The Jungle Book: Jakarta, August 13

Jakarta

I'm still in Jakarta, a bit longer than I expected, but am still having a good time here. I'm really starting to like Jakarta and have been exploring other parts of the city which has been fun and interesting. On Monday I walked all day with my first stop at the Jakarta flea market. It was quite a place to see with over 100 stalls and people selling EVERYTHING. I could've bought an old scuba diving helmet, like they used in the movie Life Aquatic, or an old telescope or a cannon. Since I have no room in my bag anymore I had to get something miniature, and a telescope wasn't too practical, so I got myself a small engraved knife from Sumatra. With my bargaining skills out in full force I managed to get the price down from $20 to $5. I also wound up speaking to the shop keeper for awhile, who was telling me that because of Ramadhan he's been very lazy and doesn't feel like doing anything.

With Indonesia's 65th Independence Day the next day, the festivities began Monday night (although because of Ramadhan it was much tamer than usual). I had heard talk that there are games going on all around the city. What games, I didn't know at the time. The area I am staying at closed the street around 9:30 and with that the games began. What began as a games for tourists (i.e. a bunch of locals standing around laughing at and making fun of tourists doing funny things) turned into an eventful night with a great mix of locals and tourists hanging out and partaking in some weird games. The first race was the standard potato sack race, which I came in 4th and won a pen, followed by a 3-person ski walk team relay. That didn't turn out so well but was good fun none-the-less. From here, the games definitely took a turn towards the not so well known and included everything from cracking and eating two eggs as fast as you can to taking 3 small eels out of a bucket and placing them into a water bottle (apparently they are very slippery and many people dropped them and would have to chase them down the street which turned out to be hilarious). Luckily, I wasn't chosen to partake in that event. After a few hours of games and great times with the locals, the night was finished off with fireworks.

On the actual day of Independence, me and a couple people walked to the Independence Monument to see the festival that was going on. Unfortunately, we didn't see the President (SBY) give his speech but we did make it in time for the military bands and marches which was pretty cool to see. Surprisingly, there weren't many other tourists there, if any, so we certainly got some looks. We spent a couple hours here before heading off to a part of town I was yet to explore, Kemang, for some live music.