Garuda di dadaku (Garuda in my heart)

Tonight's match of Indonesia vs. Philippines will be a big one it seems and Indonesians are showing their colours in anticipation.

Go Curry

I met up with the husband at Citos after his soccer match for a dinner date and he told me about this new curry place upstairs. I don't mind a curry once in a while but this place makes me want to have curry all the time! The way this place works is that you can choose how you want your curry; green curry, red curry...then you can choose your meat and type of rice as well as how spicy you want the dish to be. I like spicy things to taste but not when it burns your taste buds. When the waiter told the husband that "very spicy" is even too spicy for Indonesian and recommend he not take this, he was immediately challenged and was even more determined to have the dish. Boys! I on the other hand chose the red curry with tandoori chicken served with yellow rice with mustard seeds ooooh it was so nice.

Go!Curry
Cilandak Town Square
Level 1 Unit C127
Cilandak, Jakarta Selatan
Tel: (021) 759 20 265

the former president and his entourage

As today is a public holiday (Islamic New Year) and the husband is at work, I thought I might take a little wonder to Pondok Indah Mall (PIM) and look who I spotted. Former Indonesian President Habibie at Gramedia doing a book signing. It was peculiar to see a former president with an entourage of batik wearing men as opposed to secret service police or the likes but I guess even the former presidents here roll like rock stars.

who says you can't have snow in the tropics?

We headed off to PIM (Pondok Indah Mall) today to check out some of the sales that's been happening in Jakarta before Christmas and we found that they had turned the centre of the mall into an ice rink. Pretty impressive I must say. It's the convenience of it all...the parents shop for bargains and the kids ice skate...hours of fun for everyone. And when it comes to shopping I think Indonesians collectively have a shopping problem, so "hours of shopping" is kind of the understatement of the century.

wooden accessories

December means sale time in Jakarta. Not just in the malls but also warehouse sales. Harvey Nichols is closing its doors after only a couple of years here so everything is 80% off...including window display furniture. Massimo Dutti were selling these small wooden boxes for 220,000rp. Not sure whether it was overpriced or not (it probably is) but it is quite well made and sturdy. We're not sure what we'll use it for though...maybe jewelry?? or pens?

winter markets

Today we had a walk to Potsdam and it was beyond freezing. By the end of the day I couldn't feel my feet or my face but the view was pretty

We found this lebkuchen store that also stands as an ice cream shop during the summer. The man selling them were very friendly and really knows his stuff.


The ride back was amusing...

In the evening we drove through town to check out the lights on the way to the airport. Would have loved to have a wonder through the night market but no time...next trip perhaps.

some visitors for brunch

The Emsdetten crew came out for a visit to Berlin and just in time for brunch. Due to our short visit this time round, we had no time to go there. Shame. I hear it is snowing over there, would have loved to see that. We gave out some oleh-oleh (presents) from Jakarta...mainly some cute kid's clothes I found from my last visit to Bandung and it seemed very well received (I should be someone's personal shopper I swear!). Ok so none-the-less it was quite a nice day and a nice visit all round. Plus Ulla got me these vintage amber earrings! Bonus!

a night out in Berlin

Not long after the husband came back from training did his friends arrive to Berlin so... no quiet time for us, I guess we will have to wait til we get back to Jakarta. I was never a fan of having a big night out during winter. This is when I mostly hibernate, but seeing that we are in the cooler part of the world, I guess a night out at 0'C is a normal thing. We headed out to Haekechemarkt where hooker after hooker lined the street. It was a site I wasn't used to in a while, I mean we had hookers hanging around the St. Kilda area back in Melbourne but they were always a little sloppy looking, the ones in Berlin were dressed appropriately for the cold (above the waist at least) and looked quite presentable.

We went bar hopping to a few places and the husband's theory of taking coats off inside and quickly putting them back on once outside was an exercise in itself as I was already wearing alot of layers of clothing (I blame it on skipping 3 years of winter). After a while we stopped over at a random bar by the river (pics below) before heading off home.

welcome to Munich

...And this is where the husband and I part ways.

polar opposites

So as this is our last weekend before heading out to Germany we decided to have a social one. Since the husband has some last minute work duties on Sunday, this makes it our only day together also. Shame we have to share the time with friends but as my father once said "a marriage is not an island, it is a union of two families and with that, you will never be alone". Well we did have lunch together so that was quite pleasant.

