Living life in Indo.

Ummm… okay. So you know that feeling of seeing the date but not really registering the date? When you finally stop to think about it, actually look at a calendar, and realize that today’s date is about two weeks further along than you actually thought it was? Yeah, that’s my life at the moment. Crap. Where a month went, I’m not entirely sure. I am however, going to chalk it up to the extraordinary amount of fun I’ve been having instead of the more likely culprit… old age. Work with me here people, work with me.

So a month it has been and while I still feel thoroughly lost and confused I guess I’ve more or less settled into a kind of routine. Having a job does that to you. Grrrr. Oh to be a wandering, irresponsible, reckless soul for the rest of my days… aimlessly roaming the planet, looking for wild places and curious faces, touching the furthest corners of civilization, getting lost on purpose… sigh… okay, okay. On with it…

A full month of learning my new job, making fun new friends, trying yummy new foods, and experiencing the beauty of this new locale. Have happily wormed my way in with a lively group of ESL teachers who are always up for an adventure in Indonesia – perfect! A stellar string of weekends have left me exhausted and feeling very much the part of little old lady but it has been worth it, worth it, worth it! Settle in folks, as I attempt to sum up some of the more spectacular days so far…

I mentioned that I visited Singapore for a day, right? Picked up by taxi at 4:15am, flew, met & handed passport over to shady looking guy who was to arrange proper working visa (don’t ask me), wandered the city, collected passport from shady looking guy, reignited my LOVE AFFAIR with Singapore airport (best in the world for sure!), flew again , and arrived back home at 12:30am, legal and legit. Lucked out as another newbie Canadian teacher, Lisa, was scheduled to do the run on the same day so had a fantastic day with her. Loved Singapore before, still do. Easy, easy, super fab country/city. Trendy, organized, very cool country/city. You FEEL cool just by being there. Not a bad way to spend the day.

On to my 3 weekends of adventure… (I’ll introduce you to PEOPLE later, just getting the tales sorted for now)

Xenia and I headed off to a beautiful lodge area a couple of hours away where my housemate Adam was planning to spend his birthday weekend alone. Who wants to spend their birthday ALONE?! Sheesh! A surprise visit for the day and a sightseeing journey for me. We rented a car and driver for, cheap cheap, and had a grand ole time. Stopped on the outskirts of Surabaya to see the disaster area of Sidoarjo. In 2006 an underground mud volcano was accidentally tapped by a company drilling for oil. This interesting little phenomenon has brought scientists of all kinds from all over the world in attempts to solve the problem… the mud won’t stop flowing. It has not only flooded an entire town, it has buried more than 2 square miles under more than 12 meters of mud; yet it still flows at an alarming rate. Boiling hot mud and raging, sulfuric water vapor still shoot out of the exploration site, unimpeded. Scientists are apparently fascinated watching the birth of a volcano, the spew spot is growing while the land around it continues to sink, and frantic efforts continue as the government tries desperately to build and rebuild dams to keep the mud from the highway and rail lines that are in its destined path. When you climb up the small hill/dam that has been constructed, you look out at a boring, empty, massive field of mud. Who cares? I see dry, caked mud. Big deal. It’s not until you hear it explained, that an entire town of over 12.000 lay underneath the mud, (nobody died, thankfully!) you see the massive plume of vapor in the distance and you see the efforts being made knowing that no one has any idea how to stop the mud flow or if it will ever stop on its own. Welcome to Indonesia, friends. A very “active” country indeed. Yikes!

Carried on to the lovely eco-friendly lodge area in a wonderfully humid forested area on the outskirts of small villages to surprise Adam. A nice day in a very chilled out place. And a chance to have birthday cake… never miss a chance to have cake!

Exploring weekend number 2… camping in Batu. Rented two cars, filled them up with 11 teachers and a bunch of stuff, then road tripped our way up to beautiful mountains a few hours away. Two of the boys were absolute superstars driving full sized vehicles through the simply ridiculous chaotic conditions of these city streets, hero status fully deserved. Nothing like road-tripping and camping to get to know new friends. Oh such a lovely bunch of people! An incredibly scenic drive and a mostly deserted camping area enabled much silliness throughout the afternoon and long, long night. Willingly participated in my initiation to the group by being properly introduced to the evils of local spirits resulting in slight injuries and stories reserved for only those present as well as a firm swearing off of local spirits for many, many future weekends. Ugh! Campfires, sleeping under the stars (much to the horror of the rest of the group… you MUST sleep in a tent!) and the great fresh air of the fabulous outdoors… wow. I like you guys SO much!

