We finally arrived in Bandung at 2 am Christmas morning, after 10 hours of driving, a trip that normally takes about 2 hours. It actually reminded me of driving home from Nashville in the wee hours of Christmas, but completely traffic free. They dropped me off at B’s cousin’s boarding house that I was staying at. The staff gave me the key and led me to my room. Bandung was much cooler than Jakarta, all those mountains helping to keep the temperature down. All the buildings I’ve been in have tile floor which certainly helps too! The boarding house I stayed at usually has a bunch of students. My room had a bed with sheets and pillows. All the places I’ve stayed had a body pillow. It’s more comfortable to curl around it rather than a blanket when it’s hot. I had a desk, chair, bedside table, closet, and a one room bathroom that was all tiled for the shower. Thank goodness I took some free tissues at Narita, because again, no toilet paper. Most toilets had a bidet type function or a hose to wash yourself down with. All I saw was a lot of water on the floor, and how are you supposed to get yourself dry after?? Many toilets had signs to throw the toilet paper in the trashcan instead of flushing it.

I was supposed to contact AJ once I woke up, but I didn’t have the wifi password. She figured that out and showed up on her own at 11 am. We hopped onto her motorbike - my first time! - and headed over to her home about 30 minutes away. AJ’s a really safe driver and it was so much fun! In general, motorbike drivers look much more properly dressed here - helmets, long pants, jackets, close toed shoes.

AJ lives in a subdivision. There are a lot of bar gates blocking off roads where guards have to raise and lower the bar. We drove past a field filled with butterflies. In the subdivision, younger folks drive around on bikes, racing them until they hit the speed bumps. Many of them don’t have licenses and aren’t properly outfitted because the police don’t come by to check.

I met her mother and her two sisters, as well as her brother at the restaurant. Her mother wanted to take me out for a Christmas lunch. I gave AJ her Christmas present that I already spoiled yesterday since I’m horrible at keeping secrets. I had some brunch food - a salad and an omelette. The omelette was deep fat fried though which was interesting, and the dressing super sweet. I got a green tea latte that was delicious. Different from the Japanese ones.

While the rest of the family took their afternoon nap (which everyone does here!), AJ and I took a stroll around the subdivision. I got some cash from an atm, but it froze during the processing stage and wouldn’t give my card back even after hitting cancel. Since it was a holiday, the bank was closed and there was no staff around, but luckily AJ got a security guard. He wasn’t able to help, but the machine finally spit my card back out. I tried a different atm, that clearly had the VISA logo on it and had no problems. Only took out about $70 but it was 1,000,000 rupiah! The largest bill denomination was only 50,000 so that made for a wad of bills. So confusing to use the money! We bought a bus ticket for my return journey to Jakarta that left early in the day. Couldn’t risk insane traffic again.

It’s interesting to see that all the houses are surrounded by high gates to prevent thieves. There are some really ornate houses and they tend to be huge! Usually multiple generations are living in them, like at AJ’s aunt’s house, her 92 year old grandma lives with them. Again, no central air that I saw, just the same wall units as Japan. You could spot some of the distant mountains. There are mosques everywhere. I knew Indonesia had the highest percentage of Muslims (98%?) but seeing it in person was still shocking. All the headscarves and call to prayer five times a day. All the mosques had speakers in their towers and the chanting was really loud. It woke me up a lot in the morning. I don’t think I could’ve ever gotten used to it. I definitely got oogled at with my hair and height by random folks driving by on their motorbikes. The first comment by everyone, as per usual, was about how tall I am.

We stopped by her aunt’s house and I met her and AJ’s cousin. They offered me some Christmas cake, a durian roll cake and a layer cake. Both were very yummy! So many people have house staff here as well as drivers. Nannies, maids. It was weird to leave my dirty plates around and just have them cleaned up by the maid.

We went to best street food market area for dinner. Stalls upon stalls of food. The family treated me and bought an assortment of different things to try. I liked everything, but one tofu dish. The mango with the sticky rice was especially heavenly. They taste so much better if they aren’t transported. The main utensil here is a spoon, but people eat a lot with their hands too.

I video chatted with my family after I got back to my room. Nothing like experiencing Christmas morning via camera. The twelve hour time difference helped. This was my first Christmas away from family since even in 2013, I spent it with my German side of the family. AJ and her family really made me feel welcome although it was an untraditional Christmas for me!