Day 2 - Visit to Batavia

Well after the excitement of our visit to the embassy, we headed back to the hotel for a quick change of clothes ( as we were dressed well for the embassy) before we headed out to the old part of Jakarta known as Batavia.  I wonder how many of you know that both the Portuguese and the Dutch had a significant impact on Indonesia in the 16^th century and that Jakarta (or Batavia as it was named by the Dutch) was one of the most important shipping ports in Asia.  From Batavia spices were shipped around the world along with other exotic items to be found in places like Indonesia that were new and different for people like the Dutch.  There was such a trade in Indonesia that the Dutch people who were living in Indonesia, being homesick for their country, built their buildings in the style of those found in their own country and created canals just like in Holland.   I have mentioned the traffic in Jakarta and getting to Batavia was no different.  In fact we got to an intersection and I just didn’t know how our bus driver was going to get into the traffic, but little by little he did – although I think I had my eyes closed as he did!!

 

 

 

The old port of Batavia is still in operation and there were many boats pulled up at the port loading up goods to be taken out to the many islands around Indonesia.   The boats were carrying everything from water tanks to petrol.  The port was a hive of activity and there were people everywhere, trucks, motorbikes and cranes.  We walked the length of the port looking at all of the boats and the people busy loading them as we went along. 

 

 

 

After our visit to the port we went off to have dinner at Café Batavia.  This café was beautiful, located in one of the old Dutch built buildings off of the old town square.  At night time the town square turns into a huge market with stalls selling everything.  We walked through the market to get to the restaurant.  Inside the restaurant was fantastic, with beautiful wood everywhere and pictures all over the place. 

 

 

 

Now Eric the Echidna has been with us all the way along, but there have been sometimes that he has not been allowed out of the bus (embassy, port visit etc) so Miss Cooper and I decided that he had better come to have some dinner with us so that he wasn’t sulking in the bus or thinking that we’d forgotten about him.  We were sure that he would be able to get out and about much more on day 3 when we went to Yogyakarta.  After dinner it was back to the hotel to get packed and ready for a very early morning wake up at 4:00am to get to the airport. 

 

Day 2 - Visit to the Australian Embassy

Day 2 - Embassy Visit

Hi everyone,

Sorry about not getting to tell you all about our day yesterday, but the early morning get up on Wednesday morning really threw everything out.

So now back to Tuesday.  After a nice breakfast and a bit of down time we had our group meeting at 9:30am.  We have been getting together for these meetings regularly - not only just to do all of the arranging for the day, but also to think about and talk about all the things that we have seen and done. At 10:30 we headed off on our bus to the Australian embassy - with our passports, which we needed to get into the embassy.   When we arrived we were greeted with very heavy security which included a security force of about 10 - 15 security people who checked our passports, tested us for contact with bomb making materials and also scanned our belongings as well as going through a metal detector ourselves.  No bags were allowed into the embassy and unfortunately no Echidnas - so Eric had to wait on the bus for us!!!!!  Very high security, but given what has happened at this embassy in the past (bombing in ?????) you can very easily understand this level of security.  We felt very safe in the embassy, which is a very impressive place to be.  The traffic on the road was in our favour, so we were a little early.  We had to surrender our passport to be signed into the embassy - and received a visitor pass which we could trade back in for our passport at the end of our visit. 

We were escorted to a room for coffee and tea and then we were greeted by Marie Grealy  who works at the embassy.  She spoke to us a little about the embassy but was also very interested in where we came from and about our schools.  Marie told us that the Australian embassy is the largest mission abroad with about 500 staff, which includes A-based (Australian based) staff and local staff.  The ambassador is known as the HOM ( Head of Mission) and is Mr Greg Moriarty.  He spent about 40 minutes with us talking about the extremely complex work that all of the departments undertake in Indonesia.  It was really fascinating and the ambassador was extremely generous with his time and very complementary toward our trip and it's purpose.  We then had briefings from Public Relations, Cultural, Aus Aid  and Business representatives who spoke about their roles and the work that they do in Indonesia.  It became very apparent that one of the main roles of the embassy and Australia's role in Indonesia is about building capacity and ensuring that Indonesia continues to grow and to prosper.  As a close neighbour it is in our best interests for Indonesia to remain a peaceful, democratic nation.

