March 2008

The 1958 Rogers and Hammerstein movie South Pacific brought the world's attention to this emerald isle that lies just a few kilometres off the southeast corner of Java. The movie was set in wartime South Pacific when the Americans were battling the Japanese for control of the islands, but Bali is a very peaceful place today. The waters of the Sea of Bali and the Indian Ocean are warm, calm and as blue a the sky...

The movie was actually filmed entirely in Hawaii and none of the people involved had ever visited Bali so it's not surprising that the movie scenes don't really look like Bali and the Balinese don't look like Indonesians. This is Bali today...

Bali is a tropical paradise island and this is the incredible carved and gilded ceiling of our hotel room's patio...

Carvings are everywhere here...

Monkeys are another feature of the Balinese jungles and these crafty little devils will swipe anything they can from unwary tourists...

Unfortunately, there are increasingly large numbers of tourists swamping Bali and it is already too late to appreciate the real beauty of the island and its people without falling victim to the monkeys in the hotspots like Kuta. Ubud, in the central highlands, is still a quaint place of peaceful retreats - but for how long?

Java is a fascinating island. The enormous religious complexes of Borobudur and Prambanan near Yogyakarta are fascinating and it is very interesting to see how the Buddhist and Hindu religions co-existed in the past. This is part of the Prambanan Hindu complex...

However, the followers of each religion attempted to outdo each other with their massive stone structures and intricate carvings. These carvings are at the Hindu Temple...

Borobudur takes the prize today for being the biggest and most complete temple, (but only because most of Prambanan was knocked down by several earthquakes). This is Borobudur...

Thousands of the carvings on the walls of the temple of Prambanan represent the Ramayana and Bhagavata. Our guide was able to explain each mural in excruciating detail for three hours under a scorching sun. Then, in the evening, we got to see a three hour, Indonesian, live performance of the Ramayana in excruciating detail.

The whole experience is best described as ' excruciating'.

Indonesia is a land riven by earthquakes and erupting volcanoes and in 2006 a large fissure opened in the ground near Surabaya and millions of tons of liquid mud began pouring out. Over the years the mud has swallowed thousands of homes and businesses and has become a rather ugly tourist attraction...

Note - in 2016 an oil company which was accused of precipitating the mud flow by drilling into a vast underground lake finally agreed to compensate the people whose lives had been ruined by the disaster.

We began this trip in Jakarta at one of the ancient royal residences with our Indonesian friends...

Sheila carried on to Surabaya while James went to Yogyakarta for a bike ride,,,

Then we met up in Surabaya and headed to Bali. A great time was had by all.

As in all of Southeast Asia markets are where most people do their shopping. Unlike the expensive, chic markets of North America that appeal to the yuppy, vegie, organic crowd, the markets of Yogyakarta don't really appeal to us. The bird market in Yogyakarta has thousands of birds and bats crammed into tiny cages...

There are all kinds of live animals on sale here in these unhygienic conditions...

But even the markets that don't have live animals look pretty dirty...

Would we buy anything from this stall?...

These vegetables looked pretty enticing to our guide, Bangban...

In addition to many markets there are numerous opportunities for shoppers from artisans. Java is famous for its Batik - material that is dyed using hot wax to create intricate patterns by preventing selected areas from becoming coloured...

Another craft that is very common here is the making of shadow puppets from animal hides. These intricately carved articulated puppets take a tremendous amount of time to create...

While Yobyakarta is a modern city with an historic past, many of the surrounding villages are still living in medieval times. It was only fitting to take a buggy ride to visit one such village...

On the way we passed the villagers harvesting the rice in the paddies...

The village was quiet on our arrival - just a few old people and young mothers taking care of the kids...

This old lady let James help her draw water from the well...

The lush tropical vegetation draped over the simple houses and put delicious fruit within everyone grasp. These are rambuttans...

...while these are papayas...

Following lunch in the village elder's house we joined the gamelin orchestra...

A great day was had by all, and then we returned to the big city of Yogyakarta where this lion was waiting for us...

We just had a couple of days stopover in Hong Kong enroute from Canada and Indonesia and met up with an old friend for lunch. Here we are with Innez getting a gift from the restaurant owner - we wonder how much the bill must have been!..
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Hong Kong is a vibrant and fascinating place where east truly meets west. There is always a buzz of activity in the crowded streets and on Sundays the public spaces are thronged with Philippino domestic workers who congregate on their one day off to meet friends and to send remittances home. This is the scene under the HSBC bank tower - a dry place for a picnic on a gloomy day...

Hong Kong has a very mild climate but it also very wet so it is often cloudy. The tops of the many skyscrapers are frequently lost in the clouds...

However, the residents of this tiny semi-autonomous state know how to brighten things up...

We have no ides what these decorations were for but the hundreds of costumed people taking part in this event seemed to know what was going on...

That's it from Hong Kong this time - but we will return.