Some background on this important but neglected country by western media. Indonesia is not Indochina, not Malaysia, and not the Philippines. It is a nation which is several times the land area of Texas, consists of 17,000 islands (most of which are uninhabited) and has a population of 245 million residents. About half a dozen Islands are large, populous, and well known. Java is the most populous with 60% of Indonesia’s people. We visited the large city of Semarang on Java. We visited the small town of Kuta Beach on the island of Bali whose people are mostly Hindu, unlike the Muslim majority. Sumatra is a larger Island with some political turmoil, hence not visited by cruise ships for the last several years. Komodo Island is the home of the ancient and largest lizard on earth and a large national park.
Many of the staff on board are Indonesian. The day before our docking, they were brimming with pride. Our cabin steward’s family owns a coffee plantation in Sumatra. The coffee in Indonesia was very strong with much sediment in the bottom of the cup when finished, yet great taste and no bitterness or acidity. The night after our visit, we had an Indonesian night with local food and the ship’s officers in full local dress. That local dress night was a first for the cruise.
Komodo Island
Today, our excursion was to Komodo National Park on Komodo Island which at just 150 square miles has a prehistoric-feeling; probably because that’s where 1300 Komodo Dragons live. They are the largest lizard in the world. They can grow up to ten feet long, see objects as far away as 985 feet, have an incredible sense of smell and a venomous bite. They rely on their sense of smell to detect food, using their long, forked tongues to sample the air. They can smell blood up to two miles away so anyone with a cut CANNOT come onto the island.
The island is actually called a rainforest, but I call it a jungle. There was a path for walking; however, off the path was nothing but thick brush and trees and hiding lizards. We were a group of 25 with three guides with sticks that looked like pitch forks to keep us safe (ha). No fences and these lizards roam freely. We saw at least a dozen. They are protected and it is their home. They eat any kind of meat, although their primary source of food is boar, deer, goats and chickens. I had to see these guys because when would I ever have the chance again? However; I was exceptionally happy when this tour ended.
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Kuta Beach, Bali Island
We docked early morning in Bali with dancers and music greeting us. It’s hot/humid and those dancers have on full makeup and never a drop of sweat. In my mind, I was expecting clean, beautiful streets with colorful buildings and the song Bali Hai playing in the background. We walked off the ship to a market located right behind the terminal. We were looking for an ATM to get some Rupiah which is the local currency. The vendors were so aggressive; you just didn’t want to look at anything they had. They really try to put the blouses, jewelry, purses on your person and just expect that you’ll pay for whatever it is so it’s a real struggle to look while not getting to close. We decided to go outside the market to look for the ATM. That’s when we had to get through the gauntlet of taxi drivers – OMG. They would follow us for a block or so giving us every reason to take a ride with them. We politely declined and pushed our way through. We reach our destination and then realize neither of us remembers the PIN. Back to the ship we go, again through the taxi drivers. We have lunch, load our backpack and head out again to face the taxi drivers to get to the ATM. Finally, we get some Rupiah and I go back and buy a blouse. It’s traditional to negotiate the price in Indonesia. Neither of us is very good at that. Just tell us what the price is and that’s what we expect to pay. I’m sure we got ripped off but I did get my blouse.
Time to hop our bus for a Kuta Beach Sunset and Shopping excursion. We have 4 hours to do what we want in Kuta Beach. It’s dirty, sidewalks are in really bad shape and the curbs are at least 12 inches high. There are hundreds of motor scooters everywhere, some with families of 4-5 people and a row of shopping bags hanging off the back end. The ones not on the road are parked in layers along the sides of roads. Most adults wear helmets; children not so much. These scooters zip in and out and around both sides of the lane of traffic and I’ve never seen anything like it. You can rent one of these for $5 for 24 hours. It was a bit easier to just walk; not too bad until you had to cross the street with cars and scooters going every which way.
We headed for the beach. It was pretty crowded with people of all ages and there was everything on this beach; clothes, food, drinks, fish and more scooters. It was very overcast so there was no sunset to be seen and we just kept on walking. We explored every little alley and street. Walked by many temples, all behind fences. We saw some of the crew from our ship in a coffee café so we went in. The first thing they said was “can we buy you a cup of coffee”? The crew is amazing. All are from countries where there are no jobs so they leave families for 6-8 months at a time to earn a living and here they are asking if they can buy us coffee. They really do become your family and we’ve become pretty attached to many of them. They had to get back to the ship and we had to get back to spending some of our Rupiah.
