Indonesian Volcanoes

Indonesia lies between the Ring of Fire along the northeastern islands adjacent to and including New Guinea and the Alpide belt along the south and west from Sumatra, Java, Bali, Flores, and Timor. The volcanoes in Indonesia are among the most active of the Pacific Ring of Fire.

One of the largest well-known eruptions was that of Krakatau in 1883. The eruption is known as “The World’s Loudest Recorded Bang.” We had hoped to visit the island of Anak Krakatau (Child of Krakatau) but our itinerary was too jammed to make this extended journey across the Sunda Strait. I’ll have to return in the future and try to hike a few of these sacred peaks!

Gunung Arjuna – 3400m

One of my first clear photos of a volcano was that of the dormant volcano Gunung Arjuna from the mountain resort town of Batu. My map spells it Arjuno and says it is 3400m tall, but Lonely Planet spells it Arjuna and says it is 3339m tall. Not sure which is right! I was visiting the strawberry, apple and orange orchards of Kusuma Agrowisata and saw it peaking out of the clouds. Due to the pollution caused by the growing population, and dense humidity in the air it is very difficult to see a lot of these peaks.

Gunung Semeru – 3676m

The next morning we took a 4WD adventure across the sea of sand to admire several active volcanoes. The first one we saw was Java’s highest – Gunung Semeru – shown above releasing clouds of ash. Semeru is quite predictable, eruptions occur about every 15-30 minutes and it is one of the most active peaks in Java. This view was from a village outside of Tumpang along the route to Bromo-Tengger-Semeru National Park. People actually climb this billowing beast! We stopped in the town of Ranupani, the starting point for the three-day climb to Semeru. We had lunch by a lake where we met a young woman barely 30 years old enjoying the scenery with her daughter and grandson. Semeru is also known as Mahameru (Great Mountain) and is very sacred to the Hindus.

Gunung Bromo – 2392m

Bromo rises from the guts of the ancient Tengger caldera and is one of three volcanoes to have emerged. It is flanked by the peaks of Kursi (2581m) and Batok (2440m). There are many myths surrounding this “peak” and the views of the surrounding landscape are awe inspiring. We stayed at the Lava View Hotel which overlooks a never-ending sea of volcanic beauties.

Gunung Batok (2440m)

The tourist ritual here is to get up at 'o-dark-hundred' to drive out of the crater and up to the highest point on the outer crater Gunung Penanjakan (2770m) to watch the sunrise and get those "picture postcard views" of Bromo and neighboring peaks. So we were up at 3:15am and on our way through dense clouds and occasional rain showers to wait for hours at the viewpoint with a few thousand of our best friends (most smoking like chimneys). Here’s what we saw:

Yep – the clouds never cleared and all we saw was this lovely stone map telling us what we should have seen! We were pretty bummed! The day we arrived and the day we left were gorgeous mornings – we just picked the wrong one! I should have bought the postcard I reckon!

Pilgrimage to Bromo

After bargaining for a t-shirt and map we headed back down into the crater to join the throngs of tourists headed up the 253 steps to the top of Gunung Bromo. First you get to ride a horse through the dusty, steep sea of ash. Then you climb the steps and inhale the acrid smell of sulfuric acid. Whew – couldn’t stay up there very long but I managed to grab a few shots of the surrounding area. Inside the crater was a misty cloud of acid – not much to see there!

Ms. Elly at the Top of Gunung Bromo

Cloud of sulfuric acid on the edge of Bromo’s crater

We descended the stairs and searched in the crowd of people and horses for our guides. Mine had decided to take off and score another rider I guess, so I waited patiently for him to return. I didn’t take any shots while on the horse because a) I was holding on for dear life (and almost fell off on the way down) and b) it was outrageously dusty – not a good environment for digital cameras.

Waiting for his rider to return

After lots of exploring around Yogyakarta in Central Java we headed up to Kaliurang to get a closer view of Gunung Merapi (Fire Mountain). At 2911m it has a bit of a history for being very destructive. Here’s a photo of a photo from the 2006 eruption that took many peoples lives.

Gunung Merapi (2991m)

We purchased a few DVDs about the area but I haven’t had a chance to view them yet. People actually climb this mountain when it is “quiet.” The villagers were hard at work gathering fodder for their animals and wood for cooking. The woman in this photo carrying the wood is over 70 years old. A group of men were busy building a rock dam with hopes of holding back the flood waters of the rainy season.

