Sawono and Moon, John and Gary's drivers, picked us up from the airport and drove us to The Pakubuwono Residence where John and Pat live. Fairfield, John's company, does not want expats driving here because it is too dangerous. There are no stop signs and very few stop lights. Their driving rule is "Nose Goes". The first car to push in gets to go. At times, you may see cars going one way and motorcycles coming at you in the opposite direction. You also have cars driving on the shoulder of the lanes as well. Jack was super excited about all the motorcycles. He loves watching them zoom by everywhere. They are a very common mode of transportation here and it is not unusual to see a family of four riding together on a bike. The sad part is that it is only usually the adults or only the driver that wears a helmet. It was really interesting checking the city out on our way to their home. Jakarta is a mix of old and new, ugliness and beauty. Driving down the street there are shanties mixed in with beautiful large homes. You'll also see run down buildings and amongst them there will be a beautiful modern shopping center. It is so green and beautiful everywhere. But on the other hand next to that beautiful garden is a wall with ugly graffiti all over it. The vehicles you see driving down the street are very interesting as well. There are many modern cars, but mixed in are bajajs (three wheeled cars) and becaks (a cross between a bicycle and a rickshaw). It is a very different world here!
Market Place
Delivery Service via Motor Bike.
Street Vendors
Bajaj
Becak
You can hire someone to take you where you want to go on a motorcycle. It is like a taxi service and is called an Ojek.
You can see a mix of housing in this picture as well as a couple of Mosques.
John had a wonderful surprise for Pat and me when we got to their apartment. He had made appointments for us to have massages that evening! What a perfect gift after enduring that long flight stuck in one position for many hours. Ratna, John and Pat's live in help, made us spaghetti and salads that evening and we spent the rest of the evening catching up and getting settled in for the next three weeks. It is SO GOOD to finally be here!
At nighttime we heard lots of singing. The muslims here worship at night and the mosques broadcast singing at all hours of the night. Here is a video of what we hear.
Broadcast Tower for the Mosques
Monday morning we got up early and went to the play ground on the Pakubuwono property grounds with Ati, Ratna's daughter. Ati has been helping us with the children this week. Jack especially loves playing with Ati. They had a great time swinging, sliding, and spinning while getting acquainted with Ati. They also loved jumping on the trampoline as well. Afterward, we toured the grounds and resident facilities. The grounds here are so lush and beautiful. You will always see grounds keepers buzzing around like bees making sure everything is manicured. I think it would grow into a jungle if they didn't. There are two outside pools here. One is larger with water fountain elements and the other is a smaller pool that is shallower and great for the younger kids to swim in. There is also an indoor pool that is kept at a warmer temperature. After checking out the pools, we saw the workout facility. Plenty to do in there to burn off all the yummy food we've been eating! Downstairs from the gym, there is a bread store that makes fresh bread and sandwiches, a pharmacy and dry cleaners. Two levels up from there you'll see the spa center and salon. This is where we had our massages the first night. Around lunch time, we came back up and had soup with noodles and vegetables that Ratna made for us. Afterward, the kids went swimming and then we just took it easy for the rest of the day as we were all still adjusting to the new time change. Jakarta is 12 hours ahead of Dallas time so when it is 12 noon here it feels like midnight. The children have had a difficult time adjusting to the time change. They want to be up all hours of the night, and are very sleepy during the day.
Main Pool at The Residence
Hanging around the Playground
Facing the playground from the entrance.
Lauren sitting in front of the pool.
Senyan City
Red Shoe Escalator
Jack liked the transformer cars there.
This was taken at a grocery store. You can buy fresh fish but Lauren wanted to take them home as pets!
In front of the Mall.
The kids with Ati. They love playing with Ati!
It is now the evening of Wednesday June 29th here and today was a super fun day! We got up this morning at 5:30am to get ready to play golf at the Sentul Highlands Golf Club. The children stayed home with Pat and Ati while Chad, John and I played a round of 18 with Gary. Sentul Highlands is located about an hour south of Jakarta. Once you get outside the city of Jakarta, you see what I like to call Dora the Explorer land. Lots of banana and coconut trees, palms, ferns, green rolling hills and volcano mountains. It reminds me of what you see Dora surrounded in on the show. It's amazingly beautiful in the country. I have not played golf in about 4 years, so I was really excited to have the opportunity to play today... especially in such gorgeous surroundings. Each of us had our own caddy which was awesome! Mine gave me lots of pointers along the way. He'd tell me how far to the pin, let me know if I was set up in the right direction and coached me on the lay of all the greens. He even teed up all my balls! I took lots of pictures along the way which I'll upload into the photo stream when I get some extra time. After we finished, we had lunch at the golf club. I ordered fried rice with chicken and vegetables, but I got an unexpected surprise when my plate arrived. I got a side of fried mini fish...eyeballs, fins and all! OMG and YUK! Chad actually ate one which shocked me because he is not typically a fan of eating fish. John told me that in China the eyeballs are considered the best part of the fish to eat. They eat some strange things in Asia.
Chad, John and I getting ready to tee off. The mountain in the background in an inactive volcano.
This is Gary with two of our caddies. He is 6'5''.
Indonesian resident collecting sticks on the golf course.
Chad had a great drive!
Here I am with my caddy!
FORE! Luckily I had my caddy to help find my balls!
Do you see the little guy standing at the side of the water? There were guys like this around the water and rough waiting to retrieve balls for a tip.
This lady was cutting weeds with some sort of hatchet.
Looking toward one of the fairways.
Fabulous day of golf!
My surprise fish on my lunch plate.
It has EYES!!!! Can't eat anything staring up at me!
Tomorrow, we are all flying to Bali for four days. I am really looking forward to spending time on the beach with the family! We pack tomorrow morning and head out around 11am. My next update will be when we get back to Jakarta.
Bali is an Indonesian island located in the westernmost end of the Lesser Sunda Islands, lying between Java to the west and Lombok to the east. It is one of the country's 33 provinces with the provincial capital at Denpasar towards the south of the island.
With a population recorded as 3,891,000 in 2010,[2] the island is home to most of Indonesia's small Hindu minority. In the 2000 census about 92.29% of Bali's population adhered to Balinese Hinduismwhile most of the remainder follow Islam. It is also the largest tourist destination in the country and is renowned for its highly developed arts, including traditional and modern dance, sculpture, painting, leather, metalworking, and music.
From Wikipedia
