ian and sharon

Yesterday, Saturday, we joined Jeanna Westmoreland and her Samford team of students, who are here for some work in Indo, and with 4 UPH students, visited Mini Indonesia and the Botanical Gardens. Unfortunately I had left my camera attached to the computer doing blogging, and the battery was dead when I needed to leave for this trip! So I have none of my own photos of this very interesting day, but will get some later from the others who were there.

We had to travel about 2 hours in horrific traffic to get there, but it was so well worth the drive. We were able to see the amazing diversity of these 17,000 islands and their people groups in one place. This was a sort of theme park in which all of the main indigenous groups - their houses, their clothing, their wedding celebrations, their language forms and art, were on display. Each group has a very individual style of home - some on stilts, some with arched roofs, some with specific decorative forms displayed to represent their diversity, etc...and then they all have their own dress styles, their own dialects, food, etc. It was fascinating - quite overwhelming really. We took the cable car above the park and got a quick bird's eye view of the park as we were only there for 2 hours before having to move off for lunch to another city, Bogor, the home of one of the President's 6 palaces. Surrounding his palace is a huge botanical garden, full of very interesting plants from these islands and from around the world.

The ride back was a nightmare - the taxi driver was a speed-merchant, who wove in and out of the traffic, scarcely missing motor cyclists and other cars every 3 or 4 minutes! He was not in a good mood, and got lost once or twice, and for those of us riding with him, the journey was not only long and very bumpy, but we had many close calls with collisions, which gave me such a stiff neck! Ian was absolutely silent in the front seat! He saw a lot more than I could! What a ride! Try to imagine about 17 million people moving around in crowded, chaotic conditions, on 5 lane highways part of the time (you have to count carefully to even know that there are 5 lane - most of the time you can't even tell there are lanes), and then on two way streets jammed with motor bikes and pedestrians, taxis, cars and beggars, all vying for space on the road, and most vehicles are without seatbelts except for the front seats!!

All the non-highway roads are cluttered with sellers of cooked/cooking food, goods, veges and fruit, and unbelievable amounts of trash and dirt. It totally overwhelms the senses and the poverty is gut-wrenching!.

It took us so long to get there and back - actually not too far by miles, but very long in time, but an enjoyable, educational day overall - a totally "Jakarta" experience. We enjoyed learning about this diverse place and were tired, but more informed by the end of the day. Pictures to follow!