Why didn't you just say so?

Here’s the scene: John and I are at one of our favorite restaurants, a dim-sum place. A popular drink here is a lime squash, which is basically lime juice, sugar, and club soda. We ordered two lime squashes and they brought us two lemon squashes. The whole conversation was in Indonesian, by the way.

Hillary: We ordered lime squashes.

Waitress: Yes, lime squash.

Hill: This is lemon, not lime.

Waitress: Lemon?

Hill: Yes, this is lemon. We ordered lime.

Waitress: Yes, lime squash.

Hill: But this is not lime, this is lemon. Lime is green, lemon is yellow. (Pointing to the lemon slice in the drink) This is lemon. We ordered lime.

Waitress: Lemon squash?

Hill: No, see here on the menu? (Pointing) We ordered lime squash. See? Lime squash.

(She brings over another waitress and we go through the charade again.)

Lemon. Lime. Lemon. Lime etc.

(She finally brings a manager over. He is holding a lemon.)

Manager: This is a lemon.

Hill: Yes.

Manager: Different than lime, yes?

Hill: Yes.

Manager: We are out of limes!

Hill: Oh, I see. Thank you.

Only in Indonesia would it take 20 minutes to get to that point!

Brooke comes to visit

We finally had our first visitor! My sister made it halfway around the world to see us and check out Indonesia. When I met her at the airport, you never would have guessed she'd just been traveling for almost 30 hours. What a trouper! We left the very next day for 5 nights in Bali and had a great time. Perfect weather the whole trip. One highlight was this amazing hidden beach we discovered (with a little help). The area is famous with surfers, although it is reef-protected, so the waves break far from shore and keep the water crystal clear and perfect for swimming!

Towards the center of the large island of Bali is a town called Ubud, which is Bali's cultural area. Lots of art, dance, rituals, performances, etc happen here. First thing on our agenda? The Monkey Forest, of course! This is a dedicated area that surrounds old Hindu temples deep in the forest. It is inhabited by a TON of long-tailed macaque monkeys. They are not shy, and will do anything to get food from you. One of them rummaged through my sister's purse and stole off with her entrance ticket! In the photo below, you can see one of them starting to take Brooke's sunglasses off her head. Just like that, the monkey had them in its hands and took off, disappearing over a wall with them. Apparently, sunglasses are their favorite thing to steal after food!After Bali it was back to Jakarta for 4 more nights before Brooke went home. We spent the time relaxing, taking her to some of our favorite spots to eat, and of course got her a massage. So what's next? She just might come visit again next year!

Not Quite 40 days and 40 nights

Jakarta is a big city. It's also a low-lying coastal city. As Jakarta continues to grow in sprawl, forests are replaced by roads and houses. And roads and houses don't soak up water.

Two nights ago, our friend Brent arrived and we took him out for dinner. By the time we got home at around 11 p.m., it had started to rain...hard. The rain didn't stop until the next afternoon around 3 p.m. In around 16 hours, Jakarta got a month's worth of rain according to some news reports. That spells bad news.

The airport reopened today, but there's no way to reach it because all the roads to it are still flooded. Over 40 flights had to turn around and go back yesterday. We're praying that since the rain seems to have stopped, our friends coming in late tonight

won't have any problems.

Yesterday many neighborhoods of Jakarta had water that was around 3 feet deep. This happens every year, but construction still runs rampant and apparently someone thinks it would be a waste of money to make drainage improvements. T.I.I.

Yogya, Yogyakarta

The weekend before Christmas we flew to Yogyakarta (pronounced Joeg-Jakarta), commonly regarded as the cultural capital of Indonesia. Yogya (as it's usually called) is the heart of Javanese culture. It's still ruled by a Sultan who fills the role taken by a democratically elected governor in the other provinces. The streets are full of becak, tiny carts powered by bicycles that everyone takes for transportation. It's a city full of artists and musicians, so it was really a great place to visit for a weekend. We also ate the best Indonesian food we've found here.

