Ragunan Zoo

Another place that is popular with the locals is the Ragunan Zoo. The zoo is packed on weekends (so we hear). The zoo is located in Jakarta. On wednesday, May 11, we headed to the zoo after dropping Daddy off at work. Admission was 8,000 rupiah per adult and 3000 rupiah per child...very inexpensive. That's roughly US $2.50 for two adults and two children to enter the zoo.

The zoo was much larger than expected. It took us several hours to walk around the zoo, and we still did not see all of the exhibits. The weather in Jakarta is not too bad when standing, but once you start walking around, it quickly starts to feel quite hot. The girls were very tired after a couple of hours. We did not visit some of the extra exhibits like the primate house and the reptile house...maybe another time. There is an additional cost for the special exhibits, but it is still around 5000 rupiah which is roughly 60 cents US. The zoo had a lot of different animals ranging from local animals like orangutans and monitor lizards to animals normally seen at most zoos like elephants, giraffes, and zebras. We all enjoyed our visit to the local zoo.

Masjid Istiqlal

On the same day we went to the National Monument, we also went to visit the Masjid Istiqlal or the Istiqlal Mosque. It is the largest mosque in Indonesia and the largest mosque in S.E. Asia. The main prayer room can accomodate up to 200,000 worshippers. Normally the mosque is fairly empty except for fridays and it gets full during Ramadan, the holy month of fasting (in August). There is no charge to tour the mosque, but a tip for the tour guide is expected. Mommy only tipped the guide 10,000 rupiah because it was seriously like a 5 minute tour. The guide didn't say much of anything. Mommy could tell he wasn't very happy with the tip. Mommy asked someone else later how much a customary tip would be. Apparently a normal tip is around 50,000 Rupiah. Oh well...what to do.

To enter the mosque, you should dress modestly and you definitely must remove your shoes. Mommy had heard that women must also cover their heads when entering the mosque, but neither Mommy nor the girls were asked to cover our heads. Although the tour was short, it was definitely worth a visit.


Prayer room





Large courtyard that is also full during Ramadan






View of the mosque from the top of the National Monument

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 :)