A SHORT BUT MEMORABLE ADVENTURE IN PUNCAK, INDONESIA

My wife & I had actually returned to Singapore from Indonesia on the late afternoon of 22nd December 2009, but I was immediately inundated by two major project appraisals initiated by my good friend, Dilip Mukerjea, which required my expert contributions, & if realised, would likely pull me out of semi-retirement.

As a result, I am late in filing my visiting report in this weblog, & am also behind schedule in writing my daily blog posts.

Owing to the extremely warm hospitality of my good friends & gracious hosts in Indonesia, Alexander K Taslim (or Alex for short) & his wife Santi, my wife & I had a jolly good time in the large country.

As a matter of fact, Indonesia is the world's largest archipelago straddling between the Indian Ocean & the Pacific Ocean, commanding some 1.9 km of area, & comprising some 17,500 islands.

[By the way, of the ten largest islands in the world, three are located in Indonesia, namely, Sumatra, Borneo & Papua (formerly Irian Jaya)]

With a diverse population of some 250 million people, Indonesia is also the world's largest Muslim nation.

Out of the six days, my wife & I spent three days in Taman Safari Indonesia, but we didn't get to visit the exotic animals.

Alex, whom I had known since the late nineties, had specifically requested me to observe & evaluate his 3-day residential outdoor adventure camp for kids, age 9-15.

Originally trained as a sales & marketing professional, Alex has turned himself into an educator-trainerpreneur in the last fifteen years or so. He now runs a conglomerate of small businesses that are tied somehow to children's education, comprising Superbrain, Sempoa (Abacus), Global Art, Sakamoto, English Language course (with Dr Gerry Knowles from UK), & others.

Staying at the Safari Lodge, 34 kids were put through a series of indoor as well as outdoor adventures under the watchful eyes of 10 resource persons, led by Master Trainer Alex. In fact, his entire family was there: wife Santi, sons Victor & Josef & only daughter Alice were part of the logistical team.

Interestingly, 17-year old Victor, a graduate of MindChamps in Singapore, was debuting his trainer personna for the first time.

The camp curriculum was relatively well-structured with short lectures, video presentations, fun games, group exercises, & debriefings, plus an outdoor adventure involving a mountain trek & rope courses.

Nonetheless, the primary focus of the residential camp was to impart lessons on bravery, trust, breakthrough, self-belief, self-motivation, leadership, family bonding, & attitude of gratitude to the kids.













Surprisingly, the weather in Puncak was relatively warm in the day, but in the early morning hours, it was quite chilly.

From my personal perspective, the highlights of the camp were:

- the 3.5 km mountain trek, during which I fell down unexpectedly three times due to the slippery slopes & rough terrain & luckily I didn't injure myself; [Interestingly, Puncak means "The Peak"]

- the outdoor adventure, with gravity-defying rope courses like Flying Fox;

- the cooking contest;

- the candle-light journaling session (during which the kids got to read love letters from their parents, & in turn they had to write love letters to their parents);

- the fire-walk over burning ember;

- the parents' closing ceremony, during which the kids had dedicated a beautiful song & dance routine ("Aku Besa" or "I Can") to their parents.

My wife, being a very sporty person, had also participated actively in the outdoor adventures.

I must say that the parents' closing ceremony was the most memorable part of the entire event in Safari Lodge.

It was really heart-warming to see many of the kids who came forward, with mike in hand, & choking with tears & emotions, apologised to their parents for their "misdeeds" & promised to turn around to be better kids. I also noted that many of the parents were overwhelmed with tears rolling down their faces, as they moved forward to hug their loved ones.

I could see that the 34 kids truly enjoyed themselves at the 3-day residential camp.

Alex, Santi, Victor, Josef & Alice, & the logistical team led by Irene, as camp coordinator, & Rudi, one of the other trainers besides Victor, certainly deserved the full credit.

In fact, I would say that Alex & his family had unwittingly served as a model of excellence to all the kids & their visiting parents on the last day.

As for me, I had shared a powerful visual planning tool, called PERT CHART, with the kids through Irene & her resource persons. I had spent a couple of hours coaching the team on how to teach the tool one day before the camp.

I was gratified to see all the kids enjoying themselves while building their own personal PERT CHART.

The PERT CHART as designed by me for the kids is actually my playful variation of the original PERT CHART as conceived by the US Navy during the 1950's. I will write more about it in a separate post.

At the end of each camp day, Alex, his family & the entire logistical team stayed back, often close to midnight, as I ran through my professional evaluation of the camp performance with them.

Back in Jakarta, in Alex's 4-storey office building located in the Karawaci area, & together with Alex, Santi, Victor & Irene, we reviewed in detail the 3-day camp performance for the last time, highlighting those critical areas that needed improvement.

Prior to the meeting, I even went through a short but structured meditation routine with Alex & Santi in the Pranic Healing Centre located next door. The centre is also owned by Alex.

To round-up the meeting, we also had discussed some potential business projects, which would need my expert contribution in Jakarta.

[Meanwhile, my wife took the opportunity to drop into a nearby bakery, owned by Santi, to learn how to make Indonesian cookies, using Santi's special recipes.

In Jakarta, we were put up in a grand & cosy place, The Aryaduta Hotel & Country Club, located in the Karawaci area.]

On the last day prior to departure for Singapore, Alex & Santi brought my wife & I for Christmas shopping in a large shopping complex. We managed to grab some good bargains at a Nautica fashion boutique.

We even adjourned to a popular coffee joint in the shopping complex to savour Kopi Luwak, after I had told Alex about its influence on me from the movie, 'The Bucket List'.

The coffee was expensive all right - almost S$12 per pop, but I certainly like the fancy & elaborate preparation, as you can see from the digital snapshots.

Taste-wise, Kopi Luwak was somewhat bitter & lighter.

On the whole, despite the short stay, my wife & I had a really great time in Indonesia. She even brought back some of the Indonesian cookies she had made.












Incidentally, Alex is also the author of 'If You Want to be Rich, First be Rich', published (in Bahasa Indonesia) in 2005. Urged on by his wife Santi, Alex is contemplating writing his second book, & I have volunteered to be his storyboard guide. We have mutually agreed to tap Bali as his writing sanctuary probably in January 2010.