Try Again

We had to wake up around 2:45am to be in a van to the airport at 3:30am.  Whoa.  And the other group had to get up even earlier.

A few minutes into the drive to the airport, we got a call that Craig left his iPad at the hotel and we had to turn back to pick it up.  

Checkin took quite a long time to Super Jet Air (yup, that's the actual name of the airline).  While we were waiting this adorable little girls was playing with her remote control dump truck and kept bumping it into my shoe.  So cute.

At the counter, I got hit with almost $200 charge for excess baggage... as did everyone else.  Oh well.

There were all of these Special Olympics kids on the flight.  Many with Downs Syndrome.  They were very well behaved and wore matching travel outfits.  I wondered if they were returning back from competition in Jakarta.

We made it to Kupang.  An airport I am pretty familiar with.  I went through the transit and they put some manual tag on my bag, but I just pulled it off later.  I think they were trying to get me to gate check it.  Nope.

The other group was here already.  I got a sandwich and some juice and chatted via WiFi with my sister Kimber who is visiting my mom in Joplin.

I found out that I will be rooming with Mariasol on the liveaboard instead of Graham.  She's a sweet girl.

Then we waited.  The departure time came and went.  And waited. Another flight on a different airline to Alor took off.

We waited some more.  I read my kindle.  I even made a game to buy and eat the spiciest thing at the little shop.  No diet coke or coke zero to be found.  I just kept my mouth shut and read my book.

Then after at 3 hour delay, ours got canceled.  Just like that.  No explanation.  And when I looked at the board it said it was because of the weather.  No other flights were canceled due to weather.  Not even the other flight to Alor.

Graham rebooked us all on the next available flight to Alor on Friday 10/16.  Today is Wednesday 10/14.  We collected our bags.  We have nowhere to stay in Kupang for the next two nights.  OMG.

Graham kept looking for places and everything was booked up.  There were lots of people trying to help and really, I just asked Graham how I could help, but mostly stayed quiet and supportive.

Mariasol was supportive by pulling out bubbles and blowing them all over the baggage claim area.  She was trying to lift everyone's spirits.

We had to split up all over Kupang, but finally we all had a room for the first night.  

Rick and I were in a cab to the hotel and the cab driver had to make sure to follow the other two in front of him.  What did he do instead?  Pulled out his phone and showed us all these pictures he had with other white people.  As he was driving.  Argh!  I told him to follow the cab in front of us and to stop looking at his phone.  Well, of course they lost the first taxi and took us to the wrong location.  Oh man.

We finally made it to the hotel, RedDoorz @ Brother Homestay Kupang.  It is so nasty, but only ten dollars a night.  There was no toilet paper in my bathroom, the aircon doesn't work.  It looks like a murder was committed in here.  

But I do have my own room and Todd/Rick and Jackie/Ellen are right next door(s).

I have Grab (the Uber of Asia) on my phone and it works using WiFi, so I got on the hotel WiFi and got all five of us a grab to dinner at Taman Laut.  The car was like $1.50 to get us there.  And then dinner was like $11.  So there's that.

During dinner, this guy who worked at the restaurant came around dressed up as a lobster and danced for everyone.

Ellen and I ordered vanilla oreo ice cream.  It was so weird!  It had big fresh slices of coconut, some little balls they called "pearls" and avocado chunks covered with chocolate sauce.  I tried it but only ate about half.

Then I got the Grab back to the hotel for the five of us.  Also about $1.50.

Today was a tough day.  I feel defeated.

The earliest we will be diving is Saturday.  That is a week and a half after I left Chicago.  And at least four days and 13 dives missed on the Liveaboard.

FM7 Rest

I slept pretty well last night and didn't wake up until 6am.  Later Graham told me that I didn't snore.  Oh, thank God.  I even brought earplugs for others just in case.

So, we have such an interesting group of people on the trip with us.  Let me see if I can give the full run down.

