"We Bought a Zoo" and Bombings

Yesterday we went to the movie “We bought a Zoo”, directed by Cameron Crowe. The best scene in the movie was when Matt Damon goes to pay for his purchase at home Depot with a Capitol Federal debit card. Capitol Federal is a bank with its headquarters in Topeka, and doesn’t do business in Southern California, where the movie is set. Also, it’s the bank we use.

The movie was enjoyable but not rememberable. Best part of the movie was watching the development of Cameron Crowe. He’s gone from writing “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” to writing and directing “Almost Famous”, both of which were about him, to writing and directing this movie, which was not about him. Watching his movies always makes us think of the Rolling Stones performance in Topeka, which he chronicled in “Almost Famous”, and which Laura was at! A San Diego boy makes good.

As we left the movie Bangkok had a huge thunderstorm. Thunder and lightning everywhere, so we headed back to the hotel. Once there we saw on the television that there had been three bomb explosions in Yala, in Southern Thailand, set off by Muslim extremist, who want the three southern Muslim state of Thailand to separate from Thailand. And, there had been a gas explosion in Hat Yai. We recognized the area of the gas explosion in the center of town. We had been in the area as recently as January. It was the same area where Muslim extremists had set of bombs in 2006. We had gone through Hat Yai on the train just a few days ago.

Lao Visa

Today we went to get a visa to visit Lao. It is possible to get a visa at at the border when you enter, which we did sixteen years ago, but Jim decided it would be better to go to their Bangkok embassy and get the visa before we got to the border. Jim found the embassy’s address and it turns out it is on a small Soi off the main street that we have stayed near before. Since Sois are usually short streets, Jim figured it couldn’t be too far to the embassy if we took the subway and then the bus to just past the JL Bangkok hotel where we have stayed a few times, the most recent being in December. After we got off the bus Jim had a problem finding the right Soi. The Sois run off the main street with the even numbered sois on one side and the odd numbered Also, there may be a street between two consecutive numbered odd or even Sois. Or, Sois running off the opposite side. Unfortunately, some Sois have names rather than Soi numbers. the Sois may be named rather than numbered. This happened with the Soi we were looking for. The street sign had a name for the Soi instead of a number, even though the Soi also had a number. So, we walked back and forth looking for a Soi number that was signposted. Naturally, Jim refused to ask for directions, so Laura asked and we found the Soi. We then had the address and started walking down the Soi. The problem was this Soi must have been the longest Soi in Bangkok. We kept walking, and walking and walking. Finally, Jim was about to give up and either quit or find a taxi, and Laura asked directions again. Turns out we had not walked far enough, so we trekked on. Finally we came to what looked like a huge open field. We debated whether to walk on so Laura went into the nearby Mercedes Benz dealership and asked directions. After getting directions we trekked on, finally coming to the Cambodian Embassy, which was near the Lao Embassy. We turned at the Cambodian embassy and walked another couple of hundred yards, and there, on something running off the Soi, we found the Lao Embassy.

We went in, filled out the application form and handed them in. They told us to come back in about an hour to pick up our passports, so we went to eat. We ate, then came back and picked up our passports. We then walked down to the Soi and flagged down a passenger carrying truck and took it back to the main street, where we could catch the bus to the subway. The fare for the truck was 6 Baht, which is about twenty cents. So, by walking for well over an hour in about 100 degree temperature, we saved twenty cents.

Here's a photo of Jim paying the truck driver the 12 Baht (40 cents) fare.

In Bangkok II

We are back in Bangkok. We took the overnight train from Butterworth, Malaysia, to here. The train left an hour and half late which gave us plenty of time to admire the E&O luxury train which pulled into Penang before our train arrived. For $8,000 we could have a luxury tour of Malaysia and Thailand, or we could pay $35 for the overnight sleeper. The E&O train was met by a band when it arrived.

We have never been met by a band.

Our train was fun because we met some interesting travelers. We sat across from a Basque man, Iosu Albizu, who had lived in Malta, among other places, and was busy wandering around the world for a few years. There was Richard, who was from Hollywood, and who traveled in SE Asia a few times a year, and there was Bunny, an English great grandmother who was traveling by herself because her friends had too many aches and pains to get out of their homes.

Here is a photo of Richard and Bunny.

Here is a photo of Iosu.

