A wee bit of arts and crafts........

Okay..... I know...... I haven't written anything for what seems like an age but I've been busy! Goodness knows how I had time to work full time before moving here! Honestly, there's not enough hours in the day......... However, I promise to catch up on all of my blog posts ASAP!

And what have I been filling my days doing? Well, it would be impossible to visit or live in Indonesia and not be exposed to one of the country's most traditional art forms, batik.  So, in March, I decided to take a batik class at the adult education centre here on Batam (to say centre is a bit of an overstatement,  it was a little room in the corner of the carpark under one of the government buildings here!)

Well? What is batik? The word batik is derived from the indonesian word 'ambatik' which translated means 'a cloth with little dots'. Its basically a form decorating fabric using hot wax to make a pattern. Then you dye the fabric and the dye resists the wax, leaving the pattern behind. Sounds simple huh? Em..........

So first you start with a piece of cotton cloth and you draw your pattern on it in pencil. Luckily, one of the tutors drew a lovely floral pattern for me, otherwise it would have been covered in stick men........ an artist I am not!

Me looking very pleased with 'my' artwork!

Then you heat your wax in a little wok called a 'wajan' over a spirit burner called an 'anglo'. The wax is kept hot the entire time and I swear it is as hot as the sun, especially when you spill it all over your fingers........

The wajan and anglo

Then you get a little pen thing called a 'canting' and fill it with hot wax. The wax should flow down the spout and onto the fabric (providing you hold it at the correct angle otherwise the wax could go anywhere!)

The canting

Me practicing my 'technique' with a very patient instructor.

Woohoo! How easy is this?

Hmmmm.... not so easy after all. Those dots are not meant to be there.......

Dammit wax! Stop dripping all over the place! :D

Drawing my 'masterpiece' took me about 3 hours but eventually it was time to start dyeing the fabric. None of the instructors speak much English, so it was the perfect opportunity to practice my Indonesian when asking for the different colours of dye. Hijau, biru, merah dan kuning. That's Green, blue, red and yellow for those of you who are not fluent like me :P

Just like painting by numbers! Only without the numbers....... so really just painting.

You can see where some of the dye has run in places. This is because there has been a tiny gap in the wax and the dye has escaped! Not to worry though.........

Next step is to get rid of the wax by plunging the material into boiling water. They usually just poke it into the kettle with a wooden stick while the kettle is still plugged in! But knowing how dodgy the electrics are here I made him disconnect it first.

Careful!!!!

One final rinse in the extensive outdoor laundry facility

Et voila! My first attempt at batik. Granted, it's not as impressive as some of the batik fabric you can buy here, but..........

.........with the help of a lovely Indonesian lady tailoress, it's turned into a fully working cushion! Woohoo!

Sampai jumpa lagi!

Lou & Brian xox

Back to Batam and An Unexpected Boat Trip

After an amazing trip home (the quickest month of the year!) Brian and I are back in sunny Batam.

It was so good being back in Scotland, catching up with friends and family, stuffing our faces with foods from home and spending time with our baby pussy cat, Murphy. Although after 4 months in a tropical country, the Scottish weather took a bit of getting used to again! Mum and I had a running battle over the thermostat for the duration of my stay :D

It better be warmer when I return in August! Ha! Not likely.........

One great thing about living in Indonesia is that they have plenty of random public holidays when Brian doesn't have to work. So Tuesday this week was Nyepi (Balinese New Year or Seclusion Day). 

It is a day of silence for Hindus, with no noise, work or travel. If you are in Bali, you have to stay indoors, electricity is turned off in many areas, and the silence is governed by Hindu security guards called “pecalang” Luckily, there are no such rules here in Batam (it's mostly Muslim)so we could do as we pleased!

On Monday night Brian announced "we're going fishing tomorrow........" What!?! I've never fished in my life! I like it when the fish arrives on my plate already cooked and I don't need to know how it got there! However, one of Brian's colleagues had chartered a "government" boat for the day so were off out on the ocean with a crew of fishing guides. The "government" boat turned out to be a small passenger ferry but at least it was sea worthy!

So, five of us set out on a beautiful Tuesday morning with a crew of locals.........

 We stopped off at the bait shop........

Brian then spend about 30 minutes preparing his fishing line, with intricate knots, weights and hooks............

........ and then one of the locals took it off him, cut off what Brian had lovingly created and did it for him! (notice he uses his toes too.....maybe that's what Brian should have done!)

So the fishing commenced....... and it seemed like only the locals were catching anything........ then one of the guys we were with caught a bite but it must have been the smallest fish in the entire ocean (it was about an inch long!)

We were just about to move off to another location and Brians hook got caught on the seabed ( for about the 5th time.......) One of the locals came over to try to help him free his line but started shouting "ikan" which is indonesian for fish! Woohoo! Brian had caught something! And it was big.........

After 15 minutes of hard work reeling it in and lots of excitement at the back of the boat from the locals, Brian eventually landed this.......

It might not look that big in the photo but it was at least 2 feet long! Brian was well chuffed with himself and we were all very proud that not all of us were going back empty handed! 

Although, not to be outdone by a 'Bule', one of the locals then caught this using only a hand reel and a line..............

Showoff! Unfortunately  we didn't have a cool box big enough to store Moby Dick for the rest of the day, so we decided to head back to the village and put him on ice :D The journey back was beautiful, lots of tiny desert islands, clear blue water and tiny villages on stilts.

