfully arrange flowers, fruit, and maybe a stick of incense.  I think it is these offerings that make them such good artists.  For, artists they are.  They do all kinds of wood and stone carving, weaving and batik and other textiles, gold and silver work, as well as paintings.  They also have a lot of traditional dances-we saw one and would have done more if we had time.  

We then headed off to the island ofLombok, which, although being a short distance away, took  a while to reach.  Our First night was at an island off Lombok, called Gili Trawangen.  We flew from Bali, then took a taxi to the port, then a horse cart to the ticket office for the boat, then the boat to the island, and another horse cart to the hotel.  And most of these steps involved negotiations over price.  And we had to wade ashore from the boat!  Gili T., as it's known, turned out, after all this, to be a cross between key west and spring break.  There were lots of bars and restaurants along the beach, each with their own(loud) music.  Yes, you could sit at a restaurant at the waters edge with your feet in the sand, but all in all, not to my taste.  Wild horses could not drag me back to Gili T.  It's true that I had heard so much about the Gilis and how great they are that I would have gone sooner or later but I would rather not have wasted Steve's time.  When it was time to leave we just paid  for a private boat to  pick us up from the  beach in front of our hotel and drop us off at the next hotel in Lombok.  Sometimes you just have to pay up.

That hotel was the sengiggi beach hotel and we all loved it.  There were extensive and beautifully landscaped grounds.  It was peaceful and relaxed and that was most welcome.  The beach was nice although the water was so choppy it was hard to snorkel.  Just outside the grounds was the "town" which had several restaurants and some shopping so we wandered into town both evenings for dinner.

We were lucky to get off Gili T when we did as the winds picked up the next day and many of the boats could not operate.  January is the rainy season, but the wind was more problematic than the rain.

We drove back to the airport where we came home to Surabaya and Steve flew back to Bali to get his flight home.  He spent two days in Hong Kong on the way over and one day there on the way back.  He enjoyed HK very much.  It was wonderful to spend time with him and hear all the news from home.

 

In which I visit a Madrassah

If you have ever heard the word Madrassah, I am sure it carries a nasty connotation - maybe Saudi funding schools in the third world with the idea of creating terrorists.  

My boss was planning to visit a Madrassah today for outreach and asked if I wanted to come along.  I am always game so of course I said yes.  Since it was Saturday, Tom wanted to come along, and, since Tom was coming, her husband Thomas also joined us.

We headed off at 8 AM for our two hour drive into the country.  The setting was quite lovely, high in the hills with terraced rice padis trailing down the slopes.  I have long known that Madrassah is a generic word for Islamic school, and, although this school has Madrassah in its name, it is more correctly known as a "peasanteren" which means Islamic boarding school.  We were visiting to prepare the students to take the TOEFL (test of English as a foreign language)in a couple of weeks.  It was impressive to learn that the entire senior class would be taking the test, which, by the way, strikes terror into the hearts of most Indonesian students.  It was even more impressive to learn that 98% of the students would go on to college.

After the initial greetings, we were ushered into a sitting area in the principal's home.  (shoes off folks)  We sat on the floor and were served tea, steamed cassava, peanuts and a local type of sweet potato.  The principal grimaced when I tried to shake his hand and gave me a sort of no touch handshake.  I know Muslim men are not supposed to touch women unrelated to them, but in all my years of living in Muslim countries, this was only the third time I have had any problem, and the other two were in Iran.  (One of those told me he would be happy to shake my hand in private, but since we were in a public place, he'd rather not.)

The principal's English was very good and we pressed him on the source of the funding.  The students pay $80 per month for tuition, room, and board, which is quite a bit of money in this part of the world.  But he said a wealthy Indonesian had started a foundation which gave them a lot of support.  He allowed as how there were some donations from abroad, but that is as far as we got into any possible Saudi funding.  There are 600 students in grades 10-12.  They get three days off every two months and otherwise study 7 days a week, with a three week summer break.  They compress the normal three year high school curriculum into two years so they have an additional year for more advanced studies.  For the two years previous to this, they had Fulbright English Teaching Assistants (ETA) assigned to the school and were very interested in getting another one.

