We spent Earth Day day with my parents in north west Bali and we got to celebrate it by releasing two Olive Ridley sea turtles into the Indian Ocean. We were staying in Pemuteran for the weekend and down the beach just a bit was Proytek Penyu, a turtle conservation center that is working to save the endangered sea turtles. In the past, when sea turtles were caught in fisherman's nets, they were eaten. Now fishermen bring the turtles to the center and are paid for them. The center then releases the turtles back to the ocean. In addition, villagers are paid for turtle eggs that are found on the beach. The center collects the egg so they aren't destroyed by dogs, fishing boats and tourists using the beach or eaten as they are considered a delicacy here. The eggs are buried in the hatchery in the center and kept at temperatures consistent with the natural environment. Oddly enough, if the eggs are kept at mostly 30 degrees celsius the turtles will be males and at 32 degrees celsius they are mostly female. After 45-60 days the eggs hatch and the baby turtles are kept in salt water ponds where they are monitored, fed and cared for until they are 2-3 months. At this point, tourists can then pay $10 to release a turtle.
The boys were both quite excited and also very serious about their responsibility of releasing the turtles. They named them Deva and Fifa. It was pretty special seeing the little turtles, about 2.5 months old, but the size of Owen's hand, making their way across the sand and into the sea. We watched them for a while until the speck of their bodies disappeared into the horizon. The experience gave the boys a sense that they were really doing something to help endangered animals.
The village of Pemutran is also the site of a project called Bio Rocks. A little over ten years ago people realized that the coral reefs were quickly disappearing from human impact. Cyanide was being used to stun and collect reef fish to be sold to aquariums and tropical fish stores. In addition, fisherman were blasting the reef with dynamite to collect fish. These practices along with global warming and the invasion of the Crown of Thorns Starfish and the Drupella shells were killing the reef. Several locals and boolays (expats) were very concerned about this habitat destruction and also recognized that this would also drive away tourists who come to snorkel and scuba dive. They began a project and secured grant funding from Australia to remove the non native starfish and sea shells, repair broken reef and encourage the growth of new reef. In addition metal structures and wooden boats were placed in the bay as a location for the coral to grow. Low voltage electric current is being supplied to the coral and the metal structures which stimulates the growth of the limestone on which the coral grows.
The effects are impressive. The coral I saw here was the healthiest and most stunning I have seen. The variation in color and shape was fantastic. We have snorkeled in many places in the world and what I saw here was mind blowing. Owen and Henry both took to the water like fish and it was great seeing both of them so secure in their snorkeling. Owen in particular loves snorkeling and revels in seeing all the fish. He has learned to dive down to get a closer look at something and is our little Jacques Cousteau.
While in Pemuteran, we also took a boat to Mengangan, an island that is a marine park surrounded by gorgeous reef where we snorkeled and saw "the wall" which is considered to be the best snorkeling and diving in Bali. It was pretty great and a fun trip for all of us.
North Bali is less populated than the south and we really enjoyed less traffic and a glimpse into the Bali of 20 years ago. We drove through some beautiful countryside of terraced rice fields and hillsides of jungle. I think for my parents it was nice to see that there are parts of Bali still like what they experienced when they were here in 1988.
It was a beautiful weekend here. We caught a particular gorgeous morning with the full moon setting in the west as the sun was rising in the east after one of our anticipation-induced early morning wake ups.
The weather has started to cool off just a bit and the rain is much less consistent. It seems to be kite season and the air is filled with kites that kids are flying. Kite flying appears to be a predominantly male activity with few girls flying kites. Many are homemade out of bamboo and plastic bags, but some are store bought, mainly in bird shapes. On Sunday we joined some local boys flying kites in the rice paddies by our house. We shared some laughs, sang songs together, played tricks pushing each other into the rice paddies and general goofiness.
