For original article, click here

Gosh, such a bad mommy I am, I haven't written anything on Kei ever since he was born! True enough, parents dedicate a lot of resources to keep the memory of the first kid, but the resources are dwindling for the second kid and beyond. As I am the fourth kid, I really understand this, because I couldn't find any pictures or mementos related to my infancy and childhood. Sorry I digress. But with the hectic schedule of taking care two kids, I just realized that Kei didn't have as many mementos as Noe had. C'mon, I gotta be fair to both of my kids. So, now I write something about Kei's progress during the past four months.

So far, the only thing that I have written is how breastfeeding Kei has been smooth sailing. Now I will try to add more news.


At five days old, Kei has given his grandmothers the pissed-off finger. Bad bad!

At one month Kei began to have a meaningful eye contact and follow objects through his eye movements. But i haven't got his voluntary smile yet.


Also at one month he was able to lift his neck when he's put belly down.



I got his first smile at around five-six week.



At around seven weeks Kei was circumcised (i'm sure we're gonna face a lot of lambasting from other agnostics / atheists, but we decided to do this anyway..).



After his wound healed, at around eight-nine week, we began with cloth diapering. This is the right age because his bowel movement had become more regular and his pee was getting less frequent. I got fresh new stash from bumwear and bumgenius websites. Kei has been loving his cloth diapers and he looked really cute in them.



At three months, end January, Kei was able to clasp both his hand together at the centre of his body. He also began to be able to grasp things.

A few days later, he was able to lean himself sideways 45 degree. Striving to defy gravity. We began to be more carefree with Kei's neck, which has become stronger. At three and a half months, Kei began to grab things that are lying around him.

At four months, Kei began to play with his saliva, making BRRR sounds. Indonesians believe that this is the time when mother begins to shed hair. True enough, a few days later, I began to shed my hair. This will last for many months, NOT liking it at all.


At four and a half months, early March, Kei began to roll more steeply, but not quite rolling over yet. One week later, Kei totally rolls over, and he really loved rolling over and back.

He also began to be able to pull himself to sitting position, and surprisingly, to STANDING position, when I hold his hands. It's not that we pull him into sitting / standing position, Kei insisted that he pull himself to that positions, albeit wobbly.

And just like his brother, Kei also flew in an airplane for the first time at four months from Singapore to Jakarta and back. Timely enough to be shown to relatives in Jakarta. Initially, I was supposed to fly to Jakarta with Kei and Noe on tow. I'm not a super mom, unlike Jeng Hany who's able to take care two toddlers at the same time, so I begged to Indi to split the baby caring job, because I didn't know how Kei would react on the airplane. Finally Indi babysat Noe while Kei and me went to Jakarta for family event. Luckily Kei behaved really well in the airplane, no crying no fussiness, despite a very uncomfortable Lion Air (but cheap) flight. I became more confident that next time I should be able to get two kids on tow by myself. Amen.




Breastfeeding on the flight help soothes painful ears during descent

Overall Kei shared similar milestones as his brother. One thing different, Kei has fell sick with common cold TWICE, while Noe only fell sick after he was one year old. Well, with two kids, germs coming from the older brother's school got into Kei's immune system. And consequently, mummy also fell sick more often when one kids fell sick and hence began a circle of disease jumping from one person to another. When one kid fell sick, the disease could stay in the house for more than week thereafter, because other member of the family would get the disease. Luckily with breastfeeding the kids get well quickly. Hopefully Kei would be stronger and more resilient when he begins playgroup in a few years.

For original entry, click here

Traveling around the world need not be limited to adults. Children, even the very young ones, don't need to be excluded from the experience.

These families are our inspiration! They share one thing in common: they are families of world travelers

• The Fleming Family: They quit their day job and took the whole family for around the world trip for one year. They homeschool their children on the road
• The Hacking Family: Around the world with their sailboat Ocelot over these past few years with their teenage son and daughter. They homeschool their children on water
• The Ibanez Family: Our friends in Singapore with their two toddlers, departed November last year with their sailboat Constante for a trip around the world that will take at least five years

This list will be added once we come across other silmilar families.And hope that we could follow their footsteps in a few years, and if possible, with a boat!

For full article, click here

Many people considered that our last one-month trip to Mexico and Cuba has been a hard-core one. Meaning that people think that it is such an impossible journey, that many people would think many many times before actually committing into it. But I suppose traveling is so much our passion that we're willing to take risks and plan such trip. If money is not an issue, we'd like to travel all over the world!

And why are we bringing our little one? Many (Indonesian) parents would think that toddler wouldn't be strong enough to endure such travel. But we want to experience the world as a family, and we're confident that we would be sensible enough to travel with considerations of our toddler's needs and wants. We hope that Noe would be bitten by the same travel bugs that bite us.


Indi+Noe against Carribean sunset in Havana, Cuba

So, some people have asked us, how do you manage to do such a major travel with a toddler. Our answer would be one word: planning.

Well, planning our trip is a separate article altogether. We've also been sharing our travel plan spreadsheet with several people, and they agree that it is so detailed that it looks like a "persiapan perang" battle plan, as you can see in our previous entry.

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The Basics for Traveling with Toddler

The first and foremost requirement to travel with toddler is simple, you have to know your toddler very very well, knowing his ability and limitations, so that you could incorporate your toddler's habits and life-cycle into the travel plan. How? Spend time with your child as much as possible, build trust between you and your child, and finally, test your child's limit by allowing him to be independent and learn from his own mistake.

Secondly, plan your trip in great detail including incorporating the toddler lifestyle into it. This includes timetable, detailed itinerary, and logistics. Having planned our trip in great details, we know that there are some limitations imposed by bringing our toddler. For example, we won't be able to go out to the night scenes. If we truly want to go to night scene, one of us would need to stay with the toddler to babysit as a compromise, for example, Indi would go to a dance club in Cuba while I watch over Noe. Also, we know that we have to constantly allocate time to buy snacks and tidbits for Noe. We would also simulate travel time by calculating distances in Google earth, so that we could allocate traveling time by car and allow rest stops so that Noe doesn't get bored in the car. In terms of logistics, we need to know what would be available or not in the destination. For example, we knew that antibiotics is difficult to get in Cuba, so we had to take our supply of children antibiotics, just in case.

Thirdly, take precautions to reduce risks. Travel insurance is a must, and we spend time comparing different schemes in order to get the cheapest but best option. Also, we talk about our plan to our pediatrician. She would then suggest us to take necessary vaccinations and prepare prescription medicine as our first aid kits. She would also brief us on first-aid basics and how to use the medicine. Lastly, we had planned to take first-aid course but didn't do it. We were lucky that we didn't have to do any first-aid measures during our trip.

