Goodbye Indonesia (for now!)

Is it ever really good-bye? No! It’s only a 30-hour, 2000-dollar flight away! OK, we’re probably not going to be doing weekends in Bali once we get back to Canada. But, we are comforting ourselves by saying that we will be back in some form some day – you know, maybe an extendo-mission to Bali! Today’s reality though is that we are packing up, and leaving Indo as full-time residents in a few days. Yikes! We better start packing! J


Speaking of packing, it’s actually a daunting task to “move” via a commercial airline – i.e., we don’t have a container ship thing, or anything else, everything is going on the plane when we go back, extra bag charges and all. I have been warning Amy since we’ve been here: if it doesn’t fit into a roller bag, it’s staying here! So that’s the immediate task for the next week: decide what goes in the roller bags, and what becomes a gift to the wonderful people of Indonesia. Underwear check. Toothbrush check. 3 bikes and hiking gear, check. OK, we’re good!


Next stop: Ottawa, Canada. The immediate plan is to reconnect with our families for a few months – very convenient because both of our families live in Ottawa. Why else would anyone ever go to Ottawa? (ha! Just kidding you guys….I can see the hate mail coming now….). So ya, a few months in Ottawa, then, not entirely sure. It’s that “rest of our lives” thing. We haven’t gotten that far J

OK, so Goodbye Indo! Wow. It’s definitely going to be weird, if not downright sad (tears, well, possibly). Alas, despite all of its insanity, traffic jams, endless chaos, mosques going off at 4 am, visa permit issues, strange and noisy animals keeping you awake all night, a complete absence of decent affordable wine, never a straight answer from anyone, and a constant barrage of “hello mister!” everywhere you go, it has definitely become home to us and a place we will always hold dear to our hearts.


In fact, there are some very definitive and select items that cannot be found anywhere else in the world (at least not in Canada), that we will miss every day we are away from Indonesia.

Ladies and Gentlemen (drum roll please!), we give you the Rob and Amy’s Top-5-Things-I-Will-Miss lists.


Rob’s Top-5 Things I’ll Miss


1. Bumhole cleaner thing


Does it actually have a name? Not sure – probably because everyone is afraid to talk about these things. But I’m here to say, right here, right now, that these bumhole cleaner things are the single best invention in human history. Way better than sliced bread, pizza, and the internet – yes, better than pizza and the internet! Funny, when I first arrived in Indo and saw this thing hooked up beside the toilet, I assumed (as probably all westerners do) it was for washing the toilet or something like that. Nope! It’s fer washing yer bumhole! Once you figure out how to use the thing (again, no one wants to talk about it, and well, we ain’t going there right now), you will never ever go back to toilet paper. What are we going to do back in Canada where there are no bumhole sprayer things?! That’s it, first order of business back in Canada is talking to a plumber!  Hook me up!


2. Pembantu

Kesi, our loyal Pembantu the entire time

Indonesian for “helper” (AKA: maid), Pembantus make the world go round here in Indo. It’s just part of the culture that someone is always at home looking after the house. A strange concept in the west, where only “rich folks” have maids – everyone has a Pembantu here. I had an amusing conversation with an Indonesian friend one time. I was telling her how amazing it is to have a pembantu, because in Canada we could never afford to have a full-time maid. She wrinkled up her face in disbelief, then asked “who brings in the laundry when it starts to rain and you are at work?” Needless to say, upon our return to Canada, we will have to relearn how to make the bed, how to do laundry, how to clean the bathroom, how to sweep the floor, how to mop the floor, how to fold clothes, how to clean the kitchen, oh my god……we can’t do it!!


