Travels to Indonesia

On a hike from the boat tour

Hello all! A well deserved update is needed for this past month. As a brief overview of before my vacation in Indonesia, I was able to assist in conducting the Project Design and Management workshop for the volunteer cohort that came after me. Myself and two of my fellow volunteers worked really hard for multiple months to rewrite all of the slides, prepare the material, and also prepare the presentations. I would say all of the hard work paid off because the new volunteers and their Cambodian counterparts had many successful presentations. In general Project Design and Management (PDM) is a 3-day workshop that teaches volunteers and their Khmer counterparts how to successfully conduct any project. Things to think about in a project include: goals, objectives, budgeting, monitoring, evaluation, etc. Three days can be a lot, but like I said, I think the new volunteers learned a lot in order to have successful presentations! 

After PDM 2, it was time for my vacation! In Cambodia, there is a shorter, mid-school year break that comes before Khmer New Year. For one week, the school plays fun games and has a party, and then for two weeks, school is off and students can travel and relax and then have Khmer New Year (April 13, 14, 15. 16) where it is like a nationwide party of spraying water at each other. The Saturday after PDM (which I was already in Phnom Penh for leading the training) was the day we left to head to Indonesia! A trip I had been long awaiting (my new goal is to visit almost every Southeast Asian country), I was excited for our full itinerary of nature, food, and culture. I will dive into a play by play of each day on this trip, but the main gist of this trip is that it was INCREDIBLE. First, I would say this was one of the best trips of my life, and second that I think it was because so many Indonesian people were so nice and I loved learning about the culture as well as seeing the beautiful scenery. I constantly have self growth with my Peace Corps experience, and I think even within this trip there was a lot of self-growth and reflection. I continue to have a lot of gratitude for the things that we have in our world, the beauty of it, and the people we meet. It is difficult to put into words all that I have felt, but all of this has been something that will be a part of me forever. 

Where: Jakarta

Let’s dive into the trip and into everything that I learned! Once we got to Jakarta (there is a direct flight from Phnom Penh to Jakarta) we slept and then got ready for our next day walking around the city. We woke up and first walked to Chinatown and then the Old Dutch Town, but not before getting cash. If anyone remembers the cash escapade of last April in Thailand, you will know that Kyle and I are not lucky people at the ATM. This lack of luck was apparent at our first ATM stop. No card was eaten like last time, but the ATM would not give us cash, so we continued to walk. Once we got to the Old Town, we were successful in withdrawing cash (which was good because Indonesia was very much another cash heavy destination). We walked by an old building that we thought was a museum, but turned out it was a coffee shop. We sat and enjoyed coffee and planned out the rest of our day! We went to the Jakarta History Museum and then got lunch in the area before trying to explore the rest of Jakarta. We got to the bus stop, where we were a little lost on how to get a ticket. The bus employee at the stop was so nice explaining to us how to go to a convenience store and get a ticket (for those curious, you go to one of the Indomaret convenience stores and buy a card and then add money to it, which you then scan the cards at the turnstiles at all the bus stations). I will say the bus was super fast, efficient, easy, and cheap. The rest of the day we saw other city monuments and walked around before headed back to the hostel. Jakarta is very much a city. Probably super great to live in and work in, but not as many tourism things to do (especially on a budget). Back at the hostel, we ordered sushi delivery on Grab (Uber eats equivalent in Southeast Asia) and played cards. 

Key Stops for the Day:

Coffee Shop: inside the Toko Merah building 

Jakarta History Museum

Hostel: The Packer Lodge, was a nice and clean hostel, just a little far away from the city center for walking around but close to a bus stop 

Where: Bandung: 

For our second day, we went to Bandung! We knew Jakarta was a big city, so we always had this day trip planned. With the new Whoosh train, you can get to Bandung from Jakarta in 30 minutes (whereas before it was about a 3 hour drive/train ride). We woke up at 4:45 to get a Grab car to the train station. Once we got to the train station, we waited for our tour guide to pick us up. Since it was Eid, a Muslim holiday, she asked if she could come later because she was spending time with her family. Our tour guide was the coolest, strongest lady ever. She was so knowledgeable and liked music in English (she is also self taught in English) and so she would play music and we would all sing karaoke together to her playlist in the car ride to go to things. 

