Indonesia for a week

I got asked to go on a 'Site Visit' for one of our geothermal projects, and the site in this case was eastern Java, Indonesia.  This was quite a rare opportunity, and since I've known about it for a few weeks, I've been able to study up on this project in preparation to go.  I left on Friday and arrived Saturday into Jakarta. I started by taking the bus from the village to Haywards Heath station, then train to Gatwick Airport, then flight to Doha (Qatar), then connecting flight to Jakarta where I took a taxi to the hotel and settled in for 1.5 days before the real work started.  

I bought myself a new swimsuit that had more coverage since none of the other ladies I saw in the pool were wearing 'normal' swimsuits.

I had a full day (Monday) in the office for a technical workshop with the clients, 

then everyone from that workshop (about 20 people) flew together from Jakarta to Banyuwangi on the eastern corner of Java for the 1-day Site Visit. 

Although I was only here for a short time, I saw so many things!  I was in an SUV that was part of a 12-car convoy for the day, and I got to ride with 2 awesome guys who were able to tell me about the different plants and geology and loads of other things during our time in the car.

I saw allspice trees, rubber trees, jackfruit trees, macaques up in the trees (!!), people sitting in doorways, families on mopeds, little kids outside in a school playground in a small rural village, people with the wide cone shaped hats working in rice paddy fields, bamboo scaffolding around houses under construction, beautiful mosques and flowers, and so much more.

On our way back to the hotel where we would all stay for the night in Banyuwangi, we stopped to look at a toxic waterfall and river.  This was toxic not from pollution, but from the very acidic volcanic crater lake in the Ijen crater.  Notice how the foliage near the water is brown (i.e., dead!). Yeow.

Here is the view from my room at the Kokoon Hotel.  I really enjoyed looking out of it.

One great happiness is that I was able to get permission to stay on for an extra day and night instead of flying back to Jakarta the following day.  This meant that I could get up in the middle of the night and go hike up Ijen crater!