Summer Indo Trip: Order & the remaining postcards

The Summer Indonesian Trip was such a long holiday that this Mama actually managed to churn out no less than 14 posts so far, not necessarily in chronological order, and all of them spread all over the place. So. If you do want to follow the order, you can always start from:

• the announcement
• the objective
• the cast
• followed by the itinerary

Kecil's Oma passed away shortly after this Mama completed the itinerary post, which might explain both the prolonged absence following that post, not to mention the fact the post that followed then jumped to Oma's story. But chronologically speaking, the posts that should have followed were:

• Surabaya daytime outing
• Family meals
• Yogyakarta & Ambarrukmo (covering the trip to and the hotel)
• Yogya trips part 1 and part 2 (covering the outings we had in Yogyakarta)
• Bali trips part 1 and part 2

From Bali, we flew straight to Jakarta, then drove to Bogor where we spent quite a couple of days lazing around. These two posts covers those days, as well as the postcard below them.

• Yum
• Visit from an old friend

Basically, we spent a lot of time around the house, with Kecil enjoying the odd crafts or using Oma's iPad (or bothering Opa to yield the iPad to her). In addition, we also visited the botanical garden in town:

... followed with lunch at the Hoka Hoka Bento (an Indonesian fast food chain serving Japanese food), and a ride home on the becak. As you can see from the pic, Kecil seems pretty psyched with the new (to her) mode of transport. 

Unfortunately, not long after, Oma got sick, and well... you know the rest.

While we were quite 'complete' as a family there, we took the chance to take a few pictures together, especially with Daddy. Actually that picture was taken right before we went on our adventure trying to send Daddy (on time) to the airport, because there was some strike that day involving the public transport. We did arrive on time for his flight that day, thank goodness.

Thankfully, the strike only affected us that day, because Mama and Kecil did have to go to and fro on the public transport to the airport. Not much of a hardship, because it was a direct bus. Why... at certain times, there were even the premium bus! Kecil was so enjoying the ride, and also Tante Lia. All those airport buses came with free wifi. What was there not to enjoy? Ah ya... traffic jams, especially when you are hungry and you forgot to pack food into the bus. Of course, we did not make the same mistake twice. So for our second trip, we actually brought along a whole pizza with us. Ha! Eat that, traffic jam!

When we got to the Jakarta Airport, usually we had time to chill at the waiting lounge. Now, when Mama said 'chill', she really meant it. Look at Kecil and her fascination with the aircon blower unit at the waiting lounge! Chillin' indeed!

We started our Indo trip via Surabaya, so when we left Indonesia, that was again our port of call, along with Singapore. Somehow, apparently due to some changes in the flight schedule (the notice of which never reached Mama), we got stranded for one night in Singapore. It was quite a hassle, oh well.. but we did fine.

Kecil got a bit stressed up at the airport while Mama went to and fro between the service counter, the lost luggage counter, the food hall (to feed the Hungry and Stressed One). Thankfully, she calmed down once she had lunch. We stayed in an inexpensive hotel around Mama's old neighbourhood, from whence we actually managed to walk to the very library Mama used to frequent to borrow books in the olden days. We also had a good dinner although Kecil did not quite like the fact that the eatery of Mama's choice was not air-conditioned. Damn, the holidays had spoiled the Little One.

The following morning, we made our way back to the airport, and from there, back home.

It's been one hell of an adventure (that took waaaaaaay long to tell as well!), but it was fun, and this Mama likes to think that Kecil had grown from the whole thing. See the pic above? The pic on the right was our final pic for the trip. Don't you think she's all grown up after all that adventure already?

This has to be the longest series so far, and this Mama is very glad indeed that it goes all the way to the end. Here's hoping for more series in the future. Cheers!

Summer Indo Trip: Bali part 2

Ah... the days of summer.... with its sunshine, great company, places to go etc etc. Today seems like a good day to reminiscence, especially with the never-ending rain outside, and the fact that Skool had been cancelled for the 3rd time this week. Grrrr..... I should start singing "Rain, Rain, Go Away" in earnest. But in the meantime, here was Bali.... and sunshine.....

Given our geographical locations, the family does not get together that often. Even that time in Bali, Daddy was not there. But since 'most' of us were there, we took that last morning in Bali as a chance to take a few group pictures.

We also took a few pics with Sandy, which was nice. Because it turned out that both Mama and Kecil misses our Dog.

I would say we covered our itinerary for that day, which was to visit Tante Rina's other workplace, but from the pictures, I think it would look as if the photoshoot simply continued to a different location. Of course, we had Sandy was again part of the picture:

Kecil, her two Tantes and Sandy!

Kecil and the beautiful architecture that made up Bali

We stayed for a while for some coffee and muffins, then it was time to go to the airport, which was about an hour drive away. Here we were waiting for our ride:

It was good to visit Bali. It is kind of funny because despite Bali being famous for its beach, we didn't actually go to any beach while we were there as Ubud was more in the mountain area. Still... it was beautiful. Let's see if we can come back again some other time. Until then!

Summer Indo Trip: Bali part 1

You might think I've given up on this series. I haven't. So... just to show my determination to finish the series, here's another (a bit late) excerpt from our last holidays.

So, as you all know from our itinerary post, we went to Bali during the summer trip. In all truthfulness, Bali was only on our 'tentative' list, but after some persuading, we did go anyway, even if just for a short while (through 1 weekend).
As to why.... well.... let's just say a certain Tante 'demanded' that we visit her. Haha.... Well... it was fun, no doubt.

