Indonesia: Part I

I am so lame. Not two days after committing to a blog a day, I fall short of my goal (all the while asking myself who will really notice, saying that one blog a day is too much, reminding myself that I blogged twice the day before, and it will take a whole day just to get through the pictures anyway... etc... etc...). Despite all these things, my conscience is still smiting a little bit, so I'll just apologize and be done with it.

So, sorry.

Alright, let's get on with it. So Will and I left Melbourne on Thursday night (well, 12:00 am on Friday, to be exact), and arrived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 7:00 am on Friday, bleary eyed and sleepy. After clearing customs, being temperature-checked for swine flu, and filling out about a million health clearance cards (again for swine flu), Will and I had a good seven hours to wait around in the KL airport before our flight to Surabaya, Indonesia that afternoon.

A quick note about swine flu: I must admit that when we started this journey I hadn't really given much thought to the international health crisis that is apparently sweeping the globe. I mean, I knew it was affecting the United States and Mexico, and I also knew that a lot of Australians have been talking about it, but I'd written it off as the typical paranoia about the Aussie borders--the same paranoia that put a harmless little white puppy dog in quarantine for 30 days, that makes beagles sniff people's bags for apples at the airport, and has inspired such riveting shows as Border Patrol (think an Australian version of Cops, except it's about border officers who arrest people smuggling coffee beans and apple seeds and such). So honestly I didn't think the dread swine flu would really affect us. Hmmm... Let's just say that every time we flew into a new country, I felt like a character in a post apocalyptic disease movie, being hoarded through long lines while workers wearing surgical masks checked our papers to ensure we weren't contaminated. Not only did we have our temperature taken in Malaysia, but we were disinfected in Indonesia (we walked through a corridor and had alcohol or some such concoction sprayed on us and our bags as we passed), body-scanned in Australia, and had to fill out millions of health clearance papers and convince people that even though we are American, we have not been back to the US in months. Even my boss asked me when I got back to work what countries I had visited, making sure I didn't set foot in the US.Sheesh.

Alright, back to the KL airport. After a long day of waiting around, we actually almost missed our flight to Surabaya because we couldn't understand the people's English who were calling the flight. Thankfully we were paged, and we understood our names enough to make the flight. We arrived in Surabaya a few hours later, and Taylor met us at the airport. Taylor Smith is our friend from Vanderbilt, and fiancee of one of my best friends Carissa Lucyk. He has been in Indonesia for the past nine months teaching English under the Fulbright program. He will be going back to the US in a couple of weeks, and I must say, he has picked up quite an impressive amount of Indonesian in his time there. He practically sounds like a native. Anyway, he met us at the airport and we shared a hotel (sidenote: double beds don't exist in Indonesia, so it was either one king bed or two twins. Will and I got to share a twin). Though we were beat, we manned up and went out to our first Indonesian dinner, and even had enough energy to frequent one of the three bars in the city of Surabaya to see our first of many Indonesian cover bands (they love cover bands there). Although, as a Muslim country, bars aren't a big part of the culture... however it doesn't seem to be a problem for clubs to boast the added perk of legal prostitution. Hmm... The bar was kind of funny, actually. It was called Eclectic, and it lived up to the quite literal definition of its name. Half of the bar was a chic New York-style lounge, and the other half--not so subtly divided by a line down the middle-- was an Irish Pub. I guess they were having an identity crisis.

The next day we rented a car (and a driver) for the whole day to take us around. It was so cool-- we got a driver, a tour guide, and a car for the entire day for $50. Of course, then the driver got us lost in the mountains on the way to Taylor's village and we drove around for an extra hour or two, but he decided that since we had driven all those extra miles that we owed him extra money. Hmm... or you could try not getting lost next time? Just a thought. Check out our sweet ride for the day

Anyway, we started off the day by going to the mall. Indonesians apparently love their malls, although I was told by our tour guide that only about 10% of people who cruise through the malls actually purchase anything besides McDonald's ice cream cones, which are the equivalent of $.10. This particular mall was another "eclectic" mixture, as half of the mall was designed for expatriates or elite Indonesians, featuring such bounty as Starbucks, a donut shop, and a few brand name stores, and the other half had all sorts of Indonesian stores. Believe it or not, but we were actually there for the Indonesian side of the mall, and a certain cheap DVD operation that we heard about through a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend (although I'm not gonna lie, I did stop at Starbucks. In my defense, I haven't been to Starbucks once since I've moved to Australia!).
70 cents a disc ... can't beat that!

