Jakarta, it’s not the most attractive or pleasant city in the world and that might be considered as an understatement. Only the traffic and the smog can drive a man crazy but just when it’s getting to me Jakarta gives me something simple that completely brightens up the day. For friday night I was invited by a business relation for celebrating the finish and success of a project. The venue they chose for this was “Eastern promise” in Kemang, which I’ve never been before. Arriving there was a bit of a shock because it was 5 in the afternoon and the bar gave away free beer for 1 hour so the bar was full of buleh’s cos you know buleh’s have a nose for free beer.
Anyways, after happy hour we moved to the restaurant and started snacking and drinking and all of a sudden I see Kevin eat a “Frikandel speciaal”. For all none Dutch people, a frikandel is probably the most popular fast food in Holland and besides liquorice the thing I miss most about Holland. After eating three of them I met with Lens, the owner which of course is a Dutch guy and is running a great bar with three areas, the bar, the restaurant and the live music area. Great vibe, great crowd, great music and… “Frikandel speciaal”! Yahoooooooooo!!!
Eastern Promise 5 Jalan Kemang Raya, Jakarta 12160 (021) 71790151
Today Jakarta was hit by a storm causing trees to unroot, a roof at SenCi to collapse, floods all around and lots of more minor damage. But however unfortunate that maybe for some, the pic below shows that nature’s violence can be extremely stunning in a cruel way.
Today the office of the Liberal Islam Network, a moderate Islamic group, received a book which seemed to be addressed to the group’s former director and liberal Muslim scholar Ulil Abshar Abdalla. Because someone detected cables with a strong smell they suspected it might be a bomb and decided to call the police. So far so good. However, the police officer who arrived at the scene clearly tried to dismantle the bomb which ended bad resulting in four people injured including the policeman losing his hand.
Earlier that morning former Densus 88 antiterror police officer, Gen. Gories Mere also received a similar device which could be defