And I’m still learning…

I love travelling and spending a significant period of time in another country. There’s something about it that just humbles you and makes you realise exactly what matters and doesn’t matter in life. I always come back to Australia with a renewed sense of urgency and passion to be doing something to make some sort of positive impact on the world. There’s a part of me that gets comfortable at home; that makes me consider other things to do and makes me talk myself into thinking that I’ll enjoy doing something other than development.

I get a little too comfortable but then I come to Indonesia; to Cambodia, to India; and realise that there is nothing else in this world that I want to do to. There’s nothing in this world that will make me want to get up every day to go to work; nothing in this world that will make me as happy or challenged or as pushed than working in this sector. I don’t see myself ever being truly happy with a career unless I’m working with education and women’s rights. I can’t imagine doing anything else because there is nothing else for me. I am capable of doing something; I know I can do something and surprisingly enough, I’m good at it and that’s all that matters.

But there’s a few things I’ve learnt over the last three years; living and working in both Cambodia and Indonesia; things I’ve learnt about life; about the world but most importantly, what I learnt about myself.

It’s okay to make mistakes; it’s not okay to not grow from them.

Sometime’s working overseas hasn’t been good. Sometimes you are 18 and new to the development world and you get so excited about helping that you forget why you came. But then you see it and you feel sick because it’s just wrong and you don’t understand the inequalities in the world. But then you go to Indonesia a few years later; a little more wiser, more aware and you know yourself enough to know where you can make a small impact in a short amount of time. That’s what it’s about; making small impacts over a period of time. No one can change the world, it’s impossible, but I sure can learn from past experiences and make sure that I don’t make the same mistakes again. Small impacts over a period of time- I can do that.

Distance doesn’t make your problems disappear.

Just because you leave your life for a few months doesn’t mean it still won’t be there when you come back. Distance and time away doesn’t magically make every single one of your problems disappear and most times you do more harm than good. Sometimes you have to learn that the hard way; that pushing your problems aside wherever you are, home or away, is never the answer. I know now that the best thing to do is to face issues head on when they arise and work it out from there.

Be patient with yourself when you do come back home.

The flip side to that is that you are a totally different person then to who you were when you left home. We are forever changing but when you leave everything behind, you change in a different way. But friends and family don’t see this or feel this change in you and so it is hard to re-adjust back to what your old life was when sometimes you don’t relate to aspects of it anymore. Sometimes you grasp onto things, sometimes you let things go and most times, its actually a struggle to combine your old life to who you feel you are now and what you want. The only thing I’ve learnt is to know myself, be patient with myself and stay true to myself and know that things will fall into place.

Time is the shortest and longest thing we have.

We always say we are running out of time or we didn’t have time to do this or that, but when you think about it, time is the longest thing we do have. It’s how we use our time that determines its quality. There is no such thing as having no time to do the things that you want to do; or no time to see people. You make time for the things you care about and the people you love even if that means prioritising over something else. Don’t get too caught up in the world of work and school to forget to make time for the people who are there for you and the things you enjoy to do. It doesn’t mean anything if you are too focused on things to miss out on experiencing your life or that of your family and friends. We are consumed by time and constraints but time is also consumed and decided by us. Know this and use time wisely; for its the shortest and longest thing we have.

Learn what is important and know that life is a never-ending learning experience.

There are things that matter; there are things that don’t.

Learn what’s important in life and what isn’t. Learn what relationships are good for you and what ones aren’t. Learn what really makes you get up in the morning and learn what makes you happy and then do it every day. Life isn’t about the people who weren’t there, about the mistakes we made or the chances we didn’t take. The sun rises every day no matter how shit the day was before and guess what, you will to. Life is about learning things so we can continue growing, changing and evolving as we age. Life is about figuring out what matters and what doesn’t matter and focusing on the things that are important. Life is about living and learning and most importantly, loving; that’s whats important.

There’s no place like home and the people that are there.

There’s no place like home because it is home. There is no place like coming back to a place where there is only love, happiness and joy. Where things are easy because you have support around you, where you have friends and where you have your life. Travelling is incredible and if it was free, you probably wouldn’t see me. But I would always find my way back home because there is nothing like home and the feelings it brings me.

Life is what you make it.

*cue Hannah Montana song* No one lives life waiting for it to come knocking. Opportunities, people and experiences don’t come to you if you don’t reach out first. Offer yourself to the world and see what it offers back. Half the things that have most shaped my life have been from me taking action and chasing experiences in whatever form they come. There’s no point in talking about things but never actually doing them. So go out there, take a chance and do it because what have you got to lose?

People are so scared of being hurt and showing vulnerability but I think it should be embraced.

People these days are so scared to open up; to show emotion and vulnerability. We have been taught to be strong; to always be strong and that if we aren’t strong, it means we are showing weakness. Weakness that could potentially cause us to hurt so we build up these walls and always tell people “we’re fine” and don’t actually tell the other what we are actually feeling. We try to be strong even if that means secluding ourselves and shutting ourselves off from opportunities because we are scared of getting hurt. Life is scary, opportunities are scary and yes, people are going to hurt you. But guess what, you’ll hurt people too because it’s something we all can’t control and it’s a part of life.

And really, if we stripped back the stigma that we have to be strong all the time, that we have to have our shit together and that certain things should be kept to ourselves and not talked about, I think that we would all understand each other better. We could see that we aren’t that different; our problems are similar, we both feel things that can hurt us or make us happy, we are all scared of something and we are all nervous of taking risks; after all, we are all human. But I think if we opened ourselves up to each other we could also be a little more kind to each other, a little more understanding and a little less judgemental. Vulnerability and feeling hurt makes us all human – we shouldn’t shy away from that.

Be kind.

If I died tomorrow, how would people describe me and what would they say? What legacy would I leave behind?

And as boring as this may sound to some people, I think I would like to be known as kind. I think kindness is a simple concept that is rare to see; I know I often have to think if people’s kindness towards me is coming from a genuine place or not. And I hope that people see the genuine in my kindness. And sure, maybe its more fun to be known as the person who can hold her liquor, or to be known for the girl that is always having a good time, but I don’t think being genuinely kind is boring. I think kindness is truth, honesty and communication in all of its forms. 

Kindness has many levels. My mum once told me something that has stuck with me for years; “Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind.” It’s as I get older that I understand more how sometimes kindness can come off as something that isn’t kind. Sometimes being kind means telling it like it is. Sometimes being kind is to say something that hurts you to say it. Sometimes being kind is saying things people don’t want to hear and but you do because you are being kind. Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind.

I also think kindness goes a long way; I often remember people by their kindness and how nice they were to me and I hope they remember me for the same. And I guess the world has enough hate and judgement as it is, there’s no need to add to it.

There’s nothing wrong with doing you.

There’s nothing wrong with taking time to do you. Whether that’s choosing to stay single, cutting down on alcohol, taking up a gym class when you know all your friends would think thats funny; there’s no problem with that.

I always say that I have no problem with anyone’s decisions as long as they aren’t hurting themselves or others. There is absolutely nothing wrong with choosing you and doing what you have to do FOR you because you know that is whats best. Because at the end of the day, our bodies are the only constant thing we will have throughout our lives; we as a person are the one constant thing. So why not take the time to get to know yourself; find out what you like, what you don’t; what you want and what you don’t want. Make friends with yourself and love yourself and do this by being by yourself to see who you are. Life is too short to not be doing you, to not being putting your health and happiness first and to not be happy with yourself. At the end of the day, you are the only person with the power to change your life; so start by just doing you and see what you learn. 

