August
1, Wednesday
Today I start my 11 day excursion across the island of Java in Indonesia.
At 8:30, my driver Dodi and my guide Daniel arrived to
pick me up and we drove out of the city to the Indonesia Miniature Park (165
hectares). Sounds Disney like, but was
not at all. It is a complex of areas
where they have set up 34 different areas representing the 34 provinces of
Indonesia. In each one, there is a
display of their traditional houses, their art work, traditions, clothing etc. Many of the provinces have their own
traditional dialects as well.
I wanted to walk around part of the complex and Daniel
showed me a few of the larger compounds: North & West Sumatra, Irian Jaya,
Bali & Java.
Traditional houses from Sumatra. This one is so large there has to be a family "group" living in it.
It looks more like a hotel
Check out the hand carved wooden latice work. It looks like lace. BEAUTIFUL.
Some of the houses are smaller and are up on stilts
This one has a neat roof line
Check out the long boat. All hand cut from a single tree.
Check this one out. Really colourful right?
This is a close up of the detail on that house. IT IS ALL CARVED ! ! And painted with various colours. Can you imagine how long it took to do this?
By the way, that picture was just the side of the house. This is how BIG it is. AMAZING.
Houses from other areas within Indonesia have a completely different architecture
A statue on a pond. It is such a narrow boat, how could they keep it upright without flipping over?
This type of gates is supposedly used all over the islands in Indonesia.
In the middle of the park there is lake with islands in the shape of Indonesia’s main islands: Java, Sumatra, Kalimantan (Borneo), Sulawesi, the Lesser Sunda Islands, Maluku and Papua.
The Bali complex was especially beautiful
They use a dragon on their gates, not a naga.
And this was part of the Java complex, a HUGE open temple building
And again the wooden carving is so ornate. This one had a series of panels and doorways.
At one point, while we were driving from one area to another, we passed a reptile museum and Daniel asked if I wanted to go in to see the snakes and crocodiles. Just as I was starting to say “no, I’m not really interested in seeing those” he said KOMODO DRAGON. ...... Stop the car! “Oh yes please, I would love to see the komodo dragon.” We walked all the way around the area to the back of the compound (and yes I did stop to see the snakes, turtles, crocodiles
a horned iguana
and even a baby komodo dragon behind a glass case)
We finally reached the larg pit where the Komodo Dragon was located
I was trying to make noises to coax it out so I could get a better look and picture. One of the custodians came up to us and tried to get him to come out as well, but no luck. Then the guard and Daniel spoke to each other and the guard motioned for me to follow him.
We went down the stairs, under the cement platform, where there was another viewing area through dirty windows; but the guard did not stop there, he continued on to a door that led into the pit! And there was the komodo dragon not two feet away from me behind lying across the bottom of the steps and making it difficult for the guard to open the door.
I snuck my camera around and took a blind picture towards where his head was. The guard then shoved the komodo enough to open the door wider, and the dragon finally went up the steps.
Finally, I had a picture of all of it. It is as big as a huge crocodile, but the legs are A LOT bigger.
When both the komodo dragon and the guard had reached the top of the stairs, the guard motioned for me to come up and touch the dragon. Oh crap! Another emotional moment… do I? don’t I? “Aline, when are you EVER going to get the chance to not only see a komodo dragon, but to actually TOUCH ONE?”
Me, myself and I had a bit of an argument about it in my head and I finally rationalized that other than getting scratched by its claws how badly could I get hurt? It seemed quiet enough with the guard.
Me, myself and I had a bit of an argument about it in my head and I finally rationalized that other than getting scratched by its claws how badly could I get hurt? It seemed quiet enough with the guard.
OK, I DID IT !
“ A member of the monitor lizard family (Varanidae), it is the largest living species of lizard, growing to a maximum length of 3 metres
(10 ft) in rare cases and weighing up to around 70 kilograms (150 lb). They take about eight to nine years to
mature, and are estimated to live for up to 30 years.” Juana,
you were right, this part is for you and I’m glad I did not know before I went
in to pet the Komodo Dragon: “Animals that escape the jaws of a Komodo
will only feel lucky briefly. Dragon saliva teems with over 50 strains of
bacteria, and within 24 hours, the stricken creature usually dies of blood
poisoning.” Though the web site
did continue to say that most Komodos in captivity have lesser strains due to
their diet and care.
It was like touching a turtle shell, very hard
carapace. I felt like I was touching an
ancient dinosaur. (Message for Renée or
Jolynn to pass on to Dash: “I thought of
you today. I think you would have loved
to touch this dragon too.”
So emotional ! Not
like crying tears emotional, but shaking all over emotional, like when I
touched the tigers in Thailand.
Definitely a “pinch me, is this real” moment.
After spending 1 ½ hours there in total, we were on our
way to our next stop in Bogor, to visit the Botanical Gardens, 60 km south of
Jakarta. The gardens were designed by a Dutch botanist
and officially opened in 1817.
When we arrived in Bogor we drove past an area filled
with deer; hundreds of them grazing on the lawns behind the 19th
century Presidential Palace on the same grounds as the botanical gardens. I could not get a good picture through the gates
that surround this area and thought I would be able to get a good picture from
within the gardens, but it was never meant to be. I never saw them again.
