Idul Fitri
The Muslims holiday at the end of Lebaran (fasting month / Ramadhan) is a two-day celebration called Idul Fitri, which was on Thursday and Friday of last week. The city of Jakarta basically empties during the week of Idul Fitri. All the domestic workers that have come here from all over the country go home to their villages taking gifts and money to their families. We have been told that a normal 4 hour bus ride can take all day right before Idul Fitri because of all the people trying to leave. Trains, busses and any other kind of transportation are packed with people. People started to leave the city on Monday so traffic in Jakarta was great. The air even seemed a little less polluted.
Jogjakarta (also spelled Yogyakarta)
The boys happen to also have the week off because of their mid-semester break, so we decided to go on a vacation. We were going to go to Bali and had tickets and hotel reservations, but decided about a week before that we would go to Jogja instead. We got on the waiting list for a flight to Jogja for Tuesday, Nov. 1. We were told we wouldn’t know if we were on the flight until two days before. We were happy to get on the flight and we left Tuesday morning.
We had reservations at the Hyatt Resort and it was wonderful! We spent a lot of time at the pool which had a 70 meter waterslide and many other pools to swim around in. It was so beautiful. The boys couldn’t get enough of the waterslide and I couldn’t get enough of relaxing by the pool with a good book, sipping my new favorite drink, a pineapple smoothie! Creed was nice to swim with the boys and Mallory so much. Mallory loved the water and especially the waterfall in one of the pools. We all have sunburns to show how much we enjoyed sitting by the pool. As a special treat, on most days we ordered lunch poolside. The boys thought that was great.
While in Jogja, we hired a guide for three days to take us to several interesting places and explain everything to us. We enjoyed visiting the largest Hindu Temple in Indonesia, Prambanan, and the largest Buddhist Temple in the world, Borobudur (both temples were built around 800 – 850 AD and have been restored). It was horribly hot and we were dripping the entire time, but it was amazing to see these buildings that have been around for 1200 years. We also saw the Ramayana ballet (no pink slippers here, though). The story originates in India, I think, but it is pretty famous in Indonesia because the story is carved into the walls of the Prambanan temple. For a two hour show, I was impressed with how interested our boys were. It was very interesting to watch the story and see the traditional Indonesian dancers and the unusual way they move their body. There was also a live Indonesian ‘orchestra’ with traditional instruments like gongs, drums, and xylophone-like instruments. We really enjoyed that.
One morning our guide took us to the Kraton, which is the Sultan’s Palace (Sultan’s have reigned over the Jogjakarta region for several hundred years, but about 30 years ago they started holding elections for the governor of Jogjakarta, and the current Sultan is also the elected governor – imagine that!). Life inside this palace is very traditional. It was interesting to see all of the preparations they were making for Idul Fitri events. We also visited the local bird market, or as Creed said jokingly to our guide, the ‘bird flu market.’ Our guide assured us there was no bird flu, but while we were walking through it, I was on the nervous side. The place was filthy and smelled horrible. In addition to selling live birds, people were selling all sorts of fruits, vegetables, and animals – alive and dead. There were people with dead chickens sitting on tables. If you wanted to buy one or any part of one, the woman would chop it up right there and hand it to you. Flies were all over the chickens and who knows how long they had been sitting in the sun. I can’t imagine how many diseases were in that place. It gives me the heeby geebies just thinking about it. I just wanted to get out of there. The market wound all over the place and our guide was a typical islander on a leisurely walk. He, for some reason, assumed we all wanted to see that place. The boys did enjoy seeing all the different kinds of birds, snakes, insects, bats and the most pathetic looking squirrels I ever did see. It was interesting, but an experience I care never to repeat. Maybe if the whole bird flu thing wasn’t such an issue it would have been better.
We went downtown and walked around one night and did a little shopping/bargaining for a few little souvenirs. We were the entertainment for the night for most of the people walking by. We heard ‘bulai’ meaning ‘white person’ an awful lot. My Indonesian teacher taught me how to bargain in Indonesian so we were able to get some fair prices.
We went to a wonderful restaurant (restaurants here are always a gamble) one night. The menu had just about everything. Nash, our food-adventurous child, ordered the roast goose. He loved it! Grant ordered chicken teriyaki and Creed had the snapper. We all loved the atmosphere of this outdoor restaurant and the food.
On Friday, we visited a batik factory (batik is the traditional print on material and is used on clothing, scarves, table cloths, sarongs, everything) and saw how they make the prints with wax and dye. We bought a table cloth for the round table in the piano room. We also visited a silver shop and were shown how they make the fine filigree things that Jogja is known for. We then drove about 45 minutes to Parangtritis, a beach on the Indian Ocean. Very odd experience. We arrived and there were so many people at the beach it looked like it was crawling with a bunch of ants. People were swimming in their clothes, sitting on the beach, flying kites, riding their motorcycles on the beach, everything. We, again, were the entertainment for all of the Indonesians. We were the only white people for miles. Nash and I just wanted to get out of there but Creed wanted to find something to do to justify the fact that we had just driven 45 minutes to get there. Not only are we spectacles to people here, but the fact that we have a baby with very blue eyes makes us even more unusual. Everyone was pointing at us and some people were following us. Indonesians have no shame in completely staring at you. Even if you look straight back at them, they won’t move their eyes until they are finished looking. It’s very uncomfortable to me. Anyway, Grant and Luke wanted to ride on a pony and Creed wanted to stay and take some pictures and look around. There were these little two-wheeled carriages pulled by a horse and for $1.50 per cart (which was probably the ‘white person’s’ price) we could get a 15 minute ride down the entire beach and back. Luke and Grant begged to have a ride so Nash and I stood there wanting to run away while Creed went with the other two. When they came back they were all smiles. They loved it and wanted to go again so we got 2 carriages and everyone went. It was fun to ride, and Mallory thought it was great.
Needless to say, it wasn’t the most pleasant beach experience and we will never go there again, but at least we went.
Home Again
We came home from Jogja Saturday morning and our staff was here waiting for us. They had already cleaned the house and turned on the A/C’s for us before we arrived so the house was cool. I was happy to see them and they seemed so much happier now that the fasting month is over (aren’t we all HE HE HA HA). Warsi had all of our laundry washed and put away before we went to bed. What a life.
On Saturday we also went to the mall, saw ‘Chicken Little’, Nash and Creed got haircuts and we picked up some presents for Mallory’s birthday.
We all had a wonderful holiday. We are sad to have to get back to reality. We are being slammed with it, actually. The boys are all on different baseball teams and Creed said he’d be willing to help coach if they needed him. Guess what, between Creed and I, we are coaching all three teams! What have we gotten ourselves into? Between the practices and games, we are going to have very little free time for the next few months. It will be fun to be with the boys, though.
We are excited to start planning our trip to Hong Kong Disneyland in December. We are excited to meet up two families from our Canton ward that now live in China and go to Disneyland and spend a few days in Hong Kong.
Millers in Shanghai