Fourthly, during the trip itself, be flexible with the plan, constantly watching your toddler. During our trip to Cuba, we had to cancel our plan to go to the provinces because Noe had Roseola Infantum viral fever.


Traveling with toddler means traveling light, because you need to be prepared to carry the toddler anytime

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Some Tips for Traveling with Toddler

The following are travel tips that had greatly helped to ease our trip:

• Travel light and don't overpack. You need to be able to carry stuff AND chase/carry your toddler when needed.
• Ziplock bags, the sturdy type (freezer type), are useful for many things! Mainly they're used to organize items in the backpack. Quart size to bring leftover food and on-the-road snacks, to pack medicine and toiletries. Gallon size is used to compress clothings for easy packing (Tip: Sit on the filled ziplock and zip them! This makes it into a pseudo-vacuum bag. Use this cheap option rather than getting the expensive special vacuum plastic bags). But don't throw them away hastily. Reuse them as much as possible, and recycle when disposing them.
• Breastfeeding! For me this makes traveling with toddler really easy. No bottle feeding kit to lug around. It also helped Noe to recover from his viral infection faster.
• Wash your clothes during trip. This is how we get by with only bringing a few clothes.
• Make it into a habit to sleep with lights off at night. This has been our habit before our kids were born. And this has helped the kid's transition with the timezone better. There has been very little jetlag despite traveling halfway around the globe.
• Make the most of the surroundings to entertain the toddler without toys. We're also glad that Noe doesn't need much toys. We can amuse him (and he can amuse himself) with things that are available on the spot. For example, Noe would have real fun looking at airplane pictures in the seat pocket. Anyways, the airline would most likely be giving toddler toy kit also. So, we didn't bring too much toys. I think we only brought one Elmo doll, that's it.

Breastfeeding really make things become more convenient

The following are things we should've done or should've bring

• Toilet training (we truly are a failure in this aspect, even up to now. HELP!). This causes us to have to bring disposable diapers, and to buy disposable diapers in the destination. And we make the earth a dirtier place because of it :( Unhappy.
• First aid course. This can be handy not just for vacation. Should take this sooner or later
• Dog tag pendant necklace or anklet for Noe. Just in case if he goes missing (knock on wood), this would help. Even better, if we could put signal-emitting implants on Noe's body that can be tracked using GPS. Just in case, you know. Thank God we've managed our trip without having to put these things.

The following are godsend items that had really helped:

• Lightweight sturdy umbrella stroller. Lightweight is very important.
• Baby Bjorn baby-toddler carrier (for toddler under 12 kg) or a sling. Carrying my toddler using this had freed our hands to do other things.
• Ziplock bags, the sturdy type (freezer type). As mentioned above.
• Waterless hand cleaner solution like Purell
• Baby wet wipes. I know, this is not eco-friendly. But convenient nevertheless. Probably during the next trip we would change this with small lightweight microfiber towels.
• Pacsafe Waist Bag. Safe secure and provide additional space in the packing system.
• Pacsafe bag protector and steel wire security lock. Although people think that this is not useful, the pacsafe protector has provided us with the peace of mind. For example, we protected our bags by putting pacsafe on it and tying it onto solid column, while we spend time chasing Noe around the waiting room in Manila airport..

This is typical carry-on-bag situation on the airplane. The big backpacks are checked in. BTW Noe never had his own seat because he's under 2 year and we want the air tickets to be cheap. Another reason to travel light.

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What To Bring for the Toddler: Our List

What did we bring for our toddler for one month? We try to travel as light as possible. Sometimes we were tempted to bring more stuff than we need, but we kept reminding ourselves that we need to travel light. And if we actually need more stuff, we could try to buy the thing once we arrive in our destination. However, this is rarely the case. So far, what we have brought for the trip has been enough (note that we need to allocate time to wash clothes every other night).

The list is actually quite simple

Noe's Clothes

• 6 trousers
• 2 pajama pants
• 3 socks
• 2 shoes / sandal
• 6 shirts / tshirts
• 1 jacket
• 1 long sleeve shirt
• 1 hat

Noe's Toiletries

• 1 Kiddy toothbrush
• 1 Kiddy toothpaste
• 1 Kiddy bath liquid, also for his hair, the no-tear type
• 1 Waterless hand cleaner
• 1 Baby powder
• Baby wipes, buy one pack containing 80 pieces every 10 days (should think of a more eco friendly strategy)
• Disposable diapers, medium size, buy every 10 days (should've toilet trained him and use cloth diaper instead)

First aid kit for Noe

• Paracetamol
• Oralit
• Ibuprofen
• Malaria pills
• Children's amoxillin (antibiotics)
• Cough medicine
• Insect repellent
• Zambuk for itch and insect bites
• Vicks vaporub
• 3 Syringe to give medicine when needed

Others

• Sippy bottle for Noe's water
• Spoon, fork, knife, just in case
• 10 piece gallon ziplock
• 30 piece quart ziplock
• Ikea clip to secure food bags or plastic bags
• Flash light
• Book with static stickers, sticker book
• Small toys for Noe (as little as necessary): Elmo doll, a few metal toycar
• Our PDA phones with Sesame Street videos for Noe and also our laptop with some videos in the harddisk (rarely need to use these though, but just in case)
• Pacsafe waist bag and pacsafe bag protector

You can imagine that the above consists mostly of small items and all can fit into tiny backpack. We could do better by eliminating the disposables (diapers and baby wipes). Maybe next time.


YOU can do it too!

For full article, click here

Indi and I shared one common thing: We love to travel, to see and experience the world (*if money is not an issue). And with travel, we also share one common trait: we plan for it in detail.

Why do we plan? Easy answer: because that's our style. Some people likes to travel unplanned, arriving at the airport not knowing where to stay or where to go. But not us.

A more difficult answer would be: Because we want to minimize uncertainties and maximise our enjoyment. As much as possible we do not want to be bothered too much with logistical issue. Moreover, we lug our toddlers along with us, hence the need for proper planning. Here, we'd like to share with you our style of travel planning.

We did this for most of our trips, particularly the ones outside South-East Asia.

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A. Planning For The Trip

The first step that we do is of course, to decide on the destination. For the Cuba trip, for example, we were in a bookshop in Kuala Lumpur with our friend Fay, and there we came across with a guidebook for Cuba. Indi flicked the book and saw the beautiful photos of the Carribean blue seas, and we instantly knew what we were thinking. I instantly respond to Indi, "Let's do it before Fidel dies!". This was, six months before the actual trip began.