We went off to meet the students in a new classroom building ( there is also a new mosque under construction).  Boys and girls, in uniforms, were seated on separate sides of the large room.  After introductions we started to show the video which we use to show about college life in the US.  Not sure if I have mentioned this, but my boss uses the Ohio State video because she likes it.  We had technical problems and had video, but no sound, so I narrated the video.  Tom did a short talk on the importance of knowing English in the global society today, whether it be science or business, or travel.

My boss talked about taking the test and then began the practice test.  They had to listen to people speaking English and then answer questions about what they heard.  Sometimes they listened to a cassette player and sometimes Tom and I read the script.  The last part was picking out errors in sentences.  All in all, pretty challenging.

After exchanging tests with other students and going over the answers, I tried to do a little Q&A.  It's usually hard to get them asking anything and this was no different.  I did get the common question from a female on what it would be like to wear the hijab on a college campus.  After we wrapped up, then(!) they all came up and wanted pictures, or asked questions.  One guy wanted my autograph!  Tom got besieged by a group of chemistry students preparing for the chemistry Olympiad.  There was a very chatty boy who had lived for a year in Oregon as an exchange student.  He wants to go back to the US for college, but thought it rained too much in Portland.

We finally got the four of us corralled and thought we were going, but found out we were invited for lunch.  We had the lunch in an open-sided pavilion with the two English teachers and the principal. (Also a cat which kept sneaking onto the pavilion.) We sat on the ground (again!) and I can tell you that at our age, it is really rough.  Also I was wearing my snuggest trousers which made it even more difficult.  At one point Tom jumped to his feet and explained that he had a leg cramp.

The food was not bad, chicken, fish, rice, veggies.  They did realize that we would prefer utensils to using our hands.

Once we started home, Thomas said if we didn't mind an extra hour travel time, we could take a more scenic way home.  That was fine with us and we stopped at a very nice resort in the hills with lovely grounds we could stroll in.  Then we did have a scenic drive, with one stop to buy some fruit from a roadside stand-avocados, mangosteens, and oranges.  Back home by 5 PM.

So I hope I have given you a different idea about madrassahs.  These students were like teenagers anywhere.  They laughed a lot and teased the teachers and were even a bit sassy.  I look forward to seeing them again when they come into our office to take the TOEFL in a few weeks.  Maybe the ice has been broken a bit.

Coming back online

Thanks for the queries about my health and whereabouts.  I am well recovered from the flu, although the cough did bedevil me for far too long.

The truth is that I have been traveling, having a wonderful time and being too busy to post.  We spent 8 days in Bali and Lombok with Steve, were home for 3 days, and then headed off to Sri Lanka for 10 days.  I am working on posts for both of those trips and they should be on the blog with pics by Monday or Tuesday.

The short version is that Bali was great, but we probably tried to do too much, so spent a lot of time in transit. I would have done things differently had I known, but still it was fine.  It's Bali, after all!

Sri Lanka has been on our bucket list for a while and it far exceeded our expectations.

We are now slightly more than halfway through our stay here and we are both getting busy.  I will be doing two more presentations of my talk on essay writing for college applications and scholarships.  We have the big college fair with 37 ( so far) US colleges planning to be here in late March.  And, for those readers who know the Pikes, both Kevin and Scott and their significant others have booked flights here(not at the same time) in April and May.

Upcoming planned trips include Hanoi for a regional Fulbright conference in March and Indonesian Fulbright wrap-up in Lombok in May.

After all the travels, it's kind of nice to be home in our own apartment.

Watch for the new posts- soon!

Sri Lanka did not disappoint

I write this from my terrace room on Bentota Beach on this our last day in Sri Lanka.  It has been a fabulous trip.  It has been on our bucket list for almost ten years, since we lived in the Arabian Gulf, and this year the stars aligned so that Tom's month long university break coincided with ideal weather to visit here.

Before you rush for an atlas or to Wikipedia let me say that it is the small teardrop island off the southeast coast of India.  It has been called India-lite, but that doesn't do it justice.  Oh, yes.  There is the matter of the 32 year long war against the Tamil Tigers, who introduced suicide bombings to the world.  That war ended in 2009 and tourism is now rebounding.

And what a lot of things there are to see.  There are six or seven UNESCO world heritage sites.(we saw five.). There is wildlife, there are echoes of colonial eras of the Portuguese, Dutch, and British.  There are world class beaches where the water is 84 degrees year round.  We visited the tea growing areas at high elevations in the hills where a fire in the fireplace was welcome at night.

