A normal (?) week in Jakarta..

At the driving range..
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Hi guys,

It’s been about 10 days since I ‘blogged’ and already I feel like I’ve got more to relate to you than you’ll have the patience to read so again, I’ll try to stick to some highlights.

I wanted to show you some of what ‘normal’ Jakartan life is like so I’ll start from last Monday and move forward from there.

Monday, as I mentioned last blog, I went shopping at Ranch. On the photos page, you’ll find some pictures – pictures of the live bullfrogs, piles of fresh chicken’s feet for sale, some of the display cases full of Kiwi and Aussie meats (expensive but safe :-), fresh fruits and veg both local and imported and lastly one of the deli serving boys wearing an apron that says ‘Serious food. No bull.’ I’m absolutely sure he has no idea what this means but I thought it was cute.. This is just one of the supermarkets you need to go to every week to get all the things you need but its certainly a flash alternative to some of the other local places..

Live bullfrogs.. Dinner anyone?
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Tuesday afternoon I played golf at a course called Pondok Indah. It’s by far the closest course but it’s also one of the more expensive so I hadn’t given it a go til now. It wasn’t cheap (about $75AUS a round for game, cart and caddy) but it really was gorgeous (and check out the fish tank in the clubhouse that contains a live shark, amongst other things!). Again, it took only a few holes for my caddy to get a handle on my game and start to club me beautifully. I guess they’ve done it so many times it comes easy for them but to me it’s really impressive. Gotta love being spoilt like this :-). It’s also great to have someone to read the greens for you when you’ve never played a course before. I’ll look at putt and think it breaks left about 12 inches but I’ll look to the caddy and he might tell me something completely different and I mean completely different!! He’ll tell me what he thinks and I’ll find myself saying ‘What??’ or ‘No!!! Really???’ In response he’ll generally just nod quietly and smile and yep, the putt breaks just as he says. Local knowledge is a wonderful thing.. These caddies are really going to help me once I get my game back on track (if, if, if..).

'Serious Food. No Bull.'
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I’ve attached a few photos of the course too. You can actually see our apartments through the trees on one or two of the fairways, it’s that close. There are also lots of other houses lining the course, one of which is just unbelievable. I got some photos but it’s just so big, none of the photos do it any justice. Apparently its owned by one of the local politicians. Looking at the size of it and the decadence in design and materials, I’ve decided it must be owned by the Minister for Corruption :-). I’m learning that there is only one way to get ahead in this country and it is referred to as KKN – Kolusi (collusion), Korrupsi (corruption) and Nepotisme (nepotism). It’s openly referred to this way and obviously accepted as how things work. There’s another expression too that Denis is learning through work and that is that there are only 2 things you need to know to do business here and they are 1. who to and 2. how much.. We shouldn’t laugh, I know. It really is one of those things that are too true to be funny.

A beautiful golf course..
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Wednesday I went back to Pondok Indah and tried the driving range. I’d heard that it was a water range and often the floating balls they use are pretty awful but I thought I’d give it a go anyway. It didn’t take long for me to realise that there were no balls floating at the edges of the lake as you would expect so it looks like they use normal golf balls!! Although I couldn’t see any floating balls I could see a couple of guys in row boats with motor cycle helmets on digging around in the water with nets so I guess that’s how they do it. Must be quite a job to find all the balls at the bottom of a lake but I guess if labour’s cheap… (they make good target practice too – he he)..

Distance markers at Pondok Indah..
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Just for Sharls too – at the driving range, for just a couple of thousand rupia (maybe $2), one of the local caddies will sit next to your driving mat and place balls in front of you, one after the other (see picture). If you’re using driver, they’ll sit there and pop them on the tee for you so that you don’t have to bend down once – you can just stand there and swing!!! Wow, what a luxury!! You never did this for me at the range Sharls but perhaps one of the boys from the club could be talked into helping you out – what do you think??

Sign at our local shopping centre - check out the order of banned items :-)
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By Thursday Jakarta was officially in flood so there was no more golf to be had. Just about everything was under water to some extent. It’s the wet season here, something they expect and get every year, especially in late Jan and early Feb but if the rain is particularly heavy, as it was this year, the city of Jakarta just can’t cope. It’s not that the rain is unusual, it’s simply that the city does not have a drainage system capable of dealing with it. It has caused all sorts of bedlam and continues to do so to some extent. We lost the phone system and TV networks for days, lost power periodically, couldn’t get to lots of places within the city, that sort of thing. We can still expect some outbreaks of disease apparently as well and Denis and I are making sure we cover ourselves with insect repellent when we’re outside because malaria and dengue fever can become an issue once the mosquitoes really get breeding in the water lying around.

Local supermarket - good aussie steaks..
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One of the good things all the rain did for us though is that I’d be planning to buy some plants for the apartment since I got here but as these are sold along the sides of the roads, you usually can’t stop to look or buy without causing traffic mayhem but with everything at a crawl anyway, it was easy enough to stop and buy some plants without holding anyone up. The plants on the sides of the road are just gorgeous, in great condition, often in full flower, beautiful. I asked Chandra what happens at night – who keeps an eye on them (they obviously don’t move hundreds of plants to somewhere safe every night) and he pointed out little sheds, without walls, every 50 yards or so, within the plants. These are actually homes of sorts – the plant sellers literally live on the sides of the main roads amongst their goods. Amazing.. He also told me that these places are where ‘big ugly women’ walk at night. It took me a while to work out what he meant but apparently these are men dressed as women, walking around looking for trade – yep, apparently this happens even in a muslim country like this one.. ‘Big ugly women’ – nice expression Chandra!!

Local fruits..
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Despite all the rain and the worst flood in years, we’ve continued to get around the city pretty well and enjoy ourselves. We went to a bar not far from here on Friday night to watch the Super14 rugby on the big screens and to play pool (this will be a regular thing during the rugby season I think) and went out for dinner Saturday night. I’ll do a separate blog tomorrow or Friday to describe our night out on Saturday night. It was the most amazing dining experience I’ve ever had (I keep saying that don’t I??) topped off by a couple of hours in a most amazing nightclub (Jakarta has the most amazing night life believe it or not). I have some amazing pictures too that I think you’ll enjoy..

Fresh seafood..
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Until then, I’ll leave you with a couple of Indonesian expressions that I am coming to learn and appreciate..

Speed bumps – Polisi Tidoor (literally ‘sleeping policemen’ – I like it)..

Someone who is always late - Jam Karet (literally ‘rubber watch’ – cute eh??).. I’m beginning to understand that the Indonesians have a different concept of time to us. I’ll explain more in my next blog.

Missing you and thinking of you..

And fresh chickens feet - yummmm..
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Robyn & Denis

PS. Happy 4^th birthday to my gorgeous Lilli – Nanna misses you like crazy !!!