3. Go-jek


Absolutely, beyond any doubt, the single best Indonesian creation on the plant: Go-jek – basically an UBER motorcycle taxi. Places like Jakarta and Bogor are crawling with them. They are the cheapest and fastest public transportation invention of all time. Gotta get to the other side of Jakarta in 20 mins? Pull out yer phone, dial it up, 2 minutes later you are on the back of a motorcycle with the wind in your hair whizzing through traffic like a hot knife through butter. The kicker: costs less than buying a stamp in Canada. Just how are we going to get around back in Canada? Where are all the Go-jeks??!! Maybe my Go-jek app will still work? J


4. Nasi Pedang

Lunch for a dollar-fifty

Actually, to be more specific: Nasi Padang Rendang. Padang is a city/region in western Sumatra (one of the big islands of Indonesia) famous for their cuisine, known by the same name. “Nasi” means rice. Nasi Padang therefore means Padang-style rice. Rendang is a spicy curried beef that could just be the best food ever invented after pizza and nachos. It a party-in-your-mouth situation. At a dollar-fifty a plate, it’s my weekly to-go lunch (usually Monday, because I can’t wait till longer in the week!). The lady on the corner knows my order as soon as I appear in her stall, I don’t even have to say anything to her: hold the blow-your-head-off hot peppers, heavy on the Pandang sauce, and double shot of Rendang sauce. Yummy! J  Oh man, where am I going to get my fix of Nasi Padang now??!!


5. Parking guys


Here in Indo, people still do everything and keep job-destroying machines at a distance. Parking is no exception. Every store, every restaurant, every hotel, every place of business, no matter how big or small, has a parking guy. He’s the guy whose job it is to direct you into your parking spot, watch your vehicle for you, then get you back out on street by stopping traffic for you like Moses parting the Red Sea – all this, for the grand sum of about 15 cents. OK, the quick among you will recall that we don’t own a car. So why would I miss parking guys? Because the parking guys are happy to watch bikes too! I can honestly say in 3.5 years in Indo, having ridden my bike to work daily, having ridden to the grocery store an equal amount, and generally just gotten around on my bike, I have not used my bike lock once. It sits in a bin collecting dust. I don’t even bother to bring it. I just know that wherever I’m going, for any length of time, there will be a parking guy who will fight to the death for my bike. Now that’s the best 15 cents I have ever spent! Gawd….what am I going to do without the parking guys?!


Amy’s Top-5 Things I’ll Miss


(note: this section is written by Ms. Amy)


1. The Weather

Morning coffee spot

Everyday is summer

For those that don’t know, we live in a city called Bogor. It sits at about 300m above sea level. It is surrounded by lush mountains resulting in blue and sunny skies every single morning. Waking up to sunshine 365 days a year has been exceptional. Around noon (especially in the rainy season) the clouds roll in and by evening the rain has come. The rains cool things down, kill the mosquitos and allow for cozy evenings. But guaranteed the next morning will be sunny. Plus, I am really into humidity and it IS humid here! Call me crazy, but my skin has never looked so good😊


2. Pembantu


Since Rob has already covered this, I won’t dwell on our amazing maid. Let’s just say, I will never again have ironed underpants - and that makes me sad.


3. Tempeh


Tempeh is an Indonesian, fermented-soybean product that is less processed than tofu and about a hundred times tastier. I have never eaten so much tempeh since coming to Bogor and probably never will again. My lunches in Bogor were catered by an old Indonesian lady and (IMO) she rocked at tempeh. For my parting gift at school, I received about a week’s worth of sweet and spicy fried tempeh. I ate it in a day.






4. Celebrity Fitness Spin Class


Living in a city on the equator and being a working stiff, exercising before or after work or some such thing is tricky. This resulted in me becoming a bit of a gym rat. Celebrity fitness is a state-of-the-art gym a quick 10-minute ankot ride away. It offers amazing spin classes in a facility that I could never afford in Canada. Plus, the instructors were really good at yelling at me which made me go faster and faster. It totally upped my cycling game. 




5. Friendly Indonesians and the greeting “hello mister”

Indonesians might be the friendliest people on earth

Indonesia is a ridiculously smiley, inquisitive, and happy nation. If you cut off a car cycling anywhere in the world, you’d get flipped the bird. In Indonesia, they wave uncontrollably, give you the thumbs up and want to take a selfie with you. (Well, constantly being asked for selfies does get a bit old, but it’s better than meanies). 


