Horse cart to the local village and market

This morning we took two horse carts to a local village and market.  If you ever stay at the Oberoi hotel or anywhere else in the area, I highly recommend that you leave the 'bubble" of a high end resort to do this and get some understanding how the local people live.  This post is going to be mostly pictures because they do convey the feeling of the place more accurately than I can in words.

This is Amy, Justin, Hannah and Whitney in the horse cart behind ours as we were leaving the Oberoi Hotel.

This guy is pretty loaded down with recycling material.  They use their motorbikes for personal transportation and hauling as much as they can.

The local Bike Wash:

The parking lot at the market:

 The vast majority of the items for sale at the market are food items but there are many stands within the market similar to this.

 This guy is smiling because he was sizing me up for some of his clothing and said, "Big", to which I responded "Very big!" and he realized there was no way anything he had would fit me.

 More foodstuffs:

 This lady is wrapping dried fish in newspaper for a customer standing off to the left.

 This is the one lady who apparently didn't like me taking pictures.

 

This lady was selling both plastic ware  and vegetables.

I took this picture at the village we went to after the market.  The horse cart driver recommended we go to this particular village where 33 families live and work cooperatively.  Our guide, Mika, said that the elderly are given the job of weaving replacement roof sections with reeds because it is a job where they can be sitting.   The elderly lady on the left appeared to be chewing areca nut and betel leaf as her mouth and gums were darkly stained.

 These ladies are making coconut oil by first grating and processing the coconut meat.  They use the oil for cooking, massage oil and as a topical treatment for bug bites.

 These are the rice paddies worked by the villagers.  I believe there is a landowner who actually owns the fields but I wasn't quite sure on that point.

 This is Amy and Justin in a horse cart on the right as we were leaving the village and being passed by a family of four on a motorbike.  Note the child waving and the big smile on the driver.  We had a lot of people waving and smiling at us this morning.  The people are very kind and gracious.

Tomorrow we fly back to Kuala Lumpur on an AirAsia flight at noon.  We'll be keeping our fingers crossed for a safe flight.

Boating to Gili Meno, snorkeling and the beach

This morning after breakfast we boated to Gili Meno in an open 24 foot boat with twin 40 hp motors.

 We had 3 Indonesian guides, the two in this picture and the guy taking our picture with my camera. The guy with the white-rimmed sunglasses is the second Indonesian man I've met who has the name Yoman (not sure about the spelling).  Both times when they introduced themselves by saying "I'm Yoman" it was kind of disconcerting.

 Gili Meno is an island about 30 minutes northwest of Lombok.  Two of the guides went snorkeling with us as we drifted along the west side Gili Meno in the current.   Whitney and Macy just stayed on the boat.  Carol got in but was having technical problems with her gear and only stayed in for a short time before getting back in the boat.  The current was so strong that you didn't have to make any real effort as it just carried you along.   There were lots of fish and coral at a depth of no more than 5-15 feet.  We did not have to swim back to the boat, it just picked us up when we were done.

After snorkeling we went to a beach on the eastern side of Gili Meno  where they have lots of small rustic (and I do mean rustic) accomodations on the beach.  I would like to say that the beach and the water around Gili Meno was pristine; but I can't.  There was a very noticeable amount of paper and plastic trash in the water and on the beach.  In fact when I got into the boat after snorkeling Carol noticed that I had something white in my ear and picked out a small piece of styrofoam!  When I mentioned this to one of the guides he seemed to be embarrassed about it and said it is  common for people living inland to just dump their trash into rivers and streams which then washes down into the sea.  He said that the government is now trying to educate people not to do that but that it is an ingrained practice.  Later, on the way back to the Oberoi Hotel landing on Lombok we had to stop and untangle a piece of plastic trash that had gotten wrapped around a propeller.  You would think that if the Indonesians really want to develop tourism they would realize that the last thing tourists want to see is a bunch of trash floating around in the water they're swimming in.  Fortunately, we haven't seen anything like that close by where we are staying.

Some of the locals were selling fruit, handmade jewelry and cloth for wraps and sarongs on the beach.  Below is a woman selling fruit.

This is Amy negotiating  for some cloth and another woman trying to sell us fruit.

Below are two women fruit sellers cutting up fruit for some tourists.

 Below are some boats unloading tourists with their luggage on the island.

On Gili Meno and also on Lombok they have horse-drawn carts to carry tourists and their luggage.  I thought they would just plod along slowly as I have seen larger horses and carriages do in New York and Charleston but these horse-carts move along pretty quickly.

 Tomorrow morning we're having two horse-drawn carts take us to a village market near our hotel.