After lunch Marie spoke to us about her role in relation to Education and it's role in Indonesia.  Another embassy staff member Donny spoke about his role with the Bridge schools, which is a program which runs matching Indonesian and Australian schools.  While we were there we were told about the announcement that was going to be made later in the afternoon about the new Australian embassy which will replace the current one.  The embassy staff were excited about this.

At the end of our visit we collected our passports and were escorted out of  the embassy.

What an absolutely amazing experience the embassy visit was and I know that we all felt very privileged to have visited the embassy and to have spent time with the HOM. 

 

Sorry that there are no pictures with this entry, but cameras (and Echidnas) were definitely not allowed into the embassy!!!!!! 

Day 1 - Taman Mini Indonesia Indah

Hi Everyone,

Well we are now in Yogyakarta and once again back in internet connection. So I am going to go back to the second half of day 1 first.

On Monday after our school visit we visited a park in Jakarta called Taman Mini Indonesia Indah or the "Beautiful Indonesia Miniature Park".  It is a culture based park which is located right in Jakarta and is about 1 square kilometre.  It was set up in 1975 to reflect the Indonesian lifestyle and to capture the individuality of each of the provinces of Indonesia, particularly their homes (architecture), clothing, dancing and traditions. 

One of the traditional houses

Each of the 23 provinces that existed in 1975 is represented in the displays, and new provinces that have been created in Indonesia since 1975 are now also adding their own cultural displays of houses, costumes and traditions. 

Taman Mini also has a cable car, museums, Imax cinema, and a large lake in which the islands of Indonesia are represented.

After walking around Taman Mini and looking at many of the different exhibitions we packed up and headed back in the bus to the hotel.  We had arranged to have some dinner at a local restaurant, where we had some very delicious traditional Indonesian food.  It was delicious!!!

Day 2 - Embassy Visit

Hi Everyone,
Wow what a fantastic day it was yesterday - our visit to the Australian Embassy was absolutely incredible, followed by a visit to Batavia, the old dutch part of Jakarta. But you are all going to have to wait - got back at around 9:00pm last night and up at 3:45am this morning to catch the bus out to the airport at 4:30am.  So I will fill you in on the details at our next stop, which is Yogyakarta.

Day 1 - Our visit to Madrasah Tsanawiyah Negeri 3 school.

After a really good sleep on Sunday night we woke up early ready for our first full day in Indonesia.  Miss Cooper was woken up at 4:30am by the call to morning prayer.  She said that her father would be very impressed that anything had woken her that early in the morning.  Breakfast and then out onto the bus ready for our first school visit. 

The hotel in which we are staying is right in the centre of Jakarta, which is broken up into north, south, east, west and central Jakarta.  One of the problems that Jakarta has is it's traffic.  There are so many cars, taksi (taxis) and motorbikes or scooters and they drive everywhere.  Our bus had the driver and his co-pilot and I was able to watch the two of them when we were driving.  The bus driver really did need his co-pilot - his job was to stick his arm out the window and let the other drivers know that we were changing lanes or moving across the road.  It was amazing to watch.  The drive, although only about 20 kilometre took over an hour in traffic. 

When we arrived we were about 15 minutes late and I immediately felt sorry for the children.  In Indonesia the children start school at 6:30am every day and on Monday mornings they have their flag raising ceremony, but Negeri 3 school were going to have their flag raising ceremony for us.  By the time we arrived it was probably about 25 degrees and the children were standing in the sun and had been for 15 minutes already.

The students all had their Monday full school uniforms on.  They have 5 different uniforms - one for each day of the week.  Negeri 3 is a muslim high school.  We arrived to the students all standing in lines, boys one end and girls the other

Everyone was very excited to have us visit their school and they were very proud to show us their school and their flag raising ceremony.  Apart from the children lined up there was a choir standing to one side and the flag raising children who were all dressed in bright red and yellow uniforms.  The children ran the ceremony, which was very impressive and although spoken in Indonesian they also translated most into English for us. 
 

 

The Principal was then introduced and the children paid their respects to her by saluting her.  The flag raising children then marched out with the flag folded up on a tray to the flag pole, where they raised the Indonesian flag.  As they did this the choir sang both the Indonesian National Anthem and the Australian National Anthem (both verses!!!).

 

 

 

 

 

 

The children then all recited the Pancasila or their beliefs, the student committment and the opening of the Indonesian Constitution was read.  The Principal then spoke about our visit and a little bit about Australia.  By this stage it was very warm and the children in their uniforms were very hot.  When the ceremony finished with the choir singing another two songs for us.  They were an outstanding choir. 