Taylor getting fried tofu at Mr. Potatoes in the mall

The next stop on our guided tour was an animal reserve near Taylor's village (well it should have been near, if your driver knew where he was going ...) Now, I've been to zoos and animal reserves, but they all have one thing that this particular venue didn't. Cages and fences. The only protection we had from lions, tigers, and bears was a car window... And I must say that when Will rolled his window down there was no guarantee that it would roll back up. But, hey, windows that don't work and wild animals with no cages is all part of the Indonesian experience!
Close encounter with a brown bear
Lions being regal
A young camel trying to get in our car
We were fortunate enough to see hippos mating

And speaking of no cages, we also got the chance to take pictures with a baby lion, tiger, and orangutan (well, “baby” might be stretching the word too far. Look at the size of these things!). We also learned that “orang” means human and “tan” means forest, so they were named after humans in the forest. And after feeling the baby orangutan’s feet holding my hand, I’m likely to agree with the assessment.

Will with a young orangutan

The young tiger was not interested in having his picture taken

Kim and Amin (supposedly just a baby)

After the reserve, we booked it to a resort near Taylor’s village where Will and I stayed for the night (we didn’t want to take kick Taylor out of his bed, not to mention he kindly informed me that he is fighting an ongoing war with the rats who are trying to reclaim his home as their own, and the rats are winning.) It was one of the nicest resorts I’ve seen in awhile. We got our own cottage (aka, huge room with king sized bed and big bathtub and sitting area), and the view of the mountains was great.

Super nice hotel room

View of the mountains and rice fields from our hotel

Well, I’ll stop the post right here, and start back up with a recap of Taylor’s village.

Indonesia Pictures

You're getting two posts today! Aren't you lucky? Yep, that's me, an above and beyond person.

But not really. I just wanted to go ahead and post the link for our Indonesia pictures for you to browse through at your leisure. There are captions, courtesy of Will, and I'll post a smattering of relevant photos to illustrate points in the succeeding posts, but this is the main link to all of them.

Enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/kim.hearon/20090525Indonesia#

Tram Police and the Darcy Miracle

Many of you have been asking me what on earth we did with our darling dog while we went romping off into the wild unknowns just a month after we got her out of quarantine. Well, due to that exact reason, a kennel was out of the picture, because that probably would have constituted as some kind of cruel and unusual punishment (haha, Darcy, just kidding that you're free! You've been a little too rambunctious and you're starting to smell so you're going back into a kennel for a little longer!). Poor thing. So we did some research (as in ask the old women at the park who I hang out with if they know anyone. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I spend a good amount of my days hanging out with 60-year-old women and their dogs at the park. They love us there.) and found a woman who keeps dogs in her house, kind of like a part of the family... but of course it comes with a price. A hefty price tag of AUD$300 for the whole week. But we were willing to suck it up, because it had to be done, right?

Now, in order to truly appreciate the extent of this miracle, I need to pause the Darcy saga to relate another little episode. The Tuesday night before our trip on Thursday, Will and I met some friends downtown for dinner (another conquest of Kim Fest! they probably didn't know that, though :-)). We had a good time, said goodbye, and caught the tram to go home. Now I should explain how trams work here. You have a ticket that you are supposed to validate every time you ride the tram, but it's on the honor system so people don't always validate it every time. Unfortunately Will and I chose that exact night to be deviants because, honestly, we weren't going that far and we didn't really want to think about it. Big mistake. Enter tram police who gruffly come up to you and ask to see your validated ticket. Ummm... cue groveling and claiming to be tourists (didn't even melt their hearts of stone), so we got dragged off the tram and dealt a hefty fine. And I do mean hefty. AUD $167... a person. So for a married couple that's a whopping $334 whereas it would normally be half that (no one even talk to me about DINK. It's a myth).

