Mikaela Sparkles Indonesia

October 29 - November 10

Our Indonesian adventure began with Mikaela greeting us at the airport and she took us via hot, sweaty, crowded, karoake & live music-filled public transport to her home in Gresik, Java. Mikaela's been teaching English at a Muslim high school for 3 months now, thus she's a stellar tour guide: speaks the local tongue, knows the best snacks...

Her host family was so welcoming! They cooked us delicious food: fried tempeh, ginger tea, Gado-Gado (boiled vegetables with peanut sauce), krupbuk (fish-flavored crackers that accompany edible dish). We visited the high school Mikaela is teaching at, getting a taste for celebrity. Mikaela brought us into every classroom: "These are my friends from Alaska!" - they screamed an approving greeting. Every kid had a cell phone to take pictures of us. Apparently bules (Western foreigners) are few and far between in Gresik. Just walking to school, we were stared at, followed, and felt on display in our bule parade. Mikaela just seems to accept this as everyday by now, as well as the 5-times daily Muslim call-to-prayer, Mosques, and factory smokestacks (Gresik is an industrial city).

We visited Mt. Bromo, one of the more famous active volcanoes on Java. We woke at 3:30am for a beautiful sunrise and a foggy sand dune hike to the brim. Another Java highlight was Borobudur, an ancient Buddhist temple outside of Yogjakarta: an architectural and spiritual wonder.

After a whirlwind tour of Java, we spent the rest of our time in Indonesia in Bali. One night in Kuta - the hectic tourist scene where a night club was bombed in 2002 by Muslim extremists opposing Western hedonism (they were executed while we were in Bali) - after some time in the surf, we headed inland to Ubud.

Anyone read Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love? The author finds the love portion of her book in this artistic, agro-rich, mountainous, chill town. For four days, we indulged our senses in everything Balinese: traditional dances (Kechak, "monkey"), art museums, shadow puppet shows, local organic food, bicycle rides winding through rice paddies and traditional villages, glimpses into traditional practices of rice harvesting, sipping locally brewed coffee, motorbike taxi rides, monkey sanctuary, temples.

Everywhere, everyone, and everything in Bali embodies the ancient dualism and wholesome balance, evident by daily beautifully arranged banana leaf/flowers/food/incense offerred at each curb, temple, doorstep, and dashboard. Of the less Balinese but equally awesome, we enjoyed multiple nights of live reggae music, and celebrated Lena's 23rd birthday and Obama's victory by having ultimate dance party with Balinese locals, and tacky covers of popular American music: you bet it was as great as it sounds.

OBAMA!!!!

With the world we watched the election results, and celebrated big time, Bali style. In a crowded expat-filled bar called Naughty Nuri's, we toasted our new president elect with Bintang beers, tears, cheers and sighs of relief.

Read about Naughty Nuri's:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2008/oct/30/barack-obama-absentee-voting-bali

Next stop in Bali: the beachside town Amed. Beautiful bungalow, more diving (we dived the wreck of the U.S.S. Liberty torpedoed in 1942), Bintang beers on the beach, delicious loempia (spring rolls), friendly locals, beach bonfires with the local palm spirits (arak) and moonlit bay/volcano views.

One last night in Gresik with Mikaela before flying back to Thailand.