Batavia (part 2)

Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living. - Miriam Beard

For those who didn't know Batavia is Jakarta. It was the old name which Jakarta was called during the Dutch time. It was calles Batavia because it was home for the Betawi people. But sadly enough there are no more Betawi people living in Jakarta. It seems all the developement and outside migration have pushed the Betawi to live outside of Jakarta.

So who lived in Jakarta these days. Well not this guy tribe, he came from Timor Leste and it seems that some of them still living in a hut and work on woodcraft. (apparently obscenenity is part of the craft...I guess there isn't so much fuss about it since they don't really wear clothes so its just an everyday observation)By the way the Betawi made their way for the Sunda people to take over Jakarta. You can't hardly miss the evidence since Nasi Sunda is everywhere and Nasi Padang (they are related to the Minang people back in Negeri Sembilan)

Nasi Sunda is pretty simple actually, you have rice, roasted chicken or fried fish, then fried kangkung or salad and sambal. (very hot sambal). On a good day you can eat satay. Ohh almost forgot...tempe.(the must have dish). In a way it is a healthy eating habit and consist of all the rigt diet. Unlike us this people don't live to eat, they eat to live.
And down below you have the guy who work serving Nasi Padang. He can served 20 dish on one hand!. Nasi Padang have more variety (much more). I think whoever wants to work in a Nasi Padang restaurant need to have a pair of very strong arm. They can clean a whole table of 10 people in just one round. Impressive!.

One thing in common between Nasi Padang and Nasi Sunda, they both serve a hot big mug of tea (no sugar added) on the house. My sister made the waiter laughed when she asked for a mug of tea with sugar. She got it alright, with 4 table spoon of sugar.

The famous Bakso, more like Mee Soup with fish ball. Those fishball are the bakso. Those little yellow crispy thing and looks like chips ...well that are bufallo skin. (very crunchy... bland in taste and quite hard to swallow once you know what it was)
There are a lot of street hawker, but unless you belong to the strong stomach Antony Bourdain clan, please be carefull of the things you eat. You might end up here....

In my case it wasn't the street hawker, I'm betting my last dime it was that McDonald's burger I ate in Bandung.

Tips: Bring a 2 pin input 3 pin output adapter plug if you want to use the power outlet. Indonesia use 2 pin plug system.

Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.- Maya Angelou