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But hey, what do I really know right? I’m only 21 and I haven’t even experienced life or what the world has to offer so who am I to tell you what I’ve learnt? But that’s okay, as I said, life is a learning experience and I can’t wait to learn more and embrace everything it has to offer. And maybe in 1, 2 or even five years from now I might not agree with what I wrote above but that’s okay. I can’t wait to grow, learn and form more of my own ideas about the world!

Sate-ing in Jogja

Hey hey!!

I know it’s been awhile but after my adventure last weekend and the days I spent sick this week, I think I can be forgiven for being late!

Bright and early last Saturday morning I hopped on the first flight to Yogyakarta (pronounced Jog-jakarta) to meet up with one of my friends from Australia! I originally was planning on going to Bandung for the weekend as I had never been there before but after hearing Rob was going to be in town, I knew that was the place to be and the place to now fly to!

Yogyakarta is near Mt. Merapi – and if you don’t know where that is, you obviously haven’t read my last post so you should get on that! Jogja is my favourite place in Indonesia and is one of those rare places where I think, if I left Australia, this would be one of two places I’d move to.

Borobudur, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Saturday morning was a real struggle to get out of bed; it was so early that I even beat the call of prayer! My plane was on time and I arrived 10 minutes early which was unexpected! I got in a cab and headed straight to ViaVia to meet up with Rob for the start of a jam packed weekend – starting with a morning cooking class.

ViaVia

ViaVia

Rob had organised a 9am cooking class with ViaVia who also offer a whole range of other things. They are a cafe located in a few places around the world and promote transparency between local culture and people. They do this by using fresh, local produce for all meals on their extensive menu; including their bakery! ViaVia also has a fair-trade shop adjoined to the cafe where they sell organic and recycled materials created by local artists. They also have a hostel and organise cultural tours around Yogyakarta and East Java – really the place has everything!

When we arrived to the meeting point for the class, Made, our teacher, gave us free reign to choose whatever we wanted to make. Being the great man he is, Rob let me choose Sate to which Made informed us we wouldn’t be making just one but two different versions of it! Winning!

We met up with a Polish woman who was also doing the class and we headed straight to the markets to pick up fresh produce. The market wasn’t as busy as I expected it to be but it was definitely a hub for all things food! From meat to chicken’s feet to frog; from fresh fruit and vegetables to rice and crackers; it truly had everything you would ever need and certainly more than what we needed! Made weaved us in and out of lanes of food to the stalls she got all our produce from and within 45 minutes, we were back ready to make some Indonesian food!

After walking back to the class; we had a refreshing cold coffee with sweet cake before getting straight into making Kari Sayuran; the first dish of the day!

Kari Sayuran is a vegetable curry dish which we made very mild. First, we cut all the vegetables while someone ground the small ingredients together with the mortar and pestle! Once everything was cut and ground, including the 5 chillies, we put them all in a pot on the stove to simmer away! While they sautéed, we got to making the first of the two sates – the spicy, sweet and soy sate; a Balinese specialty!

Stirring the coconut cream

Vegetable Curry

Vegetable Curry

There weren’t a lot of steps to making this Sate; as with before, we ground the chillies with coriander seeds, garlic and bay leaves. We also cut and filleted the chicken into small pieces that we eventually used to make into kebab sticks. The first half of the chicken was marinated by the spicy sate and the second half was marinated by the peanut sate.

The peanut sate that we made was the general sate people get when they order it. This consisted with few ingredients but, surprisingly, there no peanuts in the marinade! Once they were made into skewers, we placed all the sate kebabs in the fridge and focused on the Tempe!

Tempe is fermented soybeans and tastes absolutely amazing (apparently we legally cannot make it in Australia but I would recommend it to anyone who comes to Indonesia!). It takes three days for the soybeans to finish the fermentation stage in which we can then use it to cook. Tempe is high in protein and is used in a lot of vegetarian dishes in Indonesia.

Tempe

Frying the Tempe

We cut the Tempe up into thick slices and seasoned it with salt and pepper before we fried them off! Rob had mentioned this dish called Kering Tempe that Made was willing to show us how to make. Kering Tempe is Tempe cut into thin strips; fried off until they are crunchy and coated in this caramelized chilli sauce with peanuts. Kering Tempe is normally served as a side or an appetizer before a meal and so you wouldn’t just eat it as it is. We also made purple rice which is white rice cooked with 2 tablespoons of black rice that when heated up; creates a purple colour! Pretty cool!

After the Tempe, we cooked the Sate sticks, heated up crushed peanuts and coconut cream on the stove and combined crushed chillies with kecap manis (sweet soy sauce) to use as dipping sauce for the Spicy Sate – the kecap manis takes the taste of the chill marinate and creates a chilli, sweet and soy combination that is really smooth on the palate.

After moving everything to the table, we had to eat all the food but it was so good we didn’t have too much trouble getting through it all!

The rice tasted like normal rice even though it was a purple colour (Made was telling us to make yellow rice you just add coriander seeds and turmeric when cooking it) and the vegetable curry was really nice. The Tempe was a little bland but I did expect that as it was just fried Tempe and the Kering Tempe wasn’t really my cup of tea (it wasn’t spicy but it just wasn’t something I would eat often).

But what I made myself wait for was the two sates, and boy, did they not disappoint.

So let me start with the Peanut Sate.

As expected; I knew the peanut sate was very much like every other sate and for that; it was nothing special. It could have had a little more kick to it but it was still nice.

Spice: As I said, there could have been a bit more spice   – 3.5

Texture: It was thick and crunchy due to the crushed peanuts but that made it not smooth – 4

Overall Flavour: Tasted very much like peanuts but wasn’t too creamy  – 3.5

Overall food for money:  As it was apart of a cooking class, which I paid Rp160,000 (approx $16AUD) for I can’t really judge. However, the price for the same Sate was on the menu for Rp44,000. The Sate came with kerupuk, rice and a small salad and for that I’m going to give it a rating of– 3.0

Total: 7/10

Which is one of the top Sate dishes that I have found in West Java (special mention for the Sate at Wilujeng Sumping in Ancol, North Jakarta for being pretty amazing as well).

But I will mention that I think I found the best Sate even though it wasn’t on the menu at ViaVia – and probably would be found more authentically in Bali!

The chilli, sweet and soy Sate!

Chilli, Sweet and Soy Sate

This Sate was the BEST thing I’d ever tasted and that took me by surprise as I thought I would favour the peanut sate more. It was actually the RIGHT spice for me and had a kick but not so much that I was reaching for milk! I could say that that’s because the chef knows her spice levels but I’m not trying to be biased here! It was spicy but that sweet and soy sauce that was drizzled over the top took edge off of the spice and created this amazing balance of all these flavours. 

Spice: As I said, the right kind of spice for the right kind of Sate   – 5

Texture: The chicken was marinated in chilli marinate but the sauce was made from kecap manis and finely chopped chillies. Because of this, it wasn’t thick or creamy but it was sweet and spicy and all things nice-y – 4

Overall Flavour: I could eat this everyday and never grow bored of it. Screw Java, maybe I should be looking for the best Sate in Bali!  – 5

Overall food for money:  This is tricky as it was not apart of the menu but as Made was from Bali, she showed us her recipe. Because of that, I will automatically give this a general half rating  – 2.5

Total: 8.25/10

Which means that Made’s family recipe for her Sate is the best in Java so far. If anyone wants to travel, or will travel to Yogyakarta one day, I strongly recommend taking Made’s cooking class at ViaVia as it is worth the money and the experience of creating real Indonesian food! She also gives you tips and insights into the best ways to cook these back in your home country and suggests substitutes for herbs and spices that may not be readily available there!