The second step is to roughly determine the dates and the duration of the trip of the destination. This happened immediately when we arrive home from that Kuala Lumpur decision. The dates were determined roughly based on the annual leave that we have. We built a basic spreadsheet with the number of days, and determined the dates which we need to travel by air (because this means the day is dedicated for major packing and unpacking). It looks like this, roughly.



Then we began our research... to the library! And to Google! We are very grateful of Singapore's great National Library system and Singapore's speedy internet access. We got ourselves the newest version of the guidebook and dissect it.

1. First thing to research: Airfares and its schedule. This involves calling and emailing travel agents all over the world for quotation, and sometimes, when no penalty is involved, by doing reservation. Tim Ferriss actually recommends using last minute deals to save cost, but since we travel in a big group, we're not so sure about this. Anyway, for our Mex-Cuba trip, we managed to get a pretty good deal by involving three different agents: The singapore agent to issue Singapore-LA tickets, Alaskan Airlines website for LA-Mexico ticket, and Mexican Airlines office for Mexico City-Cancun-Havana-Mexico City route. We're glad that the schedules of the different flights fitted nicely, with about 8 hours gap between flights, allowing time for delays and rest.
2. Second thing to research: Visa: Its validity, cost, and application time. This involves calling the embassies. For US and Mexican Visas, there wasn't a real problem. It's a bit tricky because Cuban embassy is not available in Singapore. The closest one is actually in KL, but they don't serve Singapore residents. We had to do it in Jakarta, and with some persuasion, we managed to get them issued in one day.
3. Third thing to research: Travel insurance. We chose AXA as it is the most economical.

To compile the research data, we use spreadsheet again, that roughly looks like this. We marked the best deals in distinct red color. Our rough schedule became more solid now that we have clearer data on arrival and departure by air.

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B. Planning For The Details Of The Trip

For the details of the trip, we began to use the guidebook to research the accommodation options. We wanted a cheap, clean, and safe accommodation. If there is an option to stay with the locals and experience local culture, that would be even better. We also explored the option of hospitality club.

The second thing of this stage is to identify what we want to visit in our destinations. We also used the guidebooks, and we try our best to check the vehicle and distance required to travel between the objects that we want to visit. If necessary, we even use google earth and roughly measure the distance.

The approximate travel time is plotted down into a detailed itinerary spreadsheet, which uses hourly grid. This doesn't mean that we plan our activities to the hour detail level. This hourly spreadsheet only helps us to put down the land-travel time, so we roughly know how much free time we have, and when we should be prepare to leave for our next destination by land. Later, we print this hourly spreadsheet, and on the road, we fill out the gap with the activities that we plan to do on the day.



Once we have this spreadsheet, we were also able to jot down daily budget and then approximate the final budget for the trip.

After this second level of planning, we began our bookings for the air tickets, hotel, and land transport.

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C. Planning For The Execution of The Trip

Finally, we again reviewed and adjusted the spreadsheets that we have done based on the finalised bookings that we had. We had clearer pictures of the day-to-day travel time vs free time.

Then, we began to build logistics spreadsheet. This involves the list of things we bring and where (which bag) we keep them. Why is this list necessary? Firstly, so that we could travel as lightly as possible and as comfortable and safe as possible. Secondly, so that we know where to put things again, when we need to pack to move to the next destination, and also, so that we know where to locate our stuff without having to unpack the whole bag. During the trip, we need the discipline to store things at the correct bag.

This is how we build the logistics spreadsheet:

1. The available storage:
   • Two large backpacks
   • Two daypacks
   • Two waist bags
   • Two hidden money belts
   • and Things to be worn
2. The classification of things we bring:
   • Lower outer garments
   • Upper outer garments
   • Undergarments
   • Accessories
   • Sanitary/bathing items
   • First aid kit (VERY IMPORTANT)
   • Electronic items
   • Documents
   • Other items
   • We also have list of possible souvenirs to bring home.

Then we build a contact list that includes personal contacts in our destination, as well as emergency contacts (police, ambulance, and embassy).

Lastly, we build a spreadsheet for the money that we bring: how much in travellers checks, how much in credit card pre-payment, how much in cash (EUR or USD), and how much we expect to withdraw from ATM. Well, we don't always do this list. But because we travel to Cuba, where money situation is a bit tricky, we need it.

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D. Necessary Actions For The Execution of The Trip

Aside to the planning above, this is the list of necessary actions for the trip in chronological order:

• Apply for ISIC card or discount cards
• Buy air tickets
• Buy travel insurance
• Learn the local language using Pimsleur methods
• Book accommodation
• Book car rental
• Book bus tickets
• Consult our doctor and pediatrician for necessary vaccinations and preparation of first aid kits (she gave us prescription medication for standby and briefed us on how to use it. She also gave us letter outlining our medical conditions)
• Buy items in the logistics list, including the backpacks
• Pre-pay our credit card
• Pre-pay our bills (utilities, cellphone, home phone)
• Put the coordinates of the destinations into our GPS
• Back up and sync our computers (leave the desktop at home, of course)
• Put necessary documents as protected pdf into a thumbdrive, including money-related documents such as credit card info
• Print the abovementioned planning spreadsheets
• Print copies of travel documents, one each to be put into the bags
• Print one copy of personal documents necessary for travel, such as medical conditions, insurance documents, etc.
• Pack up according to the logistics spreadsheet
• Ready to go!

There you go. Many people said our trip planning and preparation looks like battle plan. Is it true?

During the trip itself, we largely follow the plan. However we were quite flexible with itinerary. For example, we needed to cancel our plan to the smaller towns in Cuba because Noe was sick with viral infection. But that's OK, we're glad that our planning and preparation has resulted in a pleasant and memorable trip overall!

For full entry, click here

There are many good things and bad things from this current trip. However I’ll save the good things for later, and for now, I’ll write about the bad things I’ve encountered in Indonesia.

Indonesian TV: Disgusting and Distasteful  

I have heard a lot of bad things about Indonesian TV, from lousy sinetrons, gory crime reportage, to invasive gossip shows. But I have never really watched them because I tried to avoid them, not wanting to waste my time. However, this time around in Indonesia, I came across with the worst piece of TV “journalism” I have ever seen.  

What ticked me off is the reportage of the death of the comedian Taufik Savalas due to road accident. Indeed it was a sad loss for the comedy industry in Indonesia, as he is a good comedian and a good personality as well. He appears to be a sincere, charitable person and a loving family man. But the ten minutes TransTV reportage on his death made me want to kick the TV set.  

