Caution: Rhino Crossing Next 30 km

That is what is posted on the sign on the side of the road in Indonesia.

 

Watch out for rhinos. Also, komodo dragons.

 

Indonesia is an island nation scattered across the South China Sea, part of the Pacific Ocean, and is home to wildlife like rhinos and various lizards, as well as the proboscis monkey and orangutan. It's also home to many interesting plant species, including the coffee bean. If you've ever seen the Sumatra blend at Starbucks, it's referencing the island of Sumatra, part of Indonesia, whence the coffee comes. Indonesia is actually the fourth largest producer of coffee. (I tell you all this because it's stuff I recently learned. Before a couple of weeks ago, I'm not sure I could have picked Indonesia out of a line-up, much less a map.)

 

So this past weekend, The BF and I ventured over to Indonesia. One of the Indonesian islands is accessible by ferry from Singapore (about an hour ride), so we hopped on over. The island was pretty resorty, with beaches and pools and golf courses, but it was also very jungley. The road from the ferry terminal to our hotel ACTUALLY had a sign that said watch for rhinos.

 

The highlights of the weekend in Indonesia:

• The pool. Srsly, it was gorge. Or maybe I've just lived in Seattle too long and have developed a new appreciation for a nice pool, but infinity edges, varying depths, comfortable chairs, towel service, palm trees and mango margaritas adds up to "lovely pool" in my book.
• The coffee. I mean, what would you expect from the country where coffee was invented. Or you know, is harvested. It is good and thick and strong and even with a strong splash of milk, it's not pale. Delicious. And it always came served with a tiny baby spoon for stirring. How cute!
• The butter. Yeah....it was that good. I found myself eating extra croissants just to have a vehicle for the butter.
• The service. The hotel staff were super friendly and helpful and accomodating. And in every restaurant, the servers were very proper. They brought out new silverware for each course, bringing proper silverware in quantities rarely seen in the US. For example, I'd learned in etiquette training (or somewhere) about the existence of such things as a fish knife and a shrimp fork as well as the difference between a butter knife and a dinner knife. But never had I encountered all of them, as needed, in the course of one meal. It was very interesting. Also, made me glad to have remembered my etiquette training from the University of Southern Charm and my mother/grandmother/Aunt Big Cat.
• The people. Traveling internationally exposes you to a variety of cultures and people. Also, fashion. I saw male speedos, women in burkas and everything in between.

And there were a few lowlights:

• The visa process. When entering Indonesia from Singapore, by ferry, with a US passport, you can get a "visa on arrival" for your visit. If you are in the country 7 days, your visa is US$10. While waiting in line to get our visa (using the US dollars I had to track down in Singapore) one of the ferry terminal guards tells us to get in another line, that we'll go much faster in another line if we pay for our visa in Singapore dollars instead of US dollars. We follow him to the visa processing station, then hand him our passports. Dude then disappears. With our passports. I mean, he came back, but for a minute there I was nervous. If you cant trust a customs agent IN UNIFORM, who can you trust. We got our visas, passports stamped, no problem. And much faster, as promised. But we're pretty sure dude was working the system, figuring out a way to take advantage of the exchange rates or something by processing us at a separate station. Oh well.
• The butter. It was so good, I found myself eating extra croissants just to have a vehicle for the butter. That's right, I said EXTRA croissants. Plural. Talk about unneeded caloric intake.
• The people. In addition to the interesting and charming folks we encountered, we also saw some people being a little too touchy feely in the pool, one guy who would NOT stop throwing his girlfriend in the pool (despite her shrieking every time) and a kid who was WAY too old to be running around the pool deck naked.

All in all, it was a great little trip and I'm glad we popped over to Indonesia for the weekend.