What a great night’s sleep last night . . . even had to put on a blanket! Over the bridge and through the pond to breakfast . . .

But not before a coffee on the settees where last night we watched the sunset!

emJay can finally get wi-fi so she checks in with colleagues at home.

We have a French chef here so the scrambled eggs were yummy and creamy. French style! With fresh squeezed  papaya and watermelon juice.

Soon we would head out on our next adventure in the Safari boat!

Since the tide was still low, the seaweed farmers were busy at work. This island’s income was exclusively seaweed farming prior to the recent arrival of tourism.

Only several years ago this is how predominate the seaweed farms were around the coast . . .

. . . but tourism is a lot more lucrative. Most of the seaweed farming has been moved to areas around the island not so involved with tourism.

Baskets of harvested seaweed are brought to shore. The seaweed is grown on a 45 day cycle, and planted rotationally, so there is a continual daily harvest.

Sample seaweed, final harvested product! One of it’s derivatives, agar, is used in making beer, jelly, Jell-O, cosmetics and it prevents ice crystals from forming in ice cream!!!

I struggle to be graceful while boarding  the boat.

Off we go over the shallow waters of the seaweed plots.

Over on the northeastern end of our island are more farms, backed by a large mangrove forest.

Looks like the Wisconsin Dells developers have arrived at remote Nusa Penida! A floating resort complete with . . .

. . . a water slide!!!

Our driver, Mr. Watan, helps me with my flippers.

The happy snorkelers. We swam in two locations, Toya Pakeh Wall at the base of the limestone bluffs that make up Nusa Penida. TNC worked here on marine conservation in our first years working in Indonesia. Then we went to Mangrove Point off Nusa Lembongan. It was amazing to see the diversity of coral and incredibly colorful fish. In clear beautiful waters.

Tourists get a closer look at seaweed farming by  the mangrove forest.

The mangrove forest at low tide. Their feet are in the water . . . their heads are in the sun.

There is a small community  of seaweed farmers at the end of the spit of land where the mangrove forest begins. We had a quiet cruise through the edge of the mangrove swamp. Mr. Watan worked hard to produce a bird for emJay, and finally we saw a small sandpiper with a longer tail, kind of a pointed fan shape. Wish Scott and Cary were here for an ID.

Big thumbs up for an incredible tour chock-full of nature.

A gentle goddess seduced us into taking a dip in the tranquil pool . . .

All of our hearty exercise made us feel deserving of some Bintang and French crepes, poolside! Emmeter cheese, Norwegian smoked salmon, scallion and peppers. YUM!

With just a ‘little bit’ of room in our tummies, left we decided to have a ‘little dessert’. Now crepes can be either savory or sweet, so Rick decided to stick with the crepe theme and had a Crepe Helene. Poached pear, pralines, chocolate sauce, caramel, vanilla ice cream and whipped cream. Good thing we went snorkeling today!!!

. . . and I enjoyed the Homemade caramel and chocolate ice cream. Two boules! No more – no less!

After all the activity, I needed a massage to work out all the knots, and headed over to our spa.

One hour latter, with all those muscles SOOOOO relaxed , I had to be  wheel borrowed back to our villa. Note the sunburn from the morning of snorkeling!

We noticed that in our courtyard, the god of vacation, had received a little offering of the monetary kind from a former visitor . . .

. . . $1000RP or about 8 cents USD!! There is a 12-20% service charge and 15% tax added to every service you are provided so it is customary to just round the bill up to the next Rupiah to leave a little extra.

After a little more relaxing we headed to the beach for a little more resting, a martini . . . and to watch the sunset

Soon it was time to eat at our own resort restaurant run by Chef  Clement Fouquere. After placing our order the amuse bouche  soon arrived. A lovely little grilled shrimp floating in a sauce and topped with fried onion straws. YUMMY . . .  but  only one mouthful!!!

I chose the 10 hour slow cooked marinated Pucha pork belly, caramelized, with a cauliflower puree,  on a base of pickle and onion chutney and balsamic vinegar reduction sauce. It was fall off the bone tender, although there was no bone . . .

. . . and Rick chose the The Crab, a mix of Lombok crab, avocado, green apple and green curry sauce.

We ordered a nice bottle of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and after another glass our Main Courses arrived. Rick had the scallops in a coriander coulee with home made gnocchi and a clam sauce served with crispy Parmesan crisps . . .

