Safari Time

We’ve just come back from our trip to, well we don’t actually remember the name of the town, but it is near Bogor. Anyways, the main attraction in that area of Indonesia is the Taman Safari. It took us about 3 hours to get there in our rented Suzuki APV 8 passenger van type thing. It took about a half hour just to get out of Bandung, traffic is nuts here. Then we had a short jaunt on the lovely toll road and then the fun began. From then on it was narrow winding roads that go up and down. People here just pass whenever they feel like it, going up a hill, around a corner, when there is oncoming traffic… So there were quite a few white knuckle moments on the way… Then Marc puked… It is neat as you drive along because each main area has it’s specialty. There was one place we drove through that had all these carrot shaped white things hanging in the windows of little shops. Apparently it is singkong (a vegetable) that has been kind of like marinated in some alcohol. You can eat it raw or, surprise, deep-fry it. Then there’s another place that specializes in preserving fruit in sweet syrup (like our Delmonte stuff) only they don’t sell it already in salad form, you buy each individual fruit. Then there’s another little place that makes wooden rocking horses and big wooden red hot peppers that you knock and it makes a neat sound and some other wooden stuff. We had some amazing views along the way as we were driving through the mountains. There are rice paddies just built on the side of hills and it looks so neat.
Our first full day there we went to the safari. We arrived there at 9:00 right when they open and along the way we had bought some bunches of carrots to feed to the animals. Then we proceeded to make our way through the safari. Brynnie was quite freaked when the lhamas and deer type animals started sticking their heads in the windows of our vehicle. There were also some hilarious, but very important, signs along the way. When you go through the lions and tigers area there is a drawing of a lion biting a man’s leg, so keep your doors and windows closed at all times! I actually have video of a lion pawing the car ahead of us. As we went through the safari, we were passed by many large tourist buses that just wiz their way through the safari. I’m not sure the folks on board actually get to see much. Then we went to the recreation area where there are also other animal displays. This zoo is really very nice and very large. Overall it is very clean and neat and well maintained. A bit of a rarity here. We got to see a Wild West show complete with pyrotechnics and stunts. The kids were quite wowed by it. It is really quite funny to watch Indonesians pretend to be cowboys and Indians at a zoo. But the show was really well done and really funny. We also saw a sea lion show and a show with birds of prey and an animal variety show. I don’t think you would see a show like that one back home anymore. They had orangutans doing tricks along with parrots, goats, dogs, and cats. There are also some rides and Hugo and some of the kids went on the log ride. There is so much to see and do there that you could spend two days there. During the entire day there we only saw one other white family. Wherever we went people were poking eachother and saying, “Look! Bule’s!(whites)” We were really tempted to take up residence in the empty polar bear exhibit so that all could observe us in our “natural” habitat…
The next day we went horse back riding through a tea plantation. The horses here are fairly small, as you can see from the photo of Hugo on a horse, but strong enough. Some of the times the path we were on was just big rocks and that was a little freaky as sometimes the horses hoofs slipped a little. But the kids thought it was great and even Brynnie didn’t want to get off when our hour was up. That afternoon it rained so we took out the computer so the kids could watch a video and Hugo built a fire in the fire place. Because this area is in the mountains, it gets quite cold at night so it was nice to have a fire place.
Then our last day, today, the kids went swimming at a nearby pool. When we arrived, there was a group of folks already swimming. They were very, very interested in us and very excited to find out we could speak Indonesian. They were from Bekasi, West Java. They asked us tons of questions and wanted to take photos with the kids. Then slowly they all finished swimming and they all just sat and watched our kids swim with Hugo. We were really like the main attraction. Apparently, in their area of the country they don’t see a whole lot of bule’s (white folks). Only Mikah noticed that they were watching us with great interest. Observing what our species does for fun…
It was a fun few days but it is good to be “home” again too.