Traveling!

Fortunately, by now, I have been able to travel to many places I wanted to see while in Indonesia. And I want to talk about them. The first place I went to was Bali. One month alone in site and it was time to explore and see something different. Well, Bali is a little overrated, unless you get out of the cities! Kuta Beach is a good place to get free drinks and a variety of food if that’s your goal for vacation, but it is not relaxing at all. Crowded, dirty, and probably what Cancun was at 10 or 20 years ago, and crawling with Australians who go there every weekend to party. Sanur I liked better, as most old people do… but Bali was not at all how it is romanticized in books and films. However, I still had fun there seeing my closest friends here and eating a lot of food J

I think my favorite trip so far was seeing Flores. I traveled to Sumbawa to see another ETA’s site and drove across the island to get the ferry to Flores. Flores seems like a really cool island that I could have spent more time in, but I wanted to see Komodo Dragons! We rented a small boat and walked around a small part of Rinca to see komodos and also hiked on Komodo Island. I really enjoyed the hike, something I really miss about not living in Colorado. Along with komodos, we swam, snorkeled, and hung out on the beach, all things that I was hoping to do in Indonesia. It felt much more like an Indonesian experience.

 

The latest place I travelled to was Yogyakarta, to see the famous temples of Borobudur and Prambanan. Both are definitely worth the drive through traffic and push through tourist crowds. Both are gorgeous temples situated next to the well-known Merapi volcano.

The most interesting travel experience I have had was traveling with the teachers from my school and their families for “family gathering.” We traveled together by night bus to Yogyakarta and went to Borobudur, Kali Urang, and the Sultan’s palace in Yogya. It was great to meet so many spouses and children of the teachers I see everyday, but also a very exhausting busy weekend, full of Indonesians observing my every move. Probably the funniest moment was taking pictures with teachers from my school at the temple Borobudur. White foreigners are often asked to be in pictures with Indonesians (I think they collect them and see who can get the most pictures with “bule”), especially at tourist sites. Since everyone saw me taking pictures with my teachers and friends from school, they assumed that I was just accepting picture offers from all Indonesians. I am not a fan of having strangers take my picture and so I had to resort to hiding behind some of the temple pillars and domes to prevent pictures being taken. I think this is something that is hard for Indonesians to understand, and even foreigners as well. People that really crave and like this type of attention always let people take pictures of them. After Peace Corps, I find random strangers coming up to you and taking your picture incredibly annoying, and it is hard to escape that here.

Eventually I want to see orangutans in Kalimantan (Borneo), and go to Mt. Bromo.