Our evening started early with dinner at Orient8 in Hotel Mulia with another couple. We've never been here but we have been to Table8 also at the Mulia and that was impressive so we already had some high expectations. The interior was very French baroque (just how Indonesians like it) and the food is a mixture of French and Asian. I think the problem with these upmarket restaurants is that they really want to cater to all taste buds and to serve French cooking with Thai, Viet and Singaporean is kind of ambitious to be honest which means it tends to be a bit of "Jack of all trades and master of none". So when the waiter came at us with a mountain of menus, it felt a bit like school times and was a bit turned off by having to study them. To make things quick, I asked the couple we had dinner with, what their recommendations were and went with that. Personally speaking, I'm not such a fan of high class restaurants in Jakarta because:

* it is targeted towards expats and rich Indonesians who want to be seen at expensive places
* alot of the time it is expensive and the food tastes average
* I always get food poisoning from expensive restaurants in Jakarta (I wish I was exaggerating)
* the food is expensive because you are paying for the quality of the decor in the restaurant and not necessarily the food quality itself

So I had the 3 course meal Thai tester. Basically I get 3 or 4 appetizers, 4 mains and 4 desserts all in small portions. The food came and oh dear, the presentation was amazing!
It was a little tricky to eat from though but sometimes we have to suffer for beauty. PS. I want that long tray

All in all the food was average...and spicy! and I mean, so spicy that I couldn't taste anything else except the chilli. Overall the food was pretty forgettable, and just as I expected, we only paid for the atmosphere. The table next to us seated a big family celebrating their child's 7 or 8 year old birthday. All the women were wearing Louboutin shoes, including the teenagers.

Orient8
Hotel Mulia
Jl Asia Afrika Senayan
Jakarta 10270

Next up, Immigrant for the second half of a friend's farewell. This was more our scene, a bit down to earth and relaxed. I suspected they had a blast on their first half as people were showing up quite merry with mixed drinks filled in mini Barbie juice bottles with built in straws, hung around their necks. We also learnt that they had just come from Eastern Promise and came all the way uptown on 30 ojeks escorted by police (dangit, would have loved to join!) The night was great filled with laughs, crazy dancing and catching up with friends. The husband and I did steal some time for ourselves and sneaked outside for a bit of air and caught this pretty view from the balcony.


Immigrant
Plaza Indonesia 6th floor
Jl. MH Thamrin Kav 28-30
Jakarta Pusat

Indonesia's natural disasters

So things have been brewing this week in Jakarta as well as the greater part of Indonesia. Mount Merapi has erupted a total of 3 times so far, tsunami hit Sumatra and the flooding situation is hitting Jakarta more and more. The death-toll at the moment from Merapi is at 122 and its ashes have reached Bandung and parts of Puncak. It's been a bit tricky trying to find up to date information about it online and seems like news from sources outside of Indonesia have better coverage. I think the death toll seems to be rising dramatically because there are bursts of small towns (kampung) around the area which have been overlooked. We have also learnt that the street on the right of us with the river running in the middle (the street that leads to Sommerset) has been flooded twice. The first time it happened (the night we arrived from Bali) the locals have already started to make the partition higher but just after they had started the second flooding happened which destroyed the materials and part of the new partition so hmm not sure when this will restart again.

Blue Point Bay Bali

So below are the pictures from our resort when we were in Bali last. The Blue Point Bay sits on a cliff so from the restaurant and the pool you get some amazing views of the ocean and full view of Bali's spectacular sunsets. We spent the majority of the time by the pool as it is probably the best feature of the hotel. The breakfast buffet was so-so (Novotel in Bogor does it way better) and the staff were friendly but brief (just how I like it) so you can keep some privacy yet have service at a moment's notice. The place itself was well away from the tourist area and foreigners we saw were only surfers so it was really so handy for us to hire a motorcycle while we were in town because to get a taxi out there is quite pricey (about 150rp to get to town). I think it would be so much fun to come here with a big group or a coupley weekend because you are really away from markets and tourists and you can easily just spend all day at the villa.
The villa we had were double storey but we mainly stayed downstairs.

The only downside (I'm not sure for who) would be the wedding chapel next to the pool. When we were there there was an average of 2 weddings a day so it became a daily thing of.."hmm wonder who is getting married today?". It was rather awkward though having the married couple stand next to you to have their photos taken but the couple mostly didn't mind so I guess we didn't either.
The little house with the red roof is the spa. Every guest gets a complimentary foot or shoulder/head massage. It was rather nice inside but unfortunately they only have 5 staff and a long list of guests wanting to have treatments so the queues can be rather long. The guy who runs it is the receptionist/host/admin/reflexology guy so please be patient with him. When we went in there for a reflexology he had some really rude customers because they didn't want to wait.

Blue Point Bay Villa and Spa Hotel
Jl. Labuansait
Uluwatu, Bali

Care package

Look what came for us today! My parents don't make these packages often but when they do I'm always so over the moon about it. Besides sending over some treats and rations, it is also a great opportunity for my parents to lug over some of my stuff that's been lying around their house.

