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| The last day of the challenge and we are so close to our goal of $2000! |
Friday, May 20, 2011
Day 5: Living below the line!
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| The night before we finish the challenge! We're only $268 away from our target! |
I made one last potato, lentil and carrot curry but due to having to rush to ensemble rehearsal, I ate rice pudding with half of a pear for dinner instead. As I was finishing the challenge on Friday at 3pm, I had left some oats for breakfast and decided would eat some of the lentil curry for lunch which meant I had leftover food from the challenge. This includes: half a cup of rice, two tins of tomatoes, two tins of beans and raw sugar. I feel that I should have given more of my rations to antman since I know that being a 6FT, 90kg giant, he was much more in need of food than I was.
This challenge has been a great eye-opener as to what living with food restrictions would be like. It was hard to process at times that although I had money in the bank, I still couldn't buy any of the foods I was craving, go to the dinners I was invited too or decline any offers from friends or vendors. I'm just so grateful that I did the challenge with some good friends and that my health kept me from feeling overly hungry.
Definitely looking forward to eating some cheese post 3pm and celebrating Mez's dinner with some Chinese hot pot! I think we might eat probably our week's budget of food a couple of times over but one thing I have noticed, my sense of smell for identifying foods has certainly been heightened after this week!
Cinta dan damai, Love and Peace,
Katrina
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Day 4: Living below the line
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| With only two days to go, the question still remains, can Team Hakuna Matata raise $2000? |
I wasn't feeling well enough to go to uni today, something I believe is unrelated to living below the line so am all nice and rugged up at home doing my uni work. I guess you could say guilt has motivated me slightly for not leaving home in what is now, two days.
I'm still amazed that donations are still trickling in despite their being only two days left of the challenge, or for me, until 3pm Friday. If we can't reach our target of $2000, I'll be so happy if we can at least reach $1500 by Friday. There is something truly satisfying about round numbers when fund raising!
The other team members of Hakuna Matata, well those based in Sydney, met up today to make our last community meal of Tomato and Tuna Pasta. I've been told that it is nice enough and to expect some for lunch tomorrow - delivered to me at work courtesy of Mez! I'm looking forward to eating some pasta but sadly sans cheese.
The challenge so far has made realise a few things:
- It is hard to be surrounded by the smells of delicious food that you are all of a sudden, unable to enjoy and buy. Especially if the food is free!
- That although the food may not be as tasty or as exciting as it normally is, there is such a relief to have the feeling of being full.
- Then there is also the challenge of planning meals ahead and making sure you have cooked enough food to bring with you throughout the day. The food we have doesn't really lend itself to snacking.
- It's also interesting that at the half-way point of the challenge, I thought I would be more hungrier or craving certain foods more. What I am craving is the freedom to be able to eat whatever I want, when I want too. Something I've never had to think too hard about before.
Cinta dan damai, Love and Peace,
Katrina
An update of our Progress as of Day 3 of Living Below the line!
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| Team Hakuna Matata has raised a phenomenal amount but still have until Friday 20th May to get to $2000! |
Day 3's meals!
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| Potato, carrot and lentil curry for dinner. Rice pudding with pears for dessert. The best part, there was enough left over to form meals for tomorrow! |
Monday, May 16, 2011
Day 2 and 3: Live below the line!
Hey everyone!
I woke up at 11:30am today so that means, yet again, I skipped breakfast. Oops. So a quick re-cap of Day 2 of Live Below the Line.
I awoke with the knowledge that I would be working from 10am-2pm, followed by some campaigning for Let's Go Munro for Union Board and then my Indonesian lecture at 4pm. I decided to eat the legume concoction for both lunch and dinner that day as I did not have much time to prepare any other meals. I also knew that Antman would be bringing out 75c packet cake mix made with olive oil and some milk to class at 4pm - that was going to be the highlight of my day!
Day 2 was a little tough as was not feeling the best health-wise and the result of this, was a bit grouchy at work. My spirits lifted after chatting to people on Eastern Avenue about the campaign or bumping into friends on campus. It didn't help there was a DELICIOUS cake sitting on our campaign desk but the knowledge of my cake's arrival at 4pm kept me from temptation. My Indonesian lecture was a test of concentration skills or in my case, lacking in concentration skills. I found that I could understand what the guest lecturer was saying but when it came to remembering and translating, I found it a little muddled. I'm sure my marks for that week's summary will be a little flaky.
Later that night, I went to an AMAZING gig of the Cat Empire at the Basement with a special guest appearance of James Morrison! It was so great to hear James Morrison play, he is such a genius and had the most amazing sound! They had the most amazing vibe and played a lot of their newer songs but still threw in some of my old favourites - Two Shoes, Misere.
It was a great gig but halfway through, as a result of being rather sick and in the first day of the challenge, I needed to sit down instead of grooving to the music. That was kind of lame but managed to get back on my feet for the last couple of songs. Such a good gig!
Overall survived Day 2 despite some hurdles of my usual routine and with a cold. So back to Day 3 of the challenge.
When I woke up, I decided I was going to make some pear and oat porridge as my brunch. I figured I needed some vitamins from the fruits and the oats to keep me feeling full. However, I remembered I still had one portion left of the legume concotion that has formed Sunday night's dinner, Monday's lunch and dinner. So I ate that instead since figured it was better to use up food I have had, rather than cook something. So behold, legume concoction formed 4 meals throughout the challenge! What a bargain!
As I'm writing this, I'm enjoying drinking hot water with 2 tsp of raw sugar - it's a nice reminder of tea! Though, I usually don't have sugar in my tea.
Dinner tonight will be some sort of potato and lentil curry and some pear rice pudding for dessert. I wish I had more spices to make the curry nicer but alas, salt, pepper and garam masala will have to suffice!
Hakuna Matata has reached $1385 towards our $2000 target. I hope we can get to our $2000 mark by the 20th May. If you would like to see our progress or even make a donation, please check out our website - www.livebelowtheline.org.au/hakunamatata
Cinta dan Damai, Love and Peace,
Katrina
I woke up at 11:30am today so that means, yet again, I skipped breakfast. Oops. So a quick re-cap of Day 2 of Live Below the Line.
I awoke with the knowledge that I would be working from 10am-2pm, followed by some campaigning for Let's Go Munro for Union Board and then my Indonesian lecture at 4pm. I decided to eat the legume concoction for both lunch and dinner that day as I did not have much time to prepare any other meals. I also knew that Antman would be bringing out 75c packet cake mix made with olive oil and some milk to class at 4pm - that was going to be the highlight of my day!
Day 2 was a little tough as was not feeling the best health-wise and the result of this, was a bit grouchy at work. My spirits lifted after chatting to people on Eastern Avenue about the campaign or bumping into friends on campus. It didn't help there was a DELICIOUS cake sitting on our campaign desk but the knowledge of my cake's arrival at 4pm kept me from temptation. My Indonesian lecture was a test of concentration skills or in my case, lacking in concentration skills. I found that I could understand what the guest lecturer was saying but when it came to remembering and translating, I found it a little muddled. I'm sure my marks for that week's summary will be a little flaky.
Later that night, I went to an AMAZING gig of the Cat Empire at the Basement with a special guest appearance of James Morrison! It was so great to hear James Morrison play, he is such a genius and had the most amazing sound! They had the most amazing vibe and played a lot of their newer songs but still threw in some of my old favourites - Two Shoes, Misere.
It was a great gig but halfway through, as a result of being rather sick and in the first day of the challenge, I needed to sit down instead of grooving to the music. That was kind of lame but managed to get back on my feet for the last couple of songs. Such a good gig!
Overall survived Day 2 despite some hurdles of my usual routine and with a cold. So back to Day 3 of the challenge.
