Komodo Trip, Part 1

For our long anticipated spring break trip, we chose a true Indonesian adventure - a live-aboard boat cruising around Komodo National Park!  We had been looking forward to it for months and the 2 hour flight from Jakarta to Labuan Bajo amped up the excitement even more.  When we started flying over islands like this we knew we'd found an amazing vacation spot.

 

Plus, no flight over Indonesia is ever without amazing volcanoes.  Turns out this was Mt. Sengeang and we'd get a great view of it later on our trip.

 

Welcome to Komodo Airport!  We chose to spend our first night in a hotel in the small town of Labuan Bajo so that we could enjoy a full first day aboard the boat.

The beach was nothing to speak of but the pool was nice and vacation relaxing commenced immediately.

Every vacation should start with a rainbow!

 

Our first sunset over the islands of East Nusa Tenngara.

 

To give you a brief overview of all the land we covered, I went back and marked out our days.  Most of the time we didn't have cell service so we couldn't even look up a map but part of the adventure was having no idea what was ahead.

 The boat company picked us up from our hotel and as luck would have it, two other families from school were on our flight, staying at the same hotel, and using the same boat company!  We even picked the same restaurant for dinner before we all left.

We loaded up our little dinghy at the marina (later affectionately named the Li'l Leaker by the kids because it constantly took on water) and set out to our boat.

Our living room and bedroom for the next four days.  The fresh muffins and brownies were warmly received by the younger crowd!

 
 We set sail from the island of Flores and began our journey!  We had a crew of three onboard - the captain, the cook, and the guide.  They really didn't tell us anything about what to expect the first day so we were just up for whatever adventures awaited. (And even though it wasn't a large boat, I was amazed at how these guys could disappear and make it feel like we had the boat to ourselves...gotta admit I was a bit worried about being the lone female sharing a bathroom on a boat with 6 males!)

Ready to explore!  The breeze and the views on the upper deck were incredible.

We arrived at our first snorkeling stop - Kelor Island.

 The water was chilly and clear and we couldn't wait to see what was in it.

 It was shallow and felt like swimming in an aquarium.  Fish of every color all around us.

 

Love spotting a lion fish!

The boys enjoyed the snorkeling but can't ever resist digging in the sand.  I think I have about a dozen pictures like this on different beaches from our trip.

I found a pretty little gem!

 We got back on the boat happy and tired from our first swim and were so excited to find out that wonderful smell was our lunch.  Lunches and dinners were quite an event.

 

I'm not exactly sure where our next stop was but I believe we were on the coast of Flores.  There were hundreds of starfish in a variety of colors here.

Pretty fish but the water was a little more cloudy and the waves were a bit bigger, so Alex didn't last long snorkeling.

Instead, the kids discovered their new passion - jumping off the boat.

 

This never got old for the entire trip.  As long as the water was clean and deep, they were flying off.

 

Our Jakarta friends' boat anchored near us and the kids synchronized their jumps for the rest of the afternoon.

We cruised along to Pulau Papargaran (I think) to catch the sunset and an amazing daily event.

Thousands upon thousands of massive flying foxes take off at sundown each day.  It was pretty spectacular.

Not a bad way to wrap up our first day on the water!  We stayed out on the deck watching the flying foxes until we couldn't see them anymore and enjoyed the stars appearing.

The boat anchored at Nusa Wainatu for the night so we got to wake up to all new scenery.

Family Fun Fair

We enjoyed our first Family Fun Fair, which is a huge school carnival and fundraiser for many organizations on campus.  We saw lots of friends and had a great time wandering through the fun.

 

I understood why the baseball games were cancelled - the FFF took up both fields and the soccer field as well.  Lots of inflatables and games for the kids to enjoy.

Surprisingly enough, the first thing Ben wanted to do was ride the (tiny) horses.  

After playing and getting plenty wet and sweaty, Alex performed a few songs with the choir.

There was lots of good food to be found, even ice cream corn! hehe

The USA booth was selling frito pies, so along with sausage from the Aussie sizzle and some Mexican empanadas, this family went home happy.

Reunited and it feels SO good!

Ben's Strings Bash

Ben got to take part in the annual Strings Bash, where all the strings students from every campus come together.  They performed Ode to Joy all together first, then each strings section played two songs.  Unfortunately, I can't share the videos on here but I got some great pictures from the JIS website and my camera.

Ben has enjoyed learning the violin but has already told me several times that he just wants to focus on the guitar next year :)  In 8th grade, guitar will be an elective at school!

 

Alex's Performances

Last weekend, all the JIS choirs came together for a concert.  Both elementary schools, the middle school, the high school, and the adult Indonesian choir each performed separately in turn.  Here's the highlight of Alex's turn with the PIE choir.  He's on the far left, middle row.  When the video shakes, it's because I couldn't stop laughing!

For the grand finale, all the choirs came together for one song together and I've gotta say, it left me teary!  The lyrics say that we all laugh, all cry, all feel hunger, all feel pain...We are one world, one people, and we all bleed the same.  To hear voices of all ages from all over the globe singing the words together was incredible.

Alex is on the front row.  The video is in two parts because it was too long to share.

Finally, Alex's class performed a really interesting Chinese song at their weekly assembly.  The recorder may not have been his first choice, but he did a nice job (once he finally woke up and realized his group's part had started!).  I love getting to see the kids learn something new and show it off to the world.

Fun Times

February absolutely flew by but it was a great month.  Both kids are still practicing their respective instruments and I think some days Alex has more fun on the keyboard than he ever did on the piano.  Especially when he's pretending he's playing the expert demo song!

We've had some beautiful days and, from what everyone around here says, the worst of the rain has passed.

Honestly, I thought the rainy season has been pretty great!  The temperatures are nice, it almost never rains the entire day, and when the sun is out it's gorgeous.  I love any place where we can swim in February.

It's even better when the afternoon clouds roll in for the baseball game to give everyone some shade.  On this particular day, Alex's team was short-handed and Ben was called out of the stands to fill in so the team didn't have to forfeit.  Nevermind that he was wearing flip flops and took them off so he could run faster.

It was really fun watching both boys on the field.  Ben was at first base while Alex was batting and they were talking to one another and holding up the game!  They were so short-handed that by the time Ben made it back home, he was already up to bat so he just picked up the bat and took his turn.

I thought it was highly appropriate that Ben happened to wear a 12th man jersey that day.  He certainly was the spirit of the 12th man by taking the call in the stands to step out onto the field and play!

The other interesting part of the game was Alex's pitching debut.  He wanted to give it a try and has been practicing.  His first outing was full of walks and a few strikes, but the very last play he caught a fly ball and made the throw for a double play at third, so he finished well!

The clouds have made for some beautiful sunsets recently.  Alex and I went up on the roof to enjoy a particularly lovely one.

Yogyakarta Weekend Part 2

After our sunrise Borobudur experience, we checked out of the first hotel and headed toward the second hotel in Yogyakarta city, but we made a detour to the Elo River for some river rafting.  Had to get another picture with a total stranger first.  His son was too scared of us to get in the picture!

This was the boys' first time rafting and they absolutely loved it.  It was a great mix of rapids (not too big) and gentle current, so it was completely enjoyable.  We even spotted a lot of monitor lizards along the way.

Because of all the rainfall the day before, we saw waterfalls all over the place.

We took a quick break to get fresh coconuts, then finished up our fun ride.  We had two guides as well so we didn't even have to paddle much.

On the way to the next hotel - "I'm not tired!"

We were pretty beat from our busy day, so we relaxed at the pool and enjoyed the dinner buffet at the Hyatt.  Everything was so pretty decorated for Chinese New Year.

Saturday morning was stunning.  Clear blue skies and a view of Mt. Merapi from the hotel hallway!

 We drove up to the base of Merapi and ventured out on a jeep tour.

Ben was a bit put off that we were in a Toyota, not a Jeep, but since it was old, beat up, and a stick shift, he was plenty enthralled.  Not to mention that we didn't have a roof.

Incredible views!

Our first stop was a small museum from the 2010 eruption, which lasted for a few months and did a lot of damage.  We couldn't read much of the signs, but from what I gathered, this house survived with major lava and ash damage.

 

 

Their TV did not fare well!

 

The gamelan survived, though.

 

 We visited some beautiful sights and were so fortunate to have amazing views.

The highlight for the kids - offroading through a stream and getting wet.  I think they would have done this part all day!

After our Jeep tour, we visited Yogyakarta for a little shopping.  I loved these bike rickshaws (becak) that were all over town.

I was excited to visit a Wayung puppet shop where they make traditional Javanese shadow puppets.

They are all hand crafted from water buffalo hide and horn.

Each one is hand painted with specific meaning and elements of design.

The finished products were beautiful and I was happy to take two home!

After all of our adventures, it was time to relax by the pool for the afternoon.  The waterslide was made to look like a temple. Alex is waving from the top.

 

The kids played on it for hours!

 

 I finally dragged them out when the sun started to set.  What a great way to spend the afternoon.

The next morning, one of the sweet servers remembered Ben at the breakfast buffet and knew he was the kid that wanted pork bacon.  Many hotels here only serve beef bacon because the kitchens are halal and pork has to be cooked elsewhere.  Ben has learned the system and knows to ask now because many places will do it on request.  That's a happy boy!

After a little more swimming, some golf for Matt, and a few more hours to relax, we made the quick trip home and finish out a great weekend.