Back to the Stone Ages

Not sure if you've heard, but that Taiwanese earthquake last week knocked out internet to much of Asia. It seems that the most affected areas at the time of the quake were northern Asia, especially Japan, Korea and Taiwan, but now it seems that those wealthy and important Asian countries have managed to reroute their internet traffic by cutting off their poorer neighbors down here in SE Asia. Anyway, they're telling us that we may have to put up with little or no internet for the next couple of weeks, so don't be alarmed if you don't hear from us. Right now the only thing working is Google for some reason, and luckily Blogspot is owned by Google.

We're heading to the beach for a few days of R&R over the long weekend. We hope everyone has a safe and fun New Years and we'll check in with you soon.

A Merry Christmas in Jakarta (but probably not for the animals)

For Christmas in Jakarta we mixed traditions from home (namely Chinese food and a movie) with some exploring of the city. We slept in, played some tennis, went for a swim and then set out to for a couple of markets we has heard about.

Our first destination was the exotic animal market. We knew it was going to be a grim place, but we had to see it for ourselves. The majority of the vendors were selling exotic birds, which wasn't all that traumatic - pretty birds in nice cages. The big cages stuffed with rabbits weren't so bad either. We steered clear of the chickens and ducks. The cages with bats were strange, but not so disturbing. Eventually the guys selling the rare animals found us and led us to their corner of the market where we found baby monkeys and loris' in tiny cages. Needless to say, Haviva fell in love and decided we should turn our spare bedroom into a wildlife sanctuary. If there was any chance the US would let us bring a loris home with us then I'm pretty sure she would have bought one on the spot.

Our next stop was the flea market. It was mostly wood carvings and other handicrafts from all over the country. We didn't buy anything, although we were very tempted by the hand-carved sculpture of a monkey talking on the telephone.

From there we headed to the mall for some Chinese noodles and Casino Royale. The noodles were so-so, but we quite enjoyed the movie. While walking to the mall we passed by a mosque with a herd of goats and a few cows out front. It took us a minute but we realized that they were selling them to slaughter on Eid ul-Adha, which by chance falls on Dec 31st this year. We knew that was the tradition, but we didn't realize quite how it works. Apparently the government is trying to get people to have their animals killed at slaughterhouses, but they're meeting quite a bit of resistance.

Howie leaves Jakarta

Merry Christmas! Here in Indonesia Christmas is more of a Western concept than a religious one and although you really could not tell tonight from any other night, there was something festive in the air. We returned from Bogor this evening and went to dinner at the seafood place down the street. It was packed and you could just tell people were celebrating, many of which were obviously not Christian.

Bogor. A great place. Took the express AC train down, which was a pleasure. Actually not overstuffed and the perfect temperature. We found a hotel easily and spent the afternoon on Saturday wandering around...oh who am I fooling....eating. Wandering really from place to place finding the perfect place for lunch. We found it. The Bogor Permai, which was recommend by all the guide books. It was delish, and attached to a bakery, which only made it that much better. The one non-food find of the day was the "puppet factory", which is in quotes because it is actually the puppet makers home, nestled in the valley of Bogor. It was a great little neighborhood with small winding streets only wide enough for two people to walk side by side. Everyone knows the puppet factory though and once we were there, we could tell why. The puppet maker is a pleasant man, missing his front teeth and with glasses that might be coke bottles. The puppets were very impressive, hand carved and painted, dressed in batiks. No two exactly alike. Of course, we came back the next day and bought two.

As soon as we left, it began to absolutely pour. Rain is one of the things Bogor is famous for, which is why it has the lush botanical garden it is also known for. Rain continued for the rest of the night. We hit the gardens early so we could pick up our puppets and make the last train and the timing worked out well since the rain started a bit on the earlier side today. The gardens are lush and tropical as you might expect and the few hours we spent were well worth it. A gorgeous orchid house, a crazy "Mexican Garden" full of the same cacti that Howie's parents have in their backyard and some bats that really impressed Howie with their crazy wing span. The garden's only flaw was the hoards of students screaming, "Hey mister! Can I ask you question??" It was cute at first, but there were so many of them and they all had a list of about 20 questions given to them by their teacher that they could barely read and that they did not even begin to understand the answers to. Had we actually answered all of them, we never would have seen the garden. We learned their uniforms quickly though and we able to duck behind trees and run the other direction when we saw them coming.

We put some more photos of Bogor online at http://picasaweb.google.com/howieandhaviva

An Ode to the Martabak

We've discovered that one of the best martabak (or murtabak) restaurants in Jakarta happens to be in our neighborhood, Martabak Kubang. For those of you not familiar with martabak, it is a type of pie that comes in two delicious varieties: savory and sweet. Martabak Kubang specializes in the savory variety but there are a few street vendors that sell the sweet kind on our street.