Once she got us, we headed straight to the White Crater. I didn’t realize that the sites we were going to see were up a mountain, about an hour and 15 minute drive outside of Bandung city (Kyle booked the tour). It was a beautiful drive up there because we passed through many small towns on the mountain, and because it was Eid, we saw so many people walking on the street with their families. I loved the winding roads, and for sure am impressed by our guide who could be a race car driver in another life. We saw the White Crater, which is an inactive volcano, but has a large sulfur reserve. This means that (1) it smelled like sulfur the closer we got but (2) it makes you cough a lot (there was also a sign that said do not stay there for more than 15 minutes. After the White Crater, we went to a hot spring that was connected to the same mountain. I made a silly comment of if the bubbling from the springs was real because it looked like a hot tub the way it bubbled! We put the clay on our arms and legs as a “mask” and sat and enjoyed the springs. We also walked over a (scary) suspension bridge to see miles and miles of scenery. The bridge was only scary because it was so high up. We continued the tour seeing other stops, including many strawberry plantations, but what was most beautiful were the terraced tea plantations. For miles and miles you could see the tea plantations and there were a lot of places to stop to drink tea. Our guide told us that people still pick the tea leaves by hand, sometimes up to 100kg in one day. 

On the way back down the mountain, we stopped at a place that sold “poop coffee”. I forget the name of the animal, but there is an animal that eats the coffee beans, whole, and that reduces the acidity of the coffee. When it poops the coffee back out, the bean is still whole. People then sterilize and clean the beans and then brew it like normal coffee. I did in fact have a whole cup of the coffee, and it was pretty good! The real sell for buying this coffee is calling it “poop coffee” but I do agree that the acidity was decreased. 

Finally, before taking us back to the train station, our guide drove us around Bandung city and showed us the town. This was not a planned part of the trip but we had extra time and we loved our guide so much. Plus since she knew all of the stops we got an extra part of the tour in Bandung (which now I want to go back and explore the city too). When we got on the train to go back to Jakarta, we gave our guide many hugs and thanks for the awesome day. She was for sure one of the people who made our trip super awesome. 

Key Stops for the Day:

White Crater

Hot Springs 

Our Tour Guide: White Crater Day Trip Private Tour Bandung Kawah Putih All in (from Bandung) link

Where: Travel Day!

Never without a dull moment, we had to take a 7 hour train to Yogyakarta. We had breakfast at a coffee spot that also had Indonesian food. We then walked partially in the rain to the train station to then prepare to leave. I also made a quick trip to Starbucks in the train station and all of the employees were SO nice (I know I keep giving constant shoutouts to people but the friendliness of everyone is something important to note). 

Then we took our 7 hour train ride journey! We got into the train station and got a Grab to our hostel, but traffic was terrible because of the holiday! (This will be a recurring theme). 

Key Stops for the Day:

Brunch: Bakoel Koffie

Where: Yogyakarta

We started the day early taking our Grab car at 7:15 to go to Borobudur temple. This was one of the stops that I was most excited for on the trip. Different from Angkor Wat in Cambodia, where you can buy a ticket and come at whatever time you want, Borobudur is different. They only let in a maximum of 150 people every hour and you have to follow a guide/guided tour for that one hour and then leave. As well, the temple requires you to wear shoes that they give you to make sure that your outside shoes do not damage the temple. The measures may seem extreme but they do all of these because of the extreme damage that has come to the temple due to over-tourism. As well, our tour guide described to us how the Dutch researched this temple and took parts of it apart, sometimes failing to put certain pieces back in the correct place. There were many statues of Buddha with its head cut off which then were taken to other countries. Our guide for the tour told us that if pieces were missing, they did not replace it with something new because they want to keep the structure as close to the original as possible. Included in Key Stops for the Day is more information about the temple. 

After Borobudur, Kyle and I walked to try to find lunch. Second time is the charm, we found a place that had a beautiful view looking at rice fields. It did rain a little while we were at lunch, and this is then what set the tone for the rest of the afternoon: rain and traffic. 