When Justin and I were walking along the beach we stopped and got a  couple of Bintang beers (a local Indonesian brew) at a little bar on the beach and I had a conversation with a local man who asked where we were from.  I told him we were from Minnesota and that we have very cold winters with lots of snow.  He said I should buy property in Indonesia and I replied that it was too far away.  He said that the bar we were in was for sale and that the previous owner, an Australian, was buried just outside.  So we went outside and saw that right next to the bar was the grave of Graham Davies.

Davies came to Gili Meno in the 1970's when he was in his 30's and built the first accommodation for tourists on the island. He was also instrumental in building a school, a mosque and a medical clinic.  Quite a nice legacy.  The plaque on his grave said that he was 70 years old when he died which is only six years older than I am now and I commented to my son-in-law that I'm now buying light bulbs that may last longer than I do.

When we got back to Lombok we saw the fishermen below at our landing.

This afternoon we heard the news about Air Asia QZ8501 having gone missing.  We're flying AirAsia back to Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday and then flying Malaysia Airlines from Kuala Lumpur to Tokyo on Friday.  Yikes.

A quiet day at the Lombok Oberoi Hotel

After the hectic day yesterday, we decided to spend a quiet day at the hotel.  This morning we went swimming and hung out at the beach when it was sunny.

We had room service pizza for lunch at Amy and Justin's and then played Phase 10, a card game with Hannah as it clouded up and got rainy.   Then Carol and I went back to our room to read for awhile.  Below is a picture of the bedroom in our villa.

We have not bothered with the mosquito netting as we have not seen any insects in our room.  Also, we are taking malaria pills so we feel protected.  Below is a picture of the bath.

 There is a courtyard outside the window with 8 foot high walls so you don't have to worry about somebody walking by.

Later in the afternoon we went down to the lobby area for an English tea and the girls got to make an Indonesian dessert by coating slices of bananas with rice flour and then boiling them for a couple of minutes.  There was also a sauce for the dessert.  Kaylee really liked this because she loves to cook and says she wants to be a baker when she grows up.

Tomorrow we're renting a boat for four hours in the morning and going over to the Gili Islands for snorkeling.  Let's hope the weather cooperates.

Kuala Lumpur to Lombok

Today was intense!  We got up at 4:30 to drive to KLIA2, the new Kuala Lumpur airport terminal for economy flights to catch our 8:30 Air Asia flight to Lombok, Indonesia.  Last year we went to the old economy terminal for our trip to Phuket, Thailand and that terminal was pretty chaotic, teeming with people and steaming with heat.  Check-in at the old terminal was a real "cluster" with a long walk to the "gate" which was merely a door outside to the tarmac followed by another very long walk outside to ultimately reach the plane.  On that trip, my wife Carol almost de-laminated, was sputtering F-Bombs and  about ready to throw in the towel in the last 100 yards to the plane.  By contrast, the new terminal was enormously easier.  The building was air-conditioned, check-in was well organized and the walk to the gate was tolerable.  The only downside was that even in this brand new modern building the public toilets, like everywhere else in Malaysia, are just disgusting.  Every stall has a hose that people use to clean their backsides with instead of toilet paper and as a result there is water everywhere; on the seats, on the floor, the walls . . . everywhere.  How could anyone think that using a hose to clean yourself is easier or more convenient than toilet paper . . . for yourself or the next unfortunate user???  Note to Southeast Asia; get rid of the damn hoses in the toilets and force people to use toilet paper!

After a three hour flight we were slammed by the heat and humidity in Lombok as we walked down the steps of the plane to the tarmac.  Carol said, "Ah, this is the Asia I remember".  The terminal itself was small and not air-conditioned.  We had to get a "Visa on Arrival" for $25/person but that went very quickly.  In contrast to Kuala Lumpur where there was virtually no customs inspection, in Lombok it was the Full Monty with dogs sniffing every piece of luggage and every piece of luggage and carry-on going through an X-ray before we were permitted to leave.

The drive from the Lombok airport to the Oberoi Hotel was about an hour and 45 minutes.  First we went through an agricultural area dominated by by rice paddies and water buffalo on a four-lane highway and then we took what the driver described as as a short cut on a very narrow road with no shoulder with clusters of third world poverty shacks for housing,  ramshackle stands with liters of gas for the motorbikes which outnumbered cars by at least 20 to 1, then we climbed into the hills of a mahogany forest and then through a jungle with dozens of monkeys by the side of the road before descending to the coast and our hotel.

 Once we got to the Oberoi, it was a radical shift from the third world  to the lap of luxury.  We turned off the road above, went through a couple of miles of forest and then reached a gated security post where they inspected the underside of the car with a mirror for bombs.

We have two villas; one is a two-bedroom ocean view with its own pool which we thought Amy and the G-kids should use.

Ours is a one-bedroom ocean view villa but without a pool.  I'll post some pictures later of the interior.  Its fabulous.