TransTV made an exclusive story covering the reaction of Savalas’ family members in a very insensitive manner. It began with a group of TransTV crews arriving in Savalas residence close to midnight. They said that they were looking for Savalas. Obviously, the TV crews knew about Savalas’s death or at least the accident, why else would they be coming to the house? But Savalas’ wife clearly did not know anything happening with her husband as she had just arrived home from a prayer gathering. Hence the TV crews are saving the bad news from her. She showed the TV crew the last SMS that she received from Savalas, and said that she hadn’t received any reply since then.  

Then the wife kindly allowed the TV crews to enter into the house. Minutes later, the wife received the sad news about Savalas’s death at her cellphone and it was clearly unexpected for her. She began to cry and fainted at the staircase. The whole house began to cry, and one person repeatedly asked the reporter to turn off the camera as it is a very sad and private moment to the family. BUT THE DAMN TRANS TV NEWS REPORTERS KEEP SHOOTING THE ENTIRE SCENE OF THE WIFE’S SADNESS. They even swarmed into the staircase to get a close-up look of the wife fainted reaction. Then the household staff carried the wife onto the second floor, trying to wake her up from the faint, and the TV crews keep following her. Minutes later, Savalas’ mother arrived, head covered with scarf but still wearing her sleeping gown. She clearly did not have the time to change clothes upon receiving the sad news. She was crying all the way from the car to the house, AND THE CAMERAS KEEP SHOOTING HER CLOSE-UP!  

It was really distasteful and insensitive. IT WAS CLEARLY AN INVASION OF PRIVACY, AND I DARE TO SAY, HUMAN RIGHT ABUSE FOR THE SAKE OF SELLING TV SHOW. For God’s sake, the family is in mourning!  

This is exactly what happened during Chrisye's burial as well, as Jockie wrote:

    “Sinting sekali….! Ada seorang kerabat almarhum ibu-ibu tua (cukup berumur) yang sedang duduk dikursi dia berteriak kesakitan karena kakinya terjepit (terdorong) oleh kerumunan orang-orang infotainment yang meringsek memaksa mendekati liang lahat. Seketika itu juga keponakan saya berinisyatif menarik tangan kerabat almarhum tersebut agar tidak terjadi kejadian yang lebih parah. Istri sayapun berseru agar jangan mendorong-dorong, karena didepan sudah sangat sempit: hormati dan kasihanilah anggauta keluarga yang sedang berduka…, imbuhnya. Terbayangkan..kah oleh kita semua? jawaban yang ‘asal’ dari mulut mereka? “ya… kasihanilah kita juga dong… bu, kalau engga kan ngga bisa makan… palingan juga ketiban kamera…“, cerocosnya masa bodoh seolah tak ada sesuatu yang salah. Mereka tidak peduli bahwa hanya berjarak beberapa meter dari lokasi, prosesi pemakaman baru saja selesai.

 

It is not a piece of journalism at all. I became really angry and literally put away my sight from the TV set during the afternoon news coverage.  

Upon watching the reportage, I began to empathize with the so-called celebrities. They are constantly being chased with the gossip show reporters, even at the expense of their privacy. Those reporters are really insensitive and distasteful.  

I don’t understand why the Indonesian reportage is focusing much on the emotional aspect of a piece of news rather than getting factual things across. I also saw the news of the student bus plunging 25 meter down the bridge, and much of the reportage was about the gory aspect and the crying reaction of family member rather than investigating the cause and chronology of the event. Is it because emotion sells on TV more than facts? I think it does not educate the people and instead it just sells sensation and emotion. Basically it’s not news at all, a far cry from BBC reporting, of course.  

But the problem is, there will be no improvement if the demand is still there. So, should we just blame the mass, follow the market force, or take the authoritarian stance to ban such TV show? I don’t see any alternatives.  

Also I’d just say this to the celebrities: YOU DO NOT NEED THOSE GOSSIP SHOW REPORTERS. BE TOUGH ON THEM, DO NOT RESPOND TO THEM. If you are indeed a good entertainer and a good artist, it will show based on its own merit. You do not need to be covered by the paparazzi. Well, if we can’t do anything about the demand side, let’s tackle the supply side.  

Behaviour in Public Place  

I’d iike to emphasise that I experienced good things related to people’s behaviour in Indonesia, but let me save this for later. However, there are also bad things related to people’s behaviour in public place that ticked me off during this visit, but I guess I have to just accept it as local Indonesian culture. Part of the problem is perhaps, I have lived outside Indonesia for too long, hence my critical opinion about these behaviours.  

The first thing that sets my red alert is the fact that people seemed to smoke anytime anywhere, despite me (obviously pregnant) and Noe being around them. Sadly this includes my family members. Somehow Indonesians are unable to see the bad of cigarettes.  

I personally think that cigarettes are worse than narcotics or drugs. This is because cigarettes affect people around the smokers and it induces secondhand smoking. On the other hand, drugs only affect the users. Therefore I don’t understand why the Islamic cleric ban drugs but not cigarettes. Personally my aunt is badly affected as second-hand smoker. Her husband smokes a lot, even in the bedroom, which was airconditioned. This husband died of lung cancer (obviously). Sadly, years later, my aunt was discovered of having a bad case of lung cancer as well, despite being a non-smoker.  

The second thing that ticked me off is the inability to queue. I was so stressed out in check in area Terminal 1 Soekarno Hatta because everybody cut queue. And if people do queue, they do it in such a way that they stick into my ass and keep shoving me to the front. My mother in-law’s toes got hit by a heavy trolley because people were cutting queue. And I couldn’t do anything because I’m a woman, pregnant, carrying a big suitcase and a toddler. This is a far cry from the treatment I got in Narita airport, where I was able to get priority treatment for carrying a toddler.  

Other thing that ticked me off is how people are throwing out small trash anywhere. This includes my family members. Things like dirty paper napkin, cigarette butt, or candy wrap, people just let them slip through the finger and once it reaches the ground, they ignore it.  

I guess for all these aspects of people’s behaviour in public place, because it is what majority of people are doing. In this aspect, I appreciate Singapore more than Indonesia. But as an Indonesian, I just have to accept it and adapt to it as a cultural thing. I just keep my own little “Singaporean” way of doing things but do nothing to make Indonesian people change, because it’s Indonesian culture anyway.

For full entry, click here

Hellish Traffic and Relaxed Service

I know, the traffic in Jakarta has always been hellish. But after living away from Jakarta for more than 5 years, it seems that I need to get used to it again. And somehow, my time approximation from 5 years ago is not applicable anymore. I allocate 3 hours of my time to go to Bintaro to Taman Anggrek, buy the modem, and meet my friends at 5pm in Plaza Senayan. It turned out that the trip from Bintaro to Taman Anggrek to Senayan took me four and a half hours.

