Lazy Days on Gili Air

I only spent one day on Gili T., then took an island hopping boat to Gili Air, a more laid back and less developed island. It’s easy to get stuck on Gili Air, which I did. This island still maintains mostly bamboo huts, like the one I stayed in ...

While staying on the island I did my best to minimize the resources I used and the trash I created. This meant quick showers, refilling a water bottle at local restaurants, and if I did generate any trash (paper, broken headphones, etc.) I took it with me when I left the island. I spent tranquil days reading in a hammock, tanning on the beach, and I went snorkeling for the first time in my life. I went with guide from the guest house where I was staying and we rented snorkels and fins from a local vender. Amazing. Internet access is so slow to the point of being useless (which explains the delay in posting these entries), but I did have a chance to look up some eco-snorkeling tips before my original departure. Like, many websites giving eco-advice, these tips seem obvious, but then you see the pictures of people holding up the coral they found … anyway, here’s the link.

(Gili Air)

There are far fewer visitors that stay on Gili Air. While Gili Trawangan has a community group called SATGAS managing the community’s and tourist’s interests, the only type of local authority on Gili Air and Meno is from the local village head who handles disputes. At this time I’m not sure if any waste management programs have been started? Most of the places are still locally owned, but two professional dive schools have opened on Gili Air, as well as a few upscale establishments. One place even tries to appeal to visitors by offering a “gym.”

On my last day on Gili Air, and the Gili islands in general, I sign up for a full day glass bottom boat tour of the three islands. I was also able to visit Gili Meno for the first time. From what I understand most visitors to Meno, especially during the offseason, are just day visitors. I went with an Italian couple, a German couple, and the Indonesian 2 men who operate the boat to various snorkeling places around the islands. Their boat, along with a few other glass bottom boats originating from the other islands, tie up to a pre-arranged anchored buoy – so everyone is snorkeling at the same spot. We end up seeing several turtles, brightly colored fishes, and at one location a large stingray quickly zooms by some meters under our feet. And, if the call to prayer seems mesmerizing to my foreign ears usually, it seems even more so when snorkeling underwater and hearing it echoing around the fishes.

It’s a Catch 22 when it comes to the fish surrounding the islands – visitors love seeing the multicolored fish, but they also love eating them. Each night the restaurants on the islands display a selection of newly caught fish available for BBQ, and served with rice and vegetables. While Gili Trawangan is trying to work with fisherman to modify their fishing methods, there is still a steady demand for fish created by tourism … and, um, I admit it’s delicious.

After several days spent on Gili Air, I finally drag myself away. Taking the slow boat away from the island, I can’t help but ponder the future of this little island. Tourism will undoubtedly increase, but I just hope the island is able to adopt some appropriate management strategies to keep the tourism industry in balance. Gili Air has such a tranquil character and rich marine environment it would be sad to see it overexploited for only short-term gain, but as the projects on Gili Trawangan demonstrate even the best intentioned sustainable development ideas can lead to problems.

The Gili Islands

I brushed away the flies and continued to wait for the boat. Other passengers dozed on the nearby benches. Farm women waited outside with woven baskets brimming with food. This food was destined for island restaurants - short juicy bananas, spiky bunches of pineapples, unknown greens, buckets of fish, and one lady held a chicken by its feet. From where I sat, melting into a bench in the Indonesian noontime heat, I could clearly see brown naked boys laughing and jumping off docked boats into the clear blue water of the sea. This is the tiny port of Bangsal, a departure point for the Gili islands – Gili Air, Gili Meno, and Gili Trawangan – off the Northeast shore of Lombok. To reach the Gilis one can either go the slow and cheap way, a public boat from Bangsal, or the fast and expensive way, a speed boat from Bali (well, relatively expensive- $20 versus .50 cents).

The Gilis look like a slice of paradise with their impressively blue clear water, bamboo huts, horse drawn wagons (no motor vehicles are allowed on the islands). Located in the waters off the NW corner of Lombok, the Gili islands remained uninhabited until fisherman from nearby islands started setting up homes, and starting coconut plantations. Rumor has it that a German travel writer visited during the 1980s, and this is what led to the development of tourism on the island. Originally guests would just stay in the homes of villagers, but tourism has since grown and all the islands offer hotels, guest houses, and restaurants.

The first place I visit is Gili Trawangan. Many of the bamboo huts on this island have been replaced with more solid and posh establishments, but there is still a relaxed beach vibe – at least during the day, during the nighttime Gili T. is known for its party reputation. Walking around the island there was a fair amount of building going on, and places planned for hotels – like “Eden Edge,” though when I walked past it didn’t look particularly Eden-ish. This island is also supposed to be the smallest island in the world with its own Irish pub.

(Eden's Edge - said completion "2008"?!?)

While the other two islands have remained more rustic and less “spoiled”, Gili Trawangan’s popularity has led it to become the most developed and pricey of the three islands. The island is home to several foreign owned dive schools and up market hotels established by international business interests. Gili Trawangan has also become the subject of several case studies discussing sustainable tourism. In particular, I found an excellent 4pg article discussing “What Hinders the Path to Sustainability?” The paper discussed several of the barriers the island faces and what actions have been taken.

In brief, the dive schools organized the Gili Trawangan Eco-trust and started charging divers a tax of about $3. The collected money then went to projects to repair damaged coral by using metal rods to create artificial reef, paying fisherman not to fish using explosives and other environmentally dangerous methods, organizing beach cleanups, and running a waste management disposal program. However, from the theory stage to implementation the projects hit snags due to various barriers like lack of resources, education, and motivation. I did witness the rods still in place helping to re-grow reef, but many fisherman continue using explosives and damaging the marine environment. The beach cleanups had organizational problems and ended up fizzling out, and the waste management system without the proper knowledge ended up being just a large dumping pit. The walls put up around the pit were stolen, and the big open pit ended up breeding rodents and disease. However, this took place on the interior island, where most tourists don’t venture.

