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Teacher's Performance from Camp 1

Here is the teachers performance from camp 1. We did a video/live show that the kids really liked. From my past 3 years, this was probably the best performance we've put on. No idea what we'll do this camp... but it should be even better!

Michael Jackson's Thriller!

My Songkran Week

It started on Saturday. We had our closing ceremony for the kids, some performances by them, and then we got in a van and drove to the port city of Laem Gnop where we got on a ferry to Koh Chang. It was Kevin, Ian, Sinead (all teachers from Indonesia) and me. The trip was easy enough, about 4 hours to the ferry, and another 30-40 minutes doing the crossing. From there we hopped in a songtau (taxi) and got dropped off at our beach.

The drive, first off, was straight up and down windy mountain roads, then leveled off for the beach areas, and then up and down again for the mountain parts. While not a huge island, it was pretty big, and impressive roads wind along the edges of it. We checked into our bungalow and spend the remainder of the evening/sunset having some beers oceanside, then walking down the beach a long way, and doing a "pub crawl" back. We were just too lazy to walk all the way home, so stopped for drinks or snacks on the way. We were in bed easily before 11 pm.

On Sunday, we had some breakfast overlooking the ocean, and then rented motorbikes and drove all the way around the island. Since the roads only cover 90% around the island, from the bottom of our side, to the bottom of the other side, you have to drive ALL the way around. So we did. Driving the roads was really fun, I love the windy steep mountain roads. We then went offroading (because the road was complete crap) and ended up on Long Beach, a very secluded place with only a couple bungalows. We swam, but the water was too warm and not refreshing, so we went up for some drinks and snacks at the little restaurant, and then started back. On the way back, we stopped to do some kayaking in mangroove forests, which was alright. Relaxing enough, staying in the shade kept us a little cooler. Then we started the drive back, trying to get to a good viewpoint for sunset. After some photos, we met up and went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant, with suprisingly great food. After a long dinner, we relaxed and walked around looking for a tour for the next day, booked one, and went to bed.

Monday comprised of a boat trip to go snorkeling on islands nearby. About 400 people set off (together) and all went to the same spots. Stupid tour companies. So by the time we docked, there was an even fish to human ratio. The best part of stopping was being able to jump off the 2nd story of the boat. There was some decent snorkeling, but so many people! All in all, it was a good day. Another early night after a great, and cheap dinner off the road.

Tuesday we got up early and took a boat to another, smaller island called Koh Mak. After a couple hours, we got to our huts (fully beachside... about 10 meters from the ocean) and spent the day being lazy and enjoying island life.

Wednesday morning we decided to walk to a "viewpoint" of the island, which took hours, was EXTREMELY hot, and we never really found a viewpoint. We did find some elephants (a camp) and a place with some great banana shakes. In the afternoon, we met our friends (who are all teachers from Indonesia also, but two now live in Bangkok and one just finished her contract and is on her way back to the US). We then did some day drinking until dinner. I was back in bed by about 9 pm, the last guys by about 1130. It was another early night.

Thursday was spend snorkeling parts of the island near our resort in the morning, and kayaking to a nearby island in the bay for the afternoon. None of the snorkeling was particularly impressive, but it was a good fun day outside overall. A early dinner and early evening followed once again.

Friday was the day to go back, so we boarded the "local" slow boat and spend the morning making our way back to port, then the afternoon making our way back to campus.

The first quarter of 2010

Well, I know that this is LONG overdue. Sorry it’s been so long since I have written on this blog, but things have been moving around a lot, and Ive been very busy.

The last blog you got was the holidays and into January. Let’s start in Feb.

I spent the end of Jan back in Surabaya, hanging out, singing karaoke and playing mini golf (hollywood) of the wonders of the world. America got Hollywood, Mt. Rushmore, and Niagra Falls. It was fun to be back, but I had other plans...

After escaping from Indonesia (I had to do some lying, and cheating to be allowed to leave from my job) I went directly to Chiang Mai, my old stomping grounds, to visit some friends and hang out for a little. We just talked and went to dinners (as they worked during the day) and then I took a bus down to Bangkok, where I met another friend, stayed at her apartment and hung out in Bangkok. This whole time was about a week, just nice to visit some old friends.