Several factors contributes to the long trip: First, traffic jam, of course : On average it is 15 km per hour. Second, looking for parking in Taman Anggrek. Third, the modem seller took his time to serve three customers at the same time, and I came last. So I can’t complain about it, it’s just the Indonesian way (I’m quite happy that the seller was quite lighthearted and cheerful). Fourth, 3-in-1 restrictions. As a result, I was so stressed to be late for the meeting and so pissed off that I didn’t estimate the timing properly. I was so stressed that I felt that I would have delivered my baby prematurely in the car.

My driver told me to relax because that’s the way it is. I guess I learn that: I have to take the slower (inefficient) pace of life for granted, not to have high expectations, and relax myself (be “Nrimo”, I don’t know what’s the word in English).

As a result, I had to meet three groups of different friends at the same time. Luckily, all three groups are meeting in Coffee Club, so what I had to do is just jump from one table to another.

Security Concerns, Social Segregation, and Meeting Friends

I guess I’ve been away for too long. This visit to Jakarta, I was a bit anxious about security. I’m worried to be conned, to be asked for bribes and blackmailed. So many questions: Should I take my cellphone with me when I go out? Can I use my cellphone in a car, what if something happen at traffic light intersections? Would it be safe to bring my laptop around? (Note most of my concerns are related to gadgetry because I don’t use much branded goods or jewelry).

It turned out that my friends casually take their gadgets, jewelry, and branded goods with them anywhere. Somehow they just managed not to get robbed. They laughed at me that I worried too much about security in Indonesia.

It frightens me and is embarrassing that I become more and more like Singaporean (being afraid and worrisome) and I have lost that guts and vigilance for being in Indonesia.

On the other hand, it’s just sad to see that my friends managed to stay safe, because they stay in their little cocoons of air-conditioned cars and shopping malls. I felt that the social segregation is starker than a few years ago.

However, it’s interesting to see that everybody in Jakarta has cellphone nowadays! Even my inlaw’s maid has one. The telco providers even have various schemes to accommodate the low-income: there’s even a prepaid mobile scheme for as low as USD 10 cents. My driver told me that the poor usually use it to send and receive SMS rather than for phonecalls.

Nevertheless, I’m really happy to be able to see old friends and friends who share the same interest. It’s interesting to see that friendship from high school and university tends to be more sincere and less “Ja-im” compared to the more recent friendships. It’s funny that I was able to swear (jokingly) at my high school friends without worrying that they would be hurt, and that they tease me with rough words about my pregnancy, and we all just laughed it off.

It’s also nice to meet new friends who share the same interest. Finally I met the mommies from the breastfeeding group in Indonesia, and it turned out that they were really funny, talkative, lighthearted, yet they have strong idealism on breastfeeding issues. As I observe, the Indonesian breastfeeding group throw out jokes more often compared to the Singaporean group, who tends to be more reserved and serious. But despite their differences, both groups get things done well. I guess the Indonesians joke a lot because life here is already difficult, so why make it more difficult by being too serious?

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A Scenic Drive to Matanzas

We got in quite early for breakfast buffet and then left hotel for more adventure.

Yodhi hurried to Barracuda for a diving trip to Bay of Pigs. We decided to the bus terminal to catch a bus to Matanzas, which is just a short walk from behind our hotel.

 

     

Unfortunately we missed the bus, so we had to hire a taxi to Matanzas for 20CUC. The driver was an old man in a 4 year of Renault. He was proudly introducing us to different scenic spots along the way such as Rio Canimar and the Tropicana auditorium.

 

   

First Taste of Cuban Town

After a 30 minute joyride we arrived in the Parque Central of Matanzas.

 

Noe seemed to enjoy the abundance of public spaces with large trees. That is something that we don't have in Jakarta unlike Matanzas that offers shaded areas for people to hang out and play.

 

Just when we got out of the taxi, jineteros offered us their help to show us around town. We politely declined but managed to buy from Moneda Nacional (which is the currency not meant for tourist) from one of them.

 

One could tell that Matanzas was once a very pretty town with narrow streets and sidewalks where intimate encounters among the dwellers took place. We saw many shops with people lining up neatly outside waiting to buy merchandise. In other places, we saw panaderia selling bread with croquetas. We visited the Union of Architects and Engineers of Matanzas and it was reported that there are 1800 engineers in the area but with little work. We hope there will be more investment in the future so they could apply their skills.

   

         

Stroll Around Matanzas City

We tried to get in El Retablo, a store and theater of puppets, but it was closed.

 

When we continued walking, I had to breasfeed Noe, and managed to do so when the lady from Radio Cuba office gave us space for breastfeeding.

   

We had hamburguesas and  Tropicola (not TuKola this time) for lunch at La Vigia near the Teater Sauto. Initially we wanted to take a tour in the theater as well, but it was closed due to the liberation day holiday on the week of 1st January.

     

                   

We then bought two handmade books from Edicion Vigia as souvenirs. Guevara took us for a tour around the production area of Edicion Vigia, as well as patiently showing their collections for sale.

       

Soon after we walked for about 1km south to the bus station so that we could catch 2pm Viazul bus back to Varadero. We walked through steel bridges which is one of the landmarks of Matanzas city.

 

             

Back to Varadero

The bus was nice and clean. Indi met with Marie Jollie, a Dutch woman who has been traveling alone all over Cuba. She suggested we spend more time in Trinidad that in Santa Clara. Perhaps we will reschedule if everyone agrees.

 

We got back in hotel at 3pm and waited for Noe to complete his nap. Afterwards we walked to beach and swim again. Noe at this time was not in the water but he was busy watching passers-by. There is something about Noe that attracs people's attention. Maybe it was because Noe had curious look in his face that makes people want to talk to him.

For dinner we went to La Vicaria 8 block away from our hotel and then we ordered fish, steak and shredded meat with rice and fries. Rani ordered 7 year old Havana Club rum and it was great!

Tropicana-like Show

When we get back to the hotel, there were a tropicana-like show. Even though the show only took place in a hotel, and even though the band was only using an electric keyboard rather than full big band, the performance was really professional and quite good. Those dancers were really athletic.

     

       

We slept late after packing and will try to wake up at 6am tomorrow.

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Breakfast and A Stroll around Varadero Downtown

We woke up a bit late, and the breakfast buffet was almost finished. The hotel staff really adored Noe, and we had a conversation about toddlers and babies. One staff had a 25 months old baby named David, and she breastfed the baby for 6 months.