Bye bye Bali, hello macet Jakarta

Macet (traffic) is really the understatement of the century. Imagine leaving Bali (pic above) and coming back to mayhem. We didn't really want to leave Bali, it took alot for us, truly. We decided to come back to Jakarta at 6pm thinking that we would at least beat a bit of the Monday night traffic - but we were so wrong...on so many levels.

Terrible traffic to last into late evening
The Jakarta Post | Mon, 10/25/2010

Hectic traffic conditions in Jakarta, following three hours of heavy rains, will likely last well into Monday evening, a Jakarta Police Traffic Management Center officer says.

First Insp. Kasno told tempointeraktif.com that the traffic would begin to ease between 10 and 11 p.m., considering the massive queues of vehicles heading toward Depok, Bekasi and Tangerang.

The police said the worst traffic snarls were on Jl. Thamrin and Jl. Sudirman, the Senayan traffic circle, Jl. Latuharhari, Palmerah junction, Jl. Rasuna Said, Jl. Senopati, Blok O and Dharmawangsa.

The heavy rains caused a number of rivers in Jakarta to flood, inundating several major streets and felling a number of trees, bringing rush hour traffic to a standstill.

So we were in the taxi for roughly a little over four hours...on a ride that would normally take 35 minutes. There was one stage where we were on the toll and not moving for a good hour. It was painful, we felt bad for our taxi driver. He just got to the airport and we were his first customer, so basically his whole shift was just us. We asked what he would do after dropping us off (as he is expected to go back to the airport and pick up more passengers) and he told us that he was going to just sleep.

Sunday Brunch

Let the weekend begin

Doesn't that look relaxing? But more on that picture later.

All was smooth sailing today. We took the earliest flight (6.30 am) and got to Bali at roughly 10 am, right in time for brunch. Our hotel is quite isolated so we decided to rent a motorbike in town which was really the best thing we could have done because;
1.) motorbikes are awesome!
2.) we are not reliant on finding and catching taxis
3.) with so much construction going on in Bali at the moment, we flew through the traffic
So we stuffed our hand luggage in between the motor and the seat and off we went whizzing around the island. The only problem we came across was getting stopped over by a group of police on the way to Uluwatu for no apparent reason. One asked for our licence (which we don't have an Indonesian motorcycle licence) and we were already groaning and moaning at the thought of forking over money to pay the police. We both answered "ada apa?" and I think they were so surprised to hear Marcel speak bahasa that they quickly changed their tune and asked "where are you going?" then sent us on our way, whew!



We got to our hotel and it was a great choice I have to say! We didn't want to leave the pool really so we spent the majority of the afternoon til sunset just hanging out.

Note: we hired the motorcycle for 50rp a day with a 100rp deposit in which we got back when we are done with it. This is the local rate because we got a friend, who is part Indonesian to ask for prices in Bahasa, I think for westerners/foreigners it would be more expensive.

Packing for Bali

So seeing as the hubby has been MIA (missing in action) with work as of late, I decided to organise a weekend trip to Bali for his birthday. It was actually meant to be a surprise, but he is quite particular with his requests so there was actually no way for me to pick the perfect time for us to fly and a hotel that he would like. In this regard we are quite polar opposites: for me, I would rather pick a hotel in which I've been before or a hotel that is right in the middle of the hustle and bustle (ok maybe it's because I've always been a city girl) but my better half prefers a hotel that is quite pleasing on the eyes with a combination and requirements which only he knows, so I made him choose hah!

Today I've been running around quite a bit, between confirming the flights, transferring money to the hotel and packing for the both of us (the hubby comes home late tonight and there is no way he will be sane enough to pack), it's all been a bit of a rush. We have literally no time (2 days) in Bali and whatever I can settle or pre-pay now will hopefully make the trip run smoothly...but ok this is Indonesia, there will always be something we have overlooked.

Rambutan season

Long queues

The husband is in Singapore for a one day trip for work and didn't get home til well after 10pm. Look at what he had to endure at Soekarno-Hatta, I do not envy that.

Paulaner Brauhaus

We did a small pit stop at Paulaner today as the husband is missing a bit of Bavaria.

Paulaner Brauhaus
Ground Level East Mall
Grand Indonesia Shopping Town,
Jl M H Thamrin No 1
Jakarta 10310
Tel: (021) 23583871 ‎

Opening hours:
Sunday to Thursday from 11:30 to 00:30
Friday to Saturday from 11:30 to 1:30
Live Music is available:
Monday to Saturday from 21:00 to 24:00