faraway

When we were on the island of Lombok, Jerome took few pictures of me in bikini. He wanted to show me how big my belly now. I think he just realized when saw me in bikini. He kept saying "Wow your belly is very big now, Sayang!"

My pregnancy was 21st weeks at that time and I felt that my belly was not too big eventhough I realized that my weight had gained for 5kg. Even my bikini was still fit on me.

After you looked at three pictures above, is my belly very big?

Galuh, 15 July 2005

When we flied to Lombok on 2nd of July 2005, I read about teachers, schools, ‘failing students’ in Jakarta Post on the plane. This news about the failure of students in the national examinations. This year, the Government of Indonesia (GoI) conducted a national examinations for the first time. One of the purpose was to measure the students’ competency through centralized national examinations. Most of failure students were surpraised for their result, even they cried.

My first expression was “what a crazy and stupid government”. Jerome said “Why are you very emotional about that?” I am sorry to say that I feel very disappointed with GoI now. My personal opinion was the GoI could start to set higher standards after all conditions are met. The conditions are including the competent and quality teachers, sufficient infrastructure and contextuality to local conditions.

Two days before we flied to Lombok, I read many news about how expensive the education costs in Indonesia now. Money is everything to get higher education. I thought this is crazy because only rich people can get higher education. I believe that poor people can not afford it, even for my father who is a civil servant will be not able to afford it (but fortunately his last kid was already in university now). I know that the higher education fee is one of the impact of regional decentralization. I know that regional decentralization is part of our democratization process but I feel why the poor people get more bad impacts on this process. The health problems (polio outbreaks, malnutritions), unemployments, poverty, and education problems are totally getting worse and drastically the rate is increase.

The government had promised that by increasing the price of gasoline, they will allocate the subsidize for health and education. In other word the GoI had commitment to the poor. But until now, our GoI can not prove its commitment.

I was more upset when I watched news in TV about the long queue in many gas stations in all provinces in Indonesia. Indonesia had no enough gasoline stocks. Wow its crazy! Indonesia has so many gasoline resources, how come we have no more stocks! I thought it must be “corruption!”. Then a question came up in my mind, Will Indonesia in worse crisis economic situation again like in 1965 and 1997? Should we do demonstration and provide our GoI with other Tritura like in 1965?

TRITURA or Tiga Tuntutan Rakyat (three community demands?) happened in 1965 which were concist of (1) disperse PKI or Indonesia Communist Association, (2) decrease the price of community necessities, and (3) return to UUD 1945 or the constitution 1945.

Well I can not write anymore to describe it. The last but not least, I can not see more poor-people suffering because of bad politics and corruptions. I am hoping that the situation will be better soon and the GoI can prove its commitment to the poor-people. GoI has to start in realizing their promises to its citizens. I am hoping that I will find the way how I can help those poor-people.

Galuh, 12 July 2005 at 23.00 PM
I still want to write more but I could not describe my feeling in words especially in English. I believe that if all of you often read or watch news about Indonesia, you can understand my feeling.

Every monday in the first of the month, we go to see a doctor to do a routine check up for my pregnancy. Yesterday, we went to see our doctor. As usual, the queue was very long. We were there since 4.30 pm and got our turn at 8 pm. The hospital still use a traditional administration system, we even can not make appointment in advance.

Every month the doctor will do an ultrasound. Due to the condition of this country, we agree that we should do an ultrasound routinely for checking the baby's health. Yesterday, we asked the doctor to check the gender of the baby since my pregnancy is already 22 weeks now. And we found big testicles in the screen. Did it mean the baby will be a boy?

We were sorry to say that we both were a bit disappointed. Yeah, we were hoping that our second baby would be a girl since I am the only girl in my family and Jerome has only one sister, in addition we will feel "complete" if we have a girl. The doctor knew that we were bit disappointed because I said "Yeah, laki-laki lagi ya Dok?" (Is a boy again, Doc?) and he said "maybe I am wrong."

