Independence Square is a short jaunt away from my workplace and the center of central Jakarta. However, it took 99 days and an out-of-town visitor to put our feet at
Monas (Monumen Nasional). A Bandung native and friend from Astana was home to thaw over the winter break in Kazakhstan, and he paid us a short visit and humored us with the opportunity to be tourists in Jakarta.
The atmosphere was wonderful - kites flying every which way, vendors peddling Jakarta souvenirs, kids posing with cartoon figurines, families having picnics, enormous lines to get inside the monument, and rented tandem bicycles whizzing around the monument. I enjoyed being in the middle of activity to take part for a moment in Jakarta life.
Highlights of the afternoon were our Indonesia-German-American-Kazakh reunion and taking photos with Masha from the Russian cartoon
Маша и Медведь (apparently also available in bahasa Indonesia and quite popular from the looks of it - there were at least four Mashas at Monas).
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| Colleagues from Nazarbayev University reunited! |
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| Monas |
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| Let's Go Fly a Kite |
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| With Masha! |
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Маша и Медведь with Monas t-shirt that unfortunately did not come in adult sizes
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