Lombok, Indonesia

I interrupt the recent posts of Sri Lanka to share about a trip from the beginning of the school year... I found it as a draft in my list of blog posts, almost completely written.  so I added a few sentences and captions, and decided to post it... mainly for my own purpose... so that I remember the details that I'm sure I will forget.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I will when I look back on it to remember.

I feel like I have barely settled in at my new home and school, and it's already time for a holiday.  Once I'm a little more settled in, I'll show you around my new home.  

Because we are in a predominately Muslim country and Ramadan is ending, we had a week off for Lebaran. This season is similar to the Christmas season back home.  Tons of shopping sales.  Decorations everywhere.  Everyone traveling somewhere.  I wanted to be a part of the travelers, but still be able to have time at home to prepare for school next week.  I asked Janna and a new SPH friend, Janis, if they wanted to take a trip.  After talking with a number of other teachers who have traveled, we decided to take a trip to Lombok, which is two islands over from my island (Java).  It has excellent beaches and a volcano, Mt. Rijani. 

Friday evening we bought our plane tickets.  Indonesia has a system where you do everything from the ATM.  So when we couldn't pay online via credit card since it was so last minute, we made quite a few trips down the fifty stories of my building to the ATM to transfer money, attempt to set up online banking, and finally directly transfer money to the airline.  Super sketchy, but it's the way they do it here.  

After buying our tickets, we needed something to do on Lombok.  Our first choice: hike Mt. Rijani.  Every time I told someone that I wanted to do it, they commented how difficult it is.  But we were totally willing to try!  All the online reviews recommended a company called Rudy Trekker for hiking up.  We emailed Rudy, requesting a trek, and within ten minutes, he responded.  Saturday we confirmed that he had space for us! 

So Sunday evening, we hopped on the plane for our last minute trip to Lombok!

Janis and I at the airport ready to go!

 Rudy Trekker picked us up from the airport and put us up in a hotel Sunday night. A hotel where there was no electricity.  It was great getting ready for bed using headlamps and candles for light!

Monday morning, Rudy made us banana pancakes and omelettes for breakfast and we headed out!

At first the going was easy.  We walked through the foothills towards the volcano.

But the gentle hills were a tease.  I was in for the hardest hike I have ever done.  We read online that much of the hike consists of 50-80 degree angles.  And that was not a lie.  Once we started up the mountain, we went straight up.  The worst part, was that much of the hike was on gravel.  One step forward, and I would slide backward.  At some points, I was scared for my life.  The 80 degree slope ahead of me with no foot holds, no plants to grasp, and no end in sight made me want to give up.  In pain and on the verge of tears, our guide, Abul, grabbed my hand and pulled me up.  His sure footing, encouragement, and strong hand enabled me to continue forward.

I couldn't help but compare that experience to what God does for me.  He knows what is next.  He knows how much we can handle.  He knows where to step.  He has the strongest hand and will pull us along when we think we have no more strength.  I praise God for giving me the strength to continue up the mountain.  And for this experience that reminds me of His faithfulness.

It is hard to capture the steep hills that we traveled, but here's an attempt.

Abul, our guide

Janis, Janna, Abul, and Joel (the other guide) and I

I really felt like I could trust Abul.  At one point, he left a break much later than the rest of us.  No one was following immediately behind, and I was nervous.  But not to long later, he was right here, offering assurance, and I felt so much better about the trip.  His advice was incredible!  He told how to take a step up the steep gravel hills.  Said which path would offer better support.  Warned us of the dangers ahead to prepare us.  I learned quickly to follow his advice, because he was always right.  

This guy, he didn't listen to his guide.  He ran past us on one of the trips down the gravel paths.  RAN.  Stupid.  Janis's words as he blew right past us: "He's gonna bif."  Not five seconds later, we saw his feet in the air.  Ten minutes down the path, he sat off to the side, bloody and bruised.  Stupid.