Here is a stretch of the beach:

This is a shot I took down by the dock:

And as I was walking back to our room I was even treated with a rainbow:

We're really looking forward to the next four days here!

Horseback riding lessons and boating on the day of Christmas Eve

Its a little after 5 p.m. and we've had a full day already and we haven't even gone to the neighborhood Christmas party yet!  We started off going to watch Hannah and Kaylee's horseback riding lessons.  First they just did walking and then they did trotting.

 Macy decided that she did not like the stable's  helmets so she chose not to go on a pony ride but little Whitney was game.

 Macy said that next week she will bring her bicycle helmet and go for a ride.  After the horseback riding lesson we went to the Alexis Restaurant for an early lunch.  Below is Macy and Carol having a heart-to-heart chat in the restaurant.

 Then we went to Putrajaya Lake, a man-made lake in the area of KL with all of the governmental buildings similar to our Washington D.C.  We rented a ski boat for an hour and they provide the driver.  Back home, both Justin and I like to drive our own boats but at this place they insisted that one of their guys drive.  But with the time limitation, that was probably a good thing.  Hannah and Kaylee went knee boarding

 All the girls went tubing.

 And Kaylee and Hannah got a wild and crazy ride at the end after the littler girls had their fill.

All in all, a very fun day.

Arriving in Malaysia

Our flight from Minneapolis to Tokyo, the overnight stay at the Narita Airport Hilton and then the flight to Malaysia all went very smoothly.   It's a very long haul, no matter what you do but it went very well.   I can highly recommend the "Economy Comfort" seats on the Delta leg to Tokyo.  I've read that they only give you 4 inches more space than the regular coach seats but we thought they were almost as comfortable as domestic first class seats.  Of course the food and the service were not nearly as nice as first class but they were indeed more comfortable than standard coach seating and made the 13 hour flight to Tokyo more bearable.

The Narita airport is easy to get through with all the important signs and directions in English and numerous information desks with friendly and helpful staff.  We were struck by how stereotypically hyper-organized the Japanese are with uniformed staff both inside the airport, outside directing traffic and even in the Narita Airport Hotel.  We stayed at the hotel overnight because our flight arrived at about 4 p.m. local time but our flight from Tokyo to Kuala Lumpur did not leave until 10:30 the following morning. The hotel by the way was very impressive on the exterior and in the common areas but the room itself was small and not very comfortable.

When we went to the Narita airport on Monday morning we were surprised when every vehicle going into the airport was stopped and given a brief security inspection.  There were three uniformed security people who came on the bus and checked everyone's passport.  I don't know what purpose that served but it was in keeping with all of the other formal immigration and custom checks we went through in Japan.  All of which was strikingly absent when we arrived in Kuala Lumpur.  As we were starting to land in KL I asked a stewardess for an immigration form (which they usually pass out on the planes when going to other countries) and she said it was not necessary; we would only need to give fingerprints.  She was right of course.  When we went through immigration at the KL airport they asked no questions, we didn't have to say how long we were staying, where we were staying or anything else.  All we had to do was put our two index fingers on a scanner and then the officer waved us through.  And there was no customs whatsoever; no form to fill out and no customs officers inspecting anyone's bags.  There were a couple of official looking people standing around near the exit to the airport lobby but absolutely no inspection or questions whatsoever.  I could have had four suitcases loaded with whatever and carried them into Malaysia, no questions asked. I'm not a fan of too much security but I was surprised by how unconcerned they were.

One of my friends has mentioned several times that she was concerned about us flying on Malaysia Airlines in light of the two planes that went down this last year.  I honestly had not given that much thought until just as we were taking off they displayed a "Traveler's Prayer to Allah" on the video screen on the back of every seat.  I suppose that may have given comfort to some passengers but it had the opposite effect on me.

This morning Carol and I and went along with Amy and the G-Kids while they all got their nails done.

Then we went downtown to the Pavilion Mall for lunch at Din Tai Fung, a dim sum restaurant that is one of our favorites.  The Pavilion Mall itself  is in my view, more impressive than the Mall of America.  It may not be as big but the appearance and number of high end stores at the Pavilion is unbelievable. There was a sign at the front door where they have parking reserved "For Royalty and Ministers Only".  There was a black Rolls Royce and a red Ferrari parked there when we pulled up.

It was also striking that in this predominantly Muslim country (about 70% of the population, with most of the rest being either Buddhist or Hindu) they had such big Christmas displays.  Below are some pictures of the central space in the Pavilion Mall.

We stopped at the grocery store in the lower level of the mall just before we left.  I should have kept a closer eye on what Hannah was putting in the shopping cart.  She really likes strawberries and put two containers of them in the basket.  When we got home I saw that they were 49 Ringgits for each container.  That works out to over $15/dozen strawberries.  Ho Ho Ho.