Eat, Pray, Shut The F*** Up: Some fotos

Today I walked all the way to Kota which is, not a far walk by NY standards but in the sun here the Indonesian's definitely thought I was crazy. But I return the - "You're crazy" and raise them a "Why are you riding without helmets four to a motorcycle with a toddler and a newborn?" Motorcycles are a way of LIFE here there are two or three of them to every car in the traffic jam and they do have a sort of enticing appeal - like riding a mini john deere tractor through times square sorta thing. You'd have the jump on many of the cars slowed down and unable to pass each other, but you'd also be on a tractor....
Kota is one of the oldest parts of Jakarta, its got all this crumbling Dutch architecture, but mostly its a place of novelty. Bunches of young teens come to rent the old two seater bikes that come with nifty hats to wear while you zip around looking oh so silly. I eventually figured out that there IS a train I could have taken instead of my four mile walk but...then that would be no fun? No sunburn No gain.... wait that doesnt rhyme...The Train was by far the best part of my day/ trip / existence. Its perfectly awful on one hand, you're all crowded into this train hanging like monkeys with the doors open and the potential to fall out at any random jolt...there is no airconditioning and you almost mind everyone else's smelling bad except that you stink too so whose to judge. But on the other hand you're whisked past the back part of Jakarta the part where you see how people really live ...the laundry hanging out of houses made of metal roof siding with the minarets protruding up above them in the background. People laugh at you because you are so clearly a touristo and NOT supposed to be there. However, like the Indonesians that they are, they are kind and helpful and altogether good natured about your not having the faintest clue about anything. They help you off at the right stop having to PUSH your hardest the minute before the train takes off just to squeeze your way out onto the platform... only to look up and see all the people riding atop the train, young boys and men dodging the electrical wires. The experience serves to remind one that perhaps you've spent a little too much of your everyday life worrying about safety and wrapped blissfully in a false sense of what is permissible behavior at the expense of what is in some cases undeniably practical.HERE are some pictures!

Last moments in NY with Mom