Indonesia Trip January 2008 - Part 4

The weekend's over so now for the recap of what we did Saturday. We started out the morning by going to a little shop in the back of a huge mall where you can find great deals on watches. They have everything from Guess to Tag; Fossil to Rolex. Some of the watches are real while others are fake. When we got there they showed Bob and Ghada some Rolex watches watches. "No, higher quality." So they pulled out some other Rolex watches. "Higher quality." So they pulled out some more, these ones were heavier and the second hand move in one continuous movement. Apparently there are different levels of fakeness; cheap, fairly nice, or really nice, but still fake.

While they took their time deciding on watches I went and looked at a few of the other shops. There were a lot of fake designer purses, shoes, and sun glasses.

After that we went to a shop that an expat recommended for pearls. All the pearls are real and Bob once again was in the mood to buy his wife a nice gift.

Here's what Bob had made for his wife. He picked out the black pearls for the necklace and they strung it while we waited. It cost ~$45.

We then headed to a shopping mall that sold electronics and lots (I mean lots) of pirated videos for 7,ooo Rupia each or roughly 70 cents. Apparently people here don't see anything wrong with selling or buying pirated stuff.

The last place we stopped was an antique dealer where you can find all sorts of artifacts that are 300 to 400 years old. Marc is loves to shop, and he has very expensive taste. He's french and has spent time in Chad, Angola, Australia, the US and a few other places. He's collected expensive carvings, statues, etc. from the different places he's been.


While we were here we took a chance to take a picture of flat Stanley with one of the statues. Bob's daughter is a preschool teacher and she had each of the kids cut out and color their own flat Stanley. They then send it to everyone they know around the world and get pictures of him everywhere. Bob brought him and we've been taking random pictures of him since we got here. I don't think she'll show this one to the kids.