Our first (very full) weekend of sightseeing

We are very fortunate to be stationed in Jogja - there is SO much to do here.  At some point I would like to check out other nearby towns, but this weekend our team spent exploring the area.  As part of our CSC experience, our volunteer coordinator organization (ABV) arranged one weekend trip for us.  The next two weekends we will be on our own to explore.  This weekend's adventure took us to several amazing temples, the Sultan's palace, and to Mt. Merapi, an active volcano just north of Jogja.  Pictures cannot do these places justice, but I will try.....

On Saturday morning we decided to take a walk from our hotel to the Sultan's Palace.  It was about 20 minutes and to get there we walked through the center of town. Houses are perched on high banks above the river that runs through the center of town.

For the afternoon, we went to a local resort that had a pool overlooking the Prambanan valley.  This last week and a half has been so hectic that it was a wonderful change of pace to take it easy and enjoy some relaxed time together as a team

You can see the temples of Prambanan poking up from the trees in the distance

After dinner at the resort, we went to see a performance of the Ramayana Ballet and to see the nearby Prambanan temples lit up at night. We didn't get a chance to visit the temples, but I have it on my list of must-sees in the coming weeks.  Prambanan is about 10 miles from Jogja and is a large Hindu temple complex.  It is also a Unesco World Heritage Site. 

We arrived back in the hotel around 10pm, just in time to get 3-4 hours of sleep so we could turn around and leave our hotel at 3am to drive to Borobudur to see the sunrise.  Sunrise in this part of the world is very early right now - around 5am - so we wanted to make sure we left enough time to get there, climb to the top & not miss it.   As the official park does not open until 6am, the only way in to see the sunrise was through a local hotel that offered flashlights and gave us the mandated sarongs to wear as we visited the temple.

Borobudur is the world's largest Buddhist monument, built between 778 and 856 AD.  Within 100 years of its completion, it, along with many other structures in central Java, were abandoned.  This was likely due to eruptions from the nearby volcano, Mt. Merapi.  Borobudur was restored by a team from the Dutch government in the early 1900s, and then Unesco was called in to stabilize the structure starting in 1975.  The restoration was beautifully done and this temple is awe inspiring.  Despite being exhausted, I'm happy I woke up at 2am so as not to miss this once in a lifetime sunrise from the top of the temple.  This was spectacular to see and will definitely be one of the highlights of my journey to Indonesia.

At 6am we headed down from the temple to have breakfast at a local hotel, and then continued our journey to the nearby lesser-known temple of Candi Mendut.  Unlike most other central Javanese monuments which face East, Mendut faces to the Northwest.  Inside, there were three gorgeous Buddha statues, each about 10' high.

      

Then it was time to head an hour and a half north to Mt. Merapi.  This active volcano is the nearest one to Jogja. It's still smoking a little bit.  Merapi last erupted in 2010, killing at least 300 people and displacing 500,000 more.  In 2004, the "danger zone" of the volcano was supposed to be evacuated but many local inhabitants did not want to relocate because their spiritual beliefs were intrinsically linked to the mountain.

We decided to take a lava tour, given by a local Jeep outfitter.  ABV arranged for a caravan of 5 Jeeps to take us through the area affected by the 2010 volcanic eruption.  My parents are avid Jeep off-roaders, having a Jeep Rubicon 4X4 themselves, and will appreciate the rickety vehicles that took us around the lava fields.  This tour was definitely not up to Western safety standards but it all went with the experience and we had a blast.  When we got into the Jeep we found WWII-era pith helmets.  They would have been of little use.  There were no liability waivers, only one roll bar, no seatbelts, and a crazy but fun driver who made the most of the experience.  About 20 minutes into the very bumpy ride, my Jeepmate Jay told the driver that he wished he had used the restroom before we departed.  We didn't think the driver understood but all of a sudden our Jeep took off up the mountain in, let's call it, a very spirited way.  A few minutes later we arrived at a makeshift toilet area.  Our driver was very pleased that he delivered Jay to the facilities.

Standing in front of Mt. Merapi

Me, Jay & Claudia. Windshield up for the picture......

.....and windshield down for the ride

I could see the road whizzing by through the bottom floorboards underneath the shifter

One of the things that struck me the most was the complete re-birth of the area that was affected by the eruption.  I've always heard that volcanic soil is very fertile, and this was a perfect example.  Through the dark volcanic fields, sprouts of lush greenery were everywhere, with more planted and staked by human hands.  Now if I only had some of this soil for my garden I'd be all set!

