Indonesia - Day 6 Kidzania

After hiking up a mountain, muddy, sweaty, and cranky, my mother had an ingenious idea to take us straight to Jakarta, to one of the most lavish mall in Jakarta where you will see Rolls Royce and Lamborghini displayed smack down in the middle of the mall, where Prada and Hermes were featured along with Bottega Veneta and Givenchy. Do you remember my muddy butt attire? Yeah, I entered the mall like so. I had to cover my behind with my large purse but at the same time my mom keeps telling me to keep my purse at sight afraid something inside my purse will get stolen. Hhmm, tough decision, I chose to cover my butt.

To compromise with the kids, we decided to take them to Kidzania. Kidzania is an educational indoor theme park. Upon entering Kidzania Jakarta, kids are given a boarding pass, a map of the city, and a 50 Kidzos (the official currency of Kidzania) paycheck. Inside, kids work on over 70 different professions. Some establishments require children to pay a significant amount of Kidzos. If one runs out of money, they must work in establishments that offer salaries in a significant amount of Kidzos. A security bracelet is required during entry so that parents can find you if you are lost, and can only be removed upon return to the front desk.

Treyton, waiting for Uncle Alvin to enter. This is him sitting down on an invisible chair.


Treyton, Ivory and Alvin got to be a deejay.


Cashing his Kidzos paycheck


Check up at the hospital to get a medical ID. He will then take this medical ID to the Dept. of Transportation to get his mug shot and issued a driver license. He can then take his driver license to go car racing. The sequence must be done as so.


To get to this point you must have a driver's license which you must have medical ID to get a driver's license. You get it now?


This is where "the chefs" are. This is where Treyton was given a chicken nugget and the task is to put the chicken nugget between two soda crackers with a slice of cheese and ketchup. Yeah, I didn't think so either.


Moulding chocolate at the SilverQueen factory. SilverQueen is the brand name of chocolate in Indonesia.


They learn how to paint


Slacking from painting

There were other places that Treyton, Ivory and Alvin got to experience, such as the dentist, where kids could do some teeth cleaning and tooth extraction on a dummy, the police station where were chauffeur by an adult to chase a robber throughout the park, the fire truck went around the park before it's final destination of a burning building where kids could put out the fire (all light simulated), a movie theater where kids can be the person selling tickets, or be an actor, a pizza place where kids can make their own dough and top their own pizzas. They even had a night club for kids, which was odd to me, where kids could either be a deejay or just dancing on the floor under the disco ball.

Each of these activities are sponsored by giant corporations in Indonesia. The Dentist was sponsored by Pepsodent brand of toothpaste wildly use in Indonesia, the Chocolate factory by Silver Queen company, so on and so forth.

It's quite a fun place really, unfortunately my camera ran out of battery and the phone camera also ran out of battery as we didn't expect to come here at all.

Indonesia Day 6 - Seeking Hidden Waterfalls

We started our day with this for breakfast. Sweet sticky rice rolled in banana leaves, steamed, cut up and served with fresh coconut flakes and gula jawa (palm sugar) syrup. This was a treat for me as I grew up eating this almost every weekend. Even Treyton and Jeff who have never had this liked it and it was to my mother's surprise.

While we ate our breakfast, we were also entertained by this fella, Mrs. Hen. After laying her brown egg, he decided to come out of the cage and went for a drink. It was a treat to see! Mr. Rooster cock-a-doodle-do-ing in the background worried about Mrs. Hen being a free-hen and all. It was hilarious!

Unfortunately, this is the last picture of Mrs. Hen as she died after being attacked by some sort of rodent (ferret or mongoose)

I want to also introduce you to Mr. Beo (Gracula Religiosa). Treyton absolutely loves this bird. This dude talks and talks, not those bird tweet tweet talk, the bird bloody talks Indonesian. My mother had taught these phrases (hello!, wow keren! (as in wow cool! in English) among other phrases. Treyton loves repeating wow keren!

Today's agenda involve in hiking up through rice paddies along the foot of a mountain. Let's just say my mother is notorious at keeping the little details of fatal information and there were a lot of unexpected things that we wished we had know before going to this journey. Like she failed to mention that the hike would be along a single lane human traffic, full of mud. She also said wear your sandals because we don't want to get dirty, great idea, but considering the sharp rocks and the muddy paths we should have worn our tennis shoes. It was 100 degrees Fahrenheit that day that we should have equipped ourselves with sunscreen and hat. But we didn't, thus Jeff was burnt to crisp on the back of his neck. Luckily Treyton posses my Indonesian skin where when exposed to extreme rays, it gets dark not burnt.

We drove until the road became a two lane dirt road, which became one lane dirt road, which became a treacherous path of potholes and gaps that we decided to go on foot fearing that the van would either go in hole or flip over. Our van was followed by these kids looking to be our porters. They were about to offer their service to carry whatever we've got, including small kids. Yes you heard me, pictures below.


We walked through a small village, see the rock path, not flip flop friendly. Passed locals building traditional Javanese structures through this jungle village. Chickens, goats, lamb freely walk everywhere.


Some friends we met along the way. Unfortunately these kids cannot afford school so they stayed home.


Saw a bunch of these along the way. These are cages for goats and lambs, next to the farmer's house.