The Pondok Pekak Library and Learning Center

On my final day in Ubud, I spend a leisurely day visiting the Pondok Pekak Library and Learning Center. Named after a priest/healer from the area, Pondok Pekak roughly means “Gradfather’s little resting house in the rice fields.” Located near the large (and only) football field in town, the center offers a relaxing place to spend an afternoon. The center was started in 1995 primarily as an expat library, but has expanded their focus into encouraging local kids in the “love of reading” mentality. This led to the development in 2001 of a children’s library with books in Indonesian and English. As their brochure attests, and I can well believe, they have a collection of over 10,000 books in a wide range of topics including Indonesian, Balinese, and SEA studies.

An on-sight learning center offers traditional music and dance classes, woodcarving lessons, Indonesian language courses, etc. Plus there is a restaurant, tours can be arranged, and water bottles refilled for a minimal charge. The library has become self-sustaining because of these services and programs offered to tourists.

It’s at this center that I finally find a copy (actually 2 copies) of the Natural Guide to Bali – a guidebook that I had read about online, but could never seem to find. This guidebook is unique as it rates places based on how traveler-friendly, nature-friendly, and community friendly they are. Basically, it’s trying to appeal to more conscious travelling, and letting people go beyond the price when choosing a guesthouse, restaurant, or a sightseeing activity.

Selecting a few books, I find a cozy place to read on the 2^nd floor of the building.

In the evening I decide to try the Bali Buddha cafe listed in the Natural Guide to Bali book. In the book it gave the restaurant/organic health food store extra points for a project they run called ABC solutions, a waste management program they organize with local households and small tourist operations to collect recyclable waste, sort it, then transport it to the Denpasar recycling facility. They charge roughly $5 US a month for the service, so provides a good service to the community as well as providing extra income for their business which is visited mostly by tourists and expats.

The restaurant is located above the organic food store, so is rather small in size – about 10 tables and another room that acts as a sitting/waiting room full of couches. When I arrived the restaurant was full, but by the time my food arrived I had found a vacated table next to an interesting faux-wall made up of linked together wind chimes. I have to agree with the guidebook, the food is very good and healthy, while going that extra step to provide a valuable community service within the area.

Threads of Life

The town of Ubud seems like a contradiction to the sun and sand tourism of the Southern Bali. Here is the cultural hub of Bali, where traditions and art on display, though the town seems as equally developed as the popular tourist areas farther South. The central part of Ubud is full of homestays, restaurants - many offering organic fair, and boutiques. These chic little boutiques sell upscale versions of local arts and crafts. Ubud used to be a much smaller village, but its popularity as a tourism destination caused the village to grow and absorb some of the neighboring villages. To support this expansion many rice fields were developed into hotels and home stays, though Ubud is still a very popular place to take walks, or bike rides, around the scenic surrounding area. I’m also noticing it is a popular place for expats, and sign postings for apartments to rent are common on all the billboards.

One slight hassle I am noticing, every 3^rd person appears to be a pseudo-taxi driver. In Ubud, there aren’t many official taxi cars, but these pseudo-taxi drivers offer rides in private vehicles and on the back of motorcycles. It’s a regular soundtrack when one tries to walk anywhere, “taxi?”, “you need taxi?”, “taxi, miss?”

On one of my ventures around town I discover the “Threads of Life” Indonesian Textile Arts Center off a quiet street in the far North part of town. Proudly displayed on the glass window near the entrance is a letter and certificate from Islands magazine nominating the center as part of their December 2007 issue "Blue-List of 100 Responsible Tourism Attractions." There is also a seal of approval from the International Fare Trade Association displayed on the sliding glass door into the cool air-conditioned building.

The Threads of Life center works with weaving associations on 9 different islands, and showcases products at the center in Bali. I look around the store at the different textiles, each includes a name tag that describes the item, its traditional use, and who it was tied by, dyed by, and woven by. As the store clerk lady proudly points out, not only are all the textiles produced laboriously by hand, but the dyes used are sustainably and naturally produced.

As she tells me, Threads of Life works to help each weaving center based on their individual needs. At some associations they help train weavers in order management, quality control, and bookkeeping. At others, the focus is on reaching a broader domestic and international market. Since 2005 the group has been organizing a yearly conference, the Nusantara Weaver’s Festival, to join these women from the different programs in one place where they can discuss their craft with other weavers. At the center a DVD of the conference plays continuously on the small TV in one corner of the room.

As a tourism student, I’ve found it particularly interesting how they’ve combined tourism in with the weaving program and shop. At the center they offer classes and workshops that teach about textiles, and how to make them. At a full day Batik workshop they offer, participants pick their own leaves for coloring, and watch the preparation of the indigo vat and paste. They then learn to hand-draw designs on cloth, and dye and re-dye their cloth. There is an even longer program that involves an 8 to 14 day trip around Bali that visit weaving programs and delves into the socio-cultural links.

The Threads of Life organization seems to be doing very positive work to impact the environment, society, and economy of those involved in the weaving programs. In particular, the program encourages sustainable dye plant use and handspun thread, which promotes organic farming of cotton and indigo and avoids chemical dyes. The program also encourages pride in culture through the act of making the traditional fabrics, which are then promoted as an art form – and sold at similar prices, thus generating revenue that goes back to the weavers and their families.

If you’d like to learn more about the organization, here is their contact information:

Threads of Life
Jalan Kajeng 24, Ubud
www.threadsoflife.com
tac@threadsoflife.com

PPLH Bali

Tourism in Bali – one could write a book on that subject. Actually, there are 395 currently on Amazon when you type in “Bali Tourism.” This array of books ranges from tourism guides, to more academic materials discussing the impacts of having the island’s economy interlaced with tourism, as well as the crushing effects of the Bali bombings in 2002 and 2005.

From Gilimanuk, Java, I took a ferry across the straight to reach the island of Bali. From there buses travel past the scenic Western side of Bali and into the more developed Southern part of the island. When I visited the PPLH Center in East Java, the staff mentioned there was another center located in Bali, so I decide to check it out on my visit to the island. The center is in Sanur, a small beach town on the Southeast coast of Bali.

While the PPLH Bali environmental education center was formerly based at Hotel Santai, the hotel turned into a dive school, so the center moved about 6 months ago. The PPLH Bali center is now located at a quiet building on Jl. Hang Tuah Street. When I turn up at the new center, I’m warmly welcomed by Imade Hariana. Imade works to run and coordinate the programs at PPLH Bali. He admits it’s a smaller operation than the one in East Java, so instead of bringing people to their center, the staff travels to them.

