Resting in Peace

Another photo walk last week – to the Dutch cemetery – Ereveld Menteng Pulo. In the midst of the chaotic Kuningan neighbourhood is this oasis of calm and green. The only people around are the groundsmen, maintaining the pristine neatness of this place. The graves honor people of different religions, as does the chapel in the center of the grounds. We shuddered to see that a lot of the victims must have died barely out of their teens, in the frontlines. That’s war!

 

While we waited for a friend, there were some wildlife to shoot -

And what’s a photo walk, without stretching for ‘that best angle’?

Through the stained glass

A Tale of Two Islands

Souvik & I have the same birthday, and we like to celebrate it in style. Last year, I was in Malaysia for a training program, so Souvik decided to join me there for the birthday weekend.

We went to Langkawi – that world-renowned tourist hotspot – and spent a glorious weekend there. We stayed in the Temple Tree resort, which has to be among the most exotic places we’ve lived in, ever, and checked off all the touristy boxes on the list – island hopping, jet skiing, cable car ride, eagle watching, even managed a helicopter ride for spectacular aerial views.

‘Langkawi’ means reddish-brown eagle, and there were plenty to spot, sadly thanks to various groups going out to the water to feed them.

Birthday together

Freshwater lake in the sea

Island of the pregnant woman!

Chopper

Geared up

Sporty adventures

Cable car views

Eagles!

our jet skis

Eagles!

Consequently, nothing less than an exotic island would do for this ‘milestone’ birthday. Bali was rejected for being ‘over-travelled’. And then we found Cubadak, a tiny island off the west coast of Sumatera. It was everything that Langkawi was not. One simple resort – Cubadak Paradiso – with not even a sign. A quick flight to Padang, then just follow the people who hand you over from the car to the boat to the cottage. No air-conditioning, no room service or even menu cards, hardly any phone signals. No roads, no vehicles on land. Just a calm blue ocean, a few basic boats, and living with the tides. We managed to forgo wi-fi for 3 days, and didn’t regret it once.

The Pier

40th

Aerial view of the coast

Sunrise

The Pier

Sunset

Footprints

Sunset

Into the deep

And yes, we went diving and swimming and snorkelling and eating and reading and meeting new people. Wonder or wonders, we even met some friends from Jakarta there! A different picture of sunrise and sunset every day. Waded in knee-deep water for miles into the ocean. Not much that the camera could capture, but it was more about touching all the different senses. The day we left Cubadak early morning before sunrise, millions of stars glittered in the sky like divine blessings from up above.

I grew a year older from one island to the other. Learnt new skills. Read more books. Made new friends. Visited old ones. And found that the urge to travel is stronger than ever.

It’s been a wonderful life already.

Java Jazz Again

Last weekend was Java Jazz time – one of those must-do events in Jakarta. Last year had been eye-opening for me, to see how popular is the jazz scene among the youth here, plus there was a slew of big names to draw us in. I’m not a follower of jazz music, love it when I’m listening, had no idea of who was playing this year, but went along with some friends who are far more keen. What can I tell you, it exceeded my expectations! We only attended some shows on Sunday – Butterscotch, David Helbock & Earl Klugh, and loved every moment. What’s more, there was vegetarian food available at the food court too!

Plenty of colour, fashion, light effects photo ops:

Fashions

Fashions

Fashions

Fashions

 

Shooting Religiously

I lost my photography mojo on the last walk, amid all the confusion of not being allowed inside the train station to take pictures to abruptly changing the venue to the Jakarta Cathedral via Masjid Istiqlal. Uju and I had toured the masjid when she was here, but I recall not being too enthused about photography then either. Maybe stay away from the camera for a while, huh? But that is not to be. Have camera, will shoot, have internet, will blog!

This Masjid Istiqlal has a relatively young but interesting history – it was built to commemorate Indonesia’s independence from the Dutch, following traditional Javanese norms that it should be in close proximity to the city center (the Merdeka Square in Jakarta), and the site was chosen by President Soekarno right across the cathedral to represent religious tolerance of the then-new nation. There are a whole lot of other symbolic elements in the building that you can read about on the link.

It’s a quiet place at non-prayer times, and I think it might be interesting to visit during Ramadhan.

The interior of the main dome

An ancient Javanese, built from a single tree and cowskin

That’s our group

Students learning to read the Quran

Back on track, we walked from Stasiun Gambir, through the compound of the mosque, across to the Jakarta Cathedral.

View Larger Map

I love church interiors, and this one had a museum too.

Stained glass windows

Stained glass windows

Stained glass windows

Stained glass windows

The devout

The devout

The devout

Forgotten antiques

The Museum

Forgotten antiques

Forgotten antiques

God is in the details!

Forgotten antiques

Hope the next photowalk brings some more inspiration!

The Adventures of Uju in Indonesia – #6 All good things…

…come to an end, and so did Uju’s vacation. See the outcome – plenty of smiles!

And there are plans for new good things…. watch this space!

The Adventures of Uju in Indonesia – #5 Vrrroom

Souvik had to leave our exciting holiday after the dive, coz someone in this family has to work, right? Uju & I hired a motorbike – the advantage of staying in Seminyak (Villa Anaya) was that we were a short ride away from all the shops and restaurants in Seminyak. Which is what we did every evening, wandering in town on our bike.