Bunny had traveled on the Trans-Siberian by herself a few years ago and convinced Laura that it was really a great trip. Laura has finally relented and agreed to go on the trip, from Hanoi to Beijing, then on to Moscow, which is actually the Trans-Mongolian Express, the Trans-Siberian Express going from Moscow to Vladivostok, Russia.

Sunkist Oranges

Tonight we are in our room at the PP Island hotel eating Sunkist navel oranges imported into Malaysia from the U.S. We bought them because they were the cheapest oranges in the grocery store. Is there something wrong with a fruit that originated in SE Asia, having been cultivated by the Chinese as early as 2500BC, being shipped and sold in Malaysia cheaper than the oranges grown around here?

Guess this is just the corollary to Jim's buying electronic parts on E-Bay and having them shipped via air mail from Hong Kong cheaper than he can buy them in Topeka.

Pontianak Riots

We didn't blog about the riots in Pontianak, Indonesia, while we were there. Apparently for two nights in a row, the Muslim Indonesians rioted. We did not find out why, nor did we see any information about the riots in the newspapers. We found out about the riots by people we traveled with on the bus to Kuching. They said that they had gone out to eat and photographed the riots while we were sitting in the hotel lounge listening to music. Apparently a few years ago the Muslims had also rioted and had chopped off a few heads, but this time there were no heads lying around.

Most of Indonesia is Muslim, being the largest Muslim country in the world. But the indigenous people of Kalimantan, the province where Pontianak is located, are mostly Christians, and mostly Catholics. The government has tried to get people to immigrate to Kalimantan from the other islands and other Muslim countries to work in in this sparsely populated country, but apparently there are problems.

In Penang

We are back in Penang, Malaysia for the third time on this trip. It feels like coming home. We took an Air Asia A320-200. This plane (9M-AHC)is less than five years old so it is still very nice inside. No Air France seat belts.

Since coming back to Penang we have seen both the "The Lady in Black" and "Starvation Games" and greatly enjoyed both. Laura got her hair done and really enjoyed the neck and back massage that came with the wash and dry. Jim bought a pair of red socks. These are the kind of things we do here.

Zigu Shen, Chinese Opera, Porcelain & John Carter

Yesterday we went on a search for a statue of Zigu Shen, aka Ceshen Tzu-Ku Shen, Keng San Gu Niang and Mao Gu Qi Furen, the goddess of the latrine and concubines. We don’t think we are ever going to find a statue of her. The people at the Chinese gods shop had never seen a statue of her. And, we found out that she is not a Buddhist, but is a Taoist goddess. But, from the shop we did find out that there was going to be a free Chinese Opera that night.

So, last night we went to the Chinese Opera. Couldn’t understand a word, but it was colorful and funny. We knew the plot was similar to a melodrama. The opera was loud and noisy because of the high pitched gongs, other instruments, and with loud high pitched Chinese voices. Chinese operas were originally acted by all men and in this opera the women actors had painted sideburns as if they were men. It was at the Kuching Hong San Si Temple, which is a Taoist temple. This temple’s host deity is Kong Teck Choon Ong, who is a transformation of the human being Kuo Chung Fook, who is worshiped in the Fujian province of China. The opera was part of his birthday week celebrations.

We are thinking that a lot of the Ming porcelain that we thought was from China was actually made by Chinese living in other countries, such as Indonesia. We went to an antique store here and the owner related an exhibit that had been at the Sarawak museum on Ming porcelain that said that the Chinese had established porcelain factories in SE Asia wherever they could find kaolin, which is a main ingredient in porcelain. The Chinese had porcelain factories throughout the area, and especially in Indonesia, Vietnam, and Cambodia where they exported the porcelain to other parts of the world, but mainly to Europe.

Because of this we have become interested in the town of Singkawang, near Pontianak, Indonesia. This town makes the Ming blue and white porcelain and has for centuries. We saw what was called a dragon kiln, which is a long narrow tunnel shaped kiln, at the ethnographic museum in Pontianak.

Earlier in the week we went to see the movie “John Carter”. We didn’t think it was that good. But the view from the cinema on the 9th floor of a parking garage is great. The building is confusing to us. In the basement is a food court, on the ground floor are a few shops, with more vacancies than occupied, and only the parking between the first floor shops and the ninth floor cinema.

Before the movie we stopped for drinks and met an American couple from Houston.

