Marigold and its enemies

As a pastime, we decided to grow some flower plants in front of our house in Oleander. Most people here have a gardener. We did not hire one since we planned to stay here for short time. We bought some plants from a nursery in Pekanbaru, friend Mila sent some seeds of Cosmos flower from her garden and I bought some Sunflower & Dahlia seeds from Carrefour. We also got some yellow Hibiscus plants from a nearby house. Adi & vrush watered them daily & these plants started flowering in 3 months.


These flowers attracted butterflies & bees, Adi used to enjoy the sight every morning. There were lot of monkeys around, but did no harm to these plants. The real threat came from wild pigs. These wild boars roam around freely inside the camp at night in groups. Couple of times we spotted them very close. They dig the ground, looking for earthworms. Few times they even dig the lawn and uprooted our flower plants.


We found a new enemy when we planted some marigold plants. We raised these plants from the seeds we bring from Medan, north Sumatra. We planted them in three places in our yard. Every morning, I used to watch the growth of these plants. After a month or so, when these plants were about 6 inches long, I noticed some strange development. Suddenly these plants looked like someone stepped on them. I could also see some fresh leaves chop down on the ground. I suspected this is done by some kind of bugs or caterpillar on the plant but nothing was visible. This continued & in few days, few marigold plants lost all leaves & could not even stand straight.

I became cautious and decided to solve the mystery before this happen to other plants. At night around 10pm, I went out with a flashlight to see what’s happening with Marigold plants. Generally no one ventures out of house at this time of night in Oleander; it may happen a wild boar may charge on you from nearby bush. It happened with me previously when we were staying in Iksora Complex, it was at around 9pm, after dinner I went out with my bicycle to have a round to the complex since the weather was cool & there was moon light. Just behind our house, I saw some movement near the flower plants; I thought it is a rabbit. With curiosity, I got down from the bicycle & went near the plant to have a closer look. Just then I heard a loud scream & saw a huge wild boar charging towards me. Within a split second I was on my bicycle, peddled like hell to reach home. Thank god it did not chase me till home. It seems I misunderstood piglets to rabbit and the mother boar, charged to me.

When I flashed the light to marigold plant, I noticed the movement in the plant. Being extra cautious, I went closer to see what causing movement. I could not believe my eyes, there were 4 - 5 big snails! They were eating the marigold leaves as if it is a tasty food. Some of them even climbed the plant to mow the leaves! Vrush and Adi stood by surprise too. We were expecting something, some bugs, but not snails. I always thought snails are harmless. Here, it looked like they were determined to destroy our marigold plants.

I hand picked these snails, & throw them on other side of the road, towards jungle. Still it was a mystery for me, why these snails try to eat only marigold leaves. Later I searched in internet & found out some very interesting fact. Marigold plants have a strong smell. Because of this smell, generally bugs do not eat marigold plants. People grow marigold in vegetable plantations just to keep the bugs away. However, Snails & Slugs gets attracted to marigold plant because of this smell. They like this smell & these plants are tasty food for them.

After reading this, I noticed there were slugs too. There were 7 – 8 slugs feasting on marigold plants. Somehow we removed the slugs too & throw them away.

I also got some information in internet on how to save the plants from snails & slugs. Most famous one was the ‘beer trap’. Snails & slugs easily get attracted to a bowl of beer kept near the marigold plant. They drink the beer and could not get out from the bowl. Next day morning, these can be easily destroyed.

I had few cans of Heniken at refrigerator but did not like the idea to share it with snails.

Next morning, my Indonesian friends gave me few other ideas like spreading rice husks around the plants. Snails cannot crawl through such sharp objects. However I preferred to eliminate them, by picking them & throwing away, as this provided enough excitement for Adi too. Every night, just before Adi goes to bed, we get ready with our flashlight for snail / slug hunt. We are quite successful in our efforts too; marigold plants are grown almost two feet long now, may bare flowers any day.

A day at Riau University

One of my team member, Kasman Arifin, is doctorate in economics and also visiting faculty in Riau University. One day he told me he is planning to invite me to university to speak on something. I thought he is not serious & accepted his invitation.

