LifeInContrast.com

 
(Photo: A massive KFC here in Bandung)
There are many Pizza Huts, McDonald’s, and KFCs in Bandung. In most cases the food is not exactly the same, but it’s still pretty good. The sauces are usually a little different, sometimes sweeter. The ingredients are generally the same, with tiny changes. Combo meals [...]

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Thursday the 13th marked the beginning of the holy month of Ramadhan (also known as “the fasting month”), when all Muslims must refrain from food, drink, and sex during the daylight hours.  In fact, nothing must pass their lips during the day, so that includes water and smoking.  Ramadhan is a time when Muslims are [...]

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My motivation to post lately has been pretty low, but I assure you we’re still alive.  :)  Oddly, we didn’t feel a thing from the 8.2 earthquake that happened on Sumatra earlier this week, or any of the 40 massive aftershocks that are still terrorizing residents there.
It’s late on Saturday night, and we’ve spent most [...]

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About midnight last night I was working on my laptop when I felt the whole house shaking, our cement house. I yelled for Denise to wake up and stand under a doorway, although in retrospect all of our doorways have glass overhead. It lasted for about a minute, pretty minor shaking, similar to [...]

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Last weekend we took a trip to the province of Garut. First stop was the traditional village of Kampung Naga, where they eschew the use of electricity and live the way their ancestors did. It was a little depressing to see antennas sticking out the top of some of the huts, but it [...]

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Here’s my new motorbike - a 2006 Honda Supra Fit that I bought for about $900 USD. It’s got some serious power! Now I just need to practice more so that I can actually ride the thing. Then maybe I can join that motorcycle gang.

(click thumbs for larger images)
Here’s a [...]

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I’m feeling very clever. After two and a half months, I finally have broadband internet at home. Scorning dialup access, I tried several DSL and wireless modem options, to no avail. But finally I’ve found a wireless broadband provider that will work with my Mac. Apparently it works on the 3.5G [...]

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Denise, Russell, and I were hanging out at a bar above Bandung with friends on Friday night, eating tasty pizza, enjoying Heineken on draft, and choosing our favorite songs from a free computerized jukebox system. The bar is perched on a hillside with a great view of the city lights, and the wooden architecture [...]

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It continues to amaze me how eager people are to interact with Westerners.  On Friday we took a trip with 80 young children to an activities campground, where 4 teachers from an unrelated school asked if they could take their picture with me - twice!  Then on Saturday I went to a bar with some [...]

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The first pangs of homesickness have finally set in.  Not really strong, mind you, and I’m not even sure I’d call it a proper “sickness”.  Maybe more of a “homemissness.”  There’s a Bob Dylan song from the “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid” movie soundtrack, and it rings true for me right now.  In the [...]

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