After the cooking class; and feeling quite full; Rob and I headed out to Rumah Impian; an organisation that works with getting street children off the streets and into education. Rob had previously done work there last year and is still affiliated with the organisation so he took me out to see the kids and to show me what he does there (and I’m sure it was a tactic to get me to reconsider my decision to stay and work in Australia). 

Playing Cricket with Icha

After Rumah Impian, Rob showed me his favourite warung guy before we both got ready to go out for dinner with a group of people that Rob knew!

After an amazing nights sleep, I eventually got out of bed the next day to start my day! There were a few requests for clothes from my family and I knew that Jogja was probably going to be my best bet at finding them at a cheaper price – Jakarta is so expensive – so I headed down to Jl. Malioboro and the markets surrounding the main street. Unfortunately, I didn’t end up finding exactly what the siblings wanted but I did end up finding these super funky pants that I knew my mum would love (even though I will certainly be borrowing them from time to time!). After shopping, and being over the hot weather and the crowds of people, I went back to my room to wash up in the beautiful outdoor bamboo shower and then checked out before heading back out into the sun.

I was on the 7pm flight back to Jakarta that night and so I had a lot of time to kill before I left! I got into the back of a becak to head back to Viavia to meet up with Rob for lunch and to eat CapCay (some much needed veggies!). After lunch and shopping at the fair-trade store next door, I said my final bye-byes to Rob as he headed home for a much-needed sleep – how jealous I was!

Rob and I

I stayed at ViaVia and wrote a little bit of this post and had a much needed Skype session with the parents! I normally call home every Sunday (still trying to make Sunday nights family night) but the last two weeks I feel like between working and travelling every weekend, its always been a quick 5 minute call of “Hey, I’m alive, I’m okay, I love you too,” on whatever day I can call at a decent time for them! Who knew that juggling a 4 hour time difference could be so hard sometimes?!

After finally killing time, I went to the airport an hour before I was set to depart but my plane was delayed; as I expected it to be. I eventually got home around 10:30pm and had a shower, caught up with the newest episode of The Vampire Diaries (oh my god) and headed off to bed for some much needed sleep!

I can tell you that Monday morning was hard to get out of bed but there were no regrets! It was probably the best weekend I’ve had since I’ve been here; being in Jogja and also being with such a good friend like Rob made the weekend just easy and relaxing!

However, this weekend I was suppose to fly to Lombok but I have had to cancel that as I have been sick this week. That really, really sucked because I normally would just travel as I hate missing out on opportunities, especially ones I have already paid for, but sometimes I have to think about whats best and that would be to stay in Jakarta so I can be my best for the last week of my internship!

I cannot believe that next week is my last week of work- I feel like I’ve been here for months and months, although I will admit, I’m also looking forward to coming home (especially right now when all I want is my bed). I’m also excited to see what my last week brings me at work and then probably more excited to start my own travel plans after the internship. I don’t think I’ll make it back to Lombok this time, but there’s always next time! And hey, while I’m over in the West, I might as well explore the West!

Until next time,

Teesh

The Climb of my Life…

Mt. Merapi is Indonesia’s most active volcano. You can understand how great this volcano is by its name- Meru means mountain whilst Api means fire- a literal translation to Mountain of Fire in Javanese.

Mt. Merapi is only one of many volcanoes located on what is known as the Ring of Fire (or the Circum-Pacific Belt). Around 90% of the world’s earthquakes occur in this area and all but 3 of the world’s 25 most violent volcanic eruptions has occurred at volcanoes along the Ring of Fire.

Mt. Merapi is located in Java on the border of Central Java and Yogyakarta. Merapi is over 400,000 years old and has major eruptions averaging every 10 years with smaller ones every 2-3 years.

The last major eruption of Mt. Merapi was in 2010 and lasted for around 5 weeks causing extensive damage to homes, causing more than 270 deaths and leaving over 200,000 people homeless in the surrounding areas. Since then, it has erupted in April 2014 but on a much smaller scale. If eruption patterns are normal, it is predicted that Merapi will have a major erupt within the next 5 years.

The view of Merapi from the road to Borobudur

I had already booked flights to Yogyakarta (we also call it Jogja so don’t mistake it for two seperate places), so I thought I might as well go big while I was there. So in June, 2o16, I travelled to Jogja with a new purpose of climbing to the crater of Mt. Merapi to raise money and awareness for girls education and rights. My campaign was for an organisation called One Girl (www.onegirl.org.au), who works hard to give girls the chance to go to school in Sierra Leone and Uganda.

Currently, there are 66 million girls around the world who are not in school. Their purpose is to educate 1 million of these girls and so, in April, I started my campaign to raise money for One Girl; an organisation that works with issues that are close to my heart.

Instead of asking for presents for my 21st birthday, I asked family and friends to contribute to my campaign instead. By the time I left in June, I had raised over $1800 which is equivalent to sending 7 girls to school for a year! I really cannot take all the credit as without the support of family and friends, it would have taken me a lot longer to get to that amount, so it was all them. Thank you once again!

Source: http://www.onegirl.org.au

On a random weekend in Jogja, I decided to lock in my dates to hike Merapi. One of the boys who was staying where I was, was also interested in climbing it as well so we did it together. We got picked up from our place at 9:45pm to make the 2 hour drive to the town of New Selo, located at the base of Mt. Merapi. I had actually seen Merapi a few days beforehand on my way to explore the temple of Borobudur and was actually shocked with how HUGE it was. There was a moment of panic that HOLY SHIT, I’m going to reach to the top of that and a moment of disbelief that I could climb that in one night. But sure enough, after making sure we had everything and our lights were working, we made our ascent.

From New Solo, the hike is 4km up at an elevation of 700m so it felt like you were just climbing up at a near vertical pace. It was pitch black so I had my torch with me and I just focused on taking one step at a time. It was steeper than anything I could imagine or prepare myself for; sometimes I would be climbing straight up, and the further I got to the summit, the more challenging it was. What made it great hiking overnight was that you could never see what was coming so there was never a moment of thinking ‘mind over matter, keep going’. Because you couldn’t see, you just kept walking and walking until you reached a break post.

Amazing that I climbed this in the dark because look at what I had to climb down from!

It took around 4 hours to reach the summit; which is not the crater. Unfortunately, we had made good time and weren’t advised to continue on to the last leg as it would be too cold on top of the crater; and they were right. You were so hot and sweaty when you were hiking that as soon as you stopped, it was freezing. The wind was so harsh that it was hard to keep a small fire sustainable so we huddled together trying to keep warm until we could walk the last part.

One thing I do remember as we sat behind a big rock trying to escape the wind, was how big the moon was in the sky. It seemed to glow over everything and I felt like I could reach out and touch it; the joys of being one day shy of a full moon.

After waiting another 45 minutes, we started to make our way up to the crater and that was the hardest part. We were walking on volcanic ash that was so deep your feet would just fall through with each step. I felt like I was physically taking three steps forward and two steps back so I ended up going on all fours trying to climb it the best I could.

The view looking up upon coming down from the crater.

Once you hit the side of the volcano, all you could do was look up and you could see the top. The advice was to scale it like a crab by climbing the rocks at a sideways angle, not trying to climb it straight up. So, I channeled my inner Sebastian (if you haven’t seen The Little Mermaid, you haven’t lived) and climbed from rock to rock, side to side. But as I’ve mentioned before, I am terrified of heights so the fear of falling and the anxiety that came with that was on the forefront of my mind.

