The things we do for beauty

As you may (or may not) be aware, it is rain season in Jakarta at the moment and one of my favourite waxing/ beauty places here (Salon Narsih) is a little flooded. The water was not so high, maybe between my knees and my ankles (I've had worse)

So I was wondering, hmm how am I going to get to the darn place because this puddle isn't exactly the kind that you can just leap over. Out of nowhere a middle-aged man came up behind me and handed me over a pair of gumboots.

 At least the salon was empty enough that I didn't have to wait so long.

 So I guess the gumboots were a good idea, well at least it didn't ruin my pedicure.

Excuse the crappy pictures, I took them with my mobile phone because I didn't want to ruin my camera in this rain.

Somewhere along Bogor

An aunty of mine heard of a place in Bogor where you can go there to get a deep tissue massage and it will cure most deseases having to do with circulation of the blood, like if you have high cholesterol, if you have had a stroke and your muscles are not working anymore or if you are prone to heart attacks. These massages (or "pijit") are quite popular amongst the rich and poor in Indonesia as it is quite non-invasive and alot more cheaper than your average trip to the doctor. And as Indonesians have yet to see that their dietary customs are pretty much what is causing these strokes/heart attacks/diabetes, this is a much easier solution than to cut down on those delicious rendangs and nasi uduks. So off we went at 5:30am to Bogor. My mum and I are not so much into that but as we were already here, we thought, ok why not give it a try. Ours finished the quickest and as we were waiting, we thought we would check out the local streets and see what we could find.

The town we were at was called something like flower town or "kampung bunga" or something, hence the many many flowers along the streets

A stray cat..ooh I just want to take them all home with me!

Bio market

Indonesian staples; shallots and bananas

Popping out for a feed

Chillin' at Cengkareng

Catching the red-eye flight to our new Heimat (motherland), hanging out and having my last ever green tea frappo while the husband is checking some emails before we board

Selamat jalan

Goodbye Jakarta, it was fun and tough and unpredictable. You brought us together amongst all the craziness that is city life. I will miss your turbulence weather, perfect sunsets, delicious hand-made foods and lots and lots of smiles.

We are on our way to Australia but here are some pictures of Jakarta life circulating on the Blackberry that I have received throughout this year. Enjoy.

The new Macbook

In line for Justin Bieber tickets

Watching the Luna & Ariel sextape scandal

Selling gold and looking for a wife also...

A new way to fasten your seatbelt on a flight perhaps?

Making sour cream kampung style

My cousin's kid waiting to break fast during Ramadhan

My cousin's kid praying...he was obsessed with that helmet

"Succ sees"

In a Bluebird taxi...

Cheaper than buying the food on the plane

"Turn off your wife when not in use"

At the airport fighting the big fight against ojeks, self-made porters and in-between personels so you cannot cut the line at immigration

Handy service centre

Cause that's how we DJ in Jakarta

At a Shell petrol station

The long drive to the airport

Our driver who was quite sad to see the husband go...but unfortunately he wasn't so emotional to see me go...

The husband signing our driver's last shift log

Jakarta gave us some parting scenery. The traffic jam. Flying out on a Friday evening after work is never the best time but I think we were both too exhausted to realise. With the husband working round the clock to tie up some loose ends at the office and myself packing for our 2.5 weeks stay in Australia and making sure we had enough stuff for our first few months in Germany until our container comes, we were truly exhausted. Thankfully we had our driver to take us otherwise I think we would have probably gotten into some minor accidents along the way.

Gran Mahakam

We stayed at the Grand Mahakam as our apartment has been officially packed away. Actually we wanted to stay here yesterday but they were fully booked so we stayed at our semi-packed place instead. Ooooh it was so nice to have things prepared for you instead of living with bubble wrap and eating on boxes.

Hotel Gran Mahakam
Jl. Mahakam I No.6
Blok M
Jakarta Selatan 12130
Tel. +62 21 720 9966
Fax. +62 21 725 2011

Packing our lives away

These guys were fast so I really had no time to look at things sentimentally and ponder on what life would be like for us had we stayed another year. It was like one minute I turned away and the next, a piece of furniture was in a box, then the next minute, it was being carried away downstairs never to be seen again. I suppose it was a good thing but we'll have to see at a later date.

sometimes it's more about the Stop than the Go

Choosing your local Stop 'n Go is like choosing which branch will you want to be ripped off from.

What I have found about this chain-store is this:

1. They are pretty much the best when it comes to repairing your shoes (with the exceptions of those guys walking around the side of the street with their own portable shoe repair kit, but when you don't know the street price for fixing shoes then sometimes they can charge you double than the chain-store, or if you are lucky, you can just get your pembantu to do this!)

2. Every store don't really have a price list posted up in the store so you don't really know how much a repair really cost

3. Which leads to my next point, some store will charge differently according to who is repairing it (and when they make up a price, this goes into their pockets and not the company)

4. Depending on which branch you go to, the prices do differ greatly.
- Plaza Senayan (expensive as there are alot of Indo wives wanting to get their designer handbags and shoes fixed)
- Senayan City (not too bad and quite fast as their location is not the best)
- Pondok Indah Mal (a little bit on the expensive side, many of the expat wives go here)
- Pacific Place (they have everything as most of the working locals come here during their lunch break and their prices are not too bad)

Oh and sometimes they also turn down jobs "tidak bisa" or tell you that it will be done in a week or whatever so that they don't have to do the job so you also have that to look forward to.

Earrings

Remember the amethyst rocks I bought a while back at Rawa Bening to make into earrings? They are ready! They couldn't do these claws that you would normally have on stones are they are not a smooth and even surface so they put a gold band around it and glued the stones onto the band.



I also bought a few things...
pearl clumps studded earrings 35rp

pearl intertwined bracelet 40rp

small black pearls on a string 70rp (which I made into a necklace)

large black pearls on a string 90rp (which I made into a necklace)

Mirror mirror

Baroque anyone?
This place must be creepy at night

We chose and bought a mirror here a couple of days ago as the husband always wanted to get one from Jalan Pejompongan. I'm not a big fan of this street for mirrors as the mirrors here tend to be distorted ones but the husband was harping on about it so I figured, well we will need a mirror so I supposed why not.

We decided on a less than Baroque style mirror that is about 90cm by 160cm for 750rp and this morning we picked it up. The shop...if you can call it that...is by the side of the street and looks a little like a children's cubby house, the lady and her family lives upstairs. Her collection of frames were not as Baroque-esque at the others on this street so we knew we could choose something decent.

Sumber Rejeki
Jl. Pejompongan Raya No. 5
Jakarta Pusat
Tel: 0878 83224693

Koi does it best for brunch

It is our first somewhat relaxing day in a while...only because it is a long weekend holiday and half of Jakarta is enjoying Bali. As much as I would have enjoyed a Bali getaway myself, having Jakarta all to myself is even better.

Birdcage

Ratatouille with spatchcock
a heart-shaped cappuccino
downstairs...
upstairs...
I've been meaning to take the husband here on a date but we have never really had the time and seeing as we are really short on time here in Jakarta I figured today would be as good day as any to take him here. We were the only ones here for lunch so the staff were kind enough to put some love songs on the stereo but not kind enough to lower the volume...ah well it's the thought that counts. Would have loved to have come here more often, the food was quite a treat to see and taste.

Birdcage
Jl. WIjaya 9/23
Kebayoran Baru
Jakarta, 12160
Tel: 62217392430

Cushions

You wouldn't know it driving past but this shop is quite delightful. I've been coming here over the years but only now have I posted about it because I kind of wanted to keep it my little secret for a while. But ok seeing as we are leaving I suppose I should pay it forward. This place would probably have to be the best place to get cushions made, sewn, custom-made. We have gotten our dining chair cushions made here as well as sofa cushions etc etc for a significant fraction of the price anywhere else (and believe me I have looked and tried elsewhere). I went for a little visit here to buy some sofa cushions for us for Germany and took some quick snaps of the store front. They are usually pretty upfront, and as a seller here in Jakarta it's quite rare. When they are busy or is unable to do the job they will say in the beginning and as soon as your order is done they call you in the morning and either arrange to have it sent to your place free of charge or you can pick it up onsite but either way, they will always call.

Anyways so I picked up a couple of large sofa cushions made of dacron, I'm not sure what it is but the lady told me that when the cushions get flattened as they do over time, I only need to leave it out in the sun for an afternoon and they will fluff out as good as new and they only costed me about 60rp each.
custom made beds, pillows, cushions you name it, they probably have it.

The lady behind it all. I think she owns the place, I call her "Chi-chi" because everyone else called her that and I wanted to blend in. She is as the Australians would say "tough but fair"..if you press her hard enough she usually gives you a lower price

any kind of cushions at any strength and material.

you can either choose some materials here or bring your own. I normally buy some fabrics either at mayestik or ikea whenever I go back to Aust and get stuff made here.