Few days later, to my surprise, I received a letter from University of Riau, inviting me to be a guest speaker on an event organized by Economics Faculty English Club. I had to speak on subject “English is essential for job seekers”.


I got little nervous. Although I did training in JDE many times for number of people, this is something different. I am going to speak in front of large crowd, in a stage, without help from PowerPoint slides. When I do JDE training, half of my power comes from these slides. Apart from this, there was no time for preparation, since I got this invitation just a day before the event.


Kasman informed me there would be around 50 students. I just prepared a chit with the points which I need to speak & kept in my pocket. Saturday morning, Kasman came to pick me up. Vrush & Adi wished me luck, as if I was going to appear for some exam.


Kasman has a nice car. I complimented him on having such a posh car. He said it valued Rupiah 850 million. That’s huge money (around 42 lakh Indian Rupees). We went to his house first to pick up his son. I saw a very old model of Land Rover parked in his garage. Kasman said he bought it in 1984 & it is still working fine. Two expensive cars..Kasman must be very rich guy. His father worked for Indonesian Army.


It took almost an hour for us to reach the University campus. The Campus was huge, with lot of greenery inside. A group of students greeted us with smile. For most of them, I was the first Indian they met personally, so naturally they showed lot of interest on India, Bollywood & especially Shah Rukh Khan.



I think I did a good job on the stage. I speak for almost one and half hour on the subject, without looking at my chit. I was successful keeping the students engaged till the end. There was a question – answer session after the speech. That was really a interesting discussion. Some students had the opinion that they don’t need to learn English to get a job in Indonesia. They defended their statement saying all the popular books, magazines, movies etc are translated to Bahasa Indonesia so they don’t need to learn English at all. I was able to convince them that now world is a global village & they have to compete with people outside Indonesia, not just within Indonesia. English is the global language & they have to master it to achieve this.




The organizers rewarded me with a token. We took some photographs & students dropped me to the camp. It was a memorable event, thanks to Pak Kasman.

Lake Toba

Lake Toba is the most popular tourist destination in Sumatra. It is a massive lake, biggest in South East Asia, with 100 by 30 kilometers in size. What makes it unique is the island in the middle of lake, called Samosir. This island itself is as big as Singapore. Lake Toba is created by eruption of a Supervolcano some 75,000 years back.

People in Lake Toba are ‘Batak’s & most of them are Christians. I found Batak’s are not as friendly as people in other parts of Indonesia. They speak in a loud voice, do not greet us or smile at us, a total contrast to Java / Bali or West Sumatra people. I heard cannibalism was in practice among Toba Bataks previously.

Lake Toba was in my list of places to be visited since 2003. Only reason why I did not visit till now is the difficulty in reaching this place. The closest airport is Medan. From Medan to Lake Toba, it takes 4 hours by car. Distance from Pekanbaru is around 750 km, but with not so good roads, it takes about 15 hours by car to reach Lake Toba.

I made up my mind to visit this place during Idul Fitri holidays. My Indonesian colleagues advised not to travel by road, saying it is not safe for me to travel that long with family. Friend Dodi arranged flight tickets, hotel reservation and a car with English speaking driver in Medan. Entire deal came in for a high cost since it was a high tourist season due to Idul Fitri holidays.
We travelled by “Lion Air” from Pekanbaru, as suggested by my friends. Only two airlines fly this route; other one is “Sriwijaya Air”. I preferred the former, though probability of safe landing is same in both the airlines, chances of flight delay or cancellation was less in Lion Air since they have a bigger fleet.

We met our driver Shamsher in Medan airport. To my surprise, the car was a Kijang Innova, pretty new one with air-condition in working condition. Shamsher was good at driving but had a great difficulty in speaking English. He apologized many times for his inability to speak good English but still continued to speak in English, even after I told him I could understand Indonesian. Throughout the journey from Medan till Lake Toba, he commented on almost everything visible.