Unfortunately, I didn’t make it to the crater before sunrise, but I was oh so close and at least 10 minutes away! I remember trying to find a stable surface to sit so I could turn around to watch the sunrise and when I came across a stable-looking rock, I did just that.

I will never forget the sunrise that morning.

As I was above the clouds, the sun slowly rose and it was one of the most magnificent sights I had ever seen. The craters of the surrounding volcanos, the rolling clouds and beaming sun slowly coming up to say hello to the world; and I got to watch it before anyone else. All I could think was that I was blessed to have seen something so incredibly breath-taking and I remember thinking to myself that moments like this don’t come often. I’m not ashamed to admit that I got emotional because of all this and because it felt like it was worth something; that all that hard work climbing up and the effort I had put in to get there, was all worth it in the end. I would have done it over and over again just to be one of the few people who saw that magical display that morning. Even writing now, I’m getting goosebumps because I can still see it and I hope that I never forget it.

The Rising Sun

Sunrise from the crater

Mt. Merapi

Mt. Merapi

For those that kind of don’t know me; I love the sun, the moon and the stars. There’s something about the way the sun rises and sets each day that reminds me that every day is a chance to do something different; something more with my life. I love watching the sun rise and set and am more than happy star-gazing and looking at the moon. It reminds me that everything that gets to me is really insignificantly significant in this huge universe we live in and that are things that matter more; like the love of family and friends and being content and happy as you are in life.

After watching the sun rise, the clouds now started to surround me, so I continued climbing the last bit to the top of the crater. As soon as I arrived I knew it was a feat for me because I was so high up and I was conquering a fear of mine. I knew that the further I climbed, the more challenging it was going to be on the climb down. But you see, I wasn’t doing this for me, I was doing this for girls who don’t even get this chance and who walk kilometres upon kilometres every day to get to school so it didn’t matter. I would get down and not complain because I had it easy in the grand scheme of things.

Up on the top of the crater is a small weather station with a sign saying Mt. Merapi 2930m! It was just a surreal moment to sit up there and look out; not that you could see anything with how thick the clouds were! And not that you could see anything in the volcano as well because, hello, lava is deep, deep inside! It was just rock and that horrible ash that I had to climb up! The only indication that it was a volcano was the sulfur gas emitting from a few holes around the crater. The gas spelt like rotten eggs and we were advised previously to not stay up there for a long time as it tended to get to your head!

As embarrassing as it is to write this, I had to get help climbing down to the summit. I had some Indonesians on either side of me helping me to get down! I was absolutely terrified that I was going to fall and I remember my legs were shaking so bad because I was so scared. As soon as the rocks started to give me a little more stepping ground, I got the hang of choosing the correct rocks to stand on and tried to quickly make my way down to the summit.

It took less time walking down than walking up but I found it even more challenging. I guess as I mentioned above, it might have been the mind over matter thing; or maybe I was exhausted by then, or maybe it was because I could see where I could fall (which I did so many times). But the joy of walking down was that it felt like I was experiencing it all over again, but this time, I could see everything.

I did make a mistake and not bring proper hiking boots with me so, taking this all on as my fault, by the last kilometre I had to take my shoes off as I could hardly walk. But that was a mistake as well as walking bare foot wasn’t an option and it hurt even more putting the shoes back on. But when I took them off,  I could see why they were hurting because my poor toes were bleeding and bruised. It was that steep walking down that no matter how tight I had my laces, my feet were still sliding to the top of my shoes and they obviously didn’t like being squished! But hey, in my defence, my American friend climbed it in sandals?!?!

I got back down around 12pm and at this time, I was dusty, exhausted and sore from head to toe but also smiling from cheek to cheek. I remember craving a hot shower but I never got that far! I got back to my room around 3pm that day and went straight for a nap after letting my parents know that I was alive.

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Climbing Mt. Merapi had to be one of the best highlights of any trip I’ve organised. There’s just something personally satisfying about putting in hard work and a lot of effort and seeing something magical come out of it. No amount of explaining or photos can do it justice. I remember just sitting up there, watching the sunrise in the absolute stillness of the air and thinking that this is the reason why we are alive; to create our own journeys and stories, to make everlasting memories and for the moments that touch our soul and take our breath away. There was no noise, no cars, no technology; just me, the sunrise and a volcano.

And I felt on top of the world.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BG35huavEi4/?taken-by=leticiasearle

Hey hey its Sate-Day #4

Happy Chinese New Year!!

Can you believe its been a week already?

Since last Saturday, I’ve been a busy, little bumblebee jetting around to Bogor (in case you didn’t read my last post then you probably should) and starting my internship this past Monday. I can’t believe how fast my week has gone and how fast this whole experience is flying by. I am nearly over the hill and on the home stretch again and I can’t believe that I’ll be thinking of how soon I’m heading home as opposed to how long I’ve been here.

But I will mention this week hasn’t been all smooth sailing. My hump day was Thursday, and to all the Aussies reading, yes I did work on Thursday unlike you lucky buggers who got to party all day! But I streamed the Hot 100 (had to have my own little celebration) and slowly watched the clock go down song by song until I could go home to sleep! The night before was the first time I watched TV since I got here! Daisy and I managed to watch a re-run of the Serena Williams game and now we are totally keen to watch the mens and womens finals over the weekend! Daisy’s pretty awesome guys and it’s gotten to the point where we can kind of just understand what the other wants to do just by looking at them! Which meant Thursday night’s dinner consisted of heading to the French bakery around the corner so we could buy some almond and chocolate croissants and raspberry and custard eclairs! We ate them (well I ate the eclair) while watching the end of the Federer and Wawrinka game!  Thank god for my gym class on Monday or I’m going to have to be rolled into work every day next week!

Rutgers WPF Indonesia

Work culture is certainly different than Australia. There’s no walking in, saying hi and heading straight to your desk to work all day. I’m normally one of the first to get in and I’ll head straight to my desk (yes I have my own desk I get to decorate!). The others start coming in just before 10am (unless the director is there) and they talk and joke around and some don’t start working until 11am, which makes sense as to why everyone stays late everyday. The work day is 9am-5pm but I am always the first to leave at 5pm (sometimes I feel like I should be staying too). But I’m still working in Australia time where I try and do as much as I can everyday so I can move onto the next thing as soon as possible! That didn’t really work well this week when I finished everything I was suppose to do by Wednesday morning! This first week has been a little slow as the office has been in and out of meetings and conferences all week so I’m excited to get really into it on Monday. But hey, at least the last two days have been great learning what everyone does and what programs they are affiliated with!

The one thing I do love though is that when it is a few of us in the office, everyone is singing! Normally I don’t know what the songs are called or I’ve never heard them before because they are Indonesian songs! But you can bet that every time that happens, someone will come to my desk and type in the song on YouTube saying that I need to learn it so that we can sing it at karaoke together! I think I have 4 songs to learn already!

I should also mention that at my work we have an ‘office boy’ who you can tell him whatever food you would like for lunch and he will order it and get it for you. It’s great because if I’m in the mood for Mie Goreng or Gado-Gado or even Sate, then he will get it and I’ll enjoy it! Unfortunately, it did prove to have a bad side when I had REALLY good sate on Tuesday for lunch but didn’t even know where he ordered it from. And before you think, ‘well why didn’t you ask?’ I did but trying to describe and understand where a warung on a 3km long road is, isn’t the easiest thing! I should just Go-Food it next time!

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So into the hey hey part cause I know you guys just want to hear about this sate that you’ll never get to eat, right?

