The Year of the Ox

Happy Chinese New Year! (or as it is known here, Imlek)

To celebrate Howie, Chad, Trish and I headed to Glodok, Jakarta's Chinatown, to check out what was going on. I have to admit that I was not expecting much. The last time Howie and I went almost 2 years ago we were significantly underwhelmed. Today was quite the opposite. It was great.

The first stop was Gloria market, which was totally hopping. There were tons of little red envelopes for Chinese New Year money gifts, lanterns, ox adorned everything, incense and flowers for temple visits and delightful little snacks that only come out this time of year. We wandered the alleys and picked up a few things - some sort of rice flour, palm sugar thing that you are supposedly supposed to fry and eat, some delish smelling coffee beans that had been roasted with sesame seeds, custard apples (these are a fruit) and along the way a quick stop for some handmade dumplings.We breezed by the many frogs on the way to being only frog legs, turtles on the way to being turtle soup, leeches for medicinal purposes and snakes for lord knows what.We also made a visit to a couple temples. There are quite a few tucked away throughout Glodok and then main one was really a sight to see. It was packed with both worshippers and beggars who we are told come from far and wide this time of year to receive the generosity of some guys who distribute about Rp. 3000 (about 30 cents) to anyone who is there. Supposedly they come every day for a week and just pass out the cash. We cannot really understand how this is lucrative enough to come from afar, but someone must have done the math (and realized that this is not the most orderly system of passing out money so you are able to collect more than once.) We decided not to stick around to see it all happen as the crowds were huge and it seemed like chaos was sure to ensue.Inside the temple, the smoke from incense was intense and there are huge candles (we are talking 6 feet tall and 1 foot wide and bigger) all around. It was amazing to watch everyone lighting candles (small ones), incense and throwing their paper wishes into the fire. It was easy to forget where you were, and we were both quickly taken back to China and memories of celebrating there.