Day off adventures

What a day yesterday was. I woke up early to go get my drivers license with Mr. Doddy. We arrived at a massive complex that services the entirety of Jakarta. Think about how slow the DMV is only servicing a small area or district. This place has to service over 20 million people! So we arrive early to beat the crowds but there are still thousands of people there. I walk in and give them money. Thats basically it, I didn't fill out any paper work or take any sort of test. All I had to do was get my picture taken. They didn't even bother to ask how tall I am and just guessed. I was in and out in less than 30 minutes. I've waited at the Murfreesboro DMV for over 3 hours just to get my license renewed! Of course in Murfreesboro you cant give an extra 20 $ to skip lines.

So I went home and headed back out to visit Mini Indonesia. The former Dictator of Indonesia's wife built this theme park which highlights the cultures of all the different tribes and islands of Indonesia. I wasn't really sure what to expect but it was actually really interesting. There were all the different styles of houses and palaces. And each house had monuments, clothing, pictures, and all sorts of other things from each area. There was also a big land map of Indonesia in the middle of a giant lake. There was also a bird sanctuary, aquarium, insectarium, and some other really boring museums like a tele-communications museum. When I went to the Papua region I was met by a man from Papua who was really excited to meet an American and told me everything he could think of about Papua. It was a bit long winded but still Very interesting. I would love to visit Papua someday.

 One of the other odd things was that a bunch of different groups of people all wanted to have their pictures taken with me. I understand that to them I am a bule and very interesting but it is still really weird for me. Also, I took the trains again and its really no different than any third world countries transit. Doors don't work and stay open, you have to push and shove to even get on or off, and there are people walking up and down the aisles selling anything they can. Its fun for me and great insight into normal peoples lives in Jakarta. But for them it is amazing to see a bule riding with them. They can't believe that I would lower myself to ride public transportation and stare at me in disbelief. They all try to practice whatever English they know on me even if its basically gibberish.

All in all it was a great day.