Jakarta - Some Piccies

Been a fortnight since I moved. Jakarta has been good to me thus far. I've travelled a lot outside home by now, but have yet to master the art of crossing the road here still. The local people are nice, friendly and kind but men here can get quite cheeky sometimes (cheeky in a good way I meant to say) and then there were a few I find really odd. But in general, however, the Jakartans I met are lovely people - my kids and I are very well taken care of, I am pleased and pleasantly surprised by their warm hospitality. Food here is yummy but can get a bit too sweet or spicy sometimes (or both at the same time, which is rather interesting). So far I have no regrets moving here. yet. Life in the past 14 days have been good, really. Anyways, here are some recent pictures I took in my stay in this Indonesian capital. You might want to check them out.

Moving to a new country in particular with very young children can be quite challenging I know. There are plenty of things for the children to adjust to such as new language, new environment, new friends, 'new' food, and new home just to name a few. Isa, however, seems to be adapting and coping pretty alright here in Indonesia. But I don't know, really, cos we've been here for only about 2 weeks. Let's hope he'll be alright all through, I am so keeping my fingers crossed on this.

During my stay at Rasuna, I got awaken by the call of prayer broadcasted by the mosques in that town every morning. After having done my prayer on one of the mornings that I was there, I looked out of my bedroom window and saw this scenery, a very pretty sight or so I thought. So I decided to get my camera and take a picture of it. And so here it is posted on my blog for everyone to see. Pretty, no?

Slow moving traffic happening right outside the apartment I am currently staying at! Based on my experience, however, a person travelling in the traffic adjacent to my apartment can take almost half an hour just to get to the end of this road (which is actually way less than 400 metres in distance).

This is Mie Goreng Ayam Baso (fried chicken noodle with soup). I remember ordering this food the first time and asked for "Mie Goreng Ayam" as stated on the Menu. They replied, "Yang baso atau yang pangsit? (Baso or pangsit?)". I looked at them cluesslessly, and then asked, "Baso tu apa? Pangsit tu apa? (What's baso? What's pangsit?)" And then a guy came over and explained to me. In English! For the first time ever in Jakarta, I felt like a fool. But anyway, Mie Goreng Ayam Baso is yummy. You should give it a try when you're here someday.

Went to check out a unit in Thamrin Residence on one of those days that I was there viewing properties. The unit was on the 31st storey of the apartment, and this was the view I saw from the unit's balcony. Having lived in high rise apartments in Singapore for over 20 years of my life, I consider this view 'awesome' and 'expensive' (since it is pretty rare to get a skyline view like this even if one is living in an apartment unit as high as the 31st storey in that garden city). High rise buildings and skyscrapers are just so abundant everywhere in Singapore, most balconies are left with having to view other balconies instead! Hence, I'd say for this apartment unit, the balcony view (even if it faces a shanty town and a terribly jam packed road) is a plus point for me!

This is a townhouse. It is located right smack in the middle of the city. What's interesting about this townhouse is that it is actually built on the 10th storey and is on top of a shopping mall. It didn't look like it, did it? I don't know how much it costs to buy each house tho but I know rental price ranges from about USD2,000 to USD4,000 per month. Not bad, isn't it?

This is Pisang Goreng Suir Keju (banana fritters with cheese. It's got some condensed milk added to it too apparently!!). I had it for tea today. It tastes pretty alright I thought. Just a bit sweet though!

Not really a recent picture of the both of us, this was actually taken about 3 months back when Echa (Hazuki) and I were in Ascott on our first ever recce trip to Jakarta!