When I woke up, I decided I was going to make some pear and oat porridge as my brunch. I figured I needed some vitamins from the fruits and the oats to keep me feeling full. However, I remembered I still had one portion left of the legume concotion that has formed Sunday night's dinner, Monday's lunch and dinner. So I ate that instead since figured it was better to use up food I have had, rather than cook something. So behold, legume concoction formed 4 meals throughout the challenge! What a bargain!
As I'm writing this, I'm enjoying drinking hot water with 2 tsp of raw sugar - it's a nice reminder of tea! Though, I usually don't have sugar in my tea.
Dinner tonight will be some sort of potato and lentil curry and some pear rice pudding for dessert. I wish I had more spices to make the curry nicer but alas, salt, pepper and garam masala will have to suffice!
Hakuna Matata has reached $1385 towards our $2000 target. I hope we can get to our $2000 mark by the 20th May. If you would like to see our progress or even make a donation, please check out our website - www.livebelowtheline.org.au/hakunamatata
Cinta dan Damai, Love and Peace,
Katrina
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Day 1: Shopping night and first LBL Cook-up!
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| What $40 will feed 4 people from Sunday 15th May - Friday 20th May. It would probably happily feed only 2 of us though. Talk about food for thought. |
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| Antman, Timmy, Mez and I enjoying our stew concotion of red kidney beans, tinned tomatoes, canneloni beans, rice, lentils, onion, garlic and garam masala... oh and 250g of rice! Delicious and moderately nutritious.. except that it might form not just our dinner for Sunday night but for a few more appearances throughout the week. We need to make this last. |
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| A concoction of legumes potato's and tinned tomatoes. This will be eaten on rice. Yeah, legume concoction on rice for as long as we can get by - Antman |
It's already starting to dawn on me the issues of food security that our impoverished fellow man and women have to face each day. It's also a strange feeling of rationalising my meals, rather then my usual motto of "Live to Eat, not eat to Live" - a sentiment I share with my friend Steph whom is taking up the challenge for an ENTIRE MONTH!
I am loving the fact that we can have as many cups of warm water and cold water but it is no substitute for tea. I would really love some tea but we couldn't afford such a luxury for the week.
I'm amazed that as a group, we have raised already $1295 towards the Global Poverty Project to help fund education programs in Papua New Guinea.
Keep tuned and don't forget to check out www.livebelowtheline.org.au/hakunamatata
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Day 7: 46% down, only 54% to go!
Hey everyone!
Team Hakuna Matata has had a phenomenal week of collecting donations from our awesome friends and families! We've also had two new members to the team - Lana and Timmy. It's great to see that not only do we have a Sydney and Melbourne faction but we've also got 4 of us who studied together in Jogja, Indonesia on the team!
We're hoping to reach our target of $1000 before May, 20th as it would be so great to reach our target, especially whilst undertaking the challenge.
Next Sunday, Team Hakuna Matata will be shopping with our individual $10 budget of food for the week and since we are a team, we can put our money or ingredients together to cook some meagre meals!
Photos will be uploaded of our Sunday cooking adventure!
Thank you again to all of those who have supported this fantastic cause!
Cinta dan damai, Love and Peace,
Kat
Team Hakuna Matata has had a phenomenal week of collecting donations from our awesome friends and families! We've also had two new members to the team - Lana and Timmy. It's great to see that not only do we have a Sydney and Melbourne faction but we've also got 4 of us who studied together in Jogja, Indonesia on the team!
We're hoping to reach our target of $1000 before May, 20th as it would be so great to reach our target, especially whilst undertaking the challenge.
Next Sunday, Team Hakuna Matata will be shopping with our individual $10 budget of food for the week and since we are a team, we can put our money or ingredients together to cook some meagre meals!
Photos will be uploaded of our Sunday cooking adventure!
Thank you again to all of those who have supported this fantastic cause!
Cinta dan damai, Love and Peace,
Kat
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| Day 7 - we're 46% of the way to our $1000 target. Only one week until we begin to live below the line! |
Monday, May 2, 2011
18% down, 82% to go!
Hey everyone!
Team Hakuna Matata is in Day 2 of promoting that we will be living below the line during 16th-20th May. We're stoked to see that our friend and families think this is worth supporting and have already raised $180 towards our $1000 target! Truly amazed by the generosity!
Our team motto, is the Swahili phrase made famous by the Lion King but we like to mix it up with the Javanese version - ora apa apa. As Antman and I are ex-Jogjkartans, we love to govern life with no worries but are passionate to enhance the lives of others though Education. We've both lived in Jogjakarta, Indonesia for 6months where we, although at different times, were volunteer P.E teachers for a community school, SALAM. We saw first hand how schools can be improved by training local teachers is something that worth supporting, as it's one way to the break the poverty cycle and empower local people.
Education is a gift and our donations will go towards the Global Poverty Project to keep giving the life-long gift of education.
Please check out our page - www.livebelowtheline.org.au/hakunamatata and if financially able, please donate :)
For everyone taking on the challenge - Stay strong and know that your symbolic gesture sets you apart from the status quo.
Now it's time to get creative with our $2 a day for food!
Cinta dan damai, Love and Peace,
Katrina
Team Hakuna Matata is in Day 2 of promoting that we will be living below the line during 16th-20th May. We're stoked to see that our friend and families think this is worth supporting and have already raised $180 towards our $1000 target! Truly amazed by the generosity!
Our team motto, is the Swahili phrase made famous by the Lion King but we like to mix it up with the Javanese version - ora apa apa. As Antman and I are ex-Jogjkartans, we love to govern life with no worries but are passionate to enhance the lives of others though Education. We've both lived in Jogjakarta, Indonesia for 6months where we, although at different times, were volunteer P.E teachers for a community school, SALAM. We saw first hand how schools can be improved by training local teachers is something that worth supporting, as it's one way to the break the poverty cycle and empower local people.
Education is a gift and our donations will go towards the Global Poverty Project to keep giving the life-long gift of education.
Please check out our page - www.livebelowtheline.org.au/hakunamatata and if financially able, please donate :)
For everyone taking on the challenge - Stay strong and know that your symbolic gesture sets you apart from the status quo.
Now it's time to get creative with our $2 a day for food!
Cinta dan damai, Love and Peace,
Katrina
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| Day 2: May 3, 2011 18% Achieved |
16% in one day, only 84% to go!
Hey everyone!
It's been Day 1 of promoting that Team Hakuna Matata will be living below the line come 16th-20th May and we've already raised $155 towards our $1000 target! That's only from the generous donations from Antman's and I's family and friends - So delighted by the speedy generosity!
If you can donate to us, please check out www.livebelowtheline.org.au/hakunamatata
Besides, the Lion King made it a hit phrase and Swahili couldn't say it any better - no worries! Or as us Javanese-favouring folk too say - ora apa-apa!
It's been Day 1 of promoting that Team Hakuna Matata will be living below the line come 16th-20th May and we've already raised $155 towards our $1000 target! That's only from the generous donations from Antman's and I's family and friends - So delighted by the speedy generosity!
If you can donate to us, please check out www.livebelowtheline.org.au/hakunamatata
Besides, the Lion King made it a hit phrase and Swahili couldn't say it any better - no worries! Or as us Javanese-favouring folk too say - ora apa-apa!
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| Day 1: May 2nd, 2011 Achieved 16% of our target! |
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Live below the line - Tackling poverty one bite at a time!
Hey everyone!
So I still haven't gotten around to posting my last four chapters of my Indonesian adventure but it's two weeks to go until I start a new adventure - Oaktree Foundation's "Live below the line"!
From the 16th May - 20th May, myself and my friend's will be aiming to raise $1000 as Team Hakuna Matata!
Please help us by donating to our team page - www.livebelowtheline.org.au/hakunamatata
So you might be wondering, what on Earth it means to live below the line? Well for that one week in May, we each will only be eating as much food as we can buy for $2 each day. So that means no coffee. No cheese (a pretty big deal for me, just ask me about the time I was so ill that I had to go Vegan for a month after catching some virus that affected my liver from Kalimantan, the Indo part of Borneo).