Weekend number 3… same group minus a couple faces, add a couple faces. 10 of us off to Sempu, a lagoon beach area on the coast a few hours away. Two car fulls again, camping gear improved, and a middle of the night departure. We all finish work around 8 – 9pm, so finally hit the road after much faffing about around midnight to drive several hours, arrive around sunrise, sleep for the blink of an hour or so then hop on a little local boat to shuttle us and our stuff the 15mins across the channel to this itty bitty island. Little sleep and increasing heat made for lots of dawdling but again, really fun, really relaxed group of people… funny, funny travels. Hiked with way too much stuff through a proper jungle and came out about 90mins later to the most amazing natural phenomenon ever. You’ll have to look at the photos to get a better idea of what this place is (yes, yes, I’m working on the pictures!) The jungle opens up to a little beach / valley / lagoon area. On the far end of the lagoon is a big hole / cave in the cliff wall and the water rushes in from the ocean just on the other side of the wall. The water that crashes through this cave fills the lagoon during high tide then it empties almost completely at low tide. It’s gorgeous and wild and fascinating. The beach was soft white sand, the cliff walls are fiercely sharp volcanic rock and a thick, heavy jungle leads you there. A breath-taking combination of natural contradictions. How did I get here?!

Spent the day swimming, sunning, and napping in our own little private piece of heaven. A significant chunk of time was also spent chasing away brazen monkeys intent on stealing all unattended belongings. Their cuteness quotient dissipated after about 5 minutes; full on war tactics were then adopted in failed attempts to scare them away and show them who’s boss. Sadly our place on the evolutionary chain was brought into serious question during these attempts. Bastards. A few groups of local hikers came and went but mostly, the place was ours. And the monkeys’, of course. *sigh*

A moonlit night of story-telling and star / satellite gazing with some truly unique and brilliant people. Happy, happy girl.

An early rise the next morning and the ebbing tides had left an almost empty lagoon. Perfect for exploring that cave, right? No waves coming in, water is low, why not? Four of us picked and ouched our way up the slicing, unforgiving volcanic rock, past the skull & crossbones danger sign, to take a good close look at the wild and powerful ocean on the other side. Big, angry, amazing. John, James, and I gave Hannah a telling-off as she climbed up over the top of the cave to get a look at the other side from above. If she fell, she was dead. The three of us perched delicately on the level of the cave, looking down at the fairly empty lagoon and back at the few sleepy heads who were just wading their way into the shallow water. A few waves had made their way through the cave but they just lazily flowed over the rocks and down around our feet. Nothing to worry about. Right? Yeah, right. Never, ever forget that the ocean is in charge.

Rogue wave intent on teaching us a lesson suddenly came crashing through the cave and despite desperately trying to cling to the rock, all three of us were swept up, tossed around, and thrown down the wall of viciously skewering rock. Somewhere in my tumble my bathing suit bottom caught on a sharp, jutting out rock, stopping me from falling all the way to the bottom. While the water crashed around me, dragging and bashing my body on the knife-edged surfaces, my suit ripped but held me tight. Thankfully. It was over before any of us had a chance to scream. A quick round of “are you okay?!” was shouted before we quickly picked our way down the rest of the wall. Out of the water we inspected and tended to gashes, scrapes, bruises, and shaken egos. HOLY S**T!!! Where did THAT come from?! All the while, Ms. Hannah was safe and sound ABOVE the danger zone. We got our asses kicked, HARD, and it was well-deserved. In a country where safety is a non-issue and death is the norm, there is an actual sign posted to not climb to the cave. Yeah. Dumb.

But that being said, we didn’t die, we aren’t permanently injured (slightly scarred, maybe), and we didn’t need medical evacuation so quite simply, it all turned out to be a great story to tell. And that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? The stories we survive to tell. Will try a little harder to avoid the potential death factor the next time I’m looking for adventure, but yep, good one. Good story.

A painful, limping hike out of the jungle later that day and a stiffening drive home but well worth it. Another fabulous weekend with a fabulous bunch. Love it!

And the latest adventure… I’ve rented a motorbike. It’s just a teeny tiny automatic for now but it’s proving to be quite the learning curve. Not only are the insane levels of traffic and lack of rules frighteningly overwhelming, the city is a dizzying system of one way streets where they drive on the wrong side of the road! Damn English influences!!! I’m not sure what side of the road I should be turning on to or coming from…. oh man, this is not as easy as they make it look. Not by a long shot! Fantastic Xenia (sounds very superhero-ish) patiently spent the day with me yesterday leading me through town and yeah, while no major incidents, it was a really rough go. Really. While I LOVE being on the bike, love, love, LOVE it, the streams of speeding psychos weaving in and out, zooming past, cutting right in front or behind, yeah, they are anxiety inducing. But practice, practice, practice. The freedom of having transportation is amazing so I WILL get comfortable driving through town damnit, I will! Wish me luck.

Do you feel caught up yet? I think I’ve covered most of it. House and daily life continues to be easy, I’m liking my students more and more as I get to know them, feeling more comfortable in the role of teacher again even though I am faking my way most of the time, and I have two dive holidays already booked. *sigh* I know, I know, life is rough. Don’t know how I do it some days.

I’m working on getting pictures sorted out and will try to blog a little more frequently, even if only to let you know that I’m still alive and kicking over here. For any of you looking for a little excitement in your life, let me know, there’s this GREAT cave by a lagoon that I know of…