Bali - the most beautiful place!

After working in Jakarta until Thursday, I had a flight out to Bali that evening so that I could enjoy two full days on the island - both Friday and Saturday. Come to find out, the BP contact that I had in Indonesia, has a cousin that owns basically half of the island of Bali! Iwan, my co-worker and friend, decided to check on a few businesses that he owns in Bali that weekend and accompany me on my way over to the island. He arranged EVERYTHING! Iwan booked my flight and accommodations (we stayed at a hotel that his cousin owns) - I was soooo very lucky to have Iwan helping me because as tired as I was Thursday, I would have probably gotten on a plane to ??? We stayed in the Kartika Plaza hotel, which is located on Kuta Beach in Bali. I believe this is the most popular beach for tourists AND President Bush stayed at this hotel when he visited Bali! How did Iwan know to hook me up where George W. had once stayed?

Thursday night was a quick one - then Friday was to be the day that Iwan brought me about the island to see the people, the shops, and just about everything! We figured that Saturday would be a good day for R&R on the beach and in the sun. So, after breakfast Friday morning, I meet Iwan in the lobby area and our driver for the day rolls up in this van! Yep - Iwan's cousin arranged for us to have a driver all day long to take us around the island to the many destinations that we wanted to go to. Of course, as busy as I have been, I had not had the time to look about the island for things I wanted to definitely see and do - but I didn't have to - Iwan knew everything and had a schedule for the day ... it was FANTASTIC! We first headed to another beach on the island where water sports are very popular. I decided to go parasailing for the first time in my life! It was great - only $20 - and much less scary than I had imagined. After parasailing, I got the urge to get a temporary tattoo! YEP - I couldn't resist ... it is supposed to last 2 weeks ... so I looked through all these books with designs and found a few things I liked, so I asked the tattoo artist to make me a 'custom' design. He basically took the arm band I wanted and put the sun design that I wanted all together on my left arm! It was the neatest thing ever!!! I was so excited - it is still on now but I can tell it is fading and if I really wanted to get it off, it wouldn't take much and its only been a week. OH WELL!

After the tattoo, Iwan and I headed to a variety of places to do some shopping. Our driver would bring us to places that were the best quality in the area for what we were looking for - i.e. batik (local hand-made material from Bali), silver & gold jewelry, things made out of straw or wicker of sorts. Basically the routine was, you would get dropped off but not go into the main building just yet ... first, you were taken out back to see how everything was made. They explained step-by-step what had to be done to hand-make this material, a silver bead, or a straw purse - it was UNREAL! You talk about "manual-labor" - at its finest! These people work in conditions that would surprise many of us - and they are so talented in their skilled labor. After you were able to witness what actually went into making these items, then you proceeded into the actual store where the finished products were kept and for sale. VERY SMART strategy-wise in that they showed us first how much detail and effort went into these products because it gave you a whole new perspective on what you were buying. I have to admit that I bought something from each place, but can't give details as there are people reading this site who may be recipients of those gifts. What I didn't realize is that Iwan was going around and telling everyone that we were cousins!!! ... so he was getting me local discount prices instead of the tourist prices! Every question that I had, he would translate into Indonesian and ask it for me. I could not have asked for a better guide through the island, honestly, I couldn't have!

At one point, I kept seeing people (women) in the rice fields and it just fascinated me and I wanted to get a closer look. So, Iwan told the driver to pull over and we just walked out into these people's rice fields with our cameras and my questions. Iwan explained to me how these women grew the rice and managed to collect the rice when it was ready; this is without any machinery at all! Again, manual labor that I couldn't imagine doing for HOURS throughout the day in the hot sun. One of the most interesting places that Iwan brought me to was a traditional home of a Balinese family. Each family usually has its own Hindu Temple to carry out various ceremonies and such. All bedrooms were outside and porcupine was what was on tap for dinner that night! I was very honored to have been able to view these people's home. People in Bali are very nice to tourists and do not go after you for your money at all. Iwan explained to me that many people on the island believe in Karma (so what good they do for others will come back to them); they can actually be very offended when Westerners try to tip them cash for giving directions or providing a serivce to them. Iwan taught me to to ASK first if I can give a tip to them - then it is usually accepted.

