President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo and former US president Barack Obama met Friday, June 30, for lunch in Bogor to mark the end of the Obama family’s ten-day holiday in Indonesia.
The pair shared a private lunch of bakso (meatball) soup together at a cafe in Bogor’s famous botanical gardens next door to the presidential palace. Obama, who spent some childhood years in Central Jakarta suburb Menteng, has long been a favourite in Indonesia where he delighted fans during a state visit in 2010 using Bahasa Indonesian to convey his love for local foods.
Obama has spent time with his family in the holiday island of Bali and Yogyakarta, Central Java, before leading the keynote address at the diaspora convention on Saturday, July 1, in Jakarta.
US media reported the Obama family stuck mostly to inland town Ubud while in Bali, touring the area’s iconic rice paddies and rafting along the Ayung river. In Yogyakarta, where Obama’s mother partook in anthropology research decades ago, the family visited the Borobudur temple complex as well as Prambanan.
See: Barack Obama to Visit Bali, Yogyakarta and Jakarta
Image credits: Official Presidential Facebook