We got into Jakarta early this morning. I got to meet Astrid's mom and dad (Ibu Chandra and Pak Prajogo). The airport looked a bit rural with a small building with nice red roofs and palm trees outside. The immigration and customs didn't ask anything and only took a few minutes. We drove to the house through some tiny little streets and it felt a little like a video game. The house has a jackfruit tree, coconut tree, lemon tree, and a mango tree in the backyard. The 2 little pomeranians (Cici and Milo) were very cute and i gave Cici a nice tummy rub.
On the way to dinner we saw jockeys who will hop in the car so you can use the express lanes. I had read about them in the new york times last month and how it is not always safe to let a stranger into the car(we didn't use them). The 4 of us met up with Astrid's aunt and uncle and had a nice bite to eat at the Kempinski hotel. Evidently this hotel was the first post communist internatinal hotel built in Jakarta in the 60's during Soekarno's reign in the 60's. According to Astrid's dad rock and roll was against the law at that time.
I tried the infamous durian. I was actually a bit disappointed that it didn't stink. It had no real smell and tasted quite good (halfway between a pineapple and pudding). I also tried snakeskin fruit and dragon fruit which also seemed to taste like some sort of crazy pineapples. The people here seem to be pretty nice so far and I'll be interested to see a bit of Jakarta tomorrow. According to Astrid, people in Jakarta like to take it nice and slow.
Here is a picture of the airport and then a picture of Astrid in the Kempinski or Grand Indonesia. I tried to get a good picture of traffic, but all of them turned out blurry. The motor bikes seem to get within inches of the cars going the opposite direction.
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