Monico Family Travels

Monthly Archives: May 2019

• First taste of Bali from a Monicofamilytravels guest blogger

  Posted at 12:32 am by sarahthorley, on May 26, 2019

  Note from Charlotte: please enjoy this guest blog from my aunt Sarah.  We were thrilled that she travelled so far to join us for 2 weeks just after we arrived in Bali, and she embraced the adventures, thrills and spills of Monicofamilytravels with the perfect balance of passion and calm!  We miss you Sarah, and thanks for writing and sharing your perspective with our broader friends and family. X0X

  Hello there. A glimpse of my adventure in Bali . . . . .

  

  

  

  I’m sitting at the table where we eat under a thatched roof in the garden surrounded by coconut palms and jungly vegetation and plants. A big lizard or maybe it was a gecko with a fiery red belly just scuttled past my foot. 

  

  The view from my bedroom window/terrace

  It’s hot and humid. A torrential downpour in the night, still dripping off the thatch on my bedroom verandah which looks out across emerald green paddy fields.  But now the sun is shining, a cool breeze is blowing and a chorus of cockerels crowing and many interesting wild bird noises. There’s the WAH WAH shout of the local bird scarer. He carries a hollow bamboo pipe which he beats as he walks to and fro in the field disturbing flocks of little chestnut brown and white munias gorging on the swaying rice fronds.

  Oh a brilliant iridescent turquoise kingfisher just flashed past and I’m watching it with my binoculars perched on a distant branch.

  [I’m going on the guided Bali Bird Walk soon.]

  

  

  Charlotte and James are having a yoga lesson at the end of the garden and Bella and Millie are up on the balcony learning Shakespeare and constructing a decahedron (I think) out of bamboo strips with Rob, their teacher. I’m due to help them with a Hinduism lesson tomorrow!

  

  

  When I’ve finished writing this, I’ll slide into the lovely big pool to cool off and get some exercise and I expect the girls will come and join me for a splash Pig in the Middle and riding the blow-up unicorn. Then it’s lunch and into town for a batik workshop . . . 

  

  

  James being ‘dressed’ for the temple

  It’s wonderful to beliving in a village and I can’t believe my luck that the village temple is at the end of our lane and these last two days have been ceremonial festival days! I heard the sound of drums and gamelans [we’re going for a gamelan lesson after lunch tomorrow] and went out to explore. As I stood peeping in at the gateway of an outdoor compound with high walls, full of noisy colourful activity, I was beckoned in. Everybody was surprised to see me but beaming and friendly. It’s a small village right off the beaten track and the people are so welcoming. James and I spent an hour in the temple yesterday wrapped in sarongs* that we were lent, to be allowed right inside.

  We were given breakfast snacks wrapped in banana leaves.

  

  

  I was fascinated by every minute of the devotions – the colour the sounds the prayerful chanting the dancing children the musical instruments joyful exuberant and peaceful. Hinduism as I’ve never seen before. 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  Our house is blessed by the house helper every morning and evening with incense and small offerings of grains, fruit and flower petals arranged lovingly on woven palm leaves.  Everything gets blessed with offerings. This morning it was the motor scooters which arrived for us to ride that were blessed and offerings of intricate palm leaf decorations tied onto the handlebars for our safety.

  

  

  

  Beautiful cove

  Big snorkelling adventure yesterday. Wading onto a small boat and speeding out into foaming ocean waves to an island. Just us and two Balinese guides. Anchor in remote hidden cove white sandy beach aquamarine water and a brave jump overboard in flippers and snorkel. Magical mesmerising world below . . . .  more beautiful coral and more myriads of stunningly exotic fish than even James and Charlotte have ever seen! BUT after about five intoxicating minutes I stuck up my head and the boat was quite far away and I was being dragged backwards by the current to the rocks, going backwards, not even able to swim on the spot, bit scary! Of course our guide was nearby so wasn’t really afraid but exhausting swimming, boat had to retrieve me. Bella and Millie are like fishes in the water, I’m so impressed and James and Charlotte diving really deep.

  After a light picnic on board, of tempe, rice, vegetables and water melon [provided] I tried again. They’d all found the current very strong but now it had changed and it was OK and brilliant. I absolutely loved it. Sunlight glinting through the water lighting up the shoals of tiny silver fish all around me, shimmering iridescent blue fish, big black and yellow flat fish, zebra striped fish, darting, twisting, zooming, floating every shape and size foraging on the extraordinarily beautiful corals. 

  

  Lunch!

  The second stop was a ‘drifting’ snorkel, you could float with the current and the boat picked you up 30 minutes later. A deeper shelving reef of coral here, equally wondrous variety of fish and no one but us. So focused on watching, looking, following a fish, feel as if you are alone in the world of the fish, a guest in their domain. 

  Last stop was a bit sad, nearer to a small port where you could see destroyed and dying coral. Still fish but depleted. Hairy getting off boat. Big waves, I almost fell in carrying bag and camera but somebody grabbed me. Amazing experience.  

  Bali massage scheduled for tomorrow. To get there, an hour travelling pillion on the back of James motorbike – yes me!

