CITO (City of Tomorrow) Mall

Our shopping expedition to this enormous 3 floor mall. So conscious that my luggage is still bursting and there could be an excess baggage charge now that we are not traveling with the Mann's.
There are two huge stores - Matahari & Hypermart- and then lots and lots of tiny shops selling everything you'd expect to get in a mall: clothes, watches, food, shoes, bags etc. For the size of it, there aren't many people and most of the little shops are still closed.
I am sitting at A&W waiting for the others while enjoying a root beer! Couldn't resist asking to take a photo of these 2 kids enjoying a waffle with ice cream!

Checkout from Hotel Bahagia

Waiting for Bu Arfa to arrive. Bill's are paid, bags waiting & our car is here. The plan was to stop by & have a group photo taken on the way to the airport but time is running out & it is looking unlikely. We have to be at tne airport in 20 mins.

Morning manicure in Pangkalan Bun

We've had our morning es campur and we also tried es kolak (see picture) which is similar to es campur except instead of agar agar jellies, had pieces of very starchy banana.
We are now sitting in a salon so Bec can have a manicure and then afterwards we are booked at another salon for a massage.
Bec is now seated in the chair having her nails cleaned after much deliberation about what colour to have. The beauty therapist has recommended 'french tips' with clear nails and a white top.

Nid ji and Coklat by Kate

At this concert Annie, Tom and i saw the most amount of people i have seen together at Pangkalan Bun. It was pretty amazing there were thousands of people of all ages coming out to watch the bands Nid ji and Coklat. We arrived a little late so we missed the start of Coklat but we had the police at the entrance to the concert helping us get through the extremely crowded entrance. The few Coklat songs we saw were still pretty good. All of their songs were love songs but they sounded really lovely.
Once they had finished there were a few dance groups but the real show was all Nid ji. As soon as they started the crowd around the stage tripled in size with almost everyone singing along. They are huge here with the lead singer making many references about Kalimantan and the people. Their songs were a lot more up beat than Coklat's songs and they were enjoyed by all. The concert was extremely interesting and was a great experience.

Gate crashing a Sunatan Party in Pangkalan Bun

Just had a funny thing happen to us that i want to share with you. We headed out for dinner up a side street and onto the back street that runs parallel to the one our hotel is in. We were looking for somewhere to eat when up along the road i saw what looked like a night market. It was on the edge of the road with material curtaining off the chairs & tables from the traffic. We walked inside only to suddenly realise that we had gate crashed a family function - a circumcision event. We try to back out politely but we were welcomed warmly and pressed to stay and join them for a meal. We didn't want to offend them, so accepted the plates and helped ourselves to the buffet on the footpath. We chose oseng oseng (kalimantan style stir fried veg) and spicy and sour pineapple; both dishes absolutely beautiful. A fellow at the next table was extremely friendly and happily practiced his English answering our questions. After what seemed a polite amount of time we asked to give our respects to the young boy who had been circumcised earlier. He was sitting on a throne like chair with a white toga like sarong positioned to hang loosely above his torso. He looked like he would rather be anywhere else than there receiving white strangers. As we had done a couple of days ago at identical function for a nephew of Bu arfa's, we went up to wish the boy selamat while shaking his hand. I took photos of him & he was not impressed that everyone was watching and giggling while he shook hands with 'scantily' (by muslim standards) dressed white girls. Kate was wearing shorts and Bec was wearing jeans and all of us were wearing t-shirts. Behind him was a fancy bed which i also photographed and would have been where the operation took place.

Saturday in Pangkalan Bun

Slept in this morning till 6:30 which was lovely after a lovely sleep to find that it had been quite noisy overnight! I'd slept through loud shouting, crying and arguing. After the morning teh manis (sweet tea) and sweet bread cakes we left for Ciptaland to go shopping. Unfortunately Barata was not yet open. We began our shopping expedition with es campur and juice which took ages because the poor lady making everything kept getting muddled up. Bu Arfa & Bapak turned up and we took the younguns up to Timezone for fun.
We headed back to the hotel and met up with everyone in time to head out for a swim. Deni suggested trying a new swimming spot at the river or the other swimming pool. Majority voted for the swimming pool but we checked out the river on the way. This pool was totally different to the other one we'd been to- 4 pools for starters, but not as snazzy as the first one. this one also had a large slippery dip but the pool with the more exciting looking slippery dip unfortunately was closed. I still got some good footage of Tom coming down the slide and starting tsunami sized waves!
We next headed to the river for a klotok ride. The original plan was to walk on the board walk along the river and then catch the klotok back but unfortunately we ran out of time. Instead we caught 2 klotoks and went right up along the river to the bridge where the Mann's fishing expedition had been yesterday. Along the way we all feasted on freshly cooked battered tempeh, battered bananas and bak wan - vegetable fritters which were easily my favourite. Crispy on the outside and creamy inside. Being late afternoon, the activity along the water included people taking a mandi, washing their clothes, feeding the fish in the fish farms, loading boats, and we also saw several families who were finished for the day just sitting their watching the world pass by. The funniest sight was the people cleaning their teeth. Squatting by the waters edge with foaming lipstick lips.

Friday in Pangkalan Bun

My sleepover at Bu Arfa's last night was lots of fun and except for the enormous cockroach who insisted on greeting me every time i used the bathroom, i loved every minute of my time with the family. Got some great footage of Bu Arfa buying vegetables from a kaki lima driving a motorbike and also footage of bapak feeding Tiara her breakfast in the typical indonesian way of feeding young children: hand feeding her.
As usual we were very late getting to the hotel to pick Sharon & Annie who had already left and had gone to school by ojek an hour previously.
I arrived at school to find Sharon & Annie talking in English about what the children have enjoyed about their stay.
We broke into groups and my group consisted today of Rani, Ari, Irvan & Wirra who did a fantastic job with my topic. I rode on the back of Irvan's bike to the same market i was at yesterday and we found the same banana seller at the back of the market who reluctantly let us video him selling bananas. However his voice wasn't loud enough nor did he speak clearly enough so the boys offered to do his part too and we progressed well. We thanked him afterwards and walked off to get a cold drink (es jeruk/iced orange) which was beautiful. We sat down and looked at what we'd done so far & discussed what worked and what didn't and then where to go next We decided the fish market would be interesting so headed in that direction As we walked past the banana seller, he glared at us & i realised that i should have bought some bananas in appreciation. So i bought a kilo of pisang susu but that didn't put a smile on his face either. Maybe should have bought a kilo of several varieties but was aware that i would then need to carry them all.
I then gave Rani my flip camera and we broke into 2 groups to film. Can't wait to see their footage! It was hilarious asking fish sellers if we would use their fish for the video. They were incredulous that anyone would be interested enough in dead fish!
I had forgotten to take my oleh oleh with me so we dropped in to the hotel so i could pick them up. Turned out everyone was also heading back to the hotel so after we had all grouped together, we got a whole group photot with everyone, even Bec & Kate! We have planned to catch up later after evening prayers (mahgrib) for last goodbyes and also to chat as i got the impression there are still questions that haven't been asked about Australian culture.
After everyone had left, Sharon & family headed out for some family time fishing at a place where after you have caught your fish, they cook it for you. We headed to the Istana Es - the ice palace for more es campur and juices. I tried an sop buah (see photo) and a durian juice while the girls had a mango juice,a banana juice and a jack fruit juice. We then walked back to our hotel via various shops and various ATM's where i still have had no luck getting money out & got back in time for afternoon aerobics.