Lembeh Strait diving

 

After leaving the rainforest we headed further east to the town of Bitung where we met the boat that was ferrying us over to the dive "resort" we were staying at. I put resort in quotes because we were staying at the cheapest place we could find! It may not have been up to the high standards of fancy hotel travellers, but it was perfect for us. Our cottage was the second from the left and we were right next to a neat Dutch couple starting out on a year-long trip around the world (we had much to discuss). While Lembeh Island itself looks gorgeous, we barely spent any time on land because we were here to dive. Lembeh Strait is famous for muck diving - which basically means that you are diving over what looks like sand but the habitat is loaded with small, incredible treats that you have to look closely for to find.

 

In this photo Jay is hovering over some perfect muck diving habitat. There is an anemone in this shot and a few anemonefish. What this photo shows is important - if you look at the wide-angle view you won't see much but if you look down and focus on tiny things, a whole new world opens up. See all the photos below for examples!

Frogfish pretending to be a sponge.

Here is a frogfish video we shot: http://youtu.be/Ud_Mi2odlYY. They don't really move much, nonetheless it is kinda fun to see how they don't move much. 

Here I am with an octopus (bottom left corner)

Same octopus putting on a show for us

This is a different species called the WONDERPUS. No wonder, it was wonderful! And here is a video of another octopus: http://youtu.be/RE-jBBLltns
and another one: http://youtu.be/gqNA5kJ08Kc

This shrimp was chillin' on an anemone tentacle.

More neat shrimp video here: http://youtu.be/HBFOXtQCvNY

Banggai cardinalfish - only found here and one other spot in the world.

Here is a neat moray eel hunting video: http://youtu.be/CAJ3lriUINk

These nudibranchs are having sex! Hee hee.

Could this be more nudibranch sex? I'm not sure....

Alas, this one needs a partner. Did I mention that nudibranchs are boys and girls at the same time? This makes finding a partner quite easy. 

Ornate ghost pipefish - Solenostomus paradoxus. We are guessing that the larger pipefish with the big belly is the male and the smaller one is the female.

The view from the boat as we approach our cottage

By far the rarest species that we saw of all was this one (I am being sarcastic but you need to watch the video to know what I'm talking about):  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLgh9h2ePYw

All our Indonesia photos are here: https://plus.google.com/photos/111221596171793333099/albums/5815735330676677425?banner=pwa

United Airlines gets it all wrong

I've heard you can ruffle feathers at various airlines if you post your bad experiences with them....so here goes. I'm trying for some reimbursement! Bad United. Bad bad United Airlines. #UnitedFail #United

I am writing because I am extremely unhappy with my experience with United Airlines. The story began on the evening of 12/26/2012 when my flight from Newark to Albany was cancelled. I took this in stride, cancellations do happen and I patiently waited in line at EWR for about an hour before I saw an agent. Despite the fact that I was nice to him, the agent I met with was rude and totally unhelpful. He booked me on a flight out the next morning and told me that I could not get my bag because the baggage department was closed.  I stopped by the baggage claim on my way out and discovered they were open. The woman working there was very nice and she had my bag for me in less than 10 minutes. I spent the night in a hotel and got up for my rescheduled flight the next morning. This flight was delayed (they claimed there was no plane), delayed, and then cancelled. I headed back to the service desk and waited in line again for a very long time.  I was losing precious time with my family, so I eventually left the line and took Amtrak to Hudson, NY where my family greeted me. The train was a good choice because United rescheduled me to fly Albany on the 29th....which was silly as it would have given me one day with my family before I had to leave.

