The Monkey Forest

Where in the world is Susan Key?

SHE'S IN THE MONKEY FOREST!!!!!!!!!

The Ubud Monkey Forest is a nature reserve and temple located in Bali.  As you can see, it is infiltrated with monkeys who are so tame that they walk freely among the tourists who flock to this lush site... not only to see these adorable creatures, but also to see the ancient temple that sits above the dense forest punctuated by calming waterfalls.

Buy a small bunch of bananas from one of the vendors and you will promptly have a monkey eating right out of your hand.  Have any extra?  Don't even think about holding onto those bananas because the monkeys will jump all over you and grab until they find them.

The monkeys are cute, and very photogenic once they are eating.  However, feeding them is not for the faint of heart because they are smelly, dirty, and aggressive until you hand over the bananas!

Still, I would recommend a trip to the Monkey Forest for anyone visiting Bali.

Just monkeying around

PONY Baseball’s Asia-Pacific Zone Meeting

My firm's sabbatical program grants partners a six month leave of absence from the office. I planned my sabbatical for August 28^th-February 28^th for a reason: the Asia-Pacific Zone Meeting. My husband attends this meeting every January, held at a location somewhere within that zone. This year's meeting was in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Due to work responsibilities and having my children at home, I never felt comfortable traveling so far to accompany my husband. My sabbatical, however, was the perfect opportunity to do so. This year's meeting was held in Indonesia. On our way to Jakarta, we stopped in Tokyo for a few days for PONY, then traveled to Taipei to visit our good friends the Chens.
Once we arrived in Jakarta, PONY field directors from around the zone began to arrive. The countries represented were: Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam. Not everyone spoke English, but that was the most frequently heard language. The common denominator, however, was baseball...and the desire to better the children of each country through the sport.
After Friday's welcome, the directors met all day Saturday.  With all their business concluded and the meeting adjourned, everyone boarded buses to travel to dinner together, I learned that there was another common denominator among this group…FUN. 
Dinner was held at an outdoor venue with beautiful landscaping and lighting for dining at night. We sat at long, narrow tables and shared the platters of Indonesian food that was served to us family style. I was happy to see that people genuinely enjoyed each other's company…with laughter abound and constant camera flashes and selfies. A live band played on an outdoor stage and several from our group took up dancing and singing along with the band. I just loved seeing the 6 foot plus Russian dancing with an equally tall Japanese man.

Those that didn't want the night to end, reconvened at a local karaoke studio near our hotel. Now imagine this….old American songs played in English, shown with poor quality videos produced somewhere in Indonesia (?), sung by several different nationalities, with different accents, and ending with James Taylor's You've Got a Friend where we all joined hands.

I understand so much more about the world having traveled and spent time with folks who are different than I am. What I learned is that they may look differently, talk differently, worship differently and even eat different foods. However, there is good in people from all corners of the world and when the day is done...everybody likes to have a little fun once in a while.
 

Jakarta, Indonesia

 After my first visit to Asia, I had my first visit to the lush, green country of Indonesia. What struck me immediately upon arriving at the airport was the number of Muslims. Since we were in town for my husband's business meeting, I had not done any research or advance planning for this leg of our trip.  Turns out this was also my first trip to a country that is primarily Muslim.

Another thing that was immediately apparent was the extent of security in this country. This was our third country in two weeks and we had the most difficult time with customs…they practically removed every item from my husband's business materials and questioned their purpose.
When we arrived at our hotel, the entrance was gated and the hotel had guards that scanned the undercarriage of each vehicle. At every entrance, the hotel had more security guards and every person must pass through a metal detector. It wasn't only our hotel, my visit to the local mall also involved the same practice of passing by the guards and going through a metal detector.

The malls look western enough with their modern interiors and escalators. In addition to all of the American chains and upscale designers, I was surprised to see how many shops were exclusively devoted to Muslim clothing such as the full body burqua or the headscarf known as a khimar.  Don't worry, I still found plenty of shops with clothes that suited me.

The mall was so ornate inside, it boasted an atrium with a large clock tower. The clock opened up on the hour and figurines rotate out and play music as they turn around.