It was also Owen's birthday party this weekend and we went to Waterbom, a waterpark which is like a tropical raging waters on steroids. The rides were far more extreme as they don't worry about liability. In fact, we heard about several fatalities and our friend shared a story about catching a bit too much air and falling out of the slide, not off of his tube, but out of the actual waterslide. Luckily, he only sprained his ankle and had multiple bruises. We had lots of fun though and by the end of the day, Owen had worked up the courage to ride "Smashdown" which is a pretty precipitous drop followed by a small hump and then almost straight down in a narrow trough of the slide. The force of the water after the drop was enough to rip Rock's swim shorts all the way up to the band. It was definitely exhilarating. After going on it twice, Owen said, "Mom, that one isn't actually my favorite." "Mine either" I replied. After the party, Xochi came over for a sleepover and joined for Easter.
Sunday was Easter and we had a party at our house. The Balinese Easter Bunny came in the morning and hid small, colorful woven boxes and bags and decorative tins around the house and garden. Very excited about Easter, the kids woke up an hour or more before they usually do and were raring to go despite my attempts to keep them asleep. I was a bit nervous that the Easter Bunny hadn't had time to hide the "eggs" but it turns out he was up early too. Friends came over later for a potluck brunch, swimming and several more hunts. It was a fun gathering for all and it was nice hosting at our house for the first time.
My parents arrive in a week and between the excitement of that, the gorgeous weather, and the fun-filled weekend I am definitely feeling a renewed appreciation for being here. We have only two and a half more months filled with travel and multiple visitors so I think it will fly by. A week or two ago, I felt like June 27th, our departure date, couldn't come soon enough but now the thought of the end brings both sadness and excitement. As I was looking at our latest batch of photos, I was thinking about how beautiful it is right out our front door and how much I will miss this.
The rice is tall now and blows in the wind. Several paddies nearby had ceremonies for the rice being "pregnant" and special offerings are made every day to secure a good harvest. The full moon and an auspicious day as determined by the priest brought many ceremonies and many weddings. There are ceremonies all over the place and special decorations at the front of peoples homes mark the place where someone in the family just got married. On our drive back from Waterbom, we saw the longest procession of offerings we have seen yet with around 100 women carrying tall offerings on their heads followed by a male gamelan group. These are things that we won't experience at home. They are usually surprises to us and we never know what the future will hold. The range of what is possible feels much larger than at home and it keeps us on our toes.
We spent our Spring Break in Sumatra. Our main impetus for going to Sumatra was to see the wild orangutans. The boys, especially Owen, are animal lovers and nature conservationists and this felt like a once in a lifetime opportunity.
The first part of the trip we spent in Bukit Lawang, a small town recovering from a major flood in 2003 that is the base for orangutan viewing in Sumatra. The town is located on the edge of Gunung Leuser National Park, a hardwood rainforest jungle which is one of only a couple locations where orangutans live in the wild. It is the home to the largest animal sanctuary of Sumatran orangutan (around 5,000 orangutans occupy the area) and a rehabilitation center that was founded in 1973 to preserve the decreasing orangutan population caused by hunting, trading, and deforestation. Sumatra has one of the highest deforestation rates of any country in the world and some predict that wild orangutans will be extinct by 2023. By some estimates, more than 80 percent of all orangutan habitat has already been destroyed. Although once found throughout southeast Asia, orangutans today live only on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, and their numbers have dwindled from perhaps several hundred thousand to between 15,000 to 24,000.
Orangutans are the world's largest arboreal mammal, eating, sleeping, nesting, and traveling in the trees of the rain forest. Rarely coming to the ground, they live on the fruits, leaves, seeds, bark, and insects of the rain forests.
We were lucky enough to see 6 orangutans, babies, mamas and one large male. We saw them at a feeding platform established by the rehabilitation center so they varied from completely wild to orangutans that were re-located here after they were left homeless due to illegal logging or were rescued from captivity. They were truly amazing and HUGE. We could get pretty close, the rangers and guides letting us know when it was time to back up. They are magnificent creatures who share 96.4% the same DNA as us. We observed a huge wild male barfing up his food, slurping it back up and repeating the process over and over again. We learned that they are ruminants and I felt very happy that this is a trait we don't share. We were amazed at how neatly he did this though and surprised that he didn't get any in his beautiful red fur. We also went on a jungle trek where we learned more about the rainforest, scaled hillsides, climbed down a waterfall, swam in a couple of swimming holes and went tubing on the river back to town.