  

  I’m having such an adventure and it’s so lovely to share in a bit of the Monico Family epic Travels with them. Happy time with the family [especially to see my god daughter Millie] and I feel blessed to have come to this very fascinating and spiritual island. Look forward to seeing those of you I know soon, back home!

  Sarah Thorley

   

  Posted in Countries, Indonesia | 1 Comment

• Taking to the seas!

  Posted at 11:00 pm by Charlotte, on May 25, 2019

  Sarah has been the most wonderful easy, fun and accommodating guest to Monicofamilytravels, and it was a huge treat to fulfil her one big ask from the trip – to go snorkelling.  Fuelled with intel and intros from our Javanese volunteering friend Pras, we pre-booked a trip from a diving shop on Nusa Lembongan, an idyllic island located Southeast of Bali.

  Getting on the ‘ferry’ from the mainland to Lembongan was the first of our hurdles.  The picture below does no justice to the huge swell that day, and the ‘pull’ of the tide which dragged the sand away from under our feet. Unprepared, we had to wade thigh deep into the sea with our bags held high over our heads, and clamber over the 4 feisty outboards to get to our hard plastic seats.  It was one of those ‘sit-at-the-back-if-you-can’ boats to minimise bruised bum syndrome.  Luckily we are fully wised up to this tactic!

  

  Once transferred across Lembongan in the back of an open top truck, kitted out with equipment and dutifully taken on the key points from fairly minimal safety talk, we set sail again for our day of snorkelling.  We treated ourselves to a private boat so we could go at our own pace.  It was a dive boat though, so no comfy padded seats, just more bum-crunching as we sat on the sides and rode the waves.

  

  The day consisted of 3 different dive sites, and the first was in a spectacular cove which was described as being like a ‘fish tank’ under water.

  

  Ready to go!

  Sarah was next in after the girls:

  

  

  

  Our first shot at snorkelling in this first location was somewhat of a terrifying one.  The swell was huge and the current even stronger.  If you took a distracted moment to enjoy what was under the water, the next moment you lifted your head to find yourself pretty much out to sea.

  We were a somewhat concerned that we’d over-faced ourselves, but apparently the conditions can change in a matter of minutes, so we took a break, and went back in 20 minutes later for the most incredible snorkel of our lives. I’ve had more than my fair share of amazing reef-gazing experiences in the sea, and this one was tough to beat.  A highlight was the gigantic neon-coloured ‘fan’ and ‘brain’ corals which we hadn’t yet experienced in our reef surveys off Simelue.  It was impressive to see the reef in such good shape given the number of boats that had converged on this particular cove.  The array of fish was extraordinary.  Lots of regular favourites (Morrish Idols, Parrot Fish), and lots that were excitingly new to us.

  

  Next up was a spot of lunch!

  Our second dive was a drift snorkel, so very relaxing as we essentially floated with the current over the top of the reef for about 25 minutes until the boat picked us up again. The dive site interestingly consisted of a a cliff/shelf but unusually near the shore edge, so a wonderful drop-off and the chance to see some of the bigger fish that hang out in the deep.  When I escorted Emily back to the boat for a rest we found a humungous tuna hanging out just under the keel.  He was clearly hiding from the fishermen!

  

  Another short break, and then our 3rd snorkel.  As Sarah mentioned in her blog, this one was somewhat disheartening as the majority of the coral was dead.  Not so much bleached, but smashed to pieces from dynamite fishing.  This practice is no longer tolerated in Bali, but it takes a LOOOOOONG time for the poor reef to recover.  The waters were really shallow though, so it did give us a chance to scrutinise the fish close up, and enjoy following them going about their business so close up it felt like you could reach out and touch them.

  Just as we were climbing back on board our boat to head home, an opportunistic speed boat driver spotted Bel and Em, and correctly identified some willing customers for inflatable fun.  We were fairly unimpressed by his willingness to negotiate a fair price, but Amazing Godmother/Great Aunt Sarah stepped in and indulged the girls in some banana boat bezzing.

  

  

   

  Posted in Countries, Indonesia | 3 Comments

• Bali, Batik, BARC

  Posted at 10:21 am by Charlotte, on May 24, 2019

  

  View from the top balcony at Villa Arcadia

  Arriving in Bali, rather dazed and confused after a long visa-legitimising journey via KL from Medan (N Sumatra), we were greeted by this spectacular view from our Villa.  The new (and final) resting spot of Monicofamilytravels is surrounded by the best of Bali, with adjacent padi fields so green they make our eyes hurt, further bounded by dense natural jungle.

  Our location is away from the main

  

  The nearest street to our house

  tourist areas, and as the only rental villa in the village, and one thats new-to-market, we are a curiosity to the locals, and they couldn’t be more friendly and helpful.  As ever this opportunity to get a bit deeper into the local culture than would otherwise be possible during a regular vacation is exactly what we strive for during our longer stays.

  On our first night we went out to a fun local restaurant as an official celebration of my final signing of the contract for my new job (COO for Founders Pledge).  We ate on a pavilion overhanging a lake seething with koi carp, and watched the sun do down with some lurid cocktails and mocktails!

  

  After a good feed, we had our first play on some Balinese bamboo instruments.  The left hand one is a rindik, the right hand one….. we never found out.

  

  

  The biggest excitement of the week, after much anticipation, was the arrival of Sarah (or Great Aunt Sarah, or Godmother Sarah).  She embraced riding of the resident unicorn with great gusto.

  

  Bali is a land abundant with art and artists, so we decided to try our hand at batik as our exploratory effort in a creative direction.  We found ourselves a workshop in this glorious local house.

  

  

  Step one was to fill this little handmade wooden instrument full of molten beeswax….

  

  and then to drizzle the wax over pre-drawn lines on our fabric.

  

  

  

  It was mostly quite easy if you kept a steady hand, but ‘blobbing’ was a bit of a hazard when the instrument had just been refilled.

  

  

  Once we had traced all the lines it was time for tea!

  

  Stage 2 was to fill in all the areas you don’t want the dye to take with a paraffin wax.

  

  This process was definitely less fiddly than the first!

  

  

  

  Then we got to scrumple up our works of art, and Bella and Emily donned some unfeasibly large gloves to dip the fabrics in the dyes of our choice.

  

  

  

  After a quick boiling/cleaning process, here are the finished articles!

  

  Our one disappointment of the afternoon was the abundance of caged birds around the house.  This one kept doing somersaults of frustration, and we just felt like freeing him!

  

  Sarah was very gung ho and visited various local warungs (small family owned restaurants) with us.  This particular one was somewhat daunting as it had a Babi (pig) specialty, and a set menu which involved about 7 different small dishes each featuring a different element of pig.  Everyone still smiling below……before the food arrived.  It was actually delicious if you stopped wondering exactly anatomical element was currently in your mouth!

  

  

  Upon driving around the wider Ubud area, our hearts broke regularly for the hordes of mangy, pitiful-looking dogs that roam the streets.  The majority of dogs here have a place to which they ‘belong’ but this is not ownership in the Western context.  A Bali dog may ‘belong’ to a family, community, temple or business, but this does not mean that the people involved will necessarily give food or water or otherwise assume responsibility for its care.  While there are plenty that look healthy and happy, many Bali dogs have no choice but to scavenge food from rubbish dumps and temple offerings.

  More sinister, there has been a rise of rabies in the country, and the rabies-related deaths of 15 Balinese people led to yet another mass eliminations of dogs in the autumn of 2015 and raised questions about the coexistence of dogs and humans on the island.  This practice of culling (vs vaccination) is having an impact on the local Bali dog breed.  Though genetically related to the Australian Dingo, Chow Chow and Akita, the Bali dog is unique.  At the start of the rabies outbreak in 2008, the dog population in Bali was estimated to be approximately 600,000, and but fallen to 100,000 today.

  

  The heritage Bali dog

  The girls were keen to see what we could do to help local dogs, so we spent an afternoon at the BARC (Bali Dog Adoption and Rehabilitation centre) HQ.  We heard some horrifying stories of neglect from the wonderful staff there, and got the chance to cuddle the (very clean and friendly) dogs, as well as take a few of them for a walk.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  This (below) is Lady.  She was SOOOOOO skinny, but SOOOOO cute.  I better not join the next trip to BARC, as I might just not resist bringing her home with us.

  

  

  

  On our way home we stopped in spontaneously at a colourful local festival:

  

  Walking the streets we were saddened to see so many shops selling songbirds. We had learned from our time at Mahi Mahi how these rare birds are trapped in the forrest for this purpose, and many are now endangered.

  

  Back in territory where I can wear shorts again, I’ve restarted my early morning runs, although I have to say I have been a bit put off by all the rabies scares as we decided against that big bummer of a butt jab!  Whenever I make it though the morning views hit the spot as ever!

  

  Having our own pool, and consistently warm weather has been a huge treat.

  

  

  

  I did however see this squiggly guy swimming across our pool on day 2 and was mildly freaked out until I established that he is just a rice field snake, and only ‘mildly venomous’.  He also likes to hang out in the gazebo, and while I put on a very calm face in front of the girls when he shows up, I’ll be honest and say tend to choose the garden loungers these days…..

  

  

  Emily getting her chops around some dragon fruit!

  And having our fridge full of fresh coconuts grown in our garden and picked by the amazing Augus is an incredible treat!  We are all excited to make the most of bounteous Bali!

  

  

  

  

   

  Posted in Countries, Indonesia | 14 Comments

• Gentle giants

  Posted at 11:35 pm by Millie, on May 17, 2019

  The day started with breakfast in our lovely lodge with the rushing river behind us.  The fruit plates were amazing and had all different kinds of fruit.  My favourite was the passion fruit – it was tangy!

  

  Driving to he eleflumps we saw lots more horrible palm oil.

  

  

  We also a saw a spikey pineapple growing.  I thought they grew on bushes, so it was cool to see the real thing.

  

  Before lunch we swum in a not-so-amazing hot spring.  We had to swim across the bottom of a rushing waterfall to get to it and it wasn’t exactly worth it.  Or may be we were just lucky for having gone to a really amazing and super hot one 2 days before.