So you can imagine how we may have felt a little defeated at the end of that. We're about to embark on an elaborate vacation to Indonesia, plus shell out a significant amount of money for Darcy, plus I have a dinky job with no paid leave, plus yadda yadda yadda. That was kind of just the last unexpected straw, but what are you going to do about it?

So the next morning I put on the best face I could and left to take Darcy to visit the lady she would be staying with. As I was walking out of the apartment building a woman stops me and asks, "Did you bring her through quarantine?" Uhhh... a) I didn't know who this woman was, b) I hadn't even opened my mouth so how did she know I was foreign, and c) what business of it was hers? But I played nice (I'm pretty good at that) and said yes and politely asked her how she knew. Well, turns out she's my neighbor (I felt sheepish), and she and her husband had heard us talking and recognized that we're Americans, and they are Americans as well who just moved here from Seattle! I told her that we would love to get together sometime but we were leaving tomorrow for Indonesia. And the next words out of her mouth were probably the most beautiful words I had heard in a long time:

Do you have anyone to watch your dog for you???

Uhhh... no, would you be interested? [insert what I like to think was nonchalance, although my voice was probably squeaking too much to really pull that off]

So another American couple who lives right across the hall from us approached me on the street and ended up offering to keep our dog for us. It really was a miracle. Will and I are taking them out to dinner tomorrow night as a thank you... and as an excuse to make new friends :-).

Tune in tomorrow for the first part of the Indonesia recap!

Kim Fest and Blog Goals

Well, we have returned from our fabulous trip to Indonesia! And it really was fabulous. But I have some catching up to do on blogging. For some reason blogging has just fallen to the back of my radar, so I am making a personal goal: instead of writing one looooooong post to catch everyone up on my birthday celebration, what we did with Darcy while we were gone, and an entire ten day's-worth of vacation drama, I am setting a goal to post once every day for this entire week (at least business days, and that leaves me Saturday and Sunday to catch up if for some reason I fall afoul of my goal). That will also allow you, the reader, to digest each day's blog in smaller bites, instead of being overwhelmed by one post that, let's be honest, you'll never ever return to.

So I thought I would start off my blogging goal by telling people about my birthday and how we celebrated here in the great land of Oz (have I explained that Australians like to call their country Oz? I think it's because it sounds like Aus... as in Australia... but they shorten it to the well-recognized, popular culture form of Oz. Also related to the "we're not in Kansas anymore, Toto" train of thought).

I need to first explain a few things. To the masses--and that would be the masses of people who are reading this blog post... riiiight--one would think that a birthday is nothing more than a celebration of the day you were born with a cupcake, a stubby candle that stays lit for maybe ten seconds, and an off-tune rendition of "Happy Birthday," or if you're a real old timer, "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow." Yeah, I decided early on in my life that that was never really going to work for me. I don't do small celebrations. So for the majority of my life, I have claimed the entire month of May as Kim Fest (however I have generously narrowed my focus down to the week of May 5, kicked off by Cinco de Mayo [which, umm, is nonexistent here! who knew? Will and I even tracked down a Mexican restaurant and wished the waitress a Happy Cinco de Mayo. Blank stare. Awesome.] through May 12. I call the week Birth Week, though my actual birthday is May 10). Basically the point of Kim Fest is to be able to claim anything fun that happens within the month of May as an intentional tribute to the birth of Kim Stone--formerly known as Kim Hearon--way back in 1983. It's really a fun game. You should try it.

Of course, considering the week in which I was born, every few years I have to share my birthday with Mother's Day. Now, this hasn't ever really been too much of a problem for me because a) my mom shares really well and has always put my ego over hers (love you, Mom!) and b) I'm not a mother (yet) so it's not like I'm having to combine my birthday with Christmas, which, let's face it, would be awful. So for the past 26 years I have been able to easily forget that I am sharing my special day with a Hallmark-induced holiday.