When we got back to the village, we were told that because we had paid for the boat, everything that had been caught (even Moby Dick) belonged to us. Of course, we didn't want to take the fish so we said that the crew could share it amongst themselves. The captain then invited us all to his home in one of the nearby villages, he would BBQ the fish for us, his wife would prepare some food and we could eat with them! We had an amazing afternoon, were made to feel so welcome by all the villagers and got to eat some fantastic traditional food :D yum!

Some pictures of the captains beautiful village on stilts. The shacks might not look like much but the locals are so proud of their homes and were keen to show us inside.

Catch of the day arriving on the jetty!

The local women prepared the fish. Not a single piece was wasted :D

No matter where you are in the world, the men are always in charge of the BBQ!

BBQ fish marinated in ginger and lemongrass with sambal (chilli sauce). We also had spicy fish soup and sticky rice.

A rather successful fishing trip and a fantastic experience to add to our adventure!

So we've been back a couple of weeks now, Brian is working hard in his job (and playing lots of golf) and I'm working hard at not working (it's a hard life!) Our first visitor arrives in three weeks time, so looking forward to that! Lou and Sal take Batam!!!! (photo's to follow ha!) And, I've finally started to learn Indonesian using the Rosetta Stone so expect all future posts to be entirely written in Indonesian (not.....)

Sampai jumpa lagi!


Lou & Brian xox

Selamat Tahun Baru 2013!

Happy New Year from Batam everyone! Hope you all had fun of the festive season, Brian and I certainly did!

Spending Christmas here is certainly very different to back home! Because Batam is predominantly Muslim, Christmas Day is just another day to the locals so we found if quite hard to get in the Christmas spirit. However, we thought we'd make the most of being in the sun for Christmas Day and have a BBQ. 

The best place to buy meat in Batam is at the wholesale cold-store. But it's wholesale so you have to but it in bulk and because we left it a wee bit late to go (Xmas eve!) they only had large packs left. So 6kg of rib-eye came home with us in the car......... we can now BBQ for the 5000!

Christmas morning arrived and we rushed down stairs to check that Santa had been.......... he hadn't :( None of our parcels or cards had arrived from the UK yet so it didn't take us long to open our presents! Brian loved his micro lego  and his new coffee grinder though and I got a gorgeous new handbag (which I had picked so no surprise for Lou!)

 

Not very Christmassy so far......... but still, we're in a tropical country, lets make the most of the glorious weather and enjoy our BBQ............. except it rained all day.............

Still, we enjoyed our day, had awesome steaks on the BBQ despite the weather. Really missed being home though (and brussel sprouts) so think we'll definitely spend Christmas 2013 back in Scotland............

On boxing day we decided to head out in the car for a wee road trip. Batam is the most northerly of three islands areas (Batam, Rempang & Galang) that are all connected by 6 bridges known as the Barelang Bridges. At the weekend the bridges are a huge tourist attraction, with cars parked everywhere, people running about taking photographs and hundreds of hawker stands selling food. But, boxing day was particularly quiet so Brian and I had the first bridge to ourselves :)

It is about 50km from the first bridge to the 6th bridge so we didn't quite get all the way before I saw a sign for the beach. So desperate for a wee paddle and some sand between my toes we made your way down this single track road to here.........

It was a beautiful little beach but definitely for locals........... we were the only white people for miles around! So after a quick paddle we headed back to the car, just in time for the heavens to open! Whew!

On 29th December we headed to Singapore for 4 nights. The hotel we were staying in this time was in an area called Clarke Quay. There are lots of bars and restaurants and it gets very busy there at night with locals and tourists. We found a wee Scottish bar called the Highlander (ha!) and decided to stop there for some food in the hope that I could get some haggis! But, no........ they didn't have any :( I'm really missing my home comforts so I might have to come back to Scotland with an empty suitcase and fill it with stuff that we both miss!

While in Singapore, we visited Gardens by the Bay (we've started scoping out places where we can take our visitors so you better all come!) It's a pretty amazing place, lots of outdoor gardens and a pretty impressive super tree forest with an elevated walkway. I managed to get Brian to come up with me but he was looking a bit green around the gills the entire time!

There are also two huge cooled glasshouses, filled with flowers, plants and a massive waterfall. We could have spent days just wandering about inside..... a refreshing change from the heat and humidity of Singapore! 

We spent Hogmanay by the Marina in Singapore. We had booked a table with some of our friends in a new tapas bar called Catalunya. Our table was on the roof so we had a perfect view of the festivities and the fireworks at midnight...... it wasn't the cheapest place in the world though but we're probably only going to do it once so it was worth it!

To be honest, although we had a great night, the fireworks weren't any different to the display in Edinburgh so it was a wee bit disappointing ......maybe we'd just hyped them up a bit too much! However, I'm glad we welcomed 2013 in Singapore though........another string to add to our bow!

So, we've been on Batam for 3 months.......time is certainly flying! New years resolutions? Well, Brian and I are going to get fit :S (there is a gym and a pool here so we've no excuse!)

I'm going to learn to speak Indonesian (at least enough that I can talk entirely in Indonesian at the market!) and Brian is going to try and learn to say 'thank you' in Indonesian (it's 'terima kasih' in case you're wondering).

So wishing you all a happy, healthy and prosperous 2013! Looking forward to more adventures this side of the world, let's see what this year throws at us!

Sampai jumpa lagi!

Lou & Brian xox