Following that, I flew to Taipei, to start my 2 week adventure around Taiwan. It started with 2 night in Taipei, sorting out my visa to come back and work in Thailand, and then I went to visit my friends, who have been working and living in Taiwan for the past year. They live in a small city called Chaiyi, which isn’t known for anything special, really. I spent a couple days sitting at their apartment doing absolutely nothing. It was great.

We hung out in their city, and they had to work a couple more days before their vacation, and I enjoyed the relaxed Taiwanese lifestyle. We went to the park in the afternoons, met for lunch, and checked out some markets. I did all my laundry, hanging it on the roof, and enjoyed the crisp days and the warmth of the sun. Not the scorching heat of South East Asia. It was a nice and relaxing couple of days. Then, on the weekend, we celebrated Chinese New Year, with their friend, who is from Taiwan. We spent the evening at her family’s school, enjoying a big dinner, and then went to the temple at midnight to celebrate the new year. It was cool, involving burning paper money, preparing yourself by waving smoke on you, and then running from firecrackers into the temple, where we did different offerings to help bring us good luck and fortune for the year. It’s always fun celebrating different traditions and holidays in their respective countries.

New year was fun, and then we headed to the south to enjoy the “southern Taiwan” lifestyle. The weather was nice for the first couple days, and we enjoyed laying on the beach, taking motorbike trips and eating some great food. Then, the best food arrived in the form of my brother carrying Nancy’s cookies. A cookie-eating frenzy started and so did the fun celebrations for a family reunion and also for my friend Claire’s birthday.

With brother in country, we spent time surfing and having fun. I know Steve enjoyed surfing without a wetsuit, and it was nice just getting back in the water. The last time I had surfed was on the beaches of Bali. Tough life, I know. So we spent time enjoying Taiwan and working out way north along the eastern coast. We took some pretty nice train rides, stayed in some pretty cool cities, and ate some great food. Dumplings… mmmm.

The highlight of the trip, post Claire’s birthday, was definitely the Toroko Gorge, in which we took motorbikes through this phenomenal gorge that cuts through Taiwan. There are lots of windy parts, tunnels and bridges. Quite an engineering feat in itself. Then you have these sheer rock faced cliffs and a river rushing through it. Overall it was quite spectacular. We spent the whole day driving in and out of the gorge, and checked out some temples, places for lunch, and Steve fell in love with a dog named DAB.

After the gorge, we went to Taipei, and said goobye to Brian and Claire. We also met Steve’s friend Pei, and got to stay with her for a couple nights. It’s fun to meet families, and they let us stay in their son’s room, show us the local temple, and even drove us into town a couple times. As a group, we also checked out central downtown Taipei and Taipei 101. It’s now the second largest building in the world, after the new one in Dubai. It’s huge, and has the fastest elevator in the world. You get up to 98 stories in about 37 seconds. Pretty rad. The views are great, but with pollution, and clouds, not always the best. But you can see a lot, and even go out to the 91^st floor and stand on the outside observation deck. Its pretty cool. They even have a huge floor dedicated to a museum, and also a shop. An impressive building overall.

After a couple more days in Taipei, I had to leave, going back to Thailand, and my Steve stayed another day or two, before going back to the States. Taiwan was a really interesting country, and perfect size for a couple weeks touring around.

When I got back to Bangkok, I revisited all the touristy areas, trying to recapture the fun of being a tourist in a country im so used to now. I saw the grand palace, main parks and markets and did another river cruise. Always fun meeting up and seeing old friends too. I then went to Asian University, to start my 3^rd year at the English Summer Camps. This year I was offered the job of Deputy Director, which means a slight promotion from last year. This year, I am all admin, and work directly with the Director of the program. It’s fun, and less work (more responsibility) than the previous years, but great for future jobs, as it’s a management type position. Did I mention its also better pay? J

So now I’m in my third week at the summer camp (5^th week on campus) and it’s going just like previous years. I miss not having a class, but enjoy being the disciplinarian to the naughty students. Always a nice ego boost to the power trips. Currently I’m working with one kid, who’s used to being in trouble, has a very wealthy family who is into politics and so thinks he’s better than everyone. We’ve secluded him, taken his blackberry, and making him write lines all afternoon. Then the big boss, my boss, will have a nice little chat with him tomorrow morning. Nancy already said caning was out of the question. Meh, different strokes, different folks.

