Strange But True

Living in Indonesia nothing ever surprises me and sometimes I cant believe my eyes. Here are some examples:

I was on the toll road (freeway) heading out to do some shopping when being the time of day there was a lot off traffic so we slowed down. Usually the toll road has three lanes but when the traffic is jammed then the toll road converts to having four lanes. Seems people here use the EMERGENCY lane as another lane.

After Paige came home from the doctors and had her cast on our house keeper was surprised to see the cast on her arm. I told our house keeper that Paige's arm is broken in two places and will have the cast on for four weeks. My house keeper replied "when we have broken bones in Indonesia we get special massage to fix. Ben had a couple of the same comments when he broke his foot from people at his work.

I noticed my driver had the bonnet up on the car so I went out to see what was wrong with the car. I found my driver rubbing engine oil on a cut he had on his leg from a small accident that happened on the way to work. I noticed that the cut was bleeding a bit so I was very shocked and explained what he was doing was totally wrong for first aid and went and got the first aid kit and taught the driver some basic first aid. I couldn't believe my eyes, engine oil as apart of first aid.

Strange but true................

Paiges Broken Arm

While Paige was climbing down from the tree house she lost her footing and fell from the rope ladder resulting in breaking two bones in her left arm.

We went to the SOS clinic where the doctor x-rayed her arm and confirmed that she had broken her left arm.

Paige's arm was put into a splint and we returned three days later to have her armed x-rayed again before her arm was placed in a full cast.

Paige will have to have her arm in the cast for four weeks.

X-ray of Paige's broken bones in her left arm

Paige with her sling on waiting for the splint

Paige getting the start of the splint put on

Paige waiting for splint to dry

Bernadette drawing face on glove

Paige with splint on her arm and the tree house

Paige getting her second x-ray taken

Paige looking at her x-ray

Left: step one of cast Right: step two of cast

Step three, cast drying

Shopping In Jakarta

Living in Jakarta usually its quite easy finding the food you like to eat and some of the items you wish to buy. Depending on what you are looking for will depend where you go to buy it. I once read in one of the local English papers that the government did a survey on how many shopping centres there are here in Jakarta but no one could agree on the exact numbers. Everywhere you go there seems to be some sort of shopping mall, selling the same items. Each of the shopping mails can be put into a class such as lower class, middle class and high end class.

Depending on how much people earn will depend what type class shopping centre they buy there items from. The middle class and high end class shopping malls usually have air conditioning so many Indonesians will spend hours in the malls to try and keep cool on a hot day. Most of the shopping centres are open from 10am to 10pm every day including public holidays. Going to a new shopping centre can be an adventure as you never know if you are going to get lost or not so if you only wanted to do shopping in Jakarta there there would be lots to do.

As for our latest shopping adventure we needed to try and find some new school shoes for Paige so Ben, Paige and myself spent a Saturday afternoon exploring a couple of different shopping malls to see if we could find what we where looking for.

We asked our driver the best place he believed to get shoes from and he suggested Block M.

We found Block M to be the lower end of the shopping malls list, lots of small shops with a range of different items at a lower cost but we didn't have much luck with Paige's shoe size.

We then headed to Pasar Raya Mall which was in the same location and more high end up, kind of like Myers in Australia. We didn't have any luck finding anything suitable but did have fun exploring the level of handy crafts. We had never seen such a big place that was filled with every handy craft that you could find in Indonesia.

We then headed to another shopping centre closer to home and on the way we stopped to look at plants on JI. Darmawangsa. In Australia you would maybe go to Burnings or a plant nursery but here in Indonesia there are many streets just dedicated to the selling of plants.

We then headed to a shopping mall called Pondok Indah. This shopping centre has two different shopping Malls connected by a walk way. Pondok Indah One is a middle class mall and Pondok Indah Two is more high end mall with both having large department stores in them. We went to both department stores and only was able to find some black runners that where not our first choice for school shoes but will have to do in the mean while until we can find something else.

Block M shopping Mall

Paige standing in a shoe store

The roof of Pasar Raya

Inside Pasar Raya

Assorted traditional items to buy at Pasar Raya

Wooden carved masks

Large wooden carving


Along JI. Darmawangsa

Walk way from Pondok Indah 1 to Pondok Indah 2

Outside of Pondok Indah 2

Inside Pondok Indah 1

Ice Skating In Jakarta

Every weekend the local shopping centre seems to have different activities for the public to do. Over the Christmas season there was a portable ice skating rink. Paige decided she would like to have a try at ice skating. There were coaches that you could have a lesson with so I decided Paige needed all the help she could get being this was her first time at trying ice skating.

She had a ball trying something new but she didnt like how cold her bum and hands got when she fell over.

View of the ice skating rink

Paige ready to skate

Paige putting on her gloves to keep her ands warm

Paige taking her first steps on the ice
Paige having a skating lesson

Paige skating on her own

Paige skating along

Paige happy with her first go at skating