Hong Kong - a day in the life

We ended up with basically Friday in Hong Kong. Making the most of our time has become one of our fortes. It was a rainy overcast day but we made the most of it. We made our way to the Hong Kong Museum of Art at opening and walked through it. There was a major exhibit about the Chinese influence on the art of France during time of Matisse and earlier. Lots of ceramics collected by French kings and the like and even including a few owned by Matisse. Then we walked through the HK Cultural Centre and found a Starbucks to sit in for a bit as the rain was thick and fast.

Next stop was the Star ferry, from Kowloon to Hong Kong island. We found the bus that took us to the Peak tram, a funicular railway. It was like a Wonderland ride for Katherine. Very moody as the mountain top was enveloped in mist. Later the fog lifted some and we were able to see the wonderful view. We tried to walk around a bit while at the peak but the rain really didn’t make it all that enjoyable. Next stop was a dim sum restaurant before descended the mountain.

Back in Kowloon, we went to the Hong Kong Museum of History. It gave a tour through the history of Hong Kong with many colourful panoramas giving detail to HK’s past and present. It was very well done especially the replica of street life complete with shops and tram. There was a special exhibit of propaganda posters - graphically Coke ads meet red cheeked happy and hard-working youth. Too bad there were no posters to buy- later on we found the same posters reproduced on playing cards- thank goodness.

Next stop was the Temple street night market. We had been told about it by some stewardess’s on one of our flights. We succumbed to some more shopping and have added to our collection of knock-off Sport Sac bags. One of the purchases included a proud sewn in label on the outside of the bag announcing that it was 'carefully made in the U.S.A.'

Back at the hotel, we had some more dim sum (Dawna’s fav Chinese meal) and then headed back to the harbour to see the famous Hong Kong night-time light show.

Wild weather- storm came up in only a couple of minutes. This shot is just outside the Hong Kong Museum of Art.

Only had the one day in Hong Kong. Sadly we flew economy on the way home so it was the endurance flight once again.

Bali - What's not to love

We arrived in Bali late Sunday night. It was the smoothest airport exit ever, we already had our visas so missed a mega line-up there, our luggage was waiting for us. In a sea of signs held by drivers for various hotels we quickly spotted ours and we were off. As usual the narrow and curvy roadways meant it was a fairly long trip to the inn. We turned into smaller and darker streets and finally after travelling a few blocks down a narrow lane we landed at the Sarinande Beach Inn. It is quite sweet and old worldish. Our room was simple yet tasteful and comfortable,(www.sarinandehotel.com). We felt we were in just the right place after the intensity of our mission. We stayed in Seminyak which is just up the coast from the craziness and bustle of Kuta. We booked here on a recommendation from Mary (aka Sylph) and Douglas- thanks a million.

There were only a few days in Bali and as usual we needed to check out as much as humanly possible within a 3 day period. The hotel offered tours with drivers, and we chose the Tanah Lot sunset tour for that first day. We went to a temple, called Temple Taman Ayun. It is one of the over 20,000 Hindu temples that are on the island of Bali. This temple was peaceful and flowers lovely. Dawna once again challenged herself to cross a rickety bridge of bamboo to be sure everything was seen and experienced. We survived this and then enjoyed some heckling from locals as we walked the shoreline path. Hey mister and so on. There was an artist in residence (or so it appeared to us) in the temple grounds. Sadly most of the work we saw in Bali was just for the tourist so nothing special to get excited about.

Next stop was a monkey and bat forest. Over 600 monkeys lived there and we walked around as monkeys jumped at us looking for food. The bats were more sedate, hanging from the trees during the daylight hours. Still the monkeys did enjoy climbing up each of us and hanging out on our heads until a tantalizing peanut distracted them – thank goodness.

The final stop of the tour was Tanah Lot, a floating temple on the sea. The temple grounds were surrounded with hawker stalls selling everything from Crocs to Gurci (yep you read it right) sunglasses. We made our way down to the temple and it was quite stunning. This was also the first place we had been to in Indonesia that was packed with other tourists and tons of newlyweds who couldn’t get enough of taking each other’s photos. It was a beautiful spot for a sunset and we sat for a bit and then walked around to watch the various views of the sun setting.

We met some Australian women while at the Serinande, Vicky and Guyatri. They were seasoned Bali travellers and we dined with them on the first two nights. They gave us many useful tips and suggestions about where to go and what to see. Most notably, we now each have two pairs of antique batik fisherman pants, made from Guyatri’s design.

Our flight home is being called so you will have to wait to hear about the next day’s adventure in Bali.

There is lots to see but mostly there is shopping. It is actually a pretty cool place for home furnishings and fashion, with designers from France and all over the world represented here. We know we have landed on a different island as on the first day we visited a kind of Pusateri style grocery store, called the Bali deli. We knew then that we were no longer in Aceh.

