Last year, I went out and toured the Lapindo mudflow in Sidoarjo, East Java. However, I only ever ended up writing this one blog post about it, which was pretty slack. I knew I had started writing a proper feature story, but in all the chaos of being on the road and then going home to Oz and moving to the US, I forgot to finish it and get it published. I was looking for something else on my computer today, and I found the rough draft. So it’s crazy out of date (written in May 2010), but still interesting I think… so here it is, on the blog. I figured it was better to post it here than to not have it published at all… It’s pretty rough sorry and not exactly complete. (PS. I have a slideshow of pics from the Sidoarjo site here).
Read the story…
Sometimes when I’m searching through stuff or just daydreaming, I think about a cool photo I haven’t posted on my blog. One of my friends here was watching Anthony Bourdain’s ep on Indonesia and started talking about Ibu Oka, then I remembered I had these pictures that had never been blogged.
These are from a dance show at Ubud Palace that I saw in April or May, when I was just chilling in Ubud after doing some stories on Nyepi.
I really miss Indonesia so much.
A bird in a cage at Yogyakarta’s historic bird market
Remember I spent a few weeks kicking around in Yogyakarta, Central Java, earlier this year? Well, I not only went to language school and stuffed myself silly with Gudeg and other delicious street food. I also wrote a travel guide (and photographed for it too) for the city, which is now up online at Travelfish, an excellent site for anyone thinking about travel in Southeast Asia.
You can check out the Yogyakarta guide I wrote here. Enjoy! You really should visit, it’s a great place, and the guide has lots of recommendations for eating, accommodation and attractions.
A street vendor selling mie ayam noodles in Solo, Central Java, near the Karaton. Right behind the fence there was a paddock full of pungent goats who kept sticking their noses through gaps in the tarpaulin, trying to get some lunch from diners and making lots of noise when they were denied a meal.
Below is the product of this man’s labor. It was quite tasty, but I don’t really eat bakso (seriously, who knows what is in that stuff?) so I didn’t really touch those, only a little taste. But the rest was good.
But after a couple of mouthfuls… CRASH. A goat had stuck his head through a gap in the fence and knocked over a whole tray of vegetables. It was certainly a unique way to dine.
Historic painting of a man. Historic painting of a woman. Animal skull?
Items on display at the Keraton, Solo, Central Java. This museum had no signs in Indonesian, English or Javanese. There were also no tour guides around when I arrived.
Unfortunately, this is pretty typical for Indonesian museums. So much history, so little money for it to be preserved and displayed in a way that is meaningful and interesting.
A tsunami memorial in downtown Banda Aceh, consisting of rainbow coloured poles on an empty block of land.
View arriving by boat into the Banda Aceh port of Ulee Lhee, where the tsunami first hit the Sumatran shore. The port is now surrounded by stone walls intended to give some protection to the harbour in the event of another large wave.
These locally made “KM 0 wet coconut cakes” were on the tables at a little eatery in Ipoih, Pulau Weh. Though a soggy cake doesn’t sound good, perfectly moist cakes are… these little cakes were beautifully moist and filled with fresh grated coconut. I took a few home for after dinner snacks. I love that the packaging has a photo of the giant bathroom-styled kilometre zero monument that I wrote about earlier.
The jungle town of Bukit Lawang has a rocky river flowing through it. Not so long ago, a flash flood in the river wiped away most of the town. But now, on the weekends, locals flock from Medan to cool off in this tropical rainforest river.
And one more pic of Bukit Lawang village over the jump…
Another belated Indonesia post. No, I’m still in Australia, I haven’t gone back.
“From Sabang to Merauke”. Anyone who knows a bit about Indonesia has heard this… it refers to the westernmost and easternmost points of Indonesia.
Sabang, as I have explained earlier, is an alternate name for Pulau Weh and is also the main city on the island. However, on the island itself, there is a peninsula, which at the tip, is known as kilometre zero (Km Nol in Indonesian). The officially recognized starting point of the country.
For me, Km Nol was more of an endpoint. The next day, I would go back to Banda Aceh. Then I would fly to Jakarta via Medan, then on to Bali and then home to Australia. I had spent the day sightseeing around the island with a great group of Argentinian travellers I met at my accommodation. Km Nol was our last stop for the day.
So what is at the beginning or end of Indonesia, depending which way you are going?
Plastic chairs. Just like you would see in the waiting rooms of any government office in the country.
There was also a large white tiled structure that somewhat resembled a very clean public toilet. And some crazy monkeys that chased us.
Inside the bathroom tribute building, there was a plaque. But we knew the plaque wasn’t really on the true kilometre zero, the very start point of Indonesia, because there was land all around us. Fail.
But it still felt somewhat symbolic. I may not have made it as far as Merauke (Labuanbajo was my most far-flung eastern destination), but I did get to Sabang. Next time I’m in Indonesia, I’ll have to get to Merauke.
PS. Do you like the bigger photos?
PPS. OMG I was so tanned! It vanished so quickly… 
