Indonesia - September
I love it when you call me Big Bapa...
I thought this trip was supposed to make me look younger, but apparently it ain’t happening according to plan. Everyone here is so courteous and respectful and they all call me "Bapa". At first, I wasn’t sure what they were saying but hoped it meant “Oh exalted silver fox that looks so young” but it doesn’t. It is apparently a term of respect and means "Father" in Indonesian. Possibly "Sexy Daddy" also, but Google Translate isn't working right now for me to double-check that. This is a little depressing because I’m still not old enough to be anyone’s father. Definitely not responsible enough. Or, it might just mean that I need a shave and look like a scraggly homeless man (technically I am). It’s hard to look young when you have a crazy Santa Claus starter beard growing all willy-nilly. Guess it’s also hard to appear young when you use words like willy-nilly. I still like it when they call me Bapa!
Anyway, more words below all the pics.
Jakarta
Bali - West coast with a little of Ubud thrown in.
Interesting foods and coffees of Indonesia - yes we tried the "poop" coffee. Bonus points if you get the movie reference!
Our new friend, the amazing artist Ketut - FB at "Ketut Sunama", IG @ "zen_bali_arts"
West Bali
Indonesia
So this post won’t be too long, because we went from smog to sand with nothing in between. We landed in the largest city in the world and had some ambitions to get out and explore, but the smog was so bad (New Delhi level) and the traffic so hideous (again, India level) that we only made it out of the hotel complex once for actual sightseeing. The rest of the time we “suffered” at the awesome hotel lounge and the three adjoining malls that were connected to our hotel…yes, there really were three. The smog was so bad, due to burnings and forest fires in northern Indonesia, that we could only really see a kilometer or so from our window. Fortunately the malls were connected to the hotel by skyways so I was able to get in a ton of exercise between the hotel gym and my tri-mall hike each day. On the bad side, having lounge access with free food and drinks pretty much negated any 'progress' I made in the gym.
Not going to lie, I don’t feel the need to see Jakarta again. I love big cities but this one really didn’t have much to offer from a tourist perspective. It has a huge mosque and a lot of malls and golf courses but it’s more a city that simply exploded too quickly over the past few decades, faster than it could plan for. Traffic is some of the worst in the world - it took an hour to go 6 Km one day and when we got there realized that the site was not worth the drive, so we decided to simply return to the hotel lounge! I think Jakarta is mostly used as a jumping off point for Bali or Komodo, so visitors don’t come for cultural reasons. The tourist sites are basically colonial buildings that aren’t kept up very well. Also, we continued our “Harbingers of Destruction ‘26” tour…a couple of days after we left Jakarta, Mount Anak Krakatau (Son of Krakatou - Krakatoa, the Father, was the major volcano that was one of the largest eruptions in history in the 1800’s) which we flew over on the way to Jakarta, erupted with a 50,000 foot smoke plume, causing a major air traffic jam for a couple of days. So, not much to tell about Jakarta other than plegm and mall walking...
We’ve heard really mixed reviews of Bali but decided to go anyway…mostly because it was an easy flight in the general direction to get to Australia, the next stop. In a stroke of bad decision making we decided to go to the Western side of Bali, close to the airport, for the first part of our stay. Partially because the Holiday Inn Resort was cheap and partially because we also decided to splurge and use some points on the opposite side of the island at a nice hotel, the Conrad. So we split the time and promptly regretted the call as soon as we got to the first hotel, as the beach was dirty and full of trash and layers of coral shards. The hotel was decent and it was an easy walk to get to the main beach and bar area, but it really seemed like a spring break party zone - not much different to Cancun, but with worse beaches. Also, lots of small children getting ready to head back to school, so not the idyllic setting we hoped for…and yet another example in the long line of me being a cheapskate and picking on price rather than location. Interestingly, this is the ONLY hotel we’ve ever stayed in that had an on-site tattoo parlor. Tattoos are big business in Bali - there are more tattoo shops than anywhere I’ve ever been and lots of face tattoos, also. On the positive side, we got to see some amazing sunsets from our balcony. And by the way, screaming kids are much easier to stomach when they do it in a different language or in an Australian accent.
Funny coincidence. We haven't talked to anyone from StL in a LONG time. One morning I was at breakfast and noticed a cute couple wearing Blues hats (StL's pro hockey team) and promptly accosted them. Turns out that Rich and Rita were on vacation, having both recently retired also. We suckered them into having dinner with us and had a wonderful time reminiscing about StL. It was wonderful getting to meet some new friends AND getting to talk about StL. It is definitely a SMALL world!
The 2nd week we spent on the opposite side of the peninsula, at a much nicer hotel with a much cleaner beach and one of the cooler pool complexes of any hotel we’ve stayed at. Most of the week was spent “convalescing” from the Jakarta smog - convalescing sounds like as good a description as any of “laying at a beach cabana listening to the waves”. The beach was nice and the sand sandy, but in all honesty, it was no nicer that the beaches in southern Mexico and definitely not as nice as Thai islands. We did pass some of the famous surfing beaches and they are truly stunning and looked every part of a movie set. The waves here looked a bit prohibitive for a family day at the beach, but they were beautiful. The people, as always, make the stay great, so we thoroughly enjoyed our time there, as everyone is so friendly, respectful and gracious. But again, I don’t see a need to return, unless there is a diving trip in the future or diverting to the north of the island, away from the heavy resorts.
I think the highlight for me was meeting a new friend, Ketut, a local tour driver and artist. A great friend, Sally Rose, referred us to Ketut and I should emphasize that, while his driving and tour guiding were excellent, his artwork was the real highlight for me. It’s a good thing that we aren’t buying souvenirs on this trip because I could have easily put his son through college by picking up some of his art. I suspect when we find firm ground we’ll be reaching back out to grab a couple of his paintings.
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