So where did we go: we visited a Batubulan barong – which was basically a Hindu folk musical and dance show. The Japanese photographer tourist didn’t have any qualms about basically becoming part of the show by getting right on stage beside the performer in the pursuit of a good shot. Next we visited a silverwork factory and then the Batik factory. It was great to get batik tools there to bring back to Canada. In Ubud, supposed to be a cultural center we quickly went through the famous Sukawati market which was no great shakes. Ubud did have some lovely stores and restaurants and we had lunch at Wayan’s café which had an eclectic menu and a classy garden setting with one or two tables at selected intervals so it was quite lovely and peaceful. This amounted to another full day and we landed back at the inn in the late afternoon.

The beach was just a short walk down an alley and the waves crashed in with tremendous power which explains why the area is called the Seven shores and is a mecca for surfers.

Once again we shared a meal with the lovely Aussie gals – DebO and VickO. DebO is known these days as Guyatri, after her Ashram visits in India. VickO will tell you a few tales with great dramatic flare and is a Bali aficionado, she is on her 7th or 9^th visit- she’s been coming since 1996. We ventured into Kuta with them for dinner. Kuta has its own flavour, picture Hard Rock café and the like.

Wednesday was terrific with a full day bike ride. Some of us felt we could have gone a bit faster but basically it was downhill all the way (25 Km). It was very well organized. The first stop was at a hillside restaurant that overlooked a valley, lake and the volcano Kitimati (spelling might be wrong). With mist at the top and sparkling water below it was truly spectacular. The evidence of past eruptions could be seen with blackened landscape and heard as there was a continual stream of dump-trucks taking volcanic rock down the mountain. We also had stops at a plantation: coffee, cocoa, bananas, ginger, jack fruit, mango, lots of different plants were shown and we tasted traditional Balinese coffee (o.k., thick stuff), ginger tea, lemongrass tea…and so on. Down the road we ventured into a family compound that housed four families. We had occasion to see a group of villagers created handicraft items out of banana leaves and stuff to be burned at a mass cremation. We saw all the various stages of rice production and even whacked some mature rice plants to dislodge the rice from the stalk. We were in a party of 6 some older, some younger. We were very well treated with refreshments and a fine lunch.

Our guides were a lot of fun. Here are a few of the bon mots that were shared as part of the presentation: “Smoking is good, not smoking is better.” And the unforgettable “These red peppers may be small but they are really hot. Just like Balinese men.”

We had been told about batik addiction, but had no idea how easily it could take hold. Debo/Guyatri had told us about a tailor she used for her business (she designed patterns to be made with fabrics found in Bali and India and sold them at a market place in Oz). Ade, her tailor sold antique batiks and once we found his little shop we selected some batiks. Time was pressing so we asked him to cut out some fisherman pants for us (ala Guyatri’s design) with Katherine doing the sewing once we got home. We went by his shop the next day (departure day for us) and he not only had cut out the pants but had sewn us three pairs. In a fit of excitement we ended up buying about a dozen batik handbags between us and another pair of pants. We made it to the airport, ready for our next adventure.

Don’t look down at the fast moving water

We are always looking out for each other while travelling here and one will caution the other when the wrong hand is going to be used, when one might be poised to fall into a sewer, or drink water they shouldn’t and so on.

Sometimes the other agrees and sometimes they don’t.

We were invited on a field trip to see a bridge building project in the area where the GAM and the conflict was centered. It is a partnership project with CALGAP supporting with funds, the community also providing funds and the community organizing and doing the work. The bridge will obviously be a real benefit to the community as it provides a direct route to the local village where before it was a kind of steel girder foot-bridge.

So while there Dawna was keen to go on the steel girder, Katherine cautioned, Dawna proceeded. She kind of freaked out a little a few steps over the water- which was really quite fast moving. Bravely she turned around for the photo op to prove her mettle, never letting on that she was experiencing vertigo. After said photo she hustled back to shore- crowing at her achievement. There were congratulations all around.

Quite a few country people came through while we were there- shyly smiling and confidently walking over the girder bridge. It is a pretty spot with a rustic charm, as the stream curves around bends and there are footpaths going in various directions.

We’ve really gotten around this trip to different parts of the countryside - farming areas and mountain areas also to the beach of course.

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Sorry no pictures but we did want to share that one day we were driving along in town here and passed a mosque that was filled with cows. There must have been 40 cows milling about. We had a lot of fun discussing the topic of their meeting. Earlier in the tri p we did share some jokes including the favourite ‘why is 6 afraid of 7’. Find the answer yourselves by asking any 6 year old. So we conjectured that this might be a point of discussion for the cows that day. What did one cow say to the other one in the mosque? ‘You know, I keep thinking it is Tuesday today.’

