Out and About

MonViet
This is a new restaurant for us. A friend introduced me to this Vietnamese place and I have introduced B to it. I really like their Banh Mi Ga (five-spiced chicken) sandwich. Their Gi Cuon Chay (vegetarian summer rolls) are also really good. The Banh Mi Ga can be ordered with extra crispy bread and it can be whole or pre-cut in half or in fourths.

Time Limit on Dining
This one spot where we dine occasionally on a Saturday directs you to a table and then places a card on the table indicating how long you may sit there.This time reads on both sides that the table is only available 9:30 - 6:30. Other times it's just been a period of 2 hours. Maybe they have evening functions reserving the entire place? This is common here. You can buy out an entire restaurant. They don't usually say anything about the time limit, they just put it on the table. We sat down a little after 4:30, but this clearly says 9:30 so???

Last week on entering my grocery store, I caught this out of the corner of my eye. I couldn't believe it. A Cheesecake Factory booth right in the market! Prices are high, but I suppose if you really had a craving... What's the cost for these pretty small cheesecakes? Rp-660,000 to Rp 880,000 ( roughly $50-66 US). They are slightly larger than a Junior's Cheesecake available in some US groceries in the frozen section. I paid $12 US for one of the Junior's Cheesecakes in the last couple of years while visiting NY. This popped up just in time for Ramadhan!

Fruit at the Grocery
Recently, when we were heading to a grocery store in one of the malls,  we noticed sevral "actors: dressed as fruit. The "grape" has a nice smile on his face. The other guy, who is a ????, doesn't seem too happy with this gig!



Car Free "Day"
Every Sunday morning one main street in the business district is "car-free."  Buses still travel it and cars do too, but we don't see too many. A lot of bicyclists and runners and walkers are out and about on Sunday mornings.

They also have made one of the lanes that go around a large block of the area near us for pedestrians only on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Cars and scooters whiz by in the adjacent lanes, however. And to be honest, only part of the walk is in the street itself. Part of the time you walk on the sidewalk with cars in all of the lanes. I suppose they can't eliminate cars completely. Early on a Sunday morning it looked fairly nice outside so we went for a walk.

Fun for the Kids
They really have fun things for kids in some of the malls here. Here is a spot to drive cars around a track. Next is a place where you can practice your construction skills using all manner of "big boy" toys.

At this construction (konstruksi) site, for Rp150,000 you can have unlimited time playing according to the sign. And you get your choice of a hard hat, t-shirt or orange blaze safety vest!

Great Poster
I saw this somewhere while out and about.

Almost Home
Just before we reach our apartment building we go through a short tunnel. This is what I see when we exit the tunnel and before we turn left into the apartment lot.If the silver car weren't there you would see the sign for our apartment building. We turn left into the site in front of the little whitish booth in the distance in the photo.

Drinks That Are Not Green, Maybe!
Rosella Tea- served at our favorite Chinese-Indonesian restaurant.

Charcoal Tea-  ( It looks sort of green in this photo, but it isn't really. )Spotted this in the grocery store. Pineapple, lemon and charcoal are the listed ingredients.

Life is like a container of ice cream!

We entered the month of Ramadhan yesterday. We wanted to share some basic food statistics. The markets across this town sell 120 tons of shallots and red chilis every day! During Ramadhan, the demand goes up by 10-20 percent. To keep up the government imports extra beyond what can be grown here. By the way, they do use onions and garlic in cooking, but traditionally, far more shallots are used. And red chilis go into practically everything.

Forgotten Post 1 - Crossing the International Dateline

Here are additional photos I'd forgotten to post! On my return flight from the US earlier this year I wasn't able to sleep much on one of the flights. I thought, I can't sleep, so why not take photos? But take photos of what? Naturally I took photos of the flight map being displayed on the monitors. This segment was from Chicago to Tokyo. In the middle photo you can see my plane tracking right across the International Dateline.

I think this is the Gulf of Alaska. There was a big announcement as we flew over it.  I was lucky enough to be on the correct side for this sighting. For the other landmarks, I was on the wrong side of the plane.

Forgotten Post 2- The Wedding

Earlier this year, we attended the wedding of a young local couple. Somehow I forgot to include this in previous posts.

Actually, we attended the church ceremony, the black-tie dinner that evening and also the "reception" the following Sunday. It was a 3-event wedding. I am not a fashionable dresser by any means. Everyone knows that. B doesn't own a tuxedo. Nevertheless, with the assistance of my sister and my mom, a borrowed dress, borrowed shoes, a newly purchased outfit, purchased evening bags, a second pair of shoes, a borrowed tux, a purchased tuxedo shirt and tie and my sewing skills, we patched together the necessary outfits for all of the events. Whew!

I include here some photos from the church, the evening black-tie dinner and the week later HUGE formal reception.

Flowers at the church. And I do mean flowers!!!!!

On our way to the black tie dinner:

The menu for the dinner:

Two courses. Each course was a piece of art.

We were not the only celebrities present at these festivities ( ha ha ha!). Also in attendance at the black-tie event was the Governor and Mrs. Governor of the Province.

The reception!
The place was a very crowded venue. And, culturally, when you are invited to an event like this you may bring along anyone you like. We learned from the sister-in-law of the groom that there were only 2500 people at the reception.  Hmmm. This is a HUGE buffet situation, very elegant foodstuffs, but no seating. Well, there was seating for a small select group of VIPs but everyone else just stood. And amazingly they even served soups in small crocks.

 The wall sculptures were hand carved out of styrofoam.

The food was unbelievable. Just a couple of shots. 

At the formal reception the Governor and Mrs. Governor attended, but also the President of Indonesia, Vice President of Indonesia, and two former Presidents (along with their spouses). In this shot is Mr.and Mrs. President of Indonesia greet the bride, groom and the parents. The reception was so large they projected the "stage" area onto large movie screens. This was the first wedding I attended that included an enormous platform boom to provide live TV.

Most of these folks were whisked in surrounded by security, fast-laned through the receiving line and whisked right back out.

Other celebrities in attendance were: Ambassador to Singapore, Supreme Court Justice from Singapore, head of the most powerful political party in Indonesia, Ambassador from France, and many, and I mean MANY, other dignitaries.

Not to stop at 3 events to celebrate the happy couple, we were also invited to the home of the groom's brother for a more casual evening a week or two following the large reception. This couple was really, truly, absolutely married after all of these events!