6/29
Urg, *groan* I've been so sick the last few days. I ate at a Warung Tenda (food stall under a tent) about 3 days ago, and I must have picked something up. I have a low-grade fever, can't stop coughing, and am just worn out and achey. 2 Days ago I woke up and knew it was gonna be a bad day, like a premonition, you know? It was raining and I had a new class starting up, a conversation class. It went absolutely terribly. I was glad when the day was over. It was the first time since I've been here that I've been miserable.
Yesterday was ok, though. All the rain had washed the pollution out of the air, and I was able to see the mountains in Bogor. I didn't think to bring my camera. The sunset at the end of the day was pretty as well, but by then the haze was starting to come back. I don't remember eating anything all day except for some Vitamin C drink. When I got out of work, I still wasn't that hungry, but managed to eat a double cheeseburger meal from Mickey D's. Around 10 o'clock I downed half a bottle of pseudo ephedrine and passed out.
I woke up this morning around 10, had some coffee and took an ojek to Detos and got some juice and gum. I'm at the warnet now, writing this. I'm gonna get some lunch a little later and maybe some Advil for the aches and pains. I really hope that I don't have typhoid, but I wouldn't be surprised, since 3 other people here have had it.
From Wikipedia: "People with typhoid fever typically have a sustained fever as high as 40° C (104° F). They may also feel weak, or have gastroenteritis, headache, diarrhea and anorexia (loss of appetite). In some cases, patients have a rash of flat, rose-colored spots. The only way to know for sure if an illness is typhoid fever is to have samples of stool or blood tested for the presence of S. typhi.[3]"
Well, no rash yet, but all the other symptoms check out... I'll check with my boss. Wish me luck!
Friday, June 29, 2007
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
6/26
6/26
Ok, I'm in an internet cafe on my way to work, and it's painfully slow, but I gotta update this every once in a while, so I'll talk about the weekend. On Saturday, after my class, my boss took me out to the Shangri-La Hotel and we had lunch at the Satoo Restaurant. It was a great international buffet, all types of food, British, Indo, sushi, Indian, Chinese... After lunch, she dropped me off at Plaza Senayan, and I walked around the mall for a bit. They just opened up a Coach store, so I browsed a bit, mostly women's stuff, I wanted a tie from there...
Felix SMS'ed me and said they were going to a nice Indian place for dinner later, so I hung out in the mall for a while, got the new peterpan CD (Indo pop) and then hopped a cab to Hazara. I had a Mojito at the bar while waiting for them to arrive, and then we ordered dinner. We had all types of curries, samosas, it was great. Not cheap, tho, it ended up being about $25/person. Felix was leaving the next morning to go to Yogya on vacation, so he hopped a cab home, and Sheley, David and I took a taxi to Kemang.
We ended up going to this bar called The Rock Cafe, it was about 9 when we got there. The cover kinda stung, Rp. 75,000, but included a drink, and a live show. The opening band was a group called Snow White, a couple of amateur girls singing cover songs. The guitarist was amazing, tho, He played a perfect version of "Sweet Child O' Mine". The main band finally took stage around 11:30, "Dewi Dewi", a band I'd never heard of, but they're apparently pretty popular here. It was 3 women singing pop music (kinda like Gwen Stefani now). It was about 2:30 when we left, and we each had about 5 beers over the night, so we were a little buzzed. We got a taxi driver who kept talking to us in Indonesian, and I think I was the only one who knew what he was saying.
(Oh, ha ha! They are playing Dewi Dewi on the internet cafe's radio!)
Well, that's about it fer now. Talk to ya later.
Ok, I'm in an internet cafe on my way to work, and it's painfully slow, but I gotta update this every once in a while, so I'll talk about the weekend. On Saturday, after my class, my boss took me out to the Shangri-La Hotel and we had lunch at the Satoo Restaurant. It was a great international buffet, all types of food, British, Indo, sushi, Indian, Chinese... After lunch, she dropped me off at Plaza Senayan, and I walked around the mall for a bit. They just opened up a Coach store, so I browsed a bit, mostly women's stuff, I wanted a tie from there...
Felix SMS'ed me and said they were going to a nice Indian place for dinner later, so I hung out in the mall for a while, got the new peterpan CD (Indo pop) and then hopped a cab to Hazara. I had a Mojito at the bar while waiting for them to arrive, and then we ordered dinner. We had all types of curries, samosas, it was great. Not cheap, tho, it ended up being about $25/person. Felix was leaving the next morning to go to Yogya on vacation, so he hopped a cab home, and Sheley, David and I took a taxi to Kemang.