World Environment Day at the Pidie Public Library

Thursday June 5 was World Environment day and all kinds of the NGO’s in Pidie collaborated on festivities that included tree planting throughout the town and environmental displays at the town centre park. A painting contest, storytelling and refreshments were on the agenda at the libray. And immediately afterward there was tree planting there as well.

Working over the course of a couple of days we created stick puppet sets for the Great Kapok Tree story and for the Great Big Enormous Turnip. Sosi helped with adapting the various animals to fit the Indonesian context- turnip to a carrot, anteater to a squirrel and senor to tuan (mister). We coached the staff through the delivery and how to work with the children to be participants. The performance of the Great Kapok Tree was truly a lot of fun for everyone. The children were really very good readers and ready hams, if you can say that about Muslims. The boy who was the butterfly was particularly animated and the man who chops the tree was a youth about 17 and he gone into the chopping motions and the whole nine yards.

Just after refreshments things got pretty hectic with the imminent arrival of the second adjutant to the assistant governor and the head of the legislature and various heads of the Dinas (a bunch of bigwig political types). They even have ball-caps with the gold crests of the position and names embroidered on them.

What a scene it was; the fancy SUV’s pulled in and there were about 30 becaks out front each with a tree as a passenger. So the air was a buzz with excitement at the library. The dignitaries proceeded to plant the trees with the library staff providing the muscle to shovel in the dirt. Dawna and I both have trees assigned to us- Rambutan, a kind of red fruit of which there is a picture on an earlier posting if you dig back in time. Can you dig it- Mukhtar has declared that they will treasure these trees dedicated to us. This is said to much mirth.

After that we went for a fancy meal with the officials at the Vice Mayor’s mansion. It was one of those stories where the women stay in one room and the men in the other but for lunch we all ate together. Dawna and I struggled to clump the rice and other food into a kind of ball and put it in our mouths without mishap. Also we were finding it a challenge to sit side ways instead of cross legged. Don’t know how the ladies do it. (So much for our ambition to go home and have a modest tomato and mayonnaise sandwich.) We must admit the food has been a challenge this trip. We’ve been in so many contexts and often the food hasn’t been refrigerated, maybe never- it sits out for hours after being cooked. Let’s just say hygiene is high on the list here.

Mr. Mukhtar reported that he heard back from several of the officials that they want to support the library as they saw with their own eyes how busting at the seams it is. New computers are also possible for the public as there is a project to distribute 100 in the town and the official saw the internet room and the potential there. So he was very, very pleased.

One fun thing from our point of view is that including the library as a destination for the planting and the governor representative’s attendance was just suggested a couple of days after we arrived. Not like trying to book pretty much any politician in Canada. It’s a mixture of very formal letters being delivered all over town on a day to day basis and rampant cell phone calls all the time between parties.

In one way it was a fluke that we focused on World Environment day when we did the planning of this mission a few months ago in Canada. We had our dates planned and basically looked at the calendar to see what festivals might work in Indonesia and there was World Environment Day on the Oxfam calendar. The staff wanted support in doing a community program although the do an annual storytelling competition they couldn’t get the idea of doing something more regularly using different topics, festivals on which to build a program. So it was a great coincidence that the Pidie government was putting a lot of energy into World Environment day here. So what a boost for the library.

Amazing Stats and Jackie O

We drove back to Sigli early Monday morning. The drive was not so congested, not as many cars but lots of monkeys and cows. We have yet to get a good monkey picture but keep trying.




Back at the library, our task was to review the performance measures that the staff had been keeping and to pull out some key messages to share with the Canadian ambassador when he comes for the visit. It was wonderful to see the growth in every aspect of library service over the past year. The staff were eager to share their successes with us and we all felt very proud. In January 2007, 70 books were borrowed during the month...compare this with 1400 borrowed in January 2008. There were 100 visitors in January 2007, this past January had 2264 visitors. The staff are also now collecting the visitor stats by gender and we are very pleased to note that this past April, there were 2290 visitors, 1242 were female and 1048 were male.




We continue to work together preparing for World Environment Day on June 5. Katherine brought over some paints for the library and the staff planned a poster contest to draw attention to the Day and involve the community. On Tuesday the staff ran a programme where the children and youth could work on painting their posters for the contest. Programming like this is all new for the staff. It was great to see over a dozen young people being creative in the libary and looking at books about the environment. We are all looking forward to the big day. Sigli is celebrating this day with many NGO's and its expected that the library will get 25 trees planted on the grounds as part of the official ceremonies. We'll keep you posted.




While the poster making was happening, we spent time assessing the collection layout and what can be done to shelve the materials in a more logical fashion. Everything is catalogued ala Dewey but as we have already mentioned, shelving had been done by size of book and interest, rather than by Dewey. For instance, books of interest to students are all clustered together. There is now a combination of old and new shelving and our task is to find a useful way to shelve the various collections and new materials. We shared our notes with the staff at the end of the day and they had pretty much come to the same conclusions. They are very eager to make any changes that make the library more inviting and functional and we're positive that the collection will soon get ship shape.




