We survived Mina (the Ourangutan not the hurricane)

Untitled from Caroline Hendel on Vimeo.



o·rang·u·tan. n.

• An arboreal anthropoid ape (Pongo pygmaeus) of Borneo and Sumatra, having a shaggy reddish-brown coat, very long arms, and no tail.

In Bahasa:

•  Orang, man + hutan, jungle

       On Saturday October 23rd, Laurent and I started our Toussaint vacation by setting off to the island of Sumatra.We stayed at the Garden Inn, a beautiful guest house owned by a colleague of ours and her husband in Bukit Lawang,a village only 96km northwest of Medan. Our number one motivation for this particular destination was the proximity (right in front of the hostel) of the biggest orang-utan conservation programme in the world, operated in the Gunung Leuser National Park.

   

Oman fighting the Orangoutan

          With more than 5000 animals thought to be living in the wild, we were certain to come across many during our 2 day trek in the jungle. At 8.00 a.m we started our ascent and soon spotted a female Orangutan and her baby hanging in the trees. 

          

Female orangutan,give birth to one child every 6 years. The offspring is known to stay near his mom until the age of 10. In other words: a strong bonding you don't want to mess with.

No more fruit for us!

           A couple of hours later of profuse jungle sweating we had our first encounter with Mina the Orangutan you don't want to see. Although Mina is a semi-wild Orangutan (which means that she is used to being fed and taken care of by humans), she will not let you pass her without giving her food. Our guide, who's been bit by her before wasn't ready to give in again. The inevitable happened: Mina slowly started to come down the trees, and we were told to walk (as fast as we could) in the other direction. End of the story.

Waterrrrrfall

"Mina, who arrived at the rehabilitation center in 1979, is an ex-captive, rehabilitated and released orangutan who now freely roams the forests of the GLNP."Lonely Planet

           Another memorable moment during our trek happened as we were snacking on fruits along a small river in the middle of the jungle. The guide had just opened a pack of delicious Indonesian named lychees, when suddenly a mom utan and her baby came out  from nowhere right in front of us, stole all of our fruits and sat down literally 5 foot away from us. She obviously was used to human presence and was soon recognized by the guide as one of the semi-wild orangutans. Pictures and videos to come!!

FABULOUS EXPERIENCE!

As we were in the jungle, a tsunami hit the western coast of the island of Sumatra, on the opposite coast of where we were...

Love C-!

 

---

It's all BAGGUS, except when there is HUJAN.

Before I used to speak Frenglish, now I just speak Bahaglish.

Yep, that's right after 2 month in Indonesia I was finally able to understand an entire text message from my ojek Kiki (motorcycle chauffeur) that had at least 3 sentences.    How 'bout that?
     
        In my opinion, bahasa Indonesia is a pretty fun language to learn. For example to make plurals, Indonesian just say the word twice: anak is a kid, anak-anak is kids. Another logical component of the language is, let's say rumah is room: rumah makan (literally room and eat) is restaurant, rumah sakit (room and sick) is hospital and so on...

Also, there are no conjugaison, everything is in imperative present form. Altough words like yesterday (kemarin) or tomorrow (besok) exist, everything here is deeply rooted in the present...

Another funny thing about he language is to say  I like to eat   you say   Miss Caroline suka makanan. In other words Indonesians very often will use the third person singular ( as if you're talking about someone else) to refer to themselves. haha.

         Having a maid and an ojek that don't know a word of English or French definitely helped me improve faster. I bet many of you are still thinking "people must speak a little English in a capital of 10,000,000 people, Caroline is exaggerating". WRONG, wrong, wrong, and yes it does get on my nerves OFTEN. On the positive side, as an English speaking teacher to French kids it helps me understand their highly expressive distress, irritation and annoyance  they have with me by the end of a regular school day.

To finish, some words that have been very useful in my daily life so far are:
Hujan : rain,  Saya perlu : I need,  Makanan: to eat, Baik baik: I'm good, Aba kapar?: How are you?, jam berapa? what time...?, saya capek: I'm tired,  saya sakit sidikit: I'm a little sick, saya suka gado-gado: I like gado-gado (typical vegetable dish), ya, bisa: yes, I can, tolong camu bisa beli: can you  please buy...? Baggus: good (in it's all good), and my favourite ... tidak gawat : No big deal!

I am in Bukit Lawang as I am writing... in a super small internet place among the Orang-Outang. I am on vacation and having therefore a lot of time to realize how much  I am missing my friends and  family.

With  L.o.v.e, C-

Eat, pray, love at Caroline's

           Yesterday as a reward for our long, patience-full, hard-working week, Fanny and I indulged in a girls' movie out night + carb overload feast. We decided to go see Eat, Pray, Love at the Pondok Indah mall also known as PIM among citizens of South Jakarta and opted for The Premiere theatre: " concept of cinema that is equipped with all the luxuries, including a special lobby, special sofa that feels like an airplane's business class sofa with blankets and other luxuries", for 7 USD. Once comfortably seating in our lounge sofa with our blankets and hot chocolate, we were off for 2 and a half hours of pure woman pornography (as a man I once knew would say!). 

