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!

Papuan Food Explorations

Papuan food explorations:

During our time at the Danau Sentani Cultural Festival, we had the opportunity to try a few Papuan 'specialties'...

Papeda - in fact I have tried previously, is made from Sagu (Sago) flour. Sagu is the traditional staple carb in Papua although it has come to be replaced by rice. In this state, as Papeda, it is akin to glue - bland, with no flavour; your classic tummy-filler! Definitely not a stand-alone meal! Depending on what it's paired with, it can be edible and worth a try... especially , as a dumpling in a yummy fish soup/curry, and to learn the proper serving technique (see Cecilia below).





Bagea - Sagu Cookies - also made from Sagu flour (below)... quite tasty this time, but when I tried them previously they were hard as rock. They had to be dipped in tea before eating; so i was told AFTER chomping down on one the first time, and a quick trip to the dentist!





Ulat Sagu (Sagu Grubs) – offered in the form of ‘grub kabobs’


Siput Danau (Lake Snails) - in my enjoyment I forgot to take a picture... but just as delicious as escargot!

Matoa - a fruit, also endemic to Papua. Not my favourite (it tasted a little too similar to durian to me!?).

Danau Sentani Cultural Festival

My last mini-holiday in Indonesia (complete with my Indonesia holiday buddy, Cecilia) was to attend the first ever Danau Sentani Cultural Festival in Papua. It was an absolutely incredible experience, and certainly worth the expensive plane ticket from Sorong to Jayapura (provincial capital)! This was the first time I had been to another area of Papua, and the short visit only convinced me of one thing: the need to return!

I think my festival pictures will tell more than words, enjoy!































Of course, since the 'koteka' (penis gourd) is used only in mountain tribes, we didn't see any authentic ones, but in the souvenir shops there were many for sale; we thought this one was most-interestingly shaped!


One evening we went into Jayapura (the provincial capital), and we even got to meet Michael, the runner-up for this year's 'Indonesian Idol' (akin to American/Canadian Idol, except Indonesians are really fanatical about it)! He was one of the stars of the show.


We were staying at the best place on the whole lake as far as we were concerned! We were even able to access the festival site (several kilometers away) by boat instead of walking and using public busses in the insane heat!