bad words

Tonight at dinner, I got called out on saying the word shit.  Jaffa was giving us a performance of one of the songs from the Wicked musical (her latest obsession, which, by the way, magically dovetails nicely with Mr. Potter) and came out with it.  When Zeric gasped, she said, "Mommy says it all the time."  I asked when she had heard me say it (I rarely drive here), and she said, "when she's cooking."  So much for the idea that cooking zens me out. And so I was busted (the kids' favorite word at the moment).

Anyway.  I deflected and quickly mentioned that Eben had said one way worse the other day: putin. In French, putin means whore. (I wonder how the Russians feel about that.)  It's pretty colloquial these days, but still not polite. I heard Eben say it when he was playing with his French friends, and it rolled off his tongue very smoothly.  Zeric said that he already looked it up and that it was only a bad word if you were 80 years old.  So I sms'd a French friend and asked her and she said YES. IT IS A BAD WORD. Ha!  And so there were instructions to NOT SAY THAT WORD ANYMORE.

Then, predictably, the kids asked what it means. Ummmmmm. Ahhhhh, wellllllll.  Hmmmmmmmm.  Zeric jumped in and said that it is what you call a woman who kisses a lot of men.  And Jaffa asked, "and why is that a bad word?"

EXACTLY.

We'll be accepting the girl-parenting award of the year next month, thank you very much.

Hurry up and wait..

Like the other small airports in Indonesia, there isn't much space to queue.. but there is.. can you guess?? A television!!  And so.. the kids were glued to reruns of the preview for the upcoming SpongeBob movie.  There wasn't much else to do.. but I did get some good pictures of batik from the gift shop for my next tattoo..  shhhh, don't tell Mom.

Java Dancer Coffee House

Across the street from our hotel was the Java Dancer, http://javadancer.com/.  So, before heading home, we adventured over for a breakfast of pancakes and waffles and coffee and hot chocolate and .. chili cheese fries (Zeric must have had a hankering for Ben's Chili Bowl).  It was a great little place, highly recommend it!

Mount Bromo

We drove another 20 minutes or so, and there we were, at the bottom of Mount Bromo.  It was two kilometers to the top .. in seriously horse-poopy sand and the smell of sulfur, and so we put the kids on horses (I would have made them walk.. but Zeric was the voice of reason), and up we went.

Look straight ahead and you'll see the stairs going up the side of the volcano.. that's where we were headed!!

 

The view from on our way up

.. and then, the stairs..

 

Finally, at the top!  We got this picture just as we got there, and then the sulfur smoke got really bad and we couldn't see anything else.. but it was cool (like neato and chilly too) up there.

well, we did see some crazy kids

 

 

then added some crazier adults to the picture

 

 

and then we headed back down

 

Happy to back in the car, the kids and I fell asleep. 

Zeric was awake for the great view, the rain, and the lush landscape that looked like Europe. 

Wow, Indonesia!!

Aman (means peaceful)

It was so beautiful and peaceful.. we all thought it looked like Scotland. 

 

 

Come to find out, there had been a forest fire a few weeks before, and you can see the line where the fire stopped.  It was natural and normal, and happened every year.

So we kept going, and just into the valley.. we hit a.. desert!  I would never have guessed that there was such a place in Indonesia!

 

Pretty picturesque to see the horses...

 

.. and then the motorcycles!

 

Made me feel like kissing my girl in her skinny jeans!

 

 

chicken stickers

Some people call them grab handles or Jesus handles.. our kids call them chicken stickers.  In spite of Pak Vivi, our driver, being super terrific, there were some moments where chicken stickers were in need.  We arrived at the Bromo National Park.. ready for adventure.  Not far behind us was a mobile grain mill.. puttering.  Really.

 

 

And then we drive across ridges.. with beautiful farmed slopes on each side.  I was remembering Mom hitting the car floor on similar rides in Nepal some 30 years ago.  Chicken stickers!!!!!  Told told Pak Vivi that I was scared, and he told me it would be "aman" soon. That means safe, peaceful.

(Meanwhile it was clear the reason for the mobile grain mill.)

Then we had to choose..

.. and we did.  Chicken stickers!!!

Finally, we came out on the bottom.. and it was aman.. very. And pretty amazing too.

Rainbow Waterfall

From the temple, we headed to the Rainbow Waterfall.. still on our way to Mount Bromo.

This was our practice hike, so we would be ready for the real one later in the day ;)

 

We walked down down down.. thinking the whole way that we were going to have to walk up up up on the way back!  There was--of course--a bamboo bridge...

...and then, the falls!

We counted a six-second fall from the top.  Nice!!  And we loved the spray..

 

And then Zeric and Eben counted the steps back up to the car..

410 steps, not including flat bits.  Phew!

Candi Jago

Jago Temple is a 14th century Hindu Temple just outside of Malang.  Here's how it looks today:

Here's a great picture from Wikipedia (perhaps from the 1800s?).  Not too much different except that the demon faces have been moved...

Big rocks make you want to pose..

(in some cases, with a stranger and his cowboy hat!)

(selfie!)

 

lots of beautiful carving still intact

and finally, cute selfie result:

The flower market

A quick walk from the hotel was the flower market (and the bird market, but we didn't venture there).

There were many different kinds of flowers and shrubs that we don't find in Jakarta...

...and some very pretty ones that we brought ourselves!

Hotel Tugu

Like other parts of Java, there were lots of different influences in Malang.  It was a Dutch colonial city, and well before that, Hindu and Buddhist, and now Chinese too.  Our hotel had lots of antiques; in fact, you could be taken on a tour of the hotel antiques for $7 per person (we didn't, we just wandered).

Some of it was quite art-deco..

...other bits a little Hindu.

 The evenings filled with friends and wine (and activity books) and good food were lovely!