    

Some artifacts left behind from the 2010 volcanic eruption

We got back to the hotel around 3pm and retreated to our rooms for some rest before dinner.  I think it's going to be an early night for me - I'm exhausted after this wonderful non-stop weekend.

Scoping our deliverables & settling into a routine

We have started to settle into a bit of a routine and make ourselves at home in our hotel.  The facilities here are decent and provide us everything we need - especially internet access!  My husband & I have been able to Skype every night (well night for me, morning for him) and our connections have been pretty decent.

Yesterday & today my team progressed on narrowing down our scope of work and defining what our key deliverables will be both throughout and at the end of our project.  After meeting with our client yesterday we came back to the hotel to have a team meeting to continue working on our plans.  There was a big conference going on in the hotel that took up most of the available free meeting spaces, but we improvised and found a great workspace in the library room - complete with a table, the internet, and a copy machine.  The only thing it was missing was chairs.  We worked into the evening preparing a brief presentation for our clients so we could gain agreement on our final statement of work and to set expectations of what types of outputs we will be providing.  I should clarify what I mean by "presentation."  We are learning to quickly adapt to the environment we're in and to make the most of the resources we have at our disposal.  Internet connectivity is almost non-existent in the office we've been working in, and there are no printer facilities or computer projectors.  Computers are also pretty rare.  We decided it would be best to hand write our one page project plan/SOW and photocopy it for our clients for today's meeting.  My team voted me as having the best handwriting of the group so I suspect I will be the scribe for such types of presentations in the coming weeks.  Our clients were very pleased with our format and it seemed to work well to enable communication.

Our team working in the library of our hotel to put together a client presentation. 

A key element of our output is going to be skill-building - so that the recommendations of our project have a better chance for sustainability & success well after we leave Jogja.   This morning was a key milestone for us as we and our clients settled on our plans and we left our meeting feeling very positive about our direction and the steps that lay ahead.  We have settled on our main goal of making recommendations that will lead to increased international tourism in Jogja.  This is no small feat but we have identified several subtasks that will be achievable in the time we have remaining.

Our team waiting for our driver outside of our client office

It's amazing what difference a day can make.  Each day we return from our client office with so much more information and each day our project's form takes better and better shape.  One day's uncertainties turn into more concrete plans and positive feelings the next day.  I'm sure it will be a roller coaster ride for the next few weeks with the ebbs and flows of successes and additional challenges. 

As our team designed our end-to-end project schedule yesterday, we realized that our "four weeks of work on assignment" really boils down to only 10 days to do the main work!  This first week we had several days of kickoffs and community service and a few partial days to start forming our project and getting to know our clients.  The last week of February will be filled with presentations to our clients and a big press conference to present to a much broader audience and perhaps even to the Sultan.  The two week in between are the crunch weeks that we will be starting on Monday.

It's so critical that we got to spend the amount of time we needed to formulate our plans rather than jumping right in.  The execution stage will be much more successful when it's linked in to thoughtful planning upfront.  I learned this once years ago and have to remind myself of this lesson often as I love jumping right in.  They always say that you "need to know the depth of the water you are diving into" - this is so true in our case.  The planning is even more important on an assignment like this one as the added intricacy of not being familiar with the culture or the "between the lines" norms could derail us if we don't spend the time we need up front.

We have the distinct advantage of working for the tourism board, so we're also benefiting from the wonderful tourism materials they have been providing to us about the city of Jogja.  I am sure they will come in handy as we plan our upcoming weekend sightseeing trips.  This afternoon my team spent some time at the Tourist Information Center (a branch of the Tourism Authority), interviewing some of their workers to learn about the different services they offer to tourists.  We left with a backpack full of brochures and books and will be sharing them with our broader team in the coming days.

Daniel & I in front of the Tourist Information Center

Nicole, Yuan Yuan, and Daniel having lunch at the food court of the mall.  Notice our team's Batik clothes!

The many motorbikes that line the sidewalks of Malioboro Street

The mall decorated for the Chinese New Year celebration

On Fridays, work usually ends in the early afternoon as the men prepare for prayer.  We came back to the hotel after lunch and spent an hour or so swimming in the pool.  It's beautifully landscaped with lush vegetation and waterfalls.  We claim this was our "working meeting."  It was a nice way to wrap up the afternoon as we really have not had ANY downtime since our arrival in Jakarta late last week.  I foresee many more "working meetings" in the days ahead when we need a bit of a mental break from our intense work.  When it started to pour we got cold and headed inside for the rest of the afternoon. 

