The Year of the Ox

Happy Chinese New Year! (or as it is known here, Imlek)

To celebrate Howie, Chad, Trish and I headed to Glodok, Jakarta's Chinatown, to check out what was going on. I have to admit that I was not expecting much. The last time Howie and I went almost 2 years ago we were significantly underwhelmed. Today was quite the opposite. It was great.

The first stop was Gloria market, which was totally hopping. There were tons of little red envelopes for Chinese New Year money gifts, lanterns, ox adorned everything, incense and flowers for temple visits and delightful little snacks that only come out this time of year. We wandered the alleys and picked up a few things - some sort of rice flour, palm sugar thing that you are supposedly supposed to fry and eat, some delish smelling coffee beans that had been roasted with sesame seeds, custard apples (these are a fruit) and along the way a quick stop for some handmade dumplings.We breezed by the many frogs on the way to being only frog legs, turtles on the way to being turtle soup, leeches for medicinal purposes and snakes for lord knows what.We also made a visit to a couple temples. There are quite a few tucked away throughout Glodok and then main one was really a sight to see. It was packed with both worshippers and beggars who we are told come from far and wide this time of year to receive the generosity of some guys who distribute about Rp. 3000 (about 30 cents) to anyone who is there. Supposedly they come every day for a week and just pass out the cash. We cannot really understand how this is lucrative enough to come from afar, but someone must have done the math (and realized that this is not the most orderly system of passing out money so you are able to collect more than once.) We decided not to stick around to see it all happen as the crowds were huge and it seemed like chaos was sure to ensue.Inside the temple, the smoke from incense was intense and there are huge candles (we are talking 6 feet tall and 1 foot wide and bigger) all around. It was amazing to watch everyone lighting candles (small ones), incense and throwing their paper wishes into the fire. It was easy to forget where you were, and we were both quickly taken back to China and memories of celebrating there.

Fifi and Dani Get Married

Fifi is one of our friends from the marketing department at HighEnd and the other week she plopped a wedding invite on our desks. This was quite a shock since we did not even know that Fifi had a boyfriend. What came as a double shock was when she said she had actually been married for about 6 months and this was just the party (what I lovingly refer to as the bash for cash.) Very typical of Indonesian weddings - the intricate and complicated Javanese ceremony, the part we find the most interesting, is intimate and only for family - and the big party is open to anyone and everyone.As you might remember from our last wedding, the process is basically put on your batik, head to the enormous hall (this particular one was near our old place and was holding 6 weddings on the same night, we are disappointed we had not crashed weddings there when we lived in the neighborhood), sign the book, drop your money filled envelope in the box, receive a weird and somewhat random gift (this time a lovely batik tissue box holder... eek), wait on line to shake hands and say congrats to the bride and groom, eat and leave.There were well over 1,000 people at the wedding and poor Fifi and Dani spent the whole two hours shaking hands, her with an insanely heavy looking headdress on. We had fun eating whatever we could, it was a good spread, and hanging out with other work people.

Yum!!!

A box of these showed up, along with a press release, in our office today. Ick.

Our Inaugural Ball

As you may have seen on CNN, we attended the Democrats Abroad celebration in Jakarta on Inauguration Day. We made a brief appearance on CNN International in a clip they've been airing about the event. We're also in a Reuters photo that's been picked up online in a bunch of places... (http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/slideshow/photo//090120/ids_photos_wl/r4009770437.jpg)The event was a lot of fun. There were maybe 600 people and a lot of excitement in the air. The room was decorated with lots of Obama election memorabilia (all of which was up for auction at the end of the evening) and they had some bands, a trivia contest (which a team of Indonesians won) and the CNN International live viewing started at 10:30 PM. There was Obama cheering, Bush booing and everything you would expect. Truly the "people's party" this event was free, while the celebs and big-wigs partied at the Ritz at about 100 bucks a pop. Our low end event proved to contain what we believe was every white person we know or have met here in Jakarta. It was honestly a little overwhelming - we have not been in a room with that many non-Indonesians in a long, long time. But, considering the event, I guess it was appropriate and to be expected.

There were also a good number of Indonesians there, some even with their faces painted in red, white and blue. This particular mom and kid really gave us a giggle, she was uber excited and I think he came for the ice cream. There are few moments living here as expats that we are proud to be American and we relished in it last night.

A Night at the Symphony

Last weekend we attended a performance of the Symphonia Vienna, who were in town for a couple of HighEnd-sponsored concerts.  We're not big symphony fans, but it was fun.  The star of the show was Rama Widi, a famed Indonesian teen harpist.  There was also a fantastic yodeler. 