Chickens, goats, lambs walk everywhere, interacting with people

Apparently it's also a good parking spot


Whoa! Hello! After reaching the edge of the village we exit the jungle onto a plateau overssing the rice fields in the valley.




Yeap, my well pedicured, silver toes were completely wrecked.


By this point, Treyton was begging to come back but we were only halfway there. Fortunately the kid we hired, offer to carry him. Please don't judge and yes we paid him REALLY well.


Do you see the white spot on the upper right hand side? That's the hidden waterfalls we're trying to get to.


My favorite shot.


Oh Alvin had such a great time every time he fell in the deep mud


Our first break point. The kids went swimming.


Yeap, I fell on my butt, several times! No I did not shit my pants.


Gathering my "qi" (chi) for the next miles and miles to the waterfalls


This is the point where Jeff and I got separated from the group and got lost. One of the kids we hired came back looking for us. Oh Thank Goodness and God Bless His Soul.


WE MADE IT! Finally arrived at the waterfall


Andrew Zimmern?! Is that you? Jeff was relieved that he wasn't the only white dude there.


About the only picture I have of Treyton and I throughout this trip. Thanks to me madre


Posing in front of a small store where Jeff had to buy a new flip flop since his expensive sandal that he most loved had been completely ruined.


Okay folks, do you see the hanging green thing to your right? That's called Petai Beans (Parkia Speciosa) or stink beans. It's earned its nickname because of its super pervasive smell that lingers in the mouth and body and give strong smell to one's urine and cause strong-smelling flatulence. And a lot of Indonesian dishes include these beans so take extra precautions when dining in Indonesia.


Treyton, contemplating crossing this bamboo bridge. This is what Treyton said in this scenario "One by one you guys, one by one, let me go first!" NO, Ivory, don't go yet, let me get to the other side first." His scream has attracted quite an audience as you can tell. The Indonesian kids were gigling like crazy, saying "OMG check out this bule" Bule (pronounce Boo-lech) means white person in Indonesian.


Padi farmer, click on the picture for a larger view


This is rice before they were pitted from it's shell.

Indonesia Day 5 - Depok Bogor

There wasn't much going on this day. My mom took all of us girls to a spa. Now, let me tell you this, this ain't your typical spa here in the United States. This one particular spa is attended and serviced by women only, no dudes are allowed inside. This will give the chance to the girls with cover up to also be able to enjoy the service.

Apparently it's called "Pijat Lulur". Pijat means massage, Lulur means body scrub. Now you can't be shy here. For 2.5 hours you get a full massage, head to toes, yes, chest too! I was taken to the second floor where you are taken to a small space behind a curtain where you'll find a massage bed. Each bed was separated only by curtains. After stripping down, buck naked you lie down on your stomach and that's when these fantastic tiny little girls with hands as strong as a lumberjack yet the skin is as soft as a baby's bottom, start working on your taut muscles from years of sitting in a cubicle staring at a computer answering phones and emails. My girl, Tita, literally spent 15 minutes on each of my limbs.

The massage is followed by lulur. Lulur is a concoctions of natural herbs formed into a paste that resembles a scrub. They were applied with hard strokes to remove the first layer of the epidermis full of dead cells to promote the growth of new cells so your skin stays youthful. That's what I was told anyway. The last thing we had to do was to remove the oil from the massage, the leftover paste from the lulur, by taking a shower and drank jamu, an herb drink to soothe your soul.

I felt like a million bucks afterward. I highly recommend for visitor to do this while visiting Indonesia. The cost for the entire blissful session was ten dollars. Yes, you heard me right.

I found the name of the place we had this heavenly treatment. It's called Salon Rengganis and this link will give you directions to the place.

I went to visit my dear high school friends. I was two hours late because we couldn't find the place where we were supposed to meet. The place was called Mang Engking, near one of the biggest universities in Jakarta, Universitas Indonesia. Here's a blog I found online written by a local for photos and description of this place. This type of place seems to be a trend here in Indonesia. It was GREAT to see my friends well and healthy and ate what's left of the food that's been sitting for 2 hours.

Wiwit, Dita and her son Bagas (cute as button), Endah, Me, Jeff and Treyton

We then visited my grandma's house where we also arranged to meet my uncles, aunties, nieces and nephews whom some I have never met and some I have not seen in 13 years. As excited I was to see them I was most excited to see my friends whom I grew up during my teenage years. My uncle took me around the neighborhood after Maghrib trying to see if anyone was home. I was able to meet some who were still residing there. Most of them had moved away. Aaaah the memories. It was funny seeing everyone's reactions. Most of them had to take a second look at me to realize that it was me. They wouldn't have recognized me if I were just passing by.

My niece Ivory in green, my mom, Treyton, Jeff, My grandmother, my sister Putri, my uncle Agung and his daughter, Ria, Me, Aunti Vera Lila (Agung's wife) and her son.

My grandma with Ivory and her cousin

My high school friend Frida came over with her daugher Filia. My mother used to compare me with Frida back in the days. "Why can't you be as brilliant as Frida?"

Filia and Treyton playing. Notice the row houses, the picture doesn't do justice of how narrow the streets are yet, vehicles can enter in and out of this. Amazing!

This is across from my grandmother's house and you're looking down about 300 feet of shallow river and across the river is a busy street.

Coming Soon!
Borobudur (one of the seven wonders of the world) and our days at heaven on Earth Bali!