Finally before heading back to the hotel, Iwan brought me to a place to have lunch/dinner at a traditional Indonesian restaurant. That was great fun and Iwan and I talked a great deal about different cultures and religions. Iwan is Muslim but did study in the States for a while during graduate school; apparently, that is quite normal for Indonesians to study abroad at some point. He is extremely outgoing and knows just about everyone at the BP office as well as everyone on the island of Bali! I found out that Iwan has 17 adopted children!!! I nearly fell out of my chair when I heard this - seventeen! He has always wanted to help the kids in the streets of Jakarta and at a young age, he began to take them in to give them a better life. They all call him "Ah Ah", which mean "Big Brother". Iwan is only 37 years old and a few of the kids are already in University! He had dedicated his life to helping others and you can tell it from how genuine he is and his giving demeanor - he truly gets the most joy out of servicing others and he has great pride in his country and where he comes from! He was was very proud to be showing me his homeland - I felt so grateful to have had the opportunity to have him to travel around with ... I would have NEVER gotten to see Bali the way I did without his local insight.

I believe after most of Friday was complete, I went back to the hotel to take on about 3 hours of calls from the States about work. We called it a night and then planned on hanging at the beach most of the day on Saturday. I did make sure to get a "traditional Indonesian massage" that Saturday morning, which was unbelievable. I was laying in a hut on the beach in the open for an hour getting this massage ... I cannot explain how amazing it was - to hear the sounds of the beach and to be on the beach in this open hut ... I will admit that I was a bit surprised when she asked me to take my top off like it was 'no big deal'! By the way, the massage was under $20 for an hour ... cheap, much? After the massage, Iwan and I headed to the beach and once we were settled, I had my toenails repainted with designs of flowers for about $3. Then, I had ladies with tons of jewelery coming over to me asking me to buy some of their stuff, which I did of course - but all very cheap. Then I got to rest for a bit until one of Iwan's friends asked me if I wanted to go SURFING! Uh - I have NEVER, not once, been surfing before. Never even tried it before ... my brother always had told me how hard it was and so I guess I never really thought about trying - and besides, I have not traveled any beachy-type place in so long to have the opportunity to do so. Well, in Bali, Iwan's friend was willing to teach me!

So, of course I had to go surfing for the first time in Bali!!! I had a bit of schooling on the beach before I was able to get into the water. The instructor went out in the water with me and the first wave that came by, I went under before I even got started because I was too close to the front of the board and therefore, too heavy to 'catch' the wave. So, the second time I tried - NO KIDDING - I GOT UP!!! YES INDEEDY!!! I sure did - of course I ate it backwards off the surf board - but I stood up and officially got up on my 2nd try! I have to admit, I was mighty proud of myself (still am, cant' you tell?). The instructor did not believe me that this was my first time I had surfed but it truly was ... and I can guarantee you that I will be doing it again too, what a rush! I did notice a few things about surfing: (1) I underestimated how exhausting of a sport it was, (2) I had no idea that a surf board weighed as much as it did, and (3) I never realized how much of your stomach muscles you use to actually stand on the board from the lying down position. I will say that the next day I woke up and felt like someone had punched me in the front of the rib cage. It just so happens that my the front of my rib cage on both sides jet out a bit further than the average person's (those who know me know this) - but what I realized is that every time you mount that surf board, you basically are sliding on those two points of bone - OUCH! It was well worth it though.

Iwan and I went back to the pool to hang out by the hotel a bit and then we decided to clean up and go for dinner. We chose to eat at a Japanese restaurant and it was very good - Iwan eats a lot like me ... little to none ... he actually doesn't like food either because he thinks it is a waste of time to eat! Could we have been better travel companions? TOO FUNNY! I was so sad to see my time in Bali end. I was set to leave at 6 AM the next morning (Sunday) for Vietnam - I had to catch a plane from Bali to Jakarta, then from Jakarta to Singapore, then from Singapore to Ho Chi Mingh City, Vietnam. Iwan and I left early Sunday morning and that was the end of my 2 most glorious days in Bali! I owe a lot of it to Iwan and the entire experience was such a blessing. I cannot wait to go back for more than just 2 days!!!

keely :)

I am ready for my first time at parasailing! 