My team, Hakuna Matata are aiming to raise $1000 and awareness for the 1.4 billion people who have to live like this every day - and who have to make $2 cover a lot more than food!Please donate to support me, and your dontations will be donated to empower sustainable development in Papua New Guinea in training local people to become teachers in their community. Education is so critical and something I truly believe in, especially as a University student.
Please dig deep and remember, this week is tackling poverty one bite at a time!
I'll be keeping a blog of our journey, particularly our food planning for the week! Hello Lentils, rice and pasta! and maybe goodbye to nutrition for the week.
This is Katrina signing out!
So I still haven't gotten around to posting my last four chapters of my Indonesian adventure but it's two weeks to go until I start a new adventure - Oaktree Foundation's "Live below the line"!
From the 16th May - 20th May, myself and my friend's will be aiming to raise $1000 as Team Hakuna Matata!
Please help us by donating to our team page - www.livebelowtheline.org.au/hakunamatata
So you might be wondering, what on Earth it means to live below the line? Well for that one week in May, we each will only be eating as much food as we can buy for $2 each day. So that means no coffee. No cheese (a pretty big deal for me, just ask me about the time I was so ill that I had to go Vegan for a month after catching some virus that affected my liver from Kalimantan, the Indo part of Borneo).
My team, Hakuna Matata are aiming to raise $1000 and awareness for the 1.4 billion people who have to live like this every day - and who have to make $2 cover a lot more than food!Please donate to support me, and your dontations will be donated to empower sustainable development in Papua New Guinea in training local people to become teachers in their community. Education is so critical and something I truly believe in, especially as a University student.
Please dig deep and remember, this week is tackling poverty one bite at a time!
I'll be keeping a blog of our journey, particularly our food planning for the week! Hello Lentils, rice and pasta! and maybe goodbye to nutrition for the week.
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| Do you think you have what it takes to live on $2 per day? If not, sponsor us - www.livebelowtheline.org.au/hakunamatata! |
This is Katrina signing out!
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
That's a wrap for FIB!
It's 1:19am and I've just completed my speech for my mata kuliah Sejarah Indonesia. This means, until my exam for this subject on the 6th of January, 2011, 3/4 classes in FIB ( Falkutas Ilmu Budaya) are officially finished! Yay!
The past two weeks have been absolutely chaotic! I've had the opportunity to visit Dieng Plateau, attend a World Class Conference free of charge (Thanks to ACICIS) called WISDOM, 5-8th December, performed in PSM UGM Konser Kecil, a photography excursion using an analogue camera with black and white film, 3 final exams in a row: Terjemahan Inggris - Indonesia, Karawitan dan Basa Jawa and Friday officially marks the end of INCULS(Indonesian Culture and Language Services), where I'll be the MC of the Closing Ceremony and then the ACICIS Christmas/Farewell Party. So naturally, I've been keeping out of trouble but it is definitely a lot more difficult to juggle a few commitments in a day here, which has made me realise I need to stop over-committing myself. Who would have thought I would FINALLY click onto this apparently well-known fact of life?
I'm a little sad to say that my time as an FIB student is coming to a close, especially since that faculty was home to my favourite subject here - Basa Jawa! Or to say in Javanese, kula remen sanget sinau basa Jawa wonten ing UGM!
It's also hard to believe that it is less than 10 days to Christmas and this also means that I'll be heading to Bali soon to meet up with Ari, Mez and my mum - very excited! A whole group of us ACICIS kids will be heading to Bali too so I think it is safe to say, it will be an awesome Christmas/New Years!
So here are a few snapshots of the things that have been keeping me busy. Enjoy!
The past two weeks have been absolutely chaotic! I've had the opportunity to visit Dieng Plateau, attend a World Class Conference free of charge (Thanks to ACICIS) called WISDOM, 5-8th December, performed in PSM UGM Konser Kecil, a photography excursion using an analogue camera with black and white film, 3 final exams in a row: Terjemahan Inggris - Indonesia, Karawitan dan Basa Jawa and Friday officially marks the end of INCULS(Indonesian Culture and Language Services), where I'll be the MC of the Closing Ceremony and then the ACICIS Christmas/Farewell Party. So naturally, I've been keeping out of trouble but it is definitely a lot more difficult to juggle a few commitments in a day here, which has made me realise I need to stop over-committing myself. Who would have thought I would FINALLY click onto this apparently well-known fact of life?
I'm a little sad to say that my time as an FIB student is coming to a close, especially since that faculty was home to my favourite subject here - Basa Jawa! Or to say in Javanese, kula remen sanget sinau basa Jawa wonten ing UGM!
It's also hard to believe that it is less than 10 days to Christmas and this also means that I'll be heading to Bali soon to meet up with Ari, Mez and my mum - very excited! A whole group of us ACICIS kids will be heading to Bali too so I think it is safe to say, it will be an awesome Christmas/New Years!
So here are a few snapshots of the things that have been keeping me busy. Enjoy!
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| Danau Warna di Dieng Plateau on a rainy day! |
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| My photo-hunting partner in crime - Dita! My first attempt at capturing the beauty of film. |
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| A silhouette captured at Taman Sari. Despite the beauty of the shadows, I can't help but laugh at how defined my nose is! |
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| The banner at my first and last choir concert with PSM UGM! |
Thursday, December 2, 2010
A few pictures to fill the blanks!
Hey all!
So I'm still being super slack in posting a decent length entry. I should tell you all about: a fantastic 21st spent in both Singapore and Bali, returning home to Jogja with my family, going to Semarang for a night and staying at the very posh Novotel, visiting the Royal Cemetary at Imogiri, teaching some English at an evacuation centre, joining and recording with the band - Jogaroos! Or perhaps, moving into a new home and being fed various Indonesian cakes by my Ibu Kos, making traditional dishes for Idul Adha with my Pencak Silat friends and the final month of semester at UGM :(. I also should fill in the missing chunk of my life that includes Pencak Silat, Choir, Krakal Beach, Pagar Alam and Palembang, Sumatra, Dimas, Ina's and Putri's graduation and the multitude of other things that seem to be lost in time!
I'll post up some pictures since a picture is worth a thousand words, right?
ACICIS Semester 31 + some friends - the male ACICIS students at Imogiri, the royal cemetary. We are all wearing traditional Javanese dress. 27th November, 2010
The close to 400+ stairs we had to climb to reach the top of the entrance of the cemetery. We were then told the cemetery was closed. Sigh. 27th November, 2010
Alex and Fikri - Contenders for Javanese traditional dress models of the year? 27th November, 2010
Dad eating some delicious Roti Canai in Little India, Singapore. 7th November, 2010
Singapore City by night! Glen, Tude, Alit and I rode the Singapore Flyer - was a perfect way to see Singapore city in her glory. 8th November, 2010
Still the same old Katrina! I might of just turned 21 but I'm still really good at losing things! This instance, my ring fell into the grates of a water fountain on Clarke Quay. 9th November, 2010
So there's a teaser of what's to be told in my next post or if I'm super slack still, an a-bridged version of the tales of Katrina. As I am now in my last few weeks of studying here at UGM, Yogyakarta, I already know that it is going to be so difficult to leave but I am looking forward to doing some travel in the other islands of Indonesia :)
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Made it out of Jogja. Next stop, Surabaya-Jakarta-Singapore!
Heya!
So perhaps blogging of my hope to still arrive in Singapore today may have slightly jinxed my flight to be cancelled almost an hour after posting. Now I know from my years of studying Psychology that correlation does necessarily equate to causation but I'd rather have my crazy superstition be responsible for Jogja's airport to be closed down, rather than it's current precautionary action because of an extremely active and cranky volcano. I often like to imagine that Gunung Merapi is much like a toddler having a tantrum; throwing around molten lava, rocks, burping hot gas, grumbling over not getting that new toy and asking her playmate, Gunung Anak Krakautau to come play in the only way that volcanoes know how - in eruptions!
