Day trip around Jakarta

We went around Jakarta today. It was fun. We went to the biggest Mosque in Indonesia and the third biggest in the world. It holds 200000 people inside and out. It's really an impressive yet simple building. There was an old drum that they used to use for call for prayer. They use recording of which I am actually currently listening too. 

Signs pointing to Mecca. 

We also went Kota Tua (old town) a section of Jakarta. It has an old square with performers and different events and some shopping. We had some Indonesian food all of which were really good. We saw some kid eat glass. He looked like he was probably 5. It was insane. I am not sure what the significance was. It wasn't really that cool to watch. There were some other kids who were jumping over people. It was a little more impressive. Rey also had giant puppet looking things. There is a puppet museum in that area as well and apparently you can still watch puppet shows. The museums were all closed because it is Monday which I guess is a thing here. 

We also went to the port. 

We grabbed some dinner. I finally had chicken satey with peanut sauce. It was really good. Maudy has been really nice to take us around the way she has. It's been nice having someone who knows the area. 

Tomorrow is New Years and ithis last year has kind of been a mixed bag for me. Some really hard and challenging experiences and some that were beyond incredible. They have all helped me shape who I am and who I am becoming. I am excited for 2014 it's got a really bright outlook with probably more change then I saw this last year which is pretty terrifying. I look forward to it though and appreciate all those who made this last one memorable. 

Beaching it

6:30 came early but we are on the way to the beach. Traffic sucks but I am not driving. It's been cool driving through the island. We drove past a lot of rice fields. It's really green in the area. 

Mosque on the way to the beach

We got to our hotel and got checked in. It's right on the ocean and there is a pool that has a view out into the Ocean. 

Playing on the beach

We went to the beach today and it was nice. The waves were nice. We rode boogy boards and swam. We also laid out on the beach. It was sunny and hot. We then went out and grabbed some lunch. We had some really great seafood. Grabbed some ice cream in our way home and headed to the pool. 

We ran to the pool and on our way had a bunch of people ask to take pictures with us. We went to the pool and there were a couple people then a few minutes later it was so full. Brandt started doing flips and cannonballs and the kids loved it. It was really fun. It was fun hanging out in and by the pool. One guy had me hold their kid while they took pictures and kept calling me Jerry. We get a lot of hey mister as well. 

We an enjoying a really nice sunset now. It really is beautiful. I guess there is crackatoa in the background. You can see it from where we are staying. 

Brandt

From the front porch of our hotel. 

Yesterday was a pretty laid back day.  We drove back to Jakarta and did some shopping. The malls here are rely huge. We had to

Book a new hotel and then we went and watched the Hunger games. We went out last night. They had live music which was mostly Indonesian with a few covers. It was fun.

Not sure what the plans are for today. Maudy has been really good about just showing us around. 

Seafood lunch near the beach

Indonesian people are really friendly. Try love to talk to you. It's usual just hey mister. It has been really fun talking to so many people. 

Christmas abroad

Its Christmas Eve and I am at the movie theatre listening to Mariah Carey all I want for Christmas. We are going to see 47 ronin. Nui said she wanted to see it so I proposed we go watch it yesterday and she was all for it. We bought tickets and for 4 tickets it was just under $11 and the theaters here are really nice. Yet another reason to love Thailand. 

Today I hung out with Mae. She doesn't speak a lot of English and is always going off in Thai knowing I have no idea what she is saying. The funny thing is most the time I can figure out. She is pretty good at charades. It was fun. I really love the family. I am kind if sad to be leaving in just over a day. I am excited to see new things but they have made it more than comfortable while I was here and I have no clue what I would do if they weren't here. 

I will get to see them again briefly in about 10 days again as I will be meeting up with Jared in Bangkok then flying down south to climb. 

It's Christmas Day and I just got some doing my shopping. Talk about procrastinating. It's been a low key Christmas. Woke up and played on my computer until I got to talk to my family this morning. It was good to talk to and see everyone or at least those I got to see. Then we went out and did the shopping I needed to do. Smiley helped me get gifts for everyone. Then smiley and I got Christmas massages and are headed for suki for dinner with the family. I will give them gifts after dinner. 

Tea after the massage. You wear fisherman clothes when getting massages. 

Dinner was great and we got Swensens after. It was a great Christmas. It was nice being with people I love. Tomorrow is Indonesia. 

Christmas dinner

Indonesia

I am sitting on a plane waiting to fly to Indonesia now. I am meeting Brandt again which is good. It will be fun to catch up with him. I feel like I have missed out on some adventures. I look forward to some new adventures. I really enjoyed being with Mae and family. Certainly a slower pace then what I am used to but it was nice and I really needed the time to recover.

Reunited and it feels so good. Met up with Brandt. Well actually had a rough time getting to that point. I took a cab from the airport which dropped me off at the wrong place. Then I had to take another taxi to my place. I met Brandt at the hotel then we went out to grab some food. Prices are good here. We grabbed a huge meal for $1.50 which is 18000 rupiah. Talk about monopoly

Money. I took 1.5 million rupiah out at the airport. 

View from the balcony of our hotel. 

First meal in indo. 

The trash filled river by our hotel. 

Nice sunset over the smog filled city. 

Tim tam slamming

Brandt met a friend through couch surfers that took us all over today named Maury. She has been really nice. She came and picked us up and we first went to a place called mini Indonesia. Kind if a cool cultural area. Indonesia is 17 thousand islands and each area has their own culture. So this kind of showed some of the culture within the different sections of Indonesia. It was cool. We mostly just checked out the buildings. They also had a bi pond and in the pod were islands that were shaped to represent a map of Indonesia. 

Pond with map of indo in the background 

People who wanted pictures with us

Tribal Statue 

Magic castle

After that we grabbed some lunch at a nicer restaurant. It was good. Then we went to the zoo. Which was fun. We got to see hippos so I was pretty stoked on it. 

A few things about Indo. They drive on the left. They are 90% Muslim so five times a day we get to hear the call to prayer. It's really cool. Apparently they like taking pictures with bule (white folks). We had quite a few people ask to take pictures with us.   

It's been fun trying to remember the language. I remember really random words. I remember more than I thought I would but it's so far from

Being conversational vocabulary it really is pretty useless it's fun though. 

Jakarta is a huge city and we are in west Jakarta which isn't really the nicest part although our hotel is quite nice. We keep being told that we are far away from everything so tomorrow we will either stay at the beach we are visiting or we will move more centrally. Probably closer to southern Jakarta. 

Tomorrow is going to be an early

Morning. We meet up at 6:30 to head to the beach. 

We ended up at a few malls getting Brandt some sandals. This mall had a cool Lego display. 

Wat Arun

I feel like I have seen quite a bit of Bangkok, but I had yet to go to Wat Arun so I decided yesterday that would be on the agenda. It was fun. To get to there I had to take a taxi the subway to the sky train and then I had to switch trains and go to the pier. From the pier I had to take a boat to the stop and from there I had to take a boat across the river. It was quite the adventure, but went really smoothly actually. It was good to get out and wander a bit.

Wat Arun is really close to the Grand Palace and Wat Pho. Its right on the river. Its really pretty, but I will let the pictures show that. Wat Arun is a really tall structure and you can climb up to the top. To climb to the top you climb these really steep stairs. People were so nervous on these things. It was pretty funny to watch. After that I headed back home. I discovered that their popsicles for the most part are delicious so I had 3 yesterday. I kind of have one of those addictive personalities maybe.

 This was the 2nd  Christian Church in Thailand

 Wat Arun

 Big Buddha's aren't real common in Thailand.

 Here is somebody real nervous on the stairs.