         

We went back to the room to prepare ourselves for a walk, and I watched Cuban TV channel. It has the feeling of the old-time TVRI. There were four channels. One channel has governmental meetings shown on TV. The other two channels are educational channel, with programs ranging from science, technology, open university, language course, mathematics, and of course, the politics of cuba, in which a lot of statements by Fidel are quoted.Then we walked outside. The weather was not really good, with very thick cloud and drizzles. We decided to walk around Varadero, but the drizzle made everything so gloomy and ugly. Nevertheless the beach still looked beautiful with nice turquoise color. Indi was amazed with a lot of the cars of the 50s scattered around the street, with a shiny good condition. The streets in Varadero is surprisingly clean, the residents seems to have a sense of belonging to the place, that even without direct economic incentive, they keep the place clean.

       

                         We saw a school bus donated by the American students.    

Lobster Lunch and Great Live Music by "Gala"

Finally we went to Barracuda Diving Center so that Yodhi could make an enquiry about the diving program.

       

After that we went to the next door restaurant. But we were afraid of mediocre food, so we had to ask other tourist first on whether the food is good. Luckily, the tourist that we met there were quite satisfied. So we decided to just eat there.

 

When we enter the restaurant, a live acoustic music was playing Guantanamera, and some senior tourists were dancing to the tunes.

I ordered small grilled lobster, while Indi got roast chicken and Yodhi ordered grilled calamari. We decided to just have cervezas, because they cost the same as water. It was bucanero cervezas and produced by the government, but they tasted quite OK.

   

     

Before we got our meal, the band approached us, and we made a request for them to play classics of Cuban music. And it turned out that they played really beautifully, with four parts harmony and great "tres" solo. They brought "tres" instrument which is a modified guitar, with three rows of double strings, each row is tuned to the same note. It has a twangy sound. We really liked the band so we bought their CD. The band is called Gala.

To the Beach

After lunch we decided to take a taxi back to hotel so that we could spend the rest of the afternoon on the beach. Unlike Cancun where the access to the beach was limited by resort development, it was very easy for anyone to walk from the street to the beach. Our spot was only two blocks away from the hotel and the weather was splendid!

The water was only waist deep from the shore to about 200 meters outward so it was very safe to just dip yourself in the turquoise water. We put Noe in some floatation cuffs we got at Wal-Mart in Mexico but he was completely terrified with the sound of waves crashing on us.

While we took turn swimming until sunset, Noe was busy playing with whatever he could find around our mat. He was not moving much from where he stood but he kept throwing sand against the wind and got himself covered with sand.

After sunset we jumped into shower and later had dinner as La Casa de la Miel. Indi was completely disappointed to find tasteless Pollo Asado, unlike what Yodhi enjoyed the night before. We met Oscar and his wife who waited our table and also a couple of French Canadians who were visiting Cuba for the 20th time!

It was quite a tiring day so we went to bed quite early as we wanted to do something special tomorrow.

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Last Minute Stroll around Playa

We woke up early to finalize our packing and then head out to the center of Playa del Carmen to buy some cheap breakfast from the stalls. We managed to see the last phase of the sunrise. Dang, I wished I had woken up earlier to catch the sunrise exactly when it began. But still it was a beautiful sunrise with rays penetrating the clouds giving a magical sensation.





We saw a Royal Caribbean Cruiseline at the deep end of the Playa del Carmen bay, and it seemed that the passengers are getting off using a small boat, rather than directly at the pier. This is because the sea depth at the Playa del Carmen port is too shallow to cater for cruise ship. Half an hour after that, we saw a group of tourists with stickers on their chest strolling down the fifth avenue. Yep, they're the cruiseline passengers. We saw a lot of Chinese cruiseline passengers who were traveling with their extended family members. It's apparent that China is doing well economically, because we saw Chinese tourists everywhere!

We bought tortilla con camarones with fresh salsa near the central park for 8 pesos each (about 1 SGD). It was totally delicious, albeit cold. Then I bought a glass of fresh orange juice, for only 5 peso! TOTALLY DELICIOUS! It is squeezed fresh from the oranges.



We saw tourism policemen riding all terrain vehicles.



Then we strolled towards the pier and saw the boat that ferries passengers to Cozumel. I wished that we stayed longer in order to visit Cozumel too.





Indi bought some Tshirt for souvenirs and gift.

We rushed back to the hotel and checked out. Then we had breakfast at the Carboncito restaurant. During breakfast, Noe passed motion, so I had to return to the room (luckily it wasn't locked yet) and clean him up.

To Airport

At exactly 9am, after I took note of the brand of the special tequila in the funny bottle with a shape of pistol, we drove to the Cancun airport.



During check-in we found out that our flight schedule has been changed, luckily for later timing. If it had been an earlier timing, we would've missed the flight. Our mistake, we should've checked the schedule the day before, reconfirming our flight.

Lesson Learned: Do reconfirm the flight a day before.

After check in, we had to report to immigration to get our visa form stamped.

Since we had to wait for about two hours before boarding, we decided to have a big early lunch. We were not sure that we would get food on board, and surely food wouldn't be easily found in Havana. I had a big hamburger, while Indi had a veggie burger, both served with fries. Alberto, the waiter, got us a small bowl of habanero salsa. For an overpriced airport food, it was quite good.

Since Noe was too excited about flying off in an airplane again, Indi had to take him to a park to let him run around in the open, while I was finishing my burger and delicious big flan (creme caramel). Noe got introduced to Sophia, a 3 year old Mexican girl who was really shy. Noe also broke the water bottle by throwing it around.

Flight to Havana

Then we went to the boarding area. The security check for Havana was really lenient. In the boarding area we saw a lot of really fat people, so big that they might just occupy two seats on the plane.



Then we boarded the airport bus and get into the click Mexicana flight to Havana! It was a very nice clear weather and during take-off we could see clearly the zona hotelera in Cancun, and the lagoon where Fernando took us on a boat trip. The color of the Caribbean sea was so beautiful, we could see the coral reef with its distinctive color.



Arrival in Cuba: The Adventure of Passing through the Immigration

After about twenty minutes flying above the sea, we began to sea a stretch of land that is Cuba. First we saw Maria la Gorda beach and Pinar del Rio province. We could see how pristine the Cuban landscape is. Too bad the weather was rather cloudy and the clouds masked the landscape. We landed in Havana after 45 minutes of flying.



We were surprised that they have the aero-tunnel (or whatever the name is, in Indonesian it is called Belalai Gajah (Elephant's Trunk), which is old but is quite well maintained.

Our first impression of Cuba is that there is no billboard that greeted us at the airport. Everything was just barren except for some public service advertisement. The lack of billboard became a break for our eyes.

Then we arrived at the immigration area that resembles the room with thousand doors in Alice in Wonderland. It looks like a dead end, except for the doors that has the same color as the wall.

There are many queues for foreigners visiting Cuba, with two dedicated counters for mothers with child and disabled people. There is one counter for diplomats and crews, while there is only one counter for Cuban nationals. I guess this means that Cubans do not or can not travel outside their home country.

We obediently lined up on the designated counter. As a group with a toddler, we lined up behind the child counter. However, when the officer called us to the front, Noe and I had to be separated from Indi, because the counter is only for the child and the mother. So Indi had to go to the adjacent counter. We noticed that on top of the counter there is a mirror in an inclined position. We guessed that it is for the purpose of seeing people who are shorter than the counter height, or people who trying to sneak into Cuba by crawling under the counter.

The immigration officer was quite friendly, and I spoke to her using my very broken Spanish. This is my first time listening to a conversation with strong Cuban accent, which I find is harder to understand compared to the Mexican or Spanish accent, because Cuban accent dilutes many consonant. For example, the final "s" in each word is not read, and "b" is strongly pronounced as "w", and many consonants are diluted to speak a word or sentence in a more flowing manner. Also, Cubans talk fast. Really fast. Anyway, after about ten minutes of Q&A and scanning of my passport, I was let in by the officer. Let me illustrate the scene in slow motion. The officer handed me the passport and press a button in her desk. A buzzer buzzed, which means the door to the Cuban world is unlocked, and I had to reach the door handle and open the door. But right after the door there are two XRay machines. This is the first time that I had to be scanned before entering a country. Our Targus bag which is full of electronic equipments attracted the officer attention, and we had to open the bag and showed her that it is a real laptop. Luckily she just wanted to see whether it is a real laptop or not. After this Xray scan, we were 90 percent in Cuba (We had to pass by customs before it became 100 percent). While waiting for the luggage we changed our Euro cash into Cuban pesos convertibles (which is tourist's currency). We were surprised that the rate for Canadian dollar is much better than euro. We should've brought Canadian dollar. Then we went to the "Nothing to Declare" lane and voila, we were in Cuba officially!

First Taste of Cuban Culture: a Long Wait for Service

We reported to Havanatur reps to get our hotel vouchers. But then the car was broken and they had to get a replacement car, and it was unclear when the replacement would arrive. Nevertheless we patiently waited.



A janitor approached us and offered to exchange money with black market rate, but we politely refused this illegal proposition. In the airport shop, I saw the Havana Club Gran Reserva which is aged for 15 years, this is a must have!

Drive to Varadero

After two hours, we finally got the car. We were in a same car with a couple from Cayman Islands who were staying in Hotel Nacional, perhaps the most luxurious hotel in Cuba. During the drive to Varadero, our impression that Cuba is a country without a billboard is confirmed. But there are a lot of graffiti and billboards of government messages such as about the revolution, victory, and liberty. We saw a lot of pictures of Fidel, Che, and Marti on the roads.Too bad we had to drive at night, so we couldn't see much thing around the road. The road was totally dark, there was no street lighting and the houses were only dimly lit. The driver was very enthusiastic to show us around. Although he only speaks Spanish, we (try to) understand him. He showed us the Havana Club factory, and suddenly the air in the car smells like molasses.

Got a Huge Apartment Unit in Hotel Mar del Sur Varadero

We arrived in Varadero around 10pm. When we gave 10 CUC tip to the driver, he was totally elated. We thought that such amount of tip is quite reasonable, considering the long drive from Havana to Varadero, and also, with such a bad weather and in such a dark street. But for him, it was a lot of money. The average salary of people in Cuba is about 10 CUC, while the president's salary is just 40 CUC. So, we just gave him enough money to take a vacation for one month.We checked into our hotel, called Mar Del Sur. It was quite a big hotel complex with twenty four-storey blocks. The building was apparently really old, like, from the 60s, which is characterized by its concrete construction. Although the building's facade and physical appearance were not well maintained, the interior is amazingly clean. We got a whole apartment unit for ourselves, with two bedrooms and two bathrooms, with kitchen and living room.

After putting our stuff in the room, we head back to the reception to ask for recommendation for a place for dinner. She recommended the restaurant La Casa de la Miel about 5 blocks from our hotel. So we decided to just walk to the place, although we're very tired. We were surprised that the street was totally different to Cancun and Playa del Carmen. There were very minimal street light, and only few restaurant open, and not many activities on the street. Perhaps because it's quite late at night. When we got to the restaurant it was about to close, but luckily they're still willing to serve us food. Indi and I got an overly salty spaghetti bolognaise while Yodhi got a very delicious roast chicken with generous amount of rice. For the drink Indi and Yodhi bought state-produced soda in cans, which tasted quite nice, like pepsi, while I bought mineral water. This is the first time we went to a country where we can't find Coca Cola! Even when I went to the himalaya, Coke was already there before me. But in Cuba, there's no Coke.We were quite satisfied with the service and the food was quite good too. We walked back to the hotel, took a shower, and had a good night sleep.

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Chill out by the Playa

We dropped our dirty clothes at lavanderia and had a simple breakfast at a cafe next to the hotel. It was not too bad since it was included in the hotel rate. While waiting for the laundry we took Noe to a playground and a square where Fifth Avenue began, which is located right by the beach. We bought some tortilla with chicken for a very cheap five pesos.

     

       

We then had a stroll around Playa Del Carmen's Fifth Avenue, which felt just like Kuta. Amazingly, we even found a shop called "Wayan", which sells Balinese goods such as carvings and handicraft for exorbitant price. Perhaps the shop is owned by Pak Wayan who emigrated to Mexico.

   

       

Right after laundry around noon we went to the beach and got Noe in the water. It has been 4 years since Rani wore her bikini in Hawaii. Perhaps it is a norm to wear one in Playa del Carmen since we hardly saw one piece. Some grandma went topless with droopy breast. Luckily Yodhi spotted a topless young woman to balance the scene.

The water was not cold at all. In fact, it was better to stay in the water since the wind was quite strong in late afternoon. Noe at first was a bit scared seeing so much water but later he felt comfortable hugging us in the water. Rani tried to introduce Noe to sand play. Although he was not interested to walk on sand he was curious to see the textures and how it can be easily molded and used to bury Rani's legs.

Yodhi went on a scuba trip for only US$45 as compared to the US$70 he was previously offered. After the dive he said the fishes (yes, many types of fish) were quite large as compared to what he'd seen in his last Malaysia diving trip.

Shopping for Cuba

Later in the evening we went to Wal-Mart! Yes, we had to do some shopping of supplies before we take off to Cuba the next day. We heard Cuban kids lack stationery stuff for school so we bought some crayons, pens and notepads to give away when we are in Cuba. Toilet papers were considered rare so we bought plenty of baby wipes, too.