So (grandma J) that’s an overall update of what I’ve been doing. I have two more weeks at this camp, then a week break, and then a second summer camp to finish. All the while looking forward to after the camp, with a change in working and seeing the parents come out to see Asia. I’ll have to start researching some fish head soups for Nancy to try out. Or chicken feet curries… Shouldn’t be a problem…

Glad to hear everyone is doing well, the kids are growing up and family is happy. I’ll be home for Christmas, so get ready. All donations for the “bring rob home” foundation are still being accepted. You can make checks payable to Nancy and Ralph Medina.

December and the Holidays

This latest blog will try to capture everything that has happened in the past couple weeks, which has been a lot.

We’ll start with the boring weeks I had in Surabaya, saving money and resting up for my travels over Christmas and the holidays beyond.  I spent two back-to-back weekends in Surabaya, doing literally nothing, wishing I could go somewhere fun for the weekend.  When an opportunity arose for me to go to Jakarta, I jumped, bought my ticket on Monday and flew out on Friday. I was excite to see Jakarta, and what it had to offer, because many people I know had gone there and talked about it. 

I chose to go on a long weekend, flying there and taking a train back to both save money and give me a chance to see the city longer than I had planned earlier (I will end up in Jakarta on Christmas, also).  I flew into the city, and went to the tourist street of Jalan Jaksa to get a room.  I had a friend I was meeting there, and he was nice enough to show me around the whole weekend.  It was a holiday, so Jakarta was abnormally quiet, and since it was a Muslim holiday and my friend is Christian, he had a weekend with nothing to do, and I had a weekend with local information.  It was a win win.

We started with a walk to the national monument Monas; a giant tower built in the middle of the city.  I believe it is part of the independence movement from the Dutch who colonized the country a while back.  After walking around there, we headed to Kota Tua, which is the old city.  It’s mainly known for the old decrepit Dutch architecture and a big tourist pull and place for the teens to hang out.  It is also a place where people come to take photos of themselves.  Indonesians are HUGE on self-portraits posing in front of things, or near things, or with their friends, or with their friends in front of things, holding things, next to things…  You get the point.  While there we saw some street performers, fire-breathers, and watched loads of people taking pictures of themselves. 

After that, we took the public bus system for a long ride south, just to get a perspective of the city, and enjoy the aircon busses.  It also is free to transfer back, so it’s a cheap, and effective way to see lots of the city.  One the way back we stopped at FX mall, which has some really cool stuff in it.  First, there are these hanging rooms, or sort of attached to the walls, where you can rent out the space for a meeting or party.  Also, when you walk in, there is the bottom of a slide.  The slide starts on the 6^th floor (or 7^th) and winds its way down through the center of the mall.  It’s pretty funny to just see a body fly through a brightly colored tube every once and a while.  Sadly, I didn’t want to pay to do it, nor did I trust it.  We walked around the mall, checking out the views of the city on the higher levels, and mainly realizing I am not a huge fan of malls, cause I don’t have the money or will to buy anything there.  Unless it’s books or technology. 

The next day we took the public bus to Taman Mini, which means Mini Park.  I was expecting to see a hilariously small version of all the different things Indonesia has to offer.  While my friend had told me nothing there is actually miniature, I completely ignored it, and was excited to see tiny buildings and little people.  When we got there, I realized what he meant, and was sadly mistaken on the “mini” aspect of the park.  What it meant was that it took the culture and buildings and everything of Indonesia and put it into a park.  Thus the “mini”.  They had churches, mosques, cathedrals, a castle?, an electric museum, technology museum, aquarium, etc.  They even had a water park.  The two main things I found interesting were the houses they had built around the park.  They had a section for nearly every major ethnic minority within Indonesia, and had typical houses built to show you what

 they looked like.  This means they had houses from North Sumatra, from Java, from Bali and even Papua.  Each house was built to scale, yet greatly differed on its design, décor, paint, and artwork.  It was pretty interesting to see the differences AND similarities that have arose around Indonesia.