  

  

  Then we had lunch.  The food was OK, but the table was SOOOOOO OTT.  It was kind of them to decorate it, but a bit hard to eat!

  

  After lunch we walked to a local village.  We saw some huts where locals lived.   Their lives must be very different from ours.

  

  In the village there was an English club where we were expected to teach.  Me and Bella hid behind our new friend Jill.  Mummy and Daddy were really embarrassing.  They sang Head/Shoulders/Knees/Toes, and then the Wheels on the Bus.    They then sang Incy Wincy Spider, and it turns out the kids already knew that one!

  

  FINALLY we got to the eleflumps.  Here are 2 females.

  

  

  The first thing we saw them doing is a bit weird so get prepared……..   The mahouts took poo out of the elephants bottoms!!!  They stuck their arms the whole way inside and just scooped it out like it was casual!  The guide said it was because if they needed to put medicine inside they could, but we think it might have been to stop them pooing in the water.

  

  Next they got into the water and lay on their sides.

  

  

  

  

  We got brushes and started scrubbing them.  Their hair was wiry!  I thought it was going to be soft.  Their skin was rough like sandpaper.  They were all very quiet and gentle.  The one we got to wash was the big daddy with the humungous tusks.

  

  

  

  

  After we had finished washing him, he got to wash us!!!

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  Then we fed him little bits of pumpkin and banana.

  

  

  Then we got eleflump kisses!!!!

  

  

  Lastly we all lined up with the mahouts on their backs for a group shot.

  

  It was really cool to see little snippets of the eleflumps up close.

  

  

  

  Sadly the next day we had to say goodbye to our lovely lodge and to Sumatra.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  But Dad made sure we left with a bang and let off a little rocket!

  

  Note from Mum about The Sumatran Elephant:

  The Sumatran elephant is a subspecies of the Asian elephant; All Asian elephants are classified as endangered. The Sumatran elephant is under serious threat from illegal logging and associated habitat loss and fragmentation in Indonesia. The island’s elephant population longterm viability is jeopardised by rapid forest conversion to commercial plantation.

  Asian elephants are “flagship” species for their habitats, that is charismatic representatives of biodiversity within the complex ecosystems they inhabit. Because these large animals need a lot of space to survive, their conservation will help maintain biological diversity and ecological integrity over extensive areas and so help many other species.

  

  Here is a bit more info on the Sumatran Elephants

  

  And a bit more about the very worthwhile organisation that we supported with the cost of our day trip, and the purchase of some overpriced elephant sarongs!  One of the ongoing struggles we face on this trip is identifying ways to engage with conservation efforts in a way that is truly positive in every way (there so much out there which is labelled ‘eco’, but is really just ‘tourism’….fine unless its actually damaging to the ecosystems they purport to be supporting!

  Posted in Countries, Indonesia | 10 Comments

• Intimate encounters

  Posted at 10:12 am by charlottemonico, on May 15, 2019

  Having recovered from the ravages of our rafting adventure, our second intrepid mission from Bukit Lawang (a small backpackery village in North Sumatra)  was an overnight trip into the forrest in the hopes of seeing that most majestic of creature, the orangutan.

  We had an adrenaline fuelled start to the day 1 hike.  I’m not sure which was more exiting, nearly tripping over a deadly green viper before we’d even hit the jungle trail, or being escorted over the torrenting river by men in pants!

  

  Bukit Lawang means ‘door to the hills’, and boy was it hilly:

  

  We climbed up….

  

  And we scrambled down…..

  And then we did it again and again and again and again…..

  As ever there was a heck of a lot of cool stuff to see on the way:

  

  A whopper of a strangle fig

  

  I had a bit of a thing about the fungi

  

  He was particularly fine!

  Despite diligently tucking our leggings into our socks to stop the leeches getting up our trousers, we learned the hard way about our t-shirts!  Bella was the first to screech ‘LEEEEEEEEEECH’ as one had found its way all the way up her legs to her tasty bare succulent tummy…………..  Then about 20 minutes later exactly the same thing happened to poor Millie.  It did bleed really quite a bit.  Our guide’s remedy was to pull the side paper off his packet of fags – apparently its very absorbent and absolutely the best for stemming the blood flow.  Who needs that medi kit?!?

  

  

  As seasoned jungle trekkers by now, we knew all about rash-inducing hairy caterpillars, and more or less successfully avoided any direct contact with this fine fellow and his friends.

  

  We had a particularly lovely lunch spot with a natural vine swing to play on, and feasted on delicious nasi goreng (fried rice) and prawn crackers served in an environmentally friendly banana leaf!

  

  

  We saw SOOO many other monkeys on our quest to see the big orange primates.  Most common were the long tailed macaques, but we also saw quite a few funky mohicaned  Thomas Leaf monkeys (second from the left in the pics below).

  

  

  

  

  We saw plenty of Orangutan nests over the course of the morning (they make on average 3 per day to nap in), but not a peep yet of the actual beasts.

  In recompense a forest peacock showed up, but he would neither stay still long enough for an unblurry photo, nor display his fine tail feathers.

  

  Despite looking different from the western peacocks we are used to, these Sumatran guys make a remarkably similar squawking sound!