By the time we reach Lake Toba, it was 7pm & already dark. We could have had a beautiful view of sunset if we would make it 30 minutes earlier. We checked in at hotel Niagara in Parapat area.
Next day morning, we went to Samosir Island using a car ferry. It was a huge ferry, carried 35 cars at a time. We paid Rp 100,000 one way per car. Passengers travel for free. It takes an hour to reach Samosir by car ferry. Whereas passenger ferry takes less time & have more frequent trips.

Ferry docked in a place called Tomok. First, we went to see some Toba houses and a museum. Shamsher insisted us to see a dance show by Toba people. The show did not impress us at all. Not that I was expecting it to be of same standard with Bali dances; imagine how this dance was, looking at the show Aditya asked me “daddy, what they are doing?” Though there were few western tourists, who enjoyed the dance very much.

After this, Shamsher drove us to couple of tourist interest places. One of them is Ambarita, we could see Kings Courtroom of stone chairs and an execution stone, where convicted are beheaded. I questioned Shamsher on the Toban cannibalism, he said it was in practice, but they used to eat only outsiders & enemies, not people from same group or village. He was quite proud to say that.

Then we went to a place called Tuktuk, which has many resorts & shops. The resorts here are really nice, each resort is open to the lake & guests can directly swim in the lake. I inquired; these resorts are inexpensive too, compared to the hotels in Parapat.

Lake Toba is beautiful, water is crystal clear and the outside temperature is very cool. Samosir has some picturesque landscapes. Most of the hill area is not occupied by people & offers ample opportunity for trekking, climbing etc. We did not try to explore more, since Vrushali injured her feet in a motorcycle fall few days back, hence avoided long walks.

Next day, on our return from Parapat, we took the scenic Brastagi route to Medan. We can travel along with the lake on one side and have a glimpse of many villages on another side for almost 2 hours. On the way we stopped at a place where we had a last view of Lake Toba & a stunning view of waterfall on other side. We got stuck in traffic after Brastagi, which took almost 6 hours to travel from Brastagi to Medan, in normal days it should take just 2 hours.

We stayed in Medan for one more day, visited Hindu temple, had Indian food & purchased Indian groceries, which is not available anywhere else in Sumatra. We returned to Rumbai, tired but with beautiful memories of Lake Toba.

The pictures from this trip can be viewed by clicking below link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/vinushetty/LakeToba

Bike to work

Within a week of shifting to Rumbai, we bought two bicycles’, one for me & vrush, the other for Adi. The camp is the best place to ride bicycle, especially in the evenings. A visit to all the complexes within the camp in a good speed would take at least one hour. A Good exercise for the body as well as mind.

Chevron made it mandatory to wear helmets while riding the bike. It was not as easy to find the helmets in Pekanbaru as we find bicycles. Especially the helmet for my size. They were expensive too.

Although I used to ride the bicycle every evening, I never thought I will bike to work. I was happy with the bus service. It all started when Bintang (one of the oleander resident) got highly influenced by new “ 10k a day” policy. (Chevron gave pedometer to all its employees. Pedometer counts the steps when you walk & people are encouraged to walk at least 10,000 steps a day).



He started this topic in the bus & said he is going to walk to office starting next morning. The entire discussion was in bahasa & I saw many others nodding their head. When Bintang approached me, I said I will also join them. That would be a good 30 minutes walk. I did not have any issue to walk; except the fact - I had to wake up 15 minutes early every morning.

Next day morning I was ready at 6:20am, even before the stipulated time. There were only 16 houses occupied in Oleander, so I was expecting around 5 – 6 people to join for walking. No one joined except me & Bintang on the first day. We walked in a good speed, which made us sweat after 15 minutes. Since I was carrying backpack, my back was completely wet by the time we reach office. I saw Bintang, his condition was no better. He said, we will walk only 3 days a week instead of everyday.

Next morning, in bus, people started us asking about the walk experience. We said it was great. I think they knew it before, what will happen when we walk to office in the morning. My doubt turned to reality when one of them asked me “did you sweat or not?”
On the third day, it was hazy in the morning. So we decided not to walk. That was the end of “walk to work.”

Two weeks later, we found Budi, another Oleander resident started going to office by bicycle. Again Bintang got influenced by this, similar discussion happened in bahasa in the bus & as usual, I nodded my head. Next day morning, we 3 were ready with our bicycle.