Up and up and away... 

Picture of me in front of the Hindu Temple at a traditional Balinese house. 

Of course I am buying Silver!!! 

Keely & Iwan at the jewelry store - we liked this statue. 

Getting a temporary tattoo! 

THE TATTOO! (temporary of course) I wanted there to be a sun in the middle of the arm band. 

The lady in the batik store dressed me up in traditional wear ... it was beautiful! 

A picture of me in the rice fields - I have never seen the way rice grows. 

Picture of me next to the Goddess of Wisdom! 

Iwan & Keely at a traditional Indonesian dinner. 

Early one morning as I strolled along the streets outside the hotel ... I am still in my PJs! 

My hotel from a distance on Kuta Beach 

My favorite place in the world!!! On a beach laying out in the sun ...  

Me and that HEAVY surfboard! 

YUP - that is me SURFING ... but I do get up, I promise! 

My poor attempt at eating with chopsticks ...  

I am posing by all the motorcycles outside some establishment in town on a Saturday night! 

Keely & Iwan on a motorcycle - no worries, just a pose! 

Picture of me sitting with a group of men on a night of a full moon - they are in typical ceremony dress. 

Week in Jakarta!

Hi from INDONESIA!

What a week I had in Jakarta ... where to begin!?! First, I will tell y'all that my flight was crazy in that it took a total of 28 flying hours to get to Jakarta - with one stop from Houston to Seattle (4 hours), then to Taipei, China (19 hours), then onto Jakarta (5 hours). If you add on the 3 hours for layovers, it totals to around a 30 hour commute!

I arrived in Jakarta on Monday and was a bit overwhelmed with the airport. It was not what I was used to by any means! I did find my driver, who apparently was assigned to me all week. Isn't that lovely? You have your own personal driver while you are in Jakarta - to be honest, I can see why now that I have seen how they drive there! There are so many scooters ... TONS of them ... and with both on the road at the same time, it makes for scary transport.

I was staying at the JW Marriott hotel in Jakarta, which is the recommended hotel from Accenture security. Strange thing is ... this is the same hotel that was bombed a few years back. The amount of security they have now because of the bombing is unbelievable! Each car is checked by about 5 security guards before you are even allowed to drive up in the designated area on front of the hotel. Even there, there is no parking allowed - just drop off and pick-up ... after being dropped off, you have to walk through a metal detector and your bags are searched. After clearing that part up front, then you walk a good ways to still enter the actual hotel. Apparently, they have 200 security personnel for this hotel alone! So, I felt very safe.

The funniest story that I have while in Jakarta happened pretty much that first day, Monday, when I landed and my driver took me to the hotel. As my family would call it, definitely classifies as a "bonehead"! I had exchanged my money into Rupia, which is the currency in Indonesia. It is a pretty each conversion in that you just have to divide the Rupia by 10,000 to get dollars (i.e. 50,000 Rp = $5). I was obviously exhausted when I got to Jakarta so I hadn't figured out the entire conversion just yet ... not only that, no one had told me that my driver was automatically paid by BP and that he was just to keep a log and get paid at the end of my stay in Jakarta. I had NO IDEA because obviously I asked him how much I needed to pay him once I arrived at the hotel. He didn't answer me the first few times (spoke no English at all) and then held up 6 fingers and kept saying "Yes?" ... so I figured I owed him 600,000 Rp. That was my guess - I had no idea and was so tired that I couldn't compute the conversion. Also, the ride was about 1.5 hours long - so $60 was not a surprise to me. Therefore, I tipped him 100,000 Rp = 700,000 Rp total = roughly $70ish. He was VERY happy and I went on about my way even though I kept asking for a receipt and he couldn't understand me - I was just too tired to care and figured I would get one later. I did found out later that evening when Iwan, my BP contact in Jakarta, called me to let me know that the driver was going to come pick me up at 6ish to get to the office on Tuesday morning, that his fees were covered by BP. SO - basically, I gave my driver a $70 tip!!! Apparently, when the driver was holding up 6 fingers, he was telling me he was going to pick me up the next morning at 6 AM!!! I laughed at myself good and plenty when I figured all that out - it ended up working out, however, because I essentially tipped him for the whole week up front. Also - to give you some idea of how much I tipped him ... the average Indonesia makes $80/month. TOO FUNNY!

