With Kris & Lianne to Banyu Biru ~ Internment Camp where Nick had lived as a child during the Japanese Occupation

Kris & Lian wanted to see the Interment Camp that Nick had stayed at as a young boy with his mother & sister.  So we took them there to show it to them.  Kris is a elementary school teacher in Holland and when he finishes the work he was called to do here in Indonesia for a year - he & Lian will return back to Holland and return back into the classroom there.  He wanted to bring back some "Dutch History" to share with the kids.  Kris & Lian have had some instruction in school about the Dutch colonial days but it is so far removed for them....but being here in Indonesia and seeing still so much of these days gone by...they were especially interested to know more.  

So off we went
to the now Police Academy in Banya Biru which is just a 30 min ride from Salatiga.  We entered onto the grounds and drove to the post gate and was welcomed by many officers there.  We received a warm welcome with many kind handshakes!  One of the officers remembered Nick & I when we had come the previous time about 2 months ago.  They were willing & able to take us through to share it with our friends...but could we please come back at 3:30 pm?  Oh yes we sure can!  Lianne has learned to speak fluently in the year she has been here.  Everyday she went out with her church friends into the villages to help and so she spoke so well...and was definitely our translator!  Way to go Lianne!  The officers were ever so pleased to have this Dutchie speak so well...and we were proud too and thankful!

So yes...we will be back in a few hours then!  Let's go to Bandungan and we will show the restaurant there we have enjoyed a few times?  Kris & Lianne said "yes" and so off we went for a good 40 min ride up the mountain..into Bandungan.  Oh how I love to drive these small towns...and this time I joined Nick on the bike and took pictures along the way.  Lianne too rode with Kris.

We climbed higher in elevation and then came to the restaurant...it was almost 2 pm by this time ...so it was very quiet there...we were the only customers...!  
 

This voice started talking to us and we looked around....

We enjoyed sitting on the terrace and had a nice lunch. We so enjoy their company and had a great time just chatting about this and that - 



when lunch was over it was time to head down the mountain again back to 

Banya Biru!  

We arrived there close to 4 pm and the guards were ready and willing to give us a tour...and we GOT ONE!!!!  A GRAND tour! The officers brought us to the buildings that were from the

  Dutch era. 
 






 
 
 

Here is a video clip we found on YouTube about this very camp in  Banyu Biru click on this link ~  A Video Clip of the Same Camp Told by a Canadian-Dutch family member

Kris and Lian appreciated the walk around.   We were escorted by 3 friendly officers. 

 The building Nick & his family was in was #10 -

 

 
 Kris was asking  questions and Nick was sharing as we walked through the grounds~
Of course Nick was very young when he lived those years with his mom, sister and also his older sister and 2 kids - but he told Kris a bit about how it all came about & what took place after the war and how the women & children were taken into Salatiga to a hotel called Berg en Dal and then were brought to Solo for 6 months, and then was brought to Semarang and then to Jakarta by boat to Holland...well it was interesting for Kris & Lianne to hear about it especially from someone who had actually experienced it!


 
 I said to Kris...now go in there behind the bars...your classroom will get a kick out of their teacher behind bars!














 
 It was good for Nick & I to see it again...and to be able to share it with our Dutch friends!  Beppie could not join us for her daughter has just arrived home from Holland! 

The Academy was preparing for the arrival of 400 new female cadets ~

On the way to the restaurant while riding  through Ambarawa - we turned off to show them the old Train Station and Dutch Locomotive museum - but it was still closed and the sign  said "renovasi" in Dutch...renovation! 

 The old trains from days gone by...so much history...can you imagine these big trains being brought by boat??????

 Such a beautiful ride...how I love these sights!

 We always get such friendly smiles along the way! When waiting at stop lights you are standing right next to the people and they always give a friendly greeting and say "mister mister"

"Selamat Siang - Mari!"

Oh Yes one final thing to share....Kris & Lian gave Nick a gift...it was the very hotel we had been looking for in Solo (Surakarta) a town about an hour from here...but now we find out it was actually here in Salatiga!  It goes like this:  when the war had ended all the women & children were taken out of the camps by the Red Cross and brought to a place which Nick remembers to be a hotel..."BERG en DAL" (meaning mountain and valley) he actually thought this hotel (again he thought it was the next town Solo!) ..but it turns out this very "Hotel Berg & Dal" was right here in Salatiga!  In the center of town is a big department store called  Ramayana and that is the very location where this hotel had been!  

