I promised a while back that I would post weekly "Mommy and Gabriel's Excellent Adventure" blogs, but I promptly contracted strep, got our HHE, and then became heavily involved with Zack's school's UN Week festivities. Next week Gabriel and I will be sure to go on an adventure. I'm thinking maybe the fabric market I've heard so much about.
But Johnny and I are pretty religious about getting out together on Saturdays for Date Day, if even just for a couple hours. For our first few weeks we were pretty boring. We stuck to malls or the American Club. It's hard to muster the energy for exploring when you're bogged down by jet lag and the busy work of moving in. This week, however, we decided to go for something new. So we consulted our trusty Lonely Planet Indonesia
for some adventure ideas. We settled on the Flea Market on Jalan Surabaya. As described by Lonely Planet:
It's close to the U.S. Embassy, so we felt pretty comfortable driving to it. I consider myself a fairly skilled haggler after 2 years of practice in the likes of Sarojini Nagar, Dilli Haat, and Chandni Chowk, but we weren't really in the mood to buy anything. We simply strolled the length of Surabaya and back. It was a truly intriguing place. The atmosphere was so much more sane than an Indian market. We were not harassed and everything was pretty clean and orderly. Most of the market housed knick knacks and "antiques" that looked like they could have been looted from Colonial Dutch homes. We even found cannons!
But Johnny and I are pretty religious about getting out together on Saturdays for Date Day, if even just for a couple hours. For our first few weeks we were pretty boring. We stuck to malls or the American Club. It's hard to muster the energy for exploring when you're bogged down by jet lag and the busy work of moving in. This week, however, we decided to go for something new. So we consulted our trusty Lonely Planet Indonesia
for some adventure ideas. We settled on the Flea Market on Jalan Surabaya. As described by Lonely Planet:
Jakarta’s famous flea market is in Menteng. It has woodcarvings, furniture, textiles, jewellery and many (often instant) antiques. Bargain like crazy – prices may be up to 10 times the value of the goods.
It's close to the U.S. Embassy, so we felt pretty comfortable driving to it. I consider myself a fairly skilled haggler after 2 years of practice in the likes of Sarojini Nagar, Dilli Haat, and Chandni Chowk, but we weren't really in the mood to buy anything. We simply strolled the length of Surabaya and back. It was a truly intriguing place. The atmosphere was so much more sane than an Indian market. We were not harassed and everything was pretty clean and orderly. Most of the market housed knick knacks and "antiques" that looked like they could have been looted from Colonial Dutch homes. We even found cannons!
We were tempted, but we ultimately decided that it wouldn't fit in the car.
The antique section ended abruptly in shops filled with suitcases, which merged into shops chock full of old phonograph records, everything from Elvis to the Beatles. We think we might go back at some point before we leave Indonesia and pick up a couple statues or the like for souvenirs, but there's a chance we'll find better stuff at other markets. We just got here; there are many more discoveries to make!
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