After breakfast we checked out the hotel,boarded our air conditioned luxury van and set off for Bandung. But first we stopped for a quick visit to the mosque. this time we went up above the floor of the mosque and looked down on the faithful praying. Men and women are segregated and there were far more women than men. We then visited old jakarta,a lovely old dutch square with crowds of people many of whom wanted their photos taken with us and school parties armed with clipboards asking us questions for their projects. Many girls were quite happy to be in close proximity to men which is odd considering this is a muslim country. One colonial building on the square stood out which was now a puppet museum. Puppetry is very important culturally here and many puppets have hindu features. The museum also contains old dutch gravestones and puppets from around the world...even naughty old Mr Punch. The old dutch quarter is close to the old port and we drove by to take a look at the local boats loading up to take goods to other islands in indonesia.
We then braved the traffic to cross the city to take the motorway to Bandung,3 hours away,up in the hills in a caldera of an extinct volcano . It took an hour to clear the urban sprawl and it looked as if we were driving through jungle but you could see red tiled roofs and paddy fields on terraces amongst the trees. We arrived in the city and crawled into the centre where we walked through the typical narrow alley ways to visit a third generation puppet maker and master. If only. we were going straight back to the uk we would have bought one of his puppets. Then it was time for lunch in a restaurant where a live act was playing.We had clapton,eagles and bob marley to listen to as we tucked in. We then went to a specialist arts school where we were treated to their kids dancing traditional dances from various islands,puppets and a bamboo orchestra. In the end we all got to join in playing these strange instruments. The concert finale involved a few kids playing Bohemian Rhapsody...all a bit surreal but great fun.
In the evening we walked down to the old colonial street where bars and restaurants abound and had a jolly evening. We had satay chicken burgers in a green bun and the chips were first class.We have an early train to catch for our next port of call where we have no internet for a couple of days. How will we survive?