The city of Jakarta

As you well know now, we live about 40 minutes away from the city of Jakarta in a lovely little township (?) called Lippo Karawaci (karawachi). Over the past 8 days I have had opportunity to take a few photos of a few trips into Jakarta and I'd like to share them with you. They were taken on our little digital so the picture isn't as clear as it would be with our Canon. It's our hope to one day take a video camera with us in the evening during weekend traffic, and hang out of the window to take a clip. We feel that a photo won't do it justice!

The first picture is of Hanna, myself and Helena (fellow Canadian) in a place called Kemang (i think). We took a taxi in and that is where I bought my 2 wooden floor lamps and desk chair. I took a picture of a bench of who knows what kind of wood that I would love to have. One of the reasons I love it is that it reminds me of John & Shirley and the furniture that John makes.

Although we took a taxi in, we ditched it after a while and walked around the streets a bit. This is not easy to do as the few sidewalks that they have are mostly overtaken and uprooted by tree roots. When you want to cross the street you don't wait for a lull in traffic because that doesn't happen...you create the opportunity. Mostly you step into traffic (usually you pick a slower moving car coming towards you) and then you put out your arm to indicate that the oncoming car should stop. Usually it works. :)

As we walked along we came upon a man fixing a bus. If you look carefully you can see him squatting under the bus. It was just a great touristy photo to take, so the three of us whipped out our digitals nonchalantly and snapped.

That was last week. This weekend I spent the day with Alexis, whom I will get the pleasure of travelling with to Bali along with the Comries. We went for my first all-body massage...whole different posting because I think it deserves its own!! After that we went for lunch and then to a furniture maker in a little tiny store. Tris and I had hand-drawn a VERY basic desk for our spare room and within 1/2 an hour the owner had redrawn it with measurements, sliders, pulls and the like. It's beautiful, teak and it will cost under $500. Absolutely amazing. Needless to say, we'll be bringing wood furniture home with us if we are able. O yeah, the wood this guy uses is recycled from homes and so the possibility of it cracking when we bring it back to Canada is even less. Another recycler! I just love going into these stores...I am going to have to take a photo because they're not anything like what you'd imagine. They're usually very long and narrow, very dusty and very difficult to find.

After Alexis dropped me off at our church (I met my family there) I was able to capture this sunset in Jakarta. See how smoggy it is? The sun is usually reddish in colour.

This photo of the graveyard is one that I've been wanting to take for weeks. Unfortunately you can see my reflection in the window because I had to take it through the plexiglass window in our church's stairwell. This photo is the perfect shot of Jakarta and all that it is and was, and the dichotomy of this city. See the uniformity of the Dutch graveyard? It's interesting how the church it very European yet has a tinge of Muslim to it with the little ball top to the left of the main building. Not sure if it was originally a European look or not. In the far top left hand corner there is the modern city of Jakarta and all its tall buildings.

To the right is what I believe to be an older part of Jakarta city. Down in the bottom right hand and up the middle of the right side is the chaotic housing where everyone is crammed together. If you increase the size of this photo you can see a lady in the road on the bottom right, holding a baby and rocking it in her arms.

I LOVE this photo. It would be a dream if I could retake it without a window blocking my view and take it on my new camera. Maybe one day...

Thank you for reading.