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.