Once I was at my family’s house I called United to tell them that I would not be on the rescheduled flight to Albany on the 29th, and I did not want to be cancelled off of my return flight from ALB to SEA on 12/31/2012. I was reassured by the agent that she would cancel me off the EWR-ALB leg as an “involuntary cancellation” and keep me on my return flights to SEA. Well, on the morning of my scheduled flight I went to check in only to discover that I had been cancelled off of all of my flights. I was furious, as this was exactly what I was trying to avoid. I called United immediately and spoke with agent who calmly dealt with my anger.  There were no seats left on the flights - figures! Through her boss, however, the agent was able to overbook the flight to get me a ticket, although I had no assigned seat when I left for the airport. The chances were nerve-wracking that I would get a seat which was infuriating because I had booked the flight months ago and needed to get back to SEA. I followed the instructions at ALB when I got my boarding pass to proceed to the gate to get my assigned seat. At the gate I was greeted by a very grumpy and unhelpful employee who told me I was supposed to get my seat assigned at the check-in counter (exactly the opposite of what the kiosk told me to do). This man actually looked me in the eye and told me “I hate my job”. Nice employees United has - he would be better off throwing bags than dealing with customers. I should note that I was being very nice to him as there was no point in being angry with him, he was angry enough with life. Lucky for me, a couple gave up their seats and I was able to get on the plane and make my connection to SEA (a seat was assigned to me in IAD).

I received a refund for the leg of the flight I did not take (EWR to ALB). I had requested reimbursement for my train ticket (a massive $47.50) but was turned down. Really? Honestly, I am disgusted with United, their employees for their undeserved rude treatment, and their inability to handle these problems. All I asked for was reimbursement of my train tickets and they can’t even do that despite rescheduling me on totally silly dates for my flight to ALB from EWR (i.e. arriving right before I had to leave) and then cancelling me off my return flights!  Clearly this company doesn’t care about customers. I am not impressed at all and I will happily avoid flying with United Airlines. Why fly United Airlines when Alaska Airlines is so much nicer to their customers?

So hint to all you travelers - United is not worth it.

Tangkoko National Park, Sulawesi

A post about Indonesia would mean nothing if I didn't mention the food....so why not start with the food? This was my lunch on our way to Tangkoko National Park, above, eggplant with a yellow curry cononut sauce on top. Possibly the best thing I've ever eaten in my life?

 Jay had Manadonese-style chicken

After a very entertaining drive with a guide we hired - named Wendel - we arrived at Dove Villas just outside Tangkoko National Park. Wendel was entertaining because he was a well-educated Indonesian who spoke English fairly well and was quite obsessed with American action movies and really, really, interested in getting to America. Did I already talk about this? He asked lots of questions like "how much does it cost to eat in America"? Indonesians can grab a cheap dinner from a food cart for less than a US dollar, so Wendel was pretty surprised when we told him our food prices. But we also had to explain to him that most Americans don't eat out every day and food carts are not all over the place. In other words, we told him that Americans cook (or at least attempt to).

Upon our arrival in the Tangkoko NP area, we thought we would head straight out for a dusk walk in the park with a ranger. But the ranger came over and explained to us that it was pouring too hard to go for a walk. We were disappointed; it is a rainforest after all and we were prepared for the downpour. We think the ranger wasn't really in the mood to deal with the rainy season and so he got out of dealing with us. We decided to go for a walk down the "road" by our cottage instead. I took this photo of someone's home and all the coconuts on the ground during the walk.

 Mt. Tangkoko (volcano) in the background

Back at our cottage we had a dinner, not the best food but we were in the middle of nowhere and the people were so sweet we didn't care. Prior to dinner Jay discovered a dead bird in a closet in our room, not too surprising as many of these villas are open air (our bathroom had an open roof and the shower was right out in the open with just a wall around the shower head). Thankfully Jay spared me the details of how the bird looked....ugh. We decided to tell the family running the villas about the bird. One problem - they spoke no English and we spoke no Indonesian (aside from saying "thank you" and "hello"). And there were no other guests to help out. So during our dinner we found an Indonesian/English dictionary and the words for dead bird (we had our own dictionary but it was too simple to have "dead bird" in it). Jay told the family and they were clearly upset about it and followed us to our room. Jay showed them the bird and they quickly offered us another room. But it was late and we had our crap all over the place, so we declined and assumed that he would come and get rid of the dead bird. Nope. They left and never came back. Ha! So we went to sleep in the company of our dear dead bird and woke up at 3:30am to catch a ride to the park for the dawn walk in the rainforest. Ahhhh Indonesia.

