Indonesia: Life In The Islands

August 17--Indonesian Independence Day

The last few weeks the city has been putting up tons of Indonesian flags (red and white), banners, and signs. August 17th marks the 61st year since the country won independence from the Netherlands. We had the day off from orientation (thank god!) and Ony took us to Ancol Beach in West Jakarta to see some of the activities. It took a long time to get there because of the traffic, and it was very hot. We walked on a boardwalk by the water and watched people celebrating. There were a lot of boats sailing around, and they had ads on their sides as well as on the sails. People were packed into them like sardines, although I've noticed that that doesn't really bother anyone here.
Farther down the boardwalk, hundreds of people were swimming in the murky water. It didn't look to clean, but it was so hot I almost wanted to go in. Almost. People were having picnics on the beach and many of them called out to us when we walked by.
We finally reached the end of the boardwalk where the main event was going on--the greased pole game. Young men were climbing on top of their friends and trying to make their way up a greased pole to reach the prizes that were hanging on top, like bikes and t-shirts. Everyone was yelling as the top man on each human totem pole would jump off his friend's hands and grab onto the wooden structure on the top of the pole. It looked SO dangerous to us, but I didn't see anyone fall and break their back. I took lots of pictures--when they saw I had a camera, people ran over to me with their new bikes and friends and motioned frantically for me to take their photo. Then they usually tried to sell me their new bicycle haha.
Behind the greased poles was an Independence Day concert. The bands who were playing were pretty good, but then they had some technical difficulties and there was a long silence. I couldn't really take the heat anymore, so at that point me and a few other ETAs went back to the hotel.
That night, I went with Anne and Layne to Plaze Indonesia for our first Indonesian movie experience. We made the mistake of going to see My Super Ex-Girlfriend (terrible), but the theater itself was super nice. $6 gets you a huge, plush seat in front of a giant screen. Apparently there is another theater around our hotel where for $9, you get a ticket and a personal butler who brings who snacks throughout the movie. We definitely need to try and hit that up before we leave!

posted by Caitlin @ 12:20 PM