We also took a cable car ride over the park.  In the middle of the park they have a huge man-made lake and a bunch of islands made into the shape of Indonesia.  As Indonesia is made up of over 17,000 islands, they obviously only focused on the main ones.  It still made for a cool view of the archipelago that can only really be seen from space, or really really far away.  It was a nice afternoon, albeit really hot. 

The last day, I acted as Indonesian as possible, and spent the morning and afternoon in the malls of Jakarta.  They have some unbelievable malls there, and we went to Grand Indonesia, Plaza Indonesia, and one or two others all in the same area.  They’re massive, ornate, and modern.  They have one mall where the different sections are world-themed based, so we got to see New York’s Time’s Square, Holland, Japan, China, etc.  They had another mall that’s for shopping at the high-class brand names (which is lame) but Dom would point out the local celebrities for me, who are easy to see.  They’re the young ones who look too cool and too rich, and like they’re trying really hard to stay too cool and too rich. 

The weekend flew by and then it was time to catch my train back to Surabaya.  15 hours of boring sitting in wishing it were more comfortable to sleep because from the station in the morning I went home, got ready for work, and spent 8 hours too tired to pay attention to the kids or my classes…  Overall it was a really good weekend, and I can’t thank Dom enough for showing me around.  It makes all the difference to have a local friend who can show you around, give you insight on a foreign city, and also make sure I’m not getting ripped off with everything I do.

I was home for 4 days, enjoying the last week of work, saying goodbye to my housemates for the holidays (and for good, as Anna went home, and I wasn’t coming back) and seeing everyone for dinners and trying to be as social as I could for how tired I was.  The week went by smoothly, and the last night I was able to sit with Mariam and Alexis, both teacher who knew I was leaving, and properly say goodbye to them.  I’ll miss my time in Surabaya, as I really had a fantastic time here.

Christmas morning I awoke for another 6 am flight to Jakarta, and spent the day in the malls again, as it’s really the only place to see and feel the Christmas spirit in Indonesia.  It’s cooler in the malls, and I even saw Santa, both Asian and Caucasian. I went to see Avatar in 3-D, went to Starbucks, and had dinner at Chili’s.  All in all, the most American I’ve felt in years, even more so then when I was at home, living IN America!

Following Christmas, I went to visit Astrid, a teacher at my school who happened to be there visiting her aunt and cousins.  I got to spend the next couple days with here exploring Bandung, which is where all of Jakarta goes on holiday (read: HORRIBLE TRAFFIC) and she let me hang out with her family, a concept I haven’t had in a while.  It was nice just hanging out with the cousins, aunts, cousin’s kids, and uncles.  We even had a big family dinner at the mall (of course), which was really nice, and got to play with Max and Michelle her two adorable send-cousins.  I got to see the touristy part of Bandung, and also to see some of her Uncle’s artwork.  He’s really well known in Indonesia and does lots of sculptures for hotels, government buildings, parks etc all over the country.  So it was nice to see his work up and around.

We also went to a crater, about an hour or two out of the city, and spend a nice day riding the motorbike around in the hills.  Bandung is cooler than Jakarta and so everyone likes to come to cool off.  The crater was nice, and it was fun hanging out with Astrid and her cousins for the day, racing the bikes around through the traffic and having some really great food.  Sadly, I only had two days in Bandung, and then I was off again, this time to Medan, in North Sumatra.  (Sumatra is another main island of Indonesia, to the west of Java, where I live.)