We ordered a Grab car to take us from Borobudur temple to Prambanan temple, which is a temple that has a style more similar to Angkor Wat. We left lunch at 1pm and it said it would be a 2 hour drive to the temple. There is not a direct road to go from one temple to the other and so our driver had to wind through the neighborhood streets to get us there. However, it wasn’t really winding, but instead like a parking lot. For 2 hours. But then 2 hours turned into 3 hours. Due to the holiday, traffic was so bad, plus the heavy rain did not really help our case as well. When we finally got near the temple (at 4:30pm, so we had been in the car for 3 and a half hours with our Grab driver), the police blocked off all of the turn arounds to let us go the correct way to get to the temple. We had to drive 5km up the highway (which was also like a parking lot) to get to a place to turn around. At this point it was already 5:30, and the temple closed at 5. Feeling defeated, we asked our driver to end the Grab ride and we would pay him in cash to take us all the way back to the city center to the hostel. We even had to stop for gas on the way back because we had been driving for so long. Finally getting back to the hostel at 6:30pm, we tipped the driver and paid in cash for everything because we felt bad he had been driving in the traffic for 5 and a half hours (also don’t forget a Grab driver is the same as an Uber driver so imagine riding in your Uber for 5 hours). We decided we would not be getting back in a car to go to dinner in the city. 

Instead we got a local recommendation to go to Via Via. It was a 30 minute walk from the hostel, but after the car fiasco, we were happy to walk. Winding through the backstreets of a neighborhood to get there, we popped out onto a tourist street. We had Indonesian food and also shopped a little bit in the Via Via shop which had things made by local artists (I always do know how to find the gift shop!) 

We came back to the hostel and Kyle called her mom because she is about to start hiking the Appalachian trail, and so I sat in the lobby and talked to the lady at the front desk and then this guy that was staying at the hostel. Another one of the people I met on vacation, his story was so interesting. It turns out he was from Yogyakarta visiting family, but due to the holiday, his house was crowded with people so he booked to stay in a hostel for a couple of nights (and also have quiet space to do remote work). Before coming back to Indonesia, he owned a restaurant/volunteer stay place in San Cristobal, Mexico. He was not much older than me but already had this business and sold it before coming back to there. We talked about life and the connections you make with people while traveling. 

Key Stops for the Day:

Borobudur Temple: (information from the UNSCO website, please reference the link for further information from the article) “The Borobudur Temple Compounds is one of the greatest Buddhist monuments in the world, and was built in the 8th and 9th centuries AD during the reign of the Syailendra Dynasty. The monument is located in the Kedu Valley, in the southern part of Central Java, at the centre of the island of Java, Indonesia. The main temple is a stupa built in three tiers around a hill which was a natural centre: a pyramidal base with five concentric square terraces, the trunk of a cone with three circular platforms and, at the top, a monumental stupa. The walls and balustrades are decorated with fine low reliefs, covering a total surface area of 2,520 m2. Around the circular platforms are 72 openwork stupas, each containing a statue of the Buddha.

The vertical division of Borobudur Temple into base, body, and superstructure perfectly accords with the conception of the Universe in Buddhist cosmology. It is believed that the universe is divided into three superimposing spheres, kamadhatu, rupadhatu, and arupadhatu, representing respectively the sphere of desires where we are bound to our desires, the sphere of forms where we abandon our desires but are still bound to name and form, and the sphere of formlessness where there is no longer either name or form. At Borobudur Temple, the kamadhatu is represented by the base, the rupadhatu by the five square terraces, and the arupadhatu by the three circular platforms as well as the big stupa. The whole structure shows a unique blending of the very central ideas of ancestor worship, related to the idea of a terraced mountain, combined with the Buddhist concept of attaining Nirvana.”

https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/592/#:~:text=The%20Borobudur%20Temple%20Compounds%20is,the%20island%20of%20Java%2C%20Indonesia. 