Currently, the center operates a “Green School” program where they visit 5^th graders at 3 local schools once a week to introduce the environment and its problems to the kids. They also have other programs where they visit schools farther away for 2-3 day programs that teach about how to treat the environment and coastal areas. Partners of PPLH Bali include other local and international NGOs. They work with the foundation branch of the P.A.D.I. organization, which gives licenses to divers, in order to produce books on sea life to pass out. PPLH Bali also works with the Bali International Women’s Association, who sponsored a book on water monitoring using bio indicators. The book includes different animals to look for in order to determine the health of the water. Staff from PPLH goes with a “Green Team” of selected kids from local schools and try to identify the bio indicating animals in local water sources. This provides an interactive way for local children to learn about the health of the nearby water sources, with the goal being that these kids will then educate their friends.

Imade explains that environmental education currently isn’t a mandatory part of the school curriculum, so PPLH has also organized a group whose name loosely translates to, “Teachers Who Care about the Environment.” The group then discusses how to integrate environmental education into the class room as well as creative ways to keep kids interested. While I’m speaking with him, several young boys dressed in brown and white school uniforms stop by with a bag of empty bottles. In the Green School program, the PPLH staffers teach kids about proper waste disposal and the importance of recycling. They tell the kids how they can exchange plastic bottles and cans for cash. For those who can’t make it to the recycling center, PPLH pays them for bringing recycling to their office, and then during the afternoon the staff will drop it by the recycling center. Imade smiles as he mentions the kids are also welcome to use the onsite library and do their homework at the center, which often means helping with math problems.

While the work of PPLH Bali may not directly relate to tourism, the staff is trying to change local behaviors to the environment, which does interconnect with tourism. The growth of the tourism industry since the 1970s has created an incentive for developing land and has resulted in greater usage of natural resources. The PPLH center in Bali hopes that by educating kids about the importance and value of their environment, they will be keener to preserve and conserve it, thus producing a better place for people to visit and for them to live.

Rosa's Ecolodge

I reached the village of Sidomulyo in early afternoon by bus. The village, on the outskirts of Baluran National Park, is located in the NE corner of East Java and is home to the friendly Rosa’s Ecolodge. While most of Indonesia’s national parks consist of a rainforest environment, the Baluran NP is different in this aspect as it is savanna. The park’s fitting nickname is “Indonesia’s little bit of Africa.” Stepping off the bus I meet up with Rizal, one of the administrators of Rosa’s, who takes me on a short ride through the traditional Madurese village that skirts the park to reach the ecolodge. The cottages and main house are built in a Madurese inspired traditional style and the owners are the sociable Rosa and Rene, retirees who have expanded their house into an eco education lodge.

Though the place is small, only 8 rooms (so reserve in advance during the busy season), Rosa’s provides a very homey atmosphere. After speaking with them, it’s easy to see the owner’s dedication and concern for the surrounding area, both the park and local residents. The problems the park faces is sadly similar to other parks, illegal logging, poaching, and fishing using explosives and cyanide. The local community consists mostly of farmers who feel justified in taking the resources they need from their local environment, which they feel includes the national park. The hope of Rosa and her husband was to use the benefits of ecotourism to protect the park and develop the local community to prevent misuse of the national park. As I talk with them, I hear first hand many of the problems they face.

While Rosa and her husband’s intentions to help the park and the local area are genuine, they are struggling with “how” to make a difference. How does one stop people from just going and taking what they need from the park? How does one get locals, and park officials, to see the value of the park and to take care of it? How does one motivate villagers who are lethargic about hosting visitors? How does one train locals to take on more advanced responsibilities? And how does one find the energy to keep going?

While many villagers are set in their ways, Rosa’s Ecolodge hopes to change attitudes through education, especially by bringing awareness to the local children. All education projects are self funded from the lodge’s revenues, and include hiring rangers to speak at local schools, and taking local kids to the park’s main headquarters, about 22km away, to speak with rangers. While this environmental education center is at a smaller scale than the previous centers I visited in East Java, PPLH and Kaliandra, Rosa’s Ecolodge is working to make a difference in an area where there is little other involvement.

(Rice fields near the park)

While maybe not a “true” ecolodge, as the needs of her visitors do not always mesh with environmental sustainability, Rosa’s is certainly a comfortable place to stay with easy access to the park and a place where you know a portion of the room rates will be going back to aid the local community in various ways. Currently, Rosa is looking for an NGO, or motivated volunteers, to help in her mission to prevent damage to the park and enhance the local community.

To see Rosa’s webpage: http://www.rosasecolodge.com/

Margo Utomo Agro Resort

Unlike traditional mass tourism, agro tourism is an interesting niche industry that allows visitors to learn more about the agriculture products of a place, as well as the interconnection of these goods – both in production and use - within the local community. After leaving Mt. Bromo I had the opportunity to visit the Margo Utomo Agro Resort located in the small town of Kalibaru, East Java. This area is particularly well known for its plantations.

The founder of Margo Utomo, Mr. R. H. Moch inherited 9 hectares of plantation land from his father in the 1940s. After thirty years, and the addition of a dairy farm, Mr. Moch decided to evolve his business into one that showed tourists the interconnection between a plantation, its workers, and the land. The agro resort now includes 51 cottages and sparked the creation of Margo Utomo Cottages, which has 30 rooms. The style of both places is a mix of the colonial past integrated with traditional Javanese. Though Mr. Moch passed away in 2000, the Margo Utomo organization is still managed by his family.

I reached Kalibaru by bus. On arrival I was directed to Margo Utomo’s which is one block off the main street in town, and directly across from the train station. I waited in the open air lobby, decorated with a huge gamelan instrument set, to speak with Ms. Mariana, daughter of the late founder, and with Ms. Lynda Margaretha, head of marketing. Sitting down with the women, they told me a little more about the resort and their interaction with the local community. As a good-sized local business in a small town, the majority of their employees, about 99% of the150 workers, are locals. As Lynda explains, they have a very low turnover so it’s in everybody’s best interest to provide training to maximize the skills of the employees – this makes it easy for employees to switch roles, and those that learn English and/or Dutch also have the option of becoming guides. It was from their staff that they got the idea to start village tours to local home industries, like that of tofu and peanuts, thus allowing the guests more interaction with the local community and allowing tourism to compliment these other business sectors.