We had dinner at El Jurado, a small restaurant near shopping center. The food was quite alright for the price we paid. Arrachera (Spiced flank steak), cheese and beans on an oval fried tortilla. Quite yummy for hungry folks like us.

On our way back to the hotel, we saw a souvenir shop that sells tequila in a bottle shaped like a gun. We really wanted to buy it, but too bad, we didn't have space in our luggage, and we just have to depend on our luck when we return to mexico in the next two weeks.

Latin music was playing across the street but we were too tired and too busy packing but Rani managed to run and get some Memey and Pineapple ice cream on sticks near the parking lot where we left the car for the evening.

Time to sleep now. We have to drive to Cancun airport bright and early tomorrow.

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Swimming in the Center of the Earth

What a great day to start the day! We went to Ik-Kil, a cenote near our hotel. Not knowing what the place would look like, our jaws dropped like never before! We were not the first to get there at 8am but there were two ladies in bikini already starting to swim there before we did so we let them tried the water. I then jumped into it without knowing how deep it was until the lifeguard told it was about 50m deep. There were small black fish swimming with us but they had no eye since they came from an environment deep inside the earth where lights nearly existed. The cenote itself has water surface about 20-25m below the ground with a round opening created millions ago measuring about 40m in diameter! As good parents we managed to get life vests so that we could hug Noe safely while swimming. Yodhi and Indi managed to do some stunts jumping from 6m cliff while posing for the video camera and yelling Chichen Itza! It was indeed a refreshing swim in a cenote that seemed to only belonged to us.

   

         

Drive to Tulum through Coba

At 10:30am we checked-out of the hotel and started to drive along the country road to Tulum via Valladolid and Coba. Indi overestimated the travel time and my guess was right, it took us only 2.5 hours instead of 3.

   

Crowded Tulum

Arriving at Tulum at 1pm we were hungry but too excited to see the ruins. Unlike the well-organized Chichen Itza or Teotihuacan, the staff at Tulum seemed too lazy to enforce the rules. The public amenities were not well kept. We guessed hurricane Wilma may have damaged some of it but I think it was mostly due to mismanagement of the park itself. I was not too happy to see many people ignoring the roped boundaries. Some even climbed up fragile a structure. Below the cliff, hundreds of people were swimming in the turquoise waters. Indi said he’d never seen anything like the turquoise sea (despite the thick dark cloud that hang over us). Perhaps it was because the area is surrounded by miles of coral reef at about 500m from the beach.

       

                         

Mexican Seafood in Playa del Carmen

Soon after Tulum we drove to Playa del Carmen where we have booked a room at Hotel Cielo. At first we thought the city looked like any American town with major shopping centres along 4 lane wide highways but we changed our opinion when we entered the old part of town. Our hotel is located inside the hotspot where everything is happening. Streets are closed to create pedestrian friendly environment that stretches tens of blocks just within 5 minute walk from the beach. In comparison to Zona Hotelera of Cancun, this is far much more interesting and we thought we should have stayed here first instead of Cancun.

Based on the recommendation of Lonely Planet, we had dinner at the Oasis where we ordered Ceviche, some kind of appetizer made from shrimp and fruits (Ceviche). A paella full of savory seafood was served on a big plate for us to share. A seafood soup that resembles clear gumbo was what we had together with a drink made from rice (Agua Horchata). It was a great dining experience for a reasonable cost. Across the restaurant there is a tortilla vendor that sells from a classy VW van, and Noe really liked the van.

       

     

Yodhi was busy shopping around for diving trip deals from various shops in preparation for tomorrow's fascinating day at the Playa. As for Noe, we will follow his schedule and try to lure him into turquoise water. We will do so after sending our dirty clothes to lavanderia.

This is a great place to end our Mexican trip before going to Cuba since the cafe across the street from our hotel plays a great salsa with powerful congas and brass section. We will sleep through it.

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Deadly Football Game of Ancient Maya

We woke up at 7.30 and rushed to Chichen Itza to beat the crowd that will come in Sunday. Then we had coffee in front of Chichen Itza main office.

First we went to the football court where the two teams compete to have one of the team sacrificed. The first ruin we saw was El Gran Juego de Pelota, the largest ballcourt in Mesoamerica. Archaeologist believed that the losing team were sacrificed (got their heads chopped off and offered to Gods). Imagine if the World Cup uses the same system. Zidane would not have just butt-headed the Italians! And Ronaldinho would have bitten the opponent's ears off to avoid losing. The acoustics of the football court is amazing. If you stand on each end of the court, you can hear other person's talking on the other end. And if you make sound inside the court, it will be echoed exactly seven times. There is significance of the number seven.

   

             

Afterwards we went to see a carving of eagle and jaguar eating human hearts. The place is called Platforma de las Aguilas y los Jaguares.

 

     

El Castillo: When a Clap produces Eagle's Squawk

What was fascinating was El Castillo, the largest and the tallest pyramid on the site, making it stand out as centerpoint in the lost civilization of Chichen Itza. On each side it has 91 steps and 1 main step at the top making it 364 + 1 = 365. Although the largest on site, this pyramid is still much smaller than the pyramid of the sun in Teotihuacan made by the Aztecs. Just like Teotihuacan, the entire city of Chichen Itza was built according to astronomical calculations. Very precise engineering allows the image of snake creeping up the steps on El Castillo during the summer solstice. When you stand about 50 meters away in line with the centerline and clap your hands, the 91 steps would reflect the sound to produce canon-like echos that sounded just like an eagle screeching from afar. Quite amazing!

     

               

Among other things on site, we were fascinated by they way they planned the city to accommodate the infrastructures as well as the collection of rainwater for consumption.

On East and West sides of the city were cenotes (massive well) that led to an underground river system. I heard the Yucatan peninsula has no river but an underground caves delivering water from the highlands to the lowlands. Some cenotes were as big as 50 meter in diameter and over 40 meter deep. In fact, there was one cenote called Ik Kil across from where we stay. Perhaps we should try it tomorrow.

 

       

Noe was too tired to complete the entire trail so we returned to the hotel after we have completed the structures full of massive round columns called Plaza de las Mil Columnas, which was believed to be the gathering place of the important individuals of the Mayan community.

   

               

Christmas in Mayan Mexican Village

We spent the rest of the afternoon with a siesta following Noe's sleepy head. Following the nap, we went for a swim at the limestone floored pool at the north side of the hotel Dolores Alba.

   

We went to have dinner downtown, and we saw Santa Claus riding an old Volkswagen getting gifts from the toy shop and went out to deliver the gifts to the houses. His car was blaring loud Mexican pop songs. We met a French family who were staying in the same hotel with me, and also a French game developer and his pharmacist wife who are working in San Diego.