Lunch Stop: Eyoop Coffee and Eatery

Dinner Stop: Via Via Jogjya

Hostel: Snooze, cutest hostel ever! The most friendly staff and it truly feels like a community home. The breakfast was included in the price of our beds and it was so good. They constantly emailed us to check in and make sure everything was ok

Where: Yogyakarta Day 2

Yogyakarta was one of my favorite stops (although I loved all of it) and so I was happy that we had two days at this spot. The next day we woke up and had breakfast at our hostel before then going to Mount Merapi. This is an active volcano that last erupted in 2010, destroying all of the villages on the mountain. Our guide on the mountain told us that his village was one of the ones destroyed and that they were mandated to relocate their village to at least 15km away from the mountain. 

While our driver was driving us back to the city, we asked him what would be a good place to stop at for lunch. He recommended to us a local spot called House of Raminten. When we got there, there were so many people waiting outside but we decided it would be worth the wait and so we put our name on the list to wait for an hour and then went to walk around. For lunch, we got to sit upstairs on the floor (like there were some floor chairs and a table) and we ordered really good food and I also ordered a tea. We sat and talked for two hours and then we hit the road again and walked on the main road back to our hostel. I stopped at one of the many bakeries that sold Bakpia Pathok which is a small roll stuffed with mung beans and an extra flavor specifically known in Yogyakarta (I got a box of cheese ones and then a box of chocolate ones). There were so many people walking in the streets because of the holiday so it was really nice to see a city so lively! We also made a pit stop at the train station to get train tickets to go to the airport the next day.

Once back at the hostel, we talked a bit with the same guy from the night before and he said him and his friend were going to get dinner and then head to a reggae bar after. We decided we would join at the reggae bar later. We walked up the street (busy tourist street) at 8pm but didn’t see our friends that we made. Instead we were called over by some guys who were sitting outside a reggae bar (which we think was the same one we were supposed to end up at). There were just 4 guys playing the guitar and singing music outside, so we sat and chatted with them. One turned out to be a tour guide within Yogyakarta. We also met a Greek girl who was walking down the road and decided to join too. The chatting and signing had to stop at 9 for us because we had to wake up and catch a (very) early train to the airport the next day. 

Key Stops for the Day:

Lunch: House of Raminten 

Dessert: Bakpia Pathok 

Reggae Bar

Where: Yogyakarta to Bali 

Pain. At this point we had woken up so early for many days in a row but I think this was the earliest. I first woke up at 2AM because I forgot to check-in for our 8AM flight. But we all woke up at 4:30 to get dressed and ready to then take a Grab car as the sun was rising to the train station.  Our hostel roommate from Germany was also on the same flight as us so we all shared our Grab car together. Our 40 minute train ride to the airport left at 6AM.  Despite the pain of waking up early, the train ride was beautiful through the countryside before getting to the airport which also had beautiful scenery of the mountains. 

Once we got to Bali after our flight, we had an hour and a half taxi ride to Ubud where we would stay the next two days. Looking at a map, Bali looks small, but there are many different areas on the island and we didn’t have enough time to go to all of them. A mentor of mine from BC said Bali was different from the rest of Indonesia and I would say that is true. Bali is known for a holiday spot for foreigners and so there was a lot more Western style food places and shops. I cannot remember if I have mentioned this before, but despite it being incredibly hot in Southeast Asia, many people decide to wear clothes that cover more of their body. In my town in Cambodia, women usually always wear pants, no matter the temperature, and also long sleeved shirts. In Bali, many of the clothes in the shops were catered more to visitors, either selling swimsuits or also short shorts. (Swimsuits is also more of a Western thing too, at least in Cambodia and what I saw in Indonesia most people swim with their clothes on- so when we swam in local spots I always swam in my clothes). Bali also has a different predominate religion. In Java, the predominate religion was Islam, but in Bali it is Hinduism. 

While walking around for our afternoon in Ubud, we saw the Ubud Palace and also walked up and down the hills of the street. 

Where: Bali 

To start off the next day, we had a tour booked to take us around Ubud. Like I said before, Bali is a lot more spread out than you think, and we wanted to go to multiple places but thought it would be easiest to book a guide to take us around. 

Our tour guide took us to multiple waterfalls which were a gorgeous sight! Kyle swam at most of them but I could not get in the water because I was too cold. Each waterfall you had to hike up and down to get in and out of it but it was worth the hike for the beautiful view, and we also went in the morning when there were less tourists. 