The Dairy farm, home to over 50 cows that produce milk, is still a central part of Margo Utomo. Besides providing a fun attraction to visitors, especially the baby cows, the milk and cheese produced is served at the local restaurant. The waste products produced is maybe of more value to the local area, as it is this natural organic fertilizer that is used on the plantation, and even sold to other plantations. In fact, it seems like a very holistic interaction between the 2 resorts, dairy farm, and plantation – guests visit the plantation, eat products produced from the dairy farm, and then the fertilizer is used to grow the crops at the plantation. As Ms. Mariana informs me, while at the present it’s primarily the fertilizer used that’s organic, in the next years they hope to switch their suppliers into providing organic food. Currently, they are working with local farmers to educate them about organic farming, as well as their staff on how to prepare food so that no MSG or other additives are included.

The ladies are kind enough to find a guide to take me around the plantation and dairy farm. The baby cows really are adorable with their big black eyes. I’m also shown how they produce brown sugar, which involves hours of boiling before it is finally at the right consistency to be used for the restaurant’s homemade cakes and desserts. In the back of the resort is the plantation. It’s filled with coffee, cocoa, nutmeg, cinnamon, clove, and vanilla trees as well as local fruits, including durian. Large pits are dug in the ground, which the guide explains is to provide water during the dry season. All the plants are watered naturally, no sprinklers are used.

The Margo Utomo Agro Resort and Hill View Cottages seem to provide a pleasant type of alternative tourism that is low impact and compliments the local area. While they don’t currently have a responsible tourism policy, both women said it was a part of the plan for the near future. As they put it, guests are more willing to be critical of certain practices they don’t find sustainable, which means the hotels must step up to adopt new and alternative approaches.

Visiting Kaliandra

On the slope of a different mountain I discover another well managed environmental education center, Kaliandra. Named after a multi-purpose tree, the center was established in 1997 by five founders with the goal to educate people about the environment. While the PPLH Seloliman center I previously visited is one part of the larger PPLH organization, the Kaliandra Center runs autonomously. While many NGOs receive funding from the government, Kaliandra received its initial investment donations from the founders. This allows the organization to grow independently and to be shaped through the careful attention of the locally based management team. As Mr. Heri Aqus explains to me, “The forest and each nearby village has different potentials. At Kaliandra we work to achieve these potentials through sustainable and long term projects.” Heri is the HR Development Administrator at Kaliandra, and a long time back a former PPLH employee.

The facilities at Kaliandra act as an environmental and cultural education hub for both visitors and locals. The location is ideal, as the center sits on the side of Mount Arjuna, near a heavily wooded preservation area. The lodgings are all built in a classic Javanese architecture style. When I commented on the beauty of the buildings, it was explained to me that one of the founders is an architect, so he designed the whole complex. Bungalows and dorms are available to rent for private groups or organized gatherings and sleep over 100. The management strategies Heri and the other administrators use to develop and manage tourism at Kaliandra are admirably based around responsible tourism principles. As I observed during my stay, the center is working to positively impact and conserve the local environment, promote local customs, and create long term growth and development in the community. Careful attention is also given to making daily operations sustainable.

(Outside and Inside the Bungalows)

Heri fills me in on the programs the center operates. “We have programs with each core group in the community – children, women, and farmers,” he continues. The women’s programs focus more on health while the men’s program centers on farming management that is more profitable and less detrimental to the local environment. The local children’s programs include English lessons Tu-Th, and a Javanese dance and music class on Friday. In addition, the center is working to develop a resource library at Kaliandra and libraries in the neighboring villages. When first started Kaliandra worked with the 2 villages directly nearby, but now has expanded their efforts to work with 6 villages. The goal is to grow to the point where they can work with all 43 villages in the park area. Another branch of the center works to develop additional sources of income and skills enhancements for the community, such as organic farming, metal working, providing access to a drying machine that helps villagers package and preserve fruit for sale, and education on tourism basics including how to operate a home stay. Kaliandra even supported several villagers travelling to Bali to learn massage practices, which they now offer at the Kaliandra center.

(Making Dried Pineapple Snacks)

As an environmental education center it is important for Kaliandra to monitor the condition of the forest around them. In 2006 they were disturbed to see that around 3,900 hectares of the forest had been intentionally burned down and logged. As part of a USaid project, an awareness campaign was launched in the local surroundings. After the year long program educating people about the forest and proper care for the natural environment the results of 2007 was only 86 hectares destroyed. In another innovative program Kaliandra partnered with local businesses in the nearby town on an “adopt the forest” project. While Kaliandra supplied the trees, businesses donated money to pay the villagers to replant trees. Additional compensation was given to villagers who maintained and cared for the trees. The result was approximately 600 hectares replanted.

(part of the Kaliandra awareness campaign about the environment)

(young trees for planting)

I spent a very peaceful night at the center, and in the morning another Aqus, Aqus Sugarto Ecotourism sub manager, takes me on a walk around the cobble stoned paths of the resort. Again I feel very far removed from the busyness and intensity of the Indonesian cities. We pass an herbal medicine garden, and an onsite organic farm. When he sees this, Aqus mentions the branch office that Kaliandra operates in Surabaya to market and sell the organic produce from the villagers. The tour continues and I get to see several gamelan musical instruments where the kids practice, and a huge Outward Bound style ropes course. At that moment several minivans pull up to the park and little kids start pouring out. Almost 40 7yr olds are visiting today from Surabaya to learn about the environment and their interconnection with it.

We watch as they are lead to a nearby open air meeting place, and a traditional style puppet is used to talk with the kids and introduce them to Kaliandra. Leaving the kids to their program, Aqus and I continue on a walk of the area, followed by a motorbike tour of some of the surrounding villages. At the local community garden we see some women taking care of the plants and farther down the road we stop at one of the houses in the local home stay association. Ms. Bu Pinaridah and her daughter welcome us in. Though they don’t know much English, they seem to be enjoying this unexpected visit.

