Email #9 (12-1-00) |
Dear Friends, On November 1st, the U.S. State Department issued a travel warning for Indonesia. They are urging all American citizens to defer nonessential travel to Indonesia. Needless to say, this doesn't give us a warm fuzzy feeling when we are sitting right in the middle of Indonesia. Indonesia is experiencing a major political transition, and unrest and violence have been erupting with little forewarning all over the country. There have been recent bombings in the cities of Jakarta and Medan (both cities we had planned on visiting) and just down the road from where we are now (the city of Yogyakarta), only one hour by car, in the city of Solo, there have been "sweeps" by anti-U.S. groups. They charge into a hotel, demand to know all the patrons who are U.S. citizens (you have to show your passport when you check in) and then herd them up and force them out of the country. Not that everything has been all bad though. We've been having a great time, just traveling through Indonesia going on our merry way. We haven't seen any of the trouble -- just heard about it. A couple of Brit travelers -- who we met on a bus when we were traveling from Lovina Beach, Bali, to Ngadisari, Java -- were surprised we were so carefree about our travels, being from the U.S.. They warned about trouble ahead in Jakarta and the anti-American sentiment we would be sure to encounter. They haven't been the only travelers who have warned us about possible troubles ahead. One traveler told us to tell everyone we are from Canada, but that only goes so far when you have to show your passport every time you check in somewhere. As of yet, we haven't really decided what to do. Even if we decide to just get the hell out of Indonesia, we have to fly through Jakarta. Hopefully we won't even have to leave the airport. As always you can find out more about the trouble in Indonesia (and everything else that's going on with our Excellent Adventure) at our web site: http://www.JoelSward.com And as we said, we haven't seen any trouble and we have been having a great time. Since our last email we spent a week in a really cool city -- Ubud, the cultural center of Bali. We went scuba diving off Menjangan Island, near Lovina Beach in Bali. We have experienced some "real" traveling, going overland through eastern and central Java and we gasped in wonder at the incredible site of Mount Bromo. Where we are right now, Yogyakarta (pronounced "Jogja") is actually a really cool city. We were really surprised to hear about all the trouble that seems to be surrounding us. The "everyday" Indonesian people are very friendly and it's just too bad that this unrest and violence has erupted right now. We would love to stay longer. We will write more soon. We hope all is well with everyone and take care. Lisa and Joel Lisa's email: lisa@joelsward.com Joel's email: joel@joelsward.com Web Site: http://www.JoelSward.com |
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