Our next stop was a coffee plantation and lunch. At the coffee plantation we tried all different flavors of coffee and tea, including regular coffee, coconut coffee, orange coffee, pandan tea, rosella tea, ginger tea, and more! Kyle and I tried them all and then we divided the cups up based on who liked what more (surprisingly we mainly liked the opposite things so it was easy to divide up!) Lunch was also some beautiful views of the nature of Ubud. 

After lunch, we went to the Tirta Empul Temple where Hindu Balinese do a water purification ritual (Melukat). The temple is open to visitors and our guide encouraged us to do it too. Thankfully for him he explained each step of the way, how to pray, and ask permission from the god to be present before washing your face and head. We learned a lot about why people do this (our guide said he does it once every 3 months). The steps include:  (1) ask the god for permission and thanks to be there (2) wash your face 3 times (3) drink the water 3 times (but do not have to swallow the water) (4) wash your head 3 times (5) repeat again at each fountain (the complex had a total of 30, however you do not use the first fountain because that one is reserved for God and then some others are used only for the deceased. For this part of the tour I think it was the most important that we had a guide there to show us how to do it correctly but also to make sure we were not overstepping Balinese traditions as tourists. 

Finally, we stopped at the Ubud terraced rice fields which were beautiful but I think now since I see rice fields so much the magic of a rice field is not as it once was but I know I will miss the view when I go back to the U.S. 

In the evening, we decided since we were in Bali that we had to do a yoga class and so we looked up a place we could go near us and ended up at the Yoga Barn. This place was a retreat center and also yoga training center and so you can imagine how beautiful it was. Plus when we got there there were a lot of people in the courtyard practicing their poses. 

Key Stops for the Day:

Tour: Waterfall and Ubud Tour: https://www.getyourguide.com/ubud-l32246/ubud-waterfalls-water-temple-rice-terraces-private-tour-t812529/?ranking_uuid=ad2b3ab8-9ddc-4495-ba36-e382e9615d0c

Tirta Empul Temple: water purification ritual

The Yoga Barn: where we did the yoga class

Hostel: Sunshine Vintage House: this hostel was a part of someone’s home within easy walking distance of Ubud. The family and staff were so nice and because it was at their home it felt nice and cozy. The actual facilities were very nice and I wished we stayed longer. 

Where: Down to the airport 

Before leaving our hostel, I had a nice morning sipping my coffee and relaxing while Kyle went to the Monkey Forest. For those of you who don’t know, I do not like monkeys and especially if they look like they are about to jump on me. She said I would have hated it because there were monkeys everywhere. 

This was not a very eventful day so I will not go into too much detail, but we headed down to Denpasar to spend the night there so we had time to catch our ferry to Lombok the next day! We ended up going to a restaurant on the beach that was part of a resort (not where were were staying) and hung out for the afternoon on the beach. 

Where: Bali to Lombok 

And then the journey to the boat commenced. Because the boat tour that we were doing only picked us up from Lombok, we had to journey to Lombok…. By boat! The ferry that we took left at 9am in the morning and got us to Lombok at about 1pm. The ferry made a couple of stops before that, specifically at Gili T which is another popular destination for people to go to. Once we got to Lombok we realized we did not have much planned for the rest of the day. As a chill day, we walked along the road, I stopped to get “tea” (I say tea because it turned out to be more like cream and jelly- but it was still good), and we walked to a beach with a lot of locals. Again, because of the holiday, there were still a lot of people out, so we went to the beach where a lot of people were swimming! To my previous point, many people just swim with their clothes on and so I also went into the water with my clothes on as I went hunting for beautiful seashells (as a side note, the seashells that I saw in Indonesia were unmatched with their beauty!) 

For the evening, we hiked to a lookout point to watch the sunset (it was UNREAL). We hung out at the hostel and chatted with an Australian guy who was learning linguistics online as well as learning Spanish and Indonesian. We had dinner at the hostel and then I saw part of a chess match him and a local guy were playing before we went to sleep, preparing for the next day to get on the boat.

Key Stops for the Day:

Hostel: Lala Salama: hostel was in a kind of random place but perfect to get picked up for our boat tour. The staff was friendly and one of the head managers made homemade pancakes every morning for everyone. He hyped up his pancakes a lot and they did not disappoint!

