YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia – Former President Barack Obama and his family wrapped up their five-day vacation on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali and headed to the historic city of Yogyakarta on Wednesday during a nostalgic trip to the country where Obama lived for several years as a child.
Obama, his wife Michele and daughters Malia and Sasha drove to a luxury hotel in downtown Yogyakarta after arriving on a private jet at the city’s military airport, said Indonesian air force base commander Air Vice Marshal Novyan Samyoga.
Samyoga was among local officials who greeted the Obamas at the tarmac. He said the family looked relaxed and was smiling in response to onlookers who greeted them with cheers.
He said that Secret Service agents did not have special requests for the Obamas’ activities on the main Java island, but about 650 Indonesian security forces were deployed to secure the family in Yogyakarta, an ancient city where Obama’s mother, Ann Dunham, spent years on her anthropological research.
Obama moved to Indonesia in 1967 at age 6 after his divorced mother remarried an Indonesian man. She stayed on after the marriage broke up, working as an anthropologist and development aid worker, but Obama returned to Hawaii when he was 10 to live with his grandparents.
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Obama and his family were seen on a river rafting as they vacationed in Bali on Monday.
Local media reported that they also visited several tourist attractions, including a museum and rice terraces in Ubud, an arts and culture center amid hills and rice paddies.
In Yogjakarta, the Obamas are planning to visit Borobudur, the 9th century Buddhist temple, as well as the Hindu temple of Prambanan during their two-day holiday, Samyoga said.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has invited the Obamas to visit the Bogor Palace in West Java during their nine-day trip in Indonesia.
Obama is also scheduled to speak at an Indonesian Diaspora Congress in Jakarta on July 1.
– AP
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