We ended up going to this bar called The Rock Cafe, it was about 9 when we got there. The cover kinda stung, Rp. 75,000, but included a drink, and a live show. The opening band was a group called Snow White, a couple of amateur girls singing cover songs. The guitarist was amazing, tho, He played a perfect version of "Sweet Child O' Mine". The main band finally took stage around 11:30, "Dewi Dewi", a band I'd never heard of, but they're apparently pretty popular here. It was 3 women singing pop music (kinda like Gwen Stefani now). It was about 2:30 when we left, and we each had about 5 beers over the night, so we were a little buzzed. We got a taxi driver who kept talking to us in Indonesian, and I think I was the only one who knew what he was saying.
(Oh, ha ha! They are playing Dewi Dewi on the internet cafe's radio!)
Well, that's about it fer now. Talk to ya later.
Saturday, June 16, 2007
6/16
Hey everyone, I'm in Citos right now, (Cilandak Town Square) in the Mr. Bean coffee shop. I spent at least an hour pulling my hair out trying to configure my wireless connection, but finally got it to work, so I was able to Skype home. I got a few cool pictures of Depok and Sukamantri to show...
Yum! From Bread Talk, a bakery...
The view from the tent in Sukamantri...
3rd waterfall. You can see Fajar's head behind the rock.
Monkey's Tail, edible plant.
Well that's it for now! Hope you enjoy reading, I'm gonna go, talk to ya later!
Yum! From Bread Talk, a bakery...
The view from the tent in Sukamantri...
3rd waterfall. You can see Fajar's head behind the rock.
Monkey's Tail, edible plant.
Well that's it for now! Hope you enjoy reading, I'm gonna go, talk to ya later!
Saturday, June 9, 2007
6/9
6/9
Ok, so I'm up-to-date with this thing now, it's Saturday afternoon, and I'm in The Wiz warnet. Tuesday I went to Obonk for dinner, to give it one more shot, figuring it couldn't have been the only reason I got sick before my rafting trip to Sukabumi. I was wrong. Wednesday I came down with Suharto's Revenge, and still can't break wind without sharting. It's bad news.
Thursday I got a guitar on a whim, a Yamaha FX310, and I'm trying to learn, I had to stop for a day to let the blisters heal. Last night all the teachers went to Pondok Indah 2, and we got dinner at a Thai place, really nice, but kinda pricey. Afterwards we went to the Second Floor in Kemang, a lounge/bar. The smoke was a killer. My eyes were watering and itchy all night, and I couldn't hear for about an hour afterwards because the techno was so loud. Umm... I think that's about it, I picked up a DVD on how to play the guitar, and I'm gonna go home now and practice.
Later!
Ok, so I'm up-to-date with this thing now, it's Saturday afternoon, and I'm in The Wiz warnet. Tuesday I went to Obonk for dinner, to give it one more shot, figuring it couldn't have been the only reason I got sick before my rafting trip to Sukabumi. I was wrong. Wednesday I came down with Suharto's Revenge, and still can't break wind without sharting. It's bad news.
Thursday I got a guitar on a whim, a Yamaha FX310, and I'm trying to learn, I had to stop for a day to let the blisters heal. Last night all the teachers went to Pondok Indah 2, and we got dinner at a Thai place, really nice, but kinda pricey. Afterwards we went to the Second Floor in Kemang, a lounge/bar. The smoke was a killer. My eyes were watering and itchy all night, and I couldn't hear for about an hour afterwards because the techno was so loud. Umm... I think that's about it, I picked up a DVD on how to play the guitar, and I'm gonna go home now and practice.
Later!
6/3
6/3
Ok so Sunday morning a little before 6, we're in Sukamantri on Mount Salak, and I get some excellent pictures of the sun rising behind Gunung Gede. I take in the view, it's awesome. We have a few smokes, and Fajar goes to get breakfast. He comes back with gorengan, "fried stuff". It's hot, dripping in grease, and delicious. Sort of like a mess of battered onions and potatoes, fried in oil. Also had coffee and instant breakfast, sorta like a sweet porridge drink. Fajar goes back to sleep for a while, and I walk around and take pictures of monkeys and the campsite. Around 9 o'clock he gets up, we dismantle the tent, and he leads the way to the waterfall. He tells me that it takes 3 days to reach the top of Salak, and that hikers get lost and die every year, because the paths close behind you and you get disoriented.
