National Monument

On tuesday, May 10th, we went to Merdeka Square near the center of Jakarta to see the National Monument. It's basically a tall tower with a wide base and a flame at the top. At the top of the monument is a viewing area where you can see the city of Jakarta. Unfortunately, it had not rained in awhile when we went so the skies were quite smoggy. It was still a fun view of the city though. In the basement there were dioramas depicting the history of Indonesia.

Uncle A was quite popular with the locals. They call white foreigners "Bule." We had a couple of locals follow us around wanting to take pictures with Uncle A and with the girls. We encountered a group of Muslim young women that asked if they could have a picture taken with Uncle A and the girls. The girls were uncooperative. Mommy asked if it was okay to take a picture of Uncle A with the young women as well. They happily complied. Uncle A said he felt a little awkward because of all the attention.

Actually, everywhere we go, the girls get alot of attention. I think it is because Indonesians love children and because the girls are half-White. Mommy doesn't know how many "strangers" have snapped picture of the girls. Some ask permission, some don't. Mommy does find it amusing that the kids generate so much interest among the locals.

Weekdays are good days to visit local attractions. There were not a lot of people overall. We did encounter some kids on a school field trip but they were the only large crowd of people. The cost to go to the National Monument was 2500 Rupiah per adult (that's roughly US 30 cents). For whatever reason, the girls were free. Normal admission for kids is 1000 or 1500 Rupiah. To go to the top of the tower cost 7500 Rupiah (US 80 or 85 cents) per person. Again, the girls were free.

Here is a picture collage of our trip to the National Monument.


 

2-Week Visit

Daddy's younger brother Uncle A came for a 2-week visit. He just left this last sunday. The kids were so excited to see Uncle A and to get the suitcase of goodies that Aunt H was nice enough to put together for us. The kids opened the suitcase to find packages of flaming hot cheetos, dum dums, smarties, granola bars, goldfish, etc. It was almost like Christmas. While Uncle A was here, we did a bit of sightseeing in and around Jakarta and even went to visit a black volcanic sand beach south of Jakarta. Mommy will be posting about the different places we visited in subsequent posts so stay tuned.


 

Batik Dresses

We went to Ambassador ITC today. It is full of little boutiques and shops. Mommy found Batik (local type of dyed fabric) clothing for all the kids. The girls got the same style of Batik dresses but in different colors. Mommy also bought Joseph a Batik shirt. Joseph is still at school so he isn't home to model his new shirt. The girls put on their dresses and were checking themselves out in the mirror in the master bedroom. Audrey has become quite the camera hog lately so Mommy took a few pics of her showing off her new dress...what a little ham!



 
 

Wedding Anniversary

We've been married for 9 great years! Time sure does fly when you're having fun :)

Vaccinations

Poor us...today was our second round of vaccinations for living/traveling in Indonesia. We started our Japanese Encephalitis and Rabies vaccines a week ago. The Japanese Encephalitis vaccine for children wasn't available in Houston at the time we went to get our travel vaccines. We were going to forego the rabies vaccination but we were told that the rabies shots one gets after being bitten are often not readily available. Audrey loves animals and Mommy and Daddy have had a hard time keeping her away from stray cats. We have a friend whose daughter was bitten by a stray cat so she got the painful shots in the stomach.

The rabies vaccination is good for 10 years. The Japanese Encephalitis vaccine is effective for 4 years. Mommy is sure the kids feel like pin cushions. They dread each visit to the doctor. Audrey is by far the worst one when it comes to shots. She really puts on quite a show. The cost for vaccines is cheaper here than in the US. They were$60.00 per shot here so $600.00 total for the whole family. In the US it would have been roughly $200 per shot and for Japanese Encephalitis and Rabies it is each a series of 3shots. Still, even with the discounted rates, the cost for the vaccinations for our family of 5 is shall we say maybe more painful than the shots! We do get reimbursed eventually, but we have to pay for everything out of pocket first.

Now that we have a plethora of vaccines under our belts, we could probably travel anywhere in the world with the exception of Africa since we have not been vaccinated for yellow fever. Daddy did say he wanted to visit Africa sometime so maybe we will end up with yellow fever vaccinations at some point...not anytime soon though :)

Easter Activity

We took the kids to a member’s home this morning for a Primary Easter Activity.  The kids participated in all sorts of fun games. Then they had an Easter egg hunt.  Each kid got to find 10 eggs.  Afterwards, all the kids emptied out their plastic eggs so that the containers could be used again next year.  The girls ate all of their candy before we even left for home.

After the Easter egg hunt, the kids got to go swimming.  We had a fun morning.  The house we were at was beautiful!  It also had a lovely pool and a super nice big backyard.  The kids really loved running around and swimming. 

For lunch we stopped in at the Burger King at Plaza Semanggi.  Having a whopper really hit the spot.  The kids enjoyed the spicy chicken sticks and the french fries.  It was definitely not the healthiest lunch, but it certainly tasted good.  Mommy was convinced the whopper would not taste like a regular whopper one might get in the US, but Mommy was wrong.  It was great!

Lollipops!

Both Daddy and Joseph were off for Good Friday.  The kids have been asking for a long while now to go back to Lollipops, a play area on the top floor of Senayan City mall.  Mommy and Daddy decided that we would take the kids to Lollipops.  We got there early before it got too crowded.  It cost roughly $40 US for the entrance fee.  It was quite expensive last time, but the fees go up on weekends and holidays. Plus, they charge admission for parents even though adults don’t use the playground equipment.

The kids had a great time.  Audrey loves the fishing pond.  She got to take home 3 fish although sadly, one died before we even left Lollipops.  Audrey also had fun on the bungee.  The other kids weren’t really interested in jumping.  Katelyn enjoyed the fishing pond, but she didn’t catch any fish.  Joseph spent most of his time running around on the playground equipment.  Lollipops is an impressive place.  There is also a zip line that older kids can go down.  There are all sorts of rides in addition to the playgrounds.  There are also bounce houses and slides.  Kids really love Lollipops!