The malls had everything, one even had an indoor slide.  (FYI-one thing you cannot buy in Jakarta is tampons. Trust me, I went inside three stores that sold feminine products and even asked…but they just don't have them.)

Other than the mall, I did manage to be a tourist and visit some of the historical sites.

First, if you care to fight the traffic, no visit to Jakarta would be complete without seeing Old Town which gives you a glimpse of what the city was like during the Dutch colonial era. The plaza was crammed with people trying to peddle their goods. 

They aren't very many Americans in town so I was an easy target. When a group of teenage girls approached me, I turned aside thinking they were trying to sell me something or ask for money. I soon learned that they were learning English in school and needed to interview someone to practice speaking.  One interviewed me by reading a list of pre-written questions from a notebook while her friend videotaped the interview on her smart phone. When I asked if I could take their picture, they shouted "selfie" and we all posed for my camera.

Another top tourist attraction is Tamon Mini Indonesia Indah. This is like Disney World's World Showcase at Epcot. Since Indonesia is comprised of thousands of islands, the country has many ethnicities. The park is comprised of houses and costumes from each region which are erected around a lake. The park is enormous, so large that we took a bus tour around the park stopping at only a few of the houses. My favorite was from West Sumatra which are colorful and probably the most iconic of Indonesia construction with their "buffalo horn" roofs.

The Pope and the Philippines

As part of our whirlwind tour of Asia, we had a long layover planned for Manila. We were met at the airport by our good friends, Rod and Daisy Tingzon, who hoped to show us around their beautiful city. 

 
We weren't the only ones to arrive by plane in Manila that day…so did Pope Francis! As you can imagine, the airport was full of security and the city was expecting record crowds to greet him. In fact, the day was declared a national holiday and businesses were closed for the long weekend while the Pope was in the country. Luckily, we managed to leave the airport for a few hours and return in plenty of time to make our flight connection.

 

Due to road closures, we did not make it into Manila to see the historical sites. However, we drove out to Rod and Daisy's neighborhood and stopped for lunch at their country club, The Palms, which does not have a golf course…but has an amazing pool and gym facilities.

The Palms

We tried some Filippino food and I had my first butterfly tea…a mixture of iced tea, orange juice and grenadine.

Butterfly tea

From there, Daisy showed us a new condo development called Botanica.  Botanica video Daisy is one of the sales agents, and she could have sold me one if only I lived a little closer.

On the ride back to the airport, I couldn't help but notice that a popular mode of public transit is the jeepney. It is an open-air jeep that operates like a bus, carrying people down the main roads for a small fee. Back at the airport, we had more time to visit with the Tingzons as they were headed to Jakarta with us for the Pony Asia-Pacific Zone Meeting.

Jeepney

Yangmingshan National Park

Only a short ride outside metropolitan Taipei is another world filled with lush greenery where you can hike into the mountains and enjoy the natural scenery while taking advantage of the panoramic views of the city.  Our hosts, Edward and Grace Chen, drove us out toward the Yangmingshan National Park with a few stops along the way.

We drove along the meandering roadway, stopping to photograph a calla lily farm.

We also stopped in the park known for its dormant volcano. The area is known for its hot springs formed from the volcanic terrain and although we did not visit one of the many baths, we walked along an area where the steam was escaping and we felt its warmth in the air.

Our driving tour also took us through old towns. We stopped in one town, got out of the car and strolled down a busy street punctuated with old vendor stalls that are still very relevant to the local residents.

Our featured destination that day was the Yehliu Geopark.Geopark This unique national park is located on the cape of the sea with breathtaking cliffs and beaches that would be worthy of the drive by themselves. 

However, the reason tourists flock to the park is the unique rock formations created by the sand, wind and water that fused here thousands of years ago. Everywhere you look are mushroom rocks.

 Local legend came up with imaginative names for the most distinctive rocks, appropriately named for what the rock resembles... like how people sometimes see something formed by clouds. The most famous rock is The Queen's Head whose long, slender neck is being eroded ever so slightly over time.  Here are a few photos of what we saw:

Queen's Head

The Sandal

It was a wonderful day and refreshing to be out of the city and feel the brisk wind at the sea and the cool mountain air.  Before driving back for the evening, we had to stop for a few photos of the sun setting over Taipei.