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We have new photos up.

The links to the galleries are below.

Australian Aid School Building Project - AUS AID has committed to help build 2,000 schools in Indonesia over the course of the next 2 years.

Indonesia this Morning on Metro TV - Our first international TV appearance.

Tioman Island, Salang, Malaysia - This island was the setting for Bali Hai, it was also voted by Time magazine as one of the top ten most beautiful islands in the world.  We did some diving on their pristine reefs and marine reserves.  This is a place on earth not to be missed.

For all you guys out there that only get a chance to look at our website once a week or less and miss out on a lot of the daily updates, we have decided to start doing a "Weekly Update" post.

To start I’m going to give you the highlights from the last week or so while we have been in Indonesia.  After spending a few days relaxing in Bali, the Indonesian tourist mecca, we headed to Yogyakarta… which is pronounced "Jogja".  While in Jogja, the Steve’s and Elena climbed Mt Merapi, Indonesia’s most active volcano. Other highlights included eating snake curry which consists of Cobra and Python meat. We could have simply indulged in snake curry off the menu, but wanted to find out a little more about the tradition of eating snake so we met up with Purwo "The Snake Charmer".  Purwo showed us the art of charming a cobra and also showed us how to kill it and drink its blood. Yeah that’s right blood… both the Steves and Elena drank the Cobra blood. I decided to sit that one out but i did enjoy the snake curry once it was cooked. 

After Jogja we pushed on to Indonesia’s capital city Jakarta also one of the world’s most polluted cities. While in Jakarta we filmed a story with Australian Aid on the building of new schools and the following day we made our International Television debut on "Indonesia this Morning" which is kind of like their version of Good Morning America. 

We are now in Singapore waiting the arrival of our cars…. what a week!!!

Purwo - The Snake Charmer

Indonesia This Morning

Setting off at 10pm, we met our guide and his friend who had a car the would take us on the two hour drive to Selo. Since we did not go through a tourism company and being that we were in Indonesia, this seemed relatively normal. This feeling did not last long. Slowing down at every cross street, the driver tried to discern if it was the correct one. After a few street inspections, he threw the car in reverse satisfied that the chosen road would do. With a manual transmission and the steep road, stalling seemed inevitable. It seemed the driver did not realize that lower gears work better for steep climbs or perhaps he just wanted to see how low he could get the RPM’s to go before the vehicle would come to a complete stop. At some point during this windy and jerky drive Steve woke up and looked around.  Moments later the driver commented, “Go back to sleep boss.”  Thoughts of kidnapping and ransom flickered through my thoughts as the car struggled up small roads in the dark of night.

Eventually the car pulled into Selo, the small village at the base of the climb.  At this point the guide said we should rest at his friend’s house before we set out for the top of the volcano in a couple of hours. Masks adorn the walls around the couch were five men were riveted to Jaws III on TV. We took a seat and tea was served. Forty-five minutes later after unsuccessful attempts at sleep we were roused. The guide said that we could borrow flashlights from his friend. At our request the perplexed man poked around until he scrounged up one old flashlight for Steve and I to share. Our original English speaking "guide" had already settled into the comfort of the couch and indicated that the two youngest men in the room would now be our guides. This made me uneasy because our "salesman" gave us the impression he would personally take us up the volcano and the new guides were not well versed in English.

After spending nearly two months in Australia, it was a welcome change to disembark the plane in Denpasar, Bali Indonesia. Although the flight from Darwin, Australia to Indonesia was only about two hours, these two locations are a world apart. Prices and the general cost of living differ dramatically. In Darwin, an average hostel bed costs a little over $20. In Indonesia, you can find complete private rooms for less than $3. A night out in Australia consisting of run-of-the-mill cuisine and a few drinks can cost as much as $50, but in Indonesia, you can have an excellent dinner complete with freshly caught seafood, filet mignon and a bottle of wine for as little as $10. Obviously, the prices are some of the most dramatic and apparent differences you experience, however after spending time on Bali and later Java, it is the more subtle differences that I really started to notice and reflect upon.

Coming from the West, we have the luxury of being able to splurge and live lavishly for relatively little, yet this is a life that is as foreign to many of the locals as the visitors that arrive in their country. The police officer at the airport makes about $1,000,000 Rupiah a month. Although technically he is a millionaire, this translates into only about $100 per month and most Indonesians survive on much, much less.

Indonesia is a land of friendly people, a land that is a culturally unique and diverse in its geography. It represents a land where people live a much simpler life than the one I am used to, yet appear to lead a more fulfilling one. Family is very important and community is highly valued. The simple yet peaceful existence of the rice farmer tending to his fields and carefully managing delicately crafted terraces carved into seemingly impossible slopes is a life I admire. Examples of resourcefulness can be found just about everywhere.

The irony is, just as much as I admire and respect aspects of life here in Indonesia, the locals I have spoken to admire and long for life in America. Part of this may be the desire for more economic opportunities and freedom and maybe another part is the desire to lead a life that is visibly portrayed throughout Indonesia on television. You don’t have to go far to find hit American shows like Lost and CSI complete with Indonesian subtitles. There are also several Indonesian programs modeled after those in America. Right now, Indonesian Idol is one of the most viewed and talked about shows.

As much as I wanted to move away from the life I led back in the States, there are numbers of people who want it. Obviously this is not a new revelation, but talking to people about it first-hand gives it new meaning. Seeing what life is like in other countries often makes you realize how much of your life you take for granted. At the same time, seeing how other people and cultures live also makes you question the your life values and whether or not the one you have led is the best. It is this perspective on life that you can only truly explore by exploring other cultures.

I have become somewhat attached to my new home for the next 2 years… It’s not your average size house but it does have wheels, so i guess you could call it a mobile home or a trailer. My home is a 2007 Toyota Tundra… we call her Thundra and my room is the passenger seat. It’s somewhat of a tight fit but the views outside the window always make up for that. It comes equipped with a rockin stereo that the local people are lovin when we pull into town blasting NWA "Straight out of Compton."  The Thundra is more then just a roof over my head. She is my trusty steed that will guide me through the highest mountain passes in the Himalayas and keep me cool while traversing the Sahara Desert in Africa. Unfortunately the world is not all by road there are a few points where we have to ship the cars.

I never thought I would find myself so attached to a vehicle that I would experience a sense of withdrawal when separated from it. We now find ourselves "Homeless" in Indonesia while our cars are on a boat somewhere bobbing along the ocean in route to Singapore. Without our cars we are just like every other tourist stuck on the well worn tourist path where everything is summed up in some sort of package tour where your probably the 5 thousandth person that year and the 200th person that day to see the same thing in the same way. The freedom that our cars give us is now becoming clear, I think when I see those Toyota trucks roll of the ship in Singapore I might just get down and kiss the ground they drive on.

—-Unfortunately, I wrote this blog about a week ago…we just found out today that the ship was delayed.  We will have an extra week without the trucks:(