Kakarta Oct. 8-9

First encounter with traveller's diarrhea: fun fun fun. We had to cancel our plans for a trip to the old town (Kota) and the National Museum. Luckily we got something done in the AM - both got haircuts (mine was $4) and found out that the bank won't accept my traveller's cheques for deposit to Sahm's acct - or anything else. Have to call AMEX tomorrow. Had some dramatic sweating and dizziness but hopefully will be over the worst tomorrow. Sahm made me some ginger tea and I'm resting my stomach by not eating. We also bought some cheap clothes at the mall basement; Sahm found an eh-xcellent Puma jacket in green & white. I got a couple of light-weight tops, one with long sleeves (after hearing that Sahm knows people who have got dengue ("break-bone") fever, I am suitably cautions about mosquitoes on our travels. I imagine I will have to cancel my trip to the botanical gardens tomorrow but hope that I'll feel recovered enough to sit in a car. I guess we won't tell Mohammad so he doesn't worry.
Oct. 9 - We called home this morning and let slip that I wasn't 100%, so put Daddy to some worry. I managed to get some porridge down and one Imodium and by evening I was well enough to go out for a bite with Sahm and Dewi at a very deluxe mall, Plaza Indonesia. It's very chic, with all the big fashion names, marble floors, gleaming surfaces, top design. But as Sahm pointed out, the sushi was no better than you would get at an ordinary Toronto sushi bar, and my udon soup was too salty. Dewi, very pretty and charming, drove us home and I got to see some of the interesting features such as a 'night market' selling cakes and sweets, the national monument or 'Monas' ( MOnumen NASional - they're big on acronyms here), and glimpses of some of the grittier parts of town. Unfortunately I've lost the opportunity to see many sights in this city because of jet lag, etc, which creeps up on one in strange ways. A footnote: in retrospect, I didn't miss much, as Jakarta is a pretty unattractive place, as I discovered on my next visit.