February 21

February 21

lovely waterfall

By now you may have gathered that I write these little "blogs" the day after I experienced them....right??

view from our hotel room

Today we leave for the Island of Lombok and say goodbye to Java....

We started our day with the complementary breakfast of toast and egg "mata Sapi" translated, cow's eyes....so "eggs-up"
After the breakfast I decided that I should get a potong rambut....a hair cut. I found a place that suited me and got a decent haircut, much, much better than the guy in Bolulla, Spain. It cost me 80 cents. Mind you, you do not get the services that you would for a $15.00 haircut, like have the hair brushed off your shoulders and sweaty arms...but hey....who can complain?

You get a great head and shoulder massage, get your ear and nose hairs trimmed, they shape-up your eyebrows and do the mustache as well....
My head feels great and my wallet even better.

....just now I spotted a vendor walk along the beach, carrying a pikulan, selling peanuts and bananas and little pillows of sticky rice filled with sweet banana.
Of course I had to buy some...to my delight, the peanuts I (over) paid for were the boiled variety, katjang rebus... These are peanuts, boiled in their shell, in salted water, making for an interesting change from roasted peanuts.....but let's get back to February 21,

After strolling down the inner sanctum of the kampung that our hotel is adjacent to, we stopped at Tante Lies for some lunch. I had a lovely mie keow and some sate and Menno had a nasi goreng and the other half of the sate order
The mie keow is a mie soup with thinly sliced fish dumplings, shrimp, cabbage, chicken, broth, green and fried onions and Yan's wonder powder...quite delicious, but more than I could eat.
Back to the hotel for a mandi and to wash the loose hair off my body.
We we allowed to stay in our room well past check-out time and until we would pay the bill and leave for the airport.
The bill for the 4 nights, incl. laundry,incl. breakfast, incl. beers and ride to the airport was 800.000 each, which translates to about $80 each.....do the math!!!!!!

this is not Tante Lies' place...hers is too ugly to photograph

Tante Lies is an remnant of the days of old, when the Dutch colonized these emerald isles,she passed away last year and her daughter runs the warung now.

We arrived at the airport in record time, this driver really knew his way around Yogya traffic. By the way..... Yogya = Jogia = Jogja
I have seen the 3 spellings written as official names.
 The first flight was with a turbo-prop to Surabaya, which is on the North Coast of Java and, once a the main harbor of Java in Colonial times. Legend has it that a Shark (Sura) battled a Crocodile (Buaya) for lordship of this harbor and both dies from their injuries. Hence the City was called after both the creatures. All along the coast the occasional salt water crocodile may still be found, (escaped the handbag maker....) and just off the coast the occasional shark may swim, fin-less, a toss-back from a shark's fin fishing boat...)

I was amazed at how clean and tidy this airport was, and how Indonesian the security system was.
Large placards warning us not to bring any liquids exceeding 3oz were placed at the entrance of the Xray machines.....

Both Menno and I had full 2 liter water bottles in our packs as they went through.....
Menno was stopped because he had his Swiss Army knife in his carry on, and was allowed to put it in his suitcase, which was still accessible....things are so easy going here,what a difference. If only our Amercan brothers would learn that tolerance, tempered with good sense and friendliness will achieve more than gun toting and arrogant displays of power over those with smaller guns ?
Arrival in Lombok....

Hotel in Lombok

The hotel had sent a driver and clerk down to pick us up from the airport. They had made a colorful sign, that's said....
Welcome to Lombok, Mr. Glenn van Blommestein.....so wonderful to be received and recognized....these folks know instinctively what the Americans need to be taught in Hotel School.....

This is, by far, the nicest hotel we have stayed in, so far....beach front and all the comforts of home. The staff can't do enough for us...just wonderful.
$25 p/p a night. Caribbean equivalent would be around $300 per night.....DTM !!!

 
Mie Sop Ayam
Chicken soup with a kick...

 
Ingredients
Spices to be ground (Bumbuh)
15 g (about 3 cloves) garlic
50 g (about 2) shallots
1 tsp ground white pepper
1/2 tbsp sea salt
3/4 cm fresh gingerroot, peeled
2 candlenuts (you may use macadamia nuts if there are no candlenuts)

Whole spices for broth
1 star anise
2 cm length cinnamon stick
4 pieces cloves
1/2 nutmeg
1 -2 green cardamoms

(Pho spices may also be used_

Other ingredients
2 L water for broth
2 leg-thighs (you can add more chicken bones to have deeper chicken taste)
50 g Chinese celery (divide into two, chopped finely for condiments and the other half for broth)
2 green onions (same as above)
150 g tomato (quartered)
150 g jicama (quartered), can be substituted for carrot
150 g yellow fresh/dry egg noodles (I used fresh chow mein noodles)
150 g dried rice vermicelli
fried shallot flakes

krupuk udang (fried till fluffy)
slices of lime (optional)
sambal cabai hijau/green chilies (optional)

Methods:
In a large stock pot, boil water and add star anise, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and cardamom. Boil over high heat for 10 minutes. Lower heat to a simmer

Grind the spices till smooth using a spice grinder (or pound away with mortar and pestle). In a skillet, heat 1/4 cup of vegetable cooking oil and quickly stir fry the ground spices till turned brown, for about 5 – 7 minutes.

Add the spices into the stock pot, and throw in tomato, jicama and chicken. Turn the heat to medium. Cook for another 10 minutes or till boiling. Reduce heat to a simmer and remove the chicken breast from the broth. Add celery and spring onion to the broth

Broil chicken leg-thighs for 2-3 minutes till the skin turned brown and crunchy. Shred the chicken meat to small pieces or cube them.

Prepare the egg noodles and vermicelli by blanching them quickly with hot water for 2 – 4 minutes and drain well.

Remove the tomato, whole spices, jicama, spring onion and celery from the broth before serving.

To serve, first put cooked egg noodles and vermicelli in a deep dish or bowl. Add chicken bits and chopped celery and spring onions on top. Pour the boiling broth on top of the noodles. Add one tablespoon of sweet soy sauce and one teaspoon of tomato sauce. Sprinkle some crispy fried shallot flakes and present with krupuks. Serve with green chili sambal.