Better than Epcot

Spent a wonderful day at Taman Mini Indonesia. It's a lot like Epcot in that it has these architectural replications of buildings or temples from all the different islands of Indonesia. You can wander around in them and see examples of traditional clothing or handicrafts of those islands. I was really surprised at how different each island was, some were almost Native American like and others were very Polynesian. Now I want to go off and see the actual islands! Around all this they have a museums with different themes like transportation, science, animals, etc. We saw an albino turtle at the Aquarium and at a reptile house Derek got to hold a big python. Apparently holding enormous snakes is a pretty common experience. Ask Derek about his alligator bite!
Joel is out of town for 4 days as he went to Balikpapan, a nearby island where Chevron has offices. We will be here in Jakarta, missing him but busy with school, swimming, soccer and rugby. Derek started playing basketball this week on a team with another guy his age that we have met. He also premieres and possibly starts as the Komodo Dragons take on the Singapore Bucks on Saturday. We also leave for Singapore the next day for three days and then the rest of the week in Manila, unless of course there is a coup, cross your fingers for no coup, at least not this week.