After three days in Jakarta, we flew to Yogyakarta today for the next segment of our trip. Yogyakarta, nicknamed “Jogja” is the city that Indonesians from all over the country visit when they want to go on holiday. It’s a major cultural and arts destination, known for its many UNESCO World Heritage sites, not to mention its art scene. They have these intense puppet-type shows where all the puppets are handmade and carved from buffalo skin (I got to touch one of these today, and they feel so soft, almost like leather!). 

We were lucky while in Jakarta because the traffic wasn’t anywhere as bad as we imagined it to be based on all the travel blogs and sites we’d read, but then we quickly realized and were told that the traffic was lesser in the Big Durian because they’d all left the city in preparation for the new year’s holiday. Where did a lot of them go? To Jogja, and the traffic was absolutely horrific here today as result of this. Today, we only got to visit the Taman Sari, or the Portuguese water castle, as a result of this and the rain. 

My first impressions of the city are that it’s definitely far more quaint than Jakarta (obvious given the size of Jogja is just a fraction of Jakarta) and actually reminded me of Qui Nhon, Vietnam, and even Siem Riep, Cambodia. The streets, the roads, the traffic, the tuktuks – a lot were very similar to these other two cities I’d visited previously. 

We ended up sleeping early and not staying out late to welcome in 2020 because we will be waking up at 3:30 to leave for our 4pm car to see the sunrise over Borobudor Temple tomorrow. This just means that we will be waking up bright and early for 2020 to see the very first sunrise of the new year. 

We ate some of the most delicious dishes during our Jakarta segment of our trip today, ranging from soto Betawi, a Jakarta beef stew made with jerky-like beef, coconut and fresh milk, ginger, galangal, garlic, kaffir lime, among other spices; martabak durian, a thick pancake with crispy edges stuffed with durian fruit; to nasi campur, an Indonesian mixed rice dish that had many Chinese barbequed meat components. And during the day, we were stopped by a few potential fans who asked to take photos with us and also for my channel name/Instagram handle so that they could subscribe and watch. It was so cute and sweet that they would stop and ask and also be a follower of mine; this is the first time this has happened during our filming outside of that one time at Ba Xuyen in Brooklyn. All this interaction/interest has encouraged me and given me more motivation to get these videos up as soon as I can. The only challenge is the massive backlog I have of videos to edit and upload, not to mention the endless amounts of footage I have from all these places. The cooking videos have a pretty predictable beginning, middle, and end. The food travel videos can involve more creativity and definitely take more time because of it, so I tend to spend more time and energy on these. I hope these will generate more interest from audiences abroad, so fingers crossed. 

When I was little, I always enjoyed many types of arts and crafts, from drawing, painting, paper mache, to beading and scrapbooking. What I never mastered that I wanted to do was braiding hair. This seems a bit frivolous, but to me, being able to do hair seemed like an important thing because why not have some fun adding variety to one’s appearance? It seems so simple, the idea of braiding hair. It’s essentially creating decorative knots in the hair. But for some reason, I never really learned how to do the most basic braids. My “braids” always ended up looking like twisted ropes, which was clearly not correct. 

Yet as an adult in my own kitchen, I mastered braiding challah quickly and enjoyed the entire process. So today, as I was struggling with the tropical heat and humidity of Jakarta, I wasn’t sure if I should wear my hair up in a bun because that would mean I couldn’t wear a hat to protect my face from the strong sun. If I wore my hat, I’d need to tie my hair in a low ponytail, but the hair from the ponytail would constantly stick to my sticky, sweating skin. The only remedy would be to braid my hair. And I thought to myself, if I have no issues braiding challah, then how is hair any different? This was so silly! 

So, I finally attempted braiding after 30 years of staying away from it, and somehow, it actually turned out looking okay. I looked up YouTube tutorials on regular braids, Dutch braids, fish tail braids, and French braids. It’s crazy all these things that really are not that hard as long as you have a very clear visual, step-by-step guide. 

Yep, I’m 33 going on 34, finally mastering braiding hair, all because I was sick and tired of having my hair stick to my skin in this unbearable heat and stickiness. This new skill is achieving my goal of preventing my hair strands sticking all over my body. At least it’s better late than never. 