  After lunch, our group had one of those oh-so-common tricky decisions to make.  A fellow hiker had a heart condition and was struggling with the terrain, so we knew we needed to change something to ease the physical stress on him, and agreed to form 2 sub-groups.  Less clear cut was which route the full-health group should take to get to our overnight camp site.  News had arrived from another guide that there were 5 Orangutans about 10 minutes away.  Our guide seemed really unenthusiastic to go there, for reasons that became clear later.  When presented as an ‘almost guaranteed siting, plus a shorter route to the overnight camp’, despite the sense that there was a piece of the puzzle missing, there was really no way that the girls were going to opt for the ‘longer hike, plus some remote possibility of seeing ‘other’ orangutans’ option.  Hard to argue despite the loud tolling of my inner intuition alarm bells.

  So, soon enough we reached the recommended nearby location and 45 year old Mina appeared in front of us in a clearing!  She was magnificent, and it took my breath away when she first came into sight, but very quickly our guide’s reticence became elucidated.  Several of the Orangutang in this part of the forrest are rehabilitated ex-pets.  Most embraced their freedom whole heartedly, but indubitably as a result of tourism, Mina shows up most days somewhere easy to find, and takes food from certain guides.  She bites if she doesn’t get fed, and is smart enough to know that the guides are very wary (hence generous with the bananas and papaya) if she makes a move on any of the tourists).  Female Orangtang have the strength of 3 human men (males the strength of 5), so you really don’t want to mess with them!  We enjoyed seeing her from a safe distance, and then had to make a run for it when she came after us.  The whole experience seeing Mina at such close quarters was incredible, but left a sour taste in our mouth also.

  

  Luckily there were some other fully wild Orangutan in the vicinity of Mina, and we just revelled in seeing them go about their daily lives, entirely naturally.  There was a mother with a tiny baby who was using her as a climbing frame, and 2 youngsters playing rough and tumble together up and down the creepers.  It was so absorbing and wonderful to be watching these creatures in their world that we had to be dragged away when the light started failing.

  

  

  

  

  

  Beautiful photo spots around every corner!

  Getting to our overnight camping spot involved a lot of fairly hairy river crossings.  It might look calm, but the current was incredibly strong, and more than a few flip flops were lost along the way!

  

  But what an incredible sight when we finally arrived!  There was an impressive backdrop of jungle, a cooling stretch of white water to play in and rinse off the sweat/sun lotion, and (oh yes!), the cunning camp staff had brought a crate of beers to sell at highly inflated prices (we were more than happy to reward their entrepreneurship!).

  

  

  

  

  

  Here are the girls ‘playing’ in the rapids.  The current really was very strong such that I found it rather hard to watch, and was hugely grateful for the attentive eyes of our guides who were ever ready to dive in and rescue should they get carried away!

  

  Dinner was a very jolly candlelit affair

  After dinner of delectable pumpkin curry, fried chicken, fried bananas and rice, our wonderful guides entertained us with matchstick puzzle games by candlelight.  We had retreated under cover as there was a humungous electrical storm, and the battering of the rain overhead rendered chatting almost impossible.

  

  How quickly can you solve this one?  You need to move a single match to fix the sum so that it becomes mathematically correct.  The answer needs to be 4 and you can’t move any of the 6 matches on the far RHS (so don’t touch the equals sign or the iiii matches that are the ‘answer’ to the sum).  Good luck!

  

  Our hut was quite basic, and along with the rain, thunder, lightening cracks, and humungous baboon that kept thumping around on the roof, actual sleep was somewhat elusive.

  

  Its VERY rare to get a grumpy Bean in the morning, but even this stack-o-toast-and-fried egg failed to put a smile on her face after a somewhat sleepless night

  The girls opted to stay in camp for a couple of hours in the morning while James, I and a lovely fellow trekker, Jill went in search of more Orang Utans.

  

  Sister solidarity – staying at camp, sharing a rare chair, playing Crazy 8s

  After a couple of hours of excessively sweaty climbing/hiking, we came across Jakey.  She was another rehabilitated orangutan who still enjoys human contact, but is very much more gentle than Mina.  She has an eye for the gentlemen, and likes to take them by the hand and stay close to them.  She immediately picked out James as an eligible candidate, and they spent about 20 minutes together.

  

  He’s a keeper: Jakey holds on to Jimbob

  Jakey has a 2 month old baby who was adorable, and she tolerated me coming in for a group photo!  She was gentle, yet very powerful and so expressive.  Orangutan apparently share 96.7% of the same DNA as humans, so its unsurprising that we felt that we could relate to them so easily.  They are still endangered (threatened by loggers, farmers, poachers and pet dealers), but numbers in Sumatra have risen from 8000 – 12000 in the past 10 years, so moving in the right direction.  Meeting Jakey felt like an incredibly intimate and real experience.  Hopefully in one further generations time, all the orangutan in Sumatra will be fully wild, and no rehabilitated human-loving apes will be left wanting to hold our hands.  This experience with Jakey therefore felt even more special and unique.