. . . while I had the  Fisherman’s dish that included mahi-mahi and clams with coconut milk and lime zest. YUM!!!!

I was too full for dessert so Rick had to go it alone and had NO trouble taking care of the ‘It’s All About Chocolate’ cake and ice cream. He didn’t even share!

The night was beautiful  and we sat out on the beach loungers for another glass of wine, enjoying the evening breeze and watching the lights of Bali across the ocean strait.

NOTE TO DIANA: Remember, we start Weight Watchers right after the New Year!!!!

Todays posting written by guest journalist, emJay!

Today we were able to sleep in a little not needing to be available on the beach at 9:00am like yesterday to go snorkeling. So . . . we slept in until 7:30am. Today we would explore the island by mini-motorcycle and had hoped to get started early to avoid the heat. It gets pretty unbearable under  the open sun in the afternoon.

Needless to say, after breakfast and lounging around the pool located by the creperie, we finally decide to get going at the crack of 11:30am!!

Here we go on our mini-bike! Nobody wears helmets, there are no cars, and most of the roads are so rough you can’t ride more than 15 miles an hour. Our motorbike vendor didn’t speak any English, as he tried to explain to me the finer details of operating this Honda, and I as the renter didn’t speak any Bahasa Indonesian  . . . but who cares. We were off!!!

Here is one of the first ‘rural towns’ we passed through  on the way to the mangrove forest, not far from where we snorkeled yesterday. . .

This road was great but in the minority . . .

. . . as this is what was more common. emJay hold on to your hat!!!

To give you an idea of how often the roads may be repaved, looks like this is where the roller was parked years ago and has sat ever since.

Great flowers on the shrubs and trees as we motored along. Not likely to look like this when we get home. However I hear there is a heat wave going on in WI with temps in the 40’s!!!

Some agriculture in the rural areas and their cattle are definitely not over fed . . .

. . . woodland grazing Indonesian style!

We were heading for the suspension bridge over to Nusa Ceningan and my gps said it was right ahead. Oh and here was the crossing where all the local vendors had their signs welcoming you.

It is called the Golden Gate bridge but please don’t confuse it with the one in California . . .

Quite an up ramp. I was contemplating one  or two Evil Kneivel moves but didn’t think the rig had the horsepower!!!!

Alternating one lane traffic only . . .

emJay wanted to drive a little so we switched off positions. We hadn’t gone two miles when the bike ‘mysteriously’ veered into this ‘shopping center/mall’!!

While she shopped, I toured the local seaweed growers working areas and homes. The usual routine seems to lay the seaweed outside the door of your home to dry. These folks looked like they might have been on tough times . . .

But they did have a guest house!!

In sort order emJay had bought enough batik to fill up her backpack and we were soon off again. But not before I got to meet the owner and her daughter who helped emJay part with some of her Rupiah. Money well spent though in these rural shops.

We wound our way to the Blue Lagoon situated on the end of the island. This is where the movie ‘Blue Lagoon’ starring Brook Shields was filmed many years ago . . .

. . . a beautiful setting!

Where to head for high ground when the typhoon arrives !!!

Here was a type of suburb with a series of small lagoons where some of the more well off seaweed farmers seemed to live.

All this touring was making us hungry and we headed to Dream Beach for lunch but not before stopping at this cock fight event. Lots of yelling and money exchanging hands . . .

. . . we considered staying and eating at one of these local entrepreneurs ‘food cart’ type mobile kitchen attached to the back of his motorbike. I have seen these all over Indonesia and am really attracted to trying one. Maybe tomorrow????

On the way out of town we saw where some of the prize cock fighters live and train. They live in the wicker cages painted red and white.

Up the stairs was a temple we would visit  after lunch.

Soon we arrived at Café Pandan located at Dream Beach. A small resort known for their food . . .

. . . where we sat and watched the swimmers and surfers while we waited for our food.

We started with some nice chicken filled spring rolls with a hot and VERY hot sauce . . .

followed by emJay’s fried tuna fish with mixed veggies and rice . . .

. . . and my fish in tomato sauce cooked in banana leaves. YUM!!!!

. . . Oh and there was a little room left for dessert so we shared a Didan sugar cake, a local favorite filled with coconut and palm sugar. Oh . . .and two more beers too!