Sweaty mess

With the exception of the last couple hours on the first day when Abul had to drag me up the mountain, the trip was fabulous.  I was sweatier than I have been in ages.  Dirtier than I have ever been during a hike.  And more struck by God's creation than I ever remember.  

During the trip up, there was a ton of cloud cover.  It was sad that we couldn't see the beautiful view, but I guess we really needed to focus on hiking, not the view.  But the view from the top made up for all that we thought was a disappointment.  We made it to the rim of the volcano in time for sunset. Sitting above the clouds, we watched the sun set and the stars come out.

 

The view from my tent.  Be jealous.

The plan for day two was to get up at 2:30am and hike to the summit of the mountain to watch the sun rise.  But the majority of that trek consists of straight up gravel.  While the idea of that view sounds wonderful, knowing how well I did on day one with gravel, and knowing that I still had two full days of hiking without adding this sunrise hike, Janna and I opted to stay at camp while the rest of the group went to the summit.  We saw them off at 3:00, went back to bed.  Woke up for the sunrise, which was just as beautiful as the sunset.  We got to see the view that was covered with clouds the night before, and it was breathtaking!  Then, we went back to bed as we waited for our team to come back down. Lazy?  Nah.  We just wanted to save our energy for the rest of the hike.  And when they came down and admitted how hard and fun-less it was, were were happy to have spent the time together at camp.  

iPhones can take some great photos

After breakfast, we packed up and started down into the crater towards the lake.  While day one consisted of straight up, day two was straight down.  Thankfully, not on gravel, but on rocks.  I have never been so grateful for large, pointy rocks and drop offs of a hundred feet.  They beat gravel any day.  

The majority of the morning had cloud cover so we could not see our destination, the lake.  But as we neared the bottom, the clouds lifted.  The view below is the first glimpse of the lake as we rounded the bend on our final leg down.

We got to have lunch at the lake.  For about five minutes we had a beautiful view.  Then the clouds came in, like always! As the porters cooked lunch (I'll tell you about these guys later), we took a short walk around the bend to the hot springs.  Amazing!  Our tired legs received a much needed rest.  And we washed off some of the dust and grime (because we were covered!)  As we got back to the lake for lunch, it started to rain.  But like most tropical rains, it lasted all of twenty minutes.  And it stopped by the time we were ready to leave!

This was the view for five minutes before the clouds came in

Hot springs, so relaxing!

 Let me just tell you about Ruddy Trekker.  They provide everything.  Porters to carry everything.  They carry tents, and chairs, and food, and water, and even our packs when we are too weak.  They give us snacks at every stop.. the best of which are BengBengs.  (Though... we found them in the airport on the way home, and they are not nearly as good when you are not hiking and exhausted.)

 The porters do the hike about seven times a month.  They typically arrive at the campsite before us and have our meal already cooking.  They feed us so much!  Our first lunch: a three course meal.  Salad, spaghetti, and piles of fruit. I typically don't eat much besides granola bars and carrot sticks when I am hiking, but not wanting to be rude, I tried to eat as much of each feast as I could.  When we finished eating, they cleared our plates, cleaned the dishes, and packed up the chairs as we continued hiking.  But we are much slower then they are, so within a little while, they would catch up, pass us, and make it to the next stop well before we would.

Three servings of spaghetti on each of our plates.

We didn't ever set up anything... the porters did it all!

Below is a picture of a porter.  He has a large bamboo stick on his shoulder.  On each end he has tied a basket or a pile of tents/chairs.  He hikes in flip flops.  He chain smokes the entire time.  And we always had to move aside to let them through because we are way too slow for them.

The second and third days of the trip were not nearly as difficult as the first one.  I never wanted to give up.  I never felt like I was going to die.  Yes, some parts felt like a stair-master.  And some parts were jumping across little cliffs.  And some parts were rock climbing up along a drop-off.  But that was fun... compared to the volcanic ash.