  

  

  

  

  We got back to camp to find the girls in brighter spirits and ready for a mini-treck to the nearby waterfall.  We enjoyed a lovely cooling dip and a bit of a scramble round the back to launch ourselves out through the pounding water.

  

  

  

  

  Then our inventive guides found various coloured muds and soft rocks to kick off some face painting fun.

  

  

  

  

  

  I managed to escape the ministrations of the guides, only to get a personal adornment of my very own from my firstborn.  Couldn’t help feeling a bit zulu warrier with my warpaint!

  

  

  

  Back to camp for a final feast with our new hiking buddies Arden and Jill, and our festive guides.  They surpassed themselves with today’s fruit platter!

  

  

  The ride home involved piling ourselves and all our possessions onto a kind of tube ‘caterpillar’ and then launching ourselves down the river through some fairly hair-raising rapids.  Thank goodness for the adrenalin, as it was also really rather cold.

  

   

  Suffice to say we slept well that night, and have created memories of an incredible once-in-a-lifetime experience with creatures that inspire so much joy and admiration.

  Posted in Countries, Indonesia | 5 Comments

• Wonderful white water

  Posted at 12:34 am by Bella, on May 13, 2019

  Our first day back on mainland Sumatra we went white water rafting.  To begin the day we drove to the starting point but what was really cool was that we got to ride on the top of the car!  It was super fun because it felt like a rollercoaster with all the bumps on the road and we could see all the palm oil plantations we passed through, and tonnes of cows that looked too skinny.  It was windy and in the end we got too cold so we went inside.

  

  

  There was so much palm oil where there used to be forrest, and here are the skinny cows too:

  

  

  

  

  

  On the way we stopped off at a town to pick up our lunch, and daddy bought some fire crackers. This is what the town looked like.  They can balance a lot on the motorbikes here!

  

  

  

  

  

  It was a bit scary and dirty where they bought the fruit, but we survived!

  

  Here we are choosing fire crackers and fireworks

  When we arrived, the guides pumped up the boat and carried it down to the water.  

  

  The reason its called white water rafting is because where the water is deep you get lots of rapids and the top of the waves are frothy white.  When we went through the rapids we had to paddle forwards to stop the boat capsizing and us flying out.

  We stopped off at a stinky hot spring and swam in the boiling water.  It smelled of sulphur because the water came from inside the earth as there are lots of volcanoes in Bali.

  For lunch we stopped on a tiny cove at the side of the river with a little waterfall.  We ate off banana leaves and used our hands to eat.

  Here is our lovely lunch spot:

  

  

  We had yellow water melon for lunch which mummy got excited about because she had never seen yellow water melon before!

  

  At one point we had to get out because we were coming up a dam where they were building a hydroelectric power station.  Hydro power is good because its clean energy, but it can be bad because it often results in flooding of areas where people are living.

  We set off again through more rapids until eventually it was calm and they said we could go swimming.  There was still a current so we drifted like pencils through the water vertical all the way!

  It was a really fun experience, and it was nice to warm up in a hot shower when we got back!

  

  Here are Emily and me sleeping at the guest house where we were staying

  Posted in Countries, Indonesia | 6 Comments

• Farewell to Mahi Mahi

  Posted at 9:46 am by James, on May 12, 2019

  The sun is finally setting on our 3 weeks of volunteering, as we say a fond farewell to Tom, Fitri, Pras, Lenard and the rest of the guests who had been our extended family.

  For a volunteering program to work you have to have viable accommodation that us pampered Westerners can hack, and Mahi Mahi far exceeded that necessity and made it a pleasure to be on the program. The owners Jane and Luke have done a marvellous job of engaging with the local community so that at the weekend kids from the village come and play on the lawns and we are greeted in neighbouring villages with a wave. But island life also brings with it a community of animals, so at any time of day there are goats, dogs, lizards, chickens and herds of water buffalo wandering in off the beach to join in the fun … and the yoga given a chance.

  

  Water buffalo doing volley ball

  

  Goats doing yoga

  Our time here was made by the efforts of Tom and Pras, and the endless smiling and positivity of Fitri, who joined us on our trips and spoke to the various headmen to get permission for us to do our walks and surveys.

  Tourism on Simeulue is driven by the barrel rolling waves, that cast off long trails of white spray from their tips, and draw dedicated surfers from LA to Sydney. The surfer is however a curious creature: the Australian variety is an extreme sort and one evening 3 of them appeared covered from head to toe in mud from a good ‘ol Auzzie mud wrestle, and proceeded to chase a remarkably agile baby goat around the lawns before throwing themselves into the swimming pool where they found a poor unfortunate toad to kiss. The toad did not seem to mind, and unfortunately for us did not turn into a prince. Most of the other enthusiasts are from the other extreme and love yoga and nature, and great coffee. Perfect.

