Day 5 – Take care or you’ll end up with a tattoo!
Kidzania is an activity filled kidsize world for children under 16 years, recommended by an Australian family we met at the apartments. Kidzania is designed so the kids earn money by participating in different workplaces, all branded by Indonesian companies (of course); then are able to use that money to pay for different experiences or items (junk) in the flea market or department store.
Patrick gained job experience as a customer in the supermarket; construction worker building a fence; had a medical check up to gain his driver’s license so he could drive a car; danced in a disco; climbed a building and abseiled down, and more.
Harris attended university so that he could earn more money when he went to work; pumped gas at a petrol station; became a crime scene investigator and a microbiologist; was a radio announcer and more. Harris learnt the issues surrounding language barriers when he went to get his driver’s licence and somehow ended up paying for a tattoo on his arm, and he paid for it twice! Welcome to foreign countries!
We ate lunch at Kidzania and paid RP 20,000 ($2) for the worst cheeseburgers known to man! Live and learn. We had a great time but were glad to leave as it was becoming claustrophobic inside the building and the noise was overwhelming.
We went back to the apartments to pack for the next adventure, the Australian Embassy Cottages in Puncak, about 2 hours drive away. Just getting out of the building proved an adventure with all the gear we had and being able to pack the car. An incident occurred that involved the washing basket full of food falling and hitting the marble floor which led to the sad demise of two whole bottles of red wine. Whoops.
We made it out of Jakarta in the heavy traffic and onto the large motorway. We hit traffic again when we starting the road up the mountain where 2 lanes becomes about 4 or 6!
Finally we made it to our destination where we easily settled ourselves in, looked around the grounds and neighbouring tea plantations and I cooked spaghetti bolognaise for us all to enjoy. We had an early night as we were going on safari the next day!
Lee will be proud of the tattoo Harris has now paid for. Good work Harris – get some ink while you are still young…
Okay so I shouldn’t be egging him on. Love the work experience and Patrick dancing in a disco. Gorgeous!!!