Chinese New Year

A colleague of mine recently asked me, “What did you guys do for CNY?” To which I replied “What’s CNY?” To which she replied, “What? How long have you been in Asia?!” To which I replied, “Obviously not long enough!”

CNY, of course, and as I was informed, to what could be the majority of humans on earth, is the well-known acronym for “Chinese New Year”. And this exchange being immediately following CNY, the reference should have been obvious. However, me being the bule that I am, the situation was made even more comical when I blurted out, “The Chinese have their own New Year?” We moved onto other discussion points. J

Alright alright, I get it now! CNY! Chinese New Year! What can I say? I have lived in a cave for my entire adult life, and have had no outside contact with humans until now. She didn’t believe me.

OK, so what’s a Chinese New Year? According to Dr. Google, CNY marks the beginning of the year within the traditional Chinese calendar, which is a lunisolar calendar – meaning it’s based on a combination of moon phases and the time of the solar year (I know, blah blah blah….google it if you really want to read up on it). For some interestingly complicated reason, the day is calculated as the first new moon between 21 January and 21 February.

Now, most of the time, Chinese New Year will fall 11 (or sometimes 10 or 12) days earlier than the previous year, but if that means that the event would be outside of the Chinese New Year range of January 21 to February 21, a leap month must be added so Chinese New Year jumps 19 (or sometimes 18) days later.

Er, what? OK, enough of Dr. Google. It seems to be a bit more complicated than this blog should be. So, we’re going to move along.

Believe it or not, the Chinese resisted using the Gregorian calendar (the one we use) until 1912, when they “officially” switched. But officially, no one used it. The Gregorian calendar didn’t really take hold in China until as late as 1949, when Moe took power over China, and hey, just “made it so” (you know, that communist dictator thing). Suffice it to say though, the Chinese calendar remains a fixture in traditional Chinese culture.

Some of you by now may be thinking: what does this have to do with Indonesia, and/or this blog?  The answer lies in China, with a current population of 1.4 billion and 1/6^th of all humans on earth, has spread its cultural tentacles far and wide, and particularly throughout Asia. Although only making up 1 or 2% of Indonesia’s population of 260 million, people of Chinese descent have had a hugely disproportionate influence on the country, and are an integral part of the fabric here.

So, given that CNY is the biggest holiday celebration in China, and celebrated widely and hugely throughout Asia, Indonesia is no exception. CNY has a prominent position among Indonesia’s long list of statutory holidays (and hence the “what did you guys do for CNY?” question that unravelled all of this).

Here in Bogor, we have our fair share of Chinese influence, complete with the obligatory “China Town” known as Surya Kencana (Golden Sun….or something like that). Like all China towns it’s a bustle of humanity and shops where you can get dried lizard gizzard and scented snake oil, and the finest assortment of plastic buckets this side of Hong Kong. It is also the site of Bogor’s foremost traditional market, making it ground zero for your classic Asian street chaos – the kind of place we bules can walk around for hours armed with our cameras taking in the sights and smells of cow intestines, chicken feet, and other delectables.  

The main drag, auspiciously named Jalan Suryakencana (Jalan = street, so: Street of the Golden Sun), was obviously therefore the site of the main CNY celebrations, which includes the festival of lanterns. The festival of lanterns happens 15 days after CNY, and marks the first full moon of the year. It also marks the end of the CNY holiday period, so it’s one last blast before the party is officially over.

Full disclosure: we had no knowledge of any of this, until I googled it, after the fact. So when our good Dutch friends Peter and Basja invited us along to go see “the parade in China Town”, we quite merrily joined then, however woefully unaware of what the event was. I suppose it would be like showing up at a Christmas parade and wondering who the guy with the white beard and red suit is.  Pretty funny actually, as I wade through internet images and Wikipedia sites afterwards….oh, ya, that’s why those guys were doing that fuzzy animal thing, and yep, 15 days….the math checks out!  Ah hey, that’s why we’re here! Chinese New Year, OK, got it. I can confidently say I won’t ever get caught with my pants down again, when someone says “what are you guys doing for CNY?” J

BTW, what did we do for CNY? That was the subject of the previous post, the long weekend mission to the beaches of southwest Java – so that explains the stat holiday we had (he says as the light bulb goes on…”click”). Hmmm, everything is connected isn’t it?

