Shanghai and Hangzhou, China

After the steamy city of Jakarta my system was shocked to be in the cold weather.  After buying a big down coat I could explore the city with my parents comfortably.   This is a mega city of mega cities, the Bond is still intact but when you are up high you can see the vastness of the city and all of the new construction. 

Lamb Spare ribs with cumin

Shrimp and garlic flakes and chili

A view of the vastness of Shanghai

The bond at night

Strange promotion

These guys must feel left out

Hangzhou, China

Its not some filter I have put on my lens this is the smog and dirty air that everyone always talks about.

Western companies are here in full force

One of the best meals of my life, here is a sampler of some good stuff, bottom right, egg with duck liver inside, some smoked white fish in the middle, and a head cheese on the far left. 

Famous Clay chicken. simple but so good.  

Fish with black beans

Crispy duck

Jakarta Part 2

Here are just some more pics of my last day or two in Jakarta.  A big crazy city where poverty and luxury are living side by side.  The inequality in the city is staggering. 

Side street coffee club

At first when I walked into this building I thought it was abandoned but I soon realized it was full of resourceful men selling car parts. 

This was near my hotel.

And this was next to the trash

Traffic in this city is bad at all times of day

The best satay place, lamb pieces being interspersed with lamb fat!

Borobudur, Indonesia

 Borobudur is  is a 9th-century Mahayana Buddhist Temple.  This temple is the best preserved temple I have been to, I was struck by how well they UNESCO money had been spent and the carvings were so well preserved.  After visiting Thailand and Burma and seeing the amazing Stupas and Temples this site was a bit underwhelming.  If you are new to visiting temples it will fascinate you.

Pangandaran, Indonesia

 Panandaran is a very small fishing village on the west side of the island of Java.  I accidentally ended up here because of a misunderstanding with the receptionist in Bandung.  I was supposed to go to a place with a volcano and explore in the mountains.  I instead ended up going to the beach on an eight hour minibus.   I arrived at night in a torrential rainstorm.  So high on the street that it it reached my shins.  In the morning I realized that my comfy and quiet hostel was located practically next to the beach.  For the next couple of days I enjoyed the beach which I rarely do.  The nature in this area is really nice, but most of the coast line has also be destroyed because of the gigantic tsunami that hit it's shores in 2006.  If you find yourself in need a beach this one is great, and if you are a beginner on a surfboard the waves are really good. 

Fishing by dragging a massive net from the beach.

I happened upon to groups of college students all going through a sort of hazing process where the upper class men and woman were yelling at the new recruits and making them crawl through mud.

Magnificent coast

The makings of a peanut sauce, the key is palm sugar

The peanut sauce added to tofu, green beans, and a type of sticky rice that is all over Indonesia, plus shrimp crackers that were purple.

Fried fish with sweet chili sauce.