Return to J-Kart

We rose early and left Krida and Bandung around 7:30 AM.  We then made the 150 km trip in just over two hours which included a pit stop for "the facilities" and a morning pick-me-up at Dunkin Donuts.  Each Betty, Daniel, and I selected to tasty eats and a coffee drink.  Betty had pre-cleared it with our driver for us to eat in the car as we continued on to Jakarta; our driver was, like most Indonesian Muslims, fasting as part of Ramadan but was ok with us eating in the car.

We arrived at the Park Hotel shortly before 10:00.  The original schedule which TGC had given us called for all of our pairs to be at the hotel by 1:00 and then we would continue with events as a collective group.  Somehow a message had been circulated amongst the host teachers to arrive earlier and then have more city site-seeing time.  However this message was not clearly received by one pair and they ended up not being with us for most of the afternoon.

We went to the old colonial capitol building in Jakarta which has now been turned into a museum.  This area of J-Kart is called "the old city" and there have been some attempts to spruce it up as a tourist attraction.  Some sprucing might have occurred a decade ago but I'm not sure how many tourists were actually informed.

Following our time in the museum we were hungry and found a place to grab a small lunch.  The "chicken sate" that I ordered...and even photographed before eating...wasn't exactly what I thought I was getting.  It was cold and far from tender and upon closer examination the collective conclusion was that it was intestine (possibly from a bird) but NOT anything close to what any of us had come to know as chicken sate.  Let's just say the "mystery meat" was a bit too far outside of my comfort zone.

David, Jodi, Daniel, Susanna, Heather, Jeanne, and Cora

My lunch...as described above...was NOT enjoyed or finished

Monkey in the restaurant.  I gave him a lime to eat; he seemed to like it.

After lunch, the old town square in front of the old capitol (now museum) was bustling with activity.  People from a select "counter-culture" within Jakarta had gathered for a concert by the music group Slank.  We people watched for a while.

Yep, that's me in this gang of young ruffians

Oh, Susanna is now a Slank fan

Our group finally returned to the hotel at which point we were finally reunited with the final pair in our collective delegation.  After getting settled in to the hotel, most of us departed for some shopping at a gem market and a Batik store before finally catching a late dinner.  Tomorrow will be a time for our cohort to debrief as a team on our experiences at our host schools.  I think their could be some interesting stores (some have already been shared).