Bintang had a 10 year old bicycle. It had unique looks. He said the company which used to produce this bicycle has shut down 6 years back. Still, it was in good condition.

I liked the idea of bike to work more than walking. There were few good things like:
a. I did not have to wake up earlier. We decided to start when the bus pass from our house.
b. It was ok even if I was late by 3 – 4 minutes. Earlier, bus would not wait for me.
c. I had the freedom to return to home any time after office hours, without waiting for bus / taxi.

It was a hit & we continue bike to work till now. There are times when 5 – 6 people used to bike from Oleander, which used to spark curiosity among people from other complexes.

However, vrush was not happy with this, since I was keeping the bike at office whole day. She could not use it during the day. So when she put on some weight, she blamed it on my “bike to work”.

Temple Eating Tree

“Daddy, is that tree eating temple?” Adi questioned when we saw Ta Phrom Temple & the huge tree on top of it.

Ever since I visited Borobudur in Yogyakarta, wanted to see Angkor Wat in Cambodia. Angkor Wat is the world's largest Hindu temple. In fact, no other Religious Structure (in any religion) of this big size exists anywhere else in the world. There are many temples in Angkor area, built during 8th till 12th century by Khmer Kings. The whole Angkor area was abondoned after being sacked by Thai's in year 1431. It was covered by jungle for almost 500 years. In 1908 it was accidentally found by French. We could visit only few temples, one Shiva (Banteay Srei), one Vishnu (Angkor Wat) & two buddhist (Ta Phrom - 'Tomb Raider' fame & Bayon with giant stone faces) temples. All are in ruined state.

Actually this has no relation with Indonesia, except, we made this trip from Indonesia and after I posted the pictures of Cambodia in Orkut, many of my friends asking me details of Angkor temple, how to go there etc. I thought it is a good idea to put the details in one place, which can help all who wants to visit Angkor. This is how this post got a place in my blog.

Flight: The airport is Siem Reap. There is no direct flight from Indonesia to Cambodia. There are direct flights from KL, Singapore or Bangkok. We went via Kuala Lumpur. It’s 2 hours flight from KL. From Bangkok, it is possible to go by road, crossing border.

How many days: 2 - 3 full days are enough to see all the main temples. One having archeological interest may need more than 3 days.

Main tourist pullers: Angkor wat, Ta Prohm, Angkor Thom & Bayon, Preah Khan, Banteay Srei. The first 3 temples are must see.

Accomodation: Hotels are cheap; we stayed in a 3 star hotel, for just US$35 a night (City River Hotel). Hotel was good but breakfast, there was no vegetarian except eggs (if one consider it as veg) & fruits. The hotel was better than the 3 star hotels in Kuta area (Bali).

Transport: We hired a car, $25 a day, including fuel & driver. Tuktuk’s (auto rikshaw) are available for $12 a day. From airport, prepaid taxi till hotel is just $7. It takes 20 - 30 minutes to reach Siem Reap city center.

Visa: Cambodia visa can be obtained thru internet (e_visa) before entering or can be obtained on arrival at airport. Visa fee $20.

Exit tax: Exit tax while leaving Cambodia is $25 per person. Childrens only 50%. I wonder why they charge more to get out of the country than get in.

Entry fee for temples: To visit temples, we need to obtain the pass, one day pass costs $20 & three days costs $40. Childrens - free.

Guide: Only certified people are allowed to work as guides. Fee $25 per day.

Food: Local food is cheap, Chinese & Thai food is available everywhere. We had Indian food there, costs around $8 per person per meal. We liked Currywalla restaurant, run by a punjabi. Food was very very good, but the ambience was not that good. There are 4 - 5 Indian restaurants around Siem Reap.

Currency: Currency is Rial (1 USD = 4000 Rials), but USD is accepted everywhere. We exchanged only $20 in the airport & could not spend all of it & bring it with us as souvenir. Note - it is better to carry USD in cash, since it is difficult to find ATM's in Siem Reap.