Perhaps my imagination is a little active at this point of time after a 7hr drive from Jogjakarta - Surabaya? Yes? No?
So what has happened in the past 24hrs to find me here in Surabaya? Well, it all started at 5pm yesterday afternoon when I received a text message from Air Asia stating that my flight had been cancelled.
Every traveller’s favourite message! Photo: Katrina, iPhone
So with a heavy heart, a sore-ear after trying to communicate with my family in Australia and Jakarta to come up with an alternative plan, I was pretty set on giving up and staying in Jogja. You could even say my heart was heavier with guilt more than sadness because as much I wanted to see my family and spend my 21st with them, a greater part wanted to stay in Jogja to be some sort of use to aid the current situation with Merapi.
Just as all hope was soon lost, I did what every person addicted to notion of social-networking, I hopped on facebook to see what everyone else was doing, since I decided I was pretty much at a lost as to what I needed to be doing. What happened next was as if the social-networking Gods were praising my insatiable curiousity or probably more so addiction. My dear, life-saving friend Sophie had posted up a message to see if anyone wanted to get travel(kind of like hiring a private mini-van) to Surabaya for Saturday morning. This was my window of opportunity to try to get to Singapore!
After Sophie’s 8 hour negotiation with a driver, me resorting to nursing my nerves over dinner at Special Sambal with Sam (totally the person I wanted to see in my frazzled state; Sam’s one of those one-of-kind guys who seems to be able to make up the funniest jokes or provide the necessary comic relief at any time of the day) - we had found a car to take us to Surabaya! The even better part of the story was that we were leaving that night! Hello to beating traffic and getting a 7 hour snooze to the east side of Java!
By 7:15am this morning, one minute before the time I had predicted that we would arrive in Surabaya, our kind driver dropped us all at the airport. We were a funny group squashed into a mammoth of a people mover – Aussies, Dutch, Austrians,Germans, back-packs and surfboards all trying to get to Bali, Singapore, Batam or Surabaya.
I raced to the Lion Air counter with Thomas, my Austrian friend, to try to get on an 8am flight to Jakarta in order to prevent forfeiting the flight I had purchased the night before. Unfortunately, the flight was already full but I was able to buy a ticket to Singapore from Surabaya that will be leaving in the next 4 hours. Of course, another $100AUD later! Thomas sadly had to fork out more money too to get his flight since the promo fairs were sold out and he already left a ticket behind in Jogja with the same fate of mine.
We’re all wondering how friendly our travel insurance is planning to be since we aren’t entirely sure were natural disaster falls into our policies. How often does an angry toddler-like volcano choose to erupt in a state this devastating since 1870?
So now I write to you with hope replenished, a lighter heart and excitement to see all my family in Singapore. Although my body has left Jogja physically, my thoughts are still and will always be with those left behind in Jogja. I am lucky because I am able to leave Jogja and see my family as the people we only on Tuesday distributed aid to, are now one of the thousands currently taking shelter in a Stadium only 20km away from Merapi with no news as to when her activity will return to her normal state.
Just one of the many cars covered in Ash – the state of Jogja the day I drove out. Eeerie like snow isn’t it? Photo: Katrina, iPhone
Let’s hope for the sake of Jogjakarta and her people, the toddler tyrant that is Gunung Merapi, soon has what she wants to settle her temper. I may return to Jogja this coming Wednesday but that still is pending on whether or not the airport will be re-opening her tarmac. I’m hoping so as there is nothing more I’d rather be doing than lending a helping hand.
Over and out but safe as always x
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Don't eat the yellow snow or in Jogja's case, don't eat the ash.
Heya!
So once again, Jogja finds herself covered in a blanket of ash-like snow and us Jogja folk are donning some seriously sexy face masks. Unfortunately early this morning, Gunung Merapi had her biggest yet eruption which has resulted in lava flowing to about 13km from the centre. Bad news for the refugees who had only yesterday been evacuated to a camp about 15km. Since then, the refugees have since been moved to 20km away from Merapi at the Ring Road Utara, which is about less than 5km from my kos has been closed off to aid evacuation operations. So all and all, living in generally exciting, dusty and an ever-increasing natural disaster. On a more positive note, we are all okay here in Jogja but most of us are looking to seek for the beach, Bali, Jakarta or in my case, Singapore to escape the ash, especially since we all have the week off from uni due to the ash and assist evacuation/recovery up north.
It's been pretty cool leaving here in Jogja at the moment since there have been plenty of opportunities to assist as a volunteer to help out with the current situation at Merapi. Two of my friends, Hari and Lana, set-up an expedition to deliver needed supplies to Merapi on Tuesday, 2nd November with money donated from friends, family and other-interested folk from Australia, Indonesia and ex-ACICIS students too. Together, a total of 10 million rupiah was raised which went to buying things like water, rice, medicines, toys, baby clothes and supplies, detergent, milk and other things to immediately assist an entire refugee camp up at Kinaharjo. I was extremely lucky to help out in the shopping of all these items and head up the camp to distribute them up. It was amazing to see that despite enduring something so traumatic and harrowing, we were still greeted with smiles, children learning some songs and such gratitude for helping out in such a small way. Truly magical really.
Lana and Fajar un-packing the ute filled with supplies for refugees of Merapi. Photo:Hari Lodwick
Everyone happily drinking milk after distributing the supplies to the camp at Kinaharjo. Photo: Hari Lodwick
Last night, Fickri had organised a really cool opportunity for us ACICIS kids to get on the local radio - Geronimo 106.1FM to have a chat about what it is like to be an ACICIS kids, our funny moments in Indonesia and our views on the current situation of Merapi. Oh and of course, they let us sing on the radio! It was a fun little hour of talking about experiences as international students in Indonesia, our interest for studying here, confessing our love for Jogja but most importantly, a way to broadcast our concerns for the current situation of Merapi and tell our story of helping in any way possible with delivering some much needed supplies to a refugee camp in Kinaharjo and the perils of not being able to get to a second camp but only a distribution point of Aid. Experiences like these are just one of the great aspects of living in Jogjakarta since there are always unique and unusual experiences that are hard to come by back home - whether they be good or bad!
Hari, Lana and I - happy little ACICIS vegemites on the air on Geronimo 106.1FM! Photo: Fickry Adequate
Us little vegemites wouldn't be anywhere without Fickri - Thanks for the opportunity! Photo: Fickry Adequate
There are ever-increasing opportunities other to get involved in assisting the refugees and hopefully, there will also be long-term management of these large-scale disasters. It's something I'm definitely keen to look into once I'm back from Singapore - if I get there. I'm looking forward to heading to Singapore to meet me Mum, Dad, Glen and my family in Jakarta, Tante, Tuaji Bagus, Tude and Alit! It's looking to be a crazy family holiday in a different part of the world - exciting!
So yes, I've yet to fulfill my promise of my other adventures and pictures but something to come - most likely in my transit to Singapore tomorrow morning! Hopefully by tomorrow the airport might not be grounded or too massive delays but must wait and see. But of course, more importantly, hopefully this ordeal will come to end so Jawa Tengah and her people can have a chance to recover, as well as Indonesia after a ridiculous natural disaster week.
Thinking of all the families and friends out there who are suffering due to any of the natural disasters in this terrifyingly beautiful part of the world.
