After six hours of flight from Tokyo to Jakarta, we finally made to Soekarno-Hatta airport. There are 11 people, 8 baggages and 1 van. Can you paint a picture in your head with this situation? The temperature was around 100 degrees Fahrenheit with 100 percent of humidity. I was not elaborating.
The drive to my mother's house, initially was rough and slow. Traffic was terrible!
The concept of lanes is nihil. The two lane traffic becomes a four lane traffic. It was utter chaos but my mother's friend who is dedicated to transport us to places for entirety of our stay said that there's hardly any accidents here. I thank someone up there for this gentleman's mad driving skill.
Seat belts are not enforced here. Treyton was VERY happy. You see a scooter driver with a toddler on the front seat (standing up), and a passenger behind the driver, all without helmets. A lot of street sellers spilling out to the busy street especially during red lights, selling magazines, snacks, cigarettes, etc., panhandlers from old to young, saw some slum areas which breaks my heart.
"See those people on the ramp?" My mom said. There was a young adult with cigarette tucked between his lips chatting with another young guy. There was a young lady carrying a sleeping baby on her arms. There was a really old lady wearing the traditional "kebaya" with her white hair pulled back in a bun. These are just some of the people who are waiting for a single car driver to pick them up so that a driver can go through the two or more passengers lanes which is a way faster lane. Once they pass this lane the picked up passengers are to be dropped off to the curb after paying them a few change of Rupiahs and off the hitchikers back to the original spot to get more rides. Seems dangerous for both parties, but it serves the purpose. One needs money and have the time, the other is press for time and have the money.
Tumpeng (pictured above) is a cone shape fragrant yellow rice usually served for a ceremony. In this case, we were celebrating our safe and smooth trip of our arrival to Indonesia. Plus, this was Jeff's first trip to Indonesia. That's my mom had in mind, I think. The Tumpeng is surrounded by assorted of Indonesia dishes, such as vegetables with sauteed spiced coconuts (urap), fried chicken, sweet and spicy dried fried beef (empal), beef stewed in sweet gravy (semur), fried anchovy and tempeh with peanuts (teri kacang), shredded scrambled eggs, corn fritters (perkedel jagung) , fried liver in chili sauce (sambal goreng ati), mashed potatoes fritters
(perkedel kentang) and many others. I ate like there was no tomorrow!
(perkedel kentang) and many others. I ate like there was no tomorrow!
I just love these assorted tropical fruits (starfruits, green mangoes, salak , kedondong) as well as boiled peanuts, yucca and plantains.