Language: Many people in Siem Reap can understand & speak English.

Shopping: There is nothing much we can buy compared to Bali or Bangkok. I was looking for miniature of Angkor wat but did not buy since the good one was very expensive. We visited the Old market to buy souvenirs, disappointed to see most of the items were imported from China or Thailand.

Season: Best months to go Nov to Feb. June to Oct is rainy season, humid but still ok. Better to avoid March – May, I heard it’s very hot.

Click the below link to see the pictures of Cambodia. I added comments on most of the pictures for easy viewing.

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/vinushetty/CambodiaAngkorTemples

Biawak

In evenings, we often walk around the camp, mostly within Oleander complex. Two rounds to Oleander would take 40 minutes and bring sweat out of us. We generally finish this walk before 6:30pm, before sunset. Especially Vrush avoided such walk since one evening we heard some strange sound of animal from jungle, while we were walking on the other end of oleander where most of the houses are unoccupied. We suspected this sound must be of tiger or some big bear. Next day, when I told about this sound in office, my Indonesian friends voted for tiger & also told me not be worried, since there is lot of wild pigs available for tigers to feast, so they may not try to eat humans!

Though we never seen any other animals in camp except monkeys, wild bores, snakes and huge lizards, we are sure there are other wild animals live just few meters away from us, outside the fence. When I was here in 2004, someone spotted a tiger inside the camp. In 2006, an 8 meter long python was found sleeping in a garage of one of the house in Jati complex. In Duri, there are instances of herds of Elephants visited the camp at night. Despite the massive deforestation for palm plantation, there is still large area of dense rainforest, housing these animals.





I heard a lot about the Komodo dragons, which are big monster lizards, live in Komodo Islands of Indonesia. The smaller version of these is seen in Sumatra & sometimes even inside camp. These are called “biawaks”. One evening, when we were walking around Oleander, we saw such a biawak. Its head was inside a big hole, it was trying to dig it deeper. Generally these biawaks are very shy & run away on seeing humans. This time it could not see us till we go very close. I went home to bring camera, took some pictures without disturbing it.

I think it may be laying eggs on that hole previous night. Next evening when we went there, the hole was leveled with fresh soil.

Weekend shopping at Pekanbaru

Every weekend, we visit Pekanbaru to buy things which are not available in Commissary. Actually the true reason for this trip is to get out of the camp to see the real world, new faces, have outside food and to break daily routine. Vrush does her shopping for cloths & Adi looks for his toys / books. We generally use pool car & travel with other friends like Sanjay, Bharat, Rajesh & Tony.

Generally everyone’s preferred place is “SKA Mall”, which is the biggest mall of Pekanbaru. I prefer to visit “Pasar Bawah” (traditional market). Friend Devi introduced me to this place in March. This is a roadside market, spread across two small lanes. Typical to the ‘bazaar’ of any small town in India. We can find the things which are not generally available in other supermarket (Eg: Okhra, coriander leaves, freshly grated coconut etc). Also we found the vegetables & fruits are very fresh here, lasts longer compared to the ones bought from supermarket / Commissary.

I found this a great place to buy fresh fish / prawns. Specially the Pomfret ‘s (known as “bawal putih” locally) & king size prawns are very good. The price is cheap compared to Mumbai. Lately I am a regular visitor in this place, I made friendship with some vendors & get a good deal (I believe) every time.

Some of my colleagues got surprised to know that I visit Pasar Bawah regularly, since expats generally don’t go there for shopping. They were concerned about my safety. However, I never felt unsafe in pasar bawah. Instead, I feel like I am in my home country.

Trip to Duri

During my project, many times I had to visit to Duri, since most of the users based in Field. By road, it takes 3 hours from Rumbai to Duri. We often travel by helicopter too since it takes just 20 minutes flight from Rumbai to Duri. Chevron Chopper flies between Rumbai and Duri twice a day.

Previously the entire region between Rumbai to Duri was rainforest. Now most of it has been cleared (by burning the forest) and converted to Palm Plantations. All we can see from the helicopter is ocean of Palm Plants for miles & miles. However, we can have a glimpse of Rumbai / Duri Camp on take off & landing.


















