Jenny’s Journies

Wednesday, 16 August 2006 @ 11:41am.

I have not been able to email or blog for a couple of weeks since I was traveling with family. I did squeeze in some time for interviews and focus groups, though, as the research must go on.

Here are some highlights:

BOGOR (a couple of hours by train outside of Jakarta)

I took a lot of pictures of the different orchids and other flowers at the Bogor Botanical Gardens, but this is one of my favorites because it is so unusual:

We took an angkot (public opelet/minibus) to see the Batu Tulis (Written Stone), which is said to have mystical meaning and power. We almost missed the place because there were no large signs and the stone is in a very small building. Unfortunately, there are no placards or information sheets, so we didn’t get a good sense of the stone’s history. We also saw a family lunching in front of the stone, which apparently was not considered disrespectful:

JAKARTA:

Here is a picture of the inside of Senayan City, a new mall/business building/apartment complex. A lot of the spaces are still unoccupied or reserved. The AC was on full blast, so it was pretty chilly walking around:

We went to Senayan City specifically because we had heard of J.Co Donuts. There are some cool frosting flavors like green tea, chocolate banana, tiramisu, chocolate and chocolate crispy cereal, and mango. Their donuts are like the ones by Krispy Kreme, so much so, that it’s hard to tell the difference. Krispy Kreme will have none of this, of course, so they have reserved space right across from J.Co and will open soon:

We went to the National Monument and here is a view from the second floor. We went all the way to the top, where there was a wonderful breeze, and saw some nice views of the city (the pollution was not that bad that day so we were lucky):

MEDAN (big city in North Sumatera):

Medan has a mainly Christian and Muslim population, but we happened to see a small Hindu Temple. We saw a group of children doing their prayers, which was beautiful and funny at the same time (e.g., some of the little boys clearly took shortcuts). This picture shows some of the statues on the walls of the building (no pictures were allowed inside the temple):

TUK TUK (very small town on Samosir Island in Danau Toba [Lake Toba] - North Sumatera):

The Batak people are known for their elaborate gravesites. The graves vary in size, decoration, and color, depending on one’s finances:

Here is a picture of an old Batak house. The house belongs to the guide who took us hiking up the side of a mountain in search of a waterfall (as a sidenote, he did the hike barefoot!):

Here is the dry waterfall. It had flowing water the previous day because of the rain, but had dried up by the time we hiked up there. We didn’t mind, though, as the hike was hard enough and slippery rocks would have made for a dangerous trip:

This picture is of a fancier Batak house:

Here is Danau Toba (Lake Toba) - very blue and very nice:

For more information on Danau Toba, click here.