Categotry Archives: Travel
Kasongan Village
Kasongan Village is a place our tour guide was familiar with. On arrival we went wandering along the byways of the town, sometimes cutting through what I could swear were their equivalent of back yards. As we ran across people we would stop to talk. Although I’m sure many of those we visited have visited with tour groups before, who we encountered seemed entirely random.
13 Pictures from a Cyclo-Rickshaw
I considered calling this 13 pictures of a back side because I was at the end of the line, but decided I couldn’t really call a rice paddy a “back 40”. This was the trip from the glamorous country-side restaurant to Kasongan Village. 1.
Tea From a Tree
As I mentioned Thursday, I have some problems with drinking tea. It isn’t just the caffeine that will do me in, but that’s a big one. When I discovered a tea at a restaurant that I could drink, I got a little too excited. They passed around a little bowl holding the ingredients in the tea. It included things like ginger and cloves, a bit of sugar, and some tree bark. The only thing I couldn’t easily get my hands […]
Lunch On The Way to Kasongan Village
After flying from Jakarta to Yogjakarta, we took a bus straight to a restaurant that was situated across from a rice paddy. Although they had tables inside, everyone chose to eat at tables set up in front. Not just our group. Everyone. Our group happened to have over a dozen people, yet they managed to come up with a table we could all sit at. It was very elegantly appointed. This particular restaurant’s claim to fame is a serving style […]
Engrish
I still remember times in my youth when I went to places where I could not speak the language. Generally the places in question had to do with Spanish. I recall a certain feeling of helplessness that I overcame over the years. When I go abroad now, I kind of look for that feeling of helplessness. I’d like to test myself – see if I really have improved in my ability to get what I need in a place where […]
An Afternoon in Jakarta
After wandering around in a market, visiting a mosque, and talking to the local version of a relief society, we got in these tiny three wheeled cars and braved Jakarta’s traffic to go to a restaurant for lunch. This is a lot more daring than it sounds. Traffic in Jakarta is insane! Mind you I think traffic in a lot of places is nuts. Ulaan Battar comes to mind. Turns out Jakarta is far from the only city in Indonesia […]
A Morning in Jakarta
The tour I was on only gave us one full day in Jakarta. The national guide actually considered it a light day and mentioned consideration for our jet lag, but it seemed plenty full to me. We started off with a ride in the tour bus to a local market. I already told you all about that. I noticed that people tended to stare at us before, during, and after we passed. Yet I got the feeling we were hardly […]
13 Things That Didn’t Fit
I’m still working on my post about Jakarta. As I go through my notes, I’m finding a lot that won’t fit. 1. That’s a picture of a river we crossed in the bus. I think it gives a good idea of the skyline of Jakarta. But it doesn’t fit in the flow of my post, so out it went. 2. Fun fact. An Iman – Moslem spiritual leader – in the mosque we visited is elected to his position by […]
Religion in Indonesia
This was the most religion-oriented trip I’ve been on in a very long time. It’s not that the travel company focused on it. It’s that the country is very intense about religion. It’s the kind of place where “What is your religion?” tends to come up soon after “Hello.” Normally that kind of environment makes me uncomfortable. In this case, I just kind of fell into the groove and let it go. Not everyone in our group felt that way. […]
Mosquitoes in Indonesia
About a month before my trip I dutifully called the local health department’s travel nurse to make an appointment for whatever immunizations I might need. Turns out a month is not enough notice.
The Straw Hat
I am fairly proud of my ability to pack. I know how to reinforce things so they are not as vulnerable, and how to condense clothing so it takes up less space but doesn’t turn into a completely wrinkled mess. So when I bought the straw hat, I knew it was going to be a challenge to get it home, but I expected to be up to the task. First, I wore it a lot. For two thirds of the […]
13 Pictures from a Market
The very first attraction on my tour of Indonesia was a walk through a local market to a mosque in Jakarta. 1. The entrance to the area.
Traveling with the Lifestyle Balance Diet
Just because I was traveling didn’t mean I wasn’t supposed to continue with the Lifestyle Balance program. Luckily for me it just so happened that the regular meetings dropped from once a week to once a month by the time I left for Indonesia. I only missed one of them. As to everything else….
LAX
I suppose the place to start talking about my vacation is at the beginning. It didn’t go well. We arrived at the Salt Lake City airport in plenty of time. Unluckily, we made the mistake of using Delta’s Priority check in. We’d have been better off with the machines.
Parrot Sanctuary
I almost forgot about the bird sanctuary. It’s on Vancouver Island close to the butterfly sanctuary, but in every other was is it’s opposite.
