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The Sandbergs in Indonesia
We have all been asked a lot of questions about life over here. Obviously we are not experts but the differences are ones you may find interesting. Traffic is a major issue in Jakarta, going anywhere takes an hour if not more. The lines on the road are only suggestions as cars, motorcycles and vans honk and jockey for space. I have learned just to look out the window and watch the world go by or take a nap. It's rainy season here, the temps. generally are in the mid 80's and it rains hard at least once a day. Sewers are open an can be smelly, in our neighborhood they are hidden by lovely landscaping but in other areas they are very obvious and kind of gross. Food is very unusual, not really Thai which I like, it is kind of a cross between Thai and Japanese, with some rather jelly like textures I struggle with and can be VERY spicey. We all like the mee goreng or fried noodles. There are a zillion American places to eat though so we survive. The odd part of eating out is that they don't bring your food all together, two or three of your group may get served and then 5- 10 minutes later the others get served. We have learned to just eat or your food gets cold. There are a billion sales people in every store. I swear they have a sales person for each aisle. Then you have to have that person bring it up to the cashier where that person rings it up and the other one packages it up. At least there is lots of work. There is tons of security every where. Guards and even soliders. People still talk about the Bali bombing. Six of the Komodo Dragons rugby players (the team Derek has been playing with) were killed there. I think the whole country was spooked by that and are very cautious now, to the extreme. It makes me feel safe but it also makes me wonder how unrealistic we may be on our own country, having seen much heavier security in other countries as well. As Americans I think we feel we are invinceable, in other countries I think maybe they know they are not. Indonesians are very kind and very polite. I am never sure if I am being a total bozo or not as they would never say. Many people have gone out of their way for us and it has very sweet.
I can't get used to all the zeros dealing with the Indonesain rupiah is about 10,000 to 1 US dollar. I take out a million all the time. Derek can't believe how dumb I am trying to figure out what bills to use, the coins are actually aluminum so obviously just token, and value wise about the same.
The grocery store we go to most has a beautiful area for displaying wine, but lots of time they hardly have any and choose to put Pringle cans in the wine racks. We feel they look very classey that way. Well enough of my ramblings, hope this answers a few questions. I want to try and get out and take more authentic photos this week, our neighborhood, although lovely and like many others, seems more American to me then Indonesian.