Jus Apulkat
(Avocado Juice)



This is not a drink that is necessarily unique to Indonesia... I remember the first time I tried Avocado Juice in the Galapagos at 'Mi Grande' - in fact, that was the beginning of a nice friendship with Angel.

I think the Indonesians have the claim on the interesting addition of chocolate sauce, though! The syrup swirls are a nice touch - both aesthetically and gastronomically... if you can convince them not to add too much sugar in addition. It's delicious... 'till about half-way... but it's SOO filling I can rarely actually finish one, and for me, it constitutes a meal in itself!

Another Indonesian drink which I am loathe to classify as a 'drink'! ... Like many others... remember my previous post on Indonesian Drinks!?

Happy Puppy



I don't know why or how this name stuck (I think it may have something to do with their unnaturally-happy zealous mascot), but it has turned into the biggest, hottest, most trusted name in Karaoke in Indonesia! This is a 'family' establishment. No sex, no drugs, no hostesses (ie. hookers). I guess sex and drugs don't go with the rock'n'roll in this joint! (As a side note: They don't serve booze, although you're not disallowed from bringing in your own!)






Indonesia is Karaoke-CRAZY! Karaoke is one of the main forms of Entertainment that Indonesians indulge in... and I feel ashamed (or proud!?) to say that we lived in Indonesia for two years and somehow avoided this activity... until the second-to-last night! Once our friends in Jogja discovered this sad (in their opinion) fact, they insisted that we have a karaoke session. Truth be told, it wasn't as much like torture as I thought it'd be, and I even rocked out to the Supremes, and Marc Antony (seriously, check out the ultra-embarrassing pic!)! We actually did karaoke in English, Indonesian, Mandarin, and Spanish! And everyone joined in, whether they could speak the language or not, and of course, whether they could SING or not! (yes, any longer than 2 hours listening to the slightly off-key singers and it WOULD classify as torture!)



Funny thing is, that since being back in Canada, I've heard about how popular the video game 'Rock Band' has become... to me, this seems like another example of one of the fundamental differences between Canadian and Indonesian cultures; in the West, we want our entertainment on demand, and in private (not to mention the video game addiction)... whereas in Indonesia, EVERYTHING is a communal gathering!

And talk about a creativity-killer! I mean, what if Beethoven had been sucked into a game where he just had to follow a colour-coded mime of a song, instead of thriving on the freedom to CREATE!? I actually played Rock Band one evening with Amy over in Campbellford, and even though I consider myself quite capable musically, there was still lots of room for improvement on my scores! Of course, that's not something I'll be working on... I would much rather GO PLAY OUTSIDE!

A Joke?

I usually don't delve into the political spectrum of the blogosphere... but looking at the results of this Canadian election, I really have to ask... "Is this a joke?" I mean, WHAT changed? Nothing. Why did we spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a futile election? Just another waste of time and money which could have been more effectively used on any number of programs or initiatives to address some of the issues (that were really non-issues) in this election. Maybe using the same monies to stave off planned cuts to arts programs, or investing in any number of green-technologies to decrease our outrageous carbon emissions?

The fact that it was a useless election shows even more in the all-time low voter turnout across Canada (I heard one estimate at approx. 59 %, but I don't know the final numbers). This could only cause increased political diffidence and voter-ambivalence in the future among those who didn't think that this election was important enough to get to the polls in the first place this time!

On a side note... is ANYONE aware of the world we're living in right now? I cannot believe that the Green Party didn't get a single seat in the house. It certainly doesn't inspire any hope in me that the paradigm shift that is necessary to make even a small dint in the global warming crisis, is in sight. I guess people still don't get that ECOlogy is inextricably intertwined with EVERY other aspect of our society!?

Fall in Ontario

Just because the entire world is falling apart at the seams, and there is so much doom-and-gloom out there on the economic and political spectrum, I thought I would share with you something positive. Simple. The glorious world that we live in. Fall in our little corner of Ontario.





What a beautiful weekend for Thanksgiving. Get out and enjoy it. It always does wonders to lift my spirit. The cool, crisp, fresh air and bright, clear skies, the COLOURS! Wow... GIVE THANKS!

Rice

Rice is something that I've come to appreciate the complexity of since living in Indonesia. Honestly, this is something that is central to life here, and not just for rice farmers, but EVERYONE. Most people EAT rice three times a day! Not to mention the economic impact, and subtleties of rice imports and exports (there are some funny trade agreement games, which basically amount to the fact that Indonesia is importing and exporting the SAME amount of rice... duh?) In fact, rice is so important here, there is a different word for each phase it goes through!