Monday morning, we decided to head to Uluwatu. I had heard so much about this temple in the south of Bali, with its fabulous setting on the cliff and waves crashing into the rocks below. Long but pleasant ride from home, but a rather disappointing site in comparison with Tanah Lot which is more commercial but more dramatic too. As it is, you can’t enter any Balinese temple on any day except on those special festivals, so the only thing to do at Uluwatu is to admire the antics of the monkeys, and protect your belongings from them. So we walked around hatless, sunglass-less, water-less (all stored in our backpacks), and didn’t last long there. Revived by some kelapa muda (fresh coconut water), we headed back all the way for lunch at Buzz Cafe.

I wanted a good sunset view (such are my wants!), Potato Head Beach Club was on the wishlist for a long time, and that was how we spent Monday evening. Potato Head is that kind of place I hate to love. Such a nice ambience and good food and drinks, but the people and their policies give me a nasty feeling, like I’m a bug about to be squashed. Well, now I’ve been there and done that, and Uju & I had a great time laughing at their pretentious-ness.

On the next day, we had to go shopping for Aparna’s cat – only to be found in Ubud. I thought, why not obliterate that disappointment of Uluwatu by replacing with images of Tanah Lot? After mapping out the route: 

View Larger Map

we rode about 20 km to Tanah Lot, spent a couple of hours taking in the sights, and shopping. We were lucky with the tide, and could cross over to the temple where the priests made you go through a ritual ‘purification’ before we could ascend the few steps on the side. Interesting!

Shopping took longer than we planned, then it was a rushed 34-km ride to Ubud. Luckily we found that ‘cat’ for Aparna, and a few more interesting toys for Uju, but she lost her very expensive sunglasses somewhere in Ubud. I like to say that the ‘devil lost her Prada’ but retained her humour, which is a strong indicator of how good the holiday was!

The Adventures of Uju in Indonesia – #4 The Big Splash

And then we all went to Bali. Wanted to celebrate but stayed off the alcohol because Sunday was Dive Day! I was keen to test out my newly acquired Open Water Diver status, and Uju & Souvik signed up for a Discovery Dive with Bali Diving Academy. They picked us up early morning for a 3-hour drive to Tulamben in north Bali. The discovery divers had a 15 minute orientation learning to ‘breathe’ with the SCUBA gear, while I had a brainwave to hire an underwater camera.

 

 

Souvik was VERY apprehensive about the whole situation, and chickened out of the first dive with all those big waves and murky waters. Uju was braver, and early in the dive she decided to focus on her breathing, and leave everything else to her instructer, Made (pronounced Maadey). Smart move. Diving off the shore was a new one for me, and a very clumsy attempt. Ni Luh, my buddy from the academy helped me put on the fins and off we went.

Murky water on the surface got much clearer in the deep. We were happy to pose, in spite of my mask flooding annoyingly and repeatedly. In the pictures below, I’m the one with the yellow snorkel, perpetually clearing the mask.

Made got us some lovely pictures of the coral, as directed by Uju.

 

We got out after 45 minutes, for the lunch break, and our excitement knew no bounds. Getting in from the shore is tough, but getting out is way more difficult! At lunch, we talked Souvik into one more try, with me promising to hold his hand all the way

The second dive was at the USAT Liberty shipwreck, something that I was very eager to do. And asked for the camera.

Souvik and Uju descended first, and I lost the group. So I bobbed on the surface, waiting for Ni Luh. I was happy to not see Souvik bob out, so I imagined he had got over his fear. Turns out, Ni Luh had pulled him down just as he was having second thoughts, and both Souvik & Uju believed that was me, keeping my promise. So they went in on good faith, and continued the dive with Made, while the dynamic Ni Luh came back for me. Divine intervention! Souvik followed Uju’s advice to leave it all to Made. I believe he held them both from above with their tanks, and showed them around.

Ni Luh & I descended properly together, and went all over the shallow ocean floor looking for the wreck. She was searching, and I was just looking. 15 minutes, and no sighting, so we got out again, to wait for Made. I thought to check my air gauge, and managed to lose the weight belt in the ocean. OOPS! So we simply waited for Uju & Souvik to finish, then Made helped me wear Uju’s weight belt, and we got back to the dive.

This time it was magical. I got trigger happy. Can you see the shape of the ship that the fish and coral made their home? (Click on any image for a larger, more beautiful view.)

Nothing more to say, except that we celebrated with a BIG dinner that included Souvik’s favourite butter chicken.

 

The Adventures of Uju in Indonesia – #3 In the Middle of the Night

Right after our very exciting hike on Pulau Sempu, we packed up and departed Malang at midnight to head to the village of Tongas, where we were met by the jeep and driver who would take us on the sunrise tour to Bromo. Uju wanted action-packed, and she got it.

