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Published: August 3rd 2008
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National Monument-MONAS
Located in the center of Freedom Sqaure. Honoring Indonesia's freedom from the Dutch in 1945. Hi all,
This blog is from our latest trip to Indonesia in June! Once again, we had a few really slow weeks here at work due to the majority of our students taking time off to study for their final exams, so we took advantage and hopped on a plane. Although we only had about a week and a half in total to travel, we managed to visit three different islands in Indonesia and see / do quite a bit!
Our first few days were spent in Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia. Our first impressions of Jakarta were good and bad at the same time. The good part - the people. Everyone seemed so friendly and happy to see us - no matter where we were or what we were doing. The bad part - the city was really polluted (especially the air) and we couldn't help but feel a hint of danger here. For example, our first day in Jakarta we actually decided we should go find a US Embassy to get more pages added to our passports, since our Indonesia visa took up a lot more room than we had anticipated and Larry had NO more
room for new stamps! So, we walked to find the embassy and thought all the people we met along the way were more than helpful in leading us in the right direction - even guards on duty took the time just to say 'hello' and wave to us. But, that's just it...there were WAY too many guards everywhere for total comfort & relaxation.
Well, after spending about an hour in the embassy, we decided to go see some sights. This sight we chose to see, conveniently located right across from the US Embassy, was the MONAS - or the National Monument of Indonesia in Freedom Square. This monument was a representation of Indonesia's long-awaited freedom from the Dutch. The monument and museum were interesting and all, but our tour guides made the experience even more worthwhile. They were high school students and hung around to give free tours so as not to be bored over their summer vacation, although we tipped them a few dollars when we were all finished. Again, they were extremely friendly and nice kids - and they seemed more interested in learning about us above anything else! While touring around, there were also a lot
School field trip
Sitting in the middle of junior high students with our high school tour guides. of school trips / camps of kids coming through...who, once again, seemed very excited to just see us and be so close to us. Some of them couldn't stop staring at us with big curious smiles on their faces! It was really adorable, and made us feel really unique and happy at the same time.
After the MONAS, we grabbed a quick bite to eat and then got ready for our "Golden Jakarta Tour" - to a place known as the Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (Beautiful Indonesian Miniature Park). Here, we checked out some beautiful architecture and museums, bought a wood carving from a real Papua man, hung out with some really cute and friendly Indonesian kids, and even took a cable car ride over a lake that had "islands" in it made to look just like Indonesia - complete with all of its 26 provinces. There was lots to see and it was a lot of fun!
Before the day was over, we went to a lovely restaurant for dinner known "Huize Trivelli." We had read about this place in one of our travel books before we went and it looked so lovely, although when we first
Our celebrity status!
Actually more like a circus, because we are both white, Melanie has blonde hair and I am considered huge. got there we were a little nervous, since we then realized we had no idea how much a dinner for two at this gorgeous private garden restaurant would cost! But, when we sat down, opened the menu, and realized that most dishes were between $3-4 dollars...we were quite excited! Needless to say, we ate like kings that night...
Our second day in Jakarta was spent mainly in the cheap city market known as "Pasar Pagi Mangga Dua," although we did get up early to check out the "Welcome Monument" first. Anyway, this shop had everything, and all at "China" prices too... We spent a good part of this day looking around and shopping here. The best find, although we didn't buy it, was a shirt that said "I used to skinny dip...but now I chunky dunk!!" We also had an extremely cheap Indonesian buffet lunch that was delicious, and cost less than $5 total for both of us to eat!!
Later that night, we boarded a plane to fly to Lombok - a more primitive island east of Bali. To be honest, we chose to go to Lombok kind of on a whim - we found a really
Smoggy Jakarta
From Freedom Square nice-looking, yet cheap resort there and the flights were a little cheaper than going directly to Bali (although we ended up taking another 15-minute flight when we finally did go to Bali anyway!)
At Lombok, we stayed at a gorgeous resort called "The Novotel Lombok" on a lovely southern beach known as Kuta. This resort was not only beautiful, but also supplied us with so many things to do each and every day (which was nice considering we were kind of away from civilization here). Besides swimming, laying out in the sand, and eating delicious meals on the beach while watching the ocean...there was so much more as well. "Breakfast on the hill," visiting and buying handmade goods from the local wood carvers that would stop by, playing golf, having couple massages and visiting Kuta Market were just some of the unique things we got to do while staying here.
One day we also took a private tour - where we visited a lot of the local villages in Lombok. This was one of our favorite things we did because, as mentioned before, we got to meet some more of the nicest people ever! It was also really
humbling to see how poor most of these families were, living in cow dung huts with dirty clothes and not having many - if any - material things, yet they were all so very happy and made us feel so welcome. Something that just doesn't always exist in the good ole' US of A. Many of the people that we met had asked us to send them the pictures we took. We were thinking by email but were later reminded that they ment 'snail-mail' as they handed us their address on pieces of paper. After collecting all of the addresses we fulfilled our promise and have recently sent them the pictures. We hope they enjoy them!
We finished our tour with lunch at a really good vegetarian restaurant owned by an Australian woman named "Ashtari." Ashtari wasn't only wonderful for its delicious food and cheap prices, but even more so for its spectacular views of Kuta. We rushed back here for a second meal our last day in Lombok, before boarding a plane for our 15-minute flight to Bali.
Stay tuned for our next blog: All about Bali, the two cities we stayed in - Ubud and Kuta
McDonald
Did you notice the metal detector you need to pass through first? Beach (a different Kuta from the one in Lombok) - as well as our brief stopover in Hong Kong, before returning to Korea!
Hope all is well in the area of the world where you are! :-)
Love,
Larry & Melanie
Indonesian for the day: "Selamat Pagi!" - (Good morning!)
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