13 June
Sian and Dave's wedding day. We all gathered at the hotel to make ourselves beautiful: - in Sian's case she succeeded in looking glowingly lovely, in mine, well, I looked hot and sweaty. Ah well, not my day, so it didn't matter! I was most impressed that they managed to get a wedding cake with icing that didn't melt in the heat.
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I don't have much in the way of photos of the ceremony as I was attempting to film it with my little camera. It was a lightly religious ceremony, because all Indonesian weddings must be religious weddings or they are not legal. The crowd gathered to watch... all four of us. It was just as well that I was able to come to the wedding, as you need to have two witnesses who are not related to the couple, and 50% of the crowd were family.
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Dinner was at their house, where their private chef had cooked up a feast and decorated the place in a very festive fashion.
Sadly that was the end of my holidays, and the next day I flew to Jakarta, where I stayed the night, and then flew back home, arriving back in time to attend the last days of a 3 week meeting. My colleagues in the meetings made merry with the fact that I had managed to get permission to be away from work during this period, which, basically, none of them would have a hope in hell of doing. Well I had my revenge for their teasing by passing around duran sweets. tee hee!
12 June
The next day I wound my way to the location of Sian's wedding, the garden of a central hotel - lovely and green and luscious.
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Afterwards I went back to the luxurious house that Sian and Dave had rented, up in the hills. Private swimming pool, 24 hour butler service, cook... absolutely fabulous. Great spot to have a honeymoon, even if you aren't actually married yet! I got to meet the kids too, who are delightful.
11 June
Time for a bit of retail therapy before my sister and her family headed home. We went to a multistorey building filled with touristy goodies, mostly of pretty reasonable quality and price and stocked up before they headed off. I was sorry to bid them farewell. Still, I finally had a quiet evening to myself, which was a first for the holiday, and relaxed with a yummy "plat du jour" in a local roadside cafe.
10 June
I travelled with my sister and her family, and, thanks to Bakti, got into the same hotel. Very cool! I had my own villa to myself.
But for this bit of the holiday, did I get to have a nice sleep-in in my luxurious hotel? No, no no! I was up at a truly ungodly hour to be picked up and taken to my Balinese cooking course! It was also my opportunity to meet up with the reason I had moved islands... Sian and Dave!
You see, I had had the most amazing coincidental luck. I was on a certain online social networking site, when Sian posted up something along the lines of "in one month's time I will be in Bali". Uh, hello? That was pretty much exactly when I was going to be there! I emailed her and said "what the?!" and she told me that she was getting married! The wedding was on the day I was booked to leave Indonesia. I immediately hopped out of the site, and changed my flights so that I could be there. So my trip to Indonesia for one wedding became two!
It had been years and years since I had last seen Sian, and you know what? She is as beautiful and clever and warm and funny as ever, and we still get on like a house on fire. Her hubby-to-be (at the time) is also funny; kind, and generally wonderful, so I thoroughly approve of him.
Anyway, back to the subject at hand: the cooking workshop. This workshop was a bit more sophisticated than the one in Jogja, and a significantly larger group. We started with a trip around the market; hence the early morning.
After that, we headed to the cooking school where we had some breakfast and got down to the business of cooking. Pretty much all the ingredients were all prepared for us, so in some ways there wasn't much to do, but we did get to have a play with most of the many dishes that we made during the workshop. It was lots of fun, and we each got a little recipe book to take home after our delicious lunch.
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In the evening I walked to the beach and met up with my sister and the family for highly overpriced cocktails and a priceless sunset.
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The next day I made up for the early morning yesterday by sleeping in. After that I joined my sister's family for a brief visit to the swimming pool, before heading off on a tour to the monkey temple. We had been warned to keep an eye on our possessions and did, but despite this, a monkey leapt onto my head and grabbed my glasses. He ran off to the edge of the wall - a local then bribed him to drop the glasses and fetched them back to me, for which I of course had to pay a small sum of money. At that point, I took my glasses off... this does somewhat create an issue for me. In case you don't know... I am very short sighted. Short sighted enough that I can't actually see the ground on which I am walking to recognise to steps and bumps and... well, anything.
I ended up using my camera as glasses. It could focus on distant objects and I could hold it close enough to me to focus on it. An inelegant but functional solution.
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I got off lightly. Neill fought off a monkey and got a little tiny scratch in the process - he ended up having to have heavy duty antibiotics! For me the best bit was when we got away from the monkey part of the temple and got to see a sunset prayer/performance. It was great. Very theatrical - it had comedy, tragedy, everything.
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6 June
The next morning had a hideously early start. Up and out before dawn, no less! Why? To drive to Borobodur, to watch the sunrise from it's heights. Borobodur is a spectacular buddhist stupa, and is apparently the most visited tourist attraction in Indonesia. It was built about 1200 years ago, and remains a sacred site. I am not sure it is worth getting up so early to see the sunrise there, but it itself is definitely worth visiting. It was somewhat amusing to find myself being a tourist attraction once again, with various Indonesian school girls surreptitiously taking photos of me.
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On the way back, we drove past some buildings, and saw just how much damage was done to homes in Indonesia by the last volcanic eruption; houses filled to the roof with volcanic ash:
Lunch was delivered to Dave's house, and included his favourite bbq duck. I can see why he loves it! I also picked up my new pairs of trousers (3 pairs made for me by a local seamstress), so finally had some good cool trousers to wear. Just in time to leave Jogja!
The flight took us over the seas surrounding the islands, and although the cloud cover did not allow me to see the see, what I could see, very clearly, were the peaks of the volcanic mountains poking up through the clouds:
5 June
The next day the celebrations continued: Kai and Mark and Dave had organised a relaxed brunch at a very fancy hotel. It was kinda of weird having to go through metal detectors to get in - I just hadn't really mentally connected the Bali bombings with where we are, but I guess this was proof that the most at-risk hotels really took the lesson to heart.