In Kuching, Island of Borneo, Malaysia

Kuching is the Malaysian word for Cat. So, the name of the town is Cat, which is why they have cat statues all over town and have a cat museum.

We took an 8 ½ hour bus ride from Pontianak to Kuching. The bus left at 6:30am, so were we up at 5, ate breakfast at the hotel at 5:30 and left for the bus at 6:15. After the bus left the station, its first stop was right back at our hotel to pick up others who were staying at our hotel and also going to Kuching. The bus company had given us the option of getting picked up at our hotel instead of the bus station, but Jim opted to walk the two blocks to the bus station so he could see the bus and be sure to catch it.

The bus took the “new road”, which was mostly paved, but which had parts washed out where the bus has to come to a complete stop before entering the “pot hole”. It was not very fast going for the first six hours. But, after the bus cleared the border into Malaysia, the road improved tremendously for the last two hours.

One interesting sight was that the Indonesian houses alongside the road generally had electricity and satellite dishes. The satellite dishes were universally pointing straight up. Guess that’s what you do when you live on the equator.

Somewhere in Indonesia a group of motorcycles came down the road from the Malaysian direction. These were not the usual 110cc bikes and mopeds everyone rides but were large BMW, Hondas and others. The riders were all decked out in leather riding gear and they were followed by a sag wagon to pick bikes that broke.

The day after we arrived in Kuching, we went to the Hilton Hotel to check out tours around Kuching and sitting behind the desks in the travel agency office inside the Hilton were two of our traveling companions on the bus. They were the people the bus returned to our hotel to pick up and who we had breakfast with at 5:30am, and they run the travel agency.

Last night we went to the GODOWN AMPITHEATRE WATERFFRONT KUCHING, (Pronounced Go Down) where there was free music and dance performances. Was great fun. We even got recognized because we were sitting next to two other Europeans, and all the Europeans were thanked for being there. The MCs also performed comedy routines, but jokes lose their effectiveness when you cannot understand the language.

The following photo of a group of dancers doing the traditional Borneo dance known as "The Twist", in synch.

There was also the more "traditional" performances.

The Equator

We took a small shared pickup to the Equator monument. We have made it! Our reason for being in Pontianak. Here's the monument:

This is inside the monument and is the original monument marking the equator.

Jim called Laura's dentist and his dermatologist and Lower Heating and Air Conditioning in Topeka from the hotel, using Skype. This got us to thinking that here we are on the island of Borneo, one of the last frontiers in the world, sitting in a 3 star hotel, listening to live American music being played by an Indonesia duo. Our room is nicely air conditioned, the hotel has a very well equipped exercise room and spa, and even a swimming pool on its roof. The buffet breakfast is the best we have had in any of our hotels, on any of our trips. It even beats the Hotel Puri in Malacca, Malaysia. Life is good.

We saw in Advertisement in the Jakarta Post that Foothill + DeAnza college from the San Francisco bay area will have a representative in Jakarta to enroll students in their community college. Laura had a student from where we are, Pontianak, Indonesia, in one of her classes at Allen Community College. Glad to see the students coming to the U.S.

The other thing that happened here, is that Jim got his first haircut of the trip.

Pontianak is a town a lot like Hat Yai, Thailand, a commercial center, that is not really a tourist town. The people are friendly, but this is a place to come to go elsewhere. If you need a six foot chain saw, this is here you would get it. A store across the street from our favorite restaurant sells logging supplies and Jim often thought of going in and asking what was the largest Husqvarna saw they sold since he's never seen a six foot chain saw.

Tomorrow we catch a bus at 6:30am to go to Kuching, in the Malaysian part of Boreno. In Kuching it rains 252 days a year, and here, in Pontianak, it has rained every day that we have been here. Not all day very day, but sometime during the day it has rained, sometimes very heavy, and, sometimes more than once in the day.

In Pontianiak, Indonesia

Today we flew to Pontianiak, on the island of Borneo. The flight was on Batavia air again, except this time, the plane, was warm instead of freezing. This time we kept our jackets out but didn't need them. Instead we were ready to take our clothes off. The plane was 737-400, PK YVN, which first flew 10 October 1993, ex Asiana, Hainan Airlines. No Air France seat belts this time.

Our hotel is about half a mile south of the equator. The following is from Wiki Travel regarding the name of the town:

"The word pontianak — probably from bunting anak, "pregnant with child" — means the undead vampire of a woman who died while during childbirth. Disguised as a beautiful woman, the pontianak goes around murdering unwary men, harming pregnant woman and eating babies, but they can be controlled by plunging a nail into a hole in the back of their neck.