The week in Jakarta went extremely well with regards to work; the BEST yet! The SCM group in BP Indonesia is full of the most generous people. They were all very hospitable and I felt like a queen when I was there all week. They went out of their way to help me or get me anything that I needed. The office itself looked like a resort - unbelieveable to work in that type of environment on a daily basis! I was also given a MOST interesting security de-brief at the start of Tuesday morning when I arrived at the office. It was so very fascinating all what Tony, the head of BP security in Indonesia, told me about Jakarta. I am sure he thought I was a total nut because I kept ooohing and awwwing over the things he was telling me! He is an Aussie who has been living in Jakarta for 5 years and knows the Indonesian language fluently; he is x-military (size-wise, you could definitely tell!) and he was my personal contact all week if I ever found myself in a scary situation. He was VERY nice and CLEVER too ... some of you know but others of you don't, I was advised to wear a "wedding band" to discourage men from being too aggressive towards me being that I am an American female who was to be traveling alone in a Muslim country. When I told Tony that I was heading to Bali that weekend, he asked me if my husband or boyfriend was going to be accompanying me and I automatically gave him a strange look. It was funny to me that even if I am 'playing the part' of a non-single female, my reactions and facial expressions when someone mentions "husband" totally give me away! I asked Tony if he said that because of my "wedding band" and he said yes ... so I guess it did work ... but he figured me out by my reaction anyways.

I will post a few pictures below and then write a separate piece about the culture and what I learned about Indonesia while on my trip, so you can choose to read that separate from this note. You will see a picture of Angie Lawrence and I below; she is my friend that I worked with in the Junior League Tea Room last fall every other Saturday or so. Her and her husband moved to Jakarta in January, so they took me out to a dinner in town one night! It was sooooo great to see her - we had a blast catching up!!!

Hope everyone is doing well ... stay tuned!

keely :)

The BP Indonesia office complex ... it was beautiful, looked like a resort! It did not have BP signs anywhere on the outside of the buildings so as to deter terrorist activity. 

Me and my driver ... not quite sure what his name was! First day heading to the BP office. 

Here I am in the courtyard of the BP offices - many people ate lunch outside here. NICE! 

Picture of me conducting training in the BP Indonesia office! 

Culture & History of Indonesia

As promised, I am continuing on to tell y'all a few things about the county of Indonesia - culturally as well as historically.

Basic History: Did you know that Indonesia is actually comprised of 13,000 islands?!? I didn't even know there were 13,000 islands on this planet much less in the same area tied to the same country! From what I learned this past week, Indonesia was founded in the 5th century by a man from Brunei (Malaysia) and he was Hindu, which became the religion of the area he settled. In the 8th century, the Muslim missionaries came into Indonesia and began converting lots of people to the Muslim religion. By the 16th century, a dutchman came over to Indonesia and claimed it as a Dutch colony; along with the dutch came Christianity. The Dutch claimed the land of Indonesia until the early 1800's - this is when the English came over and fought the Dutch until they surrendered. Apparently, the English claimed the land for 11 years (including Maylasia & Singapore) and then Indonesia was taken back by the Dutch. Confused yet? The most interesting part of all of this is that during WWII, the Japanese took over when the Dutch surrendered to Japan in 1942. However, Indonesia FINALLY obtained its freedom when WWII ended in 1945! Therefore, Indonesia is a fairly young independent country of its own.