The family had been brought there for a few weeks and THEN they were taken to a larger building in Solo before being brought to Semarang and then by train to Jakarta and then boarded a ship called "Slooterdijk" to Holland.  

When our friends, Kris & Lian came over our house - they gave Nick a t-shirt....and Nick was shocked to see the name...on it!  What? Berg en Dal???  Kristian & Lianne told us their friends gave them both a going away gift and when they went to Kawan Kitchen one evening Beppie saw their new t-shirts and said  "That is the very hotel Nick has been trying to find!!"   

Kris and Lian didn't know that...but they quickly went to the store and purchased one for Nick...how sweet is that!  Oh we are so loved and blessed!

Wow...so' the mystery is solved!  Just 3 weeks before we leave Salatiga....Hotel Berg & Dal was right here in Salatiga and this was the hotel the family was brought to after being released from the camps in Banyu Biru!  How special that all these things have come be for us!  
Tempo-doeloe BERG EN DAL

Again ~ we stand astounded how the Lord has directed our steps: we have traveled & seen & done many things and came to settle here in Salatiga where Nick lived as a little boy and his mother had a bakery at home ~  and of all places we came to settle here for the last 8 months...in a kampung....getting to know the people around us and receiving their kindnesses and friendship....it has been ever so' special to us both!  

We have been blessed with many special neighbors and many friends - it has been a wonderful time of  "reconnecting" and also planting new roots as well here in Indonesia!  

 

Our hearts are full of love & thanksgiving for the country of our parents ~

GOD Bless Indonesia!

A Few Days to Find My Fathers Birth Town - Jepara, Kudus & Dawe

Just got back!  On Monday, we hitched a ride with Elisha to Semarang.  We had a dentist appt at 2:00 pm - and Elisha was going to Semarang to do some shopping for the restuarant Kawan Kitchen.  We sure appreciated that offer!  He dropped us off at the Ibis Hotel close by the dentist office.  Elisha went off and then a little bit later we joined him for lunch!
Right outside the restaurant was a man cutting up fruit...and so Elisha ordered a few dishes for us to snack on!  Nice...& refreshing!


We met Elisha for lunch and then back to the hotel to brush our teeth and we walked over to the dentist office!



All went well at the dentist. Dr Andre finished his dental education and degree in Stockton CA! We were in good hands with Dr Andre! no fillings Yeah! He also did the cleaning - so we were done and out of there in no time at all! Great!  That too is done before we leave and continue on our with our travels next month! 
 

We had heard about this restaurant that was in the Dutch colonial 

area of Semarang...called Toko 

Oen - from the outside it looked dark and even seemed to be close for the day.........and so we decided to have dinner there ...and it was well worth the effort! The atmosphere was especially old Dutch and they offered kroketjes & poffertjes too...and of course our favorite Gado-Gado!  They even had a very old cash register with "guldens" written on it!  (the Dutch currency at that time!)




The plan was to travel to the town of Jepara and then Kudus & Dawe...about 2 hours east along the coast.



So the next morning we checked out - found a taxi driver to take us and off we went right after breakfast.  We decided to go first to

Jepara a little coastal town on the northern part of Java ~ a place that is known for making furniture.  People seem to come from all areas of Java and elsewhere to buy their furniture here.  We stayed one night in this little town

...and walked in town a bit to look around....

Nick took a panoramic picture of this wall....

It says "Go ahead and color Jepara"

The Center of Jepara.

This elderly lady is selling drinks in town...

Just before it began to get dark...we took a becak ride to the beach (pantai) it was about 2 km or so~

- just to check it out.

 Pantai = Beach

 A kingsize turtle ~

 Overlooking Jepara from our hotel room. 

The next morning we hired a taxi driver for the day.  He would take us to Kudus & Dawe and then bring us to back to Semarang again...so we could get another taxi to bring us home to Salatiga. 

