Jakarta

Friday, 20 November

My day in Jakarta involved meeting Danny’s family. Danny was born and raised in Jakarta and lived in Bali for 5 years before coming to the United States. He lived and went to school in Houston and moved to San Diego about 8 months ago. I met him in San Diego this summer. When I found out that he was going to return to Indonesia for 6 months to visit his family, I figured that this would be a great opportunity to have a local connection for seeing this country. So we figured out a plan where we would spend 6 days on the island of Java..1 day in Jakarta, 2 days driving across West and Central Java to the city of Yogyakarta, the cultural center of Java. He would then join me for the 5 days on Bali that I had already planned.

First we went to the Family Compound in the southern suburbs of this large city. The parents and 7 of the 9 living children live there with their spouses and children… 22 people live in 5 residences. Danny’s twin brother, Eddie, the father and the husband of the oldest sister accompanied us to a thatched roof restaurant on a lake about 45 minutes from the Compound. During this day I got to see a lot of the area…from the crowded, densely populated central Jakarta with its high-rise hotels, office buildings and apartments to the lush suburbs and countryside.

There are photos of the restaurant and the monkeys that are in the lake that beg for food and are very good at catching food thrown to them.

This is a photo of Danny posed surrounded by a poplular asian fruit...Durian:

This a photo that Danny took of me, the father, Eddie the twin brother and Wito the brother in law:

Danny and I will go in Wito’s 1997 Chevy Blazer accompanied by Wito and his son Putra on our trip to Yogya. Putra is a serious student photographer who often works for twin brother Eddie, who is a professional photographer. Danny is a serious amateur phographer so we will have photographic firepower on this trip. Wito works for the Jakarta Airport security.

Just a note on my hotel for the 2 nites in Jakarta. It is the JW Marriott…yes the same one that was bombed about 8 months ago along with the nearby Ritz Carlton. Security is much tighter that boarding an airplane, with 5 security people descending on any car or taxi that tries to enter the front driveway checking the trunk, underneath with mirrors. Then one’s luggage is x-rayed and you go a metal detector on entering the hotel. It is protected by machine gun toting police at the immediate entrance. Here is a photo of me with one of the guards: