Kaliandra

For the weekend, 16 fellow teachers and friends loaded up in Bemos (public minivans, with bench seats) and drove about 2 hours up to a mountain resort called Kaliandra. It's set in a beautiful mountain slope, with dramatic peaks soaring up above you and  gorgeously landscaped grounds wrapping around the side of the mountain.

One of the best things about the place is simply its location, and clean air (Surabaya, where I live, is quite polluted). You can see the stars, it gets cold at night, there is fresh air, the smell of trees and flowers, and you can hear wildlife. It was just a great way to relax and spend some time out of the city. The grounds are huge, and in the middle is a private residence, which looks like something out of a hollywood movie set in old england in the 1700's. A manor house. It was unrealistic compared to what we're used to seeing.

The ground have gardens, organic food growing, some exotic animals (private owners) two pools, two restaurants, great views and a chilled out environment.

They have loads of stuff to do also, as they cater to big groups, and you have the ability to do ropes courses, learn Gamalon music (type of music) you can do Batik, which is a traditional way to make materials and designs. We chose to do the Batik the next morning and it was really hard, and we all make horribly done patterns. You start with melting wax, and using a special "pen" to apply designs in wax. Note that it's hot, it drips everywhere, and most of us ended up with a "dotted" look to our painting, not to mention wax all over us. Once you finish the wax, you dip in in dyes to make the colors, and then you put it in hot water to remove the wax, so that the design you made is white against whatever color background you decided upon.

We went for a birthday of one of the teachers at my school, and she had a wonderful time. She was really happy to spend a weekend out of the city, relaxing, reading books and hanging out with everyone for the 2 days of freedom from work.

The place we stayed was a bungalow made for 6 people, with a private room upstairs and a communal 4 person bed taking up one whole side of the house. We ended up with 7 people downstairs sleeping like sardines, and the birthday girl and her boyfriend got their own private room. The bathroom was really great, and opened up for lots of sunlight and breezes, and there was a tub outside we filled up and smashed three people in to watch the stars and enjoy the coolness of the night in a hot tub.

It was one of the places I know Nancy and Diane would have really enjoyed. Guess you'll just have to come out to Asia and see these places for yourselves! That's all I have now, as it's Friday, I have class all day and leave at 630 in the morning for my next adventure. See ya!