Indonesian Independence Day Kick-Off

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We got a late start on the day. We when finally, did leave the room we headed off to find some Rendang for lunch. Kristy found a warung restaurant with good reviews for Rendang. Unfortunately locating the establishment proved more difficult than finding reviews. We settled for an Indian restaurant which unfortunately only had mediocre Indian food.

While we were strolling the streets, we snooped around some shops. Kristy wanted to buy a purse. There are many shops which have designer bag knock-offs. We looked at a couple of these shops but found nothing suitable. There are also actual leather shops which sell purses, bags, shoes, boots, jackets, and other leather garments. We went into Moooi Leather. Kristy looked over the purse offerings and found one that she really liked. She negotiated the price down some and purchased the bag. The leather shops seemed to be a little firmer with their pricing than street vendors.

By the time we returned to the Sheraton, it was well past noon. We got changed and headed back to Aji’s for some beach-side 30k Bintangs. We again oscillated between swimming and sitting in the plastic chairs. We heard quite a commotion coming from the street behind us. We investigated. Independence Day festivities had started early. There was a parade going on. We saw marching bands, veterans on jeeps, dragons, beauty contestants, amongst others. Many of the beach vendors looked on as the parade made its way down the road. Most of the tourists stayed with their beers on the beach.

We watched the sunset from the beach. When Aji was packing up his bar for the evening, we asked him where we could get some good Indonesian food, specifically rendang. He suggested Warung Made’s. Sauced and sandy, we walked over to Made’s which was very busy when we arrived. We found a seat upstairs and ordered. Brad had his standard chicken green curry. Kristy had the beef rendang. Both selections were fantastic, though the prices were a little high. After dinner, we moseyed back to our hotel for the evening.

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