Jakarta

On my last day in Indonesia, the driver took me around Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, and the main city on the island of Java. Parts of this country were colonized by the Dutch, then the Japanese during the WWII, and then the Dutch again (remarkably, Indonesians don't harbor hard feelings towards the Dutch and absolutely detest the Japanese, saying that the former basically looted the country during the war). The Jakarta Old Town is built in the traditional Dutch colonial style with white stonewashed buildings and red roofs.

Even though most of the other museums were closed, I managed to make it to the puppet museum. Puppet shows are a big part of Indonesian culture. The museum curator showed me various types of puppets and explained the intricate and long process of making them. (If I recollect correctly, the puppet itself is made out of buffalo skin). I also got to have a delicious rice noodle lunch at the famous Old Batavia Hotel.

The driver then took me around other parts of the city. I saw the beautiful Presidential Palace, an old protestant church in Indonesia (built by the Dutch), the largest mosque in the world, and Jakarta's sprawling Chinatown. Airport was next, followed by a miserably long flight back home.

Taman Safari

I had a free day before the start of the workshop, so I decided to take advantage and go to the local Zoo in Bogor, which turned out to be much more than just a Zoo. It did have animals in caged areas, but the majority of it was actually similar to a drive-through safari park, where animals roamed freely and we were actually allowed to feed most of them carrots that we had bought right outside the park. For those who know my obsession with animals, I was in heaven (I think the driver might have thought I was clinically insane the way I squealed at the sight of new animals and actually talked to them). Here is a sample of the animals we were able to see and feed.




The zebras and the llamas were very brave and actually stuck their faces right into our car windows to get some carrots. One zebra even started chewing on the side mirror when we weren't giving it any more carrots. The car was completely covered with animal saliva.


We were also able to see some more rare animals such as the white Bengal tigers (walking side by side with "regular" Asian tigers) and the Komodo dragon (native to Indonesia). The areas where the tigers and lions were roaming were gated off, and we were prohibited from getting out of the car (not that I would attempt to anyway---they did look pretty ferocious).

Indonesia (getting there)

This was the furthest I have ever flown, so the flight itself was very long and first took me to Seoul, Korea for an overnight layover (after a 13 hour flight). Korean Airlines put me up in the nicest hotel ever---my room had a heated toilet, which, in my opinion, is the greatest invention ever. What made the layover more bearable, in addition to the heated toilet:), is the amazing food the hotel had. The leg to Jakarta was only about 6.5 hours, so I was actually feeling okay when I finally got to my collaborator's beautiful house in Bogor (about 1.5 hours from Jakarta). I was there for an inception workshop for a very interesting research project on the impact of biofuel cultivation on people's land rights.
Indonesia is a country full of contradictions. On the one hand, it has a lot of natural resources (including oil and gas), and everything imaginable grows there (the Indonesians joke that you can drop anything into the ground, and it will grow). Drought is not an issue because of the tropical climate---in fact, I have never seen a stronger tropical downpour than I witnessed one night during my stay. On the other hand, it is the 4th most populated country in the worlds. Most of the people live on the island of Java, while the rest are spread around on some 17,000 islands that constitute Indonesia. So, while the resource abundance is there, so is widespread poverty, due to the geographical spread, high population density in some places, and pervasive corruption. Many Indonesians speak English and their native languages, while Bahasa, a made-up official language, is quite simple to learn.