And since many Indonesians know little to no English, often they will greet any white person with “Hello mister”. The first few times this happened, I would try to explain that being a woman, this was incorrect. It soon became clear that correcting them was an insurmountable job. For the rest of my life, I will always answer to “Hello mister”.








(back to Rob)


OK, so that’s it kids. We’re signing off (for now). The next chapter starts now.


Terima kasih banyak, dan sampai jumpa lagi!

Gunung Salak from The Salak Sunset Café, Bogor Indonesia -- where it all began

Last Blast: Nepal -- Three-Passes Trek

One last Asian blast before we set sail from Indonesia: Nepal. It’s been on our “to-do list” since I trekked Nepal’s Annapurna circuit back in the early 90s. Amy got tired of hearing me rave about it, so we decided to take advantage of the cheap flight and just do it. Jakarta to Katmandu, 200 bucks! – never going to beat that again.


OK, so what’s all the fuss about? Nepal is one of those special places in the world where roads, and all the associated evil spin-offs, do not make up the fabric of everyday life. It’s a hard concept for the rest of us living in the “real” world where “no roads” just doesn’t exist. It’s not a park, it’s not wilderness….there are villages, and towns, and houses, and restaurants, and hotels. There are simply no roads, no cars, no motorbikes, no combustion engines tying society together.


So how do they get around? They walk. What about all the “stuff” that goes along with houses, and towns, and restaurants, and hotels? They carry it in on their backs.


So that’s the picture: villages and towns, complete with houses, restaurants, and hotels, strung together by walking paths that have been burned into the ground by generations of people living out their daily lives.


Now, add to that, arguably the most spectacular mountain setting on the planet, and you have a trekking paradise. Where else can you hike unsupported for weeks across glaciers and over mountain passes, then end your day in a trekking lodge and a steamy bowl of yak noodle soup, overlooking a Buddhist monastery and perhaps a glimpse of Everest in the distance? (answer: nowhere else)


Nepal’s trekking network is huge and offers a ton of options from short and easy routes, to long and hard. Having already been to the Annapurna area (the early 90s thing), we decided to focus on the Everest region, AKA the Khumbu region, and specifically on a route called the “Three-Passes Trek”.


The 3-passes route is a newish 20-day +/- trekking route that includes the best of the Everest Basecamp (EBC) Trek – the standard trek to Everest Basecamp that 95% of people trekking in the Everest area are on – but tacks on a mind-blowing series of three high-elevation passes, and also hits on the infamous Goyko Lakes area – the world’s highest-elevation freshwater lake system. It’s pretty much the best of the best that the Khumbu region has to show off.


What’s the catch? The catch is that the 3-passes trek is not a cake walk. The most common word to describe it seems to be “challenging”. Not one, or even two, but three 5000-m+ passes back to back. The beauty of that combo though, is that it weeds out the crowds, and very few people do it compared to the EBC trek (we met 3 other couples doing the route, the whole time). Want the trails of the Himilaya to yourself? The Three-Passes Trek is for you.


We saw even less people because our trip dates (which were dictated to us by Amy’s teaching schedule) coincided precisely with the end of the season (late May/early June) – beyond the “shoulder season”, this was shut-down season. In fact, we had lodges to ourselves more times than not – pretty funny actually. More than once we were a bit worried if there would even be a lodge/guesthouse open where we were heading for the day.


So ya, crowds were no concern to us. We almost had the entire Himilaya to ourselves – remarkable given the Everest area’s reputation as people soup, which it is during peak season (April/May, and October). 


To top that off, we won the weather lottery, and pretty much had clear weather every day (morning at least), and downright amazing blue-sky weather a lot of the time. Again remarkable because June is supposed to be “monsoon season” (and hence the end of season shut-downs), meaning wet rainy weather. Er, that memo didn’t get through obviously, because our weather was fantastic!