It's very humbling to realize how little we in the west know of Eastern civilizations.  They have several thousand year old cultures we have never heard of.  For example, we visited Segriya fortress where a paranoid king built a palace on top of a 600 foot high rock and surrounded it with moats and terraces and pleasure gardens.  And he did it 1600 years ago.  The engineering was amazing, especially the hydraulics.  A poem I memorized in high school was buzzing in my brain and with a little help from the Internet I found it.

Kubla Khan

 

In Xanadu did kubla khan

A stately pleasure dome decree

Where Alph, the sacred river, ran

Through caverns measureless to man

Down to a sunless sea

 

This place reminded me of the poem.  We climbed all 1262 steps to the top, past frescoes of bare breasted women (he had 500 concubines including Africans and Chinese) and the water gardens and swimming pools.  There only remain ruins of the palace but it was built of brick, which had to be hauled up all that way.  We also saw costumed dancers and drummers in Kandy performing traditional dances and walking on hot coals.  Kandy also houses the Temple of the Tooth Relic.  That would be a tooth of Buddha, saved from his cremation pyre and carefully tended by royalty ever since.

Beyond the cultural stuff, there was the amazing wildlife.  Sri Lanka is mostly Buddhist (with about 7 percent each of Christian, Muslim, and Hindu) and that background helps to promote a conservation ethic.  We went on two jeep safaris, one in the north and one in the south.  In the northern one we saw mainly elephants-I would guess we saw about 60 to 70 wild elephants.  They were mostly in groups of 7 or 8, always with a baby or two.  In Yala National Park in the south, a more scrub, savanna type habitat, we saw more elephants, but many other animals.  We saw both spotted and sambuhr deer, crocodiles, wild buffalo, mongoose, jackal, iguana, wild boar, and monkeys.  The bird life was also fantastic-more peacocks than we could count.  My favorite birds were the bee eaters, both green and blue tailed varieties, the painted stork, and the hoopoes.  The conservation ethic extends to sea turtles.  We visited a hatchery where I held a day old hatchling.  They are released from the hatchery when they are three days old.  Over thirty years of work they have convinced the locals not to eat the eggs or the turtle meat, but to bring the eggs to the hatchery and be paid a small amount.  The hatchery also was rehabilitating some turtles that had been injured, some of which would be returned to the sea and some which would have to remain there due to loss of both front flippers.

The lodgings were all quite unique.  Two were over 150 years old and go back to the days go the "English raj".  One was a cottage in the national park where we had to be escorted to the dining hall after dark because of roaming animals.  We thought it was just for show until we found a wild boar rooting around by our porch on returning from dinner.  My favorite, though, was a 250 year old building built for a Dutch admiral and now converted into a boutique hotel.  It only has 13 rooms and, for some reason, we were given the Admirals's quarters which was a huge two room suite with a bathroom as big as many hotel rooms, and with two verandas.  It was full of antiques and was quite marvelous.

The first day we arrived was an auspicious day for weddings and there were three in the hotel where we stayed.  They were very elaborate affairs.

The food was fine, if not remarkable.  As Buddhists, many are vegetarians and they did a nice job with vegetable dishes.  There were many varieties of curries and good fruit.

We went to the higher elevations where tea is grown and visited a tea factory.  For a drink enjoyed all over the world, it is a surprisingly low tech operation.  From picking to being ready to drink takes about a week.  A plant can live 60 to 70 years.  The air was crisp and we did a lot of walking while there. 

We drove along the southern coast which was devastated by the 2004 tsunami.  There were at least two monuments to the lost and missing.  Rebuilding is occurring slowly, but you can see shells of houses remaining.  A train with more than 1000 people (many tourists) was washed out to see along this stretch.

One bad thing-I left my Kindle in the seat pocket of the plane.  That's what happens when you get off a plane at 2AM.  I miss it like my right arm.  And the worst part is that I can't replace it.  It's not sold here and it's not advisable to have anything shipped here-doesn't usually show up.

I am not totally happy with how these photos look in the blog.  There has been an update that I have to figure out.  But meanwhile it gives you some idea of our trip.

I am going to try to put in a link to some other photos.  Let me know if it works or not.   I have my doubts.