A Batak restaurant in Jakarta…generic term is “lapo”. CLICK for video of some traditional Batak singing.
A 37 hour trip there (via Middle East, in other words, going the wrong way around the world) barely making the sad event of day 1. Days 2 and 3 were spent on some family bonding time. A 45 hour trip back including a 9 hour overnight layover in Doha. A round trip across 15 time zones in the span of less than 6 days. I can hardly tell which way is up or down. On the upside, we got to spend some quality time hanging out with the family and got a taste of modern day air travel thanks to Qatar Airways…the 787 and the 350 were kind of cool.
Photos
Wrong way around the world…west coast of North America to southeast Asia via the Middle East (June 2016).Shirley starting our week of endurance sitting (which included Jakarta traffic jam fests) on the Doha-Jakarta leg (June 2016).Jakarta (June 2016).Sunda Kelapa Harbor in Jakarta with phinisi boats (still in use) on display (June 2016).A tour of the harbor (June 2016).Sunda Kelapa Harbor (June 2016).Remnants of a shanty town near to Sunda Kelapa Harbor – those are being torn down & replaced by concrete nightmare towers. Long term vision is a nightmarish replica of Singapore. “Progress.” Minarets of a mosque are also visible (June 2016).A working phinisi boat (June 2016).Another phinisi (alt. pinisi) boat.Sunda Kelapa Harbor (June 2016).Historic gateway to the harbor (June 2016).Remnants of the shantytown and its ugly replacement in the background (June 2016).Sunda Kelapa Harbor (June 2016).Durian ice cream stand in Old Town Jakarta (June 2016).About to tear into the ice cream (June 2016).Walking the Old Town in Jakarta (Batavia).Old Town in Jakarta with some colonial (Dutch) architecture on display (June 2016).On the way to checking out the Monument Nasional – this hails back to the days of Sukarno when Indonesia was flirting with communism (can you tell?).Views from top of Monument Nasional. Central mosque and Jakarta’s cathedral are both visible (June 2016).More views from the top of the Monument. A railway station (June 2016).Food carts in Jakarta (June 2016).Shirley & Cakra perusing the menu. What will it be: rice paddy snake omelette (left cage) or king cobra sate (right cage)?Our nephew Abi is clearly impressed with the fresh ingredients (June 2016).These are the rice paddy snakes; cobras are in the cage just behind this one. King cobra is a snake eater – can’t have your food eating your food, see?The family tearing into durian fruit. Most crackers cannot stomach the flavor; I can never get enough (could eat durian all day long).Bogor – another suburb of Jakarta – street scenes (June 2016).Street scene in Jakarta (June 2016).The family at an Italian (quite literally) ice cream place in Jakarta. In fact, this has been a tradition since their childhoods. Ice cream – esp. durian – was in fact incredible!Bemos on the streets of Jakarta (June 2016).Ondel ondel…puppets…Jakarta thing (June 2016).Sumatran tigers…but, you know, in Java (June 2016).A climbing shop (?) in the suburbs of Jakarta (June 2016).Jakarta sights (June 2016).Chinese-funded hospital for the poor…look at that monstrosity (June 2016).OK, let’s eat.A Padang restaurant and the final meal of the trip with the family (June 2016).…and here we go again. Shirley at Soekarno-Hatta Airport ready to head home (June 2016).Once in a blue moon, you get lucky with the seating. Emergency exit is practically first class. Start of the return trip (June 2016).Qatar Airways – not surprisingly, quite excellent (June 2016).Bivying at the Doha airport during a long (9.5h) overnight layover on the way home…hellish return trip (June 20216).It might be 4am in Doha but that’s 9pm in Portland and 8am in Jakarta meaning that on average it’s lunchtime. You see?Ready for more sitting? Of course not.City of Doha pushing out into the Persian Gulf via manmade islands (June 2016).…and it went on and on……and Boston.
