A busy three weeks – A national park dedicated to protecting rhinos, Bali and plenty of monkeys

Kulung National Park – Monkey Experience #1

A few times a year my office gets together on a retreat outside of Jakarta where everyone can relax and unwind. As most of us are under 35 we often have common ground of things to discuss, even if it’s a mishmash of Indonesian, English, lots of laughter and hand signals. This year the office decided to go to Kulung National Park, like Indonesia an archipelago of islands dedicated to species preservation. The park is 6 hours outside of Jakarta on the western tip of the Javanese island. Our intended departure time of 4 pm quickly turned into a 7:30 pm as colleagues put the finishing touches on projects meaning we ended up arriving at a cottage at the edge of the ocean around 2:30 am. We could smell and hear the ocean and yet all we could see were bamboo structures in the distance with bright lights. After some inquiring we found out they were fishing structures that, employing a team of three men, work through the night by using the lights to attract the fish during the night. Scrambling to sleep on whatever we could find we got up around 6:30 am to take a boat which would tour us around the national park.

Being on a 20 foot boat with 40 of your closest friends for an hour makes for good conversation however after 5 hours it becomes a little more trying! Highlights included stopping and canoeing up a stream whose source lies deep in a heavily forested jungle and is used by the incredibly hard to see rhinoceros native to the area. For the rest of the ride, everyone in the boat slept and shifted to avoid the sun as it reached its apex. A stickler for wearing sunscreen, I kept reapplying leaving a thin white paste on my face much to the amusement of my Indonesian friends. We finally arrived at our location – a remote nature preserved island with a few buildings and cabins for eating and sleeping. Exploring the island was incredible: a herd of deer grazed in the field in front of the cabin, while the occasional wild boar and her sows pranced around the newcomer hoping for some scraps. After settling in for a few hours, the monkeys began to grow comfortable enough to approach us. We were told to lock and barricade all doors and windows and be careful with anything in your pockets as they are able to steal virtually anything as I found out when they stole my camera. Despite my lanky appearance, apparently I’m scary enough to make a 15 pound monkey drop his booty. It probably didn’t hurt that it’s nutritional value was rather limited.

We finished the weekend off teaching our colleagues how to play ultimate frisbee on the beach while they reminded us that work friends and colleagues can have an incredible weekend away with out a drop of alcohol! As all students

This meant there were considerably fewer hangovers compared with similar excursions at home! Overall, it was a great chance to speak with colleagues about concerns beyond work.

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Bali – Monkey Experience #2

As is seemingly customary for travellers and Indonesian expats alike, I had the chance to have a weekend trip in Bali with an old friend last week.

The island of Bali was considerably larger than I was expecting. Densapar, which is the largest city in the south where most foreigners go for surfing, and not coincidentally, where the bombings took place, is hardly indicative of the rest of the island.

Bali’s cultural differences stem from its religious background. As I’ve written about briefly before, Indonesia has 5 state recognized religions – Christianity, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam. Bali, with its strong Hindu roots laid down by Indian traders and immigrants from centuries ago retains a distinctly unique identity from its predominately Muslim compatriots on the island of Java, which includes Jakarta. There are less mosques and more offering shrines thoughout the island. A more “live and let live” attitude and an accepting outlook on alcohol has allowed Indonesia’s largest and most important breweries to successfully run out of Bali. Coupled with exceptional beaches for surfing, swimming and sun bathing this island has become a tourist hot spot. This combination has attracted tourists of all demographics and income levels from 5 star resorts to hostels for Aussie surfers.

My brief time there confirmed these thoughts. There were plenty of Aussies as well as a handful of Europeans and South Americans. Exploring Kuta beach, the main beach/highway strip was more or less what I was expecting: plenty of t-shirt vendors, overpriced restaurants and off-meter taxis as well as many locals hawking everything from kites to fake ray bans. Don’t get me wrong – the beach was long and beautiful however there is something about pure sunshine and a muggy 35 degree temperature that I find insufferable. So, coupled with my fear of the sun, I was quick to seek a respite, usually meaning a cold Bingtang beer in the shade whenever possible. We had a chance to check out some of the local nightlife and it met expectations entirely. Many drunken foreigners walking around and having a good time listening to music that sounded identical to what I heard in Ottawa 7 weeks prior.

