Another Sunday Funday!

Our entire group was in the lobby at 5:45am. Being Sunday it was Car Free Day from 6-9am. Today was the second day of our Community Service and we helped with Cancer Care on the Wheel - which is the launch of a mobile app to help with cancer care.

Cancer Care on the Wheel kicked off with aerobics – which a few people from our group participated in. Then, there was a welcome by the CFO from IBM Indonesia. The CSC team was all introduced and came up on stage. This was followed by a “parade.” I rode in a pedicab and held a TemanKankar sign and flag.

At 10am most of our group left by charter bus to go to Tawangmangu Falls about on hour southeast of Solo. However, due to traffic it took about two hours to get there. On our way there we stopped to get fruit and chips for a picnic at the falls. Once we arrived at the falls we had a long walk down a road full of stalls of food and souvenirs. There were also horses taking people up and down the steep hill. At the entrance to the falls there was a ticket booth. Anim, from GlobalPyxera, our partner for CSC, came with us and she negotiated ticket prices for us (foreigners have to pay significantly more than the locals) While we were waiting for her we watched the makak monkeys who were quite aggressive. One even stole an entire bag of fruit from a lady and fought off other monkeys so he did not have to share. On the first part of the walk down and the last part of the walk up there were a lot of monkeys, but they thinned out as we got closer to the falls. As much as I love animals I was glad to get away from them.

There were over 2000 steps going down and up from the falls. I think this means 1000 each way. The way down had steeper steps and was a little difficult on my knees. The way up was harder cardio but the steps were shorter and wider. We stopped to take a few pictures on the way down. One the way up we stopped to catch our breath.

While at the base of the falls several of us climbed the wet rocks to get closer to the falls. The closer we got the more slippery the rocks were. I probably got about 20 feet from the highest point before I decided the safe decision was to stop. It was cool and misty.

Before leaving the falls we tried some rabbit satay and roasted sweet potatoes that have honey in the middle of them. Other things we had to eat were the rambutan (prickly fruit), mango, jambu (small apples), crisps, and some other kinds of dried root vegetable. Before leaving the falls we had a picnic at the base. It was a good time hanging out with each other and taking time to enjoy the atmosphere more before making the long hike back up.

Our next stop was Bale Bronti – a restaurant and rice paddy field. We took a few pictures in the paddy and then went to a tea plantation. We took lots of pictures at the tea plantations. I was surprised at how solid the trunks of the tea trees are. I guess I expected something more like a bush or a vine. From the plantation we went to a small shop where the family processes tea leaves and sells three kinds of tea. She invited us all to sit down in her shop and she brought out three of her four teas for us to sample. They were pretty good, but I did not buy any – although many people did. We then returned to Bale Bronti for dinner.

The ride home only took a little over an hour. I visited with Anim and we talked a lot about the Indonesian and Muslim cultures. Donnacha is really good at thinking of interesting and informative questions to ask. We arrived back at the hotel a little after 9pm - tired and happy. It was a beautiful, fun and interesting day.

#IBMCSC #CSCIndo8 #IBMIndo