Continue on our tour, we visit a few other places in the nearby area before turning around and heading back to the center. When we arrive, the schoolchildren are just about to start a banana harvesting program. Again we tag along and watch as the kids gather around a banana tree. The staff member from Kaliandra talks with them and then demonstrates the whacking motions to bring down a large bough heavy with bananas. The kids seem to be enjoying themselves, and even more so during the next step when they learn about traditional cooking of the bananas and get the pleasure of eating them.

During my visit I was very impressed with the management strategies used at Kaliandra. The place seems to operate extremely efficiently with unique programs, and very reasonable price structures for both independent and package visitors. They are also happy to provide programs or local tours for domestic and international visitors. They also happily welcome volunteers. Though not in most guidebooks, I learned about this place from one of my instructor at Leeds Met University who took a group of students to assist on several projects during a one month stay last year. One of the students, Andy, even stayed several months longer to assist on additional projects, and helped create a first rate website at http://kaliandrasejati.org/ . The website includes more information and exact instructions on how to reach the center. A visit to Kaliandria makes a very pleasant trip, plus its location is less than half a day away from Mt. Bromo, my next destination.

PPLH Seloliman

Getting to the PPLH Environmental Education Center in Seloliman is fun - or at least the last part where you take a motorcycle taxi (an ojek) from the town of Trawas. Zipping through the backcountry of Eastern Java, we fly past villages and people caring for their fields. We breeze down hills with hair flying, sorry to say no helmets around here, and after an exhilarating 20 minutes ride we reach the PPLH Center. The center is located on the slopes of Mount Penanggungan, and they can also arrange pickups for those not as keen on motorcycle riding.

(Scenery on the ride to the PPLH – and I did take this pic ;)

At the center I was greeted by Purjoko, coordinator for the education programs. Well, first I was greeted by two visitors to the center that wanted a picture taken with the newly arrived “white girl” before I can even set down my bags. Later on this would become the theme of the evening ;) Due to poor planning on my part, there is no dorm vacancy at the center, but Purjoko is happy to set up a stay in the nearby village. As he tells me, if you’re arriving on the weekend it is best to email: pplh@indo.net.id a week in advance, or if you’re coming on a holiday weekend even a month in advance.

I continue talking with Purjoko in the restaurant area of the center, and he tells me about the place’s history. PPLH Seloliman was first established in 1990 with funding from the WWF, but since then it has developed into a self-supporting NGO to educate the public about the environment. The center here focuses mainly on agricultural learning, but other branches of PPLH operate around Indonesia and focus on other topics, such as marine life rehabilitation. The PPLH Seloliman center really sees a wide range of visitors. When I arrive a group of kindergarteners from Surabaya are playing an educational game in the nearby woods, but primary, secondary, graduate, and post graduate students also visit, as do full-fledged adults. We go on a tour of the area, and Purjoko shows me the storeroom for planning the programs oriented for young kids. As he tells me, “most kids are only used to coloring with crayons and other manufactured products, but here we teach kids about natural products.” He shows me a root and the bright yellow streaks it produces. Kids here can also use flowers and charcoal to color their printouts of local wildlife. He also tells me about some other fun projects for the kids including educational hikes, visits to the organic garden, seeing the local animals that reside at the center, learning how to boil down paper to reuse it, and even a game to teach kids how to sort out products to recycle.

We continue our tour to see the other components of the PPLH center. The goal of the center is to be very nearly self-sustaining, so he shows me where waste is naturally composted and broken down under the earth. A nearby PPLH run hydro-electric power station generates electricity for the center, surrounding villages, and even enough energy to then sell to the government. We pass a resource library that holds a collection of Indonesian and English books on environmental conservation, wildlife, development programs, etc. There is also a seminar room, spiritual house for prayer, bungalows, a guest house, and a 60 person dormitory. Again, these spots fill up quickly on the weekends. As we pass the organic garden, Purjoko explains that programs are also arranged with the local community to help develop awareness on how to manage the forest’s resources. The center holds education classes for local kids, as well as working with farmers to plant crops that include those that enrich the soil and prevent erosion. At first, he explains, there was some tension between the locals wishing to use the surrounding forest for its resources and to meet their daily needs, while the center hoped to conserve and manage the natural resources of the area. In addition, government regulations and enforcement on logging had changed, so since 2001 PPLH witnessed an increase in illegal logging. At that time, as I’m told, the center stepped up its efforts to help villagers find other ways of gaining income from the forest that didn’t include cutting down the trees, like harvesting non-timber related assets like fruit. Meetings have also been held with local farmers from the surrounding communities on how to help damaged forest recover and about managing a community forest near the main one with short term and long term crop strategies. The center also promotes organic farming in the area, and has been working to find long lasting business partners in Surabaya to buy the goods. As we walk by a display case, he shows me some of the products for sale made by home industries in the local village, like herbal medicines. Over the past 17 years the center has reached a comfortable level of interconnectivity with the locals in the area, as around 70% of the staff, over 40 people, comes directly from the surrounding countryside and those who don’t come from the area rent rooms in the villages.

(Purjoko explaining water treatment)

In the evening a workshop is going on for a large group of science teachers from Surabaya. I sit in on the presentation. Though entirely in Indonesia, I can easily understand the general ideas of the presentation as they use some easily discernable pictures, like a little devil with horns burning garbage and an image of a sad looking globe with a thermometer in its mouth. After the presentation, I join the group for dinner in the main hall. As to be expected the food here is very healthy, grown locally and without additives or artificial ingredients. By the end of the evening I think I had my picture taken with the majority of the 70 plus group of science teachers. As they posed my in different positions, I couldn’t help but wonder how many random photo albums I’m in throughout Asia.



The next morning I could again observe the science teacher workshop. After a hike, the staff members of PPLH demonstrated nature related science activities, like making paper. The teachers were then given an opportunity to try their skills. Another activity was going down to the river with nets and microscopes to look at the creatures that live in the water. While the group gathered next to the river, I could see a grey haired woman from the village collecting firewood, creating an odd juxtaposition with the merriment of the science teachers.

