Jakarta

Watch the first step, it’s a big one. Twenty-five hours with our tray tables and seats in upright position. Safe to say that we caught up on all the reading about Indonesia that we’d been putting off. We had a chance to rest overnight in Singapore and then arrived in Jakarta in the afternoon.

Our Jakarta partner, Fathur, whisked us away on a city tour. The city makes a strong first impression. It’s built around open canals and mopeds – and it’s big. Really big. At 17 million people, it’s a megacity bigger than New York. But much warmer.

First stop on the actual tour Museum Sejarah Jakarta. The plaza was full of school children and families taking in the Sunday afternoon. At the door of the old Dutch government house, an exhuberant, spectacular self-appointed tour guide attached himself to our party. He corralled us into a group in front of each object of significance and reeled off a series of canned jokes and quick histories. We tried to wonder off to watch the monkey riding a motorcycle on the plaza or the children playing in the rainwater cistern, but he was relentless an insisted on attention. We got a little extra attention for the Obama connection. One group of teenagers was very excited to take their picture with the people who voted in Obama’s election.

We got a first chance to get out of the historic district after lunch. We walked through a working district where men ran industrial sewing machines to make giant tarps, parents and children shared single vespas and a goat joined our parade. We eventually made our way to the heart of Jakarta. Hundreds of young men were playing sepak bola in pick up games around the Monumen Nasional. Then we made our way across to the Istiqual Mosque and were greeted by a guard who kindly offered to give us a tour of the mosque. The enormity was staggering. The compound and courtyards can hold 200,000 worshippers (although it was practically empty and quiet when we were there). The state was intimately involved in the creation and design of this mosque as a symbol of independence and Muslim identity. Directly across the street is a cathedral representing the religious pluralism in Indonesia.

The following day we were privileged to meet with diplomats, bureaucrats and officials who were optimistic about the project and were eager to hear about the remainder of our trip. We were treated to a classic Javanese meal of gado-gado and curried cow brains…only Mr. Fricke was willing to partake…he claimed the taste was preferable to the lungs.