Where: Lombok to the BOAT!

The day had come! Our boat tour, which left from Lombok, picked us up in a van in the morning to take us to the meeting point. I did not realize it until our van ride started but we had to drive 3 hours across the island to catch the boat from the other side. Nevertheless we finally arrived and put our stuff down on the boat. All of our bags were put under the boat, which I later decided to grab some of my essentials to put in a bag is I wouldn’t have to constantly open the place where the bags were. We all claimed our spots on the beds (because the sleeping area was about 30 beds lined up next to each other) and then headed to the top of the boat to hang out. 

Where: The Boat

To sum up the boat, it was incredible. Yes the sleeping situation was not ideal. Yes there was no shower to actually wash my hair (we had a “better than nothing” shower which we would use to rinse off the salt from the ocean). But, I wish the boat lasted longer. Over the period of 4 days, I saw the most incredible things, including swimming with whale sharks, seeing Komodo dragons, baby sharks, sea turtles, starfish, lush mountains, and a pink beach. I forged new friendships with the people on the boat. We jumped off of the boat and swam, snorkeled in the ocean, and hiked as much as we could. It is something that I don’t think I would ever think about doing before Peace Corps, but here I am now. My description of what I saw and experienced does not do justice about how I feel. 

Key Points: 

Wanua Adventures: there are many tour companies that run this boat trip, but after reading many blogs online we determined this one was the best! Like mentioned, you do sleep on beds in a room with other people and there isn’t really a shower shower, however the food was so great, the crew was so nice, and it was an experience of a lifetime and so I cannot recommend this tour company enough. Usually the boat tours start in March after the rainy season is coming to an end. 

Where: Flores 

Once we got off the boat it was time for a shower. Literally. We got off in the afternoon and walked to our hostel from the port. The hostel was a combination with a hotel and so it was incredibly nice. A lot of people from our boat also were staying at our hostel or a neighboring hostel and so we saw many familiar faces! We also had a plan to go out that night to a reggae bar that we were invited to go to with the crew from our boat. I will get to that later. 

We all showered immediately once we got there and then spent a chill afternoon at the pool (before it started to pour down rain). That night we walked to the reggae bar where we saw not only the people and crew from our boat but also from the other boat near us! In talking with the guides, it turns out that this was the local spot they usually always go to when they get off of the boat before having to take another tour out the next day. There was a live reggae band and it was so fun seeing the crew and everyone else sing and dance. The night continued on when the band stopped and we still sang and dance to the music!

Hostel: Seaesta: a beautiful hostel that looked over the port from the mountain. It had great vibes and was just very relaxing. We wish we could have stayed longer!

Where: back home 

The day had come to travel home. We had to fly to Jakarta, spend the night in Jakarta and then have a flight to Malaysia and then back to Phnom Penh (our direct flight from Jakarta to Phnom Penh was cancelled). It was a long journey home (in total 3 days because we had to fly for two days and then I had to take the bus home the next day). 

It was nice getting to spend a night in Phnom Penh though to kick off our next event: Khmer New Year! 

Overall: 

I say this trip was life changing and one of the best trips I ever had because I learned a lot, saw the beauty of a new country, and also felt like I could be myself. I self reflect a lot, but I think about how much I have grown and been able to be myself while living in Southeast Asia. While living abroad in France, I always wanted to blend in and not be seen as a tourist, which also made me feel like I had to hide who I was. However in Southeast Asia, there is no hiding that I am a tourist. And with that I have been able to not only embrace that but have also been able to learn more and gain more confidence. In Indonesia, we embraced being a “bule” (the Indonesian term for a foreigner) but at the same time the warmth and welcoming of everyone in Indonesia made me feel at home. It is still important to be respectful as a tourist when you are visiting another place, but also embrace that you are a visitor and don’t try to be something that you are not. The same has gone for my service in Cambodia. I do not blend in at all. But at the same time, I have been more myself than I have ever before. 

I have experienced growth and change over the past two years and that is something that my Peace Corps service has given me. I am not as afraid to go to new places, not as afraid to introduce myself to meet new people and experience new feats.