Over and out but as always, safe x
So once again, Jogja finds herself covered in a blanket of ash-like snow and us Jogja folk are donning some seriously sexy face masks. Unfortunately early this morning, Gunung Merapi had her biggest yet eruption which has resulted in lava flowing to about 13km from the centre. Bad news for the refugees who had only yesterday been evacuated to a camp about 15km. Since then, the refugees have since been moved to 20km away from Merapi at the Ring Road Utara, which is about less than 5km from my kos has been closed off to aid evacuation operations. So all and all, living in generally exciting, dusty and an ever-increasing natural disaster. On a more positive note, we are all okay here in Jogja but most of us are looking to seek for the beach, Bali, Jakarta or in my case, Singapore to escape the ash, especially since we all have the week off from uni due to the ash and assist evacuation/recovery up north.
It's been pretty cool leaving here in Jogja at the moment since there have been plenty of opportunities to assist as a volunteer to help out with the current situation at Merapi. Two of my friends, Hari and Lana, set-up an expedition to deliver needed supplies to Merapi on Tuesday, 2nd November with money donated from friends, family and other-interested folk from Australia, Indonesia and ex-ACICIS students too. Together, a total of 10 million rupiah was raised which went to buying things like water, rice, medicines, toys, baby clothes and supplies, detergent, milk and other things to immediately assist an entire refugee camp up at Kinaharjo. I was extremely lucky to help out in the shopping of all these items and head up the camp to distribute them up. It was amazing to see that despite enduring something so traumatic and harrowing, we were still greeted with smiles, children learning some songs and such gratitude for helping out in such a small way. Truly magical really.
Lana and Fajar un-packing the ute filled with supplies for refugees of Merapi. Photo:Hari Lodwick
Everyone happily drinking milk after distributing the supplies to the camp at Kinaharjo. Photo: Hari LodwickLast night, Fickri had organised a really cool opportunity for us ACICIS kids to get on the local radio - Geronimo 106.1FM to have a chat about what it is like to be an ACICIS kids, our funny moments in Indonesia and our views on the current situation of Merapi. Oh and of course, they let us sing on the radio! It was a fun little hour of talking about experiences as international students in Indonesia, our interest for studying here, confessing our love for Jogja but most importantly, a way to broadcast our concerns for the current situation of Merapi and tell our story of helping in any way possible with delivering some much needed supplies to a refugee camp in Kinaharjo and the perils of not being able to get to a second camp but only a distribution point of Aid. Experiences like these are just one of the great aspects of living in Jogjakarta since there are always unique and unusual experiences that are hard to come by back home - whether they be good or bad!
Hari, Lana and I - happy little ACICIS vegemites on the air on Geronimo 106.1FM! Photo: Fickry Adequate
Us little vegemites wouldn't be anywhere without Fickri - Thanks for the opportunity! Photo: Fickry AdequateThere are ever-increasing opportunities other to get involved in assisting the refugees and hopefully, there will also be long-term management of these large-scale disasters. It's something I'm definitely keen to look into once I'm back from Singapore - if I get there. I'm looking forward to heading to Singapore to meet me Mum, Dad, Glen and my family in Jakarta, Tante, Tuaji Bagus, Tude and Alit! It's looking to be a crazy family holiday in a different part of the world - exciting!
So yes, I've yet to fulfill my promise of my other adventures and pictures but something to come - most likely in my transit to Singapore tomorrow morning! Hopefully by tomorrow the airport might not be grounded or too massive delays but must wait and see. But of course, more importantly, hopefully this ordeal will come to end so Jawa Tengah and her people can have a chance to recover, as well as Indonesia after a ridiculous natural disaster week.
Thinking of all the families and friends out there who are suffering due to any of the natural disasters in this terrifyingly beautiful part of the world.
Over and out but as always, safe x
Sunday, October 31, 2010
It's been over a month... Apologies and a call for Donations to help Merapi's victims
Hello! So it's been close to a month without a peep from me - I am still alive, amidst all of Indonesia's natural disasters! It's been a very tragic week for Indonesia ranging from earthquakes or gempa bumi, tusnami, letusan Gunung Merapi dan Gunung Anak Krakatau or the eruptions from Mount Merapi, Central Java and Mount Krakatau Jr, Sumatra.
These two pictures were taken by my friend Matt Burgess and they show the devastation of Merapi's sadly, numerous eruptions. To see more of his photos, check them out on BBConline - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11657801. It's very exciting having his work published worldwide!
The first image is what the streets of Jogja looked like from Saturday morning, 1am. The volcanic ash had managed to reach as far as 38km away from the actual eruption thus creating a somewhat feeling of falling snow in Jogja. It was incredibly eerie - it made a lot of us wonder whether or not the Apocalypse was nigh!
This photograph is the area about 8km away from the initial eruption, 26th October, 2010. The surrounding area was completely destroyed by clouds of hot ash, hot gases and the occurrence of molten mud and rock. About 38 people have sadly been killed by the eruptions of Gunung Merapi and about 50,000 people have had to be evacuated from their homes which are within the 10km radius of Indonesia's most active volcano. A lot of cows and other animals have been petrified in the natural disaster too but true to the Indonesian spirit, so many people have begun distributing aid, assisting the displayed people and trying to rescue as many people as possible.
Rest assured, although I am in no danger in Yogyakarta, it's been a great opportunity to begin plans to assist the displaced people from Gunung Merap's eruptions. On Friday 29th-30th October, Gadjah Mada hosted their annual GamaFest 2010 - A display of international culture, food and the Gelanggang Mahasiswa Expo.
So what did that mean for us Aussies/ACICIS students? We were inivited/conscripted into creating a 'uniquely' Australian performance and selling traditional foods of the land Down Under. All in 4 days. Oh Indonesia, how you make last-minute plans an art form. So I managed to rope Yasmin (officially adopted as Australian despite being a Brit) into performing 'Waltzing Matilda' by ukelele with us singing, Sam on the didgeridoo making the sounds of a Bule riding a motobike in Indo, before inviting three brave Indonesians to try and eat as many Weetbix as they could within 90 seconds. Despite the simplicity of our performance - the crowd loved our performance, especially the zinc we wore proudly on our noses and cheeks and the hilarity of the revolted looks on the Indonesian's faces as they ate ultimately dry weetbix.
Now, you are probably wondering how making dicks of ourselves on stage is relating to helping the victims of Merapi, right? Well, the following Saturday, despite the volcanic ash that covered Yogya in an eerie-like snow, our next challenge of GamaFest2010 was to create enough Australian food for 200pax. So of course, no Aussie menu is complete without having a vegemite sandwich, damper with strawberry jam (since honey was too expensive) and a non-alcoholic tequila sunrise (yes, not particularly Australian sans alcohol). After a struggle of waking up to start preparing food and decorations at 10am at ACICIS house, we managed to decorate our stall, sell some mediocre but well-received food and raised 320,000 IDR($40) for the victims of Merapi. I know $40 seems like a meagre amount but considering you can buy a decent meal for about 50c-$1AUD - a little goes a long way!
Mas Phil manning the Aussie stall complete with our flag, little koalas, vegemite sanga's, damper, a flopped Australian tourism campaign slogan and neighbours with various countries around the globe with much better tasting food than us! Thanks to Matt again for the photo!
It was an extremely successful day of selling and trying different food, as well as most stalls donating their takings of the day towards helping buy supplies for the victims of Merapi. Currently ACICIS is also putting together a drive for necessary supplies to Merapi like blankets, nappies, sarongs, non-perishable food, clean water, medical supplies and face masks so for those who want to donate from home - please contact me via katrina.steedman@gmail.com or alternative join the ACICIS facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=158804084159330&index=1
So that's my current mission, alongside my final two mid-semester exams this week! Please help out in anyway you can because every little bit does go a long way in this country :)
Promise to update the past month as there is still to come: My week in South Sumatra - Pagar Alam + Palembang, PSM UGM Choir audition, Perisai Diri Pencak Silat, Yasmin's 22nd birthday Jogya style, the European 80's party and nightclubbing throughout Jogya, Strong winds, black outs, no water - oh my! As well as my account of my Journey to Kalisuci and Gunung Kidul for caving and Pantai Krakal!