1. Graham Abbott is our fearless trip leader.  He is English and has lived in Indonesia for decades.
2. Me, Pam McPherson.  Crazy American Nudi fanatic.
3. David Lenderman, American.  Part of the Houston Underwater Photography Society.
4. Dennis Deavenport, American.  Part of the Houston Underwater Photography Society.
5. Betsy Beasley, American.  Part of the Houston Underwater Photography Society.  She has these super cool contacts where she can change the color of her eyes daily.
6. Craig Beasley, American.  Part of the Houston Underwater Photography Society.  
7. Ellen, American.  Lives in Florida, traveling with Jackie.  They met diving in Honduras.
8. Jackie, American.  Lives in Mississippi, traveling with Ellen.
9. Todd, American.  Lives in Wyoming.  Retired Gym teacher and diving coach.
10. Rick, American.  Lives in Wyoming.  Retired Gym teacher and swim coach.
11. Tim Laman, American.  Lives in Massachusetts and is a visual wildlife storyteller working with Nat Geo, Cornell Labs among others.  https://www.timlaman.com/
12. Zafer Kizilkaya, Turkish.  Quite an accomplished environmentalist.  https://www.goldmanprize.org/recipient/zafer-kizilkaya/
13. Mariasole, Italian.
14. Gaida, Italian. 
15. Stefano, Italian or Turkish?
16. Alvi, Turkish.

I sneaked out of the room a bit early and set up my computer in the restaurant and started downing coffee.  It was fairly quiet and a nice place to be.  The breakfast is included in the stay and is a darn good spread with indonesian and western fare.  Lots of juices and fruit too.

I had such a lovely chat with Graham and Tim.  Tim has done a lot of work with Cornell Labs, the force behind the Merlin App which does the bird sound identification.  There is a Cornell Lab You Tube Channel for Tim's bird videos.  Here is one video about his work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2LTuY0x_j0

We talked a lot about the birding community and compared notes on The Big Year and Listers.  I told him that I really want to do a Big Year of Nudibranchs.  And that I love compiling species counts.  I shared that I am just shy of 400 found in Alor alone.  

We need to fill our day today awaiting tomorrow's flights.  I welcome the rest here at FM7, but some others are taking a tour of Jakarta.

I would love to finish those last 25 nudi species in my Alor ID book.  Maybe I can make that happen.

I am thinking about the crew on the liveaboard.  They are moving the boat to Alor which will take three days for them to get there.  We have to spend at least one night at a hotel in Alor.  And we will do the cultural tour (which I've done before) and then snorkel with the horny dugong (nicknamed Harvey Weinstein).

We gathered back at The Porte for lunch.  I had Mango Chicken that was pretty good, but they ran out of coke zero.  We stayed around the table for a good long time just hanging out and telling dive trip stories.

Then I went to the pool for a while.  Although they have a cold plunge the rest of the space is just so hot.  I didn't stay for too too long.

I ate dinner with the Houston crew.  We had quite a conversation about Synesthesia.  Betsy has it and we were all really interested in how it works and what color she sees us each as.  I am a peach color.

For dinner I got a small salad hoping that I could finally order the banana dessert.  Of course, when I went to order it, they said they were out of it.  Oh man.

Graham has been talking about a game that he brought for us to play called Authenticity.  This will be interesting.  

He also told me about Edward Abbey.  Graham shared a great quote of his to set up our group for a fantastic trip.

Edward Abbey - Half Hearted Fanatic: 

One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am - a reluctant enthusiast....a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this; You will outlive the bastards.

Ambon Bound - Womp Womp

I woke up too early this morning, but I just rolled with it.

Today we fly to Ambon and get on the Nusa Kembara Liveaboard.

7am Depart hotel for approximately 45 minute taxi ride to the airport

9:40am  Garuda Flight GA 646 Jakarta (CGK) to Ambon (AMQ) departs

3:20pm Garuda Flight GA 646 Jakarta (CGK) to Ambon (AMQ) arrives

We had a series of taxis that took us to the updated domestic terminal.  The terminal looks so nice.

I was so excited that they didn't give me a hard time about my bags.  They didn't charge me for any excess baggage weight... and they didn't ask to weigh my carry on.  I felt like I had won the lottery.