The savory variety is made by folding a very thin dough around any number of meat, tofu and veg fillings, then frying it on a griddle. It comes with either a curry for dipping or a fantastic sweet soy based sauce.

The sweet variety shares a name with its savory cousin, but that's about it. It is made by pouring a pancake-like batter into a hot skillet then coating the cooked pancake with chocolate, peanuts and sweetened condensed milk (and about a stick of butter) and folding it over. It is sickeningly sweet and ridiculously dense but really good. We can't eat a whole one so we bring the leftovers back to our building and give it to the security guys out front.

Our Apartment

A quick tour of our apartment.

Haviva's Day Out

Well, it took a while, but it finally happened - I had a day off!! After a lot of running from city to city, I was pooped and decided to take the day off on Monday to sleep in and actually see Jakarta. It was fabulous not to set the alarm and after a yummy frozen lasagna lunch we hit the city. With Howie as my tour guide, we headed as north as we could go to Jakarta harbor. Like most harbor areas, it was a bit stinky and was a far cry from the shopping malls and endless traffic of the city that we know. The boats were not what we expected in that they did not look hefty or sturdy enough to be carrying what they were. I think we were expecting more fishing boats and the like, but these boats were hauling lumber and concrete, weighing them low into the water. I suppose we should have been happy not to see fishing boats - the water was filthy.

After a walk down the main docking area we headed into the local village, winding through the nooks and crannies filled with local food stalls and vendors selling everything from underwear to prayer mats. With every step we got the typical "Hello Mister!" (for the record, someone taught the nation of Indonesia "hello mister" and forgot to mention that it only applies to men. not a "hello miss" to be heard) and the occasional "How are you? I am fine!" We made a quick stop for a fried delish snack - I have become addicted to these little fried bites of cabbage...sort of like deep fried sourkraut, which may sound gross, but it really is good.

The strange part about this area of Jakarta is that it still has the Dutch colonial architecture. For some reason, to me it felt more like South American than SE Asia. You can tell at one time the area was beautiful, but now it looks a bit forgotten. We hung out in the square and had a TeBotol (iced tea in a glass bottle that can be found anywhere) hoping to reduce the sweat level, but as is life in Indonesia, that just did not happen. Maybe that is why the Dutch eventually left....

More Frisbee

Saturday afternoon I went out to a couple of private girls schools in far East Jakarta with a few other Westerners from the Ultimate Frisbee club to teach Frisbee and do some general mingling. (In truth, one of them was co-ed, having 457 girls and 4 boys enrolled.) We had a lot of fun and I think the girls were sufficiently entertained. The schools were quite nice and the students and staffs quite friendly.

You might notice from the photos that the majority of the girls at one of the schools were wearing head scarves (called a jilbab here) and very few were at the other school. Surprisingly (to me, at least) wearing a jilbab seems to have little or no bearing on a girl's general behavior. The girls in the jilbabs were just as outgoing and just as likely to strike up a conversation with the western men as the girls without them.

If you are interested in the photos they are at http://picasaweb.google.com/howieandhaviva

Happy one month in Jakarta to us!

Exactly one month ago today I got up at 6 AM and hopped on a flight to Medan, having no idea where I was or what I was doing. Ironically enough, found myself in Medan today, this time with slightly more a clue where I was and what I was doing. Slightly...

It has been a wonderful, exciting, exhausting and interesting month to say the least. Certainly the adventure we signed up for. I can only imagine what the next 11 have to offer.

In addition, Happy Hanukkah to all you out there to whom it might apply. Not much going on here for the holiday officially, but we feel we celebrate the miracle of oil each and every day with Indonesian cuisine. Never a shortage of fried goodies. As a treat for ourselves, we bought two show passes to the Jakarta International Film Festival and we are headed to see an Australian movie tonight and then a Chilean movie (I think Chilean, could be wrong) tomorrow night. Not the traditional gift giving, but much more our style and budget. Hopefully next weekend we can hit the beach and have a little vacation since I have Monday off.

Hope you all have a great holiday. Have a latke (or two or three) for us!

Comments Were Always Welcome...

... but now they should be much easier to make.

Sorry the blog settings made it a pain to comment before, but I think we've corrected the problem, so comment away...

Watching Leonard Cohen in Jakarta

Well, it may not be quite the same as reading Lolita in Tehran (or even reading Playboy in Indonesia, which is quite a hot topic here at the moment) but it was quite strange watching a documentary about Leonard Cohen in a theater filled (for a few minutes, at least) with Indonesians at the Jakarta Intl Film Festival last night.

Tickets were free (as they are for all documentaries at the festival) and, because you needed to get there a couple of hours before the 6:30 showtime to get them, the crowd was made up of mostly students who have come every day after school during the festival and seen whatever film they could get into. Therefore, of all the attendees I talked to while waiting in line, only one actually knew who Leonard Cohen was.