On the way out of town we climbed the steep steps to the local temple . . .

. . . where I was surprised by this god statue that reminded me a little of Al Jolson!

Nice time touring this large temple on the top of the local mountain.

When we arrived on island Lembongan we had driven past this cemetery and were curious to stop and explore. Not sure what the umbrellas are all about but it was clear those left behind were leaving LOTS of goodies for those on their travels beyond.

Water, candy, chocolate and a few Rupiah to by more on the journey beyond.

Some folks may have come from fewer means . . .

We traveled on and were soon above our little beach community where you can see the main drag running right through the middle of town.

Here is the route we traveled today, captured by my trusty Garmin Edge 705. Very fun and informative day to get into the back country were the locals live.

Soon we were back at our hotel where the ‘goddess of plenty’ welcomed us home as we headed to our beach front bar, throats parched from all of our touring!!!!

Today we head back to Bali, by Fast Boat, and then back to Jakarta for an overnight and then home!

We started the day with a ‘little’ headache from all the wine we had last night, some in our hacienda . . .

In packing up our stuff we found this contraption in a basket in the bathroom. Evidently a mosquito killer. You plug it in, put one of the little HIT tabs in the device and I guess it kills them dead. Not sure what it might do to human’s breathing whatever vaporizes!

The AC on the island was not as effective as in our Ubud villa. Although the temp was set at 16C, during the heat of the day it never got the temp much below 80F.Luckily we were not in the room much during the day. After sunset, the room cooled down and we needed a blanket every night. Nice sleeping!

One last breakfast the the beach front restaurant . . . they put the X-mas tree up since yesterday!

Great morning view from our table . . .

If you look close, across to Bali, you can see a very controversial high rise hotel.

Soon it was time to check out and we did have some help. It’s going to be hard going back to the reality of hauling everything yourself and driving oneself around . . .

As we traveled to Mushroom Bay, via our outdoor taxi, we passed a school that was just getting out. School kids everywhere . . .

And everyone had a scooter. Lots of drag races away from school.

As we approached the Bali coast, on our 25 minute Fast Boat ride,  we cruised by the hotel that some corporation sold the Bali government on permitting during the 60’s. There was so much local opposition to it after it was constructed, a referendum was passed that no future building project in Bali could be taller than a coconut tree!!!!

We tied up with the TNC staff in Bali  and went for a nice lunch at a dockside restaurant in Benoa Bay, not to far from the TNC office.

Here are several of the ships owned by the Indonesian Coast Guard that are operational . . .

. . . and here are a few patrol boats that are no longer operational. The government evidently doesn’t have a good system of disposing of old out of date items so they just park them and let them rust away!!!

Here are two of the program managers from the local TNC Bali field station, Haleem and Peter, who deal with the marine and fisheries programs.

emJay and Haleem discuss his past visit to Wisconsin.

Peter explains the protected areas TNC is working to develop in eastern Indonesia.

Their reference library of species . . .

. . . is a freezer full of frozen genetically identified fish!!!

emJay and Mizra discuss the marine program administered out of the Bali station . . .

Hallem joined the lively discussion.

After our experience at the Bandung traffic and airport we wanted to get to the Bali airport with time to spare . . . what a difference a local tourist trade can make.  The airport was large, spacious could handle plenty of air traffic and passenger shopping. The route to the concourses passes through MANY shopping areas where the goal is to separate the tourist from their last rupiahs.

Oh boy . . . won’t this be treat.

In order to accommodate large jet traffic the Bali airport had to be constructed on fill dumped out into the ocean.

The runways run within feet of the high tide line!!!

Our plane leaving Bali was an hour late. By the time we landed, cleared the Jakarta airport and were in our overnight hotel it was 9:30pm. We needed to leave our hotel at 4:00am to get through the check in process in time for our flight to Japan. It was going to be a short night!!!!

3:30 a.m. arrived pretty quickly and soon after that we were on the shuttle bus to the airport. The traffic was just as heavy as it had been the night before!! One of the best decisions we made for the trip was to buy the ‘Economy Plus’ seats on the outbound Denver – Tokyo route and the inbound Tokyo – Chicago route. LOTS more legroom and on the way back we got the bulkhead seats adding even more legroom. Outbound was a new 787,  nice.  Inbound was an old 747 which has very poor individual entertainment centers. United Airlines really needs to upgrade their customer amenities for planes used on international flights. Soon we were in the air and we began our 32 hours of traveling back to MSN, with 22 hours of that in the air!

