Where Are Ron and Ellen?
Indonesia: 30 November 2010 - 15 March 2011
Ron on the road to Geumpang, Indonesia, December 2010
Sarongs for the USA
30 January 2011
Afton, Virginia, USADear family and friends,
Another international business story from Ron, as he tracks down and visits a sarong company for a friend interested in importing sarongs to the US.
I was away this past weekend at a meeting. When I left, late morning on Friday, the heating guys were here working on the system, and as I walked out the door, they told me they hoped to bring it up about 30 minutes from then. When I arrived home at a bit after noon today, I was ecstatic to find the system was running, warm air coming out of the vents, and the downstairs at 68F (20C). The upstairs was still cold, and the system didn't seem to be working upstairs. A while later, one of the heating guys, who lives about a mile away, came by, along with Jeff, our contractor. The upstairs system isn't running because there is a bad relay, which they will replace tomorrow. There is still air in the ~1000 feet of underground piping, and they have an automatic bleeder on the line. Steve had come by to put more water in the line (now that some of the air had come out), will be back early tomorrow morning to do so again, then will go into Charlottesville to get a new relay. So more work tomorrow - but right now the downstairs, where we spend most of our time, is warm - and I'm not having to put wood in the stove. Jeff told me that he had put paper, kindling, and wood in the stove, so if between now and the time they are here tomorrow the system should shut itself down, all I have to do is open the stove and light a match to get the fire started. He is wonderful!
Love to all,
Ellen
To see photos from the sarong factory, click on the thumbnail at the left.
To see photos from Baturaden, click on the thumbnail at the left.
Sarongs for the USA
To see photos from Tretes, click on the thumbnail at the left.
30 January 2011
Jakarta, IndonesiaHello, my dear,
It is past time for a report on the adventure of tracking down sarongs for the USA for Allen H, It was quite an extended search with a few side trips.
After a few days in Yogyakarta (pronounced "Georgia" I began my adventure to track down Allen's home in Tretes when he was a young teenager living with his family here in Indonesia and making contact with the company he wants to import sarongs from to sell on the Internet in America. Getting to Surabaya from Yogyakarta was easy starting with the 00:47 overnight train for about $7.50 first class to Surabaya, which was a comfortable numbered seat. Then a "komuter" train for about 6 stops to the Purbaya Bus Station, a bus to Pandaan and a van bus to Tretes, arriving mid morning. Without his pictures of the home and people he knew, I didn't have much to go on but I had a couple of tips from Allen.
Arriving at the main train station in Surabaya, I wondered around the station looking for a possible source of help to figure out how to get to Tretes. I have learned by now if I know where I want to go then it is easy to get there. But conversely, if I don't have a clear destination, than all those guys with bikes, motor scooters, and taxis who want to take me are useless since I can't tell them where I want to go. Wandering around the station looking for help someone finally pointed to the gate going outside the station and indicated I should then turn right and look for the customer service office, Sure enough, I found a small air conditioned office with a couple of very young and helpful young ladies.
They told me I could take the "komuter" train for about 6 stops to Waru Station then get off and cross the tracks to the Purbaya Bus Station and get a bus to Pandaan then get a van up the mountain to Tretes.
I have developed a simple method of handling the communications about directions when I travel. I take a small yellow post-it note, double it and stick it together so it is a small rectangle with some thickness that slips in and out of my wallet easy. I put where I am starting on the first line, in this case was the train station Gubeng in Surabaya, then the next stop, which was the train station Waru, then Purbaya Bus Station, then the name of the small down at the bottom of the mountains, Pandaan, then Tretes, then finally the name of the hotel Allen remembered called "Bad Hotel".
Now this little slip of yellow post-it note becomes a very important piece of paper. If I lose it I am lost. But with it, it is a breeze to get to where I want to go. I just show it to people and point to the appropriate line and they somehow indicate which direction I am to go to find what I am looking for. People are very friendly and helpful if they can understand the question I am asking. I can show my post-it note to people on the train, at the train station, at the bus station, when I am waiting on the street for a van, when I am looking for the hotel, etc. It works and I have used this system time after time and gotten from one place to another with minimum problems. The trick is getting the names of the transfer points in the first place. But hotel staff are useful, as well as travel agencies.
I arrived in "downtown" Tretes, at least what appeared to be the center of this small town, by mid-morning. It had a bank, a Chinese restaurant, some stores, and hotels. First I wandered around asking for directions to Jako Bungalow, the name of the home that Allen lived in as a boy. I got nowhere with this name. So then I started asking about Bad Hotel [Bad is Dutch for bath] and found out it had been renamed Natour Hotel, which didn't help a lot until I realized that the Natour Hotel had been renamed Inna Tretes Hotel, which I had already seen as the most prominent hotel when I arrived.
So I wandered over to the Inna Tretes Hotel and talked to the men at the front desk, and we were joined by the manager. No one could help with the name "Jako Bungalow" but they suggested a couple of possibilities. I asked about their rate schedule and say a listing for what I calculated was around $170 and an economy rate of around $84. A little steep for me. But before I left the manager offer a 60% discount on the deluxe room and I thought the economy room.