Our expectation for a baby girl has been getting higher because my pregnancy has been totally different than with Zach and most people often say "the baby will be a girl". Eventhough I never say yes or no to them, in my deepest heart I was hoping that their opinion would be true. I try to not expect too much and got a feeling since beginning that the baby will be a boy. But still I was feel a bit disappointed too yesterday.

Well that is a life. People can have many dreams or expectation but God will decide. At least, I will have 3 men in my life for taking care of me and will be the most beautiful woman in our family. I also think that at least Zach will have a friend at home. Now, I am only expecting that the baby will be born safely and healthy.


Galuh, 12 July 2005 at 6.30 am
Before go to the office

We arrived at Bali Hyatt Hotel in the evening, around at 9.30 pm. Our flight from Mataram to Bali had delayed for 2.5 hours. We planned to stay in Bali for 3 days. Firstly, we wanted to stay at Novotel Nusa Dua Hotel but the hotel already full-booked until August. Then we decided to stay at Bali Hyatt Hotel and got a good price.

Bali Hyatt Hotel, a classic Balinese style hotel, is located on the white sandy beach of Sanur which is called “The Island of the Gods”. There is a long path along the beach with large trees on the other side. The hotel guests or non-hotel quests use this path for walking, running, or riding a bicycle.




It is an old hotel with 36 acres of wonderful lush tropical garden surround the hotel. The gardens combine the natural greenery, colorful blooms, Balinese sculptures and waterfalls.




We spent our first day in Bali at Waterbom. Jerome had promissed to Zach that we were going to swim in the big slides. Zach really like swimming. The first sentence that came out from his mouth after he woke up was “let’s swimming in the big slide Daddy?” After breakfast, we go directly to Waterbom. The place was very amazing and very clean with beautiful gardens, great foods, poolside massage, water slides, kids pool, wall climbing, and water volleyball. This place is very good for a family with kids.

Zach was still too small for trying the big slides. We decided to try "Lazy River", wind your way through tropical gardens while reclining in a tube raft and feel completely relaxed while floating around the gentle rapids and cascading waterfalls.

The kids pools were amazing too. One of the kid pool had a big bucket on the top of tower that will be filled the water and when the bucket was full the bucket automatically will drop the water down to the pool. I really like it and tried many times to stand under the tower waited the bucket was full. Eventhough Zach was afraid when the bucket dropped the water, he really liked this pool. I think because this pool had many kinds of toys included cannons, slides, rope stairs, ect. Then we spent most our time playing at this pool and eating ice-cream. The sad thing was I lost my toe-ring that I had worn for two years. It was my favourite toe-ring.




Zach tried eurobungy and he was not afraid. After he tried the eurobungy, he proudly came to me and said "I am a brave boy Mom!". I really want to try the eurobungy and wall climbing, but once again I can not do kind those activities with 22 weeks baby in my belly. To make me feel undisappointed Jerome said "we'll come back again next year Honey!". He knew that I was really want to try specifically the wall-climbing.




Before we got back to the hotel, we went for early dinner at Ryoshi Sushi Restaurant in Sanur. When we go to Bali, we always make a time for enjoying sushi at Ryoshi Restaurant. The fishes are fresh and not expensive. You can find Ryoshi Restaurant in Kuta, Sanur and Ubud. We were really enjoy the food since we did not eat sushi for two weeks, when we were in Lombok Jerome was craving of sushi.




We spent our second day in Bali by enjoying sanur beach as part of the hotel. The beach was very beautiful with white sand. I love this beach a lot! We went swimming in the sea. Zach was afraid at the first but then he really like swimming in the sea after he got in the water.

We swam and played sand for hours until we were hungry. We had our lunch in the beach. We ordered lamb pitas, salmon sandwich, and breaded squids. The food performance was beautiful, simple, and disposable. Hm .. we were really enjoy our lunch on sanur beach.