A few highlights: we had a chance to go white-water rafting one morning which was great. Within a 20 minute drive outside of Pensanar it was as if we were in another country. No more Quicksilver board shorts or Roxy bikinis, but instead plenty of Balinese working in the rice paddies and going about their daily lives. Lacking large 3-4 lane highways, the island is connected by a handful of single lane highways that snake through every village and small town. Whereas I found the “milk run” bus route between Ottawa and Toronto to be a poor use of time, this trip was a chance to see the island. The whole rafting experience was exceptionally well run and organized and a blast to complete with Catherine, an old friend from my time with Junior Team Canada.

We had a chance to explore Ubud, the Balinese cultural capital where local artisans sell their wares. The highlight for me was exploring the local temple/wildlife park (aka: monkey sanctuary) where I was given the privilege of buying “official bananas.” A sucker for all things offical, I forked over the $0. 95 cents for a handful of mini bananas. The guide books were clear that the largest health risks in Bali was being bite by a rabid dog/monkey. Remembering this, I tried to convince myself that given my prior experience of successfully taking back my camera through a show of strength I would be able to keep the monkeys away and carefully feed those monkeys who appeared to be the most in need. This plan crumbled within around, say 8 seconds. After giving away the first one to a small chimp, his larger and considerably scarier friends (probably no more than 14 pounds) caught wind that another foreigner was ready to be fleeced. My plan to intimidate this gang of monkeys with a loud voice only served to attract more. With the situation spiralling out of control I tossed a half dozen bananas 10 feet away from me and let the scavengers figure it out.  Darwin took over and my egalitarian banans distribution model collapsed. Worse, any self respect I had left quickly dissipated when, approach by an insistent group of monkeys, my antics began to arouse a few laughs from my friend Catherine and others, I tossed my remaining official bananas to her in a moment of desperation letting her deal with the fallout.

The final highlight was watching one of the opening World Cup matches between England and the US starting live at, wait for it, 2:30 am Bali time. Convinced this was going to be an event not to be missed, we showed up around 1:30 am and were not disappointed. The bar packed with over 100 English supporters and even a half hour before kick off the English chants started. It felt like being back in London watching qualifying matches. We sat with the two lone Americans, who we had met earlier in the night, in a sea of English revelry. The 1-1 outcome was slightly disappointing but leaving a bar at 5:00 am just as the sun is rising after sitting among hundreds of locals and foreigners cheering on a team in a sport that usually I couldn’t care less about, was special. Similar sentiments were felt the next day when, during a six hour tour of the island, we would drive through small villages which would be draped in large English, Argentinean and Italian flags. Despite being hours from any large urban centre in the middle of Bali and not having a team that qualified for the World Cup, seemingly every village was glued to a TV screen once the game started. Like so many others, this is a soccer mad country after all. Coming home late over the last couple of nights in Jakarta has only reinforced this. Eating in a restaurant during a game means inevitable (though understandable) delays based around corner and free kicks. From well-placed securities traders working out in the gym to street cleaners, the overused notion that the World Cup brings down class and societal barriers seems to bear itself out here. Love it.

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Shout outs – No monkeys mentioned

I was worried at the beginning of this blog that I wouldn’t have enough to write about: clearly I was wrong! It’s been a momentous week for family and friends with Dwayne, my sister Kim’s husband celebrated his 40^th birthday in Burlington. Wish I could have been there!

Also, my good friend Earl and his wife are expecting their first child any day now. Being my first close friend who is starting a family, I wish them all the best and also wish I could be back in Ottawa to celebrate with them! Indeed as I write this something related to dilating has happened which I take it means something’s going to happen…

Hope you’re well wherever you are…

Andrew

PR: I know this post was thin on policy and more on travel thoughts I’ll try to integrate the two a little more next time…

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