I went through security and made it to the gate and there was a Starbucks right next to it.  A venti iced vanilla latte only cost me $4 instead of the $10 it does at O'Hare.  

When it was time, I queued up at the front of my group.  Let's do this... 

And then.  Delayed.  Until 11am.  OK, well I went to get some snacks and finished my book.  It was a cute Hallmark movie type read called The Tomorrow Tree by Carolyn Brown.

I chatted with some of the other travelers on this trip and got to know them.  It seems like it is going to be a great crew.  There are 16 of us total.

At 11am, I queued up again.  Ha Ha.  The joke was on me, this flight was to Denpasar.  Not Ambon.  Whoops!  I sat back down.  

Our flight was delayed again, until at least 12:30pm.  We also found out that yesterday's flight into Ambon also got delayed and just took off today.  I guess there are some fires happening nearby with some weather conditions that are making it impossible to land.

After another stint waiting, I saw people queuing up again and I jumped in my Group line.  Ha Ha Ha.  Joke was again on me.  This was a still different flight.  Not us.  OMG.

... a little bit later...

Although there was no formal announcement, we found out that our flight was in fact canceled.  And the first time they were going to possibly fly again to Ambon was days away.  

Womp Womp.

Graham went into solution mode.  God love him.  I don't think I could do his job.  Shuttles.  Hotels.  Flights.  New Liveaboard itinerary.  Times sixteen people.  Wow.

We were all a bit stunned as we reclaimed our luggage.  Still in Jakarta.

Then we had to go to the Garuda counter to rebook and find out our options.  16 of us in a queue is a lot.  Nevermind all the rest of the travelers from the flight.  Graham grabbed all of our tickets and stood in line on our behalf so we could just sit with our luggage and relax.  He's my hero.

We made our way down to the transport.  And keep in mind each of us has at least two big bags and one or two small bags.  So 16 people times 4 bags... 64 bags.  Yikes.

Although there wasn't much availability, Graham was able to book five rooms at FM7 which is a nice resort style hotel near the airport.  I have been several times but never stayed for very long.  This time we may be there for a while.

Some of the guests figured out their own bookings, but I was relying on Graham.  So I was by his side witnessing all of the input and suggestions.  He handles them with such grace.  I don't think I could be so calm.

Graham and I got a great big room with two beds steps away from the restaurant and the pool.  I have warned him that I snore.  We will see how I do.  

After a long day of waiting and queuing, I dropped my stuff, grabbed a bathing suit and checked out the pool.  They have quite a system with a locker room, towel and flip flops.  Not only do they have a pool, they have a hot tub right next to a serious cold plunge.  And a sauna and steam room.  Of course they also have massages, etc but that's not my thing.

I didn't have much time, but I did the pool and then the hot tub.  I put my legs into the cold plunge but couldn't get much further than that.  My toes were tingling.  What a strange sensation.  Maybe tomorrow I will try to go all the way under.

At 7pm I met the crew for dinner at the bigger hotel restaurant called The Porte.  Of course there was the whole challenge of splitting the bill.  We had about 10 people at this meal.  At first the waiter said no.  But after a man asked, they said yes.  Really?  

Anyway, my pad thai was delicious and we had a fun meal.  When the bill came, they broke mine out and I paid and then the waiter walked away and never came back.  I had to flag him down to break out the bill for the rest of the group.  The moral of the story is that the staff can do it, they just will say no at first.

OK, so here is the actual story of why our flight was canceled.  There are fires happening in Central Papua.  The winds are blowing to the west into Ambon.  Pilots needs at least a certain amount of visibility to land and that threshold is not being met.  The winds are predicted to continue to the west for several days.  Therefore, our group needs to fly into somewhere else instead.

After much consideration, we will be flying into Alor instead of Ambon.  So we will be starting the cruise where we were supposed to be ending.

It will take three days for the Nusa Kembara Liveaboard to get from Ambon to Alor.

