Jakarta
Indonesia has over 17,000 islands (over 5,000 unnamed, so if you want to buy me a present….) and 34 provinces—and, believe it or not, we visited over 5 of them, from Aceh to Papua in 3 hours today. All without leaving Jakarta.
Let me explain. Jakarta has a park, developed in the 1970s, which is over 600 acres and houses (literally) houses from all 34 provinces, giving an indication of the human diversity in a land characterized by biodiversity. The Kampungs (a Malay word for village) are representative of the housing in those provinces, and the employees are usually from those provinces, knowledgeable about the cultural mores of the area, and selling handicrafts from that area. It’s reminiscent of Lincoln’s New Salem, Epcot, or the Suwon village in Korea.
We visited Aceh, which is the northernmost province, on Sumatra, across from Malacca. Strongly Muslim, it follows shariah law, and for many years was in rebellion against the central government. The tsunami hit pretty hard, and I don’t know whether or not it was causation or correlation, but the rebels signed a truce in 2005, the year after the tsunami, and it’s been pretty peaceful. Most of the villages had a palace for the ruling Sultan (the Muslim rulers), with elaborate dress, and homes and outbuildings, and even school/mosques. A few were original; I think it was Aceh that built homes on stilts (most were on stilts because it’s cooler, protects you from animals (and lets animals live underneath), but without nails for removing and rebuilding easily. At the other end of the archipelago, Papua has headhunters, and there was a house that held the shrunken heads. It does make it astonishing that the Republic of Indonesia has been able to be a nation. One of our hosts told us, in fact, the United Nations has asked the Indonesia Army to do the peacekeeping missions because of its ability to have internal harmony.
This evening, my roommate and I found what purports to be (and was) one of the best Indonesian restaurants in Jakarta. It’s only about 3 long blocks from our hotel, but so many of our meals have been at malls that I was eager to get at least one “good meal.” And it was—free range chicken served west Javanese style on a banana leaf, with coconut and lemon grass rice….yum. Did I tell you I loved the food here. Even the durian brule for dessert.
We move tomorrow morning to Surabaya, the second biggest city in Indonesia, less than a quarter the size of Jakarta. I bet I can find good food there, too.