We arrived in Jakarta last night to a heavy rainfall and humidity so high that every piece of glass in sight continuously fogged when exposed to the outside world. I was wondering what Jakarta would be like, particularly in the light of the fact that pretty much everyone I know who has been to Indonesia on holiday has completely skipped Jakarta; instead, they use the city as a transfer point to get to the much hyped up island of Bali (thanks so much, Australians and Eat, Pray, Love). Jakarta has a bad wrap for its congested traffic, pollution, and crowds. It made me wonder…. Ummm, aren’t those the same reasons people hate on cities like LA or New York? Yet people continue to visit those cities. Are people just pre-judging too much and straight up being assholes about what they don’t even know? 

Jakarta is also known affectionately (or not) as “the Big Durian.” It’s debated why this is Jakarta’s nickname, but some plausible theories include: like the polarizing and stinky durian fruit originating in Southeast Asia, you either love Jakarta or you hate it. For some, it’s an exciting and delicious city. For others, they simply cannot stand any part of it and want to avoid it like the plague. Another theory: durian is smelly, and so is Jakarta (I don’t agree that Jakarta is smelly, but yes, as a city with a high population and poor and rich areas, of course the poorer areas are going to have worse sewage systems, so….). 

After exploring the city for two days, I would argue that Jakarta is certainly worth a visit. Yes, it doesn’t have a lot of “tourist” sights the way a city like Beijing, Kuala Lumpur, Hanoi, or New York would, but it has interesting and quirky neighborhoods, crazy large malls, and an eclectic assortment of food due to its extremely diverse population representing many surrounding countries, its 17,000+ islands, and previous colonization by the Portuguese and the Dutch. From a culture perspective, there’s plenty to learn and soak in from this capital city. And from a foodie perspective, it’s kind of like a dreamy paradise. Who would have thought to put jerky-like beef into a coconut and cow milk-based broth, or to make coffee from coffee berries defecated from a civet / luwak cat because going through its digestive track would result in a more rich and chocolatey flavor? Also, I’d never before visited a country with SO many different types of sambals (spicy chili pastes) ranging in level of heat, sweetness, sourness, saltiness. Indonesian cuisine is vast, rich, and diverse, so heavily influenced by Malaysian, Chinese, and Indian cuisines, just to name a few. I cannot imagine anyone who enjoys trying new foods to find this city even remotely boring. 

Chris and I met his best friend at a relatively new Indian restaurant called Vel Restaurant & Cafe in the Carrum Downs suburb of Melbourne today for a quick Christmas Eve lunch during his lunch break (it was actually our second time eating here this trip, as Chris’s aunt and uncle introduced us to this South Indian restaurant last week when we saw them – the dosa here is delicious!). He got there earlier than we did and sat at a table that was apparently dirty, covered in crumbs and food from the previous diners who were at the table. When we arrived and he got up to greet us, a worker immediately noticed and came over to clean the table he was sitting at. Chris’s friend laughed, saying, “Wow, so I was sitting here for at least 15 minutes on my phone and never got looked at, yet as soon as CJ comes in and he’s a brown person, the table magically gets cleaned! That’s service!”

Chris’s best friend is a white Australian, clearly a minority in this very crowded and busy Indian restaurant full of Indian families with their children, in addition to this massive birthday party of a very large extended Indian family celebrating in the back of the restaurant. It was a bit comical to see the “reverse racism” that he experienced today as a white person in a predominantly white person. He took it all in stride and laughed about it with us, though. He knew the food was going to be good, so he sucked it up. Plus, Chris was his brown “majority” savior and would make sure he got his food.

Every year, the city of Melbourne gets fully decked out for the holiday season in Christmas trees and lights everywhere. The center of the city, or the central business district (CBD) always has a Christmas light show, usually at the Town Hall, and last year, in Federation Square. This year, there’s actually a light show at the library, the Town Hall, AND at Federation Square. Along with the annual Gingerbread Village and the Myer Christmas windows (this year, themed with gum nut babies!), it makes the city so festive and fun. And every year I think, wow, this really makes the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree and the light projection show at Saks Fifth Avenue seem so boring.

This year, the actual light projection show is at the State Library of Victoria on the Swanston Street facade. The Town Hall has a fixed light projection given that there isn’t enough space along Swanston Street to safely allow big crowds to watch. The projections at the state library tell the story of “A Melbourne Night Before Christmas,” written by Melbourne Writers Festival Director Marieke Hardy and narrated by Lee Lin Chin.

It was a fun and unique rhyming story of a night before Christmas with a very Melbourne twist, mentioning local neighborhoods, buildings, and staples throughout Melbourne such as St. Kilda, the Rialto Tower, and lattes (because what would Melbourne be without its coffee culture?). Chris noted that unless you were a Melbournian, you probably wouldn’t understand most of the rhymes. Since I’ve been coming here for the last seven years, I actually understood a good number of them. It’s almost like I am a quasi-local, or at least a regular at the same time each year.