I had to map this out for my brain to comprehend this:

This is a good site telling us about the fires:

https://www.iqair.com/wildfire/indonesia/west-papua

Just to get on flights, we had to split up!

9 of us are going this route:

    14 Oct 2026 Jakarta-Kupang 05.50-10.05 Super Air Jet 

    Transit Kupang 

    14 Oct 2026 Kupang-Alor 12.15-13.15 Wings 

7 of us are going this route:

    14 Oct 2026 Jakarta-Kupang 03.35-08.45 Lion Air 

    Stop Surabaya & Transit Kupang 

    14 Oct 2026 Kupang-Alor  12.15-13.15 Wings 

But we all end up in the same place at the same time.  

As a reminder, this is the path we originally planned, so it will be interesting to see exactly how much we will still be able to hit:

OK, that's enough for now.

 

Culture Vultures

Today was a day for Old Town Jakarta Culture.  Graham arranged for a tour guide and tuk-tuks to take us around.  Thank God because it was a pretty warm day.

We started out with a very nice breakfast buffet at the hotel.  First we explored the bridge right outside our hotel that has been there since the 1800s when the Dutch ruled Jakarta.

Then we went to see Bastion Culemborg/Amsterdam which was a 17th-century Dutch colonial fortification and watchpost in old Batavia.  It was the Spice House where they stored all of the spices.

• Nutmeg and Mace: Sourced mainly from the Banda Islands and transshipped or consolidated through Batavia to Europe and global markets.
• Cloves: Sourced from the Maluku Islands (Moluccas) and routed through Dutch-controlled ports to international destinations.
• Pepper: Shipped in large quantities from Banten and South Sumatra through the port of Batavia. 

The trees have overtaken the building.

There was plenty of animal life, but not so wild.

Then we went to the old marina and learned that the city was sinking and Indonesia is going to relocate its capital to Nusantara in 2028.

Then we went back to the square we were in yesterday and learned about hangings and the Portuguese cannons.

Tradition was that if a woman was barren, she could sit on top of this hand and it would help her to conceive.  Ummm... And that is the hand signal for wanting sex.  OK.

Then we went to the Wayang Museum (a Puppet Museum) and sat and watched a show for a bit.  It was weird because only one guy did all the puppets and the voices.  Yet there was an enormous 50 person "orchestra" and three women singing.  And everything was done in a Javanese language that nobody understood, not even the locals.  Then the audience was so far back that we couldn't really see anything but there were closed circuit TVs on each side so we could see what what going on.  I didn't love it but it was good to sit for a bit.

Can you say creepy!  I do love the hands though.

These reminded me of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood.

Then we walked over to The House of Tugu where we had lunch.  From the outside, this place looked pretty crappy.  But on the inside it was spectacular!  Graham arranged a sampling of Indonsian dishes for us in a private room.

David trying the Durian Creme Brulee.

After lunch, we got a tour of the museum on the property with artifacts going back five generations from the owner.  It was very interesting but a LOT of stuff everywhere.  

I did pretty well on this walking tour but I was glad to be back at my hotel and definitely needed another shower.  It was so hot.

We are taking the afternoon/evening off and will be boarding transportation to the domestic terminal tomorrow morning at 7am.

Culture and Clay

I was still pretty tired in the morning so I slept in until noon-ish and finally headed down to the hotel lobby for lunch around 1pm.

Graham came and joined me.  It was so fun to see him again!  I need to look up the last time I saw him in person, but it has been a WHILE.  

Graham introduced me to David and Dennis from the Houston Underwater Photographers Society.  They invited me along for their adventures.

We went to the Museum of Fine Art and Ceramics.  It was like $3 to get in and had many paintings and ceramics on display.

I think this one was my favorite.

We came across this outdoor pottery studio at the museum.  Instead of the potters wheels spinning with electricity, the pottters spun it with their own feet!

This group was celebrating a birthday.

Afterward, we stopped to watch a band playing on plaza.  Graham knew the singer's husband who started playing this instrument in the Jakarta streets.  Now he is traveling throughout Indonesia playing.

