Four hundred visitors a day

We've traveled from Jakarta to Sigli with an overnight stay in Banda Aceh. Things are changing in Banda as many NGO's have left. Many locals are using the hotel and probably outnumber the NGO types that were very present before. We have been greeted warmly as before by the staff who are by now quite familiar with us after so many trips.

Interesting menu anecdote in reviewing the menu last night we had a good giggle at the English translations - one could order tepid nachos and lukewarm apple crisp- understandable but it has an effect of the selections one makes that might not be anticipated by the author.

One of our favorites Rommell has left to a better job in Medan- he was always ready to share some crazy stories and laugh away. Dawna is so on the ball she brought a couple of snaps from an event we attended at the hotel last time and the staff member was thrilled with the thoughtfulness.

The Sigli library is filled to the brim with students everyday. The challenge for the staff will be to also attract more adults and families. In any event the books are being read and borrowed and the place is hopping.

When we visited however it was a very rainy day and just like a snow day in Toronto heavy rains can keep customers and staff from getting to the library.

On Thursday and Friday we conducted stakeholder interviews with various library staff and customers. We had a delightful interview with two young boys - who reported that they were loving the new space especially the colourful children's area and does this sound familiar they reported that library staff booted them from the public computers because they were playing games. And in this case they had lined up and paid for an hour but the use was not deemed to be serious enough. We'll be talking with staff about this customer service approach.

Harvey Nichols and Padang food

We went to the book distributor.....needless to say it was different than what we know from home. This distributor focused on Islamic materials but we were told he could also get other books for us. We went through the three different lists we had on hand and narrowed down the choices to fit our budget. It was kind of a self serve place where we had to write up our own agreement letter. Given that that took awhile, Dawna took the opportunity to teach Pak Mukhtar tic tac toe. Before we arrived, we had thought we were going to a show room scenario...but it really was not much like that. The word show room should never have been used to describe what we saw. Hours later, we left empty handed having given them a wad of cash and feeling about 60% OK about the whole thing. We are told it will take a week for the books to get to Banda...we shall wait and see.


The third and final book shopping took place at a very upscale bookstore called Gramedia. It was on par with Indigo for selection, display and range of material. It is surprising to us that there are Muslim based books in every subject, from science to cooking. Who knew? The focus for this spree was children's books. The staff were incredibly helpful and they made this final shopping a treat. The head of the library was delighted to receive a special 'Gramedia' clock which was presented to him upon the completion of the big sale. We even found an Indonesia version of 'Eat, Pray, Love'....Dawna loved this book, Katherine refuses to read it...but Katherine selected it.


The malls in Jakarta are over the top. They are what you would expect in Rodeo Drive. Even have Harvey Nichols of Ab Fab fame. It feels kind of odd to be in these extravagent malls complete with Christmas carols and then go out to the street and see the standard Indo street vendors. Gucci on the main floor and 5th Floor hawkers with Padang food.


We felt great about completing the book buying, down to the last $3. Items were shipped to Banda already and will be ready for the Sigli library on Monday.



Wednesday was travel day, leaving Jakarta for Banda. It was a bit of a long day. We are noticing a different vibe in the air as we progress towards Banda. People don't seem so keen on Westerners. There are not so many NGO's around and we get the sense that people are glad they have left. Maybe this is the ebb and flow of development work when things wind down. Still we keep maintaining a positive attitude and aim to take things in stride.


The hotel that we stay at in Banda is under new management. There are less staff and less of a Western focus in their approach. The internet was down when while we were there.


We headed up to Sigli, first thing Thursday morning. It was good to get to the library and receive a very friendly welcome from the staff. The morning was spent reviewing what has been done (or not done) while we were away. In the afternoon we did some interviews with the staff, to find out their thoughts on the changes at the library. We are gearing up for the main event which will be the evaluation workshops next week.



Over and out.

Going shopping

Day one Jakarta.
We met everyone as planned this morning. O.k. after about an hour of this and that - getting organized to go book buying, we hit streets to flag a cab. It is only Blue Bird's or White Bird taxi's that we are after. The White bird is elusive but when it comes to cabs the Blue Bird is ever present.

O.k. so we got a cab and headed downtown to one of a vast number of malls in Jakarta. It's lovely that there are bookstores in town and many of them. As you may recall it was a stretch to find one book store in Banda Aceh and that one was pretty much religious texts on the second floor of a hardware and lingerie shop. Go figure.

So here is a picture of Pak Mukhar and Mita our new translator. Mita is studying library science and hoping to further her studies overseas next year. A good English speaker and lots of fun so we are lucky again. we are at a Starbucks waiting for the book order.
Mr. Mukhtar is showing off his pics on the cell phone.

It was so fortuitous that Pak Mukhtar had occasion to meet an important staff member from the National Library recently. So when we got to town he was able to arrange a meeting with the Director of the National Library. The Director, Dady P. Rachmananta generously spent a good half hour with us as we shared stories about the CALGAP project.

It was very encouraging to hear about the national efforts to increase the reading habit through a celebrity reading ambassador who travels throughout the whole country. The national library is working hard to promote reading and library use however it is challenging in a country so large. The federal government recently passed a Library Act and there is lots of work to do around library governance and jurisdiction. Not all provinces are willing to support public library service at the level needed - a common issue around the world.

As a result of this visit we were able to learn more about the publishing industry and the staff member Fadli, who happens to also be Achenese, set up an appointment for us with a key book distributor. So tomorrow is a big day for books.

Another Padang meal for us this afternoon - this is the cuisine that is left out unrefrigerated all day so poses some challenges for us westerners. The Achenese are quite fond of this food. This time around we noticed that the mosquito coils were strategically placed to waft over the food to keep it bug free. We focused on the rice - had a light meal and let it go at that.

Just an observation Nimrod was simply a cabin crew member with an unusual name. We didn't get a chance to hear the story of his naming.

We'll keep you in suspense regarding the dental artist, who is quite a pleasant Persian met while waiting in an immigration lineup. More on that later. No luggage yet but apparently it is at the airport in fact we are assured that it has left the airport-that it is on route from the airport (a 1/2 hour drive) to the hotel -several hours later still no luggage.

Sleep beckons

A quick post to say we are here in Jakarta book buying. Once we get over the immediate pressure of jet lag we will do a proper post. We can then tell the tales of the dental technologist to the stars and bicuspid sculptor and Nimrod the cabin crew member on our flight from Hong Kong to Jakarta.

The fact that we don't have our luggage is putting a bit of a crimp in our lives but we are getting things done nevertheless. Bought books downtown and visited the National Library of Indonesia and met the Director there.
Pictures later

Just thought I would add some of the food images that we have as an in between post.
The lovely sushi like dish was on offer at a lunch spot en route during the Bali bike tour.







The next pic is from the Temple street night market in Hong Kong. To date since the trip we've run into a few other folks who have been to this same night market. What you see here are live prawns just squirming on the table beside a shop.

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.