The Tante in question

It kind of help that Kecil's other Tante was also in Bali then, spending the rest of her holiday before heading back home to the land way across the ocean (or halfway across the world, rather!). Needless to say, both Tantes were very happy with the extra bonding time with Kecil.
Seriously, this Mama thinks Kecil has this two Tantes of hers wrapped around her little finger, in a good way, of course, just leaving Mama with the 'bad guy' role at times.

Anyway, given the short time we had in Bali, we did not do that much 'touristy stuff', but Mama did put her feet down so we got to visit the.... market. Ahem.

Let me explain my insistence. Bali is definitely full of beautiful things. Furniture, pieces of art...those are wonderful stuff, I'm sure, just not very convenient to carry, don't you think? This Mama was just looking for small stuff, still essentially Bali, but not so difficult to carry (nor too heavy on the pocket, either). As for whether or not we got what Mama wanted.... well... have you seen my garden of a daughter lately?

So yeah. We got them. It doesn't get more 'Bali' that those flowers.

Straight from the market, we went of to check out Tante Tara's hotel, which, by all account, supposed to resemble the site of the Lost King of the Monkeys, or something. Well... actually, following the trend of most resorts around Ubud, it was very lush. Like... VERY lush. Maybe a wee... bit too lush that it was kind of spooky.

Do you see the amount of moss on the rocks and statues? Yeah... very lush, indeed. And they even have monkey statues in the middle of an opening (which, Mama has to add, Kecil avoided at all cost!):

In order to go to Tante Tara's room, we had to go through a sort of a tunnel:

We almost couldn't go in because Kecil almost refused to go. But we managed. A good thing too, because the room was beautiful, complete with a 'living room' on a balcony:

Here was, of course, where we took that door picture of Kecil found in the top picture. Then of course Tante would like to be in the picture too.

This might sound cliche, but this Mama totally loves those double doors ubiquitous in Bali. They are usually beautifully carved wood, some coloured, some just varnished to show off the gorgeous wood grain. Too bad you need to design the doorway properly to accommodate such door, aka you can't just fit them into any door way without reducing their beauty.

Anyway.... in order to go back to the hotel lobby, we had to go back to that dark tunnel:

After which we all blinked to adjust back to the bright sun outside.

Mama personally thinks that the resort was quite nice, but she wouldn't want to check in after sun down either. I can so see how the environment can feel spooky in the dark.

Next stop, lunch at Tante's work place, yet another resort. Yeah.... our whole holiday seemed to be one hotel visit after another.  But it was really fun, and look at who greeted us at the resort:

Somebody really looked happy to see us

It was Tante, her colleague and Sandy, the resort dog.

The resort dog? Yes. a resort dog, a dog whose job is to be petted, just by behaving nicely and looking cute. I think she has the perfect job. Haha....

Now this is getting a bit long, so perhaps we'll continue in another post. Cheers!

Summer Indo Trip: Yogya Trips part 2

Feeling very much 'cultured' from all the dances at the temple and the palace, we moved on with architectural marvel, Candi Borobudur.
Both Mama and Daddy had been here back in the days, both with our respective families and at least once with our respective schools. Indeed, apparently the Grand Temple is the single most visited tourist attraction in Indonesia. I guess that kind of account for the major development of the whole site.

Not far from the parking, there was a complex of stalls offering food and various knick and knacks. They also sold all kinds of hats and umbrellas for those tourist who came unprepared for the weather. Indeed, the weather that day was not sunny, but it was hot and humid still!

As I said before, there were many school kids around, and boy, were they excited at the sight of Uncle Martin! I suppose he might well be the first 'real' Caucasian they see outside the television or something. Ha! Anyway.....

Here is some shots of the temple. It was big, and the climb up to the top was really not for the faint-hearted (or less than fit, ha!). The humidity and heat were not helping either. I guess that was partly why this Mama found herself with a grumpy Little Kid on top.

Actually she did not even want to have her picture taken. Mama just sneaked that picture after taking Tante's pic at the other stupa:

We did not stay too long up there, simply because there were so many people! Not to mention the fact that a steep set of steps going up meant a pretty scary way going down.

Good things Kecil is no stranger to steps, going up or down. She's a trooper. Still remember our trip to Mount Bromo? Yeah, so even this time, she went before Mama.

Looking back, I think she managed to be quite impressed by her own feat of climbing up and down the Temple. Or maybe she was just waiting for her Tante and Uncle, who definitely took the steps with more caution. Haha...

Straight from the Temple, I think we went straight to our lunch venue, a resort in a refurbished coffee plantation.

It was quite a long ride to the resort, but it was quite worth it. The place was beautiful and the food (most importantly) was good. As usual, apart from the food, Mama took quite a few picture.

Why, Mama even took one or two of Mama!

Kecil was fascinated with the flowers adorning the stairs, mostly because it was arranged beautifully in a basin of water.

We spent a bit of time looking around, ostensibly doing a site inspection of the place. It was a beautiful place overlooking the mountains.

So, perhaps when we get a windfall of some sort (win the lottery, yeah!) we can drop by for a week or so. Haha.... In any case, bearing in mind the long trip back to the hotel, it was already time to make our way back.

It was quite a fun day going around the area, even with the long car-ride, on our last day in Yogya. The following day we were to catch the flight back to Surabaya, parting ways with all the Tantes. We would see them again the following weekend, but that would be another story/post. Stay tuned!