Christmas in Karimunjawa

Merry ******* Christmas! Before I write anything else look at these seven photos of unreal beaches throughout Karimunjawa and its surrounding islands.

Well I started off my Christmas holiday by taking an eight hour train ride, followed by a two hour bus ride, and then a four hour wait leading to the finale; a six hour crowded ferry to a string of remote islands in the Java Sea. Here’s me on the ship and if this photo doesn’t scream ‘I’m from the suburbs!’ then I really don’t know anything anymore…

If you look at a map of Indonesia first find the biggest Island, Java. Just above Central Java and Semarang lays a number of islands. Karimunjawa is the biggest of the bunch but even it is extremely small. A number of motorbikes but only a handful of cars and half a dozen streets are claimed by this paradise. Here is the main road; I think this captures the kind of quaint, homely, relaxed environment surrounding Karimunjawa

Here was our homestay, a cute two story house with a beautiful balcony. There were eight of us in total here’s most of us in front of the house.

Here was our boat, her the name was the ‘Asian Lady’ (they get points for originality and creativity) and she was captained by the gentleman in the Kayak, I know what you’re thinking; do they get any better looking than that? And no they don’t. Unfortunately Captain Jack wasn’t a huge fan of photos and although I could talk about him for days….

Here are some of the stops we made throughout Christmas day 

Here is our Christmas feast. Obviously I caught all of these fish by hand and grilled them myself.

I hopped right in with the sharks. The guide said they were too small to bite any of us but I am willing to bet he’s never seen shark week. Either way watching the sharks up close and underwater was incredible. Sharks are such beautiful creatures and the way they move so gracefully really is amazing. I was awestruck the entire time.

Phenomenal scenes from the second day

A day in Singapore

I was extremely impressed with Singapore. The city is spotless, the downtown vibrant and futuristic and with English as their official language no need to use hand motions to ask people where the bathrooms were. Unfortunately since I was only there for a day I wasn’t able to travel out to the islands just off of the coast but some of the beaches on East Coast Park were beautiful

A Japanese friend of mine told me she felt Singapore was plastic, plastic, meaning not natural, not real, or lacking culture in this context.

Perhaps the official language being English or the blend of a number of Asian, and European cultures contributes to that viewpoint. However, I don’t believe you can look at a culture and seek out the negatives. If you do that you'll always be disappointed. Occasionally the differences will smack you in the face but that wasn’t the case in Singapore. Singapore is a beautiful city with beaches all around and that’s hard to beat?\ my friends.

Basically, I landed in Singapore around 9:30 am went to meet the guy dropped off my passport to get my work visa for Indonesia then took the train to the beach. There I fell asleep for the majority of the day and then had some dinner and took the train to the airport.

 This picture is of one of the many mall entrances on Orchard Road and the first sign of a Christmas tree in Southeast Asia, though at 87 degrees Farenheit it didn't feel like Christmas in the Northwest

East Coast Park is shockingly located on the East Coast of Singapore City and though my cab driver told me the beaches here were nothing compared to the beaches on the island I found them absolutely beautiful.

Thankfully I was leaving the beach as this rain cloud came through.

I can't give a specific number but I would guess more than a half dozen connected large beaches form East Coast Park. I was standing on a rock walkway when I took this.

This fantastic looking dish is called Kway teow. Unfortunately I found it awful, looked great though.

Strolling around the city

This little beauty is known as "Sukarno's last Erection," seriously. Sukarno was the first president of sovereign Indonesia after years of colonization from the Dutch and the Portugese though primarily the Dutch. Sukarno wanted a memorial built commemorating the new republic, a museum to educate its people on the struggles of colonization and the culture that united the thousands of islands that make up Indonesia today.

With white skin and not much else you can often find yourself in a position similar to a D-list celebrity. At malls, or in this case at a museum a number of girls took photos of me, and with me. I couldn't leave without getting one of these adorable girls, right?

Here resides the president of Indonesia, currently his name is Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (Yes it's kind of fun to say)

A local told me that many of the people in metropolitan Jakarta feel that this tree has some sort of mystique around it whether it be good luck or a calming ability in times of duress, but yes we are all thinking the same thing... AVATAR!!!!!

These jack fruits are about the size of my head and although I wanted to get one, I was far too lazy to be bothered by a bit of exercise....

Hanging out and watching David Beckham in Jakarta

I’m starting to find my feet a bit in this massive city. I teach four days per week Monday through Thursday two and a half hours on M/W and four on T/TH. Fortunately I’m on salary and don’t get paid hourly meaning I get paid my full salary while working about 1/3^rd as much as I expected. That of course is fantastic because I am lazy as ****. The heat here can be unbearable at times and I need to get out of the city. Starting December 9^th until January 2^nd our school is being renovated so they will be postponing most of the classes. They aren’t entirely sure what this will mean for the staff and whether we’ll have to move to another school or just have extended paid holiday. Naturally I support the latter. Here’s a photo of my house, the park a few houses down and one of the major malls in Kelapa Gading...

In one of the most random events of my life I went and saw the LA Galaxy play the Indonesian National team last night. The "David Beckham tour" had people going nuts every time he came near the ball. The stadium is massive and can fit over 80,000 people which is bigger than all but two NFL stadiums. From the outside it looks incredible but on the inside many parts were not well kept and beyond trashy. I sat in the front row of the upper deck with my friend from Liverpool. He's a huge Everton FC supporter and loved seeing Landon Donovan. The biggest flags in the stadium supported AC Milan and Liverpool which I thought was a bit odd. This weekend I’ll likely go to a floating market, the national monument and national museum, and hopefully a water slide park………

First couple of days..........

