Mount Bromo - Tengger - Semeru National Park - East Java

Sunrise Just after the partial lunar eclipse (which I didn't get a picture of... my lens just isn't happy with so little light... sorry... it's in the memory card of my mind and it was an unexpected surprise)

Sunrise on Volcanoes: Mt. Bromo is the steam pot in the foreground, last time it exploded was in 2004, now it is just a pot of steaming sulfur and ash... after the sunrise view we drove down then hiked up the 276 steps to the rim, to take in some sulfur... breath deeply... Aaaaaaaah

Mt. Semeru: The highest mountain in Java

The Legend: According to a local folk tale, at the end of the 15th century princess Roro Anteng from the Majapahi Empire started a separate principality together with her husband Joko Seger. They named it Tengger by the last syllables of their names. The principality did prosper, but the ruling couple failed to conceive children. In their despair they climbed Mount Bromo to pray to the gods, who granted them help, but requested the last child to be sacrificed to the gods. They had 24 children, and when the 25th and last child Kesuma was born Roro Anteng refused to do the sacrifice as promised. The gods then threatened with fire and brimstone, until she finally did the sacrifice. After the child was thrown into the crater, the voice of the child ordered the local people to perform an annual ceremony on the volcano, which is held today. Another version has the child throwing himself in after the mother refuses.

Motorcycle Mania! It was motorcycle weekend at Mt. Bromo, hundreds upon hundreds of motorcyclists flocked to Bromo to struggle through the ash all the way up to the view point.

Nature's Feng Shui

View looking down from half way up to the rim of Bromo: given that it was Indonesia's national day, it seemed very appropriate that this lone horseman was draped in the national flag

Local landscapes

Independence day games: the pool was full of fish and the kids had to catch them with their hands and throw them in buckets as fast as they could... it looked like a lot of fun!

Independence day smiles :)

Just Arrived in Jakarta...

Just arrived in Jakarta after... (six reasons I love travel, really, I don't mind these things, I feel it's all worth it in the end)

1) being forced to leave one bag behind in Geneva or pay $500, and this was their "special price just for me" (in a hurry... so who knows which bag I ended up with and what will be in it when I arrive) One lesson learned: five star airline means five star hidden prices.... I don't have a five star pocket book and offend the five star check in staff when i refuse to pay five star baggage fees.... five star just ain't my thing...

2) I ran full speed to catch plane to Doha (after baggage fiasco) only to get on the plane and sit on the tarmac for 1.5 hours

3) a dusty, humid, hot, hot, hot day in Doha... wondering where all the Qatari's are out there on the street... they were all at the mall, eating at Applebees... ummm yeah, not excactly the cultural experience I was looking for, but very enlightening nonetheless...

4) When leaving Doha, not only did the Qatar Airways baggage Natzi's weigh my hand baggage and reject it (even though I had come from Geneva with the same hand baggage, they made me check my carry on, but luckily didn't try to charge me $500 like when I checked in in Geneva with two bags) I learned this was only because they didn't know about my original bag because they had lost it somewhere in Doha, it still wasn't located when I boarded the plane

5) 11 hours of woman puking on me (literally, the flight staff had to ask her to quit sleeping on my tray table so they could set my food down, she was non-responsive.... I felt for her, I did, I let her sleep on my shoulder, but oh the smells, the sounds and the thoughts of my upcoming illness...Oi!)

6) Prayers were answered, luggage found in Jakarta, ride picked me up... now at the hotel and vewy vewy tired.... ZZZzzzzzzzz

Will fill in the gaps later.... ZZZZZzzzzz

P.S. does anyone know how much 2 million Indonesian money is? (yes, I've lowered myself to calling it Indonesian money, so unclassy I know, but im tired, jetlagged and even wikipedia feels like too much effort right now)... yeah... and this many zero's and my mind gets all boggled... maybe they can just take off a few zero's or something... well I hope 2 million isn't my life savings because I just took it out of my account, but the ATM let me do it so it must not be too much... see I've been traveling so much lately I've overlooked some of these details, well actually I did have the exchange rate written on a post-it-note with the precise amount I should withdrawl when I arrived... only it dissapeared in the baggage fiasco and there was no way I could remember a number with that many digits...so I just pushed a number on the ATM that looked good and 2 million sounds cool... I don't think I've ever had 2 million of anything!