We wanted to go to Tangkoko National Park to see these critters, tarsiers. Tarsiers (small monkey) are only found in the Philippines, Sulawesi, Borneo, and Sumatra. Not a common critter to see.... and something we really were hoping to see, which we obviously did. Tarsiers live in groups in old-growth trees, a clear example of the importance of preserving old-growth rainforests in these amazing countries.

Tarsiers make a high-pitched whistle which you can hear in this video (there is no video, only a dark rainforest, but the audio is fantastic). You can hear the short whistles of the tarsiers, but you can also hear eagles and our guides talking to each other.

Here is a tarsier leaping from a tree. Our guide put a grasshopper on the tree to get the tarsier out for us to see. I was just about to ask our guide not to do that when another group arrived and they thought feeding animals in a national park was just fine. Damn it. We could see the tarsiers on the tree without having to feed them, but alas, it was show and tell.

Another real treat was seeing this fluffy animal in the rainforest canopy called a cus-cus. It is a marsupial and I swear it looked like a cross between a raccoon, monkey, and bear. It moved very slowly and spent a lot of time looking at us. This was a boy - can't you tell?

 I needed a new dress for my walk in the rainforest

We came upon a huge group of Celebes crested macaques, or the crested black macaque (see the crest?). These are critically endangered species, only found in this park and on some outlying islands around Sulawesi. Their meat is a bit too popular with locals and their habitat is so limited - I worry about their chance for survival.

I love this photo for numerous reasons.... our guide looked over at what was going on behind the leaves and announced to us "they make a the sex" while another macaque hooted its approval. Need I say more?

 Jay and our guide inside a huge old-growth tree

There used to be a big tree in here until a strangler fig surrounded the original tree, strangled it, and killed it. Now the strangler fig remains and it is hollow inside from the dead tree.

Tangkoko also extends to the beach and looks out toward Lembeh Strait, where we would be diving after leaving the park.

More photos and stories will come from the Lembeh dives.... next post!

2012 Collage

Happy 2013!  Enjoy our annual collage of our favorite photos from 2012.

I'll get back to Indonesia soon - but it's holiday fun for now!!

Almost all of these holiday photos come from New York or Wyoming, but we had to start with holidays in Washington. Here is Lester, the tuxedo cat, under our Charlie Brown tree. Don't forget that we have sweet Darwin, but I have no photos of the gray fluff under the tree.

Our holiday season started with a big drive from Anacortes to Jackson, WY, where Jay's dad lives. We planned to spend the Christmas day with him and his partner Charlotte, as well as many days on the mountain (Jackson Hole) skiing! And what snow we had! Yahoo! Powder! Jay knows that I don't last long in cars, so when he saw a sign for a state park with petrified trees, he knew he needed to pull over to let the dog (me) out of the car. I bounded up the hills, excited to see a petrified forest. This is what I got. Clearly, I was disappointed.

 Ginkgo Petrified Forest, WA

Our first stop (after 11 hours of driving) was Bigfork, MT to see a friend of Jay's, Skilly, and his partner, Colleen. It was so exciting to finally meet Skilly after years and years of stories of the famed character! He was just as fantastic in real life! Colleen and I hit it off immediately as she understood how I felt after 11 hours in a car and poured me a massive glass of red wine. Ahhhh...  Skilly lives in such a gorgeous spot in Montana! He had chickens - we enjoyed their eggs - and a pond stocked with rainbow trout. The Swan River was in his backyard and they lived so close to Glacier National Park you could practically smell the mountains. It was lovely. 

