Cape Town with a Baby

Friday, March 16, 2012 , Posted in , , , , 0 Comments

From Cape Town

Some say that 4 months to 1 year is the golden age of travel with babies. Things get more complicated afterwards. Here in Nairobi I encoutered globetrotting babies that gain more millages in 3 months than I did in 4 years working with clients in various parts of a large country. For us living thousands of miles away from home, long haul flight is one of the things that our baby has to be accustomed with. So in the spirit of travel-training, we went to a week-long vacation.


Going There

Flying in by South African Air, we were a bit worried because the aircraft was switched to smaller size due to low occupancy, which meant 6 hours of flight without bassinet. Turned out Danika was quite cooperative, albeit daddy had to do some workout with the baby carrier. The airline was okay, specially the food. Upon arrival at Jo'burg, we were to have a tight 1,5 hours of transit time, which suddenly felt much tighter upon onboard announcement that we had to go through immigration, collect our baggage, recheck the baggage, and move to domestic terminal for boarding the next flight to Cape Town. Quite a night workout running through the airport, but we made it... with half hour to spare. Yey!

We stayed at the Southern Sun Waterfront with a view to the Table Mountain in between the city building. The next day was suppose to be a resting day, but the clear view of the mountain, and hubby's excitement, beaconed. Everyone said when you have the chance to go up, go! Considering the visit to the national park is highly dependant on the weather, that is they close down when it gets too windy. So, since the baby seemed to be quite fine, we wrapped her up good and took a taxi to the cable car ticket booth which at 10am already had some queue line.

The cable car ride was interesting, because it turned 360 degrees around while it sped up. Lucky the little one was sleeping when we rode up because the pressure difference could become some nuissance, as proven on the way back down (one out of two wasn't so bad). Anyway, I wasn't very interested to visit the mountain before we came. Well, it's just a mountain that has a flat top, but the view was great up there. Unexpectedly though, it was very hot with little wind so baby got a bit warm but still tolerable.

After taking a few pictures, we went back to Waterfront for lunch. It's like reminiscing our visit to Sydney with the lively harbour and all. Did a bit a shopping, nothing special... but the prices were a whole lot cheaper than at Nairobi. Too bad the winter was coming, so most baby clothes on sale were too fluffy to wear in the tropics.

The next day we rented a car and a driver for a visit to Cape Point. We were offered a shared tour, but felt it would be more flexible and comfortable for Danika to have the transport for ourselves. It was a very nice drive along the Atlantic seaboard. They say the water was cooler. Didn't have the chance to test dip, maybe a good thing considering it's the Great White turf. It was still the baby nap time so she was quite most of the way.


The 'Saltum' Continued

So based on the previous day's experience, we dressed the bundle of joy lightly. Alas, the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point area was foggy and windy that day. Still, amazingly, baby was enjoying it. After lunch we moved on to the next stop: Boulders Beach, to see a penguin colony. Didn't know the area was so windy the sand from the beach was flown all over the place. Horrible for the baby, we couldn't take her out of the shielded stroller.

Not spending much time there, off we went to the next stop: Access Park, an area full of factory outlets of brands like Guess, Nike, Adidas, Lee Cooper, Levi's, etc. I got a pair of Levi's jeans retailed at R650 for only R300. Funny thing was the jeans were made in China and originally intended for sale in Indonesia (with Indonesian labels and everything).


Going Back

The next few days we just lounged around the city and prepared for the journey back. Danika was a little more accustomed to flying on the way back so things got easier. Maybe a longer flight next time won't be a problem, hopefully :)

Vacaaayyy...

Friday, March 02, 2012 , Posted in , , 2 Comments

Buat saya yang selama 4 tahun "tour of duty" hampir tiap bulan, 7 bulan ga ke mana-mana itu rasanya ada yang hilang. Terakhir nyempetin ke Lombok waktu hamil 5 bulan pas mudik saat break kerja suami. Sebetulnya Februari lalu jadwal break lagi. Banyak yang udah minta kita mudik lagi biar bisa ketemu si bayi. Tapi Februari itu Danika baru 2 bulan... belum settle. Tiap nidurin malem aja mesti "berantem" dulu. Kebayang terbang+transit 16 jam, pindah 4 time zones, terus baru 2 mingguan balik lagi. Apalagi kabarnya di Jakarta lagi musim penyakit. Lah, bisa-bisa mesti stay di sana sendiri nanti kalo sampe sakit & ga bisa terbang. Lagipula, kayanya lebih asik kalo pas ketemu dulur-dulur, Danika udah bisa interaksi lebih banyak. Jadi ditundalah mudiknya sampai beberapa bulan ke depan.