The town is located on a stunning river and we spent many hours playing with river rocks, reflecting on how similar it felt to a river in California and time we spend on the Navarro River, minus the monkeys and orangutans of course.
From here, we went to Medan, the second largest city in Indonesia where we celebrated Owen's birthday. While the scenery in Bukit Lawang was amazing, the accommodations were quite rustic, no flush toilets, no hot water, no ac or fan, mattresses that had seen better days, many, many bugs and a worm that excreted glow in the dark fluid when we tried to move it off our mosquito net. This was also compounded by a rock concert starring the jungle trek guides that lasted until around 3 am that was right next to our hotel making sleep almost impossible. We ended up retreating to the Marriott in Medan for some luxury. Here we swam in the pool, ordered room service, enjoyed the buffets (the boys love buffets), took hot baths, got free birthday cakes and enjoyed the ac in our executive suite.
Our day in Medan was a bit surreal. We went to a wildlife museum that housed over 1,000 taxidermy animals that appeared to be one man's collection, some of them rare specimens of genetic deformations (something that looked like a goat with a chicken head, I kid you not). After this we went to an arcade in a large, loud mall and played games that we play at home at the Tundra Lodge in Wisconsin.
From here, we flew to Banda Aceh, the northernmost part of Sumatra. Then we took a ferry to Pulau Weh, a stunning island with gorgeous beaches and world class diving and snorkeling. We enjoyed several days of playing on the beach, snorkeling and building elaborate sand structures for hermit crabs that we would collect and then release. One day we took a glass bottom boat ride, stopping on a smaller island for snorkeling and lunch and took a ride in a bayek (a motorcycle with a side car that is used throughout Sumatra to carry huge amounts of cargo). It was nice to have a couple of days to just play and relax in a beautiful spot.
Back in Banda Aceh, we visited the Tsunami Museum which was impressive and powerful. Over 230,000 people died in Banda Aceh and another 500,000 were left homeless. Over 60% of the buildings were destroyed. The pictures and stories of destruction and devastation were intense. When we asked our taxi driver whether he was there during the earthquake and tsunami he said, "Yes." when we asked if his family was okay, he said, "Wife bagus (good), son, four years old tidak (not good)" He made a sweeping motion with his hand and told us that he watched his son be swept away. It was heartbreaking and this story was far too common. When he told us, "four year old son", he pointed to Henry who is probably about the same size as his son when he died and I couldn't imagine the feeling of losing a child particularly in that way.
Writing about the trip, I realize how amazing it was. In the moment, we were feeling taxed and exhausted. Traveling in Sumatra was harder than in Bali. There are far fewer tourists and family tourists are almost non-existant. The boys with their blond hair were huge attractions with everyone touching their hair, wanting to take their pictures and giving them more attention than wanted. At first it was nice that people were so friendly and intrigued. We were using as much Bahasa as we had and spent one very pleasurable afternoon on the river in Bukit Lawang with a Sumatran family sharing stories, sharing food and getting to know them. However, by the end of the week, the attention was too much. The boys were tired of people touching them without them wanting it and we were tired of struggling to find the words. In addition, sleeping conditions were rough. The hotels were rustic, although the #1 on trip advisor, and hot nights and poor mattresses left us all a bit sleep deprived and cranky. We also craved kids to play with and so were happy to return to Bali where the kids have playmates. Originally the trip had been planned with a couple of other families but in the end besides one night spent in Bukit Lawang with 2 other Green School families we were on our own.
The exhaustion, lack of comforts and feeling of differentness left us all feeling pretty homesick. When we got on the plane, Henry asked desperately, "Is this plane taking us back to Berkeley?" I think we all wished on some level that it was, but then I look at our pictures from the trip and I think, this would never have happened in Berkeley.
