Location: Bandung, Java to Yogyakarta, Java
Early start today --up at 5:30 AM and left the house by 6:00 to catch the 7:00 train to Yogyakarta (Yogya).
Good start -- no chaos, nobody late.
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| Arifin at the train station. He's a great guy - so helpful, thoughtful and fun too. He was a wonderful resource for me thoughout the year of planning for the exchange. |
The train car was total luxury and worth every cent -- everyone loved it.
There were three different areas/rooms on the train car.
1 with big comfy seats with foot rests and lots of room. There was also a tv w/ DVD player, so we were able to watch a DVD that the PBS station that we visited yesterday made over the course of our last two day's activities and telecast last night. It was a short -- 5 minute news segment -- but was fun to watch.
Snacks and lunch were provided and everything was delicious -- great service too; everyone was so welcoming and nice.
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| Lunch is served! Not exactly like the "cattle call" in the other cars on the train :) |
The highlight of my time on the train was the special treatment I got from one of our attendants -- a cute young man. He took me off the train when it stopped at stations so I could photograph people and things -- each stop was about 4-5 min. On the third stop, I thought he said it was 14 minutes and did I want to see the "locomotion" -- to which I said "ya"
I was surprised when they let me climb up in the engine, BUT was even more surprised when we immediately pulled away from the station. In retrospect, I realize he was asking if I wanted to ride up in the engine for 50 minutes to the next stop. 15 and 50 sound a lot alike and it's easy to fill in the blanks with what you want or expect to hear.
Anyway, it was great fun for everyone up in the engine room. I loved the view and got some good shots of rice fields & terraces and all the guys acted like it was fun to have me there -- they probably don't have a lot of women join them.
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| One of my favorite rice field views - taken from the open window in the locomotive. |
I was concerned that people in our group would think I got left at the last station because some had seen me get off on earlier stops to photograph. But in actuality, nobody even noticed I was gone. Haven't figured out if that's good or bad -- when would they have noticed me missing if something had happened and I missed getting back on the train? Best to not think about it. I didn't have my phone or any contact numbers with me -- after all, I was just hopping off to take a few shots.
It turned into a very special, unplanned activity.
The seven hour train ride passed through the mountains with raging rivers, huge terraced rice fields, rice paddies, and many villages and towns. This was the first time a FF club has reserved this luxury car and it was a spectacular addition to our exchange. Arifin said that he will encourage future exchange to do this too.
Upon arrival in Yogya, we were met by our hosts in a very efficient manner. Each host was holding a sign with their incoming guest's name. It was so easy for everyone to connect with the right people. Dr Adam and his wife Siti are hosting me and MJ.
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| Siti, Mary Jane & me at the train station. |
MJ and I rode by car to our host's house, though some people got into rickshaws.
I don't know where to begin in describing our host's house. It's actually Dr. Adam's home, his #3 son's doctor office, the daughter's dental office, the waiting room for patients AND his wife's pharmacy. We are not talking about s modern clinic!!
MJ and I have separate bedrooms in the clinic area -- it's a riot. I don't know if our rooms are/were doctor offices or rooms for sick people, like a mini-hospital. I'm leaning toward offices b/c of the glass doors and metal door frames, but who knows!
The whole house looks like something out of a very old movie -- perhaps once quite modern and nice, but now definitely worn. Definitely a lot of history here.
As you might guess, the rooms are pretty stark -- very bare, a bed, desk, chair, metal cabinet and a couple nails in the wall. Two of the house servants came with an electric drill to install the hardware for a paddle lock on my door. I thought that a good idea since we will be leaving our stuff here every day when we are out touring.
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| Front room -- waiting room for the dentist, but also where the FF group met each day. |
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| Dentist Office |
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| Cooking Kitchen |
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| The hallway that lead from our rooms to the living quarters of the house. Also, was the waiting room for the clinic. Also, where the staff in the 24 hour pharmacy parked their motor bikes. Just your basic all purpose area. |
We took off our shoes when entering the house, as is customary here, but we had to laugh -- the floors are so dirty that our feet became totally black. Guess we're not trying to keep from tracking in :) I don't intend to sound negative it's all just so different from anything I've ever been party to. I've never seen the likes of it all, but MJ has -- she's definitely going to be my mentor on this one.
On a very positive note -- their preparations for us are wonderful. Dr. Adam's office is the meeting place for our group every day. He had a huge banner made, which is hung on the railing at the front of his house, welcoming FF of Greater Orlando. It's beautiful, full color and very impressive.
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| The Welcome Banner, which hung on the front of Dr. Adams house the whole week of the exchange. He is a great ambassador for FF. |
He also has a giant copy of our itinerary on an easel in the "front room." We were each given a nicely printed booklet with our itinerary and words to songs in it, a map, a toothbrush & paste, soap and a towel with the FF logo and their club name embroidered on it. We sure don't do that for our incoming groups. I'm wondering if everyone got everything we did or if it's b/c Dr. Adam is the club president. Guess we will get that answer tomorrow when we all get together.
We walked a few feet down the street to #2 son's house, where we were presented with three different dessert-ish looking/tasting "things." Different versions of my previously described gummy/ gelatinous creations in various colors.
Then we walked through part of the house and into a little food stall that opened onto the street. I guess it's all part of the real estate that Dr. Adam owns. At the food stall, Siti ordered something for us to eat. Just what we needed was more food -- it appeared to be an egg inside a batter that I believe was made from tapioc. Language is going to be a bit of an issue with Siti.
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| Little food stall near Dr. Adam's house. I couldn't bring myself to partake. |
This second snack was followed by dinner a couple hours later -- this is one heck of an eating population!!! After resting for an hour or so, we had dinner with Dr. Adam - Siti does not eat with him. Dinner was rice, noodles, shredded beef, with a light vegetable and chicken broth.
Staying In another room in the clinic isvery one of Dr Adam's nieces. She is studying at the university to become a doctor. She wants to practice her English this week.
We also meet another of Dr. Adam's sons and his daughters, who is the dentist. All I have to say about the dentist office here in the house is that I hope my recent root canal is the end of my dental issues until I get home.
It promises to be an adventure.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed AND being very careful to not get sick from eating anything too goofy -- seriously cooked things only.
Time for bed. Have to find wifi soon, there isn't any in our house and Dr. Adam's computer apparently isn't up to snuff.
XO
MUM/Nancy
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