In Reply to: Thought you might enjoy them, though I posted by pPamela on Wednesday, 26. November 2008 at 11:38 Bali Time:
hi pam,
wish I was sitting somewhere nice in indo at the moment, like at a beach on a deckchair in the shade under a palm tree having a few quiet bintangs and eating moon cake, having someone nice giving me a foot massage and watching the world go by ! LOL :))
DREAM ON - ALLAN WAKE UP !!!!!
anyhow, getting back to the mystery about Kodok Rock.
My father in law, budi toOK me for a drive one day out of Surabaya, Java. We headed along a Freeway (jalan toll) 6,000 Rp to use it !
and travelled to the north and west towards the coast in that direction.
Not far from Madura Island if anyone knows this area.
It's always a bit of a mystery travelling with budi, as he speaks very little and broken english, and I am the same trying to speak indo !
We travelled for about 2 hours out of Surabaya, passing Gresik where there are big factories, one of indo's largest cement producing works.
This is also the area where a Australian/Indo mining company caused the BIG mud volcano disaster that has now inundated a huge local area there with mud and water flow burying thousands of houses and everything in its path for many, many square miles !
I can never get used to budi's driving, but he is used to driving in the crazy conditions where everyone seems to be driving around at high speed with no apparent road rules LOL !
I can not relax, I always hold onto to something inside the car bracing myself. He must be a good driver, we have not had a accident - YET !
We then drove past big areas of salt flats from the ocean where the seawater is allowed in then evaporated and the salt is collected.
Then to a T junction, to Madura go to the right. We turn left. Stopped just around the corner at a small roadside vendor and bought some drinks, rambutans and some other small tan coloured furry fruit things ? with a soft leathery skin ! that you crack open with your teeth and eat the white soft flesh inside and spit out the seed !
We, then travelled for about another 45 minutes, passing through several towns. The landscape had changed again, as close in near Surabaya it's fairly flat. Then we gradually got into more undulating and hilly countryside, and later lots of high limestone bluffs pocked with caves I could see.
We got to Kodok Rock, now this is a big LOCAL tourist area with a huge complex built right on the coast overlooking the sea. It is like a big fun park that covers maybe 30 acres or more. Arcades of shops mainly food cafes at the front, then you have to pay to go into the fun area.
Inside are many activities, rides and games etc. both for adults and children. There was even a zoo area in there with live native cats from around Asia !
Down by the beach, there was a lighthouse and a small maybe man made marina bay type beach, semi enclosed from the sea with a breakwater that had a restaurant out there ! People could hire, canoes, small sailing boats etc. to use within this area.
And Budi did show me Kodok Rock !
Not that I could understand him at the time, he was hopping and jumping around and motioning with his arms like to dive into the sea from where we were standing on the rocks???????
Yeah right ! What are you doing Budi !!
So this had to remain a mystery until we later got home and I asked my wife, she said Kodok = Frog. But I still do not know the tradition behind why this place was originally named Kodok Rock.
I never saw any masses of frogs around there committing suicide jumping into the sea !
The closest I saw was a few that had jumped onto a bamboo satay skewer ! LOL :))
anyhow, I had a interesting day out and lucky to get back safely as when on the freeway coming back into Surabaya late that afternoon, OMG ! what a ferocious thunderstorm we drove through. The freeway was flooded with a foot deep of water in places, lightning and thunder going off close all around us !
hope have'nt been boring everyone again, writing this novel here.
Cheers from Allan.