Oh, I've also moved out of my Kos Waswan Way, Deresan - tear but have find a very happy new home in Gang Jeruk No. 3, Pogung Baru! Pictures of the move out and the move in to come... gosh, I seem to be making a lot of promises that I have yet to deliver... Becoming more Indonesian; always something to do for tomorrow!
x
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
A very overdue blog post, that will lead to more blog posts!
Wow, I do apologise at how slack I've been at blogging! It's nearly two weeks since my lost post! I guess you could say they have been action-packed or I'm trying to get over my addiction...?
As it has been quite some time, I've had to refer to notes in my diary to be able to construct this post so things may not be a true representation of the actual time frame! I'll divide the past two weeks into three small blogs and put lots of fun pictures up :)... Hmm, that reminds me, I still need to get some photos uploaded onto facebook for anyone out there who has me on facebook! So slack!
So let's go back two weeks shall we! Alex and I decided that as
we have Mondays free, we would spend the day being all rajin or diligent, doing some homework/bludging free wif-fi/eating lunch together. As we were ordering, my friend Fajar sent me a message saying that he would like to take Alex and I to watch the sunset at Bukit Bintang or Star Hill. Naturally, I jumped at the opportunity to be taken somewhere within Jogya that I hadn't been before and with good company, how can you refuse?
So Fajar met us at Foodfezt with his friend Adi and we were off on the back of their motorbikes for about a 40min-1hr journey to the East of Jogyakarta. Well, it was only that quick since the boys were zooming along the streets which was fun until we had to turn corners and or approaching the inclining hill! We arrived safely of course, thanks to their expertisé haha!
A picture of Adi and Fajar guilty as charged for being speed fiends! Afraid they don't look too remorseful!
The four of us sat on a hill-top lesehan and ordered some teh jahe or Ginger tea - sooo yummy! Very addictive and really warms you up. We just chatted, shared some jokes, laughed at each other's attempts at English or Indonesian whilst the sun began to set. It was a spectacular sunset despite some cloud but the real beauty was at night-fall since the lights of Jogya looked like stars. It was easy to see how Bukit Bintang received it's name!
The pictures do not truly capture the beauty of Jogya from Bukit Bintang but it's a nice attempt!
Our other friends then invited us to Nanamia's, a very delicious woodfire pizza restaurant. Us, some other Aussies, some Indo's and some Europeans all dined on a selection of pizzas which were reminiscent of home. Very tasty! The next stop of the night was the free Monday Jazz concert outside Kompas. This has definitely become a regular haunt for some of us ACICIS students as it's very cool to watch some local Jogya musicians jam together with a mixture of jazz standards, as well as some cool fusion jazz. Also, one of the cool things is you get to sit on bamboo mats - I really am becoming fond of bamboo mats!
Something else that is becoming routine here for me in Jogya is going to the gym! Alex, Steph and I decided to become members of Jogyakarta Plaza Hotel since they have a very swank gym, a pool, morning and afternoon classes and probably the best part of the deal - a hot shower! We decided that we should try every class they have on offer as a way to gauge what works and what doesn't, as well as the fact we were beginning to feel a little too sluggish in our very cruisy lifestyle!
First up was Classic Aerobics! We arrived on Monday morning at 7am, a time that has been foreign to us for quite sometime, to only be greeted by blaring 80's electro music. Always fun right? To top things off, our instructor soon arrived in only a bikini top and bottom with a little skirt in bright yellow - it was as if we had fallen back into the 80's! Little disappointed at the lack of leg warmers but the pace of the class and calibre of the routine certainly made up for it!
After our hour of twirling, punching, grape-vining, marching on the spot, the class was over with a quick cool-down and no longer was our instructor making strange noises with her commands. It was sort of the love child between a seagull and a monkey. Very odd!
Since that Monday, I've indulged in many luxurious hot showers since most of our kos's here only have cold water, Body language, Taebo and have plans to try the step class. I think I'm a keeper to the gym and hopefully in 4 months time, I'll be super aerobics lady as currently I'm much like my highschool counter-part - Captain Unco!
In my next blog: PSM UGM Choir audition, Perisai Diri Pencak Silat, Yasmin's 22nd birthday Jogya style, the European 80's party and nightclubbing throughout Jogya, Strong winds, black outs, no water - oh my!
This will then be followed by an account of my Journey to Kalisuci and Gunung Kidul for caving and Pantai Krakal!
Stay tuned :)
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Mudik'ng to Bekasi and my 40th day in Indonesia!
Today marks my 40th day in Indonesia. That's exactly 10 days past a normal tourist VISA which confirms the fact that I'm not a tourist but indeed, a temporary citizen of the country. I suppose you can say that it's finally settling in that I am here to stay yet, each of these 40 days have already started to blend into one another. I never thought that I would start thinking - What did I do yesterday? A remarkable change for someone who has lived so vigilantly by a diary for the past three years.
Alas, enough of my internal dialogue and epiphanies, time to move on to my recent adventure in Bekasi and brief stop in Bandung, West Java.
Sam, Timmy, Steph and I managed to score really cheap tickets with Garuda to Jakarta over Idul Fitri/Lebaran/End of Ramadan. It worked out be about $100 return and also meant free food! That clearly is the most important part of the tale, not the fact that we were flying with the now-safe again company, extra baggage allowance or actually having a flight fly on time. Of course, the food wasn't free but it was nice change to be given food unlike my usual budget airline flying. We arrived in Jakarta safely, despite the fact that I have never been so afraid of a take-off in my life. It was a really wet, drizzly day so I think the take-off was a wee bit faster than I'm comfortable. I don't think my occasional yelps during turbulence added to the ambience of the rather quiet and rather empty plane despite it being one of the biggest mass migration of people the world sees each year. Timmy and I were greeted by Tude, my distant cousin and good family friend. He and his girlfriend treated us to dinner and we were soon off to Bekasi.
It was so odd seeing the highways and streets of Jakarta so quiet and empty; quite a shell of it's usual self to be honest. As we left on September 8th, most Indonesians would have already begun their journeys to their hometowns or at least on transit hence Jakarta being so quiet. Tim and I soon arrived at Tude's house and Tim was warmly greeted by their dog, Klewan whilst he sniffed at me hesitantly. Tude and Tim bought us each a longneck of Bintang which sparked conversation until the wee morning as sadly, the call for Sahur marked that we had been up far too long although, my aunt had not come home yet as she was still on call delivering two new babies into the world. Unlike Christmas back home, Ramadan changes each year due to the calendar they use so those children may not always have their birthday during Ramadan. Wonder what it would like to have a birthday during ramadan. I imagine eating would be even more exciting because you would probably be not only eating delicious food but also made to wait the whole day until you were allowed to eat cake!
After a slow start to day, it was nice to be greeted by the sight of a home cooked meal and for once, not everything was deep-fried or overly sweet. Not saying that I haven't been eating healthy here whilst in Jogya but it is incredibly easy to fall into the trap of eating things that have been 'digoreng' which means, fried or 'manis' which means sweet. After a delicious meal prepared by Mbak Min, we were off to meet up with Sam and Steph at Citos - a cool mall/place to hang out. We wondered around the vast size of the mall before settling into a cool little Arabian themed cafe and indulged in apple tobacco shisha with orange juice filtering through. A Shisha or Hooka really makes you feel like a dragon when you blow out the smoke whilst the tingling taste of apple lingers in your mouth.