Not only is it home to amazing culture of recent centuries, it's also the site of ancient wonders of the world. Only 25 miles from Yogya is Borobudur, the largest Budhist temple in the world and 12 miles in the other direction is Prambanan, an enormous 9th century Hindu temple complex (you really should click the links and read about them on Wikipedia). They were very cool to see.

We had heard that the best way to visit Borobudur is to arrive early enough that you can watch the sunrise over the volcano nearby. On our way in to town, a few locals followed us to our hotel on their motorcycles and offered to take us to a nearby village in the morning to watch the sunrise for a fraction of the price of the sunrise admission to Borobudur. We weren't worried about the cost, but we decided to go with them.

When they took us out to the village the next morning, in the distance on a hilltop we saw this large church. We asked them to take us there and after an adventurous trek, we arrived at this abandoned church. The thing was shaped like a giant chicken! We couldn't make it up even if we tried.

Conservation

Indonesia is home to the most biodiversity in the world. The government is trying to take steps to prevent all sorts of environmental catastrophes. One tragedy that no one has yet addressed affects us greatly.


The menu shortage.


When you go to a restaurant (even one that caters to expats and rich Indonesians), you'll be lucky to get one menu per customer. Even if you order an appetizer and say you're going to order more food in a minute, you'll have to fight to keep your menu. And god forbid if you're at a bar and you want to save the one drink menu for your friends who haven't yet arrived. After you spend long enough in a place, these small things start to wear on you.


So please people, think of the menus.


T.I.I.

This is Indonesia

I realize that we've been a little remiss in talking about life here in general. We've had some amazing travel, which is always fun to talk about, but I hope this new series will be entertaining.

When you live in a place like Indonesia, a lot of the time, things just don't make sense. Those of us who live here use a few phrases so that we can just shrug our shoulders and go on with life. This new series will try to describe the meaning of "This is Indonesia" or more commonly, "T.I.I."

We haven't been invited to any weddings yet, but we've heard a lot about all that goes into them for wealthy families here. A wedding is even more of a social statement here than it is in the U.S. While we usually send a save the date card months in advance and then the invitation weeks in advance, Indonesians try to have the invitation arrive as close to the date as possible. The reason for this is that when you receive a wedding invitation in the mail, you normally just throw it in a container you keep by your door. Then when the weekend comes around, you look through the stack and see if there are any events you need to attend. Of course, if you sent your invitation too long ago, it'd be buried in the stack and your special day might be forgotten.

In that same spirit, I interviewed a couple planning to honeymoon in the U.S. next year and they handed me their wedding invitation. It was about 4 inches by 6 inches and at least an inch thick. It opened to reveal a very fancy inviation, but on the outside, it was surrounded in denim complete with pockets and a zipper to look like blue jeans. Not only do you want to keep your invitation at the top of the pile, you want it to be memorable. T.I.I.

Four Nights in Bangkok

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, we did what all good Americans do and took a weekend trip to Bangkok. We had worried before we went there that it was not going to feel like much of a vacation going from one big Asian city to another, but Bangkok is really nice. It's still a developing South East Asian city in many ways, but at the same time, nothing like Jakarta. It's clean and organized, nice sidewalks, great public transportation, etc...

We waited too long to book a cheap hotel, so we cracked open the piggy bank and stayed at the J.W. Marriott. It was an awesome hotel. We also ended up getting a mini suite as they were out of non-smoking regular rooms, so it made staying there really worth it.

I had heard that sex is on display and for sale in Bangkok, but we were shocked by how in your face it really is. Near our hotel in the area called Nana, there are prostitutes on every corner and in every bar. They even have "strip clubs" where the girls stand on stage in a bikini top and thong with a number pinned to their chest, presumably so that you can just say what number you want to order for the night. We also found a bar called Hillary Bar on the same street!

One really cool thing we did was eat at this restaurant called Vertigo. It's on the very top (62nd floor) of the Banyan Tree Hotel. It's a converted heli pad that's now a trendy bar and restaurant. It's completely open air, so our table had a rail, a small hedge, another rail and then a straight drop of more than 600 feet. Not for the acrophobics! It is definitely the most unique and coolest dining experience we've had.