Nah, setelah 3 bulan kita mau latihan bawa bayi terbang sekalian liburan. Cari tujuan yang ga terlalu jauh. Sayang Eropa masih dingin, jadilah kita menuju mentari di selatan. Bertahun-tahun planning jalan-jalan yang adventurous & budget-friendly, sekarang kudu family-friendly alias nyaman buat bayi. Yah... naik balon udara, biking dan teman-temannya ditunda dulu, deh *menerawang sambil menghitung waktu sampai bisa jumpalitan lagi*.

Meskipun namanya latihan, di benua gede ini tetep aja waktu tempuhnya lumayan panjang sekitar 8 jam. Untungnya si kecil satu ini bukan anak rumahan, malah seneng kalo diajak keluar. Mudah-mudahan nanti ga terlalu rewel di perjalanan. Yang susah, mamanya yang excited ini seminggu sebelum berangkat jadi susah tidur. Jadilah nyari ngantuk sambil nulis blog :P

So, tunggu aja cerita liburan pertama Danika nanti ;)
Wish me luck!

Danika's Hello World

Monday, January 16, 2012 , Posted in , 5 Comments

I am not one who floods my friends' timeline with baby photos and activity updates because I realize not everyone likes babies. Not to mention the potential misuse of my child's pictures in this digital age. However, surely this journey into motherhood deserves a mention in this log.

Much to my relief, this kid has been so good to her mother. The absence of morning sickness, followed by a relatively quick normal delivery and so far no troublesome allergies... I recon the first week following birth was much tougher. It was just the two of us, my man and I, gritting through every fussy cry, relying on doctor Internet to make sense lots of it :) My mom came to help for about a month after that, but looking back, I'm kinda grateful for that one week of the three of us learning about one another.

Nothing much to report at the moment. The little thing just feeds, poops, and if we're lucky... sleeps all day long, basically. Some goo-gah when she feels chatty. She just began to be aware of her surrounding, meaning getting easily distracted. I just hope for strength to continue to keep up with this little princess.

It's the people you meet

Friday, August 19, 2011 , Posted in , , , , , 1 Comment

During the 2 years I lived in one of my home's neighbouring countries, I had to constantly explain to people there that Indonesia is much more than Java and Sumatra (and yes, that includes Bali). Now, tucked away in a corner of Africa, it's a surprise every time I meet a person who knows my country well enough to greet me with "Selamat pagi". None of that "Never been to Indonesia but stayed in Bali for a few weeks" bull. It's more towards "Worked at Arcadia for a few years, the rain-drenched traffic was hell. Had monthly visit to a factory in East Java, that Lapindo thing is terrible, huh". I even met a local who studied in Surabaya for 3 years. Can't even resort to Javanese to talk about the person with a fellow Indonesian in front of him :P

Maybe it's the different people I meet, used to be mainly young students compared to grown ups nowadays. Maybe it's the different places, like the more exotic the location is, the more seasoned people with broader knowledge come there.

First First Trimester Bonanza

Saturday, April 02, 2011 , Posted in , 3 Comments

  • Don't eat raw food (okay..)
  • Don't travel (which is fine if you can enjoy the glitz & glamour of the city.. wait, where am I?)
  • Don't go near wild animals (riiigghtt... I'm in Africa. Why do people come here again?)
  • Don't exert yourself (there goes swimming, bowling, and whatever left of the things keeping me entertained)
Entering week 9 now, I'm fortunate to have no morning sickness and still have enough strength to climb up 5 levels of stairs to my apartment. Aside from the occasional mood swings and unbearable laziness (which may not be related to my condition), everything is all right. Considering it is, after all, the ultimate reason to have hubby consoling to my every needs :)

Ice, Monkeys and Elephant Poo

Saturday, March 12, 2011 , Posted in , , , , , 1 Comment

There are several things to be the first casualties of the climate change, thus need to be savored before they are gone. Amongst them that are in my list are the atolls of Maldives and equatorial ice caps. Blessed to be smacked in a place less than a day driving from the vicinity of the great Kilimanjaro, it just seemed fitting that a visit is in order. However, since I have no confidence whatsoever on my body's ability to acclimatize to the mountain's altitude conditions, I chose to appreciate it from Amboseli, a small national park at the Kenya-Tanzania border. The trip also concurred with my other mission of making the most of my East Africa residency, making it way cheaper to enter the national parks as compared to tourists.

