Family Trip to the Meadows

For our faithful checkers, you will have already seen pictures of this place when we came through Palu for our visa work over a year ago. :) Here will be some pics of us all the other day. :)

Ready to head out....














A tired Uncle Shane.... :)




























A view of the bay.



























Heading up the hill.














The Whatley Gang














A cactus growing out of a broken off cactus.














In the tree.....














The sister-in-laws....














The brothers..........














2 monkeys in a tree.........














Afterwards we headed for a spot on the bay for roasted corn and fried bananas.













WE WEREN'T ALONE!!! There were lots of cochroaches! :)

Teh Botol in an Box...

Sunday night of the 14th, after our church natalan (Christmas Program) we, Shane, I, and Tim's family, headed off for a 6 hr. drive to Surabaya, north Java. We flew out of there at 11:30 for Palu, Central Sulawesi for a 2 week Christmas break.

At the airport we bought lunch, Tim's kids ordering 'Teh Botol' (Bottled Tea). I realize that that is just the brand name, but I thought it was pretty funny!

A Zoo At The Beach

When is there ever a zoo at a beach you ask?? Well, Shane and I were the animals, atleast we FELT that way Tuesday and Wednesday of this week!

Shane and I headed out for a few days away, being the adventurous ones that we are! :) My language tutor, Etchy had told me about these 3 beaches east of Yogyakarta, Baron, Kukup, and Krakal. It was very rustic to say the least and we were quite the exception for visitors, catching glimpses of the few visitors that did show up on the beach, taking pictures of us pitching our tent with their hand phone camera.

Ahh, were to start?

FIRST, you will notice that there are NO pictures. Why? Because we accidentally left our fanny pack on our gate and after turning around after 7 minutes down the road it was not on our gate any more. Surprise, surprise...... So, there went our camera, 3 1Gig cards, and 8 rechargable batteries, a new can of LPG for our camping stove, Shane's good buck knife he has treasured and about 7.00 that would have paid for our 2 nights: one hotel and the beach spot.

SECOND, we both took our motorbikes. Talk about an experience!!! We drove our own bikes, packed to the hilt (Shane said I looked like a hillbilly.), and experienced rain on the way there and on the way back for over half of the 4 1/2 hours one way.

THIRD, it was good cultural exposure and fun to get away to some pretty beaches. There was lots of opportunities to use our Indonesian as, like I mentioned, we were the odity. :)

FOURTH, it was really nice to get away, just Shane and I, and feel like we did the trip as a joint effort.

Will we got back ever again??
Good question! Not to camp, that is for sure! The beaches were nice to look at, lots of coral sea life, lots of shells, and beautiful scenery. You are also out in the middle of no-where. So, all that to say, not sure. Maybe. :) Time will tell.

Church Farewell for Alan & Rachel

This past Sunday was Alan & Rachel's last Sunday at the church we attend. Alan preached (did a superb job!!) and we enjoyed the testimony of the relationship between the church and A&R.

Song shared by some of the members...













Alan preaching....














Our meal... (Gudeg - young jackfruit cooked, boiled egg, rice - of course!! :) - sambal, and prawn cracker.) very yummy...














The whole group...














Me enjoying a visit with a member...













Alan & family and the pastor and family...

Grasshoppers..

This guy was in our yard on Saturday...

Tlogo Rubber Plantation

What, ANOTHER rubber plantation!!?? :) No, the same one, but just with Jeremy, a friend of Tim & Kathy's who is staying with us, and Shane who had not gone through the tour before. :)


















Rubber sap collecting bowls being washed from the mornings collection.














Sap being carried in and the cans sitting by the settling/processing troughs.




























Shane and Jeremy checking smoked rubber sheet.














What am I???














Leaves of the "what am i" tree....














Tlogo also produces robusta coffee... Picked between June and September. Only red beans are picked until the very last picking, then all is picked and sorted by colour. These ladies are sorting the dried and shelled beans.

Our First Mangga/Mango

We have eagerly awaited the picking of our 1st mangga... we only have 3. :) Here is myself with my DVD co-editor, Batik and our mangga that Shane had just picked.

WhatAmI #1...with answer

We don't often run across weird animals as we study away... but this one wandered across the road in front of our house a few nights ago and our neighbors are keeping him for now. Not sure if they will eat him or are keeping him hoping that somone will come buy and offer to buy it from them. They could certainly use the money. Anyway, we are not in the lookout for exotic animals, so are going to pass. :)






























































...... Pangolin!

"Pangolins, sometimes called scaly anteaters, are covered with protective horny, overlapping scales. Pangolins have small heads and long, broad tails. They are toothless and have no external ears, although their hearing is good. Their sense of scent is well-developed, but their sight is poor. The weight of the scales and skin make up about 20 percent of the pangolin's weight.

Pangolins are nocturnal and remain in their burrows during the day. All pangolins are able to roll themselves into a ball to defend themselves, and it takes considerable force to unroll them. Leopards and other large animals such as hyenas occasionally prey on pangolins.

Although pangolins gather up surface ants and termites, termite nests provide larger and more concentrated sources of food. Pangolins dig the insects from mounds with their claws and use their extremely long tongues (up to 16 inches in larger pangolins) to eat them."

Text about the pangolin from http://www.awf.org/wildlives/

Climbing Volcanic Mt. Merapi

Last Friday night, I, along with Rachel, Angie, Jason, Brandt and Tyler headed up the volcano. Now, I have to say that Shane JUST went up 2 weeks ago with about 14 guys, but unfortunately for him.... we don't have the pictures yet. Anyway, I will post the ones from our hike for now. :)

Starting out.....














5 minutes into I am was huffing and puffing... my thoughts kept replaying the idea that I am really too old and way out of shape to be doing something like this! No one to impress that I was young still and my husband was not with me to keep me encouraged. :) The gang DID encourage me, but I called the breaks. :)

Drying out my sweaty shirt....... by Jason



















We enjoyed the warm fires our guides made for us. It allowed us to dry out our shirts! That was a big help. I forgot to mention that it was raining when we got up there. We started hiking at 1 A.M. anyway and waited at the fire for a while til the sky cleared. The stars were BEAUTIFUL!

First light...




























Weary hiker...














(sunrise and me ... by Jason)














Angie & Jason...














Us ladies...... by Jason














The group with Mt. Merbabu in the background.... my favorite mountain view from our home..


















Sulfer plumbs out of the side...














Our guide. :) Had fun getting him to pose. :)














Me with the 'garuda' pinacle behind me and volcanos Mt. Sumbing and Sundoro in the background.














This German guy was one of the very few who climbed with us that night/morning. Jason took pictures for him and I got a few. I LOVE the close up. The atmosphere is so free of dirt and all, it made the picture look like it was a movie set. Very surreal...

























Heading down...
















































Looking back up...














16x zoom back at people at a spot a little above center.... the biggest dark spot you see near the top. It was big and steep. Took us about an hour for that last climb.














Brandt & Tyler














And of course... some flora ! :) (from that last climb part)






































Flora on the way down...








































Sitting at the bottom, enjoying some cultural pictures.
















































...AND I couldn't pass up this picture. Everyone is taking cool pictures for headers and I thought this would make a good one. :) I feel included. heee heee heee