CONCLUSIONS AND OBSERVATIONS: Visiting Indonesia was quite the trek and experience. Getting there is an issue because of the long flights. Passing the IDL and being 14 time zones different from MSN takes a bit of getting used to. Once the body adjusts . . . everything is fine.

With a population of 143 million, Java (circled in blue) is the world’s most populous island and one of the most densely populated places in the world. Java is the home of 57 percent of the Indonesian population.The traffic and mass of humanity in the large cities in unbelievable.

However it should not be surprising since Indonesia’s total population of 249.9 million, compared to our US population of 317 million, is crammed into an area substantially smaller than the US. The city infrastructure in many cases seems to be crumbling. Sidewalks and street are in disrepair and many buildings need work . . . although the skyline of Jakarta was heavily lined with construction cranes. There is lots of new construction going on and a subway will open in 2020, which will definitely help.

It was interesting during the two weeks moving  to smaller and smaller islands.

Starting with:

1 Java: population 141,000,000, 55,389,000 square miles

2 Bali: population 4,200,000, 2,175 square miles

3 Nusa Lenbomgan: population 5,000, 5 square miles

4 Nusa Cenigan: population 1,000, 3 square miles,

The people of Indonesia were very welcoming. Everywhere we went people were very excited to learn we were from the United States. Didn’t detect any animosity towards our culture or way of life. Several times when we were in the back country folks would ask where we were from and when we said the United States they repeated United States, followed by the word Obama, and a cheer!!! It is interesting, we heard more about the CIA in Indonesia and Cuba, in the past month, than we’ve heard in a lifetime. The US has certainly been busy sticking our nose in ‘places we have a US interest’, I think is the phrase we use, around the world. Got to read up more on that.

The countryside was green and beautiful. However, you didn’t want to look too close at the ground which in many cases, had lots of trash that had blown in or was left from locals. Lots of plastic litter that was going to be there for  a longggggggg time. Quite a contrast with Cuba,  we had just visited just last month, where there was virtually none.   It was a great experience visiting Indonesia, experiencing  the people, culture and FOOD.

No tummy problems although emJay did have a mild touch of  ‘Bali Belly’.

emJay’s reflections:

My head is full of travel experiences after an unplanned piling up of our three global trips to France, Cuba and Indonesia this fall. Its been rich and full and I am glad to be home for awhile now. Yet every time I go somewhere, I find myself thinking about what it would be like to live there awhile, learn the language, get to know the culture, etc.

I must admit I was a little apprehensive about Indonesia, as the culture and language were totally new to me. And of course the occasional unrest there over the years was in my mind as well. My apprehensions fell away almost immediately upon arrival. I had the feeling we were being cared for every step of the way, from the Conservancy’s  driver picking us up at the Jakarta airport in the wee hours of the morning, all the way to the hotel shuttles on our last night and morning in Jakarta. The travel industry/community there has figured out how to make a potentially overwhelming trip quite manageable and comfortable.

The people stand out in my mind more than the landscape: friendliness and customer service were notable from the folks we dealt with; curiosity; the gentleness of the Hindu culture on Bali, the little offerings everywhere, contrasted with trash in the mangroves when we rode our motorbike around the small islands.   On the natural side, the most stunning experience was to see the coral reefs and fish during our day of snorkeling. Such colors and size variations in the fish; an amazing feeling to swim along with hundreds of small fish all around you, so close you could touch them. The coral in our second spot was tremendously varied and healthy looking. That experience was a real highlight.

Meeting colleagues in another country was the highlight of the work portion of the trip. Smart, committed, passionate conservationists, working the same way we approach our work in Wisconsin. And they know how to have fun.

I feel very grateful for this opportunity through my work to visit this country that was not on our “travel list”, but now I am so glad we went there. It was a great experience that I will be thinking about for a long time.

POSTSCRIPT:

. . .  to close out the year, I got my December ride in on December 14 to complete, for the second year in a row, my membership in the Madison Bike and Bowl’s prestigious ‘At Least Once A Month Club’, biking at least once every month in 2014!