On Wednesday, my program officers organised dinner at Rumah Makan Sulawesi, located on Jl. Panglima Polim! Sulawesi is the furtherest island to the North of Indonesia and is known for its seafood because it’s a great spot to dive and see the marine-life. The restaurant was one where you could pick out your fish to eat from their selection of live fish out the front! I love fish but eating it and then picking it out knowing that the one out the front is now the one in front of you are two different things. So instead of eating fish, I got some Sate Ayam with rice and played it safe!

 

The plate come with 10 kebab sticks for 6,500Rp (or AUD$0.65). If I’m being honest, I wouldn’t go back there for the chicken but the sate was just nice. It wasn’t over-powering or mouth-watering, and it tasted like plenty of the other sate’s you could get, so there wasn’t anything special about it (I keep thinking about last week’s sate!).  But still, it had the spice it lacked last week and it was still nice to eat (although I will tell you I’m over rice).

Spice: There was a little kick but it wasn’t overpowering  – 2.5

Texture: It wasn’t thick or creamy, but was a little too thin and sloppy for my liking – 1

Overall Flavour: The flavour was nice but it wasn’t over-powering. You could taste the peanuts though – 3.5

Overall food for money: Price? What price? 6,500 for sate is nothing and is the cheapest I’ve ever paid. However, I feel like the price did reflect the meal; the chicken wasn’t all that nice and there wasn’t a lot of sate sauce which was disappointing.   – 3.5

Total: 5.25/10

So that seems to be an average right? Average total for an average meal; nothing too good but nothing too bad! But I’m SURE there is much better sate than this and I can do better for next week! Just gotta find that sate before I’m on a plane home!

So until next Saturday,

Hey hey, I’m out!

Teesh xx

 

 

Orchids, Temples and Waterfalls, Oh my!

Last weekend I organised a trip away to Bogor with a group of friends as one last thing before we all went off to start our internships!

On Friday night after my language exam, I quickly headed back home to move kost. After making the quick move (only 200m down the road), I called my mumma while I unpacked and waited for my new roomie, Daisy, to arrive. Once we both had some food, we hopped on the back of bikes and made our way to the train station to get on the next train to Bogor!

Bogor is approximately 59 kilometres away from Jakarta or an hour and a half car drive (on a great day). From my nearest train station, Bogor is only a 45 minute train ride which is the equivalent of me getting on the nearest train back home and heading into Melbourne!

Bogor is known as the rainy city because it has a very high rainfall. Fortunately, we came at a good weekend as it only rained overnight! Bogor is located in West Java which is South of Jakarta and is known to be the centre for education and agriculture research. The town has been the home for many institutes and research centres of agriculture and biological science since the early 19th century and the University of Agriculture has been there since the early 20th century. Due to this, Bogor takes great effort and responsibility to keep their gardens clean and tidy and invests in the agriculture within the town.

On arrival, we headed to Tom’s Homestay which is run by an elderly Indonesian man named Tom. I found him to be quite interesting as his father used to be the dean of the agriculture faculty at the university and was also a botanist at the Bogor Botanical Gardens. I also knew he was a real hoot when Daisy and I first arrived there and found him in just a shirt and jocks! Originally we thought he would apologise and go put some pants on but he stayed like that all night!

Tom named himself our tour guide for the weekend and organised to tell us more about the Botanical Gardens and show us the waterfalls at Mt. Salak. Tom knew the back-ways to get to the waterfalls which meant we would miss the crowds of people and not have to pay an entrance fee and wait for the national park gate to open!

On Saturday morning, we got up bright and early to head to the Botanical Gardens! The Botanical Gardens in Bogor sits on 87 hectares and holds more than 14,000 different kinds of trees and plants of various origins. As it rains almost every day, the grounds were vibrantly green and absolutely incredible. Tom knew about every kind of tree and plant we came across and told us what it was and what its purpose was for. He was especially interested in the medicinal plants and told us which plants were known to reduce the effects of certain illnesses.

Jokowi lives here

Ancient Trees

And although all that was incredible, the one place I really just wanted to see was the Orchid Gardens which have over 500 species of orchids ranging from wild to hybrid. It was the reason why I wanted to go to the gardens because I had seen online how impressive they were, and I think if given the chance, I would have been just fine staying surrounded by orchids all day! I’m sure I actually went through the orchid greenhouse at least 5 times because they were just incredible and absolutely gorgeous! I was simply in awe of them.

Orchid Greenhouse

After the Botanical Gardens, we had lunch in a cafe outside and decided to split up afterwards. Some went to relax within the gardens while I decided to check out a temple out of town with 4 others. We headed off to Pura Agung Parhyangan Jagatkartta which is a Hindu Temple set high in the mountains of Mt. Salak. It took us around one and a half hours to get there but it was definitely worth the long drive.

Pura Agung Parhyangan Jagatkartta

We got there around 6pm so we knew we had to be quick in order to see everything before the sun set. The temple was incredible because it was secluded and untouched by tourists. Everyone was so accomodating to us and even included us in their service. We were each flicked with holy water then told to meditate for a little bit. After that, we were flicked with holy water again and told to cup our hands so we could drink from the water. They kept pouring water into our hands after each swallow until the last time when we washed our faces with the water instead. We then had to put rice on our foreheads and after giving our blessings to their God, we were allowed to walk around and admire the scenery.

By this time it was fairly dark and the sky was putting on a lightening and thunder show so we slowly walked back down before we were stuck in the rainfall.

Inside the temple

After the blessing

At 3:30am the next morning, I silently cursed the alarm to give me another 5 minutes before I got up and got dressed ready for the day ahead! We all left around 4am and clambered into one of these small buses (all 10 of us) to go back up into the mountains.

Our mode of transport to the Mountain

The journey took around 45 minutes and when we got out, it was still pitch black!  Tom, being the handy man that he was, led us the back way to the waterfalls! We used flash lights to find our way and even arrived at the waterfall just before dawn!

Leaving the city

The Sky before our Trek

First thing, those rocks were so slippery that it terrified a clumsy person, like myself, who thought I had a pretty good chance of breaking an ankle climbing over them! And if you think I am exaggerating, in October I fell UP the stairs at uni and knocked myself out. That concussion was horrible because my feet didn’t cooperate so fear of falling was high on my list and one of my constant worries of the day!

Secondly, that waterfall was absolutely gorgeous but oh so cold! The water was so cold that it actually knocked the breath out of you. The first time I went under I couldn’t stay for more than 20 seconds because I couldn’t breathe with the cold shock. The second time I stood under, I persevered until my body got used to the cold and I managed to enjoy the rush of water and the experience which was exhilarating!

And then there was light

After the waterfall, we walked back the way we came from to a little swimming hole; although I was the only one to swim in it! The water was so clear you could see the rocks underneath which was helpful when walking in. There was a small cove under the main rock formation but I wasn’t game enough to explore it because there were some pretty big water spiders near that area!

Big Foot’s Foot.

Again, we stayed there for around 40 minutes while I entertained myself pretending, and wishing, that I was a mermaid before we all made our trek back. But before we got too far, Tom pointed out the monkeys in the trees and some more downstream near the water. He had brought crackers with him and soon we were surrounded by a pack of 8! I even had the chance to hand feed them and it was incredible to be up close with wild monkeys!

After feeding the Monkeys

By this time, people were starting to arrive and we were thankful for the early morning wake up as we missed the crowds!

On the way back, Tom showed us another small hiking hill and we sat up there for a little while surrounded by the jungle. On our way back to the main road, he pointed out spiders that would have easily been the size of my palm and plants and trees native to the area; I even had my try of cinnamon bark!

