Pictures:
1. Pam & me in front of the National Monument
2. View of the gardens from the top
3. Lunch
4. Crazy Motorbikes!


Jakarta=Traffic, Lots & LOTS of Traffic

So Thursday night we made it to Jakarta. The flight was short and easy with lots of leg room since we were sitting in the exit row (my sister didn't appreciate the leg room, she was too worried about the responsibility of the exit row!). Some of Pam's workmates and friends picked us up and took us to our hotel room. Another blur (I'm sure I was sleeping), it was pretty late, esp. for me still trying to get on Asia time. The place was a great, think Bed & Breakfast, and the breakfast was very tasty. We ate with 2 couples that are doing missions in the mountain region. They were in the city to get their pilot's license to fly planes (which from the way they told it is halting English and some greasing of palms). Out "host" picked us up bright and early to show us around. (Asians are amazing when they host, they take care of everything for you & you're just along for the ride!) We got a small of overview of the city, it's quite big and spread out. Some things that hit me...traffic (you cannot even begin to imagine it), so many motorbikes (they were everywhere & could pretty much go wherever they wanted), medians with lots of U turns (which caused even more traffic hangups), and squatty potties (the biggest nightmare you could ever imagine!!!!). The squatty potties are pretty much holes in the ground, you don't flush them...there's a bucket of water with a cup that you pour down the toilet and it causes everything to go down, there's no toilet paper, and most of the time if there is a sink, no soap or paper towels. Needless to say it made everything quite interesting. After the overview we went to the national monument. It's a tower with a flame on top, a beautiful way to see a 360 view of Jakarta. The best part was watching the inveiling of their declaration of independence (not sure of the correct name, but you get the idea). I'm trying to get the video up on youtube. I'll let you know when it happens...it was quite the highlight for the trip. The countries indepndence day is coming up shortly, so they were working hard getting the gardens ready for the celebration, but already they were quite beautiful. The city is very interesting...tall buildings next to shanties and crazy smog. The architecture is beautiful, but set next to poverty. An interesting contrast. This was my first experience with the squatty potty (oh yeah, did I mention the heat and humidity with no A/C? UGH!)...hmmmm. The basement held some great exhibits of the history of Indonesia, I loved it but the sister was quite bored so we moved on. Next was some traditional Indonesian food. They brought about 30 plates out to our table, and we got to pick what we wanted off the plates...but...you had to figure out which plates you could buy one thing of and which ones if you touched it you bought the whole thing. The tofu and chicken was amazing...pretty much everything else burned my throat. Did I forget to mention that Asians LOVE hot and spicy..everything comes with some pepper sauce on it. I chugged my guava juice down ASAP and ate plenty of rice. The meal was also cool cause we ate everything with our hands. After lunch, the shopping experience began. Indonesia has crazy amounts of malls and they're all 8 stories tall with 2-3 malls interconnected. We started at the cheapest one, very overwhelming...not stores, just hundreds of booths, in doors. This place was all about the bargainning. The next mall(s) that we went to were a step up. Booths had more space in between and there were actual stores (walls and all). The last mall that we ended up at was the nicest of all. I felt like I was back in the States, with A/C, stores (no booths), regular bathrooms with toilet paper & paper towels:), and great food. The Indonesians were controlled by the Dutch until the mid 1900s, so i got to eat some of my favorite Dutch food...their little pancakes....yumm. So we ended the day on a good note.

Off to Bali...woohoo!