BOGOR

About one hour south of Jakarta is a town named Bogor. I went there with Treena (Canadian work friend who is in Jakarta for one year, like me). We spent the afternoon at the Botanical Gardens. It's a beautiful little oasis outside of town. There is a very large variety of trees, plants, cacti, etc. (I stink at botany, so that's about as detailed as I can get). There were a ton of locals there that kept on walking up to Treena and me saying "Sir, sir, picture, picture". All these people wanted was their picture taken with one of us...it was very weird!!
After the gardens, we went in search for the gong factory in town. It was closed for the day, but there was a guy there that showed us around (it's actually a concrete shack-type building with the words "gong factory" spraypainted on the front). They heat up the metal and pound it into the proper size and thickness and hand carved wooden frames for the gongs to hang on. I haven't bought any yet, but I defintely plan on it...wouldn't a gong look good in my front hallway?
Then on to the main purpose of our trip to Bogor. Dinner with some new friends we met in Ultimate Frisbee...all in all a great daytrip. We still did partake in one of Bogor's most famous pasttimes...shopping!! Bogor is well known for it's outlets for clothing, bags and purses. We'll save that for the next trip!!!

MY MOVE TO INDONESIA

So begins my adventures in Indonesia. I moved to Jakarta one month ago and have already found time to get into trouble. I'll back track a little to get up to date with my life from then until now.
Moving from the middle-class world of the USA to the expat world of Indonesia is defintely a change. Albeit not a bad change at all, if you have a little patience and are open-minded. I have never been to SE Asia before...I took the work transfer sight-unseen.
My first perception of Jakarta...cough, cough, cough...HORRIBLE POLLUTION!!! It makes anything you can think of in the US seem like roses...no joke! Not only is the air horrible from car (and motorbike) exhaust, but also burning garbage, and burning forests. The water/canal through the city looks (and smells) like a septic tank.
BUT, once you get past that, the city is amazing!! Indonesians are such a nice group of people, always with a smile on their faces. I have a driver here. That sounds fancy and all, but seriously, if I tried to drive with them, I would shorten my life span just with the stress. But, sitting in the passenger seat and admiring the scenery is great. There is such a dicotomy in this city between the poor and the wealthy. It's very interesting to see on the streets.
The apartment I live in is a serviced apartment that feels more like a hotel than an apartment. I'm on the 15th floor and have a pretty view of the city. I found a group of guys from work to play soccer with, and joined an Ultimate Frisbee team that practices twice a week. It's a blast!!!
And the location of Jakarta makes it extremely easy to get away and travel on the weekends...segway to the next posting...