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We swam, and lazed around by the pool and then had a delightful lunch. In the evening we ate 'in', at the hotel. Dish of the evening.... whole cat fish! And very tasty it was too.
In the morning, a small group of us went off to see the royal palace.
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Then after lunch, we headed to another castle in the centre of Yogjakarta. The history of the palace and grounds is quite fascinating. The palace fell into dilapidation with the years, but the old servants stayed living in the grounds and the descendents live there now. UNESCO, along with the Germans, is working on restoring the grounds, but sadly it is not all smooth going. Apparently the families are being kicked out for the renovations, but various rich folks who also have some spaces, are building and developing happily away.
Anyway, the palace grounds were still very interesting.
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The tourists |
Entry to the pool |
The pool... you really get an image of how spectacular this place would have been at its height. |
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Fabulous carved entry |
hand cut leather puppet in the making |
The inside of a building with the carvings painted as part of the restoration |
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Building or restoring? |
The "underground" mosque |
Me as tourist attraction, posing by request with complete strangers. |
That night we met at a restaurant for an lovely Dutch/Indonesian feast. There was basically a long line of waiters each carrying a dish, which they then served around. A very impressive sight! Mark and Kai gave presents to all the team of helpers that gave a hand to the wedding, which was lovely - they had certainly earned it! |
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2 June
June arrived, and with it some very very long flights. I was off to Indonesia! When I had booked my flights, I had thought I would be going there for one wedding. But a very very dear friend of mine posted on facebook that she would soon be in Indonesia. I emailed her and said something along the lines of "hey, I am going to be in Indonesia at the same time as you", and found out that she was also getting married in Indo, on the day I was due to fly out. It took a day to change my flights. The first flight was not too bad, and I had the joy of arriving in Abu Dhabi, and my friend Rashed picking up to have dinner with him and Firas. One of those times when you just wish you had a bit more time to spend with your friends. |
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The second flight was, for me, a complete nightmare. My restless legs had been progressively getting worse over the last weeks, and at the best of times, my RLS reacts badly to the airpressure or something of being on an airplane. This time was so bad that at one stage I offered any amount of money they could name, for an upgrade so that I could lie down. To no avail (apparently once in the air it is completely forbidden). It got to the point where I was standing in the kitchen area, tears pouring down my face, unable to even stand still, so twitching and kicking even while standing. I was utterly exhausted and unable to sit still. I took heaps of my medication, but it just didn't make a difference. Finally about 45 minutes before we had to land (after something like 9 hours in the air), they settled down enough for me to sit. I shudder even now to remember it.
Anyway, enough misery. I arrived at Jakarta airport, queued and paid my landing fee/visa/whatever the blasted fee was. I did have one piece of good fortune. I was catching a flight to Yogjakarta, and not due to fly out for another hour or two. But I was able to change my flight to an earlier one. Yay!
When I got to the aiport, one of the lovely drivers that my brother Dave had hired for the week was waiting. I actually had no real idea of what was going on, and what was supposed to be happening over the next couple of days. All I knew is that I was hot and tired and sweaty and grotty from my flights.
The car drove me to a restaurant and then left (taking my bags with them!). Ah well, it seemed that grotty and smelly I was to remain for a while yet. But the horror of the flight was swept away by going out the back and finding my lovely family waiting. Yay!
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Eventually we went back to the hotel. The hotel is the one in which the wedding was taking place - it is not just a hotel, but a cultural centre and museum. The rooms are fascinating: each one is a stand alone sort of cottage, transplanted from somewhere in Indonesia, so each was different in style. I was sharing a room with my Aunt. Here is a quick snapshot of my room. Unfortunately I somehow forgot to take a photo of the bathroom, which was quite amazing. And outside. In a far more literal way than that would normally mean. Basically, you walk out the back door and into the open air. There was a wall of stones in front of you, with ferns growing in the cracks. On the left was an alcove, in which there was a toilet. On the left was the shower space. Thats it. No roof, no curtain, no walls. |
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I did take a photo of the room service menu. Check out the prices: You see that? The most expensive thing on the menu is the barbeque rib with rice. 27,000 rupiah. Sounds like a lot doesn't it? Well, as at time of typing, 27,000 rupiah is *clears throat*, $2.67. I know... makes you want to stay in the hotel all day and night ordering in room service, only leaving your room for a swim in the swimming pool! I could get used to this kind of pricing! |
Kai and Mark (bride and groom) along with Dave, had organised a whole pile of activities for wedding guests to do in the days before the wedding. Most were organised for the weeks leading up to it, but there was the offer of a little Indonesian cooking course. How could I refuse? Even having to get up in the morning after my long long night was only a mild disincentive.
But only one other person was as enthusiastic about the morning. That was just fine. We were picked up by one of the hotel staff, and taken to one of the villagers houses. There we learnt how to take down a banana leaf (using a knife tied to a long stick of bamboo) and strip it off the stem, to make sheets to cook in. We made a sort of pudding, made of rice bread, eggs, banana and coconut milk, all folded up in a banana leaf, carefully pinned closed with bamboo slivers. This was then steamed. Yummy!
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Back to the hotel in time for lunch and to get beautified for the wedding, which was just beautiful. Held along the lines of a Quaker ceremony, Kai and Mark spoke their promises to each other, and others said words as they felt. It was simple, and just perfect.
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I have no photos after the wedding, as basically we just got together with the villagers and ate and ate lots of yummy local food. Then we went out the back of the hotel and danced late into the night. Heaps and heaps of fun. The only problem really with it all, was the fact that of course, Indonesia is stinking hot.. so we were all very sweaty and smelly by the end of the night!