I made a long long walk with my pack around the mountains off the main road following suggestions the manager had given me for possible leads to Jako Bungalow, No luck. Exhausted and sweaty I returned to the Inna Tretes and booked a room for what I thought was $36 but on check out was $42. The room was very large, TV, no air conditioner and no icebox but sometimes hot water. I have often found when rates seem high if I ask for a discount I get a much better deal, some promo that was not listed, Perhaps I could have found a cheaper place but I liked the idea of staying in the hotel that Allen remembered and had stayed when they first arrived. I would say this was the most expensive rate I have paid in Indonesia, especially for the few accommodations provided (no air, no icebox, variable hot water and a poor breakfast). But then this is a resort area - but I cannot understand why other then it is cooler because of the elevation.
Further discussion with the staff at the Inna Tretes lead to the possibility one of their bungalows had been named Jako in an earlier naming sequence, along with the name of the hotel changing twice, But when I checked with Allen he said that was not the case, and the Jako Bungalow was downhill from Tretes along a small creek off of the main road. Twice I made walking trips to try to find such a place, only to be called off by heavy rains. I took some pictures of possibilities to show Allen when I return and maybe he can figure out how close I got.
The grounds of the Inna Tretes Hotel are quite spectacular, with lot of plants, ponds, waterfalls, swimming pool, kids' play areas and gardens, and I walked around taking lots of pictures for Allen while I was thinking one of the bungalows might have been named Jako years ago.
Much cooler with the higher elevation and I have not found out yet if the rains are more or less than I have been experiencing elsewhere. But everyday I experienced lots of heavy rain. At the corner where you turn off of Gunung Ardjuno for the Inna Tretes Hotel there is a Chinese restaurant where I had rice noodle soup with garlic, lime, shrimp, fish balls, and some green vegetable, but not as good as what I ate most days in the little shop in Chinatown, Jakarta.
After a couple of nights of rain I gave up and returned to Surabaya by reversing my little yellow post-it note with no problem At the train station I again consulted with the Customer Service staff and got directions to a cheap hotel and directions to another one I had read about near the station. The cheap one turned out to be unacceptable. No hot water, the door blocked part of the sink when open, the light bulbs were so dim I could not even work my combination locks. No amenities. So the next day I moved to the more expensive Sahib Hotel ($34) and it was like paradise compared to the other.
The first night I found a late night fast food restaurant open in the nearby mall and while trying to figure out the options to order met a useful couple who helped with the communications and we ate together. Cipto was a large computer person working for a big Chinese company and Dian was a petite pharmacist, working in a hospital. Very different from most of the people I meet. He had just returned from a conference in Makassar and had the next day off. We talked about where the company I wanted to visit was located on the map I had bought earlier. He offered to pick me up the next morning and take me there in his car. A new experience from my public transit and walking.
Allen had contacted the Indonesian Embassy and Pisma Group in Surabaya about his interest in importing their sarongs for sale in the US over the Internet. He already has an Internet retail business and this would be a logical expansion of his interest, especially since he still wears his sarongs around the house.
The Internet provided me with their address for their HQ in Surabaya and the next morning Cipto picked me up, first moving me to the Sahib Hotel and then we found the headquarters of Pisma Group. I introduced myself to the receptionist and she called someone else and we were taken upstairs to the main office, served tea, and someone who could speak English arrived and explained the Director of Marketing, Dana, was the person we needed to speak to and he was in Singapore, returning the next day. They agreed to set up an appointment for the next day. I returned on my own Thursday and had a most pleasant visit with Dana and Faried, the Director of Export Sales. They brought out lots of samples of their sarongs, shirts and scarves and offered me all the samples I could carry - but I did not accept. [Note from Ellen: With over a month of travel left, and a single not-very-big pack, samples would be too much to carry.] They agreed to send a full set of samples to Allen and I forwarded Allen's original letter with his contact info to their individual email addresses. (From Tretes I had also emailed them to the info address on their web site which bounced back with the message "inbox is full").
Dana offered to take me to their factory in Pekalongan, a 6 hour train ride west along the Java coast, and we agreed they would pick me up at 7 am on Monday. This gave me three nights to wait, so I decided to visit Madura Island, a place that our friend Brenda liked, and picked a spot called Camplong, central on the South coast. I might have gone further east to Sumenep which might have been more interesting but not along a beach. On looking back, perhaps I should have done so. I enjoyed the people and the beach covered with fishing boats, but the only place to stay, Camplong Hotel with small bungalows, was disappointing, overpriced, and the last night I was eaten by mosquitoes and a rat jumped up on the second bed and tried carrying off my crackers. The place was overpriced, lacked accommodations and amenities, and the restaurant was not good at all. I tried fish, and the only fish they had were very small, so I ordered two and there still there was not much fish to eat. I understand the fishermen are having trouble and are only catching small fish. Seasons? Environmental? Over fished? I have no idea.
