Saturday: Fish Market, Selfies, Durian

Today I decided to go out on my own, calling a cab to take me into the middle of the city and letting the day unfold as it was inclined to unfold. I had some say in how things went, but more I just went with the flow, wandering map-less and without any ambition except to figure out where I'm at.

Friday night the sun set and it looked nice. The picture doesn't do it justice.

I got out of the taxi and began walking in our future neighborhood.

I enjoyed seeing this carved tree trunk.

I was glad to see a laundry service in the neighborhood, not far from the house.

I was intrigued by this graffiti.

It was on the wall next to this house.

Which in turn was right next to this house.

As I'm learning in Solo, arches mark the entrances to neighborhoods.

Here's another arch, another neighborhood.

Who can predict these things? I was walking along the street and someone called out "Pak Brian," and it turned out to be one of the owners of the house we're planning on renting. I was invited in to the owner's home, asked if I liked to sing, and invited to watch a band that happened to be practicing in the home. Once I was in the room, I was invited to sing, and to select my songs from a book with lyrics.

I didn't know many of the songs through-and-through. "Unchained Melodies" was one option, and so was "Yesterday." But I didn't know those well enough, so I chose to sing "Bring Back My Bonny to Me."

And then, as an encore, I sang Bob Dylan's "Blowin in the Wind." I did better, unfortunately, with "My Bonny." But they didn't let my lackluster Dylan performance discourage them. They were still practicing hours later when I came back.

The house I was in had a fish pond with some genuinely BIG fish.

After awhile, the owner took me over to the house to show me the newly installed toilet. It looked so nice.

After I saw the progress with the house (they're bringing in a stove also), I thanked the owner and said I wanted to just walk around the neighborhood to get oriented. I took a picture of a bird in a cage.

I saw a woman working on sewing in what looked like a business. I talked to here and it turned out it was a business. She said she mostly sews skirts but can sew shirts and other things to if she has an example. 

I liked this blue wall.

This was another laundry service I found nearby.

I left the neighborhood and headed out in the direction of a new mall, walking along.

I thought I'd take a pic of the fish in the stream.

These ruins were painted in such cheerful colors I wanted to get a picture.

Arriving at the mall

Looks like there's no shortage of clothes for a job here.

I headed for the US Western wear/batik section of the mall.

Once I finished looking around a bit at the mall, I caught a taxi to a bird market I had heard about.

I'm not sure but I think these might be flying foxes.

And unfortunately an owl.

Bird and a tree

Next to the bird market was the fish market

To me these seemed particularly vivid

Leaving the fish and bird markets, I walked for awhile and saw a nice cactus-type plant

Finally, after walking for awhile and not knowing where I was, I entertained the invitation of a becak driver. Look, I'm sorry these selfies are so awkward-looking. I'm sure if I were 20 years younger I would know exactly how to keep the glare off my glass and look glamorous.

I got back to the neighborhood I had been in earlier.

I liked these flowering plants with the tuberous little trunks.

The owner again saw me and invited me in again, this time giving me bakmi goreng and dragon fruit.

I don't know why I thought I needed it, but I took another picture of the fish pond.

And then I took a pic of the owner feeding the fish some live insects. My how they lunged. See the splashes on the rim?

And then it seems like it was time for the fish's real feeding, of raw chicken. I had wondered how such big fish could be sustained by five or six insects thrown into the water, but now I saw where their real sustenance was coming from.

After I watched the fish eating, I began talking with the owner and her friends about whether I had ever tried durian. They asked, and I said I hadn't but that I wanted to try it.

It was raining but we jumped in the car and drove to a durian stall that they knew. I didn't know durians' spines were as sharp as they are. I also assumed we would buy a durian and take it back to the owner's house.

But instead, we sat down on a bench behind the durian table with some other people who were already eating durian. My hosts chose a durian and had the stall owner cut it open, and there we sat and ate it with our hands. The most memorable description of durian I've ever ready was (I think in a book call "The Fruit Hunters") that durian tastes like the most divine custard imaginable, mixed with onion. I think that's a good description. In the moment of eating it, for me at least, I mostly only tasted the divine custard, with a small hint of onion every once in a while. But my hands still do have an oniony smell. After we ate the first big durian, my host wanted to buy me a durian to take with me. But when I reminded them that I was at a hotel, they understood and asked me to eat a second durian right now by myself. I wasn't sure if this was just them being polite, and hence if it would be polite to refuse. Or if this was just them being polite, and hence it would be polite to accept. Given that I was on the fence about the correct protocol, I listened to my heart, and accepted. As I finished the second durian, one of the patrons who was sharing the bench with us looked over an commented on how red my face was. I told her it was a mark of my good health, and I kept eating. After I finished, one of my hosts warned me not to have any Coke or Sprite after eating durian. I imagine those drink might disrupt the good health that my red face marked so well.

The day seemed so full, but the owner and her friend have invited me to go out to eat with them this evening, so I've just crashed at the hotel for a couple hours before I go back out into the world.