Last night at VC

It's hard to believe that I lived at Voie Cruese for 13 months! This is the last night... with my classmates, flatmates, neighbors & friends... a quick impromptu get together and snap shot amidst the chaotic packing... days we will always miss :)

The Dombes

July 2008. Four women trek out on their own into the wilds of France to experience fine french cuisine and take in some the lush French countryside and exotic wildlife... this is their journey...

Setting the stage: nearly two hour drive from Geneva to the Dombes, found the perfect quaint little town, where next to the stone church with steeple we find the perfect little restaurant with tables set out back under shady canopies with a view of the green cow pasture and the wilderness beyond...You are about to witness four women partake in four hours of carnage... I mean four hours of fine French cuisine...

Round One: whet your appetite with cured ham atop slices of melon drizzled with something or other... it was kind of sweet and sticky... the melon was great but the ham a bit strong and knowing what was ahead of us I couldn't eat but only a small fraction of a piece. Celine saved the day when she suggested that we wrap the ham up in a bun, wrap that in a napkin and put it in someones (my) purse... these sorts of things are never embarrassing to students, having lost all our pride, but usually frowned upon in fine French restaurants... even if they are in the country-side... we did it when no one was looking.

Round Two: a duck pate garnished with cream sauce and escargots I tried them. I will try anything at least once.

Round Three: Drumroll please...... .... ... ... FROG LEGS!!!! Ok. Someone got the terminology a little mixed up because these little guys were not just frog legs, they were frog arms and frog bodies... basically all the frog but for the head. Can't see it from here?... take a closer look...

How 'bout them frog legs? Okay they were very fried and very garlicy, and one has to pick through the little bones and I'm not a fan of eating around the bones, especially with memories of 9th grade biology class and what we did to frogs back then... but as I said, I will try anything once. I was done by frog number three, but Celine reminded me that that is why we came and I couldn't wrap them up and take them in my purse... so I ate lots more, it seemed like they were breeding in the pan, I just couldn't get to the bottom.

Round Four: Roast Chicken with the loveliest sauce and the most devine mushrooms known to man (and I am not a mushroom fan, though after this I was considering getting a pig and doing a little truffle hunting myself). And in the far corner these little corn cake things that I forgot the name of. I liked those. Mmmmm.

Round Five: Fresh homemade yogurt. Also called wet cheese (as opposed to the dry cheese down below) It was very, very good.

Round Six: Dry cheese. Now I am a cheese lover like anyone else, but this cheese was a little too French for me. They were all moldy. Like hair growing off of them moldy... it was so against everything that is programmed into my ape brain to eat something that had gone off to that point. If you are French I apologize but I think eating rotten food is an acquired taste.

Round Seven: Dessert! Look at that... Need I say more...

Counting... We've been eating for over FOUR hours... I now have SEVEN animals in my stomach... THERE IS A ZOO IN MY STOMACH... speaking of zoos, we better get to parc des oiseaux before we don't have time to see all the wildlife, afterall, that's what we came for, the fine French cuisine was just an afterthought, or a forethought or whatever...

Four lovely ladies at the bird park... what an adventure this is going to be!

Things I learned from the birds #1: If you have an itch, scratch it.

Things I learned from the birds #2: Hate looks an awful lot like love "mommy those flamingoes are in love"... um no. Those are two males fighting over one female. Gotta hand it to those birds the numbers are sure in the ladies' favor...

Things I learned from the birds #3: If you are cute and you know it then your face will surely show it... if you've got it, use it!

Things I learned from the birds #4: If you see three goofy birds on a log... take a picture.

Lesson learned: Three goofy birds on a log here...

Ummm a photo shoot gone wrong... and we were doing so well!

Of course this is how we are used to seeing Celine...

Until she learned that other people can take pictures of her too...

She also learned that her camera can take pictures of others as well!

And that other peoples cameras take pictures of other people too... this was the highlight of the Kirstin photo shoot.

The Michal photo shoot... isn't she lovely!

Yes, yours truely hamming it up for the camera (obviously I am used to being on the other side of my camera) and yes, the ham is still in my purse.

Geesh! We came here to see wildlife... turns out we ARE the wildlife!