However, this year was a little different. My birthday chose the one year I'm working in the service industry to fall on a Sunday, aka Mother's Day--the busiest day of the year for Melbourne restaurants, and the day that they need all hands on deck. Sigh. So this year was a lesson in humility, as I worked a seven-hour shift and served food and smiles to everyone else who was being honored for their special day. And I even kept my mouth shut about it being my birthday! Though I was tempted to go up to each table and let them know that they were being served by a birthday girl, I swallowed that particular disastrous inclination and just quietly served food. Who's proud? I know I am.

Of course, Will made my day special, too. He knew that I was going to be working all day so he got up early and made me pancakes and gave me a beautiful gift card for a massage (yay!), and reminded me that we were going out to celebrate the next night. We went to a steakhouse right around the corner from us, Squires Loft Steakhouse, and it was pretty fantastic. I mean, not quite Flemings (but then what is? Mac'n cheese, hello!), but definitely a good steak!

So all in all it was a great birthday, a fabulous birthweek, and one amazing birthmonth (hello Indonesia!). I declare the Oz version of Kim Fest a success! And lucky me... I have another few years before I have to deal with my birthday falling on Mother's Day again. Hopefully I'll be out of the service industry again by that time???

Off to Indonesia

Will and I are off to Indonesia tonight! We fly out at midnight tonight and arrive in KL, Malaysia tomorrow morning at 7 am, then we get to sit in the airport until 4 pm when our flight will leave for Surbaya, Indonesia. Lots of traveling... better pack some good books!

I'll give a complete update of our trip, and possibly an update of Kim Fest and the events that accompanied it (my birthday was this past Sunday, the 10th) upon our return.

White Dog Out

Last weekend Will and I snuck into the quarantine facility in a covert operation I like to call "White Dog Out." Objective: Search and Rescue prisoner of Pen #16, an American citizen held against her will under wrongful accusation of rabies.

The mission wasn't easy. Guards surrounded the facilities, and search lights combed the yards in search of prisoners with excellent digging skills, or perhaps sharper-than-normal-teeth who managed to chew their way out of bars. But they were no match for Kim and Will, rescue team extraordinaire.

After hurling ourselves over the electric fences, taking down a couple of security guards, and hiding face-first in mud to escape detection, we finally found the target: Barrack A, Pens 1 - 30. As we entered the barrack, the cries of "I do not have rabies! I do not have rabies!", "Tell my mother I love her," "Rescue me, too! You have room for one more!" threatened my resolve for the mission. Couldn't we let all the inmates free? Was it fair to discriminate based on nationality? And if the media got wind of this, would they say we chose her because she's white?

Just when my resolve was about to break, I heard a soulful version of "Swing Low, Swing Chariot" coming from the corner of the barrack (and the outraged cries of a black poodle telling her that song ain't for white dogs). It was the target! From that moment on, I knew my mission: get in, get out with the goods.

The hardest part was controlling the target's obvious enthusiasm at seeing her rescuers. She could barely contain herself, and the secretive nature of the mission was entirely lost on her. But after finally settling her down, she agreed to be quiet and we got her out the same way we came in.

Too easy.

Unfortunately, as in many cases with victims, the hardest part has been the reacclamation into society post-rescue. On Monday we took the target on a play date with a fellow escaped prisoner from the facility, another Westie from Hong Kong, and they talked over their shared experiences. It seemed to do her some good. But that night she got sick (post-traumatic stress disorder), and threw up for a good three days straight. Messy. Thankfully she's fine now and seems very well adjusted.

Of course, the hiding game isn't over. No one must ever find the escaped white American puppy dog... no one. In fact, we're taking this so seriously that we have actually adopted camouflage into the decor of our home. Thanks to our white couches and white sheets, she just blends right in. Which is good considering animals are technically not allowed in our apartment. But we've come too far in this game to let that stop us.

I won't tell if you won't.