A specific part that I found quite interesting is how the Dutch colonized the islands of Indonesia whereby they kept the people separated according to the islands they lived on so as to keep their skills/personalities a certain way in order to better fit jobs that needed to be done around the country. For example, the Javanese (from the island of Java where Jakarta is located) were known to be persistent and disciplined. The Sutanese (from the Western area of Java) were known to be thinkers, writers, intellectuals. The people from the island of Celebes (located furthest east of Indonesia islands) were known to be loyal and most of the country's military comprised of these people. The people of Sumatra, an island Northwest of Java and hardest hit by the tsunamis, were found to be very driven and determined people but no so disciplined. Finally, the Balanese (from the island of Bali, directly east of Java) people were known to be trustful, giving, and very open to others.

Basic Culture: I knew basically very little coming over to Indonesia for the first time. All I knew was that there has been lots of terrorist activity here since 9/11 and the country is the largest Muslim country in the world. Bali, however, located East of Java, still remains something like 98% Hindu back from the original settlement by the man from Brunei ... quite a difference!

One of the most valuable times that I learned about Jakarta was when Tony was giving me the security briefing on the city/country. Apparently, I had virtually nothing to worry about when it came to getting mugged because the people of Jakarta won't stand for it. So, if someone came to steel my purse and I hollered "thief", there would be about 20 people who would automatically go after the mugger and take care of him themselves (if you know what I mean). Therefore, it doesn't happen very often. The police don't do much about it because of the amount of people that usually get involved in an even such as that! The most common way of steeling at this moment is to break a window in a taxi cab and take a computer or something valuable that is lying on the back seat next to you. BP drivers are only allowed to drive cars that have glass windows that would take 7 whacks with an axe before the window actually shattered! Also, there is of course the trick where they will set up your driver to get in an accident. I was told that if this happened and my driver got out of the car to figure out the situation - I was to lock all the doors and move to the middle of the car and call Tony ... even if they were beating my driver up or hurting him. Tony said that within about 10-15 minutes that men on scooters would show up and settle the incident - often by paying off whomever they needed to ... I have found out that money can buy a LOT in Indonesia!

Gambling is illegal in Indonesia but I would say that the most surprising thing I learned of ALL was that getting caught with drugs in Indonesia is punishable by DEATH!!! I believe for the most part it is if you are trying to smuggle drugs into the country but they have no mercy on people that get caught with drugs - i.e. they often are put on death row to be shot by firing squad. The worst of it all is that they are not given a date of execution! They are just to sit there fearing that at any time, the Indonesian Gov't may think their time is up and take them out and get it all over with. The firing squad is comprised of 10 shooters and 1 is given a real bullet and the others are given blanks - so no one REALLY knows which shooter actually fired the fatal wound. Anyways, the saddest part of it all is that many Australians are caught and there is very little that the Austrailian Gov't can do for these people. When I was in Jakarta in fact, 9 Auzzies got caught smuggling in marajuana and heroin. They were all young men & women, ages ranging from 18-29! The news reports that they are as good as gone - except I saw that one girl is going to be sparred the death penalty because she was the one with marajuana, which is obviously not as bad as heroin, but she will still get life in and Indonesian prison ... yikes!!! The ones who were smuggling heroin into Bali were getting paid $15,000 to do so - not worth it in my opinion.

No worries for me - I was not afraid of the whole drug thing, obviously, but you do hear about stories of people smuggling it through your bags and stuff ... I managed to make it out of Jakarta just fine!

Bound for Jakarta!

Hey everyone!

I am about to leave for Jakarta but figured I would post a few pictures from my twin sister's, Kinsey's, baby shower that we had at my house this Saturday. She is 7 months along with a baby boy, which her and her husband, David, plan to name "Drew" after our last name, Drouet. We are all VERY excited and I was able to feel him kick a bit when she was staying with me the last few days! This will 'officially' make me an aunt and I honestly cannot wait!!! Just to give y'all a bit of perspective, the shower ended at about 5:30 PM and I left for my trip to Indonesia & Vietnam 2 hours later and I hadn't even started packing yet! Thank goodness for moms - mine happens to be an EXPERT packer.

My sister looks beautiful and very healthy. She absolutely means everything to me ... enjoy!

keely :)

Keely & Kinsey