Once we got back to Bogor around 10:30am, a lot of us were keen to head home after the long two days! So after lunch we made our way to the train station to head home and get ourselves ready to start our internships!

The weekend was incredible and Bogor was such a great city to explore! I have a feeling if things work out that I may be heading back there in a couple of weeks to do one last thing that way! But it was also great to be with everyone one last time before we head off in different directions for a little while.

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So this week I’ve officially started my internship full-time, although I’ve been working one day a week for the past 3 weeks, and I am enjoying the work environment which is singing in the office all day! Last night I was invited to my first conference held at the National University in Depok on Child Marriage and Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C). There were three panelists; the first was a member of the International Committee of the Rights of the Child who told us the international view on these issues. Secondly, there was the director of the Indonesian Midwives Association who told us the perspective from the midwives point of view. She said that there is a government regulation that there must be one midwife in each village but midwives are not taught how to perform FGM/C during their midwifery course. They are often put in a situation where parents ask them to do it and they comply to not cause issues within the community or religious group.  Lastly, the head of the largest Islamic group in Indonesia was there and he spoke about the religious perspective of Child Marriage and FGM/C. The conference was very enlightening and the three perspectives ensured that the audience understood the views from the different angles. It was definitely something that I took a lot from and although I didn’t necessarily agree with some of it, I do respect the culture and religion behind it at the same time. The underlying theme of the conference was consent and that is essentially something that shouldn’t have to be questioned; but sadly is within this world.

Apart from conferences (I’ve got another one on Friday), this Saturday is Chinese New Year and I’m looking forward to celebrating it! I’m also really, really excited to have my first try of Martabak which is is a thick pancake-type dessert, usually savoury or sweet (and all with cheese), that you can add different toppings to. They usually fold it in half so its like a sandwich or leave it like slices of a pizza! I’ve been recommended to get one with chocolate, cheese and peanuts on top because apparently that combination is really good! A new Martabak place, called Markobar, has just opened up around the corner from where I live and was originally created by the current Presidents son and has since been franchised out due to popularity! I’m very keen to try this and I hope it lives up to its expectation!

But other than that, I’ll hopefully have a quiet weekend to catch up on a few things back home and prepare myself for my busy week ahead! I’ve already booked my flights to leave the city next weekend so I’m excited to get out and back to the place where I originally fell in love with Indonesia!

So until Satay-day,

Teesh xx

Hey hey its Sate-Day #3

You know what day it is…

Hey hey, it’s sate-day!

I know you’ve all been hanging on to this day since last week so here it is (and spoiler alert… it’s a good one!)

But before I go ahead and tell you where the best sate of the week is, I feel like I need to change a few things as I’m looking at all of this the wrong way!

I’ve been asked to clarify if I’m focusing more at the sate as a whole meal or the sate sauce and to make myself clear, the sauce makes the food taste great right?

So to finally clarify; it could be the crappiest cooked piece of meat ever but if the sauce is good, I feel like the meal can be redeemed…somewhat!

So I know last week I said I’d do warung special but unfortunately that’s not happening for this post (although I promise that a warung style food post will be put up before I leave). I did, however, improve on the timing of eating satay and can you believe that I found this sate on Sunday?!

But before I go on, I have to make one change and that is the way I critique the food. I have found that there needs to be some type of criteria on how I am judging the sate as this weeks best didn’t fit how I’ve been judging in the past. So I’ve now decided to judge the satay based on the following criteria;

Texture: Was it creamy? Too thick? Too sloppy? Too many crushed peanuts?

Spice: Was it spicy or was as there no spice at all?

Overall Taste: Could you taste the peanuts? Was it creamy? Was it smooth?

Overall food for money: Was the meal reasonable for the price paid?

All categories will be judged out of 5 with 1 being poor and 5 being out of this world good. Out of the 20, I will calculate the outcome to 10 (thank you maths) and boom, that’s  final score! 

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So this weeks sate wasn’t recommended by someone but something I stumbled across on my adventure!

On Sunday morning, after calling the parents to check in and having my breakfast, I got on the back of a bike and made myself comfortable for the hour and a half journey to Ancol in North Jakarta.

North Jakarta is the home to Jakarta’s theme-parks (think Queensland’s theme parks but imagine that in Indonesia). I didn’t go to any of the aquariums because that isn’t my thing and I didn’t go on any rollercoaster because although that is my thing, and probably safer than Australia’s theme parks at the moment, I wasn’t there for any of that; I was there to go to Eco Park.

Eco Park is one of the ‘theme parks’ but what really defines a theme park?

Eco park is a park that has bike tracks, a community garden, playground, lakes (with massive fish and bridges) and a local market. It seemed like the perfect little outdoor place to explore! I met up with three lovely ladies and we enjoyed the day out.

There were opportunities to rent bikes, scooters, golf carts; and my personal favourite, a blue punch buggy that had the inside gutted and replaced with bike pedals. I could definitely see that as my family’s mode of transport if they were there! But alas, I just rented a bike (bicycle not a motorbike mum) and rode along the tracks.

The park wasn’t very big so we managed to complete the track in 30 minutes. As we had a lot of time on our hands, we just rode the track again! Unfortunately, as is common at this time of year in Indonesia, a loud clap of thunder was heard and we thought we better get cover before the torrential downpour came!

The restaurant next to Eco Park is called ‘Wilujeng Sumping’ and they had a lovely outside oasis area. The seating area was above one of the lakes and had little bridges that you had to cross in order to get to your booth. The booths were under a huge bamboo structure and allowed you to sit Indian style on the floor!

The restaurant specialised in seafood and was a little expensive if you ordered a main meal. I originally wasn’t going to get anything but after I saw how good Monique’s sate looked, I just had to order it for myself.

The sate came with 7 chicken kebab skewers that were cooked perfectly. It was served separately with the kebabs on one plate and the sauce on the other. The sate sauce had some soy sauce around the outside that you mixed in with it. However, it contained little spice, which if anyone has read the previous posts, you will know that I like a little kick. Nevertheless, the texture was smooth and the sauce was so creamy and thick that I was more than happy to just eat it on its own. It cost 60,000 Rupiah ($6AUD) and certainly worth every thousand in my opinion.

Spice: Very little spice at all – 1.5 

Texture: Creamy and thick which is a great way to have it – 5

Overall Flavour: The flavour was strong, however, there was only a hint of peanut- 4

Overall food for money: I think 60,000 was a reasonable price, if not a little on the high end, but you definitely paid for the taste – 4

So that comes to a total of 7.25/10 which is definitely the best sate so far and will be a tough one to beat!

Enak Sekali!

So that’s it for Hey hey its sate-day this week! I’m hoping I’ll find even more good Sate today or tomorrow on my little trip away from the hustle of Jakarta!

But until Saturday,

Hey hey, I’m out!

Teesh xx

Spotlight on JKT

Indonesia = 263 million people.

Java = 160 million people.

Special Capital Region of Jakarta = 12 million people.

12 million people and now me.

What a city to get lost in… literally.

In case you failed Indonesian class or didn’t take geometry, Jakarta is the capital city of Indonesia located on the island of Java. Indonesia is situated between the Indian and Pacific Oceans to the North of Australia. Consisting of over 9000 Islands; for which over 900 of these are permanently inhabitant, Indonesia is the largest island country in the world and houses the most populous city in the whole of South East Asia.

