vango

Our last stop was a visit to a herbal plantation ran by Pak Oles—the founder of the famous Bokashi Rub Oil. We were given coffee and tea with a rice sweet cake. We were given a tiny bottle of the Rub Oil with the chance to buy more. It will supposedly cure everything from skin diseases, abdominal pain, arthritis and whiplash. It can be take internally as well as externally and is an aphrodisiac What a miracle cure!


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The rest of the group trouped through the herb fields and we got a ride to where the vans were waiting.
The ride was all downhill with very curvy roads but we arrived back at the ship about 4 pm absolutely worn out.

Our first stop was at Chinese Temple Singaraja Tempat Ibadat Tridharma along the shore. “Three-teaching”, or “Tridharma” in Indonesian, is a holistic “Chinese traditional religion” encompassing Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism as well as ancestral worship and folk religious practices in Chinese temples.
The temple is very ornate in the Chinese style but one of the curiosities is the four boxes containing turtles. Each box was full of water and had a ramp for a turtle exit. The building was covered with dragons and hanging lamps. There was a bridge that arched a small pond with a dragon motif. Red roofs and white walls made it easy to photograph.





In front of the temple on the beach front is the Yudha Mandala Tama Monument to a freedom fighter, Ketut Merta, killed by gunfire from a Dutch warship early in the struggle for independence. This is the Buleleng Harbor which used to be a major seaport for Singaraja. The monument features a 6 meter pilar with a shirtless boy holding the Indonesian Flag and pointing toward the sea. This monument was erected in 1987 for an event that happened in 1945

I'm going to break my time line momentarily. We are almost finished with the ship and will disembark tomorrow. We had a great adventure yesterday that is more timely so I'll drop that here then pickup the last of the java thread when I have had time to edit.

Yesterday we went to Komodo Island which is famous for the Komodo Dragons.



The bay we anchored in was as smooth as glass and the mountains were an intense green. Komodo Island doesn't have a dock so we tendered onto the Island which limits the number of daily visitors. Tours started at 7:30 in the morning but we were lucky that we had a 1:00 pm tour so we could sleep in.
There are three tours offered but the difference is in the amount of walking. The chose of 6 hour, 4 hour or 2 hour treks. Ron and I were lucky. Ben, the Tour Manager, took pity on us and found us a park ranger who walked us to a place about 100 yards away where four dragons were hanging around in front of a small cabin.



The rangers understand what these animals will do and carry a forked stick to push them away. Our four lazy friends just lay resting in the afternoon heat and were easily photographed. Ron and I got some great photos with the help of the ranger who took our cameras to the other side of the dragon for a group portrait.



As we walked back to the ranger area and dock we noticed a lizard showing interest in a couple of dears. The deer new they were being sized up for lunch and quickly moved out of range. So we don't have any dramatic dragon attack photos.



The ranger led us through the shopping area to his family's store where we bought a small carved Komodo Dragon as a souvenir. We are back on the boat sipping a rum punch in just over an hour.

Our last stop was the Batik factory and store where we had a demonstration about how batik is made. They called upon 2 passengers from each of our three buses to try their hand at making a sample. I reluctantly took the second position from Bus #2 and attempted to paint a butterfly.
Batik relies on hot wax to block the fibers to create a pattern that is later painted. The fabric is then placed in boiling water to removed the wax and reveal the pattern below. The design is created with a sort of fountain pen for wax. It has a small reservoir and a hollow tip that is used to draw the design in wax. Color is applied with brushes. My butterfly was blue and red and not very perfect. I had a lot of trouble controlling the wax pen. Most of that problem was that I had to hold the 10 square of cloth on a sheet of newsprint. It was somewhat awkward. I finished my design and went off to shop while they boiled and packaged it. Ron and I bought a piece of fabric in the store. It was blue and gold with butterflies and flowers.
Back at the ship we had just enough time to get lunch before the Patio Grill closed at 3 pm. We were so tired we made an early evening of it.

We cycled down the street to the history museum located in a small compound. On display in the forecourt was a military tank. Acting as a makeshift stage and sun shelter was a small high wing aircraft mounted like an entomological specimen.


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City Park and main square was surrounded by a wall with 5 steps up and back down. Along the top step were posts set to Indonesian men's dimensions as opposed to Buddha dimensions. We had to squeeze though the opening. But inside we were rewarded with a view of a fine fountain of Swans and a statue of the city symbols of the Mango and the grape.


They are better when lit.

The park was filled with soccer fields and tennis courts. Across the long side was a monumental monument with a bias relief of scenes of the city's history topped with a massive eagle called Garuda.. It was obviously designed as a stage perfect for political rallies. Then it was up and over the wall and back to our waiting rickshaws for a pedal to the Red Church.

The tour of Probolinggo was different than most of the tours offered on Seabourn. This was only the second port where we tendered to shore. There was not impressive terminals or big “Hello Kitty” buses. We boarded the tenders on deck three and rode for 20 minutes to a small dock where we were met by 6 eight passenger vans for our city tour. Ron and I go separated getting off the boat but he saved a space for me in Van 2.
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Our last stop was a Buddhist Shrine with a 6 foot tall Buddha statue sitting on a plinth under a canopy. As we entered the compound locals attached red and white strings to our wrists. The reason for the statue and some of the background of the Buddhist beliefs were explained then Buddha posed for some photo ops.

We were taken to the historic city hall where a troupe of lion dancers were waiting to perform for us. We could tell that this wasn't commonplace because the policemen and security guards were filming the dancers as well as us.
There are two popular dance numbers that we have seen often in Indonesia, the horse dance and the lion dance. The horse dance features some kind of horse and rider with a whipping man. The lion dancer wears a very heavy headdress featuring a lion's face.
The Lion dancer has to lift a square panel with the head of a lion in the center bottom surrounded by an array of peacock feathers making a square frame around the head. The panel is about 6 foot wide and 10 foot tall mounted on a rattan backing material. Across the bottom of the panel is a wooden support that rests of the shoulders of the dancer and allow the weight to be spread. The dancer spins, falls or arches his back to the point where the top of the headdress touches the ground.