June 17, 2013 – Jakarta to Surabaya to Pacet
We arrived in Surabaya
around 3pm and found a car to take us first to the mall
for some essentials and then
on to Pacet, where Taylor lived when he was in Indonesia. Pacet is a small town about an
hour and a half from Surabaya. Before arriving, we were told that we could only get a reservation for the first night at the hotel near his school, but were relieved to find when we arrived that they could accommodate us all three nights.
The Sativa is a
beautiful little oasis with views of the rice patties all around
and gorgeous hidden lagoon pools. We were
feeling pretty tired from the long day of travelling, so we just hung out in
our room, got dinner, and went to bed relatively early.
June 18, 2013 – Pacet
Our first full day in Pacet started with a quick trip to the
Sativa Pool. It’s a beautiful pool set
among the rice patties with ladies carrying water jugs acting as
fountains.
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| The Pool |
After about 20 minutes we left for
breakfast. After breakfast, we decided
to play tennis for a bit.
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| Tennis! |
More photos from around the Sativa:
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| Waterfall |
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| Surrounding scenery |
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| Gorgeous pond and grounds |
Around noon, Tutik, her husband Ferry, her son Erland, another teacher, Habib, his wife Laily and his daughter, Taylor
and I (that’s 8 people if you’re counting!) piled in Habib’s SUV and headed out
for a lunch of fresh-caught grilled fish called gurami.
Along the way, we came to a large suspension bridge and
pulled over. On the bridge, there were two motorcycles
selling food off the back of them (they have this contraption that holds food
and the supplies necessary to prepare and serve it). They bought us food from both to try. The first one was some sort of fermented rice
dish that you eat cold. It has rice-like
pancakes floating in it. When we were
eating, I mentioned to Taylor that the dish looked like something that would
just destroy your stomach. How prophetic
as you will see. The other food was
these small meatballs on a skewer and coated in peanut and sweet soy sauce.
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| Looking a little afraid... |
Afterward, we had a yummy lunch of rice, fish, vegetables and sweet
tea.
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| The crew |
After lunch, we visited Taylor’s
school for a bit, practicing English with the students, taking photos, and
allowing Taylor to catch up with some of his old teacher friends.
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| Us with some students |
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| The school |
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| Taylor and Mr. Cecep in front of the school's sign |
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| Mr. Cecep, his wife Indah, and two of their children |
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| Us with the baby :) |
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| This guy used to sell Taylor Bakso, and he remembered him! |
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| At the Ute Ute stand with Taylor's friends :) |
We were wiped out and completely stuffed full of
cookies/juice/Sprite/fish/meatballs/fermented rice, so we did literally
nothing the rest of the night except eat the food we got and go to bed.
June 19, 2013 – Hotel Sativa
Taylor woke up extremely sick. Tough to pinpoint which foreign food was the
culprit, but suffice to say he spent most of the day in the bathroom or
bed. We completely bailed on all plans
to visit Taylor’s school and village and spent the entire day at the
hotel. Since I was feeling fine, I spent
time walking around the resort and laying out at the pool. Taylor was feeling well enough in the
afternoon to order a massage ($5 for 1 hour!).
Other than that we did almost nothing all day!
June 20, 2013 – Pacet to Surabaya
Since we didn’t do anything the day before, we got up pretty
early to head up toward Taylor’s old village to say hello to his old friends
and neighbors. Since no one there really
has Internet or anything, we didn’t have any way to let them know ahead of time
that we were coming, so basically after three years, we just strolled into the
village to say hello to people.
It was
so cool though because everyone remembers Taylor.
True to form, they all invited us into their houses and offered us
drinks and snacks. Our first stop was
the “bodega” right inside the village.
Pak Yaman, the owner and his family remembered that Taylor loves Sprite and
offered us some right away. We chatted for a while before snapping a photo with everyone.
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| Taylor with Pak Yaman and family :) |
The next
stop was this lovely old woman’s house.
She used to have a coffee stand outside her house and I've been there for coffee the last two times I've visited. We found her outside shucking corn and
when she saw us she immediately invited us in and went to the kitchen to make
her specialty, the most delicious coffee you will ever taste! We think it’s actually instant coffee, but
it’s just so good black and with no milk (the sugar is already in it). We sat and drank the coffee while she
continued shucking and then asked for photos with her before leaving.
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| Me with our coffee lady |
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| Drinking the delicious liquid |
Finally, we visited the street Taylor lived on. His house was on the end and was connected by
one wall and a shared porch to about 4 other homes. Those families were Taylor’s neighbors when
he lived in the village, and they took great care of him. They would bring him dinner, help him if he
was sick, and even clean his house for about $.50!
We visited with them, saw how much all of
their children had grown in 3 years (and how many new ones they had had!) and
learned of the unfortunate passing of a couple of old neighbors. In fact, they had a framed photo of Taylor
with two of the family patriarchs who had since died.
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| Taylor with the photo |
It was a beautiful time. We also held some babies and posed for photos
with them all before leaving.
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| In front of his old house with a neighbor |
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| The whole gang |
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| With a few neighbors...check out the height differential! |
After we left the village, we walked to the school, which is
close by. On the way we checked out all
the new buildings that the head of the school has built in the last 3 years,
probably about 8 of them in all including a HUGE mosque and a guesthouse for
parents who visit the school (it’s a boarding school).
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| Taylor with all the new buildings |
We were at the school for a while, waiting for the car to
take us to Surabaya. After almost an hour, Mr. Cecep told us that
our surprise was on it’s way. Up walk
two students with pieces of paper on which they had meticulously sketched each
of us in pencil! Both sketches were very
good, right down to Taylor’s droopy left eye and the jilbob (head scarf) that I
was wearing for modesty reasons at the school.
Such a touching gift! We thanked them profusely and
before saying goodbye to everyone and heading out.
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| Taylor and I with our respective artists |
We had a full car leaving the school. It was the driver, Taylor, myself, Tutik, her
son Erland, a former student Radiv (who had traveled 6 hours just to see
Taylor) and another teacher.
We arrived in Surabaya and our first stop was the mall. I had a few items to buy from the store, and
we all got lunch in the food court. They took us to our hotel right after that
for some much-needed rest. It was sad to say goodbye, especially since we don’t know when we will be back, but we just
said, we will see you, “Inshala,” which means in Arabic, God-willing.
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| Radiv, Taylor and another teacher |
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| Erland, Ferry, Taylor, myself and Tutik (it's not goodbye it's see you later!) |
At the Novotel, we checked into our room which was
unfortunately in the only un-renovated section of the hotel (apparently they
did not know who they were dealing with, the hotel model). We took a quick dip in the pool and I decided
to get a massage ($12 for an hour). The
massage was amazing and afterward we cleaned up and got ready for our last
night on the town in Surabaya (at the mall of course!).
My goal at the mall was to get a manicure and have a donut
(for dinner, yes). I succeeded in both and we headed back to the Novotel for some rest.
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