Medan is a major city in the north of Sumatra, and also north of the equator, which is cool, I guess… but feels the same all around.  I flew into Medan, another 6 am flight (I’m getting tired of them) got to the airport, got a taxi to the “bus station” got crammed into the back of a van holding 25 people, luggage on top, and spent the next 4-5 hours winding through the country on my way to Parapat, and the port for Lake Toba. 

Lake Toba is the largest volcanic lake in the world, I think, and the largest lake in South East Asia.  It’s really cool here, the weather is amazing, and rains at night and in the evenings, and is warm in the day, hot if you’re doing lots of walking.  The island I am on is really gorgeous, and it looks like Alaska, or what I would imagine Alaska to look like, if I ever go there.)  The mountains soar out of the lake about 800m and there are some cool waterfalls seen from the lake.  I have been here for a while, just taking it slow and doing things one day at a time.  The friend I met in Jakarta, Dom, is actually from this area, and by some unbelievable luck, is also here for the holidays to see his family.  He said home is boring, and offered to show me around Toba when he was able to, which has been a HUGE help.  He’s Batak, like the people in this area, and so once he speaks Batak to them (and they learn he’s not a foreigner like me) I get much much much better prices on rooms, and rentals and all sorts of stuff. I owe him big time. 

First he took me to the tomb of the last Batak king, which was, really cool, and made of stone.  We also went up to the north of the island, took a ferry across and then drove up to a viewpoint to be able to see all of the north part of the lake (and on a clear day, I guess you can see almost the whole lake from points).  He’s also secured me some great rooms that overlook the lake for 8-10 bucks a night.  It’s been a nice couple of relaxing days now.  He went back home for New Years, which was nice, because I had no excuse to drink, and spent New Years relaxing, watching movies, reading, and relaxing.  No big parties, no big drinking, just relaxing.  More proof I’m getting old.  FAIL!!!

After new years, I spent a couple more days hanging out around Lake Toba, seeing the island, and also going on a drive up to the top of a mountain in the north of the lake to check out the view.  We got a motorbike, drove to the north of the island, took a ferry across to the mainland and then drove to the top of the highest mountain.  The view was great, but on a clear day and good visibility would have been spectacular.

After Toba, I went up north to Berastagi, a small town heavy in local produce, a couple hot springs, and ringed by volcanoes.  It was a nice (and refreshingly cold) place to visit and relax a couple days.  The first day we went back to the tip of Toba to look at Sapiso-piso Waterfall, which is a really great waterfall that shoots out of the farmland into a big valley.  It was a nice waterfall to see, and we got to walk down to the bottom for some good views.  We also spend a day checking out a “park” and the hot springs that are near the volcano.  No point in going in them though, except if you want to get heat exhaustion…

Berastagi was nice, but soon it was time to head to Medan (3^rd largest city) and chill out in the city.  Some of Dom’s friends work there, so we ended up meeting up for dinner, hanging out and some karaoke, which is a national past-time.

Sadly, it’s back to work now, and the week has been dragging on slow as ever… it’s never easy after 2 weeks to get back into the work groove...

 

Lombok Weekend (Rinjani and the Gili's)

The start of the hike

This past weekend, I took some holiday to really extend my trip and see some of lombok Island, which is just east of Java... It is a really really nice place, and since it doesn't have an international airport (yet) it is still reletively pristine. Here's how the trip went.

The weekend before I had been to Bali, to party and surf with friends, and flown back monday morning, bright and early before work. Wednesday night, I took an overnight train to Banyuangi, a ferry to cross over to Gilimanuk (on Bali) and then a 3 hour bus ride into the heart of Bali. From there I jumped on the back of a motorcycle taxi for the hour plus trip to Padang Bai, where I met up with Mary (old friend visiting Indonesia) and took a 5 hour ferry accross to Lombok. Here we met out driver, who took us into town, let us swap bags so we only had to carry our little packs and then drove us to a mountain town, where we would be starting to trek the next day. All in all it was about 25 hours of travelling from when I left my town Surabaya, and got to Senaru in Lombok. Felt like days...

