13 January 2013
Jakarta
We arrived in
Jakarta at about 1:30am on January 10. The workshop put us up in a nice hotel
in the center of the city. On the first and second days, I went off to the
conference while Grace and John explored Jakarta a bit (John is our friend from
Madison who is currently taking a break between jobs and traveling the world
for several weeks). The workshop was a lot of fun and I met several interesting
people with whom I’m looking forward to keeping in touch.
On Saturday, January 12, all three of us did a little bit
more exploration of Jakarta. We went to Kota Tua, or Old Batavia. This is basically the part of the city near the old
port where there are some old buildings and museums. We walked around for a
while here, then walked a few blocks over to an old bridge that used to be the
center for trade hundreds of years ago.
We grabbed a meal
in Café Batavia, an old colonial building, and then watched a group of street
performers (Videos: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4). Grace also rented a bike to ride around for a few minutes. Next, we
did a quick tour of the Museum Wayang, which featured an amazing collection of
shadow puppets. We caught a cab home before the rains started in the afternoon
(it’s rainy season here).
We just arrived
in Yogyakarta after a beautiful seven-hour train ride. We saw beautiful rice paddies and lush green mountains during the trip. It was hard to capture
it by camera but I have some blurry photos below. We’ll be here for about
two-and-a-half days and are meeting up with three more friends from Madison.
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| one of the buildings in Old Batavia |
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| all based around a big square |
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| dozens of Indonesian high school students asking for interviews to practice English |
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| many vendors renting bikes |
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| walking to old bridge |
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| students sketching the bridge |
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| old trading bridge |
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| sketching the bridge |
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| heading back to the square |
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| lunch at Cafe Batavia, built in early 1800s |
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| more interviews |
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| more interviews |
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| musicians performing for other entertainers |
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| fire breathers as part of the act |
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| and more interviews... |
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| blurry view from the train to Yogya |
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| some of the many rice terraces we saw |
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| lots of elaborate irrigation |
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