5/15

5/15

Ok, so I've got some down time, it's 5:30 a.m. and I'm in CGK airport waiting for my flight to Singapore. Yesterday was fairly uneventful, but I did get a cellphone.

Back to Sunday. We were driving through Bandung, on the way to Sukabumi, where the rapids are. It was really mountainous, but all the trees had been cut down and replanted with palms for cooking oil. A real shame, hundreds of acres of ugly, shorts palms replaced the rain forest that had been there. But Indonesia's facing severe cooking oil shortages. An even greater tragedy is that in a few years, when the trees are past their prime, they'll do a slash and burn, and probably send the dirt and sand overseas. Indonesia's been sending so much sand to Singapore that the government has had to hold special meetings on conservation and such.

Ok, so we drove through the mountains, past Gede Salak, the Snake-fruit mountain, past the former forests turned to palm plantations, past tea leaf farms and through several villages. The beggars in these parts don't tap on your window, they hold out butterfly nets, so you don't even have to slow down, just toss a few Rps and they'll catch em!

The peanut and cookie vendors tho, are ruthless. There were at least 6 guys selling the exact same thing, and every one of them asked us if we would buy something.

Ok, fast-forward to Sukabumi. We checked in, my tummy wasn't doing too well, but good enough. We were given a life jacket, a helmet, and a paddle, and led to the raft. The guide taught us a few basic commands, like forwards, backwards, duck, lean left or right. It was raining lightly, but the water level was normal.

The rapids were fairly tame, tho we did have a few close calls. After about 1/2 an hour we stopped for some kelapa muda, or young coconut. They hack the top off and give you a straw and a spoon. Felix got a "red one" that had a slight red tinge inside, and Meta said that those are the best. It was a lot sweeter than mine, I must say. But it didn't help my cramps any. So we floated onwards, down the river, saw a lot of dragonflies, and a bunch of 2-3 foot monitor lizards swimming and basking on rocks.

About 3/4 of the way through, we passed through a village where a bunch of naked boys were swimming. That didn't bother me too much, until they chased after us and 2 of them climbed into the boat. So they hung around for a few hundred meters and then we kicked them out.

Further down the river, more naked kids, this time they were yelling "Aqua Botol!" Aqua Botol is a brand of bottled water by Danone, and they use or recycle the plastic bottles for money or something. I've seen kids fill them with sand and shake them like a tambourine while begging for money.

Ok, so when we finished, they had a couple of action photos for sale, only Rp. 12,500. We were all soaked, and we crammed into an anggkot. Driving to the Augusta Hotel in Palabuhan Ratu, we passed by what looked like prisons. They were huge concrete structures 3 stories high, without windows, only tiny little holes, surrounded by fence and barbed wire. Apparently, they are used for swallows.

Swallows go in, make their nests by coughing up a gooey substance, and then the nests are sold for soup. Yum.

Ok, battery low, so I'll finish with posting some pictures of inside Senayan City, the 6 story mall I talked about last week.



You can't see it in the pics, but there's at least 1 basement level as well, with a Burger King.