Flying in helicopter is more fun than airplane. Since helicopter flies very low, one can enjoy the beautiful landscapes. We can also see how pilots control the helicopter.


If any expat traveling by company bus, or by car after 4pm, it is mandatory to travel with a armed guard or police. Since I am an expat here, this rule applied to me too. However, this caused un-necessary delays few times.

For me, Duri is no fun, except the food court. They serve variety of food there, not just Padang food like in Rumbai food court. Duri Camp is much bigger than Rumbai and look lively with many people moving around.

Pramono’s Papaya farm

Promono, who is a member in our Procurement team, owned a papaya farm near Rumbai. Someone in office told me that he is the biggest supplier of papayas for entire Pekanbaru region. He also owns three fruit shops, named “Pondok Papaya” around Rumbai.

We planned to visit his farm one day. Since it was quite far from camp, we went with Kurniawan’s car as he was going to visit papaya farm on some personal business.

We started around 10am on a Saturday morning. It was a long drive, on a very rough road. It was a mud road with lot of pot holes. In between, road was not visible & all we can see was water. We also crossed couple of wooden bridges, where there was no side walls & only one vehicle can cross at a time. Kurniawan had a hard time driving.

By the time we reach Papaya Farm, it was 11:00am. We had a warm welcome by the caretaker family of farm. They served us with banana’s, aqua & some local snacks. We enjoyed the treat & went for the tour of farm. Pramono guided us & also gave lot of information about papayas & its cultivation.

The hosts served us fresh papayas to eat. They also offered us few papayas to take home. It was a nice trip, thanks to Pramono & Iwan.

Please click the below link to see the slideshow:
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/vinushetty/PramonosPapayaFarm/photo#s5194195680009861122

Or below link to see the pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/vinushetty/PramonosPapayaFarm

Friday Dinner @ Oleander 129

Every Friday night is the party time at Oleander 129. In fact this tradition started when we stayed in Somerset (Jakarta) itself. We used to call our Indian friends to Apt #1026 for dinner together. Vrushali cooks all the food by herself, except fish or chicken, which is done by me. All our guests also stayed in Somerset, so it was easy to co-ordinate. Our shopping for day to day cooking has been done from Carrefour, which was right across the road.

When we moved to Oleander in Rumbai, things started changing. We did not have easy access to some basic items, like vegetables, fish etc. Everything we had to buy from Pekanbaru during our weekend visit. The commissary inside camp had very limited supplies, especially for Indian cooking.

When Raju uncle came to stay in Camp (he moved to Indonesia from Kuwait in February 08), we started having a variety of food for our dinner. Aunty used to bring 2 – 3 tasty dishes every Friday.

Jackfruit & Monkeys

There was a jackfruit tree in my neighbor Mey’s (Oleander 130) backyard. The tree bears few young jackfruits too.





One day, while returning home for lunch, I saw a big monkey eating a raw jackfruit in the roof of my house. It must be from Mey’s jackfruit tree.

In afternoon, we discussed how to save jackfruits from monkeys. Friend Devi suggested covering the young jackfruits with a red color polythene bag, so that monkeys won’t touch them.

That evening I collected few red polythene bags from my house & Mey bring few from her's. We covered almost all Jackfruits.

Other day, I found a half eaten raw jackfruit in the road in front of my house. Later Mey informed me that few jackfruits inside red polythene bag have been disappeared.

Our trick did not work. Monkeys are smart.

Indonesian Wedding

During my entire stay in Indonesia, I attended only two Indonesian weddings. There were few weddings which I could not attend due to project activities. Some important ones I missed are – Robert’s wedding & Riska’s wedding. Both were my team members in Jakarta project. Another important one is Risna’s sisters wedding.