Then we went to a Cafe Batavia and sat around the rest of the afternoon.

We started with a drink and a couple desserts, then stayed so long we decided to have dinner there too.

One of the desserts was a Graham surprise.  We had to taste it first, then he would tell us what it was.

OMG, it was made with durian.  The smelliest fruit in Asia.  So smelly in fact that some countries have banned it.  I mean it was ok and pretty mild.  But I could have done without it.

I got a pink flamingo mocktail.  Look how pretty.  It tasted good too.

Graham eating the head of the red snapper.  I was not as adventurous and got the chicken satay.

I got to know David and Dennis pretty well.  They were telling stories about their lives back home.  They aren't necessarily nudibranch fanatics, but they appreciate my obsession.

And Dennis has the same camera as me and uses it exclusively to shoot video.  What!?!?!?  That's pretty amazing.  I need to learn from him.

As we walked back to the hotel, we saw that so many people were sitting on the square watching a show.  It turns out that it was a mime.   Interesting.  Everyone had a cold drink in their hand with a straw in the cup but they didn't hold the cup.  Instead the cup was in a plastic bag with handles and they held it that way.  There were also lots of vendors lining the streets selling everything from sunglasses to stuffed animals.

O’Hare Happiness

I used Lyft for the first time and reserved a ride the day before.  The driver was really good and on time.  I realized I forgot my iPhone charger before we left the condo driveway and I ran back up to get it.  Hooray!  And the Lyft cost $20 less than uber.

I arrived long before the check in counter even opened, so I just sat and read my book and charged my phone… with the charger I almost forgot!

Then I got the friendliest older guy at the ANA counter and he DID NOT WEIGH MY CARRY ON.  Hallelujah.  This is always a point of contention since my carryon is way over the weight limit.  Since it has all my underwater camera gear, I definitely don't want to check it.

I quickly left the area before the guy at the counter could change his mind and… I caught a glimpse of a very skinny Cheryl Mell out of the corner of my eye before exiting.  Holy crap.  I didn’t stop but texted her.

We connected after security and it turns out she and Patti are going diving in the Spice Islands.  They are also leaving from Ambon.  So we are on the same flights to Jakarta!  Wow, what a small world that I would bump into some of my SCUBA Sistahs at O'Hare.

What are the chances?  They headed off to the fancy lounge and I hit Chilis.  The restaurant wasn't serving breakfast though so I went for buffalo wings at 9:30 in the morning.

The check in counter didn't seem very busy.  Maybe the flight won’t be that full.  That would be awesome.

Womp Womp.  My first flight to Tokyo was completely full, but 14 hours went pretty fast.  Then I had an empty middle seat on the second 8 hour flight, so that was great to have a little extra wiggle room.

I wasn't too bad off after landing and got my visa on arrival as well as my bags.  Then I hit the ATM before searching for my pre-arranged ride.  The ATMs here only let users get out 1million rupiah at a time which is only like $55 USD.  Well, I was glad to get some local currency out.

My ride was pretty easy but by now it was about 2am.  I don't think I fell asleep until 4am or so.

Foray into the Forgotten Islands

I'm excited for my next big adventure.  This quarter is going to be a LOT of traveling.

My first trip of this quarter is to Indonesia, the Forgotten Islands.  Graham Abbott organized it.

I did a Google Earth to see where we are going:

https://earth.google.com/earth/d/1KFWRqOiglLzqe0gp_vcRMfSNuiM1oSm5?usp=sharing

Here is what Graham shared about this exploratory trip on the Nusa Kembara Liveaboard:

This is going to be different than the nudi, macro focused trips I've been used to.  It's going to be some larger subjects and more adventure than usual.  I packed my Go Pro along with my regular macro setup.

I have been quieter than usual recently in preparation for this trip and the ones after it.  I feel like I am overthinking a lot of things.  Especially about my gear.  I just hope I don't have any issues.

I've worked hard on my Alor Nudi ID book.  I think I only have like 40 species to go.  It will be interesting to see if I find any new ones on this trip.  Really we are only in Alor for two dives on the last day.