My last activity around PPHL was to go with the Arief, from the Research and Development staff, to visit the nearby Jolotundo temple and a nearby community garden. Both places are about 1 km away from the center, but up a steep hill. Jolotundo is one of about 80 Hindu temples built into the sacred Penanggungan Mountain, and as one can see from the picture local kids enjoy playing in the water. In a large plot nearby is one of the community gardens that PPLH works to develop with local farmers. As we arrive a boy is just departing with two large baskets of leaves and other food for livestock, strung on a pole over his shoulders. For those who wish to stay longer Arief also conducts educational eco-hikes in the surrounding mountainside.

If you’re curious to find out more about the PPHL Center at Seloliman, they have a website – http://www.blogger.com/www.pplh.org. They also happily welcome volunteers, so if you’re interested contact pplh@indo.net.id.

The Blind Masseuses of Malang

From Yogyakarta I travelled briefly to Solo. The tourism industry here has declined severely as fewer tourists are visiting Indonesia and those who do usually just go to Yogya, which has most of the same tourist draws – a Sultan’s palace and local dance performances. It doesn’t help that many of the guest houses in Yogya encourage visitors to skip Solo and stay longer in their town. I’m afraid I didn’t stay long in Solo, just long enough for lunch before catching the next bus to Surabaya. After Jakarta this is the second biggest city. The city has a few highlights, like a fascinating China town and an old district full of crumbling Dutch buildings, but it is mostly business people who visit this city. At the inexpensive guest house I stayed at, I was surprised in the morning to find the courtyard full of men in suits sipping tea.

Again I did not stay long in Surabaya, but hopped a bus to Malang. I am now entrenched in East Java, the least populated of Java’s province. It is also home to several of Java’s finest parks and volcanoes, including the popular Mount Bromo. On the short 2 hour ride from Surabaya to Malang I could see acres of forest out the window. Malang itself is full of Dutch architecture, as its sometimes cool temperatures made it a favorite destination for European vacationers during colonial times. While many of the buildings date from the Dutch era, like most places one can still find McDonalds and a few other global chains.

Traditionally the tourism industry specializes in providing lodgings and transport to tourists, but a “linkage” is when the tourism industry encourages growth in supplementary industries as well. Throughout SEA massage industries have taken off as an accompanying industry in many tourist destinations. While sometimes these massage parlors bring unforeseen negative social impacts, they can also be used to positively impact a community. In Malang I discovered Nuansa Fajar, a massage place that trains and employs the blind. In the back of a store, several rooms are set up where masseuses give 1 hour massages. I visited Malang during the offseason, so at the time I visited there were few other tourists and I didn’t have to wait long for a masseuse. As the blind lady used strong fingers to get out all the kinks I’d developed during the last few days of travelling, I could hear a local band on the street strumming away. After the massage, it was at this place that I saw my first and only other Caucasian tourist in the town, and he too was getting a massage.

Green Maps in Yogya

As a major tourist destination, Yogya receives a hefty amount of visitors both domestic and international each year. I decide to stop at the tourist information booth in the center of town, to see what type of information they offer to visitors. The lady behind the front counter gave me a large map of the area. On the backside over 30 different destinations in and around Yogya were highlighted, including some lesser known places like villages, a snake fruit agricultural tour, and an education forest. I also found a mini newspaper called the JogjaPages that include articles related to traveling, and more alternative opportunities for touring the surrounding areas like at a pottery village, a copper goods village, village home stay opportunities, and a bamboo handicrafts village. This type of tourism management seems positive as its trying to emphasize the local potential of other interesting, but less visited places.

That evening on a rather stormy night I met with members of the Yogya Green Map club at a little restaurant on the main street of town. I was greeted by Joyo, a young lanky guy in glasses, who is the coordinator of the Indonesian hub of Green Map. Also at the table were Thomas and Inu, other “green mappers.” I hadn’t heard of this group previously, but it is actually a worldwide organization started in New York in 1995, with the head of the Asian hub being in Taiwan. Using Google Earth communities are able to map interesting places in their area, and then make interactive and print maps for distribution. As Joyo explains, the Green Map club provides workshops to those interested in making maps and teaches the universal codes used by all green map members, but it is the community that creates and develops each map.

While Jakarta had the first green map club in Indonesia, the group in Yogya is now the most active. It’s primarily students that create these maps, as they are often very comfortable using computers and are usually more eager to help with volunteer projects. And as Joyo puts it, “the number of socially conscious university students around Yogya has really been a benefit to keeping our group active and focused.” Thomas, Inu, and Joyo told me they first discovered the club about 4 or 5 years ago when they were also university students.

As Joyo goes on to explain, one of the primary benefits of doing the mapping projects is that through the act of making the maps it gets others, especially young people, interested and aware of the assets of their community. By getting the community involved and educated about the interesting features of their area, the group hopes to encourage residents to be more apt to manage and preserve these unique features. “One of the most important steps of the map making” Joyo continued, “is the review process, which acts like a forum where participants can analyze the strengths and weaknesses of various points of interest.” They feel that by discussing weaknesses and strengths of different areas, this will encourage interest in more local community planning.

The next workshop the group is holding is taking place the following Sunday and the Green Map group will be helping to educate the community at Borobudur how to map their area. This will be a special “youth map” created by junior high students, with the purpose of encouraging visitors to extend their stay and visit other places in the local area surrounding the Borobudur World Heritage Site. Currently, most visitors are bused into the temple and then depart, without ever visiting the town or other interesting places and smaller temples around the area. However, as the group explains to me, there are hotels in the area, and inexpensive horse drawn carriages can be hired to visit the lesser known points of interest, thus providing an alternative experience to the routine mass tourism of the area.

In one sentence Joyo was able to sum up the goal of their group, “To empower local people to see their local resources honestly, and to encourage community involvement in planning and managing these assets.” I thanked the group for all the information, and as I left I couldn't help feeling very optimistic to see the passion they have for this work. Green maps really do seem like an innovative idea that can benefit local communities, as well as guests to their area.

Green Maps really is a global endeavor, so to find out more visit: http://www.greenmap.org/

Walking Around Temples

The Buddhist temple of Borobudur and the Hindu temples at Prambanan are both popular and easily reached tourist attractions, and World Heritage Sites, near Yogya. As I’d yet to go on a packaged day tour in Indonesia, I thought I’d give it a try and see what it’s like.