The projections are on repeat every four minutes and light up the library daily from 9pm until 10:45pm every day until Christmas Eve. It’s such a fun and happy tradition to have here each Christmas season. I always get excited to see this changing and evolving light show each year; it’s one of the biggest highlights of our visit during Christmas.

One fun thing I always do when I travel anywhere, including Melbourne, is check out the local grocery stores to see what interesting things I can find that I do not normally see back home. Today, we did some Christmas cooking shopping in Clayton, a very Asian neighborhood of Melbourne, and discovered some interesting finds: Singapore laksa, Hainanese chicken rice, and egg paratha with fish curry flavored chips (or crisps); Malaysian Chinese New Year treats ranging in flavors from pandan to vanilla — things I never see in New York. They are imported from Malaysia! We also found Taiwanese papaya and mango milks, like the ones we actually had in Taiwan on the streets, but in a canned form. Of course, they cannot compare to the freshly blended milks we had on streets of the night markets across Taiwan, but these were still tasty nonetheless and did contain real fruit juice and not just artificial flavoring as you might presume.

In Melbourne’s central business district (CBD), we also came across an Asian grocery store that specialized in goods imported from Southeast Asia, and I found jarred minced galangal. I wasn’t quite sure how good it would be, so decided to hold off on buying it. My experience with buying dried galangal in Thailand was awful; it ended up making my soups taste more like sawdust. In most cases, the fresh stuff is always preferable, but fresh galangal is rare in New York to find unless you are at a Thai grocery store. Even then, it’s quite expensive. The jarred version may be a consideration, but I’d need to do more research on this before buying it; I hate food waste.

I’ve had a number of colleagues in New York tell me that they cannot get over the idea of how jarring a summer Christmas would be — they say they want a white Christmas, that cold is what they think about when they think of Christmas. “Have you adjusted to a summer Christmas?” I am often asked. Honestly, how does one need to “adjust” to being warm?!

One of them has a fiance who is originally from LA, and she said she’s sick and tired of spending Christmas in LA, where it’s always warm and sunny. I told her she can do whatever she wants, but I’m perfectly happy being warm in a sunny place with Santas in trunks and on surf boards; I fully embrace warmth any time of the year. The only time I want to see snow is when I’m warm inside with a hot drink in my warm apartment. I’m over the snowmen and the snow ball fights completely. When people think of a snowy and white Christmas, they immediately forget how disgusting it can be when it’s piled up on the streets and mixed with mud, dirt, and dog pee and poo. They forget the salt everywhere ruining their shoes. They forget how slipper and dangerous it can be walking on black ice. I do not romanticize ANY of that in my head. I hate it all. But, I tolerate it because it’s only for a couple months, and it’s not like we get constant, steady snow in New York City.

Another thing I love about spending Christmas in Australia is how fun and festive it is everywhere. The Rudolph red noses, antlers, and tinsel on cars, people walking around on the street with Santa and elf hats, girls walking around with Santa and reindeer bouncy headbands, and people wearing “elf” T-shirts always cracks me up. On Christmas Day, families everywhere here will be snapping their Christmas crackers to unveil their paper crowns, which everyone is happy to wear, young and old. I also join in on the fun by totally acting my age and wearing the bouncy Santas headband myself. You can be quirky and whimsical here as an adult, and no one will think you are being childish. It’s just getting into the Christmas spirit.

Everyone’s allowed to have a preference. But my preference is warmth year-round. Who doesn’t want to be warm?

Sydney siders and Melbournians can be quite competitive in the same way that San Franciscans and Los Angeles residents can be. One of the biggest complaints I tend to hear from those who either live in Sydney or are from Sydney originally is that the weather in Melbourne is cold, unpredictable, and flat out schizophrenic. Here is an example of the weather pattern in the next five days here in Fahrenheit:

Friday, 20 Dec: 110 degrees

Saturday, 21 Dec: 83 degrees

Sunday, 22 Dec: 69 degrees

Monday, 23 Dec: 67 degrees

Tuesday, 24 Dec: 72 degrees

I think if you were to ask anyone, going from 110 degrees all the way down to 69 degrees in just two days is… quite extreme. It also makes getting dressed more challenging in the morning. From the perspective of someone who loves warm weather, I did not find this pleasant to see and plan out my next few days of clothes for, either. Then again, I have little to complain about since today in New York, the high was 18 degrees F. I’d take this schizophrenic weather over New York’s horrible winter any day, always.