I was a tourist attraction...

So here in Jakarta there is a term for white person, which is boolay. A boolay can be from Europe, America, wherever, as long as they are white. Apparently, there is no judgement or stigma attached to the term.

Yesterday I went to the National Monument (Monas), the Puppet Museum and another museum (can't remember the name, but still very neat). Everywhere I walked, there were whispers of "boolay, boolay..." At the Monas, a man asked me to take a picture of him and his girlfriend (so I thought) so I went to reach for the camera. Instead, the woman stood next to me and the man took a picture of us. Interesting. One man on a bus started waving to me - "Hi boolay! Hi boolay!" Uh, hi.

I did get to ride on the busway. The busway is a part of the street that only buses are supposed to drive on, though a lot of motorcyclists use it. The bus was pretty clean and not too much different than the CTA buses. There is an operator on the bus that allows only a certain number of people on at each stop. It cost 3,500 rupiahs, which is about $0.40.

So I am learning more and more about Jakarta, which is pretty cool. It's been 3 1/2 weeks since I first arrived. I am not about to call it home, but so far, its not so bad.