At dusk the first day I enjoyed walking way up the beach and talking to the fishermen and children on the beach. The second day I sat on the wall in front of my hotel and there was a constant stream of people who wanted to talk to me in English. And several wanted to take their picture with me. Hey, it felt like I was a rock star. The most amusing was a small boy, I would guess 12 or 13. He sat down beside me and asked me in English where I was from. One question lead to another and we were having quite a conversation before I realized we had a large audience on the beach below and in front of us. He introduced me to his mother and father, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, cousins, etc. I think all his family was amazed at how well he conversed with me and none of them appeared to speak any English. When they left they piled into two large SUVs and drove off. Perhaps tourists from Surabaya, like me spending the day at the beach.
Allen had raised the question about how many people still wear sarongs, which made me more attentive to the details of dress. I had told Allen with the motor scooter generation, it would be difficult to wear sarongs. I was wrong. In Madura I saw lots of people wearing sarongs on bicycles, on motorbikes, walking, in stores, on the beach, etc. When I got back to Surabaya I also noticed more people wearing sarongs, but not the number in Madura, which is a much stronger Islamic culture.
Returned on Sunday and checked into the Sahib Hotel and later I got a text message telling me the trip to Pekalongan had been postponed until Tuesday.
That day Cipto drove me around he dropped me off at the zoo while he did some errands and then took me to the museum of the cigarette plant which is now owned by Phillip Morris. The museum was operated and funded by the Chinese family that owned the cigarette company and reminded me of the Reynolds family in my home town that owned R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. I also spent an enjoyable evening attending the Soviet Circus. I could see the tent from my hotel window. They had all the required acts for a complete circus: performing elephants, tigers, monkeys, clowns, etc. I remembered my classmate Mike who wants to join a circus and wonder if he has made any progress in doing so.
Tuesday they picked me up we all went to Pekalongan by train. They paid for everything, including my lodging at Hotel Niwana, a rather upscale place, far more expensive than I would have booked for myself.
They introduced me to the various staff members running the factory and gave me an extensive tour with explanations. I could take pictures of everything except the weaving equipment, which had some trade secrets from their competition. The factory employed 7,000 people and appeared to be a substantial part of the community. They discussed their upgrading equipment plans and their expansion space. With new equipment they can make more product using less space and labor, so I would assume they could expand their production if Allen makes a big dent in their sales.
They are making a scarf with fringe for the Portuguese and Spanish market, have different colors in their shirts and sarongs for the French market, and differences in various Asian markets, including more white included in some for the Arabic market. Interesting tour and discussion and I was very impressed with Dana, a young guy, 30 years old, who worked for Honda Marketing before accepting this job. I think he would be a pleasure to do business with, and I could tell people really liked him, as did I.
After a wonderful seafood dinner at a local restaurant, I was delivered to my posh hotel for some much needed rest.
I had four nights left before my flight back to Singapore and didn't want to spend them all in Jakarta. On the train to Pekalongan, I did a bit of research on my netbook and decided that I would like a small place, somewhere in the interior mountains which I had not visited, and selected the resort town of Baturaden, 15 kilometers north and up from a larger city Purwokerto. It was an interesting experience but I would not recommend it to others. Cooler, plenty of low cost accommodations, few restaurant choices, and friendly people, the requirements for a backpacker place - but they don't seem to understand about backpackers. And it rained and rained and rained. On the first afternoon I had sought shelter in a restaurant in a large resort complex to wait for the storm to pass. It was heavy rain, lots of lightning and very loud thunder, like it struck next door.
I knew I could catch a train from Purwokerto to Jakarta, and Dana had given me a list of times the train departed. I sort of had the times in my head but failed to realize they were 24 hours time, After taking my time and heading for the early afternoon train, it turned out there was no early afternoon train, but one at 2:40 AM. So I went to the bus station and inquired about buses. No buses until 8, the same time the next train left, so I opted to use the train. Nothing had gone right this day. On the train, I went for comfort and upgraded to Executive Class which the clerk said would be more comfortable. I don't know the story behind the situation, but the train car was loaded with young students, I would guess 16-17 who made more noise than a swarm of locusts - all the way to Jakarta. The young guys in front of me were up and down so often, shaking their chair back and forth. When I got to Jakarta, my hotel was full and I found one nearby, today moving to my regular place,
So I am sitting in my Jakarta, Chinatown, hotel room, with a blaring electronic band playing outside (all day long) with a throbbing headache, frequent visits to the toilet for something I ate yesterday and tired from my travels and lack of nutrition. Not a happy camper. So tonight when the loud band ceases I will curl up with my netbook and continue to read my current book, The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier. And throughout the day I will visit my local Chinese soup shop for a bowl of my favorite soup to calm my stomach, please my palate and make me content.
Love and miss you, your cooking, your company, your taking care of me. Looking forward to seeing you soon.
Wandering Ron
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Last updated: 14 April 2011
