Having your cake and eating it! 30 years married yesterday

Last night in time honoured tradition we threw a party, about 20 people came and we had a really nice time with food and drink and of course cake.  Our life has seen many parties to celebrate: birthdays, christenings, anniversaries and just for fun. So now after living in Jakarta for just 9 weeks we were quite pleased to find enough new friends to celebrate our 30th Wedding anniversary.

Its been a few weeks since I've last written this blogg , but that's because we have been quiet busy . Which in this case is a good sign. Next week is half term holiday (tenth week) then it will soon be 100 days (significant if your from the USA). So pretty soon the Blogg title "Just arrived in Jakarta" might have to change.

We have been getting out and about, firstly visiting Batavia the old Dutch colonial capital of Jakarta. Using public transport we made it to Kota station, this involved an ankot (mini bus) and two trains. On our way we passed what can only be described as a shanty town (Kota Kumuh, in Indonesian. Shockingly looking from the train window we saw houses in flames and people leaving carrying there few valuables. The next few hours being tourists we were aware of a billowing cloud of black smoke above the grand roof tops. Cultural tourism cheek by jowl with urban slum destruction.

Aren't we the lucky ones. Now more confident in our ability to get about we took the opportunity to go to the coast. A friend was organising a party to go to the West Coast to a bay to visit the Tanjung Lesung Sailing club. Logistics were complex involving us paying for our driver Bambang to come away with us for the weekend, it was a 4/6 hour trip each way.

Despite the long drive the weekend was a great success, the party of people moved from being acquaintances to friends. We certainly were well away from City life. With some careful help from me Don took me out on his dingy and foolishly let me take the tiller thinking I knew what I was doing. So you can see we practised capsize drill. Strangely there was a Mongolian cultural centre celebrating Genghis Khan. Liz and I sat in the thrones and contemplated the great man sayings: " If your fearful don't do it but do what you do with no fear" and " The job isn't done till its finished". We also had the delight of borrowing some terrible bikes to go for a ride with our 80 year old host. [ nowjakarta.co.id/learning-to-sail-at-tanjung-lesung ] Well worth the visit

Next Blogg: Hear about great volunteering development 
that took Nick to Bangkok and "Hot Yoga". 
Also more travels on public transport to Bogor and driving ourselves!