Another thing that made our trip was we found a place with homemade corn tortillas, carnitas, barbacoa, margaritas, the whole bit. It was awesome.

Oh yeah, we saw some temples and stuff, too.

Marine Ball

Every year the Embassy hosts the Marine Ball. It's held to honor the marines and celebrate their anniversary, but it's also a chance to dress up and dance with a 5-course meal and an open bar! John and I went to the Marine Ball in Athens in 2001. However, because September 11th had just happened, they held it at the Ambassador's residence for security reasons. It worked well as Athens is a significantly smaller post than Jakarta. This was much different, as it was held in a big hotel ballroom with a ton of people.

Some friends decided to have a pre-party beforehand, so we were all ready to go by 4:30 in the afternoon! Everybody joked it felt like prom. By the time we left the ball at almost 1:00 in the morning, I decided my feet have never hurt quite that much before.

It's not often you get the chance to see co-workers and friends all dressed up (with real bow ties!) Our friend Alex is the marine in the picture with us. Each marine is posted in Jakarta for just one year, so we've already had to say goodbye to a few.

Welcome to Beijing

After four full days in Shanghai, we hopped on Southern China Air and took the short flight to Beijing. The flight attendants provided endless entertainment for the rest of the trip because even though their announcements were in English and Chinese, it all sounded like Chinese. As a result, our friend Brent spent the rest of the trip giving us his best attempt at recreating the experience.

Our friend Perry had planned to come to Shanghai, but his wife had come down with what they originally thought was chicken pox. When we arrived in Beijing, they still hadn't been able to diagnose what was wrong, so they were keeping her in the hospital. They did a spinal tap so that they could test the fluid for a few possibilities. Over the next several days, the spinal tap continued to leak, so there was nothing supporting her brain! They ended up staying in the hospital for the entire time we were there, so we were worries and it was too bad that we didn't get to hang out. Fortunately, she's recovered.

Beijing was a more tourism oriented time for us. On our first day, we went to one of the less touristy areas of the Great Wall. It was really great because you had to hike up the mountain to get up to the Wall. It was nice to be in cool fresh air. The views were amazing, as was finally getting to see the Wall in person.

You see some really funny signs when you're overseas, but I think those in China top the list so far. Click on the photo and read the instructions for climbing the great wall. The funny thing about our trip to the Great Wall was that after we left, we weren't talking about how we'd just seen one of the wonders of the world or how beautiful the view was. All we could talk about was the tube chute you could ride to get to the bottom of the mountain! (click on the play button if you are so inclined)

Into the Orient

A couple weeks ago, Hillary and I made our first trip to China for some sightseeing and visiting friends who are stationed there. The trip all came about when one of our friends in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia wanted to take advantage of the week long holiday at the end of Ramadhan by visiting the East.

We started our trip in Shanghai where our friend Justin is living. On our first full day there, we went to Shanghai's famous fabric market with stall after stall of fabrics and tailors. Hillary and I both had several dress shirts made for about $11 each (amazing price since these are now the nicest shirts I own). I also had a tux made since we're going to be going to the Marine's Birthday Ball soon and I figured paying $100 to have one made to my specifications was a better deal than renting one for the same price! I also had a suit made for about $70. Not to mention that they had all this ready for us two days later!

We did our fair share of sightseeing, but the trip was also great because we were able to hang out with our friends who we got to know well in DC. Our friend coming from Riyadh provided entertainment as he was trying to make up for lost time in the land of women in burkas, where they are completely covered except for their eyes.

I don't want the post to get too long, so I'll just say that Shanghai is an amazing city. It feels very European in that there are huge sidewalks and people walking everywhere; cafes and stores lining the streets. Very different from Jakarta. I'll also recommend that if you go, the fall is a great time to go. Our friends say that the pollution there is horrendous, but we only had one night in Beijing that was as bad as they say it is most of the year. More to come on the time in Beijing.