Legend said at the first time of Abdurrahman Alqadrie group arrival in the uninhabited area of Pontianak, it was haunted by pontianaks/kuntilanaks, which deterred many of his companions by their scary voices at nights. To sweep these ghosts away, Alqadrie ordered his men to fire their cannons to the forest which was believed to be their base. Afterwards, no more pontianaks' voice were heard ever."

In Yogyakarta, Indonesia, Still

Today is Friday, the Muslim day of prayer, and many of the shops are closed. We had it planned as free day to maybe see Malioboro Street, which was named after the Duke of Marlborough. This street is the main shopping area. Maybe like the Miracle Mile in Chicago, but if you were selling batik fabric and clothing, jewelry, carvings, tattoos, and everything a tourist would desire, this is where you would set up shop.

After breakfast this morning Laura asked about a massage and Anthony the hotel manager offered to take me to the massage. We all went off for the day. Jim, Anthony, and his beautiful and delightful wife to also show us their city. Laura had a Japanese massage for one hour for about $7.00. The shop was decorated as Japanese tea house and the therapists were wearing kimonos. The message made her shoulder felt so much better. She wishes massages were this cheep in the US. The group was waiting for me and Eric took us to have Balinese food in his van. On the way to the restaurant we enjoyed seeing the city with a car as we usually walk. The city was built without much planning, an example a newly constructed home with gate and a new car beside the front door. The building next to the house may be a motorcycle shop that is dark, and covered wall to ceiling with grime and grease, and parts all over the place. Men in the shop may be working at fever pitch or may be sleeping. Next to that, a Batik shop with women waiting for the next person to buy fabric or clothing, and maybe the morning food market. All lower walls of the buildings, including houses, roll down shop doors, and gates are covered with some of the best graffiti I have ever seen. Most of the graffiti is just a poor form of tagging. In my classes on graffiti the quick ugly marks were called throw-ups and the artist that had taken time to paint his statement was angered by the throw-ups across his work.

The restaurant was at a simple place that also sold bus tickets. The meal consisted of a red dried coconut crushed into a pulp, thinly sliced green pepper and green beans, beef wrapped in a banana leaf, boney beef or pork soup, and white rice. We liked everything.

We all rode to Malioboro Street, which Jim and I had planned to investigate. We were checked by security as we drove into underground parking. Indonesia has had many bombing. One Islamic fundamentalists group bombed the Buddhists temple of Borobudur. We saw evidence of this at the temple and the museum on our tour. Shopping is Jim’s least favorite thing and Laura bought a deck of cards with the masks of Java on them, which she may frame them. We treated the couple to cold drinks at a roof top restaurant, and then back to the hotel. What a fun day with two wonderful people. The other couple was nice also.

At Borobudur & Prambanan

Today was our big day in Yogyakarta; we had booked a taxi tour from our hotel, the Puri Chorus. The taxi was a great idea because on our own, it would be difficult to get to the sites.

The first major site was Borobudur, which, as the ticket says is “The Biggest Budha Temple In The World”, “World Heritage List Number 592”, and was “Built in the 8th Century”. It is the second largest tourist attraction in Indonesia. Probably the first is Bali. Below is our first view of the Borobudur Temple.

The corner view of the Borobudur as we begin our climb to the top. Borobudur is solid stone. No inner chambers.

One of six repeated images of Buddha.

Our guide for Borobudur. He was excellent.

An image of Buddha from second level. The view of the landscape from the second level and one the volcanoes in the area.

The archways as we climb to the top.

The second site was Prambanan, “The Most Beautiful Hindu Temple in the World”, “Peace Prk Member of IFWTO & IIPT”, “World Heritage List Number 642”, and was “ Built in the 7th Century”.

On the way to Borobudur, we stopped at another Temple, which had a Buddhist monastery near it. Before visiting the temple we went to the monastery. While there we met Lhobphon Rinpoche, who is a reincarnation of Kunzang Drudul. Rinpoche means “enlightened one”.

We were at Prambanan when the rain began. This is the rainy season and about every afternoon between 3:30PM and 4:00PM it down pours. We left the temple thoroughly soaked. Our driver gave Laura his clean nicely folded dress shirt to slip on. We were shivering cold with car's air conditioning. We were glad to get back to the hotel to take warm showers and dry clothes.