The minivan picked us up at 5am and our group included 11 very tired looking people. As we drove out of town I saw a striking sight, against the pink dawn sky the volcano Gunung Merapi was silhouetted in the distance. From its mouth a steady stream of smoke curled upwards. I wish I could have captured that very Indonesian moment in picture, but I don’t think I could have done it justice.

After a 90 minute drive we reached Borobudur. Both it and Prambanan’s temples were declared World Heritage Sites in 1991. This means Western admission fees, about $8-10 payable in US dollars or rupiah for foreign visitors, and 1/10th that for domestic. That being said, the places are well maintained. The temple at Borobudur was built between 750 and 850 AD. It’s thought to be made of more than 2,000 rocks, some decorated with very intricate bas-relief, and the entire structure is in the shape of a giant stupa. With the decline in Buddhism, this place was abandoned and fell into disrepair. The Dutch during their administration attempted repairs, but it finally took 10 years and a $25 million USD restoration project finishing in 1983 to do the job. In 1985 opponents of Soeharto planted bombs in the upper levels, causing damage and requiring more restoration work. Next the temple faced damage from the 2006 Yoyga earthquake. Repairs were again made, and the temple seems to be in good condition (now) for something over a thousand years old. I was also very impressed by how well taken care of the temple is - I witnessed security guards patrolling the area, and when another visitor attempted to climb on the rocks a voice came over a loud speaker telling them to stop. However, at the time of visiting I think there were only about 30 visitors, so it was much easier to keep careful watch compared to peak times.

As far as benefits go, certainly this type of preservation and conservation work can be supported through tourism. However, I’m curious if the community of Borobudur really gains anything other than traffic congestion from busses, or garbage left over from visiters. On our tour we did not stop at the town, and the only local people we saw were unsuccessfully trying to sell drinks and souvenirs.

(Borobudur)

I really didn’t get to know most of the people in the group, other than another single traveler Buganj from Kuching, Malaysia. He was very fascinating to talk to, after 50 years of travelling he has seen many places in Asia and the Middle East. The other 9 visitors on the trip were all Europeans, but didn’t seem very talkative and preferred to stick with the people they came with. Those in the tour seemed different than the more youthful groups made up of long term backpackers that you find doing the loop of Thailand-Laos-Vietnam-Cambodia in mainland SEA.

The brochure for Prambanan Archaeological Park, claims Prambanan Temple “is the most beautiful Hindu’s Temple in the world.” Maybe a slight over-exaggeration in marketing, but the architecture of the main complex is pretty nice. These temples were created about 50 years after Borobudur, but most are in worse condition. The three main temples are attractively restored, but most of the others in the complex lay in rubble. Visitors are prohibited from entering, or even getting to close to the three standing temples because of structural damage caused by the 2006 earthquake. Besides the temples, the park has an Archaeological museum and a movie about the complex, a play ground area, Ramayana open theater – where a twice monthly ballet performance takes place during the dry season, a camping area, and 92 souvenir shops and 33 food stalls – so says the information booklet I picked up.

As I was walking around these temples with Buganj he made a comment about the importance of preserving these types of places. Out of curiosity I asked him, “Do you think tourism is always beneficial for a place?” His answer was immediate, “of course, it brings money to a place.” I try again, “but do you ever think tourism might be hurting the environment or negatively affecting the people - like the trash caused by tourism?” Again Buganj responded, “no, people are civic minded. When I’m staying at a hotel I always pick up my trash and put it in the waste bin, not making the people cleanup after me.” I persist, “What about beaches, like in Thailand, like Ko-Phanagn that suffer from garbage after all night parties? That can't be positive tourism.” “Well then the government needs to manage it, have all the garbage put it one place,” he logically replied. I decide not to mention the harm of having all that garbage, even if it is in one place, and decide to instead smile back and change the subject.

I enjoyed spending the day with Buganj, but I think that will be my last tour for awhile. The tours are easy to arrange, but it feels like your missing out when just going around with other foreigners. In addition, the money (usually inflated) is all given to the one tour company and in my case one in Yogya, instead of going to local transport in the area of the attractions or guides who live in that area. In addition, by going on a tour that just visited the temples, I missed possible other areas of interest in the community and surrounding areas.

My First day in Yogyakarta

I arrived early in the town of Yogyakarta, pronounced “Jogjakarta,” by night train from Tasikmalya. Somewhere during the evening the train crossed the imaginary line from West Java into Central Java. While West Java is dominated by Islamic Sundanese, Central Java is primarily Islamic ethnic Javanese. The whole region is known as the cultural home of the island, with Yogya in particular as the “soul.” It is here that many travelers go to learn more about local traditions and customs, to take language courses, and to appreciate the arts of the island. It is also a place where locals have become very accustomed to seeing and interacting with both domestic and international tourists. Many visitors fly in, visit Yogya, maybe Mt. Bromo, and then whisk off to Bali.

Batik is everywhere in Yogya, and everyone seems to produce and sell it. For those of you who are curious, or not, to make Batik one applies wax to either cloth or silk and then dyes the areas around it. At some point or other most visitors end up giving in and visiting one of the many Batik stores. It’s very time consuming to make Batik, but much simpler to make fake prints on cloth and sell those as “real” to unsuspecting tourists. Another trick is telling people that the shop is part of a government owned school selling prints without commission, and that by buying these reasonably priced art products you are supporting the students. This is still part of the tourism industry in Yoyga, so I decided to check out one of these places. I chose one of the fake art school ones, and the curator there gave me a brief demonstration on how to make Batik and then let me look around at the beautiful examples in the store room. I really haven’t a clue if it is “authentic” or just printed, but many of the images on the cloth were still interesting to see. He then tried to tell me how it is usually only other shop owners or traders that visit the school (because of their great prices), not tourists – yet when I was leaving another foreigner was arriving, probably to hear the same pitch ;)

The city of Yogya is considered a special region and is still ruled by a Sultan. In the middle of the city is the walled Kraton, home of the sultan, and a major visitor attraction. Outside of the locked front gates is a man telling all visitors the Kraton is closed until noon and that he can direct you to a Batik store. If one side step him, it’s easy to find a real entrance with ticket booth to the right side. This is another scam. There is nothing except a big empty entrance hall with a couple of chickens in cages around the side. The REAL entrance is further away on the Northwest side, to find it requires some aimless wandering and having people giving you the wrong directions. When I finally did find the entrance at 1:45pm, they were closing (as the guidebook can actually backup the Kraton is only open from 8a to 2p). Sadly, this is the first time during the 12 days I’ve been in Indonesia where so many people have been dishonest about directions.