The cool thing about the 3-passes route, is that it takes in 80% of the EBC trek, meaning you get up close and personal with Everest Basecamp, and obviously, Everest itself. The big twist though, is that rather than simply turning around and going back the way you came (EBC trek is an “up and back” route), the 3-passes goes sideways, literally, and takes you up and over three high passes that gives the route its name: (1) Kongma La – 5535 m, (2) Cho La – 5368 m, and (3) Renjo La – 5360 m. BTW, “la” means “pass” in Tibetan.


Does it get any better? Yes! Doing the passes forms a loop back to the start and finish of the Khumbu universe: the infamous Namche Bazaar, capital of the Khumbu region. 


If you are up for it, it’s a fantastic route. It is indeed a mission though, and took us 21 full days, including rest/acclimatization days. We both agreed, the 3-passes route is as advertised: long, hard, challenging, but endlessly mind-blowing and rewarding.


The two biggest worries, and the two biggest reasons people don't complete the route are: (1) altitude-sickness related issues, and (2) weather. You need both of these things to go well. Unlike Amy – who seems to have Sherpa genes – I struggle with altitude issues. I spent the first week popping Tylenols like breath mints to deal with throbbing headaches (headaches are the number-1 symptom of altitude-related issues). But after a week or so, and a little help from the drug Diamox, my head was fine and it was all systems go.


All in all, two-thumbs up on 3-Passes. Oh, but it’s cold. Real cold! Amy spent most of the time freezing her butt off. If you go, bring all the down garments you own. An interesting factoid about Nepalese buildings is that there is no heat, other than a yak-dung stove in the middle of the main room – if you are 10 cms away from it, you’re too far J. Bedrooms are usually colder inside than outside. And….outside, it’s freezing! J Amy was wrapped in down most of the time.


Highlights included mainly just being there and experiencing the grandeur of it all. But you know, despite the hype, Everest Basecamp is an amazing spot. On the edge of the Khumbu Glacier, looking up the Khumbu Icefall, huge glaciated peaks in your face…..it’s an awe-inspiring spot. Then there’s Goyko Lakes, and the view of Everest from Renjo Pass, and the yaks, and Tibetan monasteries, and the teahouses, and the donkey trains, and the prayer flags, and endless Dahl Bhat, and….basically just being there. J  


Namaste

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

Last of the Long Weekends (boo!)

The countdown is officially on. Amy’s teaching contract is over at the end of May, and while they would love to have her stay on forever (they love Ms. Amy!), Amy is firmly in “been there, done that” mode (i.e., she is not signing on for another year). Alas, we are moving on from Indonesia Phase-1 – at least taking a break from it – if for no other reason than as of Amy’s last day, we will have 5 days to leave the country, at which time we are no longer legal residents. It’s that “residency” thing….you can’t just live in Indonesia if you don’t have a job.


So what’s the plan? In a nutshell, we leave Indo on 22 May. First stop: Trekking in Nepal. Every since I went trekking in Nepal back in the early 90s (I think by saying that, I am officially giving myself “old guy” status), I vowed to go back. Amy’s getting tired of me saying so, so, we’re going back! Besides, it’s doubtful we will ever be in a position to get a $200 flight to Katmandu! Our adventures in Nepal will surely be the subject of a future blog post. Stand by for that one.


So a month of trekking in Nepal, then back to Bogor for a few weeks to pack up, and then back to the motherland (Canada) by mid-July. In the meantime, a couple of final long weekends have popped up in Amy’s teaching schedule. The loyal followers among you will know that a long weekend means dealing with the first-world problem of “where to go, what to do”? Such misery. J Although, we also feel the pressure to milk our precious few remaining long weekends.


Final long weekend number 1 was spent returning to Bali. As mentioned in previous posts, Bali has grown on us. It could be the familiarity, the friends we now have there, the good food and wine, the sun and surf, the lack of mosques waking you up at 4 am, the fun things to do…..what am I saying, it’s all of those things! J

So ya, back to Bali for a few days, if for nothing else than to say good-bye. Although, we did have a mission in mind: mountain biking. We could have picked another volcano to climb (which is also fun!), but we thought we would mix it up this time and try out the Bali riding scene. 


