At the square of the old town. We visited museum and we are able to touch touch the displayed items because they have replicated it. We noticed that 90% of the visitors were viewing the artifact through the screen of a camera or a phone.
There were stalls selling food. One big guy came over and commanded a few words. the hawker quietly shifted to another boundary line. This big guy doesn't seems to be from any officials but was wearing big chain around his neck. Then the ladies from other stall would flirt with him, end up they still have to move.
These are the prison cell balls... really heavy. Left by the Dutch. They have lots of uses...
For decoration,
For photography,
For a resting place,
For blocking road and restrict movement.
This little street sells interesting product but none of our attention except for the Keropok.
Scene from the old town.
think its better to walk on foot.
In Singapore, it will be the Long Bar at Raffles Hotel. In Indonesia, it would be the Cafe Batavia in Jakarta.
It was once award the world best bar in 1996 by Newsweek.
with lots of interesting wall pictures to view at.
We wanted to taste the coffee luwak for a very long time... in Singapore, it cost about S$20-30.
We are not sure if we have to stir it, lots of powder.
World best bar.
@ the staircase.
In the toilet.
When sitting.
For a night's out.
Too much tourist! we decided to take a walk out of it, just follow the map towards some Mall. the streets are very hard to walk. lots of obstacle. Blessed Singapore that we have a very good walkway to stroll on, other than little india.
We saw a artist lane.
Along the way, we asked the locals for direction. All of them that we approached replied in a sincere manner.
Its odd to see big mall not operating on a sunday.
What caught our eye was the Novotel Hotel. It seems to be built above an old house.
Our guess was:
1) the hotel wanted to buy the land to built a proper hotel but the old house owner refused to move.
2) might be due to some 'feng shui' geomancy issue.
the wind chime was super big.
looking up the ceiling, it looks like the ancient coin of China.
M took us for a dinner on the eve of her wedding. We got to know her family better. It was the very first time for us to have a proper chinese food in Indonesia, thou we have traveled from Timor to Sumatra on Hope Too.
We were always lost while navigating. there would be kind soul coming up to us to check if we need any help. We can't understand any Bahasa Indonesia but from the feel, we could point to them where we are going and we observe their body language. Those that came forward to give us direction were usually the younger ones.
Simply to say, we love the the way how Indonesian worked. Pace are much slower when we arrived at the airport. We could really catch some breath out of Singapore. Time was never promised.
Seeing how a security guard deal with a local smoking in a shopping mall, it tells me that human relation is important. There were no big hoo haa, no arguement, no photo taking, no phone call to the unknown. both parties would quietly settle on the spot.
People are easy going and helpful. I ordered a beer, something else was served. I couldn't blame them because I couldn't speak their language. I learned and tried again.
Our favorite past time in Indonesia is to eat a Bakso and drink the Teh Botol. All the Bakso tasted so differently. There are rumors that the bakso from the roadside stalls were made from rats.
During our RTW travel, the nearest we got was to reach Bogor. The Indonesian friends came all the way from Jakarta to Bogor early in the morning and wanted to fetch us into Jakarta. We rejected them at that time because Hope Too was around. Thank you all our Indonesian friends. We love it!
We learned to say:
Tidak ada apa apa
Hati hati
