[Visiting my uncle Undang]
| Today was yet another crazy day. Started off the morning at 3:30am, I decided to join my family in fasting this holiday season. It's a Muslim tradition during this time of the Ramadan. oh man was I hungry all day!! haha.. oh well. So basically we eat at 3:30 then start fasting at 4am until 6pm. no food or drink. I'm still drinking water because I'm not used to this weather and I still feel like having fluids whenever I want (especially when I have the chance to try cool new exotic drinks). The pictures above were taken this morning at my uncle Undang's place. very nice home as you can see. His children are also nice. Julia came with Irfan and myself on a tour to Jakarta following this visit on our way to do some more shopping at the same giant mall I saw yesterday. On our way I made frequent stops to take snapshots of very interesting sights. |
| After some more shopping, we made our way through some of the nicer areas of Jakarta. Really really nice homes! really big too. We also made our way to the more downtown core of Jakarta. wow.. I saw some more official office buildings, classy Indonesian hotels and the biggest mosque in Indonesia! that was a very very humbling experience. Really really big and open. the overall design is very simple yet extremely powerful. You could actually feel the presence of Allah when you walked through this ancient hall. Too bad my camera's batteries died out. I could have literally spent the whole day taking pictures (that's tomorow). |
| After the breathtaking visit to the mosque, we made our way to
the first shopping mall ever built in Indonesia. Really nice stuff there!
I bought a couple more shirts and Irfan brought me to a floor where it was an
entire huge display of all the arts all over Indonesia! WOW!! too bad I couldn't
take any pictures. sooooooooooooooooooo many sculptures and artwork! holy
smokes! pretty cheap too! Stuff from Bali, Semarang, East, West and
Central Java. I just drooled everwhere. I remember the sculptures when I
was a child but these were different. The colors alot more vibrant and
painted alot more in detail. I'm going to pick up a couple
things later on, no rush right now.
He also took me to the Batik floor right above and that's when I almost lost it. I saw soooooooo much fabric!! all so gorgeous too! hand painted and weaved of really fine silk. this wasn't so cheap however considering what you're getting it was a total deal! sure 70 bucks for a true 100% authentic Batik shirt may seem expensive but if you saw what you're getting, oh man. so I think I'm gonna slap one or two on the credit card next time I'm there. I also picked up some really really nice fabric for Yuka and saw alot of shirts and dresses I really want to get her as well. however I'm going to wait until after I do my full tour of Java. just in case I find a cheaper solution somewhere in central Java or something.
After a close call of spending all of my money right on that top floor, we made our way back to Undang's place to break the fasting with them. My aunt made delicious peanut satay (holy tender batman!) and some yellow curry stuff and things. Felt good to actually go through one day of the fasting. sure I have a whole other week to go but it is humbling for many reasons. She also showed me her bridal room where she dresses up brides in traditional garments and then asked me when I'm going to marry Yuka. Actually alot of people are asking me that. but who knows, anything can happen and I really do love that girl. We made our way home and I was tired... oh man. Tomorrow is going to be an even bigger day so I'm going to sleep now. see you tomorrow or something. |
