We began our second day by waking up to the smell of eggs, toast and fresh fruit being prepared by two maids. Then after a few hours my Dad, Ashok, Matt, Brad and I casually hailed our driver to pick us up and take us to Sunda Kelapa. This place is famous for previously being a dock built at the time the Dutch colonized Sumatra. The museum we went to was pretty dull and empty but I'm glad I went anyway so I could learn more about Indonesia's Muslim roots.
What we did afterwards was much more fascinating though. We walked around the neighborhood and got to see locals living in the area. The whole district was desperately poverty sticken. The water was so polluted with plastic, petrol and probably sewerage that it looked dark brown. You couldn't see through the water to see any fish, but some must have been swimming through the filth because we saw gutted brown fish littered throughout the narrow corradors that connected the shacks and shops. Every 'house' was about the size of a small bathroom with a wooden or plastic ceiling so low that you'd have to bend down to see people sleeping in them. Even though the whole area was drowning in trash every local there was unbelievably happy! They all smiled at us and said 'Salamat Pagi' (good morning) as we passed them. The children were especially vibrant and happy. We found a group of kids playing this bizzare board game with 3 pieces of wood, 3 stones and some etched out markings in the concrete. The game was a lovely mix between tic tac toe and checkers and the ultimate goal was to get your 3 pieces to form a line. My limited indonesian managed to get me invited to play against the kids. I lost horribly to a 5 year old but in my defence the kid had the help of 20 other 5 year olds so their collective intelegance was vastly greater than mine.
Afterwards we went to cafe Batavia which was located next to the town square in the city. My Dad was kind enough to buy us food, beer and cocktails which was awesome. I remember going to that cafe as a kid - so thanks Dad for the trip down memory lane :).
On the way out of the cafe we ran into a bunch of Indonesian school students who wanted to ask us all sorts of questions. Matt, Bradley and I felt like Justin Beaber because every person in the area wanted to take photos with the white kids.
After that we went to Kemang to have drinks at a place called FJ's. Its a rooftop bar and the view was spectacular. I'm really regretting not trying their special - coffee and avacado. Yum :)
Later Brad, Matt and I went to a place called Krystal pub in Pondok Indah. The name of the bar sounds like a cheap prostitute and Dennise warned us that the whole place was probably filled with prostitutes too. The place was nice but it had a strong American sports bar vibe which I don't like too much. Also, there were only middle aged men at the bar which made the prostitute assumption either wrong or very surprising.
My Dad left to go back to Kuala Lumpur that night. Thanks for the surprise visit Dad! I'll see you in Malaysia in late March!
No comments:
Post a Comment