This is padi (the rice plant, still in the field) in the sawah (the rice field, which WE know as rice paddys... hmmm... maybe there was a problem in translation somewhere in history!?):



This is beras (un-cooked rice):




and THIS is nasi (cooked and ready-to-eat; notice the side-dish dollop of sambal - super-hot fresh chili paste... no Indonesian meal is complete without it):



and THIS is nasi goreng (fried rice with bits of yummy goodness - Martin's favourite):




The terraced sawah in Toraja, South Sulawesi make for beautiful scenery:



I used to love to eat rice in Canada... now... well, it's certainly not something I consider a specialty anymore... but I'm used to eating it daily (I stop at once... not THREE times a day!).


... oh, and of course, my mom reminded me that there was one kind of rice I hadn't mentioned in this post... FREE RICE! If this link isn't working, you can just type in www.freerice.com to go to the highly-addictive (newly expanded) online word game, sponsored by the UN.

The Ice Cream Guy!



The Wall's jingle came to embody daily life in Indonesia for me (certainly Manado, anyway)... you remember me talking about the array of mobile vendors with their various shapes and sounds (including the peanut vendor)... well, just like the good ole days at home, the Wall's ice cream jingle is the most distinctive, absolutely inconfundible. Whether he choses to walk, pedal or scoot, the ice cream man is always accompanied by the same polyphonic tune.



I'm sure we must've bought this ice cream man's quota for the day, hence his kindness in letting us stage this photo!

I apologize for my techno-incompetency here... Blogger doesn't host simple audio files, so I had to patch together a picture with an audio clip that I captured with my voice recorder... hey, I got THAT far at least... don't expect me to figure out how to format it to CENTER it on the page as well!?! Just enjoy the soundbyte.

SAGO

... since I'm still chillaxin' in B.C., I thought I would finish off a few blogs that I had started over the past year from Indonesia...


SAGO

Sago, or Sagu, is the staple food in the Indonesian province of West Papua (or at least, it used to be). Growing especially in coastal areas, sago palm trees (metroxylon sagu) are not planted by island or coastal residents, but simply harvested from the jungle. Rice is coming to replace sago in most of the coastal areas I've visited, although it is not grown in the area and has to be imported.




One Sago Palm yields enough sago starch to feed a family for weeks or even months.

There's no word for it in English... and there's no way to fully describe it, either.

Sago can be 'processed' and cooked in several ways... usually the tree is harvested and brought to the seaside for processing to extract the starch. The trunk of this palm has thorns, so usually the outer bark is removed (cafefully!) after felling the tree, and before it is brought to the shore. The inner core (or pith) of the tree is then chipped out to yield the high-starch raw material for processing. (This image is from Wikipedia... amazingly, I can't find a single one of my own in all my pictures!)



Update:  See this blog, which contains a little about our attempt to help in the processing of Sago on Biak Island, or this one, which delineates the entire process from a visit to Sarmi!

Sago flour is the most common result of processing, and this is what is then used in food preparation. I don't think it has much nutritional value – seems like your basic tummy-filling carbohydrate.

So far, I have eaten sago as 'papeda' (served with a yummy fish curry) and 'bagea', as explained in this previous blog.  The traditional ceremonial feast called "Bakar Batu"(literally, roasted rocks) often includes Sago as well.

As with most things on these islands, every part of everything is used, and so the Sago Palm leaves are also used in many villages to build rooves for huts.

Christina Lake



Our time at the lake was anything but boring... Mom & Dad and Auntie Barbi and Uncle Jacques made it wonderful! Sooo wonderful in fact, that ... I'm back! Martin had to head back to the Galapagos earlier than planned, so instead of staying 'home alone', I came back out to enjoy more time with family, and the fabulous weather. And although Martin is convinced that "Canada is nothing but pine trees", I think he enjoyed his time with us at Christina Lake, too! I think he was a bit disappointed he didn't get to see a live moose, though...



He got really good on the wakeboard after his rib healed from the incident early-on!


... and I got back into the swing of things as well...


... and I even convinced Martin to go tubing once!



In addition to water-skiing and wakeboarding, we had a great time, and kept pretty busy!

Diving - first fresh-(read COLD, like 4.5 Celsius COLD)-water dive for either of us... and first dive in Canada for that matter! To be perfectly honest, with all the hassle of gearing up (honestly, about 20 minutes) and the extremely limited (read practically NON-EXISTENT) life to be seen, I'm not sure it's worth it! ... but we had to at least try it once! I know, this pic is sideways... just pretend it's a trick I was pulling in the water (yeah, like with THAT much wetsuit on, you have any flexibility or maneuverability!?)!



Fishing - everyone is convinced that Martin talks the fish onto his hook! That kokanee was yummy!


Geocaching - i finally got to get some more caching done (my favourite passtime), and I even had the help of a few newbies! If you have no idea what I'm talking about and are interested in finding out more about this world-wide GPS treasure hunt, you can check out geocaching.com... but be forewarned: it's addictive!





The thing I love best about geocaching is that it takes you to all kinds of new and interesting places... and we re-discovered a bunch of stunning areas right in our own back yard!








Cycling - we pulled out the old-school bicycles, dusted them off, pumped up the cracking tires and went for a tour (great idea in the 30+ degree heat!)...




Food - well, this wasn't an activity, per say, but a big part of life at the lake! we had all manner of delicious meals which i had been missing in Indonesia, including a few French specialties, thanks to our in-house french connection (yummy Ratatouille and Boef Bourguignon)! The best part was preparing all the meals and eating them with family. Martin even made us his special 'nasi goreng' one night!

Congklat (chong-klat)

It sounds like the Indonesian word for Chocolate actually, but I'm not writing about food this time... Congklat is a very popular game in Indonesia, and in fact, all over Asia. Although it is also sometimes called Congkak, or Congklak, which means ‘cowrie shells’ (because those are used as playing pieces), it is thought that the name is derived from the ancient Malay word “congak”, which literally means “to count”… this makes complete sense given the nature of the game itself.

During our visit to Bema traditional village in Flores, Sigit and I came upon this lovely group of ladies sitting around chewing betelnut and playing congklat while shooting the breeze. Some of these are Sigit's pictures, some are mine.

Broken ribs...

Martin didn't get very many days wakeboarding before he pushed the envelope a little too hard, and (possibly) broke a rib, which layed him out for the better part of two weeks! I can't imagine how painful it must have been to actually keep him from the water!

Martin being silly one night we had spare ribs for dinner:

Indonesian Bathrooms

I have previously written about the squat toilet, as inspired by a sign on how to use a ‘western’ toilet in a mall, but when I got home to Canada I realized that I haven’t written about the Indonesian bathroom in general…

In coastal area villages, the bathroom is still basically an outhouse built out over the water (river, lake, ocean):




But in most areas aside from these, bathrooms in Indonesia tend to have a few things in common other than the squat toilet:

The MANDI

Most bathrooms do not have showers (except in modern homes and hotels)… so there is a MANDI. A bak, or tub, which is filled with water, and a scoop (gayung) used to scoop and pour water over your body with one hand while desperately trying to scrub and lather with the other before the next scoop has to be taken. The ‘mandi’ is one of the reasons I was thinking of getting my hair chopped off in the first few months in Indonesia (the other, as you can imagine, is the incessant heat)! This scoop also serves as the 'flush' for the toilet.


TILED SURFACES

The entire bathroom is tiled, from the floor, the bak, right up to head-height…. This is because of the bathing style of splashing everything everywhere… there are no limitations imposed by a shower stall or bath tub… no, no, you just rub-a-dub-dub on the floor! This is a somewhat liberating experience, but the toilet paper (which isn't traditionally used by Indonesians, so isn't normally an issue) usually ends up a soggy mess!




The BIDET

Only in fancier homes and hotels, but in most public toilets. Always fun for a laugh the first time a westerner tries to figure out what that extra knob or button is for while looking for the flush – usually ends up as an impromptu shower! The more complicated the system, the funnier the outcome! Since this hotel HAD a shower, it was easy to know what the extra spray nozzle was for!

Home again, Home again, Jiggity-jig!

We're BACK ON CANADIAN SOIL!!!

Transit in Taiwan... although we didn't have a long stopover, there was no lack of eye candy in the Taiwan airport! We enjoyed the free massage chairs most of all!



aaahhhh...


We arrived in Vancouver to a simple and painless customs process, and my cousin David waiting to pick us up! Although it was already about 9pm, of course it was still light out (something I haven't experienced for 2 years, and for Martin, a completely new phenomenon in his life!)

Since being at the cottage at Christina Lake, BC, our primary activity has been wakeboarding and waterskiing… Martin, of course, is a natural. He got up on the second try on the first day – faster than anyone else ever has in our experience!

gearing up:


he got right up the second try! (you can see our cabins in the background):










of course, Martin's learning process wouldn't be complete without a few wipeouts and faceplants!


But, boy do we ever wish we had a set of those massage chairs here at the cabin now!!! It’s a whole new set of muscles that have lain dormant for a little too long!