Things like that really highlight the fact that Jakarta is an interesting city since on one hand you have all the elements of Western Modernity: Shopping malls, expensive cars, tall high-rise buildings but yet, this is contrasted with Indonesian culture, Mesjids, shanty towns and extreme poverty. Mix in crazy traffic, big cars, little three-wheeled cars and a smattering of motorbikes, you have quite a crazy Capital city. This picture was taken by Tude of the view over-looking Jakarta from our Danish friend, Dani's Uncles apartment. Just after Lebaran, we attempted to check out the Jakarta nightclubbing life but sadly, as it was still Lebaran, all of the clubs were closed but we did have fun drinking with Dani's uncle and Tude chauffeuring us around the streets of Jakarta. Got to say, German Schnapps is rather lethal without any flavouring like it's butterscotch or peach counterparts and gila tequila from Mexico is really quite gila aka crazy.
After two nights living like a young person in Jakarta would, Tim and I were off to Bandung with Tude's family. It really was like a classic family holiday car trip. We all piled into two cars since Tude's cousin and her young family - such a cute 6month old!, the nanny, the cook, the two bule's and the rest of Tude's family were all coming for the adventure. In true Indo style, no accomodation was booked since it was too difficult to find somewhere due to everyone mudik'ng. After a few hours, outside our window were the rolling green hills of Bandung and we had arrived in the city centre. Tude's parents managed to secure a cute little roadside motel and we all dropped our small bags into our respective rooms. If the trip couldn't become more family like, my aunt began dishing out what I can only describe as the equivalent of an Indonesian picnic in her room. After eating a quick but still homely meal, we were off in the car again to drive the streets of Bandung.
Bandung is famous for it's factory outlets and we were off to our first mall. Tude,Alit, Tim and I split from the main group to go find Timmy some shoes which didn't take long since we have 220,000IDR ($30) Chucks - Score! I bought myself a pair as well since, who can resist a bargain like that? After some serious shopping, we were in the cars once more and on our way to Tude's family friend's house up in the mountains in Bandung. This was a real treat as we were actually Mudik'ng to a Muslim families house during Lebaran! After driving through the windy hills, we had arrived at a beautiful house with a matching bungalow in the front. Of course, true to Lebaran, visiting someone's house means that delicious food awaits and we were not disappointed. There was a vast selection of traditional Lebaran food like 'tupat', 'opor', a potato dish, 'Rendang' and a HUGE amount of biscuits and cakes!
It was all so tasty and if the night couldn't get better, we got to let off fireworks! During Lebaran, you can buy fireworks off the side of the streets and it's not un-common to hear fireworks going off each night during the month of Ramadan and especially afterwards! 
Tude was showing me how to capture photos at night on manual settings with my D90 and I managed to fluke one awesome picture of our fireworks. The other picture is of the Bandung skyline that Tude managed to capture. It was simply beautiful to be up in the mountains as the air was so fresh or in Indonesian, 'sejuk'.
We were only in Bandung for the one night and after one last stop for some shopping at the factory outlets, we were on the road again bound for Bekasi as Alit, my younger cousin needed to get back for a band practice since he was performing at Mal Metropolitan the next day. Watching him sing at his concert with his band was actually the first I had seen Alit perform as I had only heard his beautiful voice in many karaoke sessions, recordings or his obvious talent on display in the forms of many trophies at their house. For someone who is usually so quiet, the stage is really his element and he and his band definitely drew a big crowd. Alit's band performed an awesome two hour set of a mixture of Indonesian and English songs and the MC managed to get Tim on stage to act our a love story with a shy, teenage Indonesian girl. This was highly entertaining to watch both parties mutual embarassment, as well as the fan girls that followed Timmy around the mall to try and get a picture of him as a product of his five minutes of fame. Times like these really makes me love Indonesia and how I wish I had yelled out that Tim was actually Justin Beiber because of the Beiber Fever this nation has!
This photo was taken by Tude and I'm posting it because it's cool because of the composition and lighting! The next photo is of Alit singing whilst trying to encourage a fan to join in with him. I mean he was also offering chocolate, how do you resist that?This is a photo I took too :P
Post show, Alit and his friends invited us to watch the second instalment of the Indonesian Trilogy - Merah Putih II: Darah Garuda. This film was excellent! Tim and I were really chuffed since it was the first Indonesian film we had watched without subtitles and we understood the story! I was really impressed by the quality of the film, the storyline and the fact it is a film about the Independence movement in Indonesia and the conflict with the Dutch leading up to the Independence of Indonesia.
Just when we thought our last day in Jakarta and Bekasi was going to be relaxed, we were soon ushered off to Ancol - It's sort of like the Gold Coast of Jakarta since they have theme parks and it's on the harbour/beach. As time was of the essence since Timmy and I were flying out that evening, we only had time to go to Samudra - the theme park with a 4D Cinema, live watersports shows and aquariums. That was fine with us since had never been there before and as much as we love Dufan, it was nice to check out something new.
We watched the hilarities of Scorpian Pirates - a waterstunt drama with water skis but we avoiding being sprayed by water which was awesome since it was a gross brown colour, were jolted around in our seats whilst watching a film in 3D which made things seem just that more real, looked at crazy fish in the aquarium including Pirañas that suspiciously had no teeth. We soon found out that if Pirañas lose their teeth, they can grow them back in a day - hectic! Sadly, our day as big kids soon came to an end and Timmy and I had to bid farewell to my family at Ancol. We managed to find a taxi to take us to the airport, which was pretty tricky since traffic was picking up because of people both returning to Jakarta from their villages, as well as the fact that since it was a public holiday, everyone was at Ancol!
Tude and Alit helped us negotiate with the driver to not to rip us off and use the meter but unforuntately, the instructions they sent to me to watch the meter and not to tip him was promptly read out loud by yours truly. To make matters worse, the message was in Indonesian so the driver was bound to understand everything I said. I'm not sure if he was listening to me but Timmy shook his head; I was pretty embarrassed.
Tim and I arrived at the airport safely and not ripped off - hooray! We met up with Steph and Sam and boarded our flight relatively on schedule. I must say, the touchdown in Jogya really felt as if we were returning home. I decided I happily call Jogya my home after Sydney and Tabanan.
So that concludes the chapter on Mudik'ng to Bekasi. The week ahead looks to classes going back to normal, without interruption and I'm currently trying to organise a hike of Gungung Merapi, the tallest mountain in Jogyakarta. A possible weekend at Karimunjawa - these beautiful and idyllic islands off the coast of Java, is also on the drawing board too. Of course, there will also be uni work once classes are in full swing. I'd hate for you to think that all I am doing here in Indonesia is having fun and not actually to study here :P
Alas, enough of my internal dialogue and epiphanies, time to move on to my recent adventure in Bekasi and brief stop in Bandung, West Java.
Sam, Timmy, Steph and I managed to score really cheap tickets with Garuda to Jakarta over Idul Fitri/Lebaran/End of Ramadan. It worked out be about $100 return and also meant free food! That clearly is the most important part of the tale, not the fact that we were flying with the now-safe again company, extra baggage allowance or actually having a flight fly on time. Of course, the food wasn't free but it was nice change to be given food unlike my usual budget airline flying. We arrived in Jakarta safely, despite the fact that I have never been so afraid of a take-off in my life. It was a really wet, drizzly day so I think the take-off was a wee bit faster than I'm comfortable. I don't think my occasional yelps during turbulence added to the ambience of the rather quiet and rather empty plane despite it being one of the biggest mass migration of people the world sees each year. Timmy and I were greeted by Tude, my distant cousin and good family friend. He and his girlfriend treated us to dinner and we were soon off to Bekasi.