We then started the trek the next day, which pretty much involved 9 hours of an uphill climb to about 2700 meters. It was really tough, and I spent a lot of time taking breaks, panting, wishing it were easier and hoping the next restpoint would be around the next ridge in the hills. It was a hard hike. However, horrible cramps, breathless stops and lunch and a snack later, we reached the top at about 6 pm. We had left at 9 am. At the top of the crater rim (the mountain was actually higher, but we didnt have the time, or strength in my case, to summit it). the crater rim was a huge rim and valley inside that had been created when the old mountain volcano had been active. Now it had sunk down, and the lake was full of rainwater that had collected. However, the big attraction here is Gunung Baru, or New Mountain, because the active volcano inside the crater has already blown its top multiple times, and formed a wonderful little cone coming out of the lake. It was a fantastic view looking down into this crater at a heavily smoking and rumbling new volcano.

The view from the crater rim down

That night though was the special treat. At night, once the sun had set and the rain cleared, we checked the colvano to see LAVA coming down its side. Almost every day you can see the reddish glow of lava slowely flowing down the side of the volcano, and hear the thunderous rumbles of more activity. Sometimes at night, a huge smoke burst will erupt and you can see faintly some lava being shot into the air. I had never seen lava before, and even though we were so far away, it was an amazing sight.

In the morning, on the crater rim

We had our dinner, watched the volcano and fell asleep. At three AM, for a bathroom break I was awoken to a dazzling sky of stars, a lightning storm off in the east, and more rumbling and the chance to see some glowing red-orange lava. What a sight for 3am! Made it almost feel like you were back with the dinosaurs!

The hike down the next morning was 5 hours of downhill, which I took very slow as to not hurt my legs and/or knees and/or slip and fall. At the bottom, it started pouring rain, so the hiking got even slower and more dangerous, but luckily it was closer tot he bottom and not so steep.

With the volcano under our belt, we took a public bemo to the local paradise islands, the Gili's. The bemo is a public bus, whichi s more like a large van, with about 30 seats crammed into it. At our fullest, we counted about 38 men, women and children, not including all the luggage balanced on top and some people hanging off the sides or sitting on the roof. It's a hilarious way to travel around here, and you really get a better feel for daily life. You slowely wind through the local towns and villages, picking up women to sell their goods, families going to visit the next town, or people headed into the city to work. Tourists rarely take such transport (but its so cheap!) so they had fun watching us crammed in with the rest.

View from our lunch table

We got off at our stop, and made our way to the port to get a ferry to Gili Meno, which (we found out after we got there ) is known as Honeymoon Island, for its love couples and lack of a party scene. It was worth it, because we deserved a break after climing Rinani. We got a cheap room, layed on the beach for dusk and sunset and had a relaxing eve. The enxt day we hung out on the island, and took an afternooon ferry to the more populated island to check it out and get a taste of the different islands.

This island had a lot more people and backpackers, dive shops, bars, restaurants, drinking etc. While we could hardly partake in the festivities becuase I, for one, couldn't walk right after the climb, I looked like a cowboy mixed with someone who had recently broken their legs and started therepy. Stairs would make me stop in my tracks and go one at a time, needing to hold onto something, and slight inclines or declines in the road would scare me. It worked out though, and we saw another island, enjoyed the warm waters and relaxed.

Sunset on Gili T

We enjoyed our quick jaunt at the islands, but had another long day of transport ahead of us, ferries, busses, cars, etc. We met some cool South Africans on the long ferry to Bali, who even gave us a ride into town in their car, and we hung out the evening with them, sharing our love of Mexican food, and the only legit Mexican restaurant I've found in Asia so far. It was delicious.

I then flew back to Surabaya Tuesday morning, bright and early and have been struggling to stay awake at work. Luckily, the next two weekends I have nothing planned, so I think I will be relaxing, sleeping, and saving money.

The beach on Gili Meno, with Gili T in the background

Thanks for the package Shelley! Don't know about the dental hygeine slant, but thank you. The candy was delicious and the shirt is.. well, Ill be wearing that on casual Friday, for sure :)

Hope all is well with everyone else. Enjoy the holidays!!!