So we didn’t take it personally when most of the crowd walked out shortly after the movie started. I just don’t think it was their kind of music. The write-up in the festival booklet said that U2 was in it and people may well have been expecting music along those lines. (For our liking there was actually way too much Bono and The Edge yammering on about their love of Leonard Cohen.) The film did touch on Cohen’s religious background a little bit, but it didn’t seem to faze anyone who was left in the theater at that point.

All in all we quite enjoyed the film, which was a combination of footage from a tribute concert and interviews with Cohen and other artists. Pretty typical concert film, really, but the topic and the venue made it feel a bit different.

Oh yeah, and when the credits came on we discovered that the film was co-produced by none other than Mel Gibson.

Our New Favorite Restaurant

Haviva's back in town so that means we get to try the new restaurants I find while wandering around our neighborhood. Last night we went to the BBQ seafood place just down the street, past the rib place. Haviva did a fine job of ordering us one of the local specialties she had tried in Jayapura, a fish cut in half the long way, grilled and covered with all sorts of chillies, ginger and lemon grass. Fantastic stuff.

Tonight it is off to the Jakarta International Film Festival. Don't laugh, it's actually got quite an impressive lineup. We're hoping to see Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man tonight, which we've heard good things about. Haviva's off again in the morning, but hopefully we'll get to see something else when she gets back.

Global Conference 2006

Okay, it was not really global - English First only has offices in China, Russia and Indonesia - and don't worry, not too many work details are about to follow. It was a little more exciting than it sounds from the title.

The conference was held here in Indonesia - those smart other countries have decided to take advantage of the only country where it is beach weather in December - about 4 and 1/2 hours outside of Jakarta at the lovely Kuda Laud Resort. This is not a place you can easily get to as a tourist; somewhat in the middle of no where, but absolutely gorgeous. Every day we ate our meals right on the beach and the walk to my villa provided beautiful views. Of course, we spent most of the time sweating inside a meeting room that was not quite as big as it should have been, as well as it lost power around 4 PM each day leaving us in the dark for the last 2 presentations of the day. Meetings ended at about 7 PM each day and the evenings were filled with karaoke, a band with dancing, and the drinking of liquor purchased at duty free. And there was some night wading in the ocean, although the nights were a bit too dark and the current a bit too strong for night swimming. I did get a couple hours the last day though to take a dip and enjoy the waves. The only real draw back were the over 50 some odd steps to my villa on the cliff (not the widest or easiest path to take each day, especially after that duty free liquor) and the creepy crawlies that liked to join me there. Killed some pretty big spiders - yes, after I squeeling like the complete baby I truly am - and learned to sleep through night despite the giant lizard in my wall that decided this week was the best time to mate. Never saw, but I heard him. (He did leave me little "present "each day though on the bathroom floor.)

Check out the pics I added to our album - http://picasaweb.google.com/howieandhaviva

and, just to clarify a little, the weird pictures on the stage are the very "interesting" performance by the Indonesian team (Jean and I were regulated to making the sound effectes on the side of the stage for some reason.) The sheep on the beach I just cannot explain.

Phones, phone numbers, etc.

Not the most exciting blog post, but I figured this was a good place to put our phone numbers in case anyone ever needs them. We just got our home phone hooked up today. It only took two visits by the phone guy and three holes cut in our ceiling trying to find the correct wire.

The country code for Indonesia is 62 so from the US you'd dial 011 62... Our numbers are:

home - 21 3004 0584
Haviva's mobile/cell/hand phone - 0856 9183 0784
Howie's mobile/cell/hand phone - 0856 9722 7686

You'll notice that our mobile numbers are not at all easy to remember and don't have many repeating digits. That's because we're cheap. You pick your phone number from a giant list of numbers which are sorted by price. Indonesians tend to be quite superstitious, so having a good phone number is quite desirable. We paid about two dollars for the SIM card that gives you your phone number. Some of the 'better' numbers were going for upwards of 10 dollars.

What do I do when Haviva's not here? Good Question.

Haviva's been out of town since Thursday at a conference, so I've been filling my time with Ultimate Frisbee and wandering aimlessly. The Ultimate Frisbee 'club' plays for a couple of hours on Thursday nights and Sunday afternoons. It's made up of about 20 or 30 expats and a few locals, of which about 10 or 12 show up each time to play. Good fun and really good exercise. Thursday nights are nice but two hours in the sun on Sundays is pretty rough.

Today we followed the two hour game up with an hour or so at a local school playing with the kids. Some of the people I play with have started going around to a bunch of the schools as a way for the kids to meet Westerners in a way other than yelling "Hello Mister" to us from across the street. It's a lot of fun. Unfortunately Haviva has the camera with her, so I don't have any pictures, but you can see some at the Klub Frisbee blog.

