Jakarta, Indonesia
6° 10' S 106° 49' E
Aug 17, 2004 05:00
Distance 0km

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Indonesian Independence Day

Text written in: English

I woke up to the sound of drums, loudspeaker announcements and music. It faded and then came back. After gathering my strength with a healthy breakfast of pancakes and coffee in bed, I decided to venture out.

It turned out there was a fair going on in the little park on our street, with various stands and a stage where there was some pretty awful singing going on. The rest of the city turned out to be pretty much as on any other holiday except for the huge numbers of Red/White flags and colours everywhere - being the colours of the Indonesian Republic. The history to it is that the Dutch rules for several hundred years and basically exploited and brutally controlled the locals to make a buck out of the spice trade. Spices used to be more expensive than gold, so growing them here and shipping them was a clever move. When the Japanese invaded in the second world war, they allowed Indonesia more self-determination, and when they were beaten and retreated, Indonesia decleared itself an Independent Republic.
Anyway, at the fair I wandered around a little, took some photos (attached to this entry) and bought:


    A plant for my desk at work
    A crocodile made of sweet bread and some sort of fruit, with a chocolate centre - it was surprisingly yummy! (see the before and after photos)
    Some floating candles for my bath... An excellent way to set fire to yoruself and get a free haircut

I also noticed that there is a lot of beautiful craftwork in the markets and shopping malls and it's pretty cheap. Things from hand-beaten copper bowls and vases through to wood furniture which appears to be made from teak. I wonder how much filling up half a container and shipping it would cost. One day when I have built my own house I might get some of the furniture made in a remote spot and shipped.

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Photos / videos of "Indonesian Independence Day":

batik designs by hand - cooling the wax in the the front gate as I leave kids at the fair the fairground at our little street park batik, the colour is kept in the little pot (Wajan) on the left, which looks like a wok and is heated by a mini-oven called a Kompor batik designs by hand - the word batik originates from the Japanese work 'Tik Our suburb Menteng, things change at the end of our street just a little... On the left you can see the vendors, hawkers and street stalls Pondok Indah Mall - one of many Malls and Plaza shopping complexes in Jakarta... For some reason malls are very popular some craft - various things made out of hand-beaten copper Indonesian woman doing Batik Jalan Panarukan where our office and pad is my purchases - a bread crocodile (filled with chocolate), two floating candles and a pot-plant the centre of the bread+fruit crocodile is chocolate mmmmm quite yummy Menteng, Jakarta - the end of our street: Jalan Panarukan some stalls in Menteng pastry shop in Pondok Indah mall
earlier Entry 12 of 57 later
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