Day 6, March 14th

We spent our last morning in Singapore just walking around downtown one last time. We went to the airport to fly to Jakarta aboard Qatar Airlines. It was the nicest plane on our entire trip. I will have to admit, being surrounded by that many people wearing burqas, and dressed in a traditional Muslim style made me a little uneasy, but that just shows my insecurities. While we were in the line at the gate, we were pulled out and put at the front of the line. I asked Brent why that happened and he just said, "Why do you think that happened." I didn't want special treatment just because they thought we were Americans.

Anyway, our flight was nice. When we arrived in Jakarta, I had my first taste of a whole different world. This was a picture of one of the parking lots at the airport full of motorcycles.

A smoggy look at the city.

We drove the back way to get to our hotel and by the time we got there it was already dark. Indonesians like to set up their kiosk stands and make shift restaurants all over when the sun goes down. I have never seen that many people...everywhere you look. I was a little unnerved, but I didn't want Brent to know that I was a little nervous. We decided to walk down to Chili's I wanted to tell Brent that we could just stay in the hotel and eat crackers, but I also didn't want to be that person. So we walked to Chili's and once we were inside, I felt like I was in any Chili's in the U.S. (they even have the same tiled tables) Here were two pictures I snapped. The first one was just funny to me because it was my first time seeing prices like that on a menu. There currency is called Rupiah.

They don't have ketchup on the tables, you have to ask for it. But they do have
sambal, which is a sweet hot sauce.

Our supper was really good and we left to go back to the hotel. This was a picture I snapped or a traffic jam. Brent told me that it was pretty typical.

My first taste of Jakarta was a little unnerving, but later in the trip I realized I had nothing to be nervous about. Brent said later I had severe culture shock. There is just no way to describe to someone what it was like. Brent said you can't tell someone what a city of that many people is like, that you just have to experience it. I have to agree.