Goodbye Chrisye

Chrisye, who has been a part of my life for more than 20 years, passed away this morning. Thank you for all the joys you have brought me over the years, and especially for Badai Pasti Berlalu, one of the greatest Indonesian albums ever! Rest in peace, we will miss you.

Friskodude is back--spread the word!

I was a regular reader of Friskodude, a blog about travel and the bizarre in Asia. Sometime last year the blogs stopped coming, no reason given. I checked back periodically, but no Dude. Until today. He's been in prison for 8 months. For beating up an 81-year old lady. Who had tried to steal a newspaper from his porch. She wanted the crossword puzzle section. Banged her a few times w/ a motorcycle helmet he did. I kid you not, it's even on the SF DA's website.

I don't know what to make of it. But seems that we're going to be relegated to some enlightening stories of a San Fransisco county jail.

Spot the fish!

You've probably figured out by now that it's a long weekend and I am bored/have nothing to do/nowhere to go. So, here is a trivia for you. Spot the scorpionfish/stonefish in this picture taken from Weh:

I'm not sure whether this is the Devil Scorpionfish (Scorpaenopsis diabolus) or the Estuarine stonefish (Synanceia horrida). I rather think it's the later, but I am absolutely sure it belongs to the family Scorpaenidae (scorpionfishes), which has "head large and spiny with bony ridge on cheek; dorsal fin usually notched, fin spines venomous with groove and venom sack. Most species live on or near the bottom and feed on crustaceans or fishes. Most are extremely well-camouflaged and remain in or near shelter during the day. Most do well in the aquarium, but some require live foods and others can be trained to take almost anything" (Edward Lieske and Robert Myers, 1994. "Reef Fishes of the World")

If it is S. horrida, it is as venomous as S. verrucosa, which Lieske and Myers have this to say "Spines long and stout but normally folded against skin, can penetrate a tennis shoe. World's most venomous fish, has caused human fatalities. Wounds should be treated immediately with hot water or dry heat (cigarette).....Feeds on fishes and crustaceans. Prey are sucked in during a nearly impercetible split-second movement."

Thus explains the distance between the creature and the camera (rather, the photographer). Sieun atuh! Diabolus! Horrida! (think I've found me new swear words...)

However, I do find the narrative offered by Lieske and Myers (which I haven't seen before, actually, my philosophy being ignorance is bliss) slightly disturbing, i.e.what are the odds I'd be wearing tennis shoes with a lighted cigarette on hand when I step on one of this horrid, diabolus, verruckt creature?!!

Diving Weh

I've only gone diving at Weh a couple of trips, for a total of 10 dives. And I tell you, there are people who go there again and again for several years, staying WEEKS at a time. *&5!$#! Europeans and their short work weeks and generous leave!


To be honest, the reef ecosystem around Weh is not special, relatively in Indo-speak you see. On a scale of 1 to 10, with Sangyang oh about 1.5, Komodo about 8 and Raja Ampat 10, I would say the reef ecosystem of Weh rate around 6.5
But it's such a special place for me because it serves just the right amount of everything that I like about diving: cool temperatures, some currents, dark blue waters, leisurely-paced creatures with a great sense of humor, great colours, walls, more moray eels than I can count, and absolutely pleasant rides to get to the dive sites.

I have this slight fascination with moray eels that I am at loss to explain. But at Weh there's a site called Eel Garden, and it really is a wall pocked with those ugly gaping moray mouths swaying up and down. I call it peternakan moray eel. There's less of them than I remember from the first trip, but they're there. A couple of times I was cruising right on top of a huge, huge, honeycomb moray on a feeding hunt. It was fantastic, especially the eye contact I had with one, which lasted a few seconds during which I'm pretty sure it was assesing my level of edibility...as also I was (yumm).

I have this habit of peering into tubes--sponges, corals, small caves-- not really a smart thing to do since fairly likely something is on its way out and found my head a barrier, and God forbid it's a seasnake....well, I was poking into a coral tube to get a better look of something dark that's moving on its bottom, and lo behold it was this ornery moray, whose heart, or something, I'm sure also stopped a couple seconds as did mine!