Volcanic ash... and actually the entire Rinjani experience, has become the standard by which I base the rest of my hikes off of... didn't realize how intense it was until I got there!  But it was totally worth it!

So. Much. Dirt.

Pre-dinner: Banana fritters with chocolate (yum) and cheese (not so much)

Ruddy Trekker... so much awesome in one small price

Our team was awesome!  I'm realizing that the traveling-and-backpacking-and-hiking-people are generally pretty awesome all around.  This group was especially special to hike with.  We had a British couple, French guy, French-Canadian guy, and then Janna and Janis (who is also Canadian).  They became my family for those three days, and I enjoyed every minute with them.  Every laugh... and lots of them!  Every cry out in pain.  Every egg we ate at every meal.  I wouldn't have traded these guys for anything!  I'm trying to plan a trip to KL to visit the British couple who teach there... hoping that works out!  

Our main man Rudy, who booked us one day in advance.. Thanks!

Team, guides, and porters

After our three days hiking like crazy, we went to the beach to rest our legs, eat some pizza, take a swim, and sit in the sand.  It was the perfect way to re-group for a day before taking our sore legs back to Jakarta.

Sri Lanka: Sigiriya: Only a Thousand Steps

Before I tell you more about how awesome all the stuff we did was, I want to tell you about who made this trip so awesome.  This man's name is Presanne.  (Pronounced Pee-Sawn-Ne).  We went through a company called Journey Lanka.  We told them what we wanted to do, they gave us a sample itinerary, we okayed it, and they booked all our hotels for us, which included breakfast and dinner.  We thought that was a great thing.  Then, we meet our driver.  Now, you know when you meet someone and at first it's a little awkward, because you know you'll be spending lots of time with them but you don't know them yet... well, that's how it was with Presanne... like when he randomly took us to his friend's house to go bathing.... see an earlier post to hear that story!

Well, the more we traveled with Presanne, the more amazing things we discovered about him.  Our last night in Sri Lanka, as we sat beach-side eating chicken and mashed potatoes, banana splits, and wine to celebrate Jon's birthday, we made up a list of twenty-five reasons why Presanne is amazing and wrote them in his comment book.  He is a sari-wrapper.  He is a crazy-bus avoider. He is a tour guide.  He carries you when you are weak.  He speaks multiple languages.  And that's just five of the reasons.... But you get the idea.

He would randomly pull off the side of the road, take us over the cliff bank and down a path to find a hidden waterfall.  He made sure we got good deals when we bought stuff from tourist trappers.  And he always, always gave us good advice that kept us having a wonderful, safe time.

So, if you are ever headed to Sri Lanka (and I seriously recommend it), let me know and I'll give you his name and number, so that you can have the same awesome experience we had.


The place I put on my to-do list for Sri Lanka the minute I decided I would go there and then actually looked up what there would be to do there, was Sigiriya.  Sigiriya is a fortress that a king built on top of an odd rock formation in the 300s AD.  Now it is just ruins, but they have set up some semi-safe steps getting to the top where the king used to live.  Our guide told us all about the history, about the 500 wives that the king had painted on the walls, the wall of mirrors to reflect these paintings, the water-holding bins, the toilets, drainage system, stage, throne, and every other tid-bit of information.  We didn't originally want a guide (but Presanne insisted, so he paid for him), but it turned out to be such a wonderful addition to our time at Sigiriya.

Now, what made this the best place to have a fortress is that the rock is about 200 m high, and has about a thousand steps to get to the top.  My legs were burning by the time I reached the top... And as I thought forward to our trip to Adam's Peak a few days later, I wondered how I would do that one, all FIVE thousand steps... but, we made it to the top of Sigiriya, took some sweet pictures, learned more history, and headed back down the steep stairs.

On our way down, we passed a little boy, who was not too thrilled about the thousand steps.  His cry of "How many more STEPS!" became our cry for the rest of the trip when we were frustrated or looking for a good laugh.  Mostly the good laugh part, because there really were not very many frustrating parts at all!