Despite our hatred of guided tours – especially those in Indonesia – we really had no choice but to sign up with a guide outfitter given that we didn’t want to box up our bikes and fly them across Indo (and back) for 1 day of riding. That, and, a small but significant detail: we have no idea where to go. It’s that Indo thing again: nothing is described, there are no guide books, trail maps, or signage – a fantastic business model for the guides, but “challenging” to say the least for us DIYers. 


There are plenty of mountain biking operators in Bali offering more/less the same product, including: pick-up anywhere in southern Bali (where most travelers are staying), all bikes and gear, food and water for the day, a guide, and then drop-off back at your accommodation. All in all, a pretty complete package – you just gotta show up. Easy! – which in Indo, is critical to maintaining your sanity.


We went with “Infinity Mountain Biking” (google it, if interested), mostly because they offer a 65-km ride from the top of a volcano crater (Mt. Batur), down to the iconic Bali town of Ubud (of “Eat, Pray, Love” fame). They rate the ride as “hard/advanced” and it’s their “longest day ride”. Sign us up! We were hoping the “hard” rating would keep people away – it worked! – just us and one other Swiss dude.


It was a fun day. The bikes and gear were brand-new full-suspension high-quality bikes (Polygon Siskiu T8 29ers – for you gear heads), and as advertised, they delivered the pick-up (on time!) and drop-off at our accom, snacks and food, and the guide was actually a decent and fit rider who didn’t get us lost (not always the case here in Indo). The route was fantastic and indeed took us from the top of a volcano crater, down through a recent lava flow, back up to the rim, then down through the rice paddies, temples, and villages of rural Bali – a really cool cross-section of all that is Bali. Nice. Full points to Infinity!


Final long weekend number 2 was another volcano mission: Gunung (Mt.) Lawu. On the advice of our gunung-guru buddy Dan Quinn (the guy behind gunungbagging.com), we set our sights on Lawu because it involves relatively easy logistics – again key to sanity here in Indo (we have learned the hard way!). A quick 50-mins flight to the city of Solo in Central Java, and we were sitting poolside at the Solo Best Western in downtown Solo – not our usual scenario, but Amy wanted to try out a big-city “high-rise hotel”, and, we couldn’t resist the 40-USD/night price for a 4-star hotel. 


Day 2 was an arranged 4-am pick-up at the door of the hotel, complete with breakfast in a box. An hour or so later we were strapping on our boots and heading up the side of a volcano. How’s that for easy? Not to mention that Indo is likely the only place in the world where you can get a car (air-con Toyota Avanza) with driver, for the day (12 hours), for 50 USD all-in. 


At 3,265 m, Lawu is one of the bigger peaks in Java. But, because the trailhead starts at 1900 m, it’s totally doable as a day hike. The weather was fantastic and we had the up track and great views to ourselves. Despite the tropical latitudes, at 3000 m the terrain is alpine and very reminiscent of the mountains of western Canada. Nice!


The jubilation of having a mountain to ourselves came crashing down upon our victorious arrival at the summit – where we were greeted by the hordes of gunung-bagging teenagers that seem to have taken over the Indonesian gunung-bagging scene. Not that we dislike teenagers per se, but the chain smoking, the giggling and shrieking, the distorted Indo-pop blasting from their phones, and the constant barrage of selfie requests with us (it’s a thing – we’re like rock stars to them for some reason), just isn’t what we’re looking for at the top of a mountain. Amy seems to be particularly popular with the selfie crowd – blonde hair? Pale skin? OK, what am I? Chopped liver over here? J


Ah well, all part of the fun here in Indo! And fun it is, or shall we say, was…is this our last gunung-bagging mission? Boo! 


But you know, I don’t think so. I think we’ll be back for more one day….