On Sunday 9\/7, after having a delicious breakfast included at my hostel of banana pancakes, I headed back to the Sultan’s Palace, which had been closed yesterday.\u00a0 This time I was able to get in and was treated to a performance by the Sultan’s orchestra, who were playing some traditional Indonesian music.\u00a0 It is enchanting in its own way, and very repetative.\u00a0 After enjoying the music for some time, I headed into the courtyard to explore the Sultan’s collection of artifacts.\u00a0 On the way I was stopped by some giggling children who wanted to interview me for an English project they were working on, asking questions about where I was from, my favorite color, how long I had been in Indonesia, and my impression of Indonesian people.\u00a0 Their English was very good, a marked difference from much of the older generation.\u00a0 After the interview, they invited me back to their school, but I think they were surprised when I accepted, as they ran away laughing.<\/p>\n
From the palace I took a kecak to the local bird market.\u00a0 Wow, what an experience.\u00a0 The only thing I can equate the market to is a pet store, but it is so much different and much more hectic.\u00a0 The entire market is outdoors and probably takes up several acres of space.\u00a0 Each narrow line of stalls is crammed with bird cages, fish tanks, gerbils, and many other animals, as well as live food for a multitude of animals including worms, beetles, and countless other insects.\u00a0 Birds chirping, roosters calling out, and the banter of locals negotiating with shop owners makes for a cacophony of noises.\u00a0 In the middle of the compound was a very large cage with a crowd gathered around.\u00a0 I walked over to see what the commotion was and saw there were a few large boa constrictors in the cage, along with some birds (their lunch).\u00a0 Unfortunately for the crowd, the snakes must have eaten somewhat recently as they were just lying around.<\/p>\n
That evening I headed for dinner at an Italian restaurant with an Irish couple and American staying at my hostel — there were a number of restaurants catering towards tourists on the nearby street, Jl. Prawirotaman 1.\u00a0 It was nice to have a Western style meal to give my stomach a break from the local fare.\u00a0 And in case you were wondering, it was surprisingly good.\u00a0 We shared stories about where we had been and where we were going, and the motivations behind our long-term travel.<\/p>\n
Itinerary Highlights<\/span> Lessons Learned<\/span> What “strange” things have you seen in other cultures or countries?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On Sunday 9\/7, after having a delicious breakfast included at my hostel of banana pancakes, I headed back to the Sultan’s Palace, which had been closed yesterday.\u00a0 This time I was able to get in and was treated to a performance by the Sultan’s orchestra, who were playing some traditional Indonesian music.\u00a0 It is enchanting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"geo":null,"yoast_head":"\n
\n–Sultan’s Palace
\n–Bird Market<\/p>\n
\n–A Western fare every now and then can help you “take a break” from travel in Southeast Asia (can’t believe I am already breaking away from Asian fare to early in my trip)
\n–In the US I think we often assume that strangers coming up to you are looking for something — that is not always the case, especially in some other countries, as was the case with the “interviewers”
\n–What is normal to some people (ie the bird market for Indonesians) can be very strange to others, based on your upbringing.\u00a0 But, I assume the more you are exposed to, the more you’ll get used to processing new experiences and the less strange they will seem<\/p>\n