Yuan Yuan and I swimming in the pouring rain

Toothbrush contamination and Shaba Shabu dinner

First, a shout out to my great team member Shannon who set up a Flickr photo site for our team so we can start aggregating all of our photos.  Our blogs are a good documentary but there are too many interesting pictures to be able to post them all.  Check out our photos here:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/cscindonesia5/

 I woke up with a full blown cold this morning (I pretty much knew I was getting one last night) but did get a good night's sleep last night, thankfully.  I figure I got it from my airplane marathon with the nasty recirculated air in the planes.  After taking some zinc and some other cold medicine I bought with me, I was good for the day......

...or so I thought.  The local water here is not fit to drink, so I've been using bottled water to brush my teeth.  When traveling to other countries that have non-potable water, I typically put a washcloth over the faucet so I don't accidentally forget the water is bad and try to use it.  In our hotel there are no washcloths though - so this morning I absentmindedly rinsed my toothbrush in the sink - ARGH!   I predicted this would happen at some point in my journey, but I didn't think I'd screw up only 8 days into a 50 day trip.  I did bring an extra toothbrush with me so I'll be fine.  With that said, I was really looking forward to using my fabulous electronic toothbrush from home, so after my little incident I decided to sanitize the head in boiling water.  I don't quite have the courage to use it tomorrow, so I think I'll wait until after our upcoming weekend trip, just in case I get sick from it.  I think I'll be fine though - fingers crossed.  Maybe a round 2 of sanitizing is in order.  I'm still kicking myself over this one!

 

Today was our second day meeting with our clients.  The tourism office had a prior commitment in the morning so asked that we meet them after lunch to start our work.  Daniel, Nicole & I were joined by YuanYuan today, as unfortunately her other project hit some administrative snags and was canceled last night.  We're really happy to have her a part of our sub-team.  The four of us met for the morning to start brainstorming questions we'd like answered and laying out a gameplan for the rest of the week.  Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate with us and we had to catch our taxi in the middle of a crazy monsoon - or to quote Daniel, "the worst rain I've ever seen - in my entire life!"  It makes you really feel for the becak (pedi-cab) drivers who are in the middle of a journey or the folks riding their scooters with a poncho on, with their back seat passenger trying to duck under the driver's poncho.

Our client meeting went well and we'll be headed back in the morning to continue working on honing our statement of work - to something that meets the needs of our client but that is also achievable in the 3.5 weeks we have left. 

 

For dinner, a few of us headed to a local restaurant that serves Shaba Shabu type of food - basically boiled broth to which you add all sorts of meats, vegetables, and dumplings.  It was really good, and we plan on taking more of the team back to the restaurant in the coming weeks.  It reminded me a lot of fondue but in this case you eat both the things you cook and the broth in a hearty soup.

The various additions you can buy to put in your broth.  Each tray is color coded which represents a specific price.

Our broth mixture cooking

Our first day with our clients

This morning we headed into Yogyakarta to a local school for a community reach-out event at a local school.  IBM is donating several "Kidsmart" children's computerized learning stations to the local library.  Unfortunately due to some recent flooding, the equipment didn't make it to Yogyakarta on time, so we improvised and loaded the software onto our laptops to show the children.  The children in my group were very curious about my computer, but were reticent to actually touch it.  They did seem to enjoy the software though.

After our community activity, we went to lunch at a local fish restaurant.  I didn't realize it was a fish restaurant until I saw the workers actually selecting the fish.  They selected them out of big tanks, put them on the floor (sanitation didn't seem to be a concern), used a stick to quickly take care of them, and then cooked them.  The preparation was quite shocking to Western standards but the end result was a very delicious meal.

After lunch, we all went to go meet with our clients.   Me, Daniel & Nicole joined Waya and went to the local Tourism office.  The interest from the office employees is very high and more than 10 of them attended our meeting.  After a brief round of introductions, we started talking about how we can help them.  The next few days are going to be very busy as we work to finalize the statements of work and lay out a gameplan for what we hope to accomplish in the next several weeks.  I am starting to sense already how time is going to fly by once we immerse ourselves in our project.