There are 3 waterfalls, they get bigger the further into the jungle you go. I was told to watch out for lintah, leeches. So we passed the first 2, and kept trekking into the jungle, following the water upstream. We got to the 3rd waterfall, and it was beautiful. The water was extremely cold, but refreshing. Fajar got a couple of the lintah on him, about 1 cm long. On the way back, Fajar pointed out some of the local edible plants. Most interesting was the Monkey's Tail, a plant that looks like... well, a curled-up monkey's tail! He showed me how to brush off the hairs, and then eat the plant, explaining that it's better cooked, but still ok raw. The only way to describe the taste is like a really slimy cucumber. It wasn't bad, kinda crunchy, but was just oozing a clear, thick, choking goo. Probably better in a soup or something...
We got back to the campsite, took showers, and Fajar found another leech. "It sucking my butt!"
Had some nasi goreng at the little campground store, and a bunch of bikers rode into the camp. No, no, mountain bikers, from the Depok cycling club. Most of the guys were at least 50, and I couldn't imagine how anyone could ride 30 clicks uphill in this heat. So after lunch, it was about 1, and we started back down. It really began to heat up, but at least it was downhill. We passed a field where people were manually cutting grass and loading it into a pickup, as feed for cattle. Walked past cow pastures, poultry farms, and banana plantations. Fajar said he beleives that house we passed was owned by former President Suharto. We grabbed an angkot, switched onto another, and headed for the station.
Once we were just outside the station,Fajar pointed out the live snakes for sale, like cobras and pythons. He has a few anacondas at his house, as well as crocodiles, that he will skin when they get big enough. I saw a place that sold DVD's and they were cheap enough, about $0.55 each. I got Hot Fuzz, 28 Weeks Later (shite handicam copy), The Number 23 (same deal), and 300 (excellent DVD rip). So we hung out at the station for a while, let the first train go because it was too crowded, and got on the next one. More vendors today, selling kulit (fried skin, like pork rinds, but beef), fruit, drinks, and sundry goods. I saw a lot more beggars this time, like a bunch of people with portable amps singing to awful music for money. Got off the train, grabbed an ojek, and thanked Fajar for a great time in Sukamantri. It is worth mentioning that I did get a little bit of a sunburn for the first time since I got here. Looks like the pollution in Depok has a rating of SPF 30! Ha ha, well, that's about it for my weekend. Catch ya later!
Ok so Sunday morning a little before 6, we're in Sukamantri on Mount Salak, and I get some excellent pictures of the sun rising behind Gunung Gede. I take in the view, it's awesome. We have a few smokes, and Fajar goes to get breakfast. He comes back with gorengan, "fried stuff". It's hot, dripping in grease, and delicious. Sort of like a mess of battered onions and potatoes, fried in oil. Also had coffee and instant breakfast, sorta like a sweet porridge drink. Fajar goes back to sleep for a while, and I walk around and take pictures of monkeys and the campsite. Around 9 o'clock he gets up, we dismantle the tent, and he leads the way to the waterfall. He tells me that it takes 3 days to reach the top of Salak, and that hikers get lost and die every year, because the paths close behind you and you get disoriented.
There are 3 waterfalls, they get bigger the further into the jungle you go. I was told to watch out for lintah, leeches. So we passed the first 2, and kept trekking into the jungle, following the water upstream. We got to the 3rd waterfall, and it was beautiful. The water was extremely cold, but refreshing. Fajar got a couple of the lintah on him, about 1 cm long. On the way back, Fajar pointed out some of the local edible plants. Most interesting was the Monkey's Tail, a plant that looks like... well, a curled-up monkey's tail! He showed me how to brush off the hairs, and then eat the plant, explaining that it's better cooked, but still ok raw. The only way to describe the taste is like a really slimy cucumber. It wasn't bad, kinda crunchy, but was just oozing a clear, thick, choking goo. Probably better in a soup or something...
We got back to the campsite, took showers, and Fajar found another leech. "It sucking my butt!"
