Mom, dad, and Susie.
Actual date: October 16, 2008
The first restaurant we went to was a Chinese restaurant in Surabaya right after we landed. On day 2 we went to our first Indonesian food restaurant: Gadjah Mada restaurant in Malang. I call it an Indonesian restaurant because its main dishes are uniquely Indonesian despite their distinctly Chinese roots. Gadjah Mada is known for its Pangsit Mie, which is a noodle dish (mie = noodles) served with dumplings similar to Gyoza (pangsit = a type of dumpling). Despite the name, instead of fried/boiled dumplings you can get it served with a variety of other meats on top of the noodles like shredded or ground meat, meatballs, etc. Beef and chicken are popular toppings, while pork is more likely to be served at Chinese-inclined restaurants where their clientele are less likely to be muslim. » Continue Reading…
Weary world traveler
Actual date: October 16, 2008
Day 2? What happened to day 1? I didn’t take any pictures on day 1–that’s what happened. Yes, from the moment we touched down in Indonesia through the end of day 1 I managed to not take a single shot. I’ll hide behind the excuse that I was tired and just ready to relax, but as a self-proclaimed photographer and one who thought about making a half-decent travelog out of the trip that really isn’t good enough. Do better next time. » Continue Reading…
Mesmerized
Good thing Susie was in town on the 4th of July. Otherwise I might’ve indulged my lazy tendencies and not taken us to see fireworks, which would’ve made Denise sad since she loves fireworks. And Sofia would miss out too. Hmm… maybe I wouldn’t have sat at home after all with all of that in play. Anyway, we went. Clinton has a fireworks show every 4th of July, so we avoided the $5 parking fee and traffic crush by parking just outside of the park and walked the rest of the way. It was a nice little hike, but we had a good time so it was worth it. » Continue Reading…
It's art because it's out of focus.
We never need an excuse to go to Haru, but Susie being in town is a guaranteed occasion for a Haru visit. This will make no sense to you unless you’ve experienced it like we have, but Susie and I agree that sushi at Haru is better than sushi in D.C. By that we don’t mean that it’s better than all sushi in D.C., since it’s not only possible but probable that we haven’t eaten the best D.C. has to offer. But the fact that Susie has been to numerous sushi joints in D.C. and thinks Haru is better than all of them speaks very highly of Haru. Denise and I enjoyed our D.C. sushi at Sushi Taro but didn’t come away from that experience rating it higher than Haru. At this point I’m confident in saying that Haru is better than most D.C. sushi places and definitely a better bang-for-the-buck than all. Jackson is just full of surprises. Who would’ve thought that sushi in Jackson would be that good? » Continue Reading…
Arrival
My sister Susie is here from D.C.! She touched down Thursday night. Only gonna be here for a few days (will be flying back tomorrow), but we usually see her a couple times a year at most so we’ll take what we can get. Notice nobody is walking behind her? I think she was the last person off the last plane from that side of the airport (terminals are divided into 2 sides).
Also notice the alphabet soup of signage all around this checkpoint. I counted 12 signs all clustered in this small area. Flying has become such a hassle these days. I don’t mind extra security checks and hassles, but at some point it gets kinda ridiculous, no? Who could read all 12 signs before starting the security check process even if he wanted to? The ironic thing is that all the ways we can think of that terrorists might try to hijack/disrupt a flight are already old news for them and they’ve moved on to new and innovative ideas.