What a Life!

Among the random things Stan and I have learned as vagabonds is that a person can grow accustomed to almost anything.  On our trip this year, we sleep in a new bed almost every two weeks.  Some are just adequate, but some are ones I’d like to take with us everywhere.  I am always puzzled that even in this hot tropical climate, most of our beds are dressed in a fluffy duvet.  Yes, the bedroom photographs well; yes, it looks inviting and comfy, but one of the first things I do in each new “home” is remove the 10-pound duvet from its cover and put it away.  We sleep under the two-layered cover alone, which is warm enough even with the air conditioner set at 18C.  Sometimes, though, a bit of creativity is required, especially if the bedroom is small or exceptionally large.  Here in Jakarta, for example, our bedroom is small, and the AC is powerful.  To make the bedroom comfortable, we set the AC to 18 °C on low fan, then put a light blanket over the duvet cover.  Sadly, the extra blanket in this apartment is long but narrow, so it doesn’t reach fully across the bed, but it is so long that we can easily tuck in 2 feet at the bottom.  Turning it the other way helped. With this adjustment, we both have plenty of blanket on each side of the bed, but our feet poke out at the foot of the bed.  The solution: we safety-pinned a small throw blanket to the edge of the too-short blanket and tucked the throw under the mattress to keep our feet covered.  It is not pretty, but it works.

And every two weeks on this trip I get a new kitchen too — often with cold water only.  Hot water is provided in bathrooms, thank goodness, by instant wall-mounted heaters.  I admire this energy-conscious maneuver, but I am spoiled.  I like hot water.  I like it in the bathroom sink, in the tub, in the shower, and in the kitchen!  Our Jakarta apartment had two bathrooms but only one had hot water. Here is another oddity. Most kitchens in Asia come with just two pans for cooking: a skillet and a pot & lid.  Believe it or not, we have learned to make toast in a skillet and prepare a full meal with just those two pots.  Electric toaster?  Rarely! But an electric rice cooker is common kitchenware. How baffling?  In the East, where people thrive on rice, eating it with every meal, three meals a day, why do they need a rice cooker?  To me, cooking rice could not be simpler:  put a cup of rice in a pan with two cups of water and a teaspoon of salt, cover, and simmer for exactly 20 minutes. Remove it from the heat, and don’t touch that lid until ready to serve.  Voila!  Perfect rice.  But here, a kitchen is no kitchen without an electric rice cooker.

And I still hate dinner napkins here.

Even though the air is polluted with smoke and the temperature and humidity are both far too high, Stan and I get out. We have not been able to walk as much and as energetically as we like because the air and heat are unhealthy.  We visited the National Museum of Indonesia.  Compared to the Borneo museum in Kuching, this one was a bit disappointing. Then we bit the bullet and went to Gunung Gede Pangrango National Park. We ached to get out of hazy and hot Jakarta and see a bit of the country.  Stan and I were picked up at 6 am and three hours later we arrived at the lush green park.  First surprise:  we rode ½ mile on the back of motorbikes up and down a steep, rutted road to the waterfalls trailhead. The trail began after a walk across the longest suspension bridge in Southeast Asia.  My Lord!  The suspension bridge was a treat, but neither of us had ridden a motorbike for God knows how many years. I was a little bit uneasy on the bike, especially in the rocky, rutted parts, but whew! The drivers, mere children, knew what they were doing. The air in the park was cool and dry. What a relief!

The waterfall was just that, a 25-meter waterfall.  Call us jaded; we have seen so many waterfalls that we are seldom overwhelmed.  Even Bridal Veil in Yosemite at full blast wouldn’t do it for us these days!

In comparison to some of our recent hikes, this one was a breeze. Surprise number 2 was a very enjoyable suspended basket seat ride over the river and through the jungle.

On the short return hike, the path included another suspension bridge across the river, and boy, oh boy, oh boy!  Suspension bridges do not frighten us, but surprise number 3 did. A troop of 8 black long-tailed ebony leaf monkeys met us on the bridge.  As they started walking hand over hand toward us, our guide began scrambling to get away, murmuring, “I’m scared!  I’m scared!”  At first Stan and I thought, “Oh, maybe we should run too!  Maybe these are dangerous animals.”  They were not.  But make no mistake, we gave them space on that bridge and plenty of respect!

We are heading out for a new place and a new adventure tomorrow. This one will be a secret for now, but another week will likely pass by before I sign on once again.

Bye!