I flew Seattle to Tokyo which took eleven hours followed by a two hour layover. From Tokyo I flew seven hours to Singapore followed by an unfortunate 6 hour layover. Although it seems impossible to imagine somehow I didn’t receive a stamp on my passport when going through customs.  On top of that I accidentally didn’t see the proper security line on my way to my gate, instead going directly to the terminal. Unfortunately for me security noticed that I skipped the security line. They checked my ticket to see that I had just arrived from Tokyo yet never received a stamp for entering, skipped the security line just now, had a standby ticket which they clearly weren’t entirely too familiar with AND on top of that what do you know I look absolutely NOTHING like I do in my passport photo. Thankfully English is the official language of Singapore so I didn’t have to declare my innocence through sign language or drawings (I definitely wouldn’t have managed to do that.) Finally I was on my way directly to Jakarta. The flight was just an hour and a half and the fly over was stunning. Hundreds of islands seemed to lead the path to Java Island.

A nice young man named Wayhu picked me up from the airport and took me to the school. There I met some of the other teachers and got some information before being taken to my house. The house is in a gated community and right next to an outdoor park that has a TV and ping pong under a roof where ESPN is always on. It looks a bit old fashioned and isn’t unbelievable but it’s nice and cozy and my room is massive. I fell asleep instantly around 4 pm and awoke at around 5 am the next day eager to see the city. As I left the house EVERYONE smiled, waived, or said “Hey Mista!” as I walked down the street. I was shaking hands left and right. I was certainly fascinating to them and even more so to the people I would stumble into the next few days.

I went to this restaurant and ordered some shrimp, seafood, and noodle plate that was unreal. Unfortunately I couldn’t pay with card or with USD (effing Americans) even though I swear the gentleman told me I could. When I was trying to pay he simply told me “No worry pay us later or tomorrow.” The people here are overwhelmingly friendly especially in a city with over 10 million people.

A wonderful mall is just a ten minute walk from my house and I was blown away. It was massive and due to my failure to be able to communicate with just about anyone I was the funniest, dumbest, and most entertaining person there. I found out an hour later that that mall was the third biggest in Kelapa Gading which is just a suburb of Jakarta. If this isn’t the mall capital of the world then I am scared.

The following day I accidentally trailed a bunch of mud into the McDonalds and just as I sat down a group of children started trying to talk to me. I was horrified, either they were scared of me or just thought I was a weirdo. Thankfully (I think) one of the Mom’s came over to me and said they wanted a photo with me to which I obliged though (Prior to my hair cut I suppose I slightly resemble Ronald McDonald) I wondered how weird it would look if a strange foreign man asked them for a photo? To cap off my experience at McDonalds, and I was only there for the free wi-fi and air conditioning, I used the toilet and saw a weird hose like faucet on the side so I turned it and water shot all over my pants, apparently it’s meant for your bum. I walked out of that McDonalds trailing mud and covered in water...

I taught my first class last night and though only half of the students showed it was fantastic. Rezza, who comes straight from high school, Ridyah, who goes to University in Jakarta and studies law and is 22 (his favorite song is someone like you by Adele LOL), and Benediktus (What a name…) who  is my age and studied photography at university and now free-lances around the country taking photographs. All were delightful and had a number of odd yet interesting questions for me most of which aren’t appropriate. We spent the first 40 minutes getting to know each other and finished with some grammar and a listening activity. I loved the three students and love the job. The other great news is I only work Monday through Thursday 5-7 hours each day. I’ll get three more classes next week and have a total of four. I am excited for the weekend but I also can’t wait to meet my other classes...  

How did I end up here?

After studying in Germany and backpacking through much of Europe I knew I wanted to travel more. Shortly after returning home I signed up for a TEFL course in Alexandria, Egypt. I quickly decided it wouldn't be the best time to visit Egypt so I changed the course to Thailand, then eventually Vietnam. Prior to the course I had planned to do volunteer work in Peru. I volunteered in Cusco, Peru for three months and absolutely loved it. two months after volunteering I was to begin my TEFL course. After being enamored with Latin America and Spanish I decided to take the TEFL course in Costa Rica. The jungle, and the beaches were incredible but I perceived an odd absence of authenticity in Costa Rica that had me feeling empty. The city is ugly and filled with retired Americans and Costa Rican taxi drivers. Near the end of the course I accepted a job in Beijing for about a half an hour, however, visa complications caused me to withdraw my name. Then I thought I was headed to Korea. I do wish to teach there someday, hopefully next year, but the 3-4 month process of acquiring a criminal background check etc. made it quite difficult and frustrating. I suppose I could have waited 3-4 months but my appetite for a new adventure was too much. I accepted a position in Kelapa Gading, Jakarta, Indonesia. I will be teaching here for one year and then who knows? I do know that Indonesia is an archipelago of over 200 islands in the Pacific Ocean and has the largest Muslim population in the world. Ancient history, gorgeous beaches and incredible wildlife have me extremely excited. Oh yeah and I can't wait to begin teaching English.