Well, it was as fantastic as it sounded.
Except I was sick. I had had a bug a few days before leaving. Tim had had the same one, and I got it a few days after him. An unpleasant digestive tract thing. Well, mine came back for a curtain call, three days later, my first morning there. How disappointing. Instead of trying all the things offered by the hotel, and doing all the yoga classes, I spent a lot of time in bed, just wishing this damn thing away. I am still doing that. It is 5 days later. Enough already.
We flew to Indonesia, to the island of Java, south and east of Singapore, and in the Southern Hemisphere, about 15'. As soon as you get off the airplane, walk to the terminal, you know you are in a third world country. The absolute chaos in the terminal is breathtaking. You come to immigration, there are no line ups, no wickets, no signage, nothing. Somehow we figured we "Westerners", the only ones on the plane, gathered at a desk to pay the entrance visa fee-US$25. Then to another crowd, and somehow past some uniformed men who did little, certainly did not look at our visa, and through a security desk with our luggage. No sign to pick up luggage, or where it might come, or anything.
But you know, some how, some how, it works. Amazing. And daunting. The crowd outside the airport was thick. To get through to our car was a feat. The heat was a reminder of third world. Why they don't air condition the outside of the airport the way Singapore does. A long drive along narrow roads, 3 vans, one with luggage, 2 with us, 14 of us. Winding roads, through one small town after another, each with their mosque and calls to prayer. No shoulders to the roads, many pedestrians very close to our vehicle, up and down and around very curvy road. 2 1/2 hours. A good half hour to get out of the airport traffic!
The hotel, MesaStila, is a wellness retreat on a coffee plantation. (the irony was I did not have any of their coffee- they don't do decaf, and I took my instant Starbucks decaf powder to an Indonesian coffee plantation!) The location was at the top of a hill. We looked out at volcanoes in the distance. The sunset was beautiful, not even so much the sun, as the mauves of the distant volcanoes. All around us were villages down below. Each village had their own mosque, and muezzin, sung from the minaret or loud speaker. The voices rise, and we , although feeling very isolated, were surrounded by the busy hub hub of the towns below.
The Salat, or Muslim Prayers are to be before sunrise, (4:15 a.m.), after sun passes the zenith (12:15), late afternoon (4:15), just after sunset (6:15), and early evening (7:15). The call is up to 15 minutes long, each town has their call at approximately near the same time. we above could hear all of them, overlapping. I found it just beautiful, but the hotel does provide earplugs for those who wish to blank it out. They have been singing these calls to worship, calls to communication with God, for 1000 years. The sound is so iconic.
The hotel is beautifully done. It has a main reception, which is an old train station, that was dismantled and rebuilt on the property. All the rooms are in fact houses, from around the island, brought here and rebuilt, and refurbished as lovely accommodation. Very elegant, spacious, cool tile floors, large decadent bathrooms, but very dark. Cooling, I guess, in the heat, but very dark.The wood carving breathtaking.
When I got to my room, with my room mate, whom I had just met, there was one bed. King size, but still one bed. When we were given our keys, I was Mr. Jane, so I guess they thought…. At any rate I had them make up our very elegant day bed, you know, where you loll and someone hands you apricots and cashews as they oil your body. So I slept alone!
I was feeling very limp but did muster strength to get to the spa. It was wonderful. I felt the whole retreat was a time warp, and we had travelled back a century, but a place warp too. To Turkey, or Mesopotamia, or such. My massage was a traditional Javanese massage. A steam bath, then a woman came in, washed me like a baby, washed my hair, gave me a back rub. I expected it to be a new experience. I expected to be very clean. But I did not expect the depth of relaxation I felt. It was superb. When done, I dressed and went to a room where I sat on a huge sofa-bed and ate dates, apricots, cashews, and drank ginger tea. It truly was fantastic.
We had a breakfast that was typically Asian hotel fare. Traditional Asian breakfast of rice, stews, chilli sauces, then also salads, and fruit. Also the western eggs, pancakes, crepes (with vanilla custard and chocolate sauce- a much nicer way to take caffeine and eggs in the morning). No lunch was served ( a restaurant was open if you wanted lunch) but there was afternoon tea- sweets -chocolate cake, pineapple strudel, delicious granola cookies. Then drinks and dinner, an appetizer, rice, and little bits of a fish stew, chicken stew, beef stew, a vegetable broth with greens. All lovely, but an awful lot of food. Dessert was always a pudding/gelatin/dish, something you have to learn to love, I think. I bought a bottle of wine that would do me for the week. A muslim country, alcohol is expensive. An ordinary Australian Sauv was $120!!! And I didn't finish it. That is just how poorly I was feeling!
I did a side trip one day, to Borobradur, a huge Buddhist temple of the island. Long buried under ash and flood waters, it was discovered recently. It is huge, magnificent. But we got there at noon. It was 41', noonday sun. We rented umbrellas, for the sun. As we climbed the stairs- very steep- like the Great Wall. Those short people with little feet. The stairs are very shallow, only the balls of your feet fit on, but they are high, like to just under my knee- must be past theirs! Last year I would not have been able to climb this stairs. It was a nice measure of my progress.
I was so hot, my face was bright red. Really bright red. But we climbed to the top, and arrived at "nirvana" and there was a wonderful breeze. The view out to these volcanoes, it was beautiful. But then the climb back out of the breeze. A long hot day.
From Borabrodur, Buddhist temple, set in a valley where 3 rivers meet and surrounded by volcanoes. The eruption 2011 covered this in ash, but it has been restored. Lovingly.
The spa at the hotel. Not sure exactly what made me feel like I was a in Ancient Turkey.
But I did
Infinity pool, volcanoes in the background, surrounded by thick jungle, and plantations
I didn't realize that bougainvillias can grow in to huge 30' trees.
An outdoor "vita parcours"
The stones are the weight room! A sign warns to be careful of ants when picking up the rocks!
Some of the beautiful houses, many ready to be torn down, purchased by the hotel, and rebuilt as very lovely accommodations. Note very high ceiling, to deal with the hot air rising.
HUGE bamboo 100' high
Our fearless leader, and her Mom. No. Kate brought her daughter Scout. Scout is 10 months corrected to 8. She was 2 months preemie and when born was consuming 2 ml (that 's less that one tsp) every 2 hours. She is now a Buddha baby. There was another baby at the retreat. When I asked the age difference, the Mom said 4 months. Her Singaporean daughter was smaller than Scout. And I couldn't imagine she was 4 months old. She was 4 months older than Scout, and yet smaller. The Asian babies are little miniatures, tiny perfect miniatures. And Scout is not.
