Now this was my kind of morning! We got up early and headed down the road to the Monggo Chocolate Factory, how had I not heard it was so close before today?? Unfortunately the factory was closed today due to the long weekend, which was probably a good thing, but I still managed to buy some chocolate bars from the little shop at the front at a much cheaper price than you can get them for at the shops. Monggo chocolate is mainly dark chocolate, but they also have a milk bar and white chocolate and for a chocolate addict like myself I can’t decide which flavour is the best!
Next we headed back closer to the centre of town near Kraton Palace to visit another local-made chocolate shop, and I tried so many of the taster buds which were delicious, especially the lemon grass flavour, but I was most impressed with the packaging – such fun illustrations! Of course I had to get more chocolate as oleh-oleh but I’m not liking my chances of being able to resist eating it all myself before we return to Jakarta.
At Putra’s insistence we returned to Madam Tan’s again for more vegetarian food and I really would have loved to catch up with our friends Lynne and Thomas at Phoenix Hotel across the road but we didn’t have time before we had to return to Kiki’s uncle’s house in Bantul to return the motorbike and say our farewells. When we arrived at the house there was a huge bucket filled with another 3000 quail eggs yet again and Kiki’s aunty and her sister were sitting on the floor shelling them all. Apparently they do this every day and then sell the eggs at the market in the mornings. I just can’t imagine how many birds there must be to be producing this many eggs every day and the thought of the sound of those birds made me feel sick! It was good to see Kiki again and I felt really sad to be leaving her again and I hope that she is well looked after by her relatives and I hope that she can make many new friends once she enrols in a local school in the area.
We returned to the guest house in the late afternoon and relaxed for an hour before heading off on foot to try and find a taxi so we could go for dinner. Eventually we found a becak and the old driver pedalled us down the road until we finally found a taxi to take us to a pizza restaurant which was great! Thin crust pizzas, followed by hot chocolate cake and ice-cream. This eating frenzy needs to stop!
As we made our way back to the front gate at the guest house we saw that the whole front porch and steps were covered in people sitting, eating and talking and that Antar’s father had paid for a soto seller to come to the house and provide all their guests with chicken soto for the night. This was a family gathering of just the family members that live in the kampung outside the guest house.. There were 50 in total! Who has that many relatives living in the same area?? I was absolutely amazed and got into bed thinking it may be a long night ahead with lots of laughing outside the bedroom window, but actually everyone left not long after. It really has been a funny stay in the guest house with Antar and his lovely parents!
I hope you had a beautiful day wherever in the world you are too.
Day 60: Samudra and I at the Monggo Chocolate factory. Happiness.
Day 60: More locally produced chocolate in Kraton. Happiness.
Day 60: How cute is the chocolate packaging? Happiness.
Day 60: Cuddles goodbye for Kiki. Happiness.
