day 851

Pretty miserable day... Ouch.

The picture is the Jakarta History Museum, taken during my visit to Kota, Jakarta.

From Lonely Planet Indonesia 2003:
"...(The Jakarta History Museum) is housed in the old town hall of Batavia, which is on the southern side of the square... This bell-towered hall, built in 1627 and added to between 1707 and 1710, served the administration of the city.

It was also used by the city law courts, and its dungeons were the main prison compound of Batavia. In 1830, the Javanese hero Prince Diponegoro was imprisoned here for a time on his way into exile in Makassar...

In the courtyard at the back of the building, is a strange memorial stone to Pieter Erbervelt, put to death in 1722 for allegedly conspiring to massacre the Dutch inhabitants of Batavia..."

day 849

Ah, these are the leaves of our star fruit tree on our back yard in Jakarta. It was the most photographed thing during my early interest of photography (since it was not often I could go out hunting).

The tree was the sources of enjoyment when we were kids: the fruits of course, it also gave a way to the roof of the house, and it was a place where the swing was hang. It is exactly where the fence of our chicken farm was. The tree was protecting the main building of our house during a fire on the house behind ours, which also burnt our maid's quarter and its attic.

day 848

From Lonely Planet Indonesia 2003:

"...The building itself dates from 1912 and is on the site of the Dutch Church of Batavia, demolished by Daendels in 1808. In the downstairs courtyard, there are memorials to Dutch governors general who were once buried here, including Jan Pieterzoon Coen, founder of Batavia, who died of cholera in 1629 during the siege by Mataram; and Anthony van Diemen, after whom Abel Tasman named Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania, Australia)..."

Wayang Museum, Kota, Jakarta.

day 847

My sis and I made a quick visit to Kota (which mean city or town) on the last day of my visit this time. Kota is an old area in the North of Jakarta nearby the harbour, where it used to be a centre of Batavia (old Jakarta) itself.

From Lonely Planet Indonesia 2003:
"...The old town of Batavia, now known as Kota, was once the hub of Dutch colonial Indonesia. It contained Coen's massive shoreline fortress, the Kasteel, and was surrounded by a sturdy defensive wall and a moat. Much of this one-time grandeur has now rotted, crumbled, or been buldozed away, but Taman Fatahillah, Kota's central cobblestone square, is still reminiscent of the area's heyday..."

The pic is Stasiun Jakarta Kota, a train station, taken from Taman Fatahillah.

day 846

Caught this chameleon enjoying the first sliver of sunshine in the morning, on top of front yard bushes of our house, Jakarta.

day 845

Lebaran day. A special day for muslim around the world after fasting during Ramadhan.

This is my mum and my sis preparing a dish we called makaroni. Traditionally, it is not made for lebaran. We cook this to have a variation from the heavy, gravy, coconut milk-laden dishes. Also, now there are wee nieces and nephews who shouldn't eat those lebaran dishes too much.

It was a special dish when I grew up, and it still is now when it is made at home. It was one of special things my mum would make for my dad as it was his fav; the other was slada, which is salad.

Makaroni is actually baked elbow-shaped pasta with kornet (canned mince beef), cheese, milk, butter and eggs. Slada is made of shredded lettuce leaves, boiled white eggs, boiled carrots, and pineapple. The sauce was made from the boiled yolks, mixed with white pepper and vinegar.

day 844

A day before Lebaran, the main activity would be cooking, cooking and cooking. At my mum's, the festival is marked with ketupat, sambal goreng ati, sambal goreng krecek, semur lidah, sambal and pickles. Oh, and kastengels of course, which traditionally always made by me since I was on my teens. So I did this time too, two batches of them.

The pic is my sis filling kulit ketupat with rice.

day 843

The most photographed animal during my visit this time, this frog is the newest member of my dad's wee pond in the front of the house.

It was said that the frog moved here from the last field around the area, which had just been cleared for the extension of the kindergarten next to it. The rumour had that there were not only frog that was forced to move out, but a lady ghost as well - luckily not to our place!

day 842

Today I start my six day 'pulang kampung' holiday - going home to accompany my mum celebrating Hari Raya 'Idul Fitri back home in Jakarta.

And this is the place; the place where I grew up, living there up to my late twenties. It is in an area where it used to be a suburb, where there was no electricity, no paved street, number of ponds nearby with fishes, frogs, snakes, wriggling creatures.. But of course, not anymore.

We used to have jack fruit, mango, papaya, banana, star fruit, guava, jambu air (I don't know what that is in English!) and soursop trees on our front, side and back yards. We even raised chickens, and once had up to ten-ish cats. Our yards were full of wild ants, centipedes, snails, chameleons, lizards, frogs, and sometimes snakes and luwaks. Ocassionally, there were visits from run away monkeys and exotic birds from the zoo.

There were many fields nearby, filled with wild bushes with white and purple flowers, bamboo trees, tapiocas plantation, coconut trees, and couple of scary banyan and rubber trees. The air was so clear that we could see Salak Mount on the south in the clear mornings, and there was barely noise pollution that we could hear the animals in the zoo sang.

The house itself had extended tremendously, to accomodate four kids growing with insatiable needs for space. It now fills with memories; quarrels, cries, hates, laughs, surprises, dreams, cares... all molded me into I am now.