We found a 4-story department store on par with Macy’s. All the workers wear uniforms and they don’t approach you unless you ask for help. We bought 2 woven, colorful, quality belts for $3.50 each…yup. One street had all the high end sport clothing stores; Under Armor, Polo, Billabong, and Quicksilver. Most buildings were in a state of disrepair or needing repair. There are no parks, no greenery or benches to sit on, pretty disappointing. We stopped in a high-end chocolate stop and picked out a few and decided to have coffees to go with it. We sat outside under an awning and watched the people, scooters and the man on the corner selling ears of grilled corn. Pretty soon it started to rain, then it poured and rained and poured some more. We decided since we had such a great seat, we’d get something to eat and stay put. This chocolate shop actually had strips of chicken nuggets w/french fries that we shared. Not traditional Bali cuisine, but the ships officiers warned us not to drink the water, be careful not to get canned soda drinks with ice (made from tap water), and generally no food. Fried food should be free of bad bugs, if served hot as ours was. It was great and we stayed dry UNTIL the time came when we had to get back to our bus. We were given ponchos but decided to use our umbrellas; probably a mistake because we were soaked and had to sit on the air-conditioned bus for almost an hour.
Bottom line: Bali Hai was not what we were expecting but was very interesting.
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Semarang, Java
This was a most glorious day! We were up early to catch a bus which took us to a Train Museum. We were able to hop on and off the locomotives until we were exhausted. Took about 40 minutes. Then a real train comes down one of the tracks which we board for a trip across one of the working areas of Java. This train is like what you see in the old movies, seats made out of wooden slats, no doors and no glass in the windows. Couples sit across from each other sticking elbows and head out the window. It moaned and groaned as we rode the rails. I expected to see Cary Grant or William Holden walk down the aisle any minute.
We saw groves of teak, mahogany, bamboo and acacia trees. We saw where the poor live, then we saw where the wealthy live. We saw a school with kids maybe 2-3 years old who had smiles from ear to ear when we returned their waves. We saw houses that pretty much looked uninhabitable. We saw no overweight people; only weathered from the sun. We rode through rice patties, huge rice patties where the owners were harvesting and planting but they too had time to stand up straight and wave to us, all with smiles. The farmers start out with small plots of land to harvest and as they make money, they invest in another piece of land. They will never be rich but they have enough to feed their families. They harvest black, red, white, long grain and sticky rice. Next to the rice patties was a very large lake with boats of every description, all fishing for dinner and with any luck, maybe extra to sell. On the side of the tracks were pieces of grass laid out for drying. The women use this to weave mats and baskets. It was eye opening.
At the end of the line, we hopped back into the bus which took us to a coffee plantation which was so much more. We started walking through groves of trees. We saw bread fruit, casabas, jack fruit, dragon fruit, banana trees of which they grow over 200 varieties. Then we got to the spice trees; nutmeg, cloves, ginger and lemon grass. Then came the cacao trees laden with chocolate pods, not yet ready for picking.
Finally, we walk up a hill to the see the coffee trees, then taken into the roasting and cool down area. We’re given roasted beans with brown sugar pods to eat. We are used to the roasted beans covered with chocolate so this was a new experience, but not bad. They package and sell the coffee on site as well as distribute.
The last grove we strolled through was the rubber tree. Yes, they have a rubber processing plant on the premises. After viewing the process and then the packaging, we watched how they slice the tree on a diagonal half way around the tree. They attach a cup and scrap the cut they made and out comes the liquid rubber. Now to keep it liquid, they do this from 2 to 5am in the morning when it’s cool. The next day they make a second diagonal cut and a third on the day after. Then they do the same on the other side of the tree. By weeks end, the first side is healed and the process starts over. This is done for 35 years, and then the tree is cut down for fire wood.
There is nothing modern about any of their processes. They have a minimal staff that does everything and yet the fruit gets picked, the coffee gets roasted and the rubber gets processed every day.
After all the touring, we are escorted into a great hall where we are served coffee, tea and baked goods and asked to sit down and relax. Three beautiful Indonesian girls enter from a side door to entertainment us with a welcoming dance. This day was most amazing for so many reasons.