The drive from Montana to Wyoming was GORGEOUS. We would have liked it a lot more if someone with a brain thought to post a sign that there would be no gas station in sight for hours along the Idaho/Wyoming border. Well, it felt like hours when our gas light came on and every exit yielded nothing to help us. Lucky for us, we finally made it to a station. Whew. Gotta love our dependence on oil and gas!

We made it to Wilson, WY late at night after stopping in Idaho for some spicy Thai food. We spent all three days before Christmas downhill skiing at Jackson Hole! Here is a view of the Grand Teton taken from the top of Rendezvous Mountain at the ski resort.

Jay and Julie on top of the world with no oxygen. Just kidding. No one notices the lack of this important gas but me.

We spent each of our three days skiing with someone from Jay's family! Our first day was with Charlotte. Here she is at the bottom of Rendezvous Bowl!

Our second day was spent on the mountain with Jay's dad, Buz. These two are both unbelievable skiers, so I always get my ass kicked but I have fun trying to keep up.

Here is Jay with his sister, Lee on the third day on the mountain (Christmas Eve). We had something like 14 inches of fresh snow to play with and boy it was FUN! Lee had not been on skis in 15 years and she skied like she had been on skis every day since that time! She was excellent and the two of us (Julie and Lee) in particular had a blast together while Jay was off in the trees!

 Jay and the powder

 Tuffy the kitty has his own bowl on the kitchen counter in the Charlotte/Buz household.

Lee and I took a few hours on Christmas Day to go for a cross-country skiing adventure in Grand Teton National Park (Jay wasn't feeling too hot). Here I am with the Grand Teton in the background - whatta view!! 

Grand Teton NP

 Lee, Julie, and Jay on Christmas Day

Jay and I had to split up after Christmas Day, he needed to go back to work due to lack of vacation time (I wish we could be like Germany damn it) and I was flying on to New York to see my family (I get loads of comp time in the summer due to the nature of my clammy job). After dealing with a terrifying landing in Newark and then getting stuck there overnight due to cancelled flights, I was very happy to take a train up to Hudson and my parents. I never want to fly United again, they seriously sucked at everything involving the word "customer". I do appreciate, however, that I survived that landing. Having lived through the landing, I had a lot of fun with my family in Valatie! Here I am in the front yard with my mom and the Barber-Just pooch, Lily (Christina and Jackson in the background).

 

My nephew Henry was excited about the snow "ninja" we built - then he ate the nose.

We decided to have an "Indonesian" night so my family could experience the wonders of Indonesian cooking. My mom and dad hit up the local Asian market and got loads of ingredients and off we went! We had gado-gado and eggplant sambal followed by coconut pancakes for dessert. Yummy.

Christina and Sara

 The twins! Henry and Jackson...they have no fun ever.

 Jackson and Julie...learning the ways of the snowball fight! 

 Christina and Julie

While I was still in NY, Jay was back in WA playing with our friends Erik and Britton. They went to Orcas Island and paddled around Eastsound for a while and then hiked in Moran State Park.  Erik sent us this photo of the three of them together.

I flew back on New Years Eve and joined our friends for a fun evening of tapas (too many but man they were good) and cocktails. We all behaved and didn't drink too much because we had big plans to go skiing on New Year's Day at Mt. Baker. So we stayed up until just past midnight and then we hit the hay!

Although we were not greeted with fresh snow, we were pretty damn happy with the view from Mt. Baker Ski Resort....crystal clear skies and the stunning Cascades!

The Baker crew! Kevin, Katie, Britton, Erik, Jay, Kevin, and Julie (missing Shawn!)

More photos from December here: https://plus.google.com/photos/111221596171793333099/albums/5805704987157263361?banner=pwa Scroll to the bottom for the most recent images.

January: https://picasaweb.google.com/111221596171793333099/JanAndFeb2013?authkey=Gv1sRgCPu9kK_B_5LrGw