Favorite picture. Hands down.

It felt like those little guys were a lot closer than the picture makes it look like

A special thanks to Jon and Janna and Lauren for their fantastic photo skills on this trip. It would not be as well photographed without them.

Sri Lanka: Temples and Palaces

When you go to another country, one of the things you just gotta do is go to the temples and historical sites.  So, we did.  We visited temples, ancient palaces, and an ancient wonder of the world, called Sigiriya.  

During these little stops, Presanne (our driver) would get a guide for us.  The guides he picked out for us to hire were so knowledgeable!  They taught us so much about each of the places that we went.  Each time we got there and he suggested a guide, we hesitated.  But each time we did, it was definitely worth it!  One time, we declined getting a guide.  But Presanne, knowing we were all teachers, felt like it would really benefit us.  So he paid for the guide.  Once again, extreme hospitality.  And a guide who has our best interests in mind.

One of our stops was to the ruins of the ancient palace.  We sat on the king's lounge, danced on the entertainment stage, dove into the pool, and sat on the king's "throne."

It's fascinating to see the ways different cultures honor their gods.  I've seen Buddhist temples in a number of countries, and each are different.  The Chinese use a lot of bright red hues in their temples.  Thais use gold, everywhere.  In Sri Lanka, most of the temples (at least the ones we saw) were stark white, which really stood out against the blue sky.  Inside the temples, however, where the actual Buddha statues were, they were quite colorful.  

We typically had to take off our shoes before going onto the grounds of any of the temples.  And in the heat of the day, that meant our feet almost burnt... many a times.  After we finished these temples, Presanne suggested we visit some others, but we declined, hoping to save our feet for the other strenuous walking we knew we would be doing later on the trip.

One of the temples that we went to later during the week was further up in the mountains. This temple was carved out of  some  caves. If I understood correctly, the statues were carved directly out of those rocks!  It was fascinating to see all the Buddhas in these caves, so different than the brightly pained ones elsewhere, but nonetheless beautiful. 

The hard part about visiting temples is that we see hundreds of lost people, searching for meaning and life in a false god.  They offer sacrifices, say prayers, walk on the hot pavement multiple times, hoping to be seen by their god.  It reminds me how important my job is, teaching young children the truth.  So that they, in turn, can share with their families, who worship in this way.

A special thanks to Jon and Janna and Lauren for their fantastic photo skills on this trip. It would not be as well photographed without them.

Sri Lanka: Blue Skies and Hospitality

Our week-long fall break this year took me to Sri Lanka.  I had a friend in high school who was from Sri Lanka, and I had seen her pictures, eaten her delicious food, and experienced her genuine friendliness.  So when one of the other teachers invited me to come along, I of course said yes!

Janna and I booked our tickets for Sri Lanka before we even left the States, so this was really a surreal experience when we finally got there.  

Getting there was an adventure.  Our flight to Colombo (the capital of Sri Lanka) flew out of Singapore, which we were very excited for, so that we could enjoy a few Western comforts on our way through.  But the only flight we could get to Singapore gave us about an hour in Singapore airport... and in that time we would have to get through customs, immigration, check in again, and then get through security... wonderful.  On the taxi to the airport in Jakarta, we were talking about our plan of action, when we realized that Jon and Lauren's tickets to Sri Lanka were a later flight, so they wouldn't have to rush.  How our flight managed to get changed, I have no idea, but I'm blaming it on KAYAK.  

Our flight got into Singapore on time, but sitting in the back of the plane, we didn't get off very quickly.  I've always wondered about the people who run through airports, and I finally realized what they feel like.  We got to the check in counter, and they had closed check in... so no flight for us!  We asked about the later flight that Jon and Lauren were on, and that was completely booked.  When we checked online to see about finding more tickets, the only seats available on any airline were thousand dollar business class seats.  