While the Kraton palace was closed, I was able to enter the greater Kraton compound, which still serves as home to more than 25,000 people, and includes mosques, shops, a bird market, and "the Water Castle". The water castle, constructed by a Portuguese architect in the mid 1700s was a palace where the Sultan could spend time bathing and getting to know the lovely girls of his harem. However, it was completely destroyed during an earthquake in the mid 1800s. In 1970s some basic restoration efforts began on 5 structures and the place began attracting tourists. In 2003, a serious restoration effort began with donations of the Portuguese government and the World Monument Fund, which had placed the water castle on its 100 most endangered architectural sites list. In 2005 re-construction was finished, but in 2006 it was again damaged by an earthquake, yet not so severely as to be unfixable. I ended up getting a guide to take me around, who did a fine tour, but then ended it at another Batik shop – oy.

In one sense it’s very easy to understand people of the community wanting to make a profit from visitors who make the city congested, and who have enough extra money to spend taking a holiday. This is a very fair point, but I guess one of the negative social aspects that I’ve been noticing in this tourist town is the tendency of some people to juggle the truth, in order to make their profit. While so many people are still friendly and display the typical Indonesian charm, tourism does seem to test the ethics of some. Even at the guest house where I’m staying, the owner’s son was advising not to go to my next destination, Solo, because of a current violent spell. I asked others about this and checked online – nonsense.

The essence of articles I’ve read for my tourism class have also discussed how it’s much easier to regulate tangible resources related to economics and the environment, but social effects … that’s a different matter. So yes, Yogya is economically benefiting from tourism, but what about the negative (and positive) social impacts that can’t fit so easily onto a balance sheet? How can they be measured, tracked, and improved upon? Anyway, just thinking out loud ...


On a lighter note, here are some unique things I’ve noticed so far during my trip in Indonesia:

• I expected people to call out to me, “madame, come this way,” like in India, but no I keep getting “Hey Mister, over here!”
  
• People love discussing the US primary, and are usually filling me in on who is winning each state. There are also different views on who should win. As one man put it, “Obama – he’s a Jakarta boy” (since he went to school in Indonesia during his youth.) Another guy felt differently, “Hillary – I love the ladies.”
  
• Coming across an “Idol-esk” dance competition where pairs of youths dressed in funky outfits danced to rap songs, after which 3 serious looking judges in the front critiqued them.
  
• Watching foreign amateur photographers taking forever to shoot close up pictures of water lilies or trying to dramatically capture the image of a temple in a nearby puddle. Hehe, it’s quite silly to watch this.
  
• Listening to a minibus bus driver sing along with Nirvana on the stereo, much to the incomprehension of his traditionally dressed passengers
  
• Watching people, even Muslims, turn up the television volume when they hear the call to prayer.
  
• Oh, and coming across an English sign for a "Biker’s Brotherhood" in Bandung, Indonesia

Handicrafts in Tasikmalya

If there is something interesting to see, there is usually a hawker nearby trying to sell hats, bags, or key chains emblazoned with the place's name. I’ve noticed that the next vendor I see is usually selling even less practical merchandize, like paper fans or woven boxes. Like it or not, handicrafts and souvenirs have become an engrained component of most tourism destinations. Environmentally, it’s probably not the best idea just producing more junk people don’t need, but on the other hand it does make for an easy home indusrty for villagers to earn some extra income. Not to mention for middlemen who then sell these products at substantially jacked up rates. So, is this a responsible aspect of the tourism industry???

I decide to visit the town of Tasikmalya, an area known for producing cheap handicrafts, about 3 hours to the East of Bandug. It’s quite easy to find a bus (well, minibus) going to Tasik, as they leave almost every hour and the ride there is, like most rides in the interior of Java, quite scenic. Luckily, they had a metal handrail running along the interior of both sides of the minibus, since as I’m also noticing, most (read- all) of these rides are quite bumpy.

The region of Tasikmalya receives a large number of domestic and international traders who want to buy cheap handicrafts. While the town of Tasik has depleted most of the nearby raw materials, handicrafts are now being made in villages around the region. The Tasik area produces batik printed silk goods, paper umbrellas, and handbags, which are then sold in tourist destinations around Indonesia, and internationally.

I had heard about a group working in Tasikmalya called Handycrafts. Their goal is to help local people produce quality goods that can then be sold at fair-trade prices. Handycrafts is just one branch of a larger NGO that also has branches providing health assistance, micro-credit financing, agricultural technology development, and arts education. As I read from their website, they hope to create “holistic development” and have the NGO be self-sustaining through profit produced by Handycrafts and one of the other branches. The staff of SNT is supposed to consist of 40, with 14 of these being expats. I read all of this on their website that was last updated in 2004. I received no reply to my emails, and while I made a valiant effort to look for their headquarters in Tasik with the help of a worker from the hotel I stayed at, the best we could find out was that the Bule (foreigner) working there had moved away. Again, the complete story surrounding the fate of producing fair-trade crafts in Tasik remains a mystery due to lack of information, but er, it doesn’t look like they made it.

I spent the rest of my visit in Tasik visiting one of the villages that produce these tourist goods. Rajapolah is 12km to the North of Tasik and is known for making cheap rattan handicrafts. For the most part I just strolled down the main street of Rajapolah looking at shops as it kept raining off and on. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to have that many in depth conversations on the production of handicrafts since my Indonesian language skills are still rusty (read-nonexistent :P!). It did not take long to walk down the main street in town because this town, like so many others, follows the peculiar custom of having an all the shops carry the EXACT same products. I’d guess there are 20 or 30 shops in Rajapolah, all right next to each other, and all fully stocked with the same bags, boxes, wall hangings, and other similar wicker tourist trinkets.

Rajapolah and Tasikmalya made for a relaxing excursion, though I guess I didn’t really find out that much more about the tourist handicraft industry. My next stop is the popular tourist hub of Yogyakarta.

(Is this where cowboy hats come from??)