Ringing in the New Years with a Volcano& Epic Traffic jam

We spent the New Year on an epic trip to the Volcano Bromo. I booked the tour in Yogyarta that advertised a 9 hour bus ride to Bromo on Dec 31st, hotel, 3am jeep up the mountain to view the volcano on the morning of Jan 1st, jeep to the volcano crater, breakfast at the hotel and then 9 hr bus to Bali.

Well...... that is not exactly how it went. Oh it started out well enough, the bus picked us up at our hotel at 7:30am in Yogyakarta. After it picked up 7 other victims (err I mean passangers) we headed out. Now my guide book says that it is a 9 hr trip to Bromo, and in fine print it says "may take longer on holidays". This should have been in bold because it ended up taking us 14 hours, since Duh New Years Eve is a holiday. The hotel was pretty crappy, but by that time we didn't care we just needed a place sleep. Of course it was New Years so the fire works started at midnight and went for at least an hour. Luckily Jas slept right through it, but I ended up with only a couple hours of sleep.

Next morning we were up at 3:30AM for the jeep ride 19 or so kilometers up the mountain. First we went to Pananjakan (nearby view point) to view the Bromo caldera at sun rise. It was spectacular. The grey cone rising out of the base of the caldera was really cool to see. It was quite a climb and I had to carry Jas most of the way. She did really good on the climb but wasn't as impressed with the view as I was.

Base of the volcano crater, we didn't really get much farther.

Next the jeep drove us down into the crater and dropped us off for the climb to the active cone. Jas and I got about 1/3 of the way up when I realized we wouldn't make it in time to meet our jeep again, so we didn't actually get to the inner rim of the active cone. Bummer. There were horses that you could hire to take you up but I didn't think we would need them til too late. Oh well, I see it as one of those compromises I will have to make on this trip to accomodate Jas.

Up to this time in the tour all is going well and mostly according to plan. At this point I feel the need to mention that Bromo is a major destination for Indonesians enjoying a New Years day holiday. So the mountain was crowed, really really crowded. I will also point out that the majority (80% or more) of Indonesians travel on motor bikes.

This leads us to what I am going to easily call the worst, most epic traffic jam I have ever seen. It was only 19km from the crater rim to our hotel, but it is a 1-1/2 lane road and traffic rules in Indo are more considered a suggestion than a rule. So tens of thousand of motor bikes and cars were trying to surge up and down this road at the same time creating complete gridlock. It took us FIVE HOURS to go the first half of that distance. Yes, you heard me 10 km in 5 hours. That is a rate of 2 km/hr. Jas could have walked it faster. If we had known at the beginning it would take us that long we would have walked it too, but hind sight is 20/20 eh?

Jasmine was a ROCK STAR during this experience. She hardly whined at all. And the 5 other people deserve major cudos for being so kind to her. So thanks big time to the French couple, the Japanese lady, and the two American/Canadien english teachers for spending about 34 hours in minibuses/jeeps with us in just under 48 hours.

Just a small part of the traffic jam

After we finally made it to our hotel, 5 hours late to make our bus to Bali, our tour company arranged a special mini-bus to take us that afternoon to Bali (another 9 hours) arriving in Lovina at 2 am ready to sleep on anything flat. Luckily we found a decent hotel pretty quick where we both collapsed into a coma til morning,

I never would have planned on this much bus/travel time for Jas but she did really good, probably better than me, since I don't really sleep on buses and thus went with about 5 hours of sleep in all that time.
So what did you do to ring in 2012?????

Temple Day at Borobudur

Today we got to visit our first temple at Borobudur, which is an ancient Buddhist temple located a little outside of Yogyakarta. We did the morning tour (left hotel at 5am) and it was amazing to be there before all the crowds arrived. Jasmine climbed all the way to the top and even walked around a few of the levels with me.

Temple from afar

After a long hot morning at Borobudur we returned to the hotel for a swim. I like having a place with a pool, but I think Jasmine loves having a hotel with a pool.

Delta Homestay, we like it a lot, especially the pool

So tomorrow we leave Yogyakarta and are headed for the volcano Bromo. I booked a tour that in theory will take us by bus to the volcano (11 hrs) then a place to stay, jeep tour to the volcano, and then a bus to Bali. In my past experience with these type of tours it can be a crap shoot as to whether it actually happens as expected and in the timeframe promised. Plus I talked to some Dutch today who told me they couldn't book for the New Year at Bromo because it was sold out, so I am hoping when we get there we actually have a room.

Made it to Indonesia in only 35 meltdowns

Ready to go on my first big Trip!

Hi Everyone,
Well we finally made it to Indonesia after an overnight layover in Korea. And I did one of the smartest things I have ever done and pre-booked a hotel with a courtesy shuttle in Korea. Zip Zip Airport to hotel to Airport.

When I travel I normally shift to the new time on the plane and do my best to stick to it. Makes the jetlag go faster. But apparently a 3 yo keeps sleeping on the old schedule and just melts down when you try to change their schedule.

On the airplane. In front of 500 strangers. Who don't speak your language. Everyone should experience it.

So 3 days later we are still wide awake at 3 am and crashed at 6 pm.

