First Stop.. Jakarta!
After leaving Logan Wednesday afternoon and literally the longest night of my life flying, we arrived in Jakarta Friday afternoon. First impressions were hot, smelly, lots of people, and hot. We stayed right in the center of the city and those first few days were definitely a culture shock to being on the other side of the world in a third world country. Brad loved getting back to speaking the language, and it was fun to see him make friends and interact with everyone we came in contact with. Our hotel was on the 6th and 7th floor of a skyrise building attached to a crazy huge shopping mall that I always seemed to get lost in (not at all like American mall). While there we visited the largest mosque in southeast Asia, did some shopping, tried new foods, and went to church. Sunday afternoon we headed to the airport for Bali!
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| Did I mention it was HOT? |
The first half of the week in Bali we stayed in a cottage in the mountains in a little city in the middle of the island called Ubud. This was my favorite place we stayed. The whole time we were there I couldn't get over how beautiful everything was. Our room was half windows and we were surrounded by rice fields and the jungle.
The first day we explored around where we were staying. In the morning we went to an art meuseum and a local shopping area and bought some things. For lunch we ate on the side of a hill overlooking rice fields. That afternoon we visited the monkey forest. We bought bananas to feed the monkeys and it was crazy. They just crawled right up our body's and took them. Brad loved it, but I was a little freaked out ha :)
The other days in Ubud we drove around to see different sites. We visited more beautiful rice fields, ate a lot of good/crazy food,went swimming, and visited a few temples (including a temple on a lake in the mountains).
Nusa Dua
For the second part of our time in Bali we stayed a resort on the beach. The first day there we enjoyed the pool and beach. That night we went to a dance show that was on a cliff overlooking the ocean at sunset. The view was awesome and dance was fun to watch. Later that night Brad and i went on an adventure to find a person selling and making his favorite treat on the street. It is this pancake chocolate thing. They gave it to us in some wrapped paper and by the time we were back in our hotel room the paper was soaked through with grease...needless to say it was really good!
We really enjoyed staying at a nice resort and soaking up the sun. We woke up one morning early one morning and ran outside to catch the sunrise (it was amazing!). One of our funest meals was at a seafood restaurant on the beach. We chose the fresh fish we wanted and they cooked and brought it out to us on the beach. Bali was amazing and I was sad when it was time to leave, but excited to move onto Jogja.
Jogjakarta
Jogja was a big city but not as crazy as Jakarta. We were there really early Friday morning so before checking into our hotel we decided to take the drive and visit the Borobudur temple. This temple was amazing. It was huge and steep and there was so much detail in every little stone. We were able to walk and climb all around the temple.
We stayed at a nice hotel in Jogja and were able to be close to a lot. We visited the fabric market, which was a really crowded shopping market, and it was a crazy experience. There is a lot of traditional culture in Jogja and it was really cool to see it all around us. We also ate more locally while we were here. Marc and Jen and I were a little nervous when we would go to certain restaurants or buy food off the street, but those always ended up being our favorite meals.
Brad spent a good portion of his mission serving in Jogja. We were able to visit members and his convert while we were there. I will never forget walking into her humble home and seeing Brad's picture on the wall of her living room from the day she was baptised. I could see the joy that the gospel has brought to her life as well as those around her. There was so much happiness and I felt so much gratitude for my husband and all missionaries who have served or are serving so that one person can have the joy of the gospel in their lives.
Last thing we did in Jogja was to visit the Prambanan temple. There were three temples about a mile apart and it was cool to walk around and see the differences here from Borobudur.Yet again it was really hot and we were all really sweaty and tired by the end of it.
For the final part of our trip we were in Jakarta again. The last day we visited the Tamaran Safari. It was crazy we just drove our car through and fed and saw tons of animals. After we got to hold a baby lion and a 1 year old white tiger. At the end of the day we watched an elephant show and were taking pictures in front and one of the workers was like you can come touch them if you want..It was so cool!!
Well that was our awesome and crazy trip in a nut shell. Along the way we had many sweaty days, some airline problems, a crying baby, and a throwing up pregnant girl, but we made it through. I am so happy we went and were able to have that experience. It is hard to explain what Indonesia is really like, until you are actually there. In a little over two weeks I learned a lot and hope that Brad and I will be able to go back someday (maybe on a mission together :)!