In case you STILL don’t know where Indonesia is, let me break this down for you in a simple way. For some this may come as a surprise but I would like to OFFICIALLY let you know that Bali is not a country but is apart of Indonesia. And that Java is the island located to the WEST of Bali and that all those islands in that area make up, yes you’re right, Indonesia. WOW right? Who would have thought that there was more to Indonesia than just… Bali.

But moving on from the sarcasm…

The Special Capital Region of Jakarta is a HUGE city with an average of 15, 174 people per square kilometre! The island of Java itself holds more than 57% of Indonesia’s population. So when you think about both of those statistics, it should come with no surprise that Jakarta is classified as the second most densely populated city after Tokyo (according to New Geography’s 2016 Report) and in 2015, was classified as the city with the WORST traffic in the world.  However, Jakarta is expanding at a rapid rate; much faster than its neighbouring cities of Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Beijing and Tokyo, and at the current growth rate, Jakarta has the potential to become the most densely populated city in the world within the next couple of decades. Real mind blown this time!

So here I am in Jakarta with a population of over 12 million people in its province and I am trying to soak in the culture and experience the studying and working life of Indonesia. Over the last two weeks (can you believe I’ve been here for this long already) I’ve started to gain an understanding of what is the norm for Indonesian youth. Malls, for instance, are THE place where you hang out after school and there is no shortage of malls in Indonesia.

The malls I’m talking about are not street malls or shopping centres like in Australia; but malls at least 5 stories high, and that’s usually not including the under-ground and basement levels! They have everything you could ever want and that’s why no one is ever bored after school!

Before coming here, I knew malls were the place to hang out after school but knowing something and then actually experiencing it are two different things and I can now say that there will always be a mall in walking distance to wherever you are. And with that, there will never be a shortage of food or clothes close by!

Grand Indonesia

Plaza Semanggi

But the one thing that I did not know is about Indonesia’s weird fascination with cheese. If you order anything sweet, most times it will come with cheese on top! So order a banana split? Comes with grated cheese. Order a Toblerone Crepe? They put cheese in it. Order pancakes? Can’t forgot that cheese! Oh and why get chocolate wafers when you can get cheese flavoured wafers and biscuits?

I actually ordered a Toblerone crepe last week and in my naivety, completely missed out on the section where it said ‘TOBLERONE CHEESE CREPE‘ because I was too excited over just being able to eat a Toblerone crepe! You can imagine my hesitance when I got it and saw that it had cheese both on it and in it. The flavours kind of went together but the cheese tasted like that cheese you can get in whipped cream cans in America (which is totally artificial and not real) so it was definitely off-putting.  You could also definitely taste the cheese, the Toblerone and the crepe but I personally don’t think they went well together.

This whole concept is absurd because I just don’t understand how cheese works together with sweet flavours! To me, the only thing close enough to anything sweet with cheese is Cheesecake but that certainly isn’t the kind of cheese I’m talking about! Unfortunately, I don’t think this whole sweet/cheese food culture is something that I will explore further because I doubt I’m going to go home and start putting cheese on my ice-cream!

So cheese; maybe its the hidden staple food of Indonesia?

Toblerone Cheese Crepe

Apart from malls and cheese, every Sunday morning in Jakarta is Car-Free Sunday.

The Indonesian government introduced this initiative in 2002 to reduce pollution and allow Indonesians a chance to walk on the road and not become roadkill!

Between the hours of 6am- 11am, no cars are allowed on two of the major roads in Central Jakarta; Jl. Sudirman and Jl. Thramin (the only exception are buses which have their own lane). The roads close between Ratu Plaza and The National Monument which is just over 7km long. During this time, thousands of Indonesians flock from all over the city to walk on the main streets of Jakarta.

On my first Sunday in Jakarta, I was excited to see this in action so I left with two friends bright and early and walked on the road to The National Monument.

The National Monument

Along the way, people were riding bikes and jogging, kids were kicking the soccer ball to each other and there was a stage with group exercises. Stalls were set up along the side of the road and storm troopers and superheroes littered the street. Human right activists and groups set up stalls to raise awareness for their cause and police were close by so that no trouble would occur. All in all, Sunday morning seemed like a festival itself.

However, by 11am, the street was quickly filled with cars and motorbikes eager to use the road again and you couldn’t even imagine that an hour before, there was nothing but people on the roads!

Sunday Morning

Monday Morning

Car Free Sunday is a great concept that I think should be explored in many other places in the world as a way of reducing pollution caused by cars and traffic. In Jakarta, Car-Free Sunday gives me an opportunity to explore the city and allows me to soak up the culture, but more importantly, be apart of the culture!

The work and study culture in Indonesia is certainly different to what I am use to back home but different doesn’t always mean bad. What I love most about spending significant time in one country is that you are able to be apart of the culture and live in the culture as a person, not a tourist. I only have a few days left of studying here and I honestly think I’m going to miss university life in Indonesia. It’s still a thrill to go to the canteen at lunch and to head up to level 14 because even though the room is ‘a bit chilly on the willy’ (as I say everyday cause their AC is pretty fierce), the view is amazing and everything is light and airy!

But all good things must come to end and Monday sparks the start of the next adventure! But before I start that, I’ve organised a little weekend trip away so Friday night after my language exam I’ll be heading South to do a weekend of exploring! As soon as I started planning this weekend away, I wished my best friend was with me because I knew that she would have loved it as much as I’m going to. But alas, I will just have to love it twice as much for her. Indonesia 2019 perhaps? (or not, lets go to Tokyo babe? Okay, thats a no… What about Iceland? Or Morocco? Spain? Wait, I know what you’re going to say “Let’s just get past this one first!” Sorry, you know I get a little too excited and ahead of myself!)

Sampai waktu lain,

Teesh xx

Ps. Your little fun fact of the day!

The first contact between Australia and Indonesia happened around the 17th-18th Century (long before the first fleet arrived in 1787).  The people of Makassar in South Sulawesi used to come down to Darwin where they would collect and process ‘trepang’ (sea cucumbers). While they did so, Indigenous Australians would allow them access to the sea so that they could trade tobacco, metal, cloth, rice and gin between each other. So in actual fact, Indonesia and Australia have had a long history and I guess you could even say that the people of Makassar were one of the first people to find and trade with Australia!

Mind blown!

Hey hey its Sate-Day #2

Hey Hey!

Before I start can I just say that you know you have a problem when people come up to you to tell you where they had really good sate the night before and that I should try it for the blog. Or if I think about it the other way, I guess I have some really great people who support Hey hey It’s Sate-Day (not that I actually believe that because people give me this look whenever I mention Sate but hey, whatever floats your boat right?)

I guess the one good thing is that I have so many places to try now that I don’t need to research into what’s good around town. This week’s Sate was a recommendation from a guy named Matthew that came with these instructions “It’s on the corner but its kind of not on the corner… you’ll figure it out.”

So with that undefined location in mind, my Thursday afternoon adventure consisted of finding what he said was ‘really, really good Sate’. I hopped in a cab with my friend Jane and was dropped off just before the corner and understood what he meant.

Source: The Event Spot

Pondok Sate is a chain Sate restaurant in Jakarta (from research they have around 4 restaurants across Kota Jakarta). Situated on Jl. Penjernihan, Pondok Sate is down an alley way on the corner of the street and seemed to be bustling with Indonesians.

Upon walking down, the street was filled with motorbikes on one side and a team of men ‘man-ing’ the grill on the other. Thin, black smoke wafted up from the grill and the turnover for cooked meat was under a minute; and to see that meant that we would be served fresh satay.