           The movie is about a woman that realizes in her thirties she needs to travel and explore the world and find what she really is meant to be and do in this world. Aside from enjoying the colors, pictures and music from the movie,  Fanny and I most importantly found ourselves extremely content with our lives and choices: we sort of looked at each other and realized that unlike Liz from the movie, we had no regrets and had made the right choices early in life to be where we needed to be. 


On a different note, I am teaching a on hour yoga class for colleagues at the school every Tuesday evenings in a nice little studio at the school. Our first class went great and I am looking forward to many many more. I should also be signing up for the yoga teacher training in Bali in July 2011. 

Namaste.

Thursday night : SALSA!

Salsa at the Ritz Carlton

           Wherever I lived, I've always felt true happiness when dancing salsa... Not long after I arrived in Jakarta, I started asking around and searching the internet for my next salsa spot. I ended up going to my first salsa night last Thursday at the Ritz Carlton Jakarta: totally beyond my expectations. An awesome live Indonesian native spanish speaking salsa band, working air conditioning, nice people and a fabulous colombian salsa dancer without whom I most likely wouldn't have dance as much; The Indonesian dancers don't really dance with Caucasian women... expect if they are what we call P.Is : personal instructors... in which case you pay them to dance with you. Did you say Salsa prostitute? :) Am I in the Indonesian version of Dirty  Dancing?

After quick consideration, I think having 2 men in my life right now is already enough: my Ojek driver Kiki and Rony, my devoted personal trainer.

Salsa night

            Even if I had a great time, salsa dancing in Jakarta made me feel nostalgic about Portland: the Mumbo lounge, and not one but hundreds of South American dancers. Which led me to think: what if Colombia was the next country on my "to-live" list?

C-

Selamat Datang to Denpasar, Bali.

I am back from my weekend in Bali. What a trip.


Eric, Fanny, J.P and myself left Jakarta International airport at 8 p.m (originally the flight was at 6 p.m). We arrived an hour and a half later in Bali and took a taxi to our hotel which was located in Kuta Bay (Kuta, Seminyak, Legian), also known as the most touristic area of Bali (which I, of course didn't know). My first impressions of the island weren't that positive... Hundreds of Aussies and Japanese (no offense ;) ) drinking beers on the beach isn't what I expected Bali to be like.

On Saturday we decided to meet up with Fanny's friends at the very south tip of the island in Pura Ulu Watu: an internationally known surfing spot. It was very interesting to talk to all the different surfers and get their ideas and thoughts on "how to share a wave properly" and who from the French or the Americans have the best conduct in the ocean. From what I've heard the French are not the most humble people in the water... Thumbs up for keeping up the reputation guys! ;)



On Saturday night we went out in Kuta on the famous Legian street. Bars, clubs, bars, clubs, bars, clubs and thousands of Aussies and Japanese people everywhere (again, no offense). As I was walking down the street it suddenly occurred to me that I was most likely walking down the same street where the 2002 bomb attack happened. I look up and I see an enormous monument with hundreds of names listed, 202 to be more precise. "Interestingly" enough it happened on that very same weekend 8 years ago.


On our way back we left the airport at 10 p.m (originally the flight was at 8 p.m). As a conclusion, it was a very interesting weekend, however next time I go, I will make sure to go the softer, more yoga like part of the island.

Merapi on the verge of erupting?

Philippe ZELLER

Ambassadeur de France en Indonésie

prie

Madame Caroline HENDEL

de lui faire l’honneur de venir à

une conférence intitulée

« Volcan et Société en Indonésie, gestion des risques »,

le jeudi 30 septembre 2010 à 18h30 à la Résidence de France

Tenue de ville/ Batik                                       R.S.V.P.

1, Jl. Sinabung – Kebayoran Baru                 Tél. : 23 55 76 44/11/00

Jakarta Selatan

And then there was me, feeling important ;).

The conference was really interesting and I thought I should write about it before I forget important data. Attached to the post is a map of the important volcanos in Indonesia. Currently there are 125 active volcanos (including the under-water ones)! Volcanos are in deed a big part of the Indonesian culture and are often both sacred and feared. 

The subject is all the more important that rumors has it that the Merapi is about to erupt; mount Merapi is located near the city of Yogyakarta (an hour away from Jakarta) and is known to erupt every 4 years. Last eruption was in 2006. It's 2010, I'll let you do the math. Mount Merapi eruption are particularly known for the 1994 eruptions that killed 74 people following the wide spreak of CO2 hot gaz. 

Speaking of fatalities, the second part of the conference highlighted the importance and difficulties related to the arrangement for the evacuation of people living around volcanos. Scientist often come against a wall when facing very religious/spiritual populations that refuse to believe scientific data. 

Finally to put things into perspective : the number of fatalities in Indonesia related to volcanoes ever recorded is less than the number of victims recorded in one day following the 2004 Tsunami.

I'm definitely loving this country more and more.

C-