Coffee & Friendship: Indonesia Days 2-4

Read about our first few days in Indonesia here.

Amanda didn’t have to apply any pressure to get us to agree to visit Borabudur, a 9th century Buddhist temple, the next day.  (Feel free to insert any Lord of the Rings references here.  We did…Borabudur, kinda like Mordor)  Borabudur is a UNESCO world heritage sight and easy to drive to in a few hours.  We borrowed their hiking baby carrier, strapped ChinaBean in, covered up our knees and shoulders (required to enter and show reverence for the sight), and began our ascent to the top.  It was a hot trek and we had four girls under the age of 7 with us, so we might have missed a bit of what our guide was trying to teach us.  Never-the-less it was impressive and I’m really glad we went.  We celebrated our descent with our traditional ice cream reward.  We really have eaten ice cream at every major historical sight we’ve visited.

On our way.

There's one in every crowd.

ChinaBean had the best ride.

Listening to our guide and enjoying a rest in the shade.

Going up, up, up.

EBean

LBean

Our friend's daughter, an honorary !Bean

Hot, but smiling.

EBean made a friend and led us down.  I think she might have been running towards the promise of ice cream.

Refreshment at last.

We found a place for lunch, but more importantly a place for the girls to run off a bit of energy.  In fact, now that I think of it, how did they have any energy left?

Dinner was street vendor food.  Yippee!  More peanut sauce, more chicken (this time on a stick, and veggies and rice with peanut sauce.  Amanda said the veggie/rice/peanut sauce was an Indonesian grown-up’s version of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  

Kids in bed and time for some adult conversation.

Our last full day was low-key a bit more local.  Laundry for us, kids running around, a quick trip to a grocery store for me to buy peanut sauce packets (what else?), swimming at a local pool and pizza for dinner.  We ended with a family movie night.  It took a bit of convincing for LBean, but the movie Mary Poppins was chosen.  She was a bit concerned it might be scary, but by the end she was marching and singing along.  It left such an impression that she asked for the movie for Christmas.  It’s a favorite now.

Time for a few last pictures.

On the way back to the airport.

The next morning it was time to load up the luggage and head back to the airport to finish up our time in Singapore.  We are so grateful to Jonathan & Amanda for opening up their home to us, even though we bring along a 5-person family amount of craziness.  Thank you for turning over your bedroom to us, showing us your favorite things and what matters to you, and for sharing your life with us.  My favorite moments were chatting with you as we stop at your kitchen sink washing dishes.  Until next time…