  Tom was delighted when we arrived as there had been no volunteers staying here for a while; to water down the surf chat, which goes a lot like this …

  “Check out that peak. Ain’t that sick”
  “Yeah man, the left hander is really gnarly, but the right hander is totally sick”
  “Dude, I snapped my last board on the left hander”
  “Ohhh … that is totally gnarly”
  “No worries man, you can borrow one of mine”
  “Dude, that is so sick”

  Life at Mahi Mahi is very tempting if you can take the relentless +30°C heat. There are volunteers who have worked here for 3+ years and, those who are planning to make their life here. When you see the island from the water you can see why; it just looks lush, with rolling hills covered with primary rainforest. For those who are considering a life change and can hack the surfer chat …

  

  The island of Simeulue etched into the wooden table

  

  Amazing yoga teacher Jonny, Tom and us

  

  Never get tired of that view

  

  The girls, with Tom, Rob, Lenard and Jonny

  

  Mango, 2 x Banana, Dragonfruit

  

  Goldie had never had it so good

  

  A badge of honour

  

  Picture perfect island

  These islands were hit hard by the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami as they were at the epicenter of the quake that changed the shape of the island and the reefs around it. Fitri told us her story … she was young at the time, and the earthquake lasted 15 minutes during which you could not stand properly as the ground was shaking so much. Some of the elders in the village had experienced big quakes before, and called for everyone to climb the hills behind the beach as the tide started to draw back. Within 30 minutes the big wave came that entirely destroyed the village and covered the whole area with sand, flattening the land where the Mahi Mahi resort now sits (it was built in 2010). Fitri and her family lived for the next week by eating berries in the forest, before help and supplies started to come in.

  In reality the program at Mahi Mahi sits somewhere between volunteering and immersive eco tourism, which was a good balance for the family. The girls had school each morning, so a two hour impact activity in the afternoon was the max for them, and for Charlotte and I an additional few hours in the morning worked well. Through the surveys we completed we saw how fragile the coral reef is to the forecast global temperature rises. We saw that the nests of Green and Leatherback Turtles (whom are both at risk of “extinction in the wild”) are poached by people who have very little, and want to eat their eggs, and how tropical birds and fish that can’t breed in captivity are taken for fish tanks and bird cages across the globe. This certainly had a profound affect on us, and although we aren’t about to chain ourselves to a tree we want to look for a way we can make a difference going forward.

  Posted in Countries, Indonesia | 7 Comments

• Bangkaru or bust

  Posted at 2:10 pm by James, on May 8, 2019

  There are few places left on this planet that are untouched by the human hand. One of these places is Pulau Bankaru, an island at the very Eastern edge of Indonesia. It is said to be cursed;  only a handful of people have cut down a tree there, and all died a horrible death. It is also home to the turtle conservation project that Mahi Mahi funds. Jolly good then, lets go there!

  This adventure has had an emotional build up for the family, as Millie does not like boats. The problem with islands, is that they need boats. The problem with islands in Indonesia is the boats that appear are pretty unexpected, borderline adequate for the job they are doing and the seas are at the whims of a near constant barrage of tropical storms that blow in from the South East. Charlotte in her usual amazing way has coached Millie to confront her fears, and at least get on the damn thing if supplied with copious amounts of sugary snacks.

  We set off to the town of Sinabang, the “big smoke” on the island, and home to around 20,000 island inhabitants. Given that a storm was brewing, we stocked up on ponchos and other travel essentials.

  

  Stocking up on travel essentials …

  On the day before our departure our guide Ricky turned up in a bit of a mess. His eyes were bloodshot from being out fishing all night, and he was stressed as one of his family had been hurt in a moped accident. We managed to glean from him that the regular overnight ferry was in dock for repairs, and we would have to take another that crossed further up the coast … this would add a long drive on the mainland to connect to a speedboat that would get us to Bangkaru and push our travel dates further towards a big inbound storm. And another little thing, that due to this change there were no private cabins available for the family to sleep together, so we’d be bunking local. Can’t be that bad, right?

  Our intrepid party of Tom, the amazing volunteering program lead, the lovely Pras, a divemaster who had just arrived at Mahi Mahi to help on the volunteering program and Ricky, the fixer who knows someone somewhere and everywhere set off to catch the overnight ferry. Charlotte, Bella and Millie were dressed in the long shirts and long trousers appropriate for this conservatively Islamic place, and each sucked in a deep breath as we arrived at port and were confronted by a big hulk of a ferry and a swarming mass of overloaded trucks, motorbikes, animals and families waving goodbye to their loved ones. We threw ourselves into the sweltering night; sharpening our elbows and working our way through the crowds and stares to the loading ramp.

  

  All aboard! The calm before the storm.

  On the grand scheme of things, we know we are privileged to have any cabin space at all. As we wade through the throngs, the deck has already been marked out by families, laying down mats to sleep on. Ricky guides us through to two cabins just behind the main deck where I say goodbye to the girls and hello to the boys as we split male/female. It turns out the boys lucked out, as we are approximately 2 to a bed … for the girls it started at about 3, and by the end of the night, after the big storm rolled in, they are up to 4 as anyone sleeping on deck had to beg and plead for some kind of shelter.

  

  

  This provides ample opportunity for hilarity, and endless selfies, including the girls actually being woken up for a selfie with their jolly and enthusiastic roomies.