My husband and I got a 2-night road package from a tour operator who used to cater the Indonesian Ambassador travels. We were picked up in the morning and embarked on a 5-hour drive to the park.


The Mountain

It was around mid day, about 2 hours away from the park gate when we caught a glimpse of a white plateau in the midst of light clouds. Naturally, we went tourist-crazy going ooh-aah rampantly clicking the camera. The backyard of our room at the hotel had a view of the mountain top, but an obscured one unfortunately. Looked like they tried to avoid the animals from having a clear path to the visitors' room. So when we went out for the afternoon game drive, we headed to the Observation Hill for a clearer view.

Amateurs and impatient we were because it turned out that the view would be clearer in the morning game drive because the clouds only started to form around mid morning. The winds were chillier in the morning though, and my wrongly-dressed partner wearing only T-Shirts was already huddling inside the van during the drive.

Lucky the clouds cleared up a bit that afternoon and somehow made the view a little more melancholic. From above, the melted-snow swamp at the foot of the hill also looked amazing. It's like watching the movie Earth in super high definition.


The Monkeys

"Make sure you close the screen door, otherwise the monkeys will get in." - a hotel porter's message when we got to our room.

Living in the wild, even inside a human establishment area, means that you share space with the locals, in this case mostly monkeys and lizards. The lizards most often just sun bathed on some rock the whole day. The monkeys, on the other hand, wanted to get to know the visitors. The hotel employs a few men from the local tribe, Maasai, to clear the perimeter but some were bound to sneak in once in a while.

The door to our room's backyard was a double sliding panels, a screen door on the outer side and a lockable glass one on the inner side. The porter seemed to have underestimate the intelligence and perseverance of our long tailed fellows because one time a mother carrying her baby sled open the screen door and slipped inside. My menacing yet hesitant manner (hey, she's showing her teeth.. and I had vivid memory of the movie Outbreak) didn't seem to do much intimidating as she scoured the trash bin for food. A friend of hers even followed inside before my hero finally responded to my screaming and came out of the bathroom to do the rescue.

On another encounter, I was sitting alone in the lounge overlooking the savanna when one curious monkeys joined me at the table and snatched my mucus-drenched tissue (suck it, you ugly ape!).


The Game Drive

There were not as many animals to see in Amboseli compared to other popular national parks such as Maasai Mara. We saw plenty of elephants (alone and in herds), zebras, wildebeests, hyenas, ostriches, gazelles, birds, and hippos. Curious to find some lions, we spent the second day morning and afternoon drives screening the bushes looking for some cats. Not an easy feat. I guess that camouflage skins work well. I would've been really stressful if I were a zebra, with the possibility of fangs and claws springing up from any bush.

Near sun-down on the second day, just before we return to the lodge, our driver suddenly sped up after hearing something from the communication radio. I couldn't tell what it's saying as the conversation was in Swahili. A few minutes later we arrive at a spot with safari vans and jeeps lined up on the road side. People were looking at a spot in the bush and after much fumbling with my freebie binoculars, there was a movement of a black-white striped tail. A mother cheetah, followed by her two young kids. The mother soon disappeared behind a bush though she took her time walking, not as shy as I thought she would be. The kids, however, seemed to appreciate the crowd's attention, lounging on a dead branch in clear view.

All in all the game drives were quite fun. Staring at herds on wide open space, the occasional whirlwind sending little cyclones of dust high into the air. The dust was not really disturbing, until I saw drying piles of elephant poos all over the place. It's wild, baby!

Into Africa

Tuesday, February 01, 2011 , Posted in , , , , 1 Comment

"We came to see the gorrillas."
- American lady to Kenya's immigration officer.

Some cringed when I told them I'm moving to Nairobi. What the heck will I be doing in Africa? One even listed down all the bugs carrying diseases that I should be aware of.

Others got excited and even hated me for going to such an exotic destination. Of course, it's the center for safari, an activity that seems to fascinate many people. Kenya also has lakes and 2 highest mountains in Africa among which one being the member of the world's seven summits (the top is across an international border, tho'). Perhaps I'm not really a nature lover, but how'd those differ from the safari parks, lakes and mountains I've visited?

Call it the magic of air travel, but even after 15 hours covering the vast distance, even with a very different population welcoming me, it didn't feel that drastically different from home. Probably the similar climates have something to do with it.

Maybe I should explore more to have higher appreciation on the continents.

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