The rain slowed and we checked out the restaurant that is two blocks to the left. The restaurant is called "Quack! Quack!". It serves duck and other rice dishes and soup. Their mixed vegetable salad has a creamy dressing for 12,000 Rupiah($1.33)and the vegetable soup for 4,000 Rupiah($.45 cents). Laura is going to make this soup at home. The soup is chopped, uncooked vegetables with a spicy hot broth poured over potatoes, corn on the cob, green beans, cabbage, onions,carrots, and tomato slices. The hot broth cooks everything making the vegetables crunchy. Indonesian food is spicier than Malaysian food. Most foods in other countries to make food spicy hot chillies are added. The spicy hot is added before it is served.

In Yogyakarta, Indonesia

We took a Batavia Air 737 from Medan to Yogyakarta. The flight was three hours late leaving Medan. But, because the flight was late the airline offered box lunches to all the passengers while we waited in the terminal. The plane was an older one and we noticed that the seat belt buckle had “Air France” engraved in it, which was unusual because the plane had never been owned by Air France, but had been owned by
TAESA, Rio Sul, Ukraine International & Riau. Guess just the seats came from Air France

The flight had the air conditioning turned up high, so we were cold the entire flight. We had one jacket, which we shared, and snuggled together to avoid freezing. We are now south of the Equator, again.

This morning we had breakfast at our hotel, then a nap. Life is hard. After that we were finally ready to explore Yogyakarta. There is large local food market just down the block and to the right. Everything you would want: fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, fresh meats, fresh fish and dried fish, oils, spices, and much more. Nothing smells like a market on a warm morning. The flies, bees, and ants were present and happily feeding. I did take a few photos.

Jim found the Museum Affandi in the guidebook and walked around before breakfast until he found it foe me. The museum was a place like the Crazy House in Da Lat, Vietnam. As part of the museum, Affandi’s house was open to the air with a roof in the shape of a large banana leaf.

In Medan, Indonesia

We are in Medan, Indonesia, on the island of Sumatra. We took a Firefly Airline ATR-72-500 (212A), 9M-FYE, from Penang to here. The flight took about 55 minutes. It was fun flying on a turboprop. We flew lower and got to see more of the water.

The hotel we are staying at, The Palace Inn has made Jim’s day. It serves blueberry jam for breakfast! No more choice between Strawberry, which he only dislikes, or, Orange Marmalade, which he detests. The hotel has newspapers to read in two languages: Chinese and Indonesian. No English language newspaper on the hotel’s newspaper stand.

We found the large mall in town, and it had a movie theater. So, last night we saw “The Artist”, which is a very good movie. We are glad it won the best picture Oscar. It was fun seeing a black and white, standard frame, silent movie. Before that we went exploring the town. Jim found some antique cannons for about $1,500 that he fell in love with, but wasn’t sure on getting them home. We went to an old Chinese mansion which was owned by a cousin of the owner of the mansion in Penang. After the mansion tour we went across the street and had lunch at a 1930s restaurant, “The Tip Top”. After that we wandered through downtown and then caught a motorcycle taxi back.

The local schools must send their students to the large mall to ambush foreigners. Laura was stopped for an interview by two young students and so was I, and they were from different schools. The students also need to have their picture taken with you to show that you really are a foreigner. The purpose seems to be to get the students to practice speaking English.

We walked past Mr. Pancake restaurant and they had a picture of their avocado and chocolate pancake. They do seem to come up with some unusual combinations. We also had lunch yesterday at the Bollywood Café. Naturally, it was an Indian restaurant. Jim watched the employee run around the restaurant barefooted, and got to wondering, which is more sanitary, not wearing shoes in a restaurant, after taking your shoes off outside, or the American way of requiring everyone to have shoes. In this part of the world most people do not wear shoes indoors, restaurants included.
Jim was thinking that the urge to travel was with him when he moved to San Diego. He used to ride the busses just to see where they would go. He’d get on the bus and ride it to the end of the line, then ride it back.

We also have started staying in higher class hotels. On this trip most of the hotels we stay in cost $25-30 per night.

On television there was an Asian ASEAN League basketball game between two teams. What was interesting was that the one team was called the Saigon Heat, not the Ho Chi Minh City Heat.