Badminton

Indonesians are always competing in the badminton world championships. If they’re not number 1, the entire nation is convinced they’ve been robbed (and they probably have). We mentioned in our most recent letter that we went to a badminton competition with the Pak Bandi family to help celebrate Elissa’s birthday – here’s a short clip from the competition.











…And these are only teenagers!

100 cc's of Raw Power

This is the beast of burden that bore us all the way up the mountain for our break – Jason wore a backpack in the front, put another backpack below him on the bike, and Elissa hopped on the back. This little motorbike has been a great way to get around Bandung this past year.

The stairway to the left leads up to our home from this gang (narrow street) which, believe it or not, a car can fit through. In the back ground red and white flags fill the gang in preparation for the celebration of Independence Day (Aug 17)!

Bogor Gardens

To celebrate our 4th anniversary we went to a 190 year old botanical garden in the city of Bogor. Rubber trees and palm trees used for the production of palm oil were introduced to Indonesia via this garden. We were able to taste fresh cinnamon bark straight off cinnamon trees and enjoy time hanging out together

Bamboo seems more exotic in the US, but here it’s pretty commonplace . . . fun for an anniversary pix nonetheless :)

Public Speaking

This sea lion was hilarious – we thought she might be a good option for tour later :)

Eka!

We got to play with a baby orangutan named Eka! Here in Indonesia they call these animals “orang hutan” which means “jungle person” – this is one English word that we think came from Indonesian first! (Often it’s the other way around)















Eka is actually 4 yrs old. Side note, the restaurant in the background is SFC (Safari Fried Chicken) a quite distant rival of KFC here in Indonesia – wonders never cease. Eka and Jason bonded immediately – maybe they just clicked, or maybe it was his shoe laces, either way they had fun playing together






Elissa figured out that Eka is ticklish – if you look carefully, you can see she’s really laughing!

Us and Elephants. . .

The funny thing about this pix is that the elephant was actually trying to get into Elissa’s backpack while she was distracted with taking the pix! (maybe he smelled the peanuts? – which incidentally we feed to the monkeys later on; nearly started a riot, but everything ended peacefully with full primate bellies.)

These elephants are actually from Sumatra . . . the island we’ll be moving to in less than 3 months - soon to be our neighbors!

Feeding Semi-wild Animals

With Jason growing up here in Bandung, he had fond memories of visiting a place called “Taman Safari” as a child where he and his classmates wrestled freely with baby lions in the petting zoo (no joke, zero liability was a beautiful thing!) So for his graduation gift we decided to return & see if Jason could take on those same lions now grown-up . . . Now you have to pay a buck to take a picture with a chained tiger cub (commercialization is not a beautiful thing.) There’s a part of the park where animals roam freely and people ride around in vehicles. Here’s Jason giving a carrot away . . . the real question is, who’s the caged one here?!

This pigme hippo wasn’t picky – she’d eat it all! Weird thing about this little hippo was that she wasn’t just wet from the water she was in but had a slimy coat all over her body – ew!

Puncak Pass

We had a break from school, so we took the time to celebrate 3 things: Jason’s graduation, our 4th anniversary & Elissa’s birthday. Here’s a pix after traveling about 4 hours into the mountains via motorbike to Puncak Pass. We celebrated with dinner at a beautiful restaurant the first night. (Thankfully we don’t look as tired in this pix as we really were!) The next day, Jason got progressively sicker until he finally embraced the porcelain throne (not what he had been intending to embrace) which became his good friend for the next three days.

A little more Pi please

A shoe rack is a common thing here. People don’t wear their shoes inside of course because shoes are stinky, dirty things. On top of the shoes is our sister Crissy’s cat, Pi, (who we’re watching while she’s stateside). Pi likes to sleep on the shoe rack sometimes. Jason thinks it is because he is trying to camouflage his smell from potential rivals / enemies; Elissa thinks it is funny…either way, Pi’s love of the shoe rack can’t be because of the smell.
So here’s the thing, is Pi on top or underneath the table? Reality is this time we caught him underneath wishing he was on top! Since then he has learned to summit the table and does so with impunity despite the curses we frequently call down on him.

Sisters!

Sure enjoyed having Crissy around Bandung for a month – she’s visiting with fam & friends in the US & will return to Indo end of August to teach English for another year. This is a picture of the two of us at the Tangkuban Perahu Volcano near Bandung :)

Ladies Day Out

Not long ago Elissa & Crissy had a “ladies day out” with the girls from Arif & Poppy’s & Pak Bandi’s family together. We went out for a quick snack at A & P’s restaurant named “Raja Melayu” which means Malaysian King. (hence crowns for the visiting girls – Fia & Sara)

Della & Raula at Raja Melayu

Girlie Fun

Here we are doing crafts together after playing video games & winning prizes :)