A Hard Right Turn at 40: Safari

Apparently it's been longer than I thought since my last post!

There has been a lot going on out here in the tropics, so much so that I am going to focus on the trip we took to the Taman Safari outside of Jakarta. We had the brilliant idea to go the day before Chinese New Year and even though we had planned for traffic, we planned POORLY! The trip is 50 miles, we left around 7:30 a.m., and we were at a dead stop 30 minutes later. Around 10:30 we finally pulled up to the main gates, along with all of Jakarta, Bogor, and the rest of West Java. Our driver for the day said that this was the most crowded he had ever seen the park and was surprised it was so bad.

Along the way we stopped and bought a branch of bananas and a few dozen carrots to feed the animals with. Yes, that's right, a branch of bananas. And they were yummy too! Only about five inches long, they were sweet and tasted better than any banana I have ever had in the states. Our driver did the bargaining since we didn't want to pay the "foreigner" price, and then we were on our way. Of course one of the kids wanted to try and charge us for providing a parking spot on the side of the road, but we didn't feel it was warranted. :)

The safari is a classic wild animal park with a road through the park and the animals roam freely in many of the spaces, often right up to, or in, the car window. We will have to go back when we can move at a pace that is better and with fewer cars, since there were basically two lanes of bumper to bumper traffic winding through the park. Also, we will spend the night at the local hotel since we had to leave so early to get home at a reasonable hour (3 hours to get home). The park also has animal shows, a zoo-like section, and a number of rides, restaurants and shops.

Overall we had a wonderful time, the kids enjoyed themselves, the adults enjoyed themselves, and it was WONDERFUL to get out of the city and the pollution. Ms. K had no problem with her asthma, considering that in town, she can't walk three blocks without getting tight, and the weather was a balmy 20º C and just totally pleasant. As we were driving back we were able to see how the jungle came right up to the houses, kids bathing in the river, and all sorts of other interesting sights.

Pictures of this whole adventure are below.