At 3 am, the driver drove us into the caldera to head to Penanjakan 1, which apparently has different views than Penanjakan 2. Our Bahasa was stretched beyond limit, because we weren’t sure what exactly we were doing, driving around in the mist. Turns out, the driver had no clue either. We followed two other jeeps who followed us, all in the dark, and we narrowly missed tumbling into the ravine in that volcanic ash. Just kidding. Anyway, our driver decided it was smarter to eat humble pie, apologised for his appalling sense of direction, and offered to take us to Penanjakan 2 instead, the tried and tested spot. We had no complaints with that. In fact, as soon as I realized we’d be the first ones there, I got excited at the prospect of ‘shooting stars’, and quickly hired the horse to haul me up. Souvik and Uju decided to take the hard way on two feet.

Starry night it was, and we were much too early.

 

So we stood around, shivering in the cold, taking some long exposure shots undisturbed by people, noise and flash photography.

 

And we waited. And shivered.

 

And waited. And shivered some more.

Yeah, you get it, right? I also got cursed by my loving companions for getting them up there so early. So we waited.

And then there was a big cloud cover, and we didn’t get to see the sun rise. It just got bright all around.

 

By which time there were hordes of people joining us and taking ‘flashy’ pictures.

So we decided to be silly ourselves.

 

Actually that’s the goody photo. Here’s the silly one. Uju couldn’t hold her pose for 25 seconds, so she’s all blurry.

 

We needed to squeeze some more juice out of our Bromo visit, so up the volcano it was for Uju. I decided to sit out this one, so that we could finish the tour on time, and not take 3 hours to climb 200 steps.

 

I crossed the ravine in daylight, and got some interesting views. Imagine – it’s all ash, no rock!

By this time the sun had started to thaw us, and all the dew from the ground started to steam up.

The biggest surprise for me was the greenery. Just a few months back, we’d been here, amazed at the brownness of the landscape, and now, it was showing signs of life after the wet season, even seeping into the caldera.

We took a pit stop at Java Banana, before driving off to Surabaya for the next leg of our journey.

 

 

The adventures of Uju in Indonesia – #2 Muddy Trails

I took up my friend, Ana’s suggestion of visiting Sempu Island, south of Malang in East Java, wanting to take Uju on some off-the-beaten-path tours.

Uju & I took a morning flight to Malang, and wandered around the city in the afternoon/evening. We’d heard good things about Hotel Tugu and their afternoon tea, but when we got there we realized everyone was very busy preparing for Valentine’s Day dinner. Still, they were sweet enough to get us some tea and snacks, while continuing with their decoration.

Early next morning, we set out on our excursion. A 2-hour drive south got us to Sendang Biru. I had read a few blogs about this route, so we knew to ask for the permit and boat+guide to take us to Sempu Island. One of the most useful tips we got was to rent rubber hiking shoes (for Rp 20,000 each). They have all possible sizes, and we were able to get the right fits. Friendly folks all around, who repeatedly asked us to carry enough drinking water. We had about 4 litres for the three of us, and some food too, as there are absolutely no facilities on the island.

(Hiking photos courtesy Uju)

A short boat ride later we arrived at Sempu, and started our hike. Right away, we were thankful for those rubber shoes, having to step over thick roots and plenty of muddy puddles.

Souvik loves hikes, and Uju is a natural, while I was holding everyone back with my speed and terrible sense of balance. We took 2 & a half hours to get to our destination, and gosh, it was worth every ache and pain. The lagoon at Sempu was everything we had imagined, and more. We were speechless, and not just from the effort of getting there.

We rested our tired feet, then clambered over some rocks to take in the view of the Indian Ocean just beyond.

Too soon, it was time to trudge back. How happy were we to see the boat again! We met quite a few groups of people heading out to the lagoon in the late afternoon/evening with the intention of camping out. Good for them!

As for us, the meal of soup and rosti at Bunga Bali in Malang had to be one of the most satisfying in a very long time!

The Adventures of Uju in Indonesia – #1 Chasing volcanoes

One of my favourite cousins, Uju, came over for a visit. I say ‘one of my favourites’, so as not to offend any of those who have visited already, or are planning to in future…

We had an action-packed holiday, starting with the volcano outside Bandung – Tangkuban Perahu. The weather is always cool at Tangkuban Perahu, but not enough to justify sales of Russian-style woollen caps and mufflers! You can drive right up to the crater, and we usually have the driver take the car down to park at Kawah Domas. Such crowds on a Monday morning… until we realized it was the week of the Chinese New Year!

 

After the mandatory crater photo ops and the walk through the market, purchasing unnecessary souvenirs, we hiked downhill to Kawah Domas – the crater with the hot springs. The hike is easy, and quite short, but it is still nice to dip your feet in the warm pools at the end of the trail, and rejuvenate yourself for the walk back to the car.

 

Eggs are available all along the path to be boiled in the steaming, bubbling crater, if you go for that sort of gimmick. Plus, there are plenty of foot scrubs and massages on offer, as is evident from some visitors getting into their ‘avatar’:

 

On the way back you can admire the foliage, especially the lush giant ferns.

 

We skipped lunch, in an attempt to escape the Bandung traffic, but were waylaid by some fruit and vegetable stalls by the roadside, and HAD to stop for fresh pineapples (eaten slurpily right away) and pumpkins (to be turned into divine cake later).