The highlight of the show was the premiere of a new piece of music by a local composer, which was accompanied by traditional dancers.  The best part were the Balinese hats they made the poor European musicians wear.

 

An Awkward Farewell

At the beginning of last week an email appeared in the inboxes of everyone in the office inviting us all to lunch.  It seemed like a nice holiday season-type lunch invite, but it wasn't really specific on the reason behind the invite.  

The next day we all went to lunch at Times Square restaurant in one of the fancier malls.  It was an all-you-can-eat buffet run by the Kempinski hotel and was actually pretty good food.  There were no speeches, no toasts and no mention of it being a special occasion.  We all went back to work afterward and proceeded with a normal afternoon.  

About half an hour after returning to the office we were all called in to a meeting.  There, the owner of the company started the meeting with something like, "Howie & Haviva - we hope you enjoyed your special farewell lunch."  I think I responded something like, "er, um, that was for us... I mean, thank you."   She and her daughter (the editor in chief) then presented us with traditional puppets as a going away gift.  

A good, though awkward, time was had by all.  

Norman

There is no way you know a cuter snail.

Happy New Year!

With 11 days of vacation, Howie and I lit the Hanukkah candles on December 26th and headed out the next morning for Pulau Weh - a not so small island off the coast of Sumatra.

Actually, Weh is only about a one hour ferry ride from the tragically famous Banda Aceh, where the tsunami hit 4 years ago. Our flight arrived in Banda at about noon and then ferry was not until 4, so with some time to kill, we decided to take the now popular tsunami tour. We grabbed a driver outside the airport, Miswardi, and struck a deal for 3 hours including lunch and a tour of Banda.

Lunch was mie aceh - a variation on the typical Indonesian fried noodles here, but these are extra spicy and come with delightful pickled shallots that add a really nice touch. 

There is some rumor that one of the things that gives mie aceh its distinct flavor is marijuana, which we were told is commonly used in Acehnese cooking, but we did not see any actual evidence of this. The place Miswardi took us was clearly a local hot spot and we had a good meal, feeling merely satiated when it was over, nothing more.

From there, Miswardi took us to one of the famous tsunami sights - a boat that landed 5 km inland into the middle of a kampung (village). I do not know what we were expecting, but this was not it. This is not just a boat, it was a huge boat. A ship. Just sitting there in the middle of the kampung, houses around it and, clearly, houses under it as well. While quite a few boats washed inland, most have been or are in the process of, being broken down and taken away. 

This huge ship will stay where it is and act as a monument to the memory of the tsunami.The ship itself is in shockingly good shape, with no parts pilfered. If it were not in the middle of the neighborhood, one might deem it sea worthy and send it on its way. Next to the ship, they have also built a small park and a little museum, which were impressive, as well.From there we went to another neighborhood where this boat sits on top of a couple houses, also right in the middle of a kampung. Even seeing it, the tragedy is hard to understand.To lighten the mood and take part in another thing Aceh is famous for, we hit the local famous coffee shop, Chek Yoke. Along the canal, this open air place is a favorite local hangout for young people in Banda. Since there is no drinking in Banda, coffee and cakes are the next best thing. The coffee was great and the table full of kue, even better. Kue are usually cakes, but the word is used loosely with snacks. They are served here like tapas - small plates with usually 4 pieces on each - and the table gets a variety of sweet and savory, steamed and fried goodies. The little pancakes filled with what was very close to dulce de leche were our favorite.

From there it was finally on to Pulau Weh. Weh is a much bigger island than we expected with a crazy coastline. There is not that much beach, but the rocky coast is a great place to just plop in the water and go for a snorkel. We spent the better part of the 6 days there in the water near

 Iboih beach - a popular diving and backpacker hangout.

We met our friends Barb and Scott there and, since they are big divers, we head out with them in the morning on the dive boat, snorkeled, came back for lunch, went out again with the dive boat in the afternoon and then spent the rest of the day on our little deck reading and napping. It was VERY relaxing and we saw some great stuff snorkeling, including an octopus that was out and about for all to see, lobsters, massive stingrays and some amazing huge schools of fish. Visibility was pretty incredible and we were really lucky with the weather.
New Year's itself was very low key. We met up with about 25 other travelers at one of the cafes where they had a special new year meal and then everyone went down to the beach for a little

 countdown, a few sad fireworks and few stolen kisses in the dark. It was a really nice way to ring in the new year as far as I am concerned. Anytime there is a little sand between my toes I am happy.
We headed back to Banda the next day, made sure Barb and Scott enjoyed a coffee and kue at Chek Yoke and then made our way back to Jakarta. It is hard to believe it is 2009 and for that matter that we have only one month left on our contracts, most likely about six weeks left as residents of Jakarta. Should be a pretty exciting year to come...