MONAS and Old City

I went to visit the National Monument in Jakarta, it’s called MONAS! It’s this huge architecture which is really tall and at the top there’s a golden flame that's made out of gold. The area around the monument is turned into a huge park where the public can eat, hang around, fly kites, ride bicycles and everything in between. The basement of the monument is turned into an art gallery which depicts the country’s history. There are more than 50 art pieces that tells the story of Indonesia.

Theres always that one friend...

National Monument

Ondel Ondel: Jakarta mascots but they are from Batawi 

Then we visited a place called “Kota Tua” which means “Old City”. They are old buildings which are abandoned but turned into a huge park where street shows take place. Lots of different food to try from street vendors.  

When you give the monkey money for its  performance, the monkey runs up to you and  hugs your leg for a really long time.

 

I made it through a whole week!! :D

Proud to have made it through the week and thankful that God has guided and protected me. But I guess one week is not enough to become an Indonesian. The language is still hard to grasp and it doesn't help that I am here to teach English so everyone is keen on learning English and not teaching me Indonesian.

The food is really good. There are soo many variety and anything can be made spicy or not. And the Indonesians love peanut butter and peanut sauce. Its pretty much used in everything. In some of the dishes you can see the influences of other countries. For example, they eat sticky rice like the Chinese but everything is extremely spicy like the Indians or the Sri Lankans. They have meatball and rice noodle soup like the Vietnamese Pho. Overall the food is bearable and hasn't given me that much trouble.

Cane Cake (Chanai Caka): deep fried dough with condensed milk and chocolate sprinkles

Mie Ache: fried noodles

Gado Gado: can be eaten for breakfast or lunch. See pics below.

They make a paste out of peanut, and brown sugar

They crush a piece of garlic small chillies and add vegetables (potatoes, cucumber,  sprouts), tofu and steamed rice 

Honey Dew Bubble Tea and rainbow Jelly

Bebek Goreng: Deep fried duck, tofu, lalapan (vegetables) and sambal (chillie sauce)

This is the result.  I was really hungry that night!

Soto Surabaya:  egg, cabbage, rice noodles and celery. 

Mie Baso: Chicken noodles with meatballs! you can add soya sauce or chilly sauce

Its technically incorrect to call their language "Indonesian". The common language is actually called Bahasa and there are many other languages spoken in Indonesia. Javanese, Sundanese, Balinese, Minang and almost every region and city has its own language and different dialects. However, from what I've learned, the current generation is not familiar with the written language but they use Latin alphabets (ABC...)

The people are very accepting and friendly. And of course the food just makes everything even better.