Indo Indo Indo Indonesia

This may be a record for me - posting pictures within a few days of getting back from a trip. Without further ado, here's how I spent the last ten days in Indonesia. 

::JAKARTA::

We didn't spend a lot of time outside in Jakarta - we were mostly in an office. I did take a few pictures of our outings, though. 

This is Monas, the national monument in Jakarta. The sky looks bluer here than it actually was. The picture below is a little more telling.

My travel buddy, Ben! 

 The malls in Jakarta were out of control. Like nothing I'd ever seen, even in Vegas. I wish I'd taken more pictures to show you how crazy this mall was. I mean, it was 11 stories! And it had everything you could ever imagine in it. (Except for my personal fave, Anthropologie!)

Ben ordered a hamburger one day, and the meat patty was about the same thickness as the slice of cheese, but the real kicker was that there was mayonnaise all over it! That - that looks like icing on the bun - is mayo. 

::BALI::

Bali was beautiful (outside of crowded and touristy Denpasar). We were there for three days, and a big chunk of our time was spent visiting a partner in west Bali. 

 We passed by tons and tons of rice fields on our way out to west Bali, all of which were b-e-a-utiful.

 More of the rice. (We also ate A-L-O-T of rice!)

 We visited a few different borrowers who raised pigs. One woman we met had something like 30 pigs! They were smelly, and the big ones were a little scary, but they were also super cute.

 This guy was waaay bigger in real life than this picture lets on. He was the mac daddy of the pigs - the father of the piglet above and father of most of the other 30 some pigs.

We also tried cacao, the plant that chocolate comes from. It was totally different from what I expected - I don't know what I thought chocolate came from, but not this. It was great though.

 ::BENGKULU::

Bengkulu is a smallish town on the island of Sumatra where my little bro, Peter, is living for the semester. Being there was actually my favorite part of the trip, just because I got to see Peter's life and hang out with his friends.

 The beach in Bengkulu was beautiful. It reminded me of St. Teresa (where my grandmother has a house in Florida) because it was so untouched. 

 Peter took me on his little motorbike to the beach the first afternoon I was there, and we got to watch the sun set. 

We came back to the beach the next day, because Petey and his Indonesian friend Eeman were both getting baptized in the ocean.

 It was so amazing to get to be there to see Peter get baptized and to celebrate with him. 

 Getting ready to head to the airport.

 This was a typical sight on the way to the airport - Peter stopped and looking at the map. I think I mentioned that we got to the airport at 10:30 for a 10:45 flight, but amazingly, I made it! 

Here's one final picture of the countryside that I snapped from the back of the bike on the way to the airport. Indonesia was a beautiful place, and the people were amazing. I'm glad I got to go, and I'd love to go back!