 

Eric the Echidna was there all the way through the flag raising ceremony and indeed as we were making our way into the hall there were many curious Indonesian children who wanted to say hello to him

 

 

 

We then went back inside to the hall where we were meeting.  There were many teachers, parents and also people from the local education authority who were also there. 

 

 

When we were settled we then had another performance from so students who performed about four dances for us.  They were absolutely amazing.

 

 

 

 

 

 We then went and visited some classrooms to talk with the children.  The classes that we visited all learn english.  They attend school from 6:30am to 5:00pm in the afternoon.  We all agreed that was a long day for them.  From 3:00pm onwards in the afternoon they have all sorts of different things, however before that it's biology, maths and all the other things that they study.  The children spoke very good english and wanted to ask us many questions like what we thought of Indonesian and their school, about learning in Australia, homework and food in Australia

 

 

 

 

 

We were served a wonderful Indonesian lunch of rice, satays, rice wrapped in banana leaf and Indonesian sweets; custards, sweet potatoe dumplings and tropical fruits.  The food was beautiful and we all felt very full after lunch. 

 

Eric the Echidna enjoyed our lunch too and was a bit of a hit with the teachers and also the Principal who wanted to know all about Echidnas.  They were surprised to hear that we actually had had an Echidna at our school and wanted to know if they were vicious.

 

 

After we had eaten and the Indonesian teachers and parents had had time to talk with us and ask us questions it was time to leave and head off to our next visit, but not before there was a gift presentation and a photograph.  Each school was presented with a beautiful plaque from the school to take back to our school to display. There was then a whole group photo and it was onto the bus and off to Taman Mini Indonesia Indah.





Off We Go!!!

Off We Go

Today we, that is Miss Cooper, myself, Eric the Echidna and all the other teachers and Principals from the Tallangatta Cluster headed off to Indonesia.  Up early this morning to catch a flight from Albury to Sydney, where we made our way to the international departures area - which was an early lesson on leadership - someone just make a decision and lead the way!!!!!

 

After checking through immigration we made our way to the gate lounge - not before Miss Cooper disappeared to fit in a bit of duty free shopping for all of her friends and family!!!!!!

A long flight; nearly eight hours before we arrived in Jakarta, Indonesia where the temperature was 29 degrees at just on 6:00pm in the evening.what a difference to the weather in Tangambalanga!!  The time difference in Jakarta is 3 hours, so even though we arrived at 6:00pm it was 9:00pm in Tangambalanga. 

 

When we arrived we had to line up and buy a visa into Indonesia, which cost Au$25.49.  Once we had our visa we then had to line up in the Immigration line, which took a bit of time, probably around 30 minutes.  Once through Immigration it was off to collect our bags.

 

 

From there it was a bus ride into central Jakarta with our local guide Ari telling us a huge number of interesting facts about Indonesia like:

 

- There are 33 provinces in Indonesia

- Indonesia has a population of 240 000 000 people - about ten times the population of Australia

- Jakarta, which is the capital city, has a population of around 9.4 million people

- Indonesia has one of the highest population densities - which means that more people live in every square kilometre than in many other countries ( about 132 people per square kilometre)

- The currency of Indonesia is the Rupiah - and at the moment we are getting around 10 000 Rupiah for Au$1.

- The largest island of the nearly 17 000 islands that make up Indonesia is Java, the one that we are on.

- Nearly 6000 of the islands are uninhabited. 

 

Wow!!!!  That was a lot of information on the way from the airport into our hotel.  When we arrived at our hotel we checked in, but by that time it was nearly 11:30pm - Australian time.  What we found out though was that there was a big dinner ready and waiting for us!!!  It was very late at night for us - because we had travelled all day, but not so late for the Indonesians (only - well can you work it out?????)  So we went down and had some of the dinner that was waiting for us. 

 

 

After that we headed up to bed - it had been a very long day for us all. 

 

Introducing Eric the Echidna

Hi Everyone,
Well both Miss Cooper and I are packed and ready to head off to Indonesia.  But before we do I just wanted to introduce you to our travel companion - Eric the Echidna.  Eric will be travelling around Indonesia with us and experiencing all that we do.  Look out for all of the things that Eric gets up to on our trip.