Jakarta is not a beautiful city. It is huge and dirty. It is full of nonsensical traffic rules and rude motorbikes. It has very few beautiful buildings and even fewer parks. So much of the city seems to be under construction, and so many roads offer detours instead of a simple tour around the block.
It took some time, but I think we have come to terms with the fact that Jakarta's beauty takes some searching. We went out exploring today, looking for the new and the exciting; looking to enjoy our new city. And we found plenty. I didn't hear any of the girls complain about the garbage on the street or the noise of the traffic. They didn't mind the crowds, although they still don't enjoy strangers talking to them.
Make no mistake. This city is no less dirty now than it was when we arrived. We found a park to explore this afternoon. The lovely waterway above traversed the length of the park, and then kept going under a bridge and off through the city. It was lovely, until you looked at the water...
No, I think we have just reached our new normal. Riding in the car doesn't make us sick anymore, and we no longer expect our streets to be free of garbage or our sidewalks to be whole. Thirty minutes in the car is a short drive, and we count stray cats out the window when we get bored. We've discovered that the city is full of good food, and we have yet to find a restaurant that we don't all want to return to. Sadly, the street food has not lived up to the restaurants. We rarely choose to eat street food, because we can see where they wash the dishes. But upon a recommendation, we stopped at this food stand.
The atmosphere was kind of fun - very urban tropical, there was no forgetting that we were eating in a big Southeast Asian city. They offered one dish - chicken with sambal and rice. No silverware, but plenty of napkins. The girls were not impressed. The chicken had bones, and how could they eat rice without a fork or spoon? Dave and I got the hang of it pretty quickly, and were sucking the sambal off the bones by the end of our meal. The girls finished their chicken only on the promise of ice-cream later in the day. Things are still new.
Pockets of beauty showed up all over the place - in doorways and roofs, little statues in windows and plates piled into towers in restaurant windows. The park was lovely, and led us to the animal market. The animal market was wild.
It was surprisingly easy to leave without a new pet. With the exception of the placid piles of soft bunnies and the rows of cages of birds, it was hard to justify most of these animals spending any time in a cage. And you had to wonder - how did they come by these monkeys and squirrels? We saw a surprising number of animals we did not recognize at all, and a surprising number of fully grown cats. We saw only two cages of puppies, and those broke our hearts. The black lab puppies were sleepy and looked so much like our Millie that it made Dave and I sad. When the little dachsund in the cage below noticed us paying attention to the Millie-looking puppies, he perked up and begged for attention. The poor little fellow wanted some loving more than anything, and I couldn't even fit a finger through the cage to scratch his nose. We couldn't pay for these puppies.
I am happy to say that the girls finished the day feeling that the outing was a great adventure. It is nice to feel settled enough that we can begin to explore our city, and such a city for exploring! There may not be much beauty, but there are surprises around many corners.
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