 So the story continues:  The town where my father was born is  called Dawe in the district of Tjendono.  We first went to Kudus (Dutch colonial spelling was then Koedoes) to look if there was any buildings left over from the early 1900's where my grandfather worked at the sugar plantation.  The information we have was that it was called "Tandjoeng Modjo"  Our taxi driver that we had hired for the day - stopped at a sugar factory that was still in operation called "Rendeng"  Gosh I was all excited...hoping they could lead us to the Tandjoeng Modjo....the guards seemed so sure when they gave our driver directions.  They "seemed" to know what we asked for...just a little ways ahead they said.....but our driver either didn't understand the directions or.....

When we got closer to the area we came into a "desa" village which had a similar name to it...are we getting closer???? 

The driver stopped again to ask some local people there...but regretfully no one knew - of this sugar factory or name...but they did point us out to

2 Dutch colonial homes still standing.

  We stopped to take a picture.  

It was hard to communicate - our driver knew what we were looking for...but all the generation of people are of course all younger...you really need to find an very elderly person that might remember from the past.  The taxi driver received a call from his office and I guess they had done a little research to help us too - the taxi driver handed us the phone and an English speaking person on the cell phone said that the sugar plantation "Tandjoeng Modji" was torn down and the property was sold and divided??!!!! Gosh so hard to accept...we had come so far???????  

I guess I was glad to have a picture of these two old Dutch homes ~ and it was right in the middle of the sugar fields!  We had to accept that this was it...there had been a  "Tandjoeng Modji" but torn down some time ago. 

Well we decided to go on and drive to Dawe, the town higher in elevation where Pappa had been born.  So the driver again asked directions and off we went up the mountain...on this very small single lane road to Dawe...we think it was the back road to this town...because we did a whole lot of driving way up into the mountain side and then down again. 

Down into a valley and then we connected with a larger road again towards a town.....

....and there it was....Dawe! 

 We drove through the smaller town of Dawe - I have no address of course of what house he was born in ~ But just seeing the signs of the town was already special for me!

  We drove through little kampung's & desa's and adorable landscapes with tiered rice paddies...tiered into the mountain side!  The ride was so nice...although a bit tight in some areas (if you know what I mean$%^&*@??????) Finally we came to a little town...and wonder how far my grandfather would have had to ride his motorcycle/drive to go to work at the sugar factory?  To us it seemed like quite a ways!!!! Did he work during the week there and come home on weekends? 

Dawe was a cute town... 

On December 22, 1914 at 3:00 pm my father 

Johannes Albertus Marinus Baidenmann came into the world in Dawe at home, in Java district Tjendono.  

I found this on the internet and I wanted to share it with you all!  It is in Dutch but really neat to see anyway!

Family "Baidenmann" Indonesia Registered archive 

This Link is pretty neat to read....it names all my family on my father's side...neat to see all those "Baidenmann's" (my maiden name!)  My Opa was from a family of 10 children!  His father (my great grandfather) had come to Indonesia and married my my great-grandmother (who was also Indo) and had the 10 children.They seemed to all be in involved in the sugar plantation business.

My Opa & Oma : 
Johannes Willem Jacobus and mother Alida van der Veer (also Indo!) registered the birth of my father in Kudus~

Ronnie & Maralin (siblings)  "I truly wish I could have done more...but it was hard to get anymore information.  Language especially made it harder.  But I had the information written down and they could read it and believe me - everyone tried to be most helpful!  It was just a very very long time ago...I guess you could say 100 years ago....gosh!  But it felt good to do what we could - and seeing again the area where Pappa was born and how much he loved it here......it made it very special to have done what we could!  Opa (grandfather) did move on to other factories in the town of Purkwokerto if you recall (blog & pictures!)  where Nick & I have also gone and taken pictures.  This town was close to the town Banyumas (where Nick's mother was born!) ...well Ron & Mar - this is our father's family history....and we can be proud of that huh?....you betcha!" 

We told the driver to head onto Semarang again...and so we arrived back in Semarang around 2 pm.  Stopped at the mall to have some lunch and then Nick went out to find  Blue Bird taxi (they have meters)  to drive us on to Salatiga! 

It has been a nice 2 days tracking a last link to finding our Indo heritage....and it feels so good to do!  I feel more connected with my father....and feel especially connected with my Dutch Indonesia heritage...and proud of it!  YES!