All This AND a Free Donut!

Yesterday afternoon Jason and I took an "angkot" into the heart of Bandung to one of the malls to see if we could tap into some free WiFi service in one of the cafes there.  The ride in was interesting, as always.  The angkot got very crowded.  At one point, the young man who had been sitting in front with the driver, gave up his seat to two young girls and he hung on the side of the van in the open doorway.  My heart was in my throat because usually we have just inches to spare as we thread through the traffic.  In fact, at one point where we got into a bottleneck, he jumped off.  Better that than to be flattened into a pancake, I think.  We went into a coffee/pastry shop that supposedly has fast internet service and ordered two drinks.  Jason got a cappucinno and I got an iced Thai tea. 

When the drinks were ready, Jason went up to pick them up and came back with, not only our drinks, but also two fresh glazed donuts.  Wow, is this a great country or what?  So there we sat, sipping our drinks and figuring how to log into their WiFi.  We finally got both of us logged in but it was anything but fast.  In fact, it was agonizingly slow.  I have been so spoiled with my blazing fast Verizon FiOs internet service at home.  Here it is like pulling teeth just waiting for a page to load.  Sending an email would take 3 or 4 tries before it would finally head off.

I really shouldn't complain though because it was free and the shop was air-conditioned and I even got to listen to a live band out in the concourse area sing Michael Jackson's "Beat It," a tune I recognized, could sing along with and could probably moonwalk to, if I had so desired.  It brought back fond memories of an aerobics class I used to take when the kids were toddlers.

We surfed the net for awhile and then Jason did some language studying but by then, I was feeling guilty for taking up space for so long in their shop so I sent him up to get me a cup of "American coffee," which means "black, no sugar."  By golly, he came back with my coffee and ANOTHER donut.  I could REALLY get to like this coffee shop.

After our internet surfing, we headed down to the bottom level of the mall to do a little grocery shopping and then headed up to the upper level to pick up some movie popcorn for Laura.  She had stayed home with Mika and she really wanted some of that popcorn so we carted home a bucket of it for her.

As we started out of the mall, we were stopped by a group of about 6 young men who (as best I can tell) asked Jason if he would mind if they asked him some questions for a school project.  He graciously agreed and they interviewed him for a few minutes, all hunched around a notebook with questions written down.  Afterwards, they asked if they could have their picture taken with him.  So he posed for pictures.  I think each one of them had a camera or a cellphone with a camera and they took turns jockeying positions so they all could get their pictures taken.

We finally made it out of the mall and started down a side street where we found a small pizza shop that some of the language school students had highly recommended.  We settled on a Pizza Marguerite (which is basically a cheese pizza with slices of tomato on it), a Carne Pizza (a pizza with ground beef, onions, and cheese), and a pollo calzone (which had chicken, salsa, and cheese in a calzone crust.  I didn't sample that one but Jason said it kind of reminded him of a Mexican pizza.  It came with a red sauce in a small packet.  I wasn't brave enough to try it.  The Carne Pizza was excellent.  When the pizzas were ready to cart home, they put each one in a small box made out of plaited reeds.  It was quite picturesque.

Unfortunately the traffic was horrendous on our way home.  We hailed a taxis for the ride back.  Jason said that on the weekends many people from Jakarta come up to Bandung to spend the weekend, either because they have family here or because they perhaps own second homes in town, if they are wealthy enough for that.  It was bumper-to-bumper most of the way home and our food was pretty cold by the time we arrived back.

Now the baby has been put to bed for the night and the darn lizard is once again climbing on my bedroom walls.  He only seems to come out at night.  I don't know why he can't go climb around on the walls in the next room.  It just freaks me out when he has to climb around in my bedroom. If you had told me a week and a half ago that I would be sleeping in the same room with a lizard on the prowl, I would have told you that you were high on something because no way would that ever happen.  My, how far I've come outside of my comfort zone.