Overnight at Taman Safari

On Friday, after school, Joy and I went to Taman Safari, which is the drive-through zoo I'd been to during my first year in Indo. (See my posts from September 2008.) Unfortunately, I don't own a car for us to take through the zoo, but I wanted Joy to have a fun experience during her visit here, so we decided to spend the night there.

Here was our little bamboo bungalow! It was sooo fun, but it was FREEZING at night. No joke.
Fortunately for me, Joy was smart and had brought a long-sleeved jacket AND shirt, so we each wore one. (But it was still seriously cold!)

Our TV had a Chinese pop music channel, which Joy could usually understand b/c she knows some Mandarin. We loved watching it b/c it also played European music, like this music video, and terrible, American music, like Miley Cyrus.

We woke up to the sound of screaming and whooping monkeys. These monkey trees were close to the campsites and the dining area, so we had some lovely breakfast entertainment. :-P

This was actually a hippo statue in the pond surrounding the monkey trees.
Joy and I walked back to our bungalow at night and had to walk by this guy,
which was definitely CREEPY.

Funky, Indonesian lantern

Going to dinner at the restaurant

For dinner, I had some (nasty) coffee, roti bakar keju (baked bread with chocolate and cheese), and this dish called gado gado- vegetables with SPICY peanut sauce.
The white things in the photo are called "krupuk", and they're like Indonesian chips. :)

I also ate krupuk for breakfast, along with fried noodles, eggs, tofu (which Joy ended up eating for me), and lots of fresh fruit.

Chinese New Year decorations

It's the year of the rabbit.

Some random photos of the grounds for you to enjoy...

Talk about security!

Here's where we got an elephant ride. (Sorry about the big butt...!)

So fun!

Joy and I looooved our 15-minute ride on Marsella, the elephant, even though I kept sliding around and was scared out of my mind that I was going to fall off!

The camel ride was much shorter, and boy, was that hump bony! :(

View from the camel

We took a lift over the zoo grounds.

Some random painting of the characters from "Ice Age"

We missed seeing this...bummer!

*Ohhhh, to be a lazy orangutan or hippo!*

This was a very small replica of the Taj Mahal in the monkey arena.

Haha!

Joy's so cute! :)

Week one of Joy :)

My college friend from Singapore, Joy, is visiting me for 2 weeks. While she's been here, we've had a lot of fun and have taken a lot of photos, so I'll divide my posts about our exciting adventures here.

Joy came on the Saturday after I returned to Indonesia. We were both so tired that day that our speech was slurred, haha, so we took naps, ordered pizza, and watched my favorite Bollywood movie, "3 Idiots". (No photos)

The next day, we went into Jakarta for church, and then I took Joy to Marche for lunch. (See details about Marche in my post from December 4, 2009.)

Here we are with the lovely Marche mascot, the green Swiss cow.

Joy got BBQ ribs...

...and I got steak, mashed potatoes and cheesecake.
Of course. :)

After that, we went to the electronics mall...and...I bought a Wii! I was inspired after dancing with it on New Year's Eve, and I'd wanted to buy one ever since. I got a console (made in Korea) with 2 remotes and 10 Wii games that are pirated but work. *shhh* Joy and I have been having a ton of fun with it, and I've found my abs again, so it's definitely been a worthwhile investment.

We didn't take a lot of photos during the week, but we spent the night at Taman Safari, which is what my next post will be about.

Photos of Changi International Airport

Happy New Year!
I'm 3 weeks overdue in saying that and a month-and-a-half overdue in
updating my life on my blog. Oops.

I had a very stressful last 2 weeks of school, but I had a great time going home for Christmas. I was very jet lagged when I came back to Indonesia, mixed with jumping right into teaching, plus my friend, Joy, from Singapore visiting me, so I've had no time,
literally, to sit down and write on this thing.

So, until I have more time to write about my adventures with Joy, you'll have to enjoy these photos of the Changi airport in Singapore, where I passed through on my home and back to Indo a few weeks ago. Keep in mind Changi is the top airport in the world, and it's fit to entertain you, no matter how long your age or your layover.

Yay for cultural water fountains! :)

The tiger is a statue...in case you're wondering....!

Sorry they weren't in any real order, but I wanted to post something to prove that I'm alive and well, and I think that these are awesome photos for an airport!

Now, I'm off to bed, but I'll try to post again tomorrow. :)