A Bogor beach weekend: the SW coast of Java

Having a motorbike was near the top of my top-5 “must-do” list for being an expat in Asia. You know, along with the off-shore bank account and weekend trips to Bali. OK, full disclosure: riding a motorbike here isn’t nearly as cool as I thought it would be. Truth be told, we only use it once every couple of weeks or so, usually when I’m out of beer and need to fill up the beer fridge. For local missions like work and groceries, our bicycles or ankots (the public transport system of 30-cent rides in dilapidated minivans with no doors) are our go-to.

You see, it’s not the act of operating a motorbike per se (which actually is really fun, obviously, ask any redneck), it’s the insanity of traffic chaos here in West Java, where being on a motorbike is quite literally like being in a visual-reality video game. You know, the kind where you’re driving or flying a vehicle and/or space craft of some kind, and the screen is your eye-level view, and things like rocks, cars, planes, missiles, spears, flaming projectiles, and other random objects are being hurled at you. The critical difference of course, is that in real life, if you slam into a flaming projectile, you don’t just reset the game and start over. It’s unquestionably one of the scariest and most stressful ways of getting around here, and easily the most dangerous thing we do in Indonesia (including eating street food J). In two years, Amy’s passenger state of mind has improved from “sheer white-knuckle terror”, to now, probably hovering around just “sheer terror”.

So, obviously, when the latest long weekend presented itself, we planned a 3-day motorcycle mission to the southwest coast of West Java! Ah, life is an adventure, or nothing at all eh. I think it was the fact that we hadn’t done it in about a year, so we had forgotten J Seriously, it is one of those things you need some time to forget the bad parts, until you do it again. The good news is: we survived!

OK, so what’s the mission? As the loyal blog followers among you will know, the closest decent beach area to us is about 90 kms from our home in Bogor – an area on the southwest coast of Java called Pelabuhan Ratu (Queen’s Port). And as you also know well, 90 kms here in West Java can take anywhere from 3 to 6 hours, depending on the traffic gods. Although, I must say, the learning curve from this being our 7^th or 8^th time to this area is paying off handsomely. We now know the critical backroad deviations and shortcuts, and are now clocking in at near the 3-hr mark for the journey. Not bad for a couple of bules! But ya, just a quick weekend of sand, surf, sunsets, and maybe a massage on the beach (Amy has become addicted to 8-dollar massages).

Actually, there are some very nice stretches of the ride, in between the near-death parts (Indo driving rule: if you didn’t make contact, it wasn’t even close…so chill!). In particular, the last hour or so, upon turning off the main “highway” (highway just means there is more traffic, not necessarily a better or bigger road), takes one through a rather pleasant hilly area dominated by oil palm and rubber plantations (despite the bad wrap palm oil gets [google it], oil palms are quite stunning and beautiful). It is the “relief” part of the journey when we both feel like we may just make it. It also leads us down to the coast, which of course is also another highlight of the mission: seeing the ocean!

As Amy likes to point out, one of the great ironies (and tragedies) of living where we do in Indonesia, is that despite living in a country with the longest tropical coastline in the world, we very rarely see the ocean (Interesting twist #2: Canada, our homeland, has the longest coastline in the world, where we also almost never saw the ocean). Sad, but true. So, when the opportunity arises, we need to take advantage of it. Amy’s tan is suffering J

It’s a bit squishy on the ole' Honda Tiger (a mean 200 cc’s of sheer torque and power) with our gear, two people, and then a waterproof MEC duffle bag strapped to the gas tank. By Indo standards, this is a big bad hog. For those noticing in the photos, I picked up a “trunk”, which is a storage box that is fitted behind the seat. That definitely comes in handy, and is waterproof and lockable. Not a bad ride overall, but after a few hours in the sun, and multiple near-death experiences (you can never fully relax and cruise), we can’t get off the bike fast enough upon arrival. It’s was only 11 am when we arrived, but cold beer was the only thing on our minds.

The accom we have settled into on these missions is a place run by a German guy and his Indonesian wife. It’s a simple affair of several rustic bamboo cabins, shared bathrooms, cold outdoor showers, and bad beds. It’s basically one step up from camping, and needs some work. Although, it could be our coming off a 3-week mission in Bali (see last post) that has ratcheted up our standards a few notches. What?! No infinity pool! This just won’t do….

But, it’s that “feet in the sand” thing that keeps us coming back to it. You just can’t beat being right on the water. It’s actually on a nice stretch of beach, has cold beer, and the sunsets are amazing (better than anything we saw in Bali!). As Mic says: you can’t always get what you want, but you find sometimes, you get what you need. And Amy needs to work on her tan J