R. Doug Wicker's Blog, page 24

Fun Photo Friday — Jakarta Favorites 3

Where’s Barbie?

Today we finish up with Jakarta. Next weeks I’ll take you to what was our next Indonesian destination, the city of Semarang in Central Java.

Ursula Taking In the Local Color A Riot of Rust Pristine Pinisi Commuter Parking Rigging and Wood Bunga Sentosa (Sentosa Flower) II

Слава Україні! (Slava Ukraini!)

Indonesia — Jakarta, More Magnificent Views of Sunda Kelapa

Pinisi Rigging

Today I continue with the color images of pinisi cargo vessels using Sunda Kelapa Jakarta (Jakarta Old Port):

Narrow Gangplank Blue View A Modern “Pinisi” Rustbucket

Слава Україні! (Slava Ukraini!)

Indonesia — Jakarta, Lots of Color at Sunda Kelapa Shipyard

Jakarta’s old port is Sunda Kelapa, and it was by far the most colorful place we encountered on our tour of Jakarta. Sunda Kelapa is incapable for handling today’s larger ships, but it’s still an active port for a very specific type of ship, the pinisi. Pinisi refers to a traditional Indonesian two-masted ketch. The are old, colorful, and just plain fun to photograph. As such, I’ll be concentrating today and Wednesday on the sights in this old port.

Here is today’s selection from Sunda Ke...

Wishing Everyone a Happy Easter

Wishing Everyone a Happy Easter

Last evening Ursula and I were given an early Easter treat in the form of the spectacular sunset you see above. I though I would share it with you with a special Easter blog post. And while I’m at it, here’s another image from our backyard that was recorded last month, just twelve days before Lent:

Magnificent Rainbow

I hope these images give you a nice start to your Easter Sunday.

Слава Україні! (Slava Ukraini!)

Fun Photo Friday — Jakarta Favorites 2

Ran Across This Guy Who Claims to be an Author — He’s since lost some weight since “retiring”

Today is the second of three Fun Photo Fridays featuring Jakarta favorites:

Слава Україні! (Slava Ukraini!)

Indonesia — Jakarta, Walking Around Old Town and Hitting Café Batavia

Café Batavia

When touring Kota Tua (Old Town) Jakarta, one of the attractions is also a refreshing one — Café Batavia. Café Batavia (website link here) is a colonial landmark that was completed in 1837. It is the second oldest building on the historic Fatahillah Square (Taman Fatahillah). As you can see, this is a great place to take a break and get some lunch, imbibe in some refreshment, or just peruse the photos and art decorating the interior:

Now let’s take a gander at the charming...

Indonesia — Jakarta, Wayang Museum

Museum Wayang, Jakarta, Indonesia

The Wayang Museum is a museum far different than is familiar to most of us. The entire museum is dedicated to wayang, the Javanese art of puppet theater. The puppets on display here represent two forms of the art — wayang golek and wayang kulit. Most non-Indonesian visitors will be more familiar with the three-dimensional wooden puppets used in wayang golek, which is the puppetry of the Sundanese of West Java:

Wayang golek puppets

The other puppet theate...

Fun Photo Friday — Jakarta Favorites 1

Ursula at the Sunda Kelapa Shipyard

Today I present the first of three Fun Photo Fridays devoted to Jakarta favorites:

I Never “Tire” of Bicycles We Were Briefly Millionaires in Indonesia Istiqlal Mosque Gong Little Barry at Play A Charming Group Happy to Pose

Слава Україні! (Slava Ukraini!)

Indonesia — Jakarta, Istiqlal Mosque

Istiqlal Mosque (spires of Jakarta Cathedral in the background)

There are six religions recognized by Indonesia, but at 87% of the population Islam is by far the most predominate. Indeed this country’s 231 million Muslims make Indonesia the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country. So with that in mind, today I’m presenting Jakarta’s Isitql Mosque.

Istiqlal Mosque (National Monument if the background)

Istiqlal Mosque is the largest in Southeast Asia, and with a capacity of 200,000 i...

Indonesia — Jakarta, State Elementary School Menteng 01 and a U.S. president

State Elementary School Menteng 01 — Besuki School

After several days in Singapore it was time for Ursula and I to move on. And move on we did. We boarded the Holland America ship MS Volendam for a 14-night cruise round-trip out of Singapore for the country of Indonesia. Here we would have many adventures among several of Indonesia’s beautiful islands. Our first stop in Indonesia was Jakarta. And here, as is often the case, Ursula had us scheduled for a tour. The first stop on this one was an...