Our First Vacation

Vallen and I finally went on our first vacation together 2 weeks ago! Paige and Daniel are two Returned Peace Corps Volunteers who stayed in Indonesia after finishing PC. They lived in Solo, where I visited them for Halloween in 2013, and now, 2 years later, we visited them in their new home in Semarang. We also got to meet their cute baby girl who is almost 1 year old. Vallen fell in love with her right away! 

Train is Kereta Api in Indonesian, which literally means car of fire. 

As you can see, Semarang is in North Central Java.

We chose to ride the train to Semarang for $5/person one way on the 4 1/2 hour economy train rather than suffer the swerving on the 7-8 hour bus ride for the same price. The experience on the way there was nice enough (air conditioning is supposedly a new thing in the economy cars...), though the leg room left something to be desired. Economy is set up so that one padded bench who seats three people faces another padded bench that seats three. The legroom for these seats is about 1 foot! Additionally, the 6 AM train would have been a nice place to snooze, save a super chatty group of about 10 ibus (middle-aged ladies) leaving on vacation together, thus being noisy enough to keep the whole train car awake!

This is the first time I saw these cool haystacks. Usually the slash and burn agriculture involved burning it all, but the Central Javanese must find a better use for the hay. 

On the way home, we fared even worse. Same seating situation, but the AC didn't work and instead of a group of 10 ibus, there was a group of about 25 Chinese Indonesian couples on vacation together...also noisy. Overall, however, we were just happy to be together. 

As soon as we arrived, Daniel and Paige picked us up and we went right to Lawang Sewu, which means "one thousand doors" in Javanese. Semarang is located in Central Java. It was a major port during the colonial Dutch times, and Lawang Sewu was the office headquarters for the Dutch train company. For years it was just an abandoned building, but within the last 8 years, it has been opened for tourists. However, it basically remains an empty building for people to walk through and take pictures in. 

Daniel, Paige, their daughter and us

Usually people take pictures in the actual doors, but I could not get a shot without
other people in it, so Paige suggested this! 

By taxi

The next day, we explored the downtown area, starting at Sam Poo Kong, the oldest Chinese temple in Semarang. The location is actually a huge temple complex. 

Seemingly the world's biggest candles!

By angkot, bus, bus
Next, we headed over to the Old Town area. This area has dilapidated, neglected old Dutch buildings. Unfortunately, I was feeling dehydrated and feverish at the time, so it was more of a stumble around Old Town than a walk.

By bus, angkot, angkot, and ojek (motorcycle taxi)
After wandering around Old Town, we headed up into the mountains where we'd be hiking and spending a day or two. It took 3+ hours to get there, many forms of transportation, a near fainting spell by me, and a lot of Vallen's patience to get us there...only to find out that my information was incorrect. We could not begin the hike at Gedong Songo, the temples we'd just spent a lot of time and money getting to.

By ojek and angkot
After walking sadly through the temples, we backtracked about 20 minutes by a motorcycle and an angkot again. We checked into a place and I crashed. Vallen went to find food while I took medicine and rested immediately.

The next morning, however, I felt back to normal and we woke up to this view:

The view from where we stayed in Bandungan

Merapi and Merbabu in the distance. Merapi is the most active volcano in Indonesia. It last erupted in 2006, and it is already overdue to erupt again. 

We hopped on another angkot to the real start of the trail.

A passenger in the angkot hanging out the door. His chickens sit nearby, at my feet. 

Unfortunately, the car dropped us off at the bottom of a 3 km hill that we had to walk up just to get to the base camp of the hike. Despite the heat, a bathroom emergency that lasted 1 hour, and not enough water, we made it to the camp 1.5 hours later. Vallen insisted that we rest and chat.

Vallen's favorite hobby is chatting to ibus (middle-aged ladies). 

2 hours later than planned, we finally began hiking up Mount Ungaran (2,050 meters), a 3 hour hike one way.

Walking in the woods again felt just like being home in Wisconsin. : )

Hiking felt like being in Colorado again!

After hiking about 1.5 hours, I felt a little sick again, and we were at least another 1.5 hours from the top. As the hike got harder, steeper, and dustier, Vallen decided it was best for us to just stop while we were still happy. Best decision! 

The hike took us through a huge tea plantation.

We headed all the way back down, where it felt like the hike to base camp was far enough for that day. We wanted to try to catch a ride back down the 3 km hill. Unfortunately, our timing was not good, as it was jumatan,  the time for all men to go to the mosque on Friday at noon. So Vallen encouraged me to keep walking...and walking...and walking. Finally, after a sore 45 minutes down the hill (which was through very fresh gardens, so one can't entirely complain), a car passed us and let us go with them the rest of the way down the hill. 

Vallen had his own bout of sickness for about 30 minutes, masuk angin. I can't really explain what it is because I don't understand it. Masuk angin translates to "the wind enters" one's body. You can get it from sitting by the AC or a fan too long, from riding a motorcycle at night without a jacket, through your bellybutton, through riding a bus, etc. Basically from anything. Which makes it a mystery to me. Anyways, we hurried to Alphamart (the local Walgreens) and bought some tolak angin (which translates to "refuse the wind"). It is a packet of thick syrup of ginger and mint. You can mix it with water or tea or just drink it. Vallen sucked it right down, and within 20 minutes, was back to normal! Miracle drug! 

By angkot, angkot, bus, bus

We packed up and rode back into Semarang. We got off at the alun-alun. 

The huge open space in the center of town, called an alun-alun, is called Simpang Lima ("Five intersections")  in Semarang because 5 main roads all lead to this open space.

I learned about warung kucing. It is a food tent on the side of the road that has small portions (kucing means cat). You can try various types of dishes that way, instead of being stuck with one. Ingenious! This type of food is special to Central Java's three main cities: Jogja, Solo and Semarang. 

Vallen really loves Semarang! He worked there from 2006-2008, but hadn't been back at all since. 

Daniel invited us to a restaurant that you have to take a small little elevator to get to. The downstairs is a carwash by day, and then you ride the elevator up, and it's a restaurant by night! Excellent milkshakes! 

Muslims are not allowed to touch the spit of a dog; it's unclean and then they'd have to shower 8 times. So here Vallen is, being protected from their tiny, tiny dog by the baby's playpen area. I kept making him stay in "his cage" so the dog could roam free!

We saw Masjid Agung (the biggest mosque in Central Java) from afar, as I was not dressed to get any closer than this. 

Es buah is a mixture of water, sweetened condensed milk (a drink staple in Southeast Asia), fruit and jello chunks. 

We also went to a hash run with our excellent hosts. If you don't know what that is, it's easier to just google it than for me to explain! 

This was an overall fun trip that was a learning experience for us as a couple. As we plan to come back to the USA via 30+ hours of travel one way, it's best to learn our travelling strengths and weaknesses now!