Travels thru Life: 8/17-- Hiking and Independence Day

On Jim's birthday, which is exactly the day Indonesia claimed independence from the Dutch, we went hiking on a volcano and visited a memorial to General Suharto, talked to veterans of the 4-year war, and enjoyed watching one of the Independence Day games.

Mount Merapi erupted in 2010 and destroyed the village of Kaliadem. 260,000 people were evacuated, and only a few died. The main damage was done by a pyroclastic flow which moved at about 50 mph with super-heated gas and ash (500 degrees). The green area in the picture below is from the damaged area. The jungle was re-asserting itself within 6 months, and now there is limited evidence of the destruction besides ruined buildings.

Local people (including our guide) come here twice a day to cut grass to feed their livestock.

Under the grass is is an old woman carrying 50-100 lbs.

A more modern transportation method.

This is the outside of the home of a woman who came back and
rebuilt six months after the eruption.

Our trip leader, Arinto; the owner (74 yrs old); and our local
guide holding the knife she uses for cutting grass. Notice her boots.

Inside the home. Her 4 sons used to live here too. Her husband
died 45 years ago, and one of her sons died. The others moved
to another village after they evacuated, but visit her often.

Her kitchen

She makes charcoal in this pit for her own use and for sale. It
takes 3 days and she can get $7 for a 50 lb bag.

There are displays about the eruption in what remains of the
village, which is being rebuilt. This a car that was uncovered.
Arinto was impressed that the wheels didn't melt.

This is a remnant of the pyroclastic flow - it is 150 feet deep.

A photo of the eruption. The pyroclastic flow is on the right.

This is what the volcano looks like and what we would have
seen if it hadn't been so cloudy. The good news is that it was
a great day for an uphill hike!

Today is a holiday in Indonesia. 70 years ago, Indonesia claimed independence from the Dutch. When the Japanese invaded during WWII, the Dutch left and Japan said they could be free when they lost the war. So two days later they said, yup, we're done with the Dutch and on our own. Unfortunately the Dutch didn't exactly agree and came back to claim what had been their territory. It took 4 years of fighting, but finally in 1949, the Dutch ceded control. Their first leader was Sukarno, a charismatic dictator.

General Suharto was one of his top generals, but when frustration with Sukarno grew, Suharto deposed him and ruled for 31 years until his resignation in 1998. He was credited with fighting communism and strengthening the Indonesian economy. Suharto apparently lived a relatively simple life, but his children profited from his position and corruption was a major issue. The Asian economic crisis in 1997-98 hit Indonesia hard and he resigned. We drove to a memorial to Suharto to meet veterans of the war for Independence. The memorial is an uncritical tribute to him and all he accomplished without mentioning his dictatorial methods or the corruption and nepotism he tolerated.

Entrance to the memorial which is still being constructed.

Suharto's younger brother and wife. The brother
is/was a successful business man who was an
importer, exporter, and bank owner.

We were each given pins from the Suharto Memorial but Jim had
his personally pinned on in honor of his auspicious birthday.
Jim is on his knees to provide easier access since the
brother is apparently not fit enough to stand for any
length of time. It was Jim's idea to do this.

Shaking hands. Afterwards, we all received pins and shook hands.
The men in uniform behind them are the veterans and we had
a chance earlier to hear from them.

After that little ceremony, we were all given snack bags and walked to a local celebration which featured a game similar to the idea of a greased pig event at a county fair. A number of poles were erected with a flag at the top and many water bottles with tags in them tied to a cross piece. Then the poles were greased (and re-greased as needed) before teams of men attempted to retrieve the flags and bottles. It appeared that one man could rescue a max of 4 bottles and had to bring them down, not just drop them to the ground. The pictures below show some of the challenges. The tags in the bottles identified what they won, which ranged from snack boxes to small kitchen appliances, tvs, and bicycles.

Capturing a flag. Much tougher than getting bottles.

Proud flag holder posing for me.

Then it was time to head back to the hotel. There was no group dinner tonight but we have been so full from eating all the time that we skipped it. At 7:15, we were back on the bus to go to the Ramayana Ballet. We were allowed to go backstage and watch the performers work on getting ready before going to our front row bench seats. This is not like American ballet with lots of jumps but a musical story where the actors only do stylized dance to the accompaniment of two singers and several musicians. The music was not quite as atonal as Chinese opera, but close. Also the lack of a backrest for seating made me wish we could have had the Reader's Digest version instead of the 1.5 hour version. Afterwards I learned that this WAS the Reader's Digest version -- the whole thing takes 8 hours.