In between playing frisbee I've done some good wandering around the city. No photo evidence to prove it, but I made it up to the North of the city where the harbor is. Quite interesting. I'll take Haviva there when she gets back and we'll take some pictures.

Anyway, Haviva's back in town Monday for a couple of days - then she's off again. I'm making a little progress on the job front. If nothing else I should be able to pick up some English classes as I'm meeting with a school director this week.

Next post should be Haviva telling us about her weekend at a beach resort with EF staff from all over the world...

Photos Are Online

Howie's spent more time playing with Google and his newest toy is Picasa, Google's photo software that has its own version of online photosharing. We put up some random photos from our first three weeks. Sorry there are no captions yet - it's a work in progress. We'll keep adding more as we go so you can check it once in a while to see what's up there. The link is http://picasaweb.google.com/howieandhaviva .

The Rainy Season Cometh

As you can see from the video it doesn't just rain, it pours. It's been a daily occurrence for the past few days and we're told it is the beginning of the rainy season that won't end until March. The rain isn't all that bad. It thunders and lightnings for a while, then pours for 30 minutes. But the traffic jams it creates are brutal. It was hard to believe the traffic could get worse but first, when it starts raining, the motor bikers all take cover under the overpasses, completely blocking them, then the streets flood bringing everything to a standstill.

Jayapura

Just returned from Jayapura. A small town (750,000 people) on the island of Papua. Right on the border of Papua New Guinea. There is about 4 blocks of city and the rest of the area is jungle and beaches. The area is predominantly Christian and tribal, and although most people never go to Jayapura, the missionaries do seem to make it. Very different than Jakarta. On our drive from the airport to the school, the morning church service blasted thru the radio and on about every corner was a church. In the mix are people with bones thru their noses (sorry no pics of that!) and clearly tribal influences. What I found most interesting was the influence of alcohol in Jayapura. As the people are Christian, they drink freely and drunk men seem to roam the streets in a way you just do not see here in Jakarta. After 9 PM the place shuts down and no one leaves their homes, except the drunk men who stumble the streets and sing karaoke. The school itself has a fabulous group of teachers and despite nothing to do in Jayapura (literally nothing - there is no movie theater, bowling alley, mall....nothing!) they have become part of this close knit community and enjoy being there. Very interesting place. If only you did not have to take an overnight flight to get there. The worst overnight flight ever by the way - what kind of red eye stops twice and makes you get off the plane at 2 AM???

View out our window at prayer time.

This is the view out of our 32nd floor (sort of - there's no floor #3,4,13,14,23 or 24 because they're unlucky) apartment overlooking the Central Business District of Jakarta. The video starts out facing northwest and ends looking southwest. You can hear the call to prayer from the mosque directly below our building and also from a number of other mosques, but the noise level doesn't bother us at night when we have the windows closed and the AC on.

Getting Settled

Sorry for our absence. We're in our new apartment but have been without internet until now. We're starting to settle in here on the 32nd floor of the Casablanca Mansions after numerous trips to Carrefour (the closest thing to Target to be found in Jakarta). Our internet connection (which bizarrely comes in through the electrical outlet) is okay at times and unbelievably slow at others, but when it is okay we'll post some pictures and maybe a video tour.

Nothing terribly interesting to report from the past week. We explored our neighborhood and found a fantastic restaurant just up the road. It is the first restaurant that at all resembles what we expected to find more of - it's not in a mall, but is also not on the street selling food that looks days old. It is a simple, open-air place that seems quite popular. One of the things that makes Indonesia very easy for non Indonesian speakers is their habit of putting pictures on menus, so it was easy to figure out that this place specializes in big beef ribs and skewers of beef, which were cooked in a spicy peanut sauce and fantastic.

We also explored another of our local malls, Pasar Festival. Nothing special, except that it has a bowling alley and an Indian Restaurant. At this point I feel obligated to report that not only did Haviva beat me in our second game of bowling the other day, but she did it in style. Going to the 10th and final frame we were tied but Haviva then threw 3 straight strikes (yes, a turkey to you bowling aficionados) to beat me good.

No big plans for this weekend. I'm alone in the big city as Haviva is on the road visiting a school in Jayapura, which is a 10 hour (and 2 stop) flight away near the Papua New Guinea border. Just got a text message from her reporting that all is well in the jungle. I've still got plenty of stuff on the list of things we need for the apartment, so that'll keep me busy (toaster oven tops the list because we don't have a regular oven and some sort of foam pad for our incredibly hard mattress follows closely).

Orchid_Garden.MPG

Here's our first attempt at a video blog. Just a little clip from our very sad visit to the Slipi Orchid Garden last weekend.