Day 160 - ice cream

This just felt like a piece of Americana tonight -- getting ice cream on a  Saturday night.  Just a fun moment when all seems right in the world.

Day 159 The showdown

Establishing dominance in the Uncle/Niece relationship. I wonder who can go without blinking longer?

Day 158 In Memorium

A fitting beautiful sunset in Spring tonight in memory of
Mary Shannon Facemire. 

Shannon was an Assistant Principal at Schindewolf Intermediate School in Spring, Texas.

Day 157 - Olivia (again)

I declare a grandfather's prerogative to post more images of his beautiful grandchild.

My beautiful wife and granddaughter.

I 

I can only imagine the wonderment of a new born. How can one put into words the exciting newness of everything around you. That time when the most simple things are amazing and without description. What would our lives be like today. Could I, at age 50, look at the world around me with a freshness and infant-like wonder? Would my attitude change? Would my appreciation for the simple things in life bring a single tear of joy that I am given a precious gift of one more day and can yet still perceive. Can I look beyond the hurt and anguish and see just the beauty? Is it possible to recapture that child like innocence. Yes, we all have our protective walls, but just occasionally, in a safe place or moment can we feel that joy and wonderment again. Perhaps that is the secret to the fountain of youth.

Just a thought.

The tender calm of resting in loving arms. 

There is quiet solace in Nature's beauty. Sometimes when I think to lift my eyes to the Heavens I am still awe struck. I thank my dear friends who still believe in me. Who have helped to soften my heart. I hope I can give something in return. These images are my way of letting you know how I see the world.

Day 156 - home

Waiting at the luggage carousel in the Houston International airport.  The hardest part of the trip was waiting for the darn luggage to appear...

Here is one of the three oil paintings I acquired on my trip. This from a parking lot vendor at the Puncak Pass restaurant last Saturday.

And this one of the Batik fabrics I acquired. (yes e, this one is yours...)

Day 155 - Last day

This is my last day in Jakarta. Leaving on Singapore Airlines tonight at 8:15pm. Stop in Singapore and a 2:30am flight to Moscow. Refuel, change crews and then on to Houston. Here are some final images during my travels today.

 Front lobby of the Dharmawangsa. I was sitting waiting for my driver and the porter to retrieve my luggage.

This is the "restaurant" at lunch today. One more helping of Soto Ayam (chicken soup with rice.) The rice is kept in the large white container. The soup is out of sight but you can see the ladle.

And here it is. The custom is to ladle the soup onto the rice. Use a fork and a spoon.  The blue bowl contains chili sauce. I put one spoon in to spice up the soup. Quite good. Interesting, but I found that soda does not go well with most Indonesian fares (my normal Diet Coke or Coke Zero). I drank bottled water with most meals.

Leaving a Junior High School.

This is a cemetery we passed every day. Usually there were some young boys playing soccer. This afternoon the two ladies were walking along the road.

Riding side-saddle. Many use their motorbikes as a taxi service.

Lost in thought while walking.

This young lady was smiling at a friend passing on a motor bike.

Boys will be boys.

This is a common scene. Mom and her two kids. We saw up to four on a bike this trip and it's not uncommon to have 5 on a scooter at one time.

These girls were walking home from school.

This time a father with son and daughter.

This elderly lady caught my eye as she walked by.

This guy is compacting the trash as he collects it.  We saw several places where people make their living by sorting the trash and salvaging anything they can -- bottles, cans, paper and cardboard amongst notable items I could see. 

The blue colors caught my eye. As I recall she is stopping at a street vendor.

A food vendor washing dishes. Just clean water. I don't recall seeing soap or at least any suds that would make me think of soap. 

Talking on her cell phone while waiting for a bus. A passing motorbike almost obscured this image. I missed several good images from passing bikes. Just one of the hazards taking images while driving.  She is looking back at me with probably just as much curiosity about who I am as I capture this image.

Two of the poor I noticed on this route. Poor perhaps, but still a bright disposition. A good example for us all.

Some boys heading home from school.

Typical emissions output from the older city buses. It's not uncommon to see people wearing a mask or holding a hand over their face to help alleviate breathing some of these fumes.

A case in point. This young lady was holding her hand over her face just prior to my taking this image.

This woman was one of many beggars seen throughout Jakarta.

High rise apartments as seen on the way to the airport.

In stark contrast are these shanties with corrugated roofing along the waterway not far from the high rises. And this is one of the nicer ones.

It was hard to capture an image through the guard rails of the freeways, but you can just make out one of the humbler abodes.  I remember seeing these along the river for my first time in 2001. Sure, I'd seen things like this on TV, but when you see it with your own eyes it is quite humbling. It's hard to imaging, but these people eke out an existence and do survive. It gives me new meaning to the homage of "helping the poor and needy".

Sign on a handicapped elevator as we would call it. This at the Jakarta airport.

This is the airport in Singapore. It is really just a massive mall with restaurants and a small transit hotel.  Just about anything you could want at a mall you will find here. This is just a small portion.

This is in the Moscow airport during my short layover.  You can't see much. I just liked the profiles against the window pane.

Day 154 - The Dharmawangsa

Today is a day of rest and I just stayed at the hotel -- The Dharmawangsa. So I decided to just hang around and take images of the flowers and landscape.

Outside swimming pool at The Dharmawangsa.

What is really nice is all the shade trees around the swimming pool.

 

These trees are about 10 stories high.

 

 Some of the landscaping.

Daytime view of the tall towers next to the main section.

And now for some of the flora...

I saw several of these. There were several types of flowers that I have not seen before. Then of course this it the topics in Indonesia.

This one reminded me a bit of a jelly fish. 

I loved the fiery red and yellows of this one.

Variant of the one seen above.

I like the way these petals overlap like a propeller.

These petals remind me of pitchforks.

Interesting. Not sure what to make of this one.

This almost looks like a hat or maybe a brain cap.

Beautiful oranges. It was amazing how many different species there were and it was not obvious that there were that many. They were nicely spread out through the grounds.

I watched this bee for a while. It wold climb into these purple flowers and disappear entirely. 

Another view of some earlier flowers.  It almost looks like miniature bananas.

Not sure why this species of flower attracted the flying ants, but all of the ones like this had insects on them as you see here.

Everyone night two musicians played these instruments. The stringed instrument and the light colored flute like woodwind.

And for those of you who have never had this. This is passion fruit. Very sweet and delicious. But don't bite the seeds as they are bitter. Just put it in your mouth and enjoy ...