I think I mentioned earlier that I am here during the period of Ramadhan (Indonesian spelling); a holy period for people of the Muslim faith.They fast from dawn to sunset for one month.I knew this already and figured that at some point I would probably have a problem finding an open restaurant, but I had planned on ensuring that I always had snacks in my bag to tide me over, as well as water or juice.What I did not know about Ramadhan is that they cannot drink any liquids either during the day, not even water.Well I don’t know about you, I don’t usually drink a lot of liquids when I’m home, but when I am visiting and walking around I need to drink a lot of liquids.My guide, who had been walking along with me all morning, did not take one sip of water, while I was guzzling down my small bottles (I drank three today). So when we arrived at the gardens, my plan was to tell the guide that I would wander around on my own and meet back with them at whatever time they had set for our departure.Surprise !He has organized for one of the volunteers at the gardens to take me around on my tour and provide information.WOW ! That’s like walking around with John P explaining everything.How great is that.
I think I mentioned earlier that I am here during the period of Ramadhan (Indonesian spelling); a holy period for people of the Muslim faith.They fast from dawn to sunset for one month.I knew this already and figured that at some point I would probably have a problem finding an open restaurant, but I had planned on ensuring that I always had snacks in my bag to tide me over, as well as water or juice.What I did not know about Ramadhan is that they cannot drink any liquids either during the day, not even water.Well I don’t know about you, I don’t usually drink a lot of liquids when I’m home, but when I am visiting and walking around I need to drink a lot of liquids.My guide, who had been walking along with me all morning, did not take one sip of water, while I was guzzling down my small bottles (I drank three today). So when we arrived at the gardens, my plan was to tell the guide that I would wander around on my own and meet back with them at whatever time they had set for our departure.Surprise !He has organized for one of the volunteers at the gardens to take me around on my tour and provide information.WOW ! That’s like walking around with John P explaining everything.How great is that.
The gardens contain more than 15,000 species of trees and
plants and about 400 types of palm trees. I did not see many flowers in this
garden, but there were lots of types of bamboo.
One of the paths in the Bogor Botanic Gardens
Beautiful huge flower / leaf ? No idea what it was; many of the plants did not have signs and I did not have a paper and pen with me to take notes as my guide took me around.
At one point I felt something on my neck and tried to whisk it away. Daniel took it off my shoulder and showed me this beautiful stick insect.
Giant Bamboo ! I feel like a munchkin beside this.
The Presidential Palace (out of bounds, could not get any closer, or go to the other side to see the hundreds of deer).
The lilie pond.
The five ethical precepts of Buddhism ( 5 fingers, but one hand): abstain from taking life, abstain from taking what is not given, abstain from sexual misconduct, abstain from false speech, abstain from fermented drink that causes heedlessness.
The path along the pond.
Established by the Dutch in 1817, this is not a flower garden, it is more of an arboretum, filled with 15,000 species of plants from around the world, including 400 species of palm trees.
The roads in Java so far are great, we are on huge divided highways, most of the toll roads and Dodi the driver speeds us along. People who drive on these highways “appear” to obey traffic laws and stick to their own lanes, but once you are off these and on to regular roads or city streets…. forget it. It’s like being back in India… utter chaos. The only thing that is different is that the Indonesians don’t honk their horns. They either sit patiently in their cars and wait for traffic to start moving again, or pass recklessly either on the right or left side, at crazy speeds, trying to pass other vehicles (cars, motorcycles, pedestrians, small commuter mini-buses, carts pulled by small horses, you name it, it’s on the road).
A large divided highway on the outskirts of Bogor
And then we hit reality ! This is the traffic I would see from now on. CRAZY !
But they do love their monuments, on almost every round-a-bout I saw.
This afternoon we are heading for Bandung, via Puncak Pass which has spectacular views of tea plantations on the mountain slopes.
In the high mountains and Puncak Pass
Tea plantations grow on all the slopes
Looks a little bit like Italy in this shot and these could be vineyards instead of tea.
Fresh tea lives picked from one of the bushes
I see all sorts of interesting things during our drive. There were hang gliders jumping off the mountain at Puncak Pass and we watched quite a few of them go all the way down and land in a far away field. And then there were these:
This guy is carrying dozens and dozens of eggs.... ON HIS MOTORCYCLE ! I wonder if they will be pre-scrambled when they finally get to market?
This guy was carrying large stones from a quarry, but his truck was overloaded and the back gates were ready to burst open at any moment.
This guy was carrying a huge load of onions / shallots to market.
And the modes of public transportation were interesting as well:
This little van is a commuter van / taxi. The door is propped open even as he is driving down the road to make it easier for people to get on and off ! Now there's an accident waiting to happen.
and check out these taxis ! I am NOT KIDDING. The locals use their horse and carts to ferry people around. Whatever works.
I’m staying 2 nights at the Sukajadi Hotel in Bandung. The hotel does not have restaurants close enough for me to walk to in the dark (we arrived after 6 pm) so I opt to have dinner at the hotel. Nothing to write home about, but it is hot and it is filing since I did not have lunch today. It's Ramadhan and all the restaurants are closed during the day !
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