After lunch, Jerome (of course after he read his book)and Zach fell asleep for 2 hours and I had spent my time by reading my book "Essential Volunteer Management". In the afternoon when the water subsided, I walked in the sea and sometimes did snorkling to see the sea-life under the water. The view was very beautiful and I could see clearly with my google. Suddently, I saw a sea-snake. That was my third time I saw a sea-snake when snorkling. My first and second were when I was in Flores. My heart beats became faster because nobody was there with me, I walked back to the beach. The sea-snake can suddently jump very fast and it is very dangerous.

After Zach was awake, we went to the kid playground. Jerome and I played a chess. A big chess! But I lost and Jerome was win! Then, we waited a sunset on sanur beach. Beautiful Sunset!




We had a late dinner at the Chinesse Restaurant called "Telaga Naga" (Dragon Lake). It was a very beautiful restaurant with beautiful chinesse and outdoor desain. We had steam fish curd, roasted duck, pok choy, and bamboosh. Once again, the food was very yummy. We ate all food.

Then, we walked a long the Sanur Road. I bought a beautiful painting. I like to collect paintings but never can not afford it. This painting's price was 3 millions, I bargained for 1 million rupiah. I thought that the lady won't accept my bargain. Fortunately, the lady agreed with my price. Finally I could buy a painting. I think, the painting will cost 5 million in Jakarta.

The third day, we just spent our time in the garden and our room. We had to check out from the hotel at 1 pm to catch our flight to Jakarta. When we checked out, we promised that we will back to this hotel soon. Jerome asked me to take another holiday in August and back to Bali Hyatt again. Hm ... I love too but should check with my schedule. Hopefully we will be back to Bali Hyatt again and spend more time on Sanur Beach.

Galuh, 10 July 2005 at 8.30 PM

Our second vacation on the Island of Lombok was a welcome relief from the hustle and bustle of Jakarta city-life. No cars, no bajajs, no motorcycles who’s stupid owners have taken off their mufflers. I left my handphone in the hotelroom safe and didn’t check email all week (except for one aborted attempt in Bali). We were removed from our busy lives for a blissful week in an isolated but comfortable corner of Lombok.

Once again the Novotel Lombok did not disappoint and served as the perfect venue for our summer vacation. The architecture of the hotel is charming and adventurous. Ten metre-high thatch cylinders reminiscent of the Sasak “lumbung” (a rice storage towers) rise above the peach and salmon coloured hotel complex. The restaurants are open pavilions with grand views of the sea. The beach location is beautiful and stunning. Novotel is situated in a little cove flanked on either side by dry, barren hills. The location is very representative of the arid conditions of West Nusa Tenggara province.

I have been away from home a lot for the past three months so it was great to spend so much time with Galuh and Zach. We splurged on a villa close to the beach. The villa built using Lombok materials such as a grass roof and hewn coconut wood fashioned into a simple but stylish pavilion with two sides made of wall-length windows. The bathroom is a huge space with a long slab of coconut wood serving as the bathroom counter. Water comes down into the bathroom sink via a wooden tube straight from the ceiling. The rustic feeling is completed by the faucet knobs which are clunky pieces of wood on the wall.

We spent the next five days eating, swimming, playing in the sand, sleeping and more eating.




Each day I borrowed a sea kayak and cruised around in the cove. I tired flying a kite but it crashed into the sea.

I wrote in my journal about Zach and life. We took a lot of photos. Zachary spent the first couple of days running wildly on the beach with two boys he met on the first night. The older boy, Sonny was six years old. I liked him. He seems very mature. The other boy, Anthony, was about four, blond and seemed jealous that Zachary was getting some of Sonny’s attention. Anthony shouted at Zach several times and Zach came crying to us “he is angry of me”. After that Zach didn’t want to play with Anthony. But on that first night they had great fun running along the beach and zipping between tables at the barbeque that Novotel organized.