Interestingly, both the weddings I attended were in Rumbai. First one is Junaidi’s sister’s wedding. Junaidi was caretaker of Iksora 128, where we used to stay before. Vrush & Adi were not in Rumbai that time. I attended the wedding with Olly. It seems they invited me only for the reception. When we went there, the bride & groom were standing in a room & with gaudy cloths. Bride was looking very beautiful, with a crown in her head. The room also was decorated in similar fashion. I think it was a West Sumatra style wedding. Most of the women wearing kebaya & men with batik shirts. Outside, there was a buffet lunch. In a corner, there was a band, performing in a small stage. It was a lively show; a pretty girl singing with a good body movement, few people were dancing in front of the stage. It was hot outside, we quickly finished our lunch. I told Olly to hurry up & leave the place before someone invites me to sing “kuch kuch hota hai”.


















The other one was our maid, ibu Ema’s niece Rini’s wedding. We knew Rini personally since she was working in Commissary. This time Vrush & Adi were with me. There is nothing to explain more as everything went exactly same as above.



I am really looking forward to attend a complete Indonesian wedding (not just reception). Hopefully my wish will come true soon, when Risna gets married.

Spider in the backyard

Last evening I spotted something unusual in the pot where we planted chilly plant. When I had a closer look, it was a spider.








It had very long arms & was just hugging the pot from outside.




I just remembered, couple of months back, after coming from school, Adi started itching his thumb. When Vrush asked, he said a spider bite him when he was climbing the mount near school ground. We neglected it that time, however, later I came to know that spider bite can be dangerous too.

Backyard of Oleander 129

We could find almost all the required vegetables & spices here in Pekanbaru except two items: the curry leaves & coriander leaves. Curry leaves are not seen anywhere here, however, sometimes we could find corriander leaves in traditional market in Pekanbaru. Couple of times we bought Parsley leaves thinking that it is coriander. Both are so identical. Once we thought we will tell our maid (Ibu Ema) to bring coriander leaves since she know the place well. We often tell her to bring fresh grated coconut, which is not available in any supermarket. We showed her few coriander leaves previously we bought from traditional market & asked her to smell it so that she will not mistaken it for Parsley. She nodded her hed confidently that she could find it. Next morning, she came home with a big smile on her face & a big bunch of Parsley in her hand.

Tired with all these, we decided to grow corriander on our backyard. We knew that monkeys won't eat coriander leaf. I bought a bag of compost from Makro & spread it over in backyard & sow the fresh coriander seeds. Adi & Vrush watered it daily. I was confident, the seeds will sproute in 3-4 days & plants will evolve in the soil in a week. Nothing happened. Adi & Vrushed stopped watering after 15 days. We thought may be the seeds were too old.

I took this as a challenge & searched internet on how to grow coriander. It was easy & no different than what I did, except, some people suggested to sow the coriander after breaking it by gently rubbing by hand. It was interesting comment by one guy, that growing coriander in house will lead to unhappiness & fights in the family.

This time i tried to grow it again, as per the instructions from web & with brand new seeds. However, Vrush did not show much interest this time. She was happy there was no signs of coriander plants even after 10 days.

As our last try, I planted the fresh coriander plant which we bought from traditional market. It did not survive.

Finally we gave up our plan to grow coriander & decided to grow something else. Friend Mila sent some seeds of vegetables from Jakarta. We sowed them again in the same place. Unfortunately, it rained heavily that night & continued to rain for next 4 days. We thought everything washed away in the rainwater. To our surprise, we could see few small chilly & tomato plant emerging out of wet soil. We carefully took them out and planted in two different pots.

The plants grow fast as Adi watered them daily. The first flower in tomato plant was so exciting for him. Within few weeks, a smally chilly appeared in chilly plant too.

Durian - King of Fruits

Last week I bought a Durian from Pekanbaru. Although I heard a lot about this tastiest fruit of South East Asia from my Indonesian friends, never dared to eat because of its notorious smell. This time, I managed to convince Vrushali to bring home one, with a condition of not bring it to the living room.

A durian vendor in Jl. Sudirman, Pekanbaru.

Myself & Adi decided to open it & eat it in the kitchen.

Adi could not eat even one spoon of durian. He cried loud while eating as if someone beat him.

I could eat only half of it.

Vrushali did not come to kitchen till I clear everything.

The fruit was creamy and tasted like ice cream. Vrush said I smelt Durian till next day.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durian