traditional farm tool

Traditional tool used for digging for the farmers

tiered farm on the mountainside

These are green onions they are growing alongside the mountain.

Curug Putri

This is the waterfall in a place called Pautungan. It's part of a hiking trail that goes to Gunung Ciremai, the highest mountain in West Java. Although we did not hike to the mountain, this cool and refreshing waterfall was a nice respite from Cirebon's oppressive heat.

Nyepi 1931 Saka (Hindu Day of Silence)

Today, Thursday is another of the 13 National Holidays that are observed throughout Indonesia. This is the Nyepi (or Hindu New Year) and although it is very much observed in the Hindu-majority island of Bali, it is basically a day off from work throughout other parts of Indonesia.
In Bali there are noisy parades of the effigies, known as Ogoh-Ogoh, that are usually carried by young men to the beaches to be burned before sunrise, symbolising renewal and the cleansing of evil from the island. However, since there is quite a bit of unrest due to next month's elections, many of the parades in Bali have been called off for this year. As in the past, the tourists in Bali are being confined to hotels for Nyepi, when stick-wielding traditional guards take over the streets to enforce the dusk-to-dawn silence.
To find out when Nyepi falls in a given year, you will need information on the cycles of the moon for that year. Whenever the new moon falls between mid-March and mid-April, that night will be the night of great activity and exorcism island-wide, while the next day will be the day of total peace and quiet, where everything stops for a day.

Nenas

Every weekend if I am around I go to the traditional market. Many of the vendors know me by my purchase. I often get the pineapple, peeled like this and it is delicious. Two such pineapples cost me around 50 cents!

Indonesia's version of a grapefruit

Indonesia has many varieties of citrus fruit. The largest is jeruk Bali, pomelo or shaddock, which is a seasonal fruit. It is larger than a grapefruit and has green skin and a thick whitish membrane, which is peeled or cut off to expose segments of pink or yellowish pulp. It took me an entire week to finish it!

Bogor

Last Monday was a national holiday - the birth of Mohammad. Regina and I headed up to Bogar, which is about an hour outside of Jakarta. The town's moniker is "City of Rain" and it didn't disappoint. As we were leaving to go back to Cirebon, we were in a deluge. People stand in the pouring rain and "rent" you umbrellas as you walk across the street, or through the different trains to get to your own train. These are two of the three trains I had to climb through to get to my train.

Getting to and from Bogor

I'm amazed how public transportation exists(?) in this country. Even Regina comments that there are never any signs, or people announcing the train, and on which track it will be departing. . We had just arrived on this, our train, after climbing through two other trains. There are no platforms, no signs, just sheer luck that you get on the right train. These two are merely passing through our car to get to the next train tracks.

The Orchid House of the Bogor Botanical Gardens

This beautiful house was opened to the public back in 2002. It consist of beautiful representations of both rare and common orchids found throughout Indonesia.

Istana Bogor

In the northwestern corner of the botanical gardens this is the summer palace of the president. Prior to that it was the opulent official residence of the Dutch governors general. The palace is only open to groups by written prior arrangements, so I could only admire it from afar. On its immaculate lawns herds of white-spotted deer roam freely.

Museum at the Bogor Botanical Gardens

Thankfully I haven't seen any moths or butterflies this big - Yet.

Pandandus

These are called screw pines or Pandanus. They have a wonderful root formation and spiral leaf arrangement. The roots look like stilts and they do grow out from the base of the trees. The leaves are often woven into hats, table mats, shopping baskets, sleeping mats and food sacks.