The next morning Zach’s toes had blisters. He swam and jumped in and out of the wading pool. Eventually some of his blisters burst and blood came out. He began to cry and pleaded with me to take him home. I carried him back to the villa and then said that I would put a “band-aid” on his toe. He has never had a band-aid put on a cut. He was afraid and sobbed, “no, no, no. No bandage, no bandage.” I tried to apply a small bandage to the bleeding toe but he started squirming and screaming. I had to hold him down to put it on. But because he was moving so much, it fell off. Finally Galuh came to help me. She said to him, “Zachary be a brave boy. Make Mommy happy.” It worked. Despite more whining he held still while I put a bandage on his toe. Galuh instructed me to put bandages on the other toes which had blisters. Eventually three toes on each foot were wrapped up in bandages.

Since then, he gets upset if his bandage falls off and whines, “Mommy, put a bandage on, put a bandage on…” He’s addicted to bandages now. He asks for them all the time.




Zach really loved the sand. On his first visit to Bali when he was les than one years old, he really didn’t like the sand. We could leave him on a towel on the beach and he wouldn’t crawl anywhere because he hated touching sand. This time, he headed straight for the sand and started playing. Zach looked for dinosaur bones and dinosaur eggs in the sand. We made sand castles although I did most of the building and Zach did most of the destroying.




One late afternoon we walked over to the hill east of the hotel. There’s a small paved path that leads to a washed out bridge at a river just before the hill. All that is left of the bridge is a row of concrete supports staggered like broken teeth. But in late afternoon, the water in the river drains away with the low tide in the cove and we were able to cross. Grazing on the hill was a herd of goats. Zach was drawn to these goats and insisted on climbing up the hill. When he is intent on something, he talks incessantly like he is reading a narration. The goat herd was a weathered old woman accompanied by her two children. I chatted with her about Zach, her children and her herd. She has 50 goats! A wealthy woman.




After that, we continued east. Four teenaged girls who sold coconuts on the beach followed us. A dirt path continued east behind the hill. Past the hill we discovered a beautiful white sand beach. The girls called it Segar Beach. Apparently, surfers use it but since the bridge is broken, Novotel guests don’t go there and it was empty when we arrived. Zach was determined to climb the hill at the far end of the beach to find dinosaur bones. I walked with him to the base of the hill and we found a big white stick. Zach carried this stick back to the hotel.




We rented a car and drove to a beach close by called Tanjung Aan. The sand is finer there and it is undeveloped and very beautiful. Zach was fascinated by all the animals that we passed and wanted to see them. We first stopped by a small group of cows grazing by a small village. Zachary and Galuh got out and walked across the road to see the cows. I stayed in the car. Many villagers nearby were curious why some child would want to see a cow and came over to talk to Galuh. Women and children gathered around Zach. Zach is so huge and white compared to the thin, short and dark village kids. The cow owner came over too. Then Zach picked up a stick and tried to hit a cow. The cow lurched away in fright dragging its tether. The tether caught up Zach’s legs and sent him spinning to the ground. He was crying but unhurt.

When we arrived at the beach we were disappointed. The pristine white sand was covered in dried seaweed and trash. There were a few people trying to sell things on the beach. These people sell pathetic trinkets and coconuts. If you say no, they start to beg for money. It is irritating. So Galuh became quickly annoyed and went back to the car. Zach wanted to play in the sand so I went with him and started building a sand castle. A half dozen kids came over to sell stuff to us. After, I said no several dozen times, they started to play with Zach. They certainly liked his toys and seemed to have a good time. This lasted for about an hour until a man came over and struck up a conversation. For a while the conservation was pleasant but eventually he started trying to sell me coconut hair pins. Most of the kids were very well behaved and said thank you for playing with Zach’s toys. Some even washed Zach’s toys. One or two asked for money or asked for a toy. It was hard to say no. But I didn’t want to turn this experience into something commercial. Even as we got ready to go, all these people mobbed the car and begged. A woman asked Galuh to exchange a US dollar.

Jerome, 9 July 2005 at Bali Hyatt Hotel