Few days in Jakarta

So far, have done a few things...

First note, the pollution hasn't seemed so bad since that first day. Most days there's a rainstorm which cleans the air somewhat.

Went to Sea World ($8), which was within "Anchol" park. It was pretty good, if you're into that sort of thing (but not so into it that you have very high expectations). The highlight there was "fish dip" ($4) where they have a pool with Garra Rufa, little fish which like to eat dead skin apparently. So you sit with your feet in, and they're super tickley. I also tried putting my face in, though it's hard to relax when doing that. Could also go diving in the big aquariums there ($20-$40) but have to call ahead to reserve a spot. Across the street from Sea World, I visited Gelanggang Samudra ($10), which was better, as there were specific performances, including one with dolphins, sea lions, and beluga, and one with otters and a hippo. The otters were awesome, could hold a ball while standing on a rolling barrel, and also could slam dunk a basketball (well one slam dunked and swung on the rim, the other lamely stood and tried desperately to reach up but couldn't quite make it). There was also a Pirate skidoo stunt show and silly fun performance. Unfortunately for all of these shows, they were in Indonesian, so it wasn't quite as good for me as it could have been. There was a 4D movie, which was a 3D cartoon with moving chairs which was entertaining. A couple girls working at sea world were teasing each other about liking me. Another girl at Gelanggang seemed amused with my height.

Some other times I just wandered aimlessly. Didn't see anything too noteworthy though. In one area, a bunch of kids swarmed me, but my wallet was not at risk. They were just entertained by my foreignness and my height, often motioning their head height relative to me. After a photo, one had a notebook where he found and read "what country are you from?" and wrote down my response of Canada. Maybe some homework to meet a foreigner?

My manager arrived. One meal with him and a couple others startled me a bit when the bill came, it was at an indian restaurant and it ended up costing about $40/person. But that was just that occasion since he likes that place, other nights we've gone out to the back alley and only spent about $5/person. He's been here many times before and is pretty familiar with the language and culture, and was able to point out some of the food choices, like "that's chicken, it's good. That's jackfruit, it's good. That's brain, it's not good." I tried some (goat?) brain anyways though. Taste was mostly just the curry sauce it was in. Texture reminded me of papaya, soft and almost creamy. Not too special, I'm not sure why zombies rave about it so much.

Visited the zoo today ($0.50). It was very large, mostly was nice to just walk around a very large park without all the traffic etc. it was like a maze in there, and I think some of the signs were bogus, as signs not far apart would point to Orang Utan in opposite directions. I never found giraffe or hippo or a number of other animals supposedly there. I did find elephant though. She was separated from me by a ditch. It was awesome to see her kneel down in order to reach into the ditch to grab some grass that had fallen down there. I was a bit startled when at one point instead of putting some grass in her mouth, she threw it at me! Don't know if she had some training to do that, or just didn't like me watching her for so long.

From the zoo, I tried to meet an incoming coworker at the airport. Aborted the plan when after more than an hour I was still many miles away. Took another hour to get to the hotel. Luckily, I was expecting a long taxi ride (not that long though) and had a podcast to listen to. I've heard others say they've lain down for naps in the back of taxis before, when it takes a few hours to get across town. More coworkers arriving tomorrow.

Still haven't made any plans whether I will go and travel around a bit, or stay in Jakarta the whole time.