It was so odd seeing the highways and streets of Jakarta so quiet and empty; quite a shell of it's usual self to be honest. As we left on September 8th, most Indonesians would have already begun their journeys to their hometowns or at least on transit hence Jakarta being so quiet. Tim and I soon arrived at Tude's house and Tim was warmly greeted by their dog, Klewan whilst he sniffed at me hesitantly. Tude and Tim bought us each a longneck of Bintang which sparked conversation until the wee morning as sadly, the call for Sahur marked that we had been up far too long although, my aunt had not come home yet as she was still on call delivering two new babies into the world. Unlike Christmas back home, Ramadan changes each year due to the calendar they use so those children may not always have their birthday during Ramadan. Wonder what it would like to have a birthday during ramadan. I imagine eating would be even more exciting because you would probably be not only eating delicious food but also made to wait the whole day until you were allowed to eat cake!
After a slow start to day, it was nice to be greeted by the sight of a home cooked meal and for once, not everything was deep-fried or overly sweet. Not saying that I haven't been eating healthy here whilst in Jogya but it is incredibly easy to fall into the trap of eating things that have been 'digoreng' which means, fried or 'manis' which means sweet. After a delicious meal prepared by Mbak Min, we were off to meet up with Sam and Steph at Citos - a cool mall/place to hang out. We wondered around the vast size of the mall before settling into a cool little Arabian themed cafe and indulged in apple tobacco shisha with orange juice filtering through. A Shisha or Hooka really makes you feel like a dragon when you blow out the smoke whilst the tingling taste of apple lingers in your mouth.
Things like that really highlight the fact that Jakarta is an interesting city since on one hand you have all the elements of Western Modernity: Shopping malls, expensive cars, tall high-rise buildings but yet, this is contrasted with Indonesian culture, Mesjids, shanty towns and extreme poverty. Mix in crazy traffic, big cars, little three-wheeled cars and a smattering of motorbikes, you have quite a crazy Capital city. This picture was taken by Tude of the view over-looking Jakarta from our Danish friend, Dani's Uncles apartment. Just after Lebaran, we attempted to check out the Jakarta nightclubbing life but sadly, as it was still Lebaran, all of the clubs were closed but we did have fun drinking with Dani's uncle and Tude chauffeuring us around the streets of Jakarta. Got to say, German Schnapps is rather lethal without any flavouring like it's butterscotch or peach counterparts and gila tequila from Mexico is really quite gila aka crazy.
After two nights living like a young person in Jakarta would, Tim and I were off to Bandung with Tude's family. It really was like a classic family holiday car trip. We all piled into two cars since Tude's cousin and her young family - such a cute 6month old!, the nanny, the cook, the two bule's and the rest of Tude's family were all coming for the adventure. In true Indo style, no accomodation was booked since it was too difficult to find somewhere due to everyone mudik'ng. After a few hours, outside our window were the rolling green hills of Bandung and we had arrived in the city centre. Tude's parents managed to secure a cute little roadside motel and we all dropped our small bags into our respective rooms. If the trip couldn't become more family like, my aunt began dishing out what I can only describe as the equivalent of an Indonesian picnic in her room. After eating a quick but still homely meal, we were off in the car again to drive the streets of Bandung.
Bandung is famous for it's factory outlets and we were off to our first mall. Tude,Alit, Tim and I split from the main group to go find Timmy some shoes which didn't take long since we have 220,000IDR ($30) Chucks - Score! I bought myself a pair as well since, who can resist a bargain like that? After some serious shopping, we were in the cars once more and on our way to Tude's family friend's house up in the mountains in Bandung. This was a real treat as we were actually Mudik'ng to a Muslim families house during Lebaran! After driving through the windy hills, we had arrived at a beautiful house with a matching bungalow in the front. Of course, true to Lebaran, visiting someone's house means that delicious food awaits and we were not disappointed. There was a vast selection of traditional Lebaran food like 'tupat', 'opor', a potato dish, 'Rendang' and a HUGE amount of biscuits and cakes!
It was all so tasty and if the night couldn't get better, we got to let off fireworks! During Lebaran, you can buy fireworks off the side of the streets and it's not un-common to hear fireworks going off each night during the month of Ramadan and especially afterwards! 
Tude was showing me how to capture photos at night on manual settings with my D90 and I managed to fluke one awesome picture of our fireworks. The other picture is of the Bandung skyline that Tude managed to capture. It was simply beautiful to be up in the mountains as the air was so fresh or in Indonesian, 'sejuk'.
We were only in Bandung for the one night and after one last stop for some shopping at the factory outlets, we were on the road again bound for Bekasi as Alit, my younger cousin needed to get back for a band practice since he was performing at Mal Metropolitan the next day. Watching him sing at his concert with his band was actually the first I had seen Alit perform as I had only heard his beautiful voice in many karaoke sessions, recordings or his obvious talent on display in the forms of many trophies at their house. For someone who is usually so quiet, the stage is really his element and he and his band definitely drew a big crowd. Alit's band performed an awesome two hour set of a mixture of Indonesian and English songs and the MC managed to get Tim on stage to act our a love story with a shy, teenage Indonesian girl. This was highly entertaining to watch both parties mutual embarassment, as well as the fan girls that followed Timmy around the mall to try and get a picture of him as a product of his five minutes of fame. Times like these really makes me love Indonesia and how I wish I had yelled out that Tim was actually Justin Beiber because of the Beiber Fever this nation has!
This photo was taken by Tude and I'm posting it because it's cool because of the composition and lighting! The next photo is of Alit singing whilst trying to encourage a fan to join in with him. I mean he was also offering chocolate, how do you resist that?This is a photo I took too :P
Post show, Alit and his friends invited us to watch the second instalment of the Indonesian Trilogy - Merah Putih II: Darah Garuda. This film was excellent! Tim and I were really chuffed since it was the first Indonesian film we had watched without subtitles and we understood the story! I was really impressed by the quality of the film, the storyline and the fact it is a film about the Independence movement in Indonesia and the conflict with the Dutch leading up to the Independence of Indonesia.
Just when we thought our last day in Jakarta and Bekasi was going to be relaxed, we were soon ushered off to Ancol - It's sort of like the Gold Coast of Jakarta since they have theme parks and it's on the harbour/beach. As time was of the essence since Timmy and I were flying out that evening, we only had time to go to Samudra - the theme park with a 4D Cinema, live watersports shows and aquariums. That was fine with us since had never been there before and as much as we love Dufan, it was nice to check out something new.
We watched the hilarities of Scorpian Pirates - a waterstunt drama with water skis but we avoiding being sprayed by water which was awesome since it was a gross brown colour, were jolted around in our seats whilst watching a film in 3D which made things seem just that more real, looked at crazy fish in the aquarium including Pirañas that suspiciously had no teeth. We soon found out that if Pirañas lose their teeth, they can grow them back in a day - hectic! Sadly, our day as big kids soon came to an end and Timmy and I had to bid farewell to my family at Ancol. We managed to find a taxi to take us to the airport, which was pretty tricky since traffic was picking up because of people both returning to Jakarta from their villages, as well as the fact that since it was a public holiday, everyone was at Ancol!
Tude and Alit helped us negotiate with the driver to not to rip us off and use the meter but unforuntately, the instructions they sent to me to watch the meter and not to tip him was promptly read out loud by yours truly. To make matters worse, the message was in Indonesian so the driver was bound to understand everything I said. I'm not sure if he was listening to me but Timmy shook his head; I was pretty embarrassed.
Tim and I arrived at the airport safely and not ripped off - hooray! We met up with Steph and Sam and boarded our flight relatively on schedule. I must say, the touchdown in Jogya really felt as if we were returning home. I decided I happily call Jogya my home after Sydney and Tabanan.
So that concludes the chapter on Mudik'ng to Bekasi. The week ahead looks to classes going back to normal, without interruption and I'm currently trying to organise a hike of Gungung Merapi, the tallest mountain in Jogyakarta. A possible weekend at Karimunjawa - these beautiful and idyllic islands off the coast of Java, is also on the drawing board too. Of course, there will also be uni work once classes are in full swing. I'd hate for you to think that all I am doing here in Indonesia is having fun and not actually to study here :P
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