Villagers hard at work near Merapi

We saw three more volcanoes on our journey from East to West Java. Near the Dieng Plateau the misty Gunung Sindoro was surrounded by lush fields of tobacco and tea plantations.

Gunung Sindoro – 3225m

From our hotel near Baturaden we had a great morning view of Java's 2nd highest volcano Gunung Slamet.

Gunung Slamet – 3428m

On our way from Garut to visit the only Hindu temple in West Java (Cangkuang Temple), we caught a glimpse of Gunung Guntur while riding by in our traditional mode of transport, the delman or horse and buggy!

Rice Paddies Overlooking Gunung Guntur – 2249m

We also had a lovely boat ride on the longest wooden platform boat (rakit) I’ve ever been on – all made from bamboo. We had fun watching the local fisherman trying to net a little food for their families. The fish were very small, catfish looking – incredibly ugly. I hope they tasted better than they looked!

Fishing near Garut

The final volcanic related visit was to Tangkuban Perahu, a heavily touristed area just north of Bandung. This volcano basically imploded under the weight of all the ash and the crater is now flat and elongated. I’ve never seen so many vendors, tourists, and vehicles in one place. We didn’t stay here very long!

Tangkuban Perahu – 2076m

Hope you enjoyed this visit to the Indonesian segment of the Ring of Fire!

Happy Travels!

Jan

Indonesian Cuisine

A local Indonesian "wrap"

One of the most popular questions I get after returning from a trip is "How was the food?" So what better topic to address next regarding my recent trip to Bali, Java, Borneo, Flores, Komodo, Rinca and Peucang Islands in the Indonesian archipelago. I assumed that since these were all islands in the middle of the ocean that seafood would be readily available. Bad assumption on my part! Granted, we did spend a lot of our time in the interior of Java but you would think it wouldn't be that big of a deal to transport fresh fish inland a few miles. However, I guess with the cost of fuel and the poverty level in Asia my expectations were a bit on the high side. Most of the fish at the markets were of the small, dried (and very aromatic) variety. Whenever we had fish it was usually fried and served like this:

The few times there was seafood on the menu it was either not available or came with scales, eyes, bones, shells and all. Here is another cultural aspect I wasn't ready for. They eat the heads and the shells on their shrimp! I'm afraid that kind of crunch is a bit outside my comfort zone... so I popped off the heads and peeled my shrimp thank you very much :)

At first I thought I'd try to eat mostly vegetarian since there is very little refrigeration in the markets and homes and the threat of Avian Flu is everpresent. But the tofu had a bit of a strange taste to me and the tempeh was usually fried. If you love fried foods you will do well in Indonesia. I however, gave up fried foods a long time ago and have been living a healthy life on mostly natural, unprocessed organic foods. After a big shock in India where the food was so spicy I could barely eat it, I packed a few more nut/fruit bars and turkey jerky for this trip.





The sate (grilled meat on a stick) was excellent. I was surprised at how difficult it was to find cooked veggies considering the vast fields of veggies that we drove by. Thank goodness there was a Chinese influence and I could quite often order Cap Cay - which is a mixed veggie dish. I usually don't eat white rice, but rice or noodles are the main staple in Asia. There are so many people in Indonesia they now cannot grow enough rice to support their population, so they import it from Thailand and Vietnam. Many Indonesians eat Nasi Goreng (Fried Rice with a Fried Egg on top) for every meal.






Most of the fruit was great and usually readily available. I loved the small bananas - they were so very sweet. There were many different varieties to choose from. I tried the Salak - Ms. Elly's favorite fruit. The unique snake skin appearance didn't chase me away but the slime did. I'm just not a fan of slimey things. They look like little almonds or garlic cloves after you peel them but they have a very distinctive taste and are, well, slimey!





The other slimey treat - a drink made from a young coconut was enjoyed by many, but after trying it in India or Madagascar, I remembered the slimey, soft, coconut and lack of any familiar taste of coconut and passed... I'll stick with the bottled water or better yet, a nice cold tall Bintang - the local beer. Oh, but Indonesia is mostly Muslim so good luck finding a beer. This was probably one of the more frustrating parts of the visit! The price climbed and availability dwindled as we drove from Bali west through Java. The top price was for a warm beer on a boat in Borneo.