After our meeting we decided to shop around Malioboro Street for some batik.  Batik is a local handicraft made of fabric, dye & wax.  The dyes and waxes are applied at different intervals and in different patterns to create some very intricate patterns.  In Indonesia, all workers are required to wear Batik to work on Thursdays and Fridays, so we were in a rush to find some to wear to work this week.  

Antonella & Yuanyuan in a becak riding to Malioboro Street for some batik shopping

Food in Indonesia is a very consuming affair.  Basically every business meeting or event has a plethora of food at it.  After our late and large lunch, most of us did not feel like going out for a dinner.  I snacked in my hotel room for a bit, and then met up with the team for a gift exchange.    Several people brought food or gifts from their local country to share with the rest of the team.  Among other things, we had pecan pralines from Texas, dried persimmons and dates from China, biscotti from Italy, marzipan from Hungary, and tequila from Mexico.  It was a really fun evening and a nice team building experience.

Starting to gather the country gifts & food

Alberto's nice tequila contribution from Mexico

Our gift exchange was held on the outdoor rooftop patio of our hotel.  We had some great views of the hotel at night and the surrounding town.

The rooftop patio of our hotel

Looking out at the city of Yogyakarta at night

Kickoff at Universitas Gadjah Mada

Today was our most formal day yet.  We were advised to dress in business attire, to participate in a forum at the local university.  I had all intentions of wearing a full suit but after putting on my blazer and heading down to breakfast I realized there was no way I was going to survive a full day in such attire due to the heat, so I quickly exchanged my blazer for a lightweight sweater and still looked formal.

The forum was held at the Universitas Gadjah Mada, the oldest university in Indonesia.  It's considered to be one of the "Ivy League" schools of Indonesia, with more than 50,000 students spread across certificate, undergraduate, and graduate programs.  We were all quite impressed by the breadth of offerings from which the students can choose.  Our IBM Indonesia General Manager, Suryo Suwuignjo, a graduate, spoke about the encouragement of small and medium business enterprises in Indonesia.  The university has supported such initiatives by giving select graduates start-up funding to realize their dreams of opening a small business.  At the forum, there were also representatives from the Indonesian government.   We tried to follow the content of the forum as much as possible, but it was very difficult because it was all in Bahasa Indonesian.  Interpreters were seated in between some of us but we unfortunately probably missed 3/4 of the content of the seminar.

The auditorium

University students listening to the seminar

 

After lunch, our clients arrived for a meet & greet session.  They each presented a short summary of their organization and then each of our CSC participants gave a brief introduction about our different backgrounds and our goals for participating in the CSC program.  We then posed for a (what I think will be one of many) team picture.

Our CSC team at the meet & greet- from L to R - YuanYuan (China), Seth (USA), Shannon (USA), Antonella (Italy), Alberto (Mexico), me, Daniel (Hungary), Claudia (Argentina), Jibu (India), Nicole (Austria), Jay (India), Roger (USA), Rosa (Spain)

Yogyakarta - our home for the next 4 weeks

Today was mostly a travel day.  After spending three very pampered nights in Jakarta, it was time for us to travel to Yogyakarta where we will be spending the remainder of our assignment.

We headed to the airport first thing in the morning.  Several of us were worried about our overweight luggage as different websites I found listed very different (and very expensive) prices per kilogram over weight.   Jean, one of our group leaders from ABV, must have worked her magic as we were not charged.  Too bad Jean will not be with me when I travel to Thailand in March!

Shannon, Alberto, Rosa, Nicole, Daniel, and Claudia - lots of bags at the Yogyakarta airport!

Our flight ended up being a bit delayed, but we arrived in Yogyakarta mid-afternoon.  H-U-M-I-D was the word of the day.  I definitely noticed a huge humidity difference between Jakarta and Yogyakarta.  I thought Jakarta humidity was on the higher-end of what I could tolerate....  then I landed in Yogyakarta where it hit me being 10X more humid.  This will definitely take some getting used to.

We got settled into our new home, the Jambuluwuk Hotel.  It's near the center of town and located close to the popular Malioboro Street where where there are a lot of shops.  The CSC leadership team had been mentally preparing us for a hotel "not business class" but I was pleasantly surprised.  The rooms are relatively clean, with a decent bathroom, Western toilet, refrigerator, and closet.  I was also able to get a non-smoking room that miraculously doesn't smell like smoke (contrary to our hotel in Turkey where there was an ashtray on the table of our non-smoking room.)

