Indonesia part one

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The past month has been more about making friends and creating relationships than about sight seeing.
We met up with our friend Liany in Singapore, then travelled with her to visit her sister in Jakarta. We spent a wonderful four days getting to know Irma, Augie and their daughters.
We saw some of the sights of Jakarta, but spent a lot of time in traffic jams, which is totally a fact of life there. The city has gotten so big with unregulated growth, and infrastructure has not kept up. (city pop 3 million plus)
Irma and Augie own their own toy importing business, so we were able to observe the day to day operations. On their one day off, they took us to a zoo a few hours drive out side Jakarta (well, supposed to be, again the traffic). This zoo is different, in that the animal are free to roam, and the people are captive(in their cars)
After the zoo, we drove up a mountain (where it was actually cold), and ate traditional street food of the area.
From Jakarta we flew with Liany to Lombok on Sumatra, where we spent the next 9 days getting to know her extended family, and celebrating Chinese New Year with them. Everyone was so friendly and welcoming, and we had an absolutely wonderful time.

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Photos

Jakarta: view from a roof top garden
this is not a pretty city!

buying Po Pia at a street market (this is a Sumatra specialty only available at certain places in Jakarta)
Sort of like a spring roll in appearance, but very different wrapper and filling. Very tasty!!!