In our frustration, Janna looked at me and asked to pray.  She asked God to show His power.  Asked Him to really do something awesome.  In my head, I doubted.  I didn't think that God would actually do something to get us on.  I was trusting in chance.  

We decided to have a seat in the coffee shop, treat ourselves to a taste of fall--pumpkin spice lates. And believe me, that totally made up for the missed flight.  We decided to go on standby for the flight Lauren and Jon were on.  So all morning we waited.  Into the afternoon we waited.  And we got two tickets for the flight!

We get through security, make it to the gate, meet up with Jon and Lauren.  We checked our tickets to see where we were sitting.  Janna and I had the pair of seats right behind Jon and Lauren.  And that, my friends, is God using His power to pour out little blessings on His children, just because they have faith that He can.

We made it to Sri Lanka, met our driver, and started in on the best trip I have ever been on.  Seriously, the next few blog posts that I share with you are a glimpse into the best week I've ever had, at least in recent memory.  I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I enjoyed the actual trip... though I don't think that's possible.  So you'll just have to take a trip to Sri Lanka yourselves.  

The first night we stayed in Negumbo, a coastal city a little north of Colombo.  Our hotel was a short distance from the beach, so we were able to watch this beautiful sunset over the ocean.  Such a wonderful first night.  

The next morning, our driver, Presanne (more about him later), took us around the city to see some sights.  The beach, Hindu temples, a harbor, fisher's market, colonial church, and old jail.  It was fascinating to hear a little about the culture and history of the country.

Colors.  Amazing vibrant colors.

Keeping the offerings looking beautiful

One of the best things about Sri Lanka, we realized quickly, is the abundance of blue sky.  Everywhere. In Jakarta, we get haze.  We're lucky if we can make out a cloud formation.  But here, so many beautiful shades of blue and big fluffy clouds.

Hiring a driver can be kind of expensive.  But when you see the public transportation, you realize how blessed you are to have a personal driver.  Here is a bus.  We affectionately  named them Crazy Buses.  The Crazy Buses were everywhere.  In the city they were crazy.  In the country they were crazy. Flying around the curves in the mountains, they would end up on two wheels, almost hitting multiple cars as they passed others.  I will never, EVER, get on a Crazy Bus.  I will walk... though if there are Crazy Buses around, I don't even know how much safer that would be.

On our way out of Negombo, we traveled through the plains, full of fruit farms.  This being said, there were countless little shops along the way selling the delicious fruit.  We stopped at one and had ourselves some fresh coconut, mango, and wood apple (which I was NOT a fan of).  The rest of it, delicious!

We were on our way to a safari at a national park, but had a few hours to kill.  So Presanne took us to a friend of his sister's friend... so something along those lines.  There's a lake a short distance from the house, and Presanne suggested we go "bathing."  Ummmmm... But realizing that they all speak Australian English, we figured this bathing meant swimming... at least we hoped.  So we changed in the reeds along the edge of the lake and took a dip in the lake.  

Partway through our time at the lake, this woman graced us with her presence, taking a bath and washing her sarong.  Ladies and gentle men, traditional Sri Lankan life. 

After swimming, the family invited us in to eat.  We were just expecting to try one vegetable that we had talked about earlier, but found ourselves with a table full of home made Sri Lankan food.  It was delicious!  

What was even more special was the hospitality we experienced.  This family didn't know us at all.  But they allowe us to swim.  They invited us into their home, which the husband has been building for the last 17 years.  They prepared a huge meal for us.  It was such a beautiful experience, one that I use when someone asks me what my favorite part of the trip was.  There were no other tourists, hefty entrance fees, hawkers trying to sell handicrafts, or overpriced curry.  Just a family who wanted to make a few American travelers feel welcome in their country and in their home.

A special thanks to Jon and Janna and Lauren for their fantastic photo skills on this trip. It would not be as well photographed without them.