We are living in a (3-bedroom, 2-bathroom! K kept getting lost on the first night!) house in a housing complex called TASBI. It seems to be upper-middle class or wealthy housing...quiet, pretty, green, lots of expats. We have a small shopping plaza within walking distance...convenience stores, a couple of small restaurants, etc. There is also a driving range, tennis courts (without nets), a swimming pool, and a yoga/foot reflexology studio. Luxury!
K can walk to work and has been able to come home at lunchtime. A has been getting our household in order, cleaning from top-to-bottom, and working on a big scholarship application for his doctoral program next year.
After our travel in the region last summer, Indonesia feels pretty familiar. Takeaway food wrapped in banana leaves! Coconut milk rice! Fried rice! Noodles! Crazy traffic and lots of mopeds! Spicy food that K is a little overzealous about. Hot weather. Shower heads in the middle of the bathroom. Air conditioning that A is a little overzealous about. Motorcycle-taxi cabs. (Called 'becaks' here.)
...but Indonesia is also pretty different from Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam & Thailand. First of all, it's HUGE! From the westernmost part to the easternmost part, it as wide as the US of A. It's also the fourth largest population in the world. It's also a predominantly Muslim country and home to the largest Muslim population in the world. And it made up ENTIRELY of islands: approximately 18,000 of them. (Although not all of those are inhabited.) This makes for a huge variety in cultures and languages. We'll only be able to see a tiny sliver of them during our time here.
Below are some photos of our house and the street that we live on.
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