We had sad news today, Mr. Muhktar's brother-in-law passed away. He was a 45 year old farmer and he died of cancer, likely from the pesticides used in farming. The library staff offered that we could come along with them to pay our respect to the family. We had to wear head veils, a first for us. Katherine had a lovely silk scarf which she wore Jackie O. style and looked quite glamorous when she was able to keep it on her head. When we first arrived, Mr. Muhktar introduced us to his mother and to his wife. He stayed with us in the women's quarters and we were served a lunch.





We spent the evening working on the 'Kapok' tree puppets. Although we are lagging and tired most evenings, we made it until 10:00 last night. The art project helped keep us going. We did have a goofy Dewey moment when all words starting with the letter D made us laugh hysterically. This is when we knew it was time to hit the sack.

Paradigm Shift

We had our first ‘holiday weekend’ during a mission and it has been a relaxing and idyllic time. We took a 45 minute ferry ride to Sabang from Banda Aceh. We were met at the ferry and driven to Santai Sumur Tiga, aka Freddie’s. It is a beautiful traditional spot directly on the beach. We each have our own beach front cabin, complete with hammock on the front deck. There are about a dozen cabins. It is a photo perfect setting. Sosi has come along with us as well. The claim to fame is also that Freddie is an interesting cook and cooks western- in fact he cooks South African as that is his background.

Sabang is a port that at one time was a larger port than Singapore. The main street has an old colonial feel, with large mossy trees that the Dutch brought over decades ago. It does seem like a resort town also with beachfront shops and fancy street lights.

Once we settled in, we decided to go for a becak drive (a motorcycle with a side car for passengers) around the town. It was fun and precarious at the same time. Some of the roads were quite bad so we couldn’t get to some places…we had intended to visit the ‘Zero Mile’ marker which is the most westerly tip of Indonesia but the road was too damaged. (Apparently there is also a 7-mile marker, which was the original 0-mile marker but a geographical survey proved differently.) We then went to see a waterfall. The road got rocky as it ran next to the river. We got out of the becak and walked on rocks across the river and tried to walk through the rainforest to the waterfall. There were cows in the forest and people doing laundry and bathing in the water. The walk up the waterway to the waterfall turned out to be longer and kind of dicier than we anticipated, so we turned back. This turned out to be the theme of the drive….everywhere we tried to go there was some reason it wouldn’t work out. BUT we had a lot of fun seeing the area. Some hills were so steep we had to get out of the becak and walk. We stopped at one point at a most picturesque place and had a cool drink and just soaked up the place. All in all, the ride had all the noise and fumes and insane driving as we are used to here. Going up hills we made an ungodly racket.

There is a lot of snorkelling going on around here – but to us it looked like you just go out there to get baked! So here we sit and sip wine and beer in the shade.

The locals also use the beach and that makes things quite pleasant – the level of tolerance for bathing suits and such is higher so it has been very relaxing not to be always aware of the amount of skin showing. Instead it is about getting burned that is causing us to cover up.

Food at Freddie’s is quite wonderful. Freddie does the cooking on the weekends and makes every meal as a buffet with Western inspired recipes made with all local food. He makes a special effort to welcome the guests and share his special part of paradise. At dinner we talked with Freddie…he has been here since the tsunami, working on entrepreneurial capacity building. He used to live in the house and now has made it something to share with everyone. He keeps putting the money he makes on it into to developing more of it, but being true to local traditions and ways. He also manages another hotel on Sabang and has just wrapped up the NGO work in March of this year.

Freddie has an interesting perspective to offer. We are finding we learn so much from the people around us. He has told us that 75% of the entrepreneurial projects funded have failed. He feels that the Acehenese are waiting for the conflict to return and are not able to buy into the plan for the better future when all they have known is conflict and a lack of control over their destiny due to the power structure. Freddie feels that what is lacking is a paradigm shift. We continue to learn – it is clearly a very complex situation and we just get glimmers when we talk about the government rules and regulations even for the library. Another example in the library context is the fact that we had to push for the library to start going to some of the locations that had been abandoned due to the conflict. Perhaps they too are thinking – ‘why bother, things will just go back to the way they were once everyone leaves.’ We understand from Indonesians here that the number of NGO’s is expected to drop to 25 from the 250 that were here immediately post tsunami.

On Sunday we lounged about. Katherine and I had a nice walk on the beach and a bit of a swim in the ocean before the heat of the sun became too much. We head back to Banda later this afternoon and then on to Sigli early Monday morning. We are having our taste of summer here at the thatch cottage and it tastes pretty Freddie good. O.k. ya that was a bit much but we did mention that we started drinking and it is 11:30 am.