But finally made it to Jakarta in a POURING rainstorm. Since I picked a hotel at random (ie by price) it of course was now way over priced and a shit hole. But since it was raining so hard we took it. And I happily tipped the guy 10000Rp ($1)who carried Jas the 500ft to the entrance under his umbrella. I have since learned that rain apparently melts my child, thus it is necessary to scream and cry when any gets on you. So we left right away the next morning, putting the congested mess that is Jakarta in the rear view mirror.

On the 28th Dec we took an 8 hr train to Yogyakarta. It was a lovely way to see the countryside, which is rice paddies and water buffalos. Yogyakarta is a typically busy crazy Java city, but we are staying in a cute little place with a pool and a quiet courtyard. Today is a rest day, which is SOOOO needed. We walked around a bit, when to the Palace (so not impressive). Although I have never had my picture taken by so many people. Apparently a big white woman with a small asian child is picture worthy. To the point Jas was freaking out and I had to say no more pictures.

Weather is hot and humid and rainy part of the day (late afternoons). I don't mind being hot, in fact I am lovin' it. I've almost forgotten what it feels like to not be cold all the time.

Tomorrow we head to the ancient temple at Borobordur. I booked a tour, since I am discovering that we definitely need to travel a little less hard core when you might end up carrying an extra 30 lbs of sleeping child.

Jas at the Palace in Yogyakarta.

We are so outa here

I can't believe I finally made it through all of my lists and pretty much finished everything I needed to.

We had a lovely white Christmas (one day early) where Jas got everything she wanted from Santa; including the princess barbie doll and a kai-lan sticker book. It was so nice to have a mellow celebration and keep the excessive holiday toys to a minimum.

Plus she got her big-girl ready to take on the world first backpack, a Deuter Jr., from Grandma. She loves it and we loaded it up and she wore it around the house so so proud. And just in case you people out there think I am treating my 3 yr old like a pack mule... She is carrying a change of clothes, her stuffed doggie, a water bottle (empty of course since she might try to smuggle explosives onto the airplane with it), 4 pull-ups, a go-fish card game, a headlamp and a few snacks. Total weight approximately 5 lbs. Mommy will be carrying everything else in her backpack plus day pack. Total weight approximately 40lbs.

We are going to attempt to go carryon, since we only have 1 USA flight and it's a puddlejumper. So hopefully we won't have to fight for our overhead big space.

A big THANKS to my friend Wendy for taking us to the airport at 5:30AM on Christmas morning. You Rock!

T Minus 3 days: Our feet are beach ready

We went and got mother-daughter pedicures so that our feet are in tip-top beach shape. Mommy went with a boring neutral color, while Jasmine picked the pinkest pink they had. And we even managed to keep her from touching her feet til they dried.

She's wearing a dog tag (Really)

So one of the things I worry about is losing my daughter or having her wander off in a place she doesn’t speak the language. We have been practicing her name but in stressful situations (or heck anytime an adult asks her) she freezes. Sometimes she will remember her first name but I have yet to hear her say her whole name to anyone but me.

In addition, I worry because we don’t look alike and transracial adoption is a concept most people have never heard of or can’t comprehend. Needless to say I travel with copies of Jas’s birth certificate, our adoption certification and translation, and her certificate of citizenship as proof of our relationship. I’ve never needed them but I would rather have them than the alternative.

I also worry that she will wander off and not be able to tell anyone who she is or where I am. So I did a bunch of research on the internet for some type of durable id for her and couldn’t find anything I really liked. There were bracelets but they cost $20 and id tags were also expensive. I finally realized that the id tags for people sold on the internet were exactly the same as the pet tags that Petsmart sells in the store. So I went down to Petsmart and got Jas the pink heart dog tag ($6) and put it on a silver necklace. It has her name, nationality, my name, my email and a couple of phone numbers of contacts in the states (since I don’t travel with a phone).

I know she will love it as long as no one tells her it’s a dog tag! So SSSHHH!!

Why "Hello In 100 Languages"??

I am terrible at picking names for the long haul. I pick a name for something (dog, blog, email address) and 2 years later not only is it stupid, it also no longer makes sense.  So when it came time to start a new blog and pick a new name I put more than my usual 2 seconds of thought into it. I actually wrote a list and stared at it for a couple of weeks before I settled on this one.

So why would someone who didn’t step foot out of the USA until she was 26 (Canada doesn’t count for someone from Montana since the cultural differences between Montana and Alberta are probably only discernible to those of us from here, not to offend my neighbors to the north eh!) and only speaks one language with any level of proficiency want a travel blog that emphasized multilingualism?

Well, because it is one of my biggest life regrets that I don’t speak another language fluently. And I want my daughter to have the opportunity to learn another language. Ideally I would want her to learn Cantonese because I assume that is the language her biological family speaks, but unless we move to a different place I doubt that will happen unless she wants it to happen. I would probably be fluent in French if I had any language ability, but apparently a year and a half immersion in West African Frambara (the mix of Bambara and French spoken in Mali) was not enough to get me there.

My dream is to be able to spend an extended time when Jas is older living and learning a different culture. I want to wait til she is old enough to really engage in this type of experience but not so old that she is not excited about it. So I am thinking when she is about 8-10 years old.

But until then I am hoping that we can travel and experience as many different places as our time and budget will take us to. Maybe even reach my arbitrary goal of visiting enough places to hear 100 different languages are spoken. So I picked “Hello In 100 Languages” as an inspiration and motivation for me to remember where I want to end up and strive for it. It makes all those months of bare bones saving worth it knowing that we will get to visit another great place.