Colloidal Jakarta

Evelyn and I have basically been eating, going to a new destination, exploring, eating, repeat. Jakarta is quite the interesting city, with the traffic, pollution, and population of Mexico City, the slums of the Dominican, and the luxuries of Dubai, all juxtaposed among each other. The richest and the poorest are all here, crowding on one of 110,000+ islands which compose Indonesia, including Java, Sumatra and of course Bali.

Yesterday, I arrived and we went to explore Kota, the old historic town which used to be the center of everything when the Dutch were in control and Indonesia was still the Dutch East Indies (Indo wasn't independent until 1945. And I found that I recognize certain islands for coffee blends. The infamous mongoose-poop coffee is also popular here.).

Iced delima jelly with avocado. They eat avo as an actual fruit here, it's delicious!

Possibly the old Dutch town hall? And Indo flag, which
I might have initially thought was the Polish one.

Not much was maintained very well after the Dutch left.

Except for the adorable Cafe Batavia which is meant to provide a colonial experience.

A ring with my name being custom engraved in
Taman Fatahillah, old Dutch city square, less than $2.

In a mall which looked like a giant Barbie house. Indos love their
AC malls, for good reason. Also, apparently I look local
here too. That or Japanese... wtf.

A hand-painted Italian-style fresco on Evelyn's living room wall.

Chandelier, glass wall, pool, gym.

Absolutely gorgeous living room, spiral staircase, etc.

Dining room. Again, divine.

Even the downstairs bathroom is beautiful.

Today we explored Jalen Surabayan, a market-type street featuring antiques. It's always impressive how much crap street vendors manage to hold onto and day by day, try to sell. Some of it was really cool though--

Pillar of shy Buddhas.

Reminds me of The Life Aquatic.

Evelyn in one of a streetful of these teeny, cramped shops.

Old school printing press. They had old binoculars,
microscopes, phones, cameras, spotlights, and much more.

A shop featuring chandeliers.
These people are excessively space-efficient.

Break for drinks at Cali Deli. It's actually a Viet place.
I had a sweet black rice/condensed milk ice thing,
and Evelyn had a Viet iced coffee of some sort.

 We stopped at the National Monument, then drove by Mesjid Istiqlal, one of the noted huge mosques in Southeast Asia. We were going to get out and go in, but we were in shorts and slightly (extremely) intimidated by the militant-looking Muslims around.

With the giant, phallic National Monument.

Amazing carved storyboard sculptures on
a wall right outside the throbbing erection.

Hmph.

View from the top of the penis. Jakarta is not the cleanest city.
Note little run-down shacks right before the towering skyscrapers.

View of Mesjid Istiqlal. Look at the tiny cathedral
in between the small dome and the pointy thing.

Lunch juices-- soursop and avo/chocolate. Forgot to take a
picture of my Jakarta chicken curry, but it was a beautiful
medium between Indian and Thai yellow curry, but more
coconut milky and lighter.

 Tickets to Bali booked for Thursday-Saturday! Excited!