Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Home again

Well, the party is over as my dad says. I'm back in Cirebon and have finally posted all of the pictures from my fantastic holiday to Manado. Like Cirebon, the driving in Manado can be very scary. Nascar driving seems safe in comparison. With no lane demarcations, the nicely paved blacktop roads provided three lanes of travel, which weren’t easily discernible for the American tourist — right, left and middle lanes. The middle lane appeared to be for all fast, passing traffic, no matter which direction one was traveling. It seemed as if we were playing chicken at 70 mph. I am glad that Glenn, Regina's parents driver, was quite accustom to this driving and made the excursions less nail-biting. The daily excursions, often not on paved roads, revealed crops of corn growing 12 feet high in fields next to palm tree plantations. Modern buildings as well as two-story Nissan, Honda and Suzuki dealerships sitting next to tin-shed storefronts were present. Christian churches were on nearly every city street. Rarely did we glimpse a mosque minaret. Juxtaposed among new Asian-inspired architecture were shanties with rusty tin roofs. Oxen-pulled carts slowly lumbered as sharp new automobiles or motorcycleszoomed by. It was a fascinating glimpse of the Indonesian culture. The contradiction of old and new was obvious in so much of what I saw. It saddened me to see beautiful rain forests next to the “progress” of industrial smoke stacks and pavement as well as the garbage that is strewn in the waterways and roads.

Regina's family could not have been more gracious and welcoming. It was a wonderful holiday, and now back to school tomorrow (Thursday).

1 comment:

yocous22 said...

Yes, back to work! I have enjoyed your vacation, looking at the pictures, but, you have to remember you have had wonderful drivers here also, no not me, Mark driving us to the dinner cruise.