And then there's the six dancing squids during one night dive, they were like christmas tree lighting, fabulous! That is the only time so far I've really seriously regretted not bringing a camera on a dive. I have a hunch I will not see the likes of that again during my lifetime, which really makes me sad but also absolutely priveleged...

I also met this little guy, cruising ever so relaxed, even posing for me.

I don't think I came to this site the first trip, or else it's gotten even more georgeous: a nice slope full, full with seafans.

But my absolute favorite has to be this little guy, not even 3cm. We played hide and seek for about 5 minutes, when I had to twist and turn to get a sight of him in a slight current and with the olympus 5050 which at these times make me wish for the postcard sony *wink,wink, birthday hasn't passed that long ago*. At last, I think it tired of the game and let me have a little souvenir!

So. The fast ferry from Banda Aceh to Sabang leaves 9:30 daily. If you spot other tourists in the boat, approach them to agree on hiring a ride together up to Gapang. DON'T go out of the boat thinking that oh there's plenty of rides to go up there and you'll work it out out there. NO! Because not a lot of people head up to Gapang and its adjoining beach, and there's oh like 400 cars waiting for customers outside. You'll all end up in 7 different cars, all purportedly heading up to Gapang. But after 30 -45 minutes running around for passengers, you'll find that finally, finally those drivers give up and decide to POOL their passengers together. And meanwhile you all could've already been soaking your toes...

For other tips, email me.

Free internet wireless connection in Bogor

There's a few places offering wireless internet access in Bogor, here's a few.

The best is the connection in Hotel Salak, it's fast but unsecured (no user ID or password needed). My brother, the cheapskate he is, sometimes just park in their lot and freeload on access (yes, it's free). I like their Rafflesia (sp?) Restaurant though, it's quiet during the day, the food and drinks reasonably priced (if ornery) and the sofas comfy. There's an outdoor area beside the pool, as well, that's reasonably shaded.

The Telapak Cafe, right next to the Damri bus lot, accross from the new Botani Mall, has slow connections and even staider food. I was there a couple times, the first time the connection was down, and since it was a Saturday, no one was around to fix it. Another time I was there during lunch time. Connection was slow and often broken. IF it were working properly, this probably would be the better connection in Bogor since it's a secured access, overseen by an NGO that cares about such things (as they should be, given the things they do). Allegedly you're allocated IDs and passwords every few hours to keep the connection secure from hackers. The food, however, leaves much to be desired--sandwiches soggy and the Indonesian fare spice-poor, and the choice limited. There's a couple of islands of sofas, but if they're taken, your choice is uncomfortable, tiny, plastic chairs and equally tiny tables. Aluminium chairs and tables outside are a bit better, but the glare is awful, and the view of busses literally kills any motivation for work. It's a shame, really, since they occupy a prime piece of property.

The Box Office Cafe is located in the road parallel to the toll road, so as you exit to the left in Bogor, immediately turn left again on the first road on your left. Follow that road to a fork, keep straight and the cafe should be on your right. It's probably the nicest place for working on a laptop, since it's dimly lit, quiet, has good, reasonably priced, food, and comfy sofas. But the first time I was there connection did not work (and waiter assuring us several times it WAS; it took us customers to front a united face for them to finally recognize, yes it's not working. Sigh, I hate places where they never heard 'customer is king'). The second time I was there connection was really, really, really slow that I vowed never to go there again.

All the above are free. There's another option at the Colonial Kafe close to Taman Kencana, but you have to buy voucers and I'm too cheap for that.

eco-footprint

In a meeting the other day this topic came up briefly. The definition varies, but these guys have a quiz based on theirs, and I scored 50 on a scale of 1-100. The average is 46. I actually do better on this quiz this time than when I took it while living in the US a few years back. Seems counter-intuitive to me, since over there recycling and disposing of toxic waste (e.g. batteries) is facilitated, and I take part in it religiously. I guess perhaps I do better now because I don't own a car. I wonder though, cause obviously can't walk everywhere. I generally take taxis, but also other forms of public transports, but I guess the assumption is you take these with numerous other people so less eco impacts? Anyway, you can measure yours here:
www.conservation.org/ecofootprint