I also tried the local Bali beers called Storm and Bali High. Bintang was probably the best of the local beers, but no competition against the delicious Guiness Stout I had in Malang at the Popular Toke Oen restaurant.


One of the fun new fruits I really enjoyed experiencing was the Mangosteen. We've all heard about how good it is for you and have seen drinks with Mangosteen but I'd never actually seen one. They have a very tough outer shell, but the white bulbs that you eat are soft and sweet when properly ripened. Thanks to our guide in Bali we enjoyed several of them with our breakfasts. Here is a photo of one:





The local markets are probably the best place for photography and exploration. They never cease to amaze me. I'm still trying to quantify how many different products are made from rice. Here are a few photos of the kinds of things for sale in markets across Bali and Java.







One of the most unique experiences was probably the hotel "High Teas." Whereas we are used to crumpets and finger sandwiches and the like - in Indonesia you find coconut soups, spring rolls, tofu wraps, rice bundles, and a variety of fried foods similar to those shown here:



Almost every village had some sort of food drying by the side of the road. Rice was a popular item, usually drying on a tarp or in a flat basket, but these chips caught my eye and we stopped for a photo:


I've never seen so many varieties of chips. The fluorescent pink variety really worried me though! We ended up addicted to the BBQ Flavored Cassava chips - which luckily can be found at your local Vitamin Cottage/Natural Grocer in the states. The shrimp flavored chips were popular and probably had the most inconsistent variety in flavor across the country.

We also saw fisherman bringing in their 'catches' of seaweed and laying them out to dry - with the health food craze seaweed has become a very lucrative business.

All in all it was an interesting experience, but after a few weeks I was ready for the familiar foods from home! My main motivation to travel is not to eat - I travel to experience the culture, meet the people, watch the wildlife and to learn more about the many walks of life on our planet! Hope you enjoyed this virtual tour of the cuisine of Indonesia.

Bon Apetit!



Jan

Denver-Houston-Moscow-Singapore-Bali

I'm finally digging out from being away from home for too long! A few rainy days in a row have given me the time to get a little more organized.

So let's start the Journey Around the World to Indonesia at the beginning.

It took me about 36 hours to get from Denver to Bali - lots of connections and layovers are inevitable when you fly on award travel tickets. But I'll literally end up flying around the world on this trip, so that's kind of cool.

Moscow was an interesting airport, but our layover was short. By the time we got off the plane, went through security and got the to gate it was time to get back on board. I had a minute or two to gawk at some of the Russian dolls in the duty free store but nothing caught my eye.

The curious thing about this entire trip is the security process. Even though you were already on a plane and had been through security in at least one airport, they made you go through x-ray/metal detector inspections again every time you got off a plane. This was quite annoying since most regulations do not allow you carry water (liquids), so it was a major hassle trying to stay hydrated on so many long flights.

Singapore Airport was amazing! It was the cleanest, friendliest airport I've ever been to. Orchid gardens, koi ponds, places to lay down and sleep, an upscale shopping mall, free movies and free internet service in all the terminals. I've included a few photos of the airport here.

I finally reached Bali late in the evening (two days after I left Denver), and had an hour drive to Putri Ayu Cottages, located in the artist community of Ubud. I'm glad we stayed in Ubud instead of in the tourist hotels in Denpasar, even though our hot water and A/C were not the most reliable. We had a beautiful room that overlooked the rice fields in the residential area.

Each morning we watched the ducks as they were set free from their cages to do their job in the rice paddies. Apparently they help clean out the bugs and such - it was quite an interesting show!

The next morning we visited the local market where the vendors expect you to bargain, and always had a "morning price" just for you, so they could make a sale that would lead to success the rest of the day! They would take your cash and slap it on the items in their shop for good luck! I made a few good deals but did not hand carry some unique plates that ended up getting broken in transit.

Our guide in Bali brought us Indonesian treats each morning to sample. My travel companion Elly loved every bite since she was born and raised in Indonesia. I was somewhat adventureous and tried a few of the goodies, but I tended to stay away from those that were flourescent in color! Here's a sample of sweets made from rice and other local foods.

I'm thinking about creating either a slide show on a DVD or downloadable book from some of my world-wide photo adventures. Let me know if you would be interested in buying a copy!

Time to edit more photos so I can work on the next post!

Happy Travels!

Jan