Observations: all pics by David Teitel (and he may be in one)

Giant clam

THB has already done two sets of observations for this trip, so this list will focus more on Indonesia and some of the mundane stuff THB likes to highlight after the trip is over.

Weather: Only one day out of 19 where the temp didn’t get over 80 (or felt like it was over 80)

Light Switches: THB continues to be totally baffled by the myriad versions of ways to turn on and off lights in hotels and resorts. By far the easiest was at the Crowne Place, a very functional room in all respects. Now there are so many different control points and even “master” switches don’t really turn off all the lights. Nothing is labeled, everything is trial and error. Some switches cancel others out. Some lamps need to be turned on individually. DB has become our go-to a/c and safe expert. She does an excellent job and yet on this trip someone had to confirm the safe in our cabin on the Aqua Blu was indeed broken as was the master key. THB knows they have post-it notes on board or else Adrian used them all up attaching them to sprinkler heads in the galley.

Big Cars: How did Indonesia and Singapore come to have a much higher percentage of big cars on the road than almost any other country THB has visited. And each is loaded with motorcycles, few scooters, and almost no bikes.

Temples: As mentioned earlier, THB and DB have been to many temples in the last 10 years of travel. The best overview to-date was that given by an old man (by THB’s reckoning he might have been in his mid-80s, surely older than THB’s 71) using a pictorial PowerPoint computer presentation for just the two of us. He could connect the dots as he traced the migration of Buddhist and Hindu temples from north to south. Maybe this amateur historian has a talk on YouTube? THB will see if he can find out. Priceless. Totally unexpected. Arranged by K’day, one of our fave all-time local guides.

Pork: Real pork, the kind that comes from pigs. Most of Indonesia does not have pork available. THB suspects it has to do with all the dead pigs in China (another scourge that happened last year or the year before and reduced the pigs by what THB believes is about 1/3….that’s a lot of dead pigs). Of course, THB and DB had roast suckling pig on our day with K’day; that pig came from a local village and the leftovers shared with the providers and others in K’day’s compound. Even places like 6 Senses couldn’t get pork. It wasn’t on our omakase at Capella. It was available in Singapore because we had several types of dim sum at the beginning and end of the trip with pork.

Guides: THB and Db have got into the habit of hiring guides for some of our travel e.g, for art, food tours, foreign locations where we don’t feel comfortable touring on our own. Sometimes the guide is also the driver (like on our Atacama – Salta trip), more often there is also a driver (sometimes a very knowledgeable guide as in Jakarta).  We’ve done it enough that it feels like we’re old hands at being led around. Our stay in Bali was a bit odd: the guide provided by the travel agency was nowhere near as good as the guides for the local sites. K’day was terrific; Agung (admittedly the creator/curator/collector/landscaper) at Arma was like having the most knowledgeable art person lead you around. Valentina was someone we got great leadership from at last year’s Biennale. Same-same except different, both exceptional.

Blue Starfish seen on almost every snorkel, spread out among coral

Arranging the simple (to THB) stuff went by Budi: no open market visit, no top-level batik/sarong shopping. A full day of a cooking class as the major activity for the day with zero value added, the driver could have handled that day (even with his limited English).

THB thinks this is a Needlenose Trumpet fish; we only saw them on one snorkel (with the sharks)

And, Budi was a nice guy, charming at times. And yet he seemed like a guy “mailing it in.” Sometimes the guide is just a guide, and that was Budi. However, he may have been seeing his future income dropping dramatically (read Coronavirus below), and SARS had a huge impact when it rolled through China so Budi knows better than us what is coming for him. The “setting up” to buy a quick sketch from a friend of his at ARMA was unconscionable though it is easily possible Budi didn’t know how to extract THB from this seemingly random meet-up.

Climate Change: The existential threat is here (what would a set of Observations by THB be without including Climate Change; like baseball with 14 teams in the playoffs?). Even in the remotest parts of the world you can snorkel over fields of bleached coral, even if the water seems 10 feet deep you can see the onset of bleaching and death. Jakarta has flooded multiple times this year and the damage looks to be permanent in some areas. Indonesia plans to move their national government from Jakarta to higher ground on another island. 

Grouper getting groomed including a tooth cleaning 

THB thinks this is David T getting up close to the grouper and hoping to avoid a trip to the dentist

On other hand, our cruise took place in a large sanctuary and THB and DB were very lucky to have seen one of the most pristine ocean places left on the planet, where even the most hard-bitten (non-coral) species are making comebacks. With the rising temps and acidity in the ocean, it is not clear how long this will last, especially for the coral (the Great Barrier Reef has lost huge swaths of sea life, including coral)

THB continues to espouse three things:

-        1. He’s a collapsarian, the tipping point has been reached and things are going to be different, starting now (well, it was reached a long while ago, so starting back then)

-        2. The race for renewables has to be world-wide, aggressive, and costly. Best way to start: pay many trillions to the owners of coal, oil and gas and leave it in the ground. Subsidize solar, wind, etc. in large quantities. Not gonna happen.

-     3. Start the Manhattan project of reducing CO2, bringing scientists (remember them…they are the group that has been discredited by those in power for many a year now) from everywhere and start implementing their ideas now. Going to cost more trillions. Spend it now and for years to come. Not gonna happen.

      To get a better understanding of the current state of the viability of the planet. THB recommends watching Our Planet, 8 episodes narrated by the Voice of God, David Attenborough. He cites the wins (few) and losses (many). One example: 1/3 of the deep sea coral has been destroyed by sea bottom strip-net fishing. If we don't see it, it didn't happen. And, the blue whales have made a great comeback since the 1986 ban on commercial fishing. 

THB thinks this coral may be at beginning of bleaching, not sure

Lastly, there is one more item THB is adding to this list: reduce the number of people on the planet … which leads to the next Observation:

Coronavirus: While the rest of THB’s followers were getting articles and updates on the spread of the virus, THB and DB were somewhat close to the epicenter since any event like this gets a broad brush, and not as worried (well THB wasn’t). We were actually many miles from anything significant. In Singapore, maybe 15-20% we’re wearing masks. In Indonesia it was far less, almost none. There is concern in these places. Yet people in the airport in Singapore were sneezing without covering their mouth.

Basic health issues kill more people in Indonesia every day than a virus (outside of a few cities in China). Bad water, poor neo-natal and delivery care, poor medical assistance, poverty, flooding, large families with many young children, in many places no real education of those under 12. It’s a third world country that has moved up, especially on their more affluent islands where the government has supported the population in lifting living standards

And, tourism is going to be impacted for months (assuming at some point the number of cases declines to negligible, otherwise we’re talking years). Many tours have cancelled, the resorts we stayed at we’re for most part empty (low season norms? THB does not know). People from this part of the world may be prevented from traveling even if perfectly healthy. Chinese tourism is big here. Basically, if you are from China you are not allowed in. Maybe not even allowed out if airlines refuse to fly to or from China (or Hong Kong).

So, another solution on Climate Change: drastically reduce the earth’s population and/or thus the use of fossil fuels (a mini-version of this happened in 2008-9 when the great recession was in full swing). Very dystopian, hard to imagine, and yet possible.

Here’s something THB hasn’t thought of until drafting this post: maybe THB and DB should quarantine ourselves after we reach E-ville. No visits to/with the twins, no visiting friends, no eating out. Hmmmm….the most draconian thing THB can envision now is the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games (shades of Zika).