Had some nasi goreng at the little campground store, and a bunch of bikers rode into the camp. No, no, mountain bikers, from the Depok cycling club. Most of the guys were at least 50, and I couldn't imagine how anyone could ride 30 clicks uphill in this heat. So after lunch, it was about 1, and we started back down. It really began to heat up, but at least it was downhill. We passed a field where people were manually cutting grass and loading it into a pickup, as feed for cattle. Walked past cow pastures, poultry farms, and banana plantations. Fajar said he beleives that house we passed was owned by former President Suharto. We grabbed an angkot, switched onto another, and headed for the station.
Once we were just outside the station,Fajar pointed out the live snakes for sale, like cobras and pythons. He has a few anacondas at his house, as well as crocodiles, that he will skin when they get big enough. I saw a place that sold DVD's and they were cheap enough, about $0.55 each. I got Hot Fuzz, 28 Weeks Later (shite handicam copy), The Number 23 (same deal), and 300 (excellent DVD rip). So we hung out at the station for a while, let the first train go because it was too crowded, and got on the next one. More vendors today, selling kulit (fried skin, like pork rinds, but beef), fruit, drinks, and sundry goods. I saw a lot more beggars this time, like a bunch of people with portable amps singing to awful music for money. Got off the train, grabbed an ojek, and thanked Fajar for a great time in Sukamantri. It is worth mentioning that I did get a little bit of a sunburn for the first time since I got here. Looks like the pollution in Depok has a rating of SPF 30! Ha ha, well, that's about it for my weekend. Catch ya later!
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
6/2
6/2
I'm gonna try and do my best to remember everything that happened in the last 2 days, I broke it up by date, because I tend to get a little long-winded.
Saturday I hung out at the house till 4pm, when Fajar picked me up to go camping. "We go by train"... He picked me up on his motorcycle, we jetted to his house, and picked up his gear, then walked to the station. "Watch out for criminals" was his warning. This was not a particularly nice train station, crowded with vendors, normal people, and beggars. I put beggars in their own category because, well... I'll tell you later. The fare to Bogor is Rp. 1,500 for economy class, This is economy class in Indonesia. People crowd into the trains, some ride outside on top. "Boss, careful of your wallet, and put your backpack on your front. Beware of hypnotist. And let me know if anyone is watching us."
Slightly alarmed, I pressed him on the hypnotists. He said that people may try to talk to you, and distract you while reaching into your pocket and stealing your wallet. Thankfully, nothing bad happened on this trip. Vendors walked up and down the train, selling everything from stickers and cigarettes to fried tofu, oranges, and cold drinks. It started pouring on the train, and since it was economy class, the doors and some of the windows couldn't close. So we arrived in Bogor, ran to the station, and walked through and caught an angkot. We had to change angkots to get to our destination. It was prime rush hour, so we weren't moving at all. It's hot, and we're breathing exhaust fumes, it was terrible. We got as far as we could, and Fajar asks me, "Ok boss, we take ojek halfway, or walk?" We took the ojeks. It was slightly treacherous, washed out roads, we bottomed out a few times. Indonesians don't say oops or whoa, they say "Aduh!" So we got up halfway, took out our flashlights, and started walking. It was a full moon, so it wasn't too dark, but the cloud cover kinda hid the moon. After a little while, he stopped and lit his lantern. I remember it being very hot and humid, and you could see the steam rising off yourself. Fajar told me that you have to ask the forest for permission to take a whizz in the woods, or else be cursed. So I did... It was a long hike uphill, at least 2 clicks (km), and we were both sweating when we reached Sukamantri.
Formerly a WWII Japanese fortress, Sukamantri is now a campground. The exact location is 06 deg 40.533' S, 106 deg 45.093' E, according to my gps, about 33 km due south of my place in Depok. We set up camp, made some Indomie, Fajar played his guitar, it was cool. The next day is better...
I'm gonna try and do my best to remember everything that happened in the last 2 days, I broke it up by date, because I tend to get a little long-winded.
Saturday I hung out at the house till 4pm, when Fajar picked me up to go camping. "We go by train"... He picked me up on his motorcycle, we jetted to his house, and picked up his gear, then walked to the station. "Watch out for criminals" was his warning. This was not a particularly nice train station, crowded with vendors, normal people, and beggars. I put beggars in their own category because, well... I'll tell you later. The fare to Bogor is Rp. 1,500 for economy class, This is economy class in Indonesia. People crowd into the trains, some ride outside on top. "Boss, careful of your wallet, and put your backpack on your front. Beware of hypnotist. And let me know if anyone is watching us."