My hotel room at the Jambuluwuk Hotel

There is a beautiful garden right outside my hotel room door

After we got settled in, our ABV team held a briefing for us to discuss the logistics about our time here - some history about Indonesia, practical safety tips, laundry, and getting to/from our client sites.  We also met our interpreter, who seems wonderful and very eager to help us.  After our briefing, Waya recommended a local restaurant - there was a lot of food laid out and you pointed to what you wanted.  12 of us ate for a total of $50, and the food was really good.  I'm still being careful about what I am eating/not eating, and Waya has been helpful to point out things we should definitely stay away from.  I've been religiously taking some probiotics to help my stomach adapt to the local flavors - so far so good!

Our first day exploring

Yesterday before our team dinner I met up with Daniel (from Hungary) and Antonella (from Italy) to do a little exploring in the area around our hotel.  We asked the concierge for a map and some directions to any sights within easy walking distance, and she cautioned us that Jakarta is not really made for walking around.  We didn't heed her advice, so took off walking - and soon realized she wasn't kidding about the city "not being made for walking."  The sidewalks were rare - if we found them they were 12" wide, very rutted, or basically not usable.  Traffic was screaming by from all directions and we didn't see anyone else walking, which should have been a sign.  After about an hour we decided to catch a cab and we went to the Welcome Monument in the center of town and to find a place for a quick lunch.

 

 Later in the evening we met up with the rest of our team and walked to a family-run local restaurant with good Indonesian cuisine.  Everything is served family style and we chose many different selections to share.  While I do like spicy food, I was a bit reticent to just dive right in as spicy in Raleigh NC is not quite the same as spicy in Indonesia.  My general rule of thumb is if it is bright red (probably fiery spicy) I should probably avoid it but anything else I will try.  We had a huge meal for about $5 each.

Our dinner from the local restaurant near our hotel.

 Saturday morning our team met for breakfast and then out into the city to do some sightseeing.  Our first stop was the National Monument.  In the basement there was a very informative diorama exhibit about Indonesia's independence.  By this point it was mid-day and it was getting HOT.  Because our next stop was to be a mosque, we all dressed in long pants and us women had long sleeved shirts as well.  Let's just say that the heat and humidity we have in Raleigh is not nearly as uncomfortable as it is in Jakarta.  We were all sweating buckets by the time we finished our tour of the monument. Being on the equator, the sun was also really strong.  A few folks on our team got sunburned from our quick walk around the city.

The National Monument

 After visiting the National Monument we went to the largest mosque in southeast Asia.  Having spent some time in Israel, Jordan, and Turkey in recent years I was curious to compare it to the mosques in those countries.  This one was very modern and different than the other ones I had visited.  Our guide also told us that during the high religious holidays upwards of 200,000 people crowd into this mosque. 

After the mosque we went back to our hotel to wash up and get ready for our IBM welcome event.  We went to the IBM Jakarta offices and received a tour of their facilities and spent some time meeting the IBM Indonesia General Manager and participating in a security briefing.  We then all went to dinner, ironically at the same place Daniel, Antonella and I had found for lunch yesterday.  The food was great and there was so much of it. 

On a side note, we've all been really impressed by the security in our hotel.  We've been staying at the Four Seasons which we know is really spoiling us as the rest of our accommodations are not going to be this caliber.  Jakarta's history has been peppered with some violence and terrorist attacks throughout the years and our hotel is reputed to be one of the safest in Jakarta.  There are double security gates for the entrance drive and all cars are checked for bombs and the security checks under the hood and trunk of each car.  We've been very comfortable living in the "Fortess Four Seasons" these last few days.

One of the many security measures at our hotel

We got back to the hotel around 9:30pm.  Tomorrow we're headed to our home base of Yogyakarta and will be leaving our hotel in the morning to catch our flight.   I spent a little while this evening re-packing.  I know that my bag is overweight so tomorrow once again will be paying some overweight baggage fees at the airport.  I am happy to report though that I am not alone and several other of my team members are in the same boat.

Relaxing for the evening I decided to check the news - Of most interest was how the protests are going in Bangkok (we still have a month before we are planning to arrive there).  The presidential elections are tomorrow so it will be a pivotal day.  I also saw that a major volcano erupted here in Indonesia today in the area of Sumatra.  We are located on a totally different island so we're safe - so mom & dad please don't worry!