When we entered the restaurant it was full of Indonesian’s of all ages and seemed to be thriving. It took us 30 seconds or so to be seated as when we entered the waiter asked us what we were doing as if he never thought a ‘bule’ (white foreigner) would ever eat there! I guess he could be right to say that they may not see a lot of foreigners but that just adds to the Indonesian experience!

The menu was extensive, a lot more than what is shown online, but the sate ayam (chicken satay) and sate kambing (satay goat) seemed to be the most popular choice. We each ordered rice and a plate of ayam sate (10 kebabs came with each serving which was 15000 Rupiah or $1.50 AUD) and waited no less than 5 minutes before our meals came out.

I guess what I thought was the coolest thing was that everything was separated from each other. A plate with white rice, a plate with chicken kebabs and a plate with sate sauce which, for any sate lover like myself, I could have just eaten that!

Upon tasting the food, I was a little let down with a few things. There wasn’t any spice to the sate sauce at all, in fact, Jane’s rice had more spice than the Sate did. It didn’t have a strong taste of peanuts either, but just a mild, pleasant blend that was neither here nor there. Personally, I prefer my sate to have a little kick and to be able to taste the peanuts and so this sauce didn’t really do it for me.

However, I would say that for anyone who doesn’t like spice, who isn’t a big fan of Sate or for any child or person starting out with their experience of trying Sate for the first time then this would be the perfect introduction. For that alone, it would get a 6/10 but for me personally, I would have to give it a 4.

And so with that, my search of the best sate continues and I must say, I’ve got to find some really, really good sate this week to boost up the ratings from the past two weeks! I’m thinking I’ll try some warungs (street food vendors) this week as they often have really, REALLY good food at a really, REALLY cheap price! Also, I tend to leave eating sate until the end of the week and get frustrated at myself for having to eat it two nights in a row. So next week’s goal: eat sate at a local warung earlier in the week (except for Tuesday because its Taco Tuesday with half price margaritas and your girl is ready to get her Mexican on!)

Sampai waktu Sabtu,

Teesh

Pasar Santa

LAST Saturday, after having done much research into the area, I headed off to Pasar Santa (or Santa Market). I was disappointed to find out that there was, in fact, no Santas present at the market but was even more disappointed that there was hardly anyone there at all.

Source: TanAsterP.com

Source: ANAKJAJAN.com

Pasar Santa is an old traditional market in South Jakarta. It has been around for much longer than I have been alive and it was most traditionally known to sell fresh produce and knick-knacks of many kind. Inside the market, which is situated in a warehouse, there are two levels with rows of shops stuck side by side with little room to walk in between. Days inside are sweltering as there is little insulation to escape Indonesian’s hot and humid climate.

Pasar Santa is a market in competition with many other markets in the area. Being Indonesia, a country within South East Asia, there are many markets that are all very similar in size and nature. With Pasar Santa being so close to the heart of the city, where people choose to go to malls and shopping districts to buy new things, it was often overlooked by many people until a few years ago. 

You see, this group of young, fresh entrepreneurs who had big, bold ideas wished to find a place in which they could sell their products and make some revenue and that’s where Pasar Santa came in.

Source: Freemagz.com

Source: WinNetNews.com

Source: Catatan Fari

Due to its close proximity to the city centre, Pasar Santa was the ideal place to showcase fresh, young and innovative products and ideas at a cheap rental rate. As with everything, word got around to other entrepreneurs who wished to break the mould and the places available for rent decreased month by month while Pasar Santa grew more and more popular as the months went on.

With the introduction of wacky foods to meet any taste palate like DOGs famous black hotdog made from black sesames or Glasch Nitrogen ice-cream which, for $3.50AUD, was my dinner choice of the night, Pasar Santa was thriving more than ever. There was a resident DJ who played his tunes and the hundreds of vintage vinyls and books to scour through was a vast difference to the knick knacks it housed no less than a couple of years before. So by the end of 2015, which was just over a year ago, this quiet, subdued market had turned out to be THE place you go to on a Friday and Saturday night.

Dogs famous Black Hotdog

Glash Nitrogen Ice-Cream (salted caramel of course!)

So with all this in mind, I excitedly gathered a group of friends and we headed off to Pasar Santa on a Saturday evening only to find it nearly deserted. We arrived to empty corridors full of shops with windows sealed shut, and to empty tables in the food court that still had paper lanterns shining over the seating area. Had we gone at the wrong time or were we at the wrong place? Had all those pictures been wrong or had I researched into something that wasn’t around anymore? We didn’t quite understand why the place looked so dead until we asked around and talked to a young man who was still working there.

He told us that when his employers first came to the market in 2014, rent sat at 5.000.000 Rupiah a year ($510AUD). He said that it was currently sitting at 16.000.000 Rupiah a year ($1630AUD). So thats more than TRIPLED in three years and was much more than any of these young entrepreneurs could afford. With the new year just coming in, and the increase of the price to 16mil ($1630), people just simply left their business’ as they were and that’s how we stumbled across them.

It saddened not just me, but many others who came with, that this place was so deserted. We could all see and feel the potential this place had; we could imagine it being filled with youth walking through the aisles and families filling the tables and chairs. We could see this as the spot to hang out with friends or to chill by the DJ and just mellow with his tunes. We could see everything that wasn’t happening and it was sad.

So we did what we could do; we stayed to walk around and explored the place as if it was thriving. We paid our own ways and tried to support the local business’ that were struggling to hold on to the prospect of a future. We ate, chatted and walked ourselves out and was sad that that something that started with a group of young kids wanting to do something more and to make their own name ended up being no more than a ghost town of their dreams. 

Sampai waktu lain,

Teesh

Deserted Hallways

 

 

 

Hey hey it’s Sate-day

In case some of you didn’t know,  I love Satay (or as Indonesian’s call it Sate). In fact, I think it’s all I’ve talked about since I’ve got here and if you think I am exaggerating just ask anyone around me! It’s my go to Asian food, what I order when I’m getting any Asian takeaway but most importantly; my go-to comfort food. The month before I came to Jakarta I think I had it 3 times so if that says anything…

So with my love for Sate in mind and the start of this little blog, I’m going to start a thing every Saturday called “Hey-hey it’s Sate-day!”

Yeah yeah, keep laughing but just think, who else blogs about Sate?

So I’m on the hunt to find THE BEST Sate in West Java. For all you folks at home, reading about the best Sate places in West Java isn’t going to help you find your Sunday night take-out but if you ever head this way in the future…

What I love about Asia is that every province in Indonesia has their own way in how they make foods and what ingredients they use and Sate is the same. I’m ready to explore the different tastes of Sate in all over West Java and the place where it all started; Jakarta!

Who knew something so small could make me so excited (or it could be the travel aspect!)

So after a long two day of working and kost hunting, I ordered some good old fashioned room service and planned an early night in with the roomie. And what did I order you ask? Well of course, sate I say!

 

I will admit that this is the only sate I’ve had so far so I don’t have a lot to compare it to other than what I have back home in Australia but I have to say I was expecting a little more; a little more spice, a little more sauce, a little more peanuts, just a little more something.

It also didn’t help that what I thought were beans were actually small green chilis THAT LOOK LIKE BEANS. Note to self: Double check things that can be mistaken as something else or you’ll be drowning yourself in milk.

And as for my search for the best satay, well that’s going to continue as I’m giving this a solid 6/10. It wasn’t that bad, but there was definitely room for improvement. I would say it was a good introduction to Jakarta but I know I can find better!

And on a side note, can I just say that I should be a professional photographer one day cause damn, look at that photo? Don’t I make things look good?

Sampai lain hari Sabtu,

Teesh