Slightly alarmed, I pressed him on the hypnotists. He said that people may try to talk to you, and distract you while reaching into your pocket and stealing your wallet. Thankfully, nothing bad happened on this trip. Vendors walked up and down the train, selling everything from stickers and cigarettes to fried tofu, oranges, and cold drinks. It started pouring on the train, and since it was economy class, the doors and some of the windows couldn't close. So we arrived in Bogor, ran to the station, and walked through and caught an angkot. We had to change angkots to get to our destination. It was prime rush hour, so we weren't moving at all. It's hot, and we're breathing exhaust fumes, it was terrible. We got as far as we could, and Fajar asks me, "Ok boss, we take ojek halfway, or walk?" We took the ojeks. It was slightly treacherous, washed out roads, we bottomed out a few times. Indonesians don't say oops or whoa, they say "Aduh!" So we got up halfway, took out our flashlights, and started walking. It was a full moon, so it wasn't too dark, but the cloud cover kinda hid the moon. After a little while, he stopped and lit his lantern. I remember it being very hot and humid, and you could see the steam rising off yourself. Fajar told me that you have to ask the forest for permission to take a whizz in the woods, or else be cursed. So I did... It was a long hike uphill, at least 2 clicks (km), and we were both sweating when we reached Sukamantri.
Formerly a WWII Japanese fortress, Sukamantri is now a campground. The exact location is 06 deg 40.533' S, 106 deg 45.093' E, according to my gps, about 33 km due south of my place in Depok. We set up camp, made some Indomie, Fajar played his guitar, it was cool. The next day is better...
6/1
6/1
Whew, what a weekend, I am exhausted. Friday was a national holiday, Buddha's day of enlightenment. I spent a good portion of the day at Margo City, the nice mall in Depok. I had lunch at Popeye's in Detos ascross the street, but they used the wrong oil, so my fried chicken tasted like fish, ick. Anyways, so I was in Margo, and I was browsing the book section, and there was a book on English Idioms, and I could not stop laughing at how poor the translations were. I got some comic books and a travel dictionary, and hung out in Starbuck's for a while.
I'm starting to pick up on the nuances of the language. Just about any noun can be turned into a verb, you just have to know the root word. Like, I didn't know what menyewaku meant, and it wasn't in the dictionary. I found the root word, sewa, which means "rent", you add "meny" and drop the "s", and you get menyewa, to rent. The -ku at the end is short for aku, I or me. So menyewaku means I rent.
So, then as I was walking to get an angkot home, it started pissing rain. In about 3 minutes, the streets were flooding, it was madness. But it stopped by the time I got to my stop, so that was good. What was not good is that it was still cloudy out, nearly 6pm (sun sets at 6 every day) and I had forgotten to take my bloody keys with me. Everyone was out for the day. Luckily Jeremy arrived after about 20 minutes and let me in. The rest of the evening it rained, but let up for a while so I could go to the Indomaret (like a 7-11) and get some supplies for the camping trip...
Whew, what a weekend, I am exhausted. Friday was a national holiday, Buddha's day of enlightenment. I spent a good portion of the day at Margo City, the nice mall in Depok. I had lunch at Popeye's in Detos ascross the street, but they used the wrong oil, so my fried chicken tasted like fish, ick. Anyways, so I was in Margo, and I was browsing the book section, and there was a book on English Idioms, and I could not stop laughing at how poor the translations were. I got some comic books and a travel dictionary, and hung out in Starbuck's for a while.
I'm starting to pick up on the nuances of the language. Just about any noun can be turned into a verb, you just have to know the root word. Like, I didn't know what menyewaku meant, and it wasn't in the dictionary. I found the root word, sewa, which means "rent", you add "meny" and drop the "s", and you get menyewa, to rent. The -ku at the end is short for aku, I or me. So menyewaku means I rent.
So, then as I was walking to get an angkot home, it started pissing rain. In about 3 minutes, the streets were flooding, it was madness. But it stopped by the time I got to my stop, so that was good. What was not good is that it was still cloudy out, nearly 6pm (sun sets at 6 every day) and I had forgotten to take my bloody keys with me. Everyone was out for the day. Luckily Jeremy arrived after about 20 minutes and let me in. The rest of the evening it rained, but let up for a while so I could go to the Indomaret (like a 7-11) and get some supplies for the camping trip...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)