  

  A beautiful dawn breaks over the mountains of Sumatra

  Ahead of us lay a 6-hour minivan transfer and a 4-hour speedboat ride, and as the morning slipped away while we waited for the transfer we realised we were not going to make it today. At the same time the weather for the following day was getting worse with rain and high wind forecast. This was about to get gnarly (surfer speak, for very challenging). We plugged the girls into Audible for the transfer, and supplied on demand snackage. The next challenge was to find a hotel for the night and having been turned down from a couple of reasonable looking places, through sheer desperation, we settled for a night at the Island Hotel.

  

  A bit of a fixer upper … Fortunately the chap having a smoke had checked out.

  Through luck the girls room remained fairly mosquito free, though unluckily the mozzies chowed down on tasty Rob (thanks, mate). At first light we locked and loaded onto a couple of motorickshaws to go meet The Captain, and start our journey to Bangkaru as soon as possible as the wind and waves were picking up.

  

  All wrapped up and good to go … see ya later.

  When we got to the boat it turned out not to be quite the speedboat of dreams, but nonetheless a solid and remarkably buoyant looking craft to cross a few hundred km of open sea in. The Captain also did not wear a life jacket, which is confidence inspiring, right? However, The Captain did not like our odds of getting to Bangkaru as it sits unprotected on the eastern edge, and hence the swell here is bigger, so we’d scratch that plan and go to Pulau Tailana where we were planning to go after Bangkaru. As we left port, the rain started, so we donned our ponchos and buckled down for the ride. As we have seen at other hard parts of the trip; like when we had nowhere to sleep in the insect infested jungle, or when we were thrown off the river taxi in Brazil to fend for ourselves in an unknown town, it really brings the best out in the girls. Despite Millie not liking boats, she remained smiling the whole way through and kept us entertained, while Charlotte and I gripped onto our seats ‘till our knuckles went white.

  After a 5-hour roller coaster ride, with the boat taking in water from all sides, and much to The Captain’s relief we arrived at the picture perfect island of Tailana where Mr Mahi and his family live. If you ever need to run away from life, and are accepting of simple living, then look no further.

  

  

  

  

  For the next few days we battened down the hatches as the storm raged on. A sign of the turbulent seas is that a number of local fishing boats were moored up for shelter inside the island’s reef … well, either that or they were keen to catch a glimpse of Charlotte in the outdoor shower by the mooring point. So we kept a beady eye on them as our barometer of calm seas as without a change our hopes of getting to Bangkaru to see the turtle protection project were likely to be dashed.

  

  After the storm. The beautiful island of Tailana, home to Mr Mahi and his family.

  It was great to have Pras on the adventure with us, as using his conservation skills, we tried out a number of techniques for surveying the reef at Tailana, with the hope of finding an approach that other volunteers could follow. We had a lot of fun, and drank a lot of saltwater, getting to grips with the pesky CoralWatch laminated colour charts that gauge coral bleaching.

  

  Bellafish in action

  

  Anyone remember how to snorkel?

  

  The CoralWatch kit

  Happily, the reef at Tailana was not bleached, so the water here had likely not reached the temperature at which the coral polyps expel the algae that lives inside their tissues, making the coral turn white. Pras’ dive computer registered the temp at 30°C, so there’s a couple of degrees to play with here.

  As the days slipped by the reality slowly dawned that we were not going to make it to Bangkaru, as the expectation was that the waves would still be too big to land the boat on the beach. This was a genuine disappointment for the family as we had chosen to volunteer here predominately for the turtle conservation, and although we were happy that by joining the program we were providing financial support, we thought it would have had a bigger impact on the kids; and frankly it would be AWESOME to see a big mamma turtle come and lay her eggs. Our emotions flipped from anger to annoyance to acceptance, which is a bit ridiculous, but all who know us know that Charlotte and James do not like to fail! For the family as a whole it was a good lesson about how to deal with disappointment, keep our chins up, and make the most of whatever we are blessed to have.

  Fortunately our way home was much smoother, literally and figuratively, with glassy seas and blue skies we speedboated back to port in half the time it took to get out in the storm. On our way we passed the home of the Bajau tribe, who are semi-nomadic seafaring people. Their hulking tri-meran boats jostled together at the foot of the makeshift village, who’s rusty tin roofed houses clung precariously to the land, desperate not to fall into the sea.

  

  Bajau fishing boat relaxing in the calm waters.

  We had a last moment of entertainment as we motored around the headland into the river estuary, to approach the port. The Captain was finally defeated in siphoning the last drips from each of the boat’s petrol tanks, as the engine spluttered to a thirsty halt within sight of the port. Again, the girls were very cool about this, especially Millie, who does not like boats (was this adventure was therapy or torture!?!). Charlotte and I were relieved that we ran out here, in the relative shelter of the estuary, rather than out in the swell. A few animated phone calls later, and The Captain has got one of his mates in a fishing boat to mount a rescue.

  

  Cheers mate! Getting a tow back to port. So close, but yet so far.

  The adventure overall was challenging, exciting and rewarding, and huge credit to Tom, Pras and Ricky who attempt these missions in a place where you never know what spanner is going to be thrown into the works. We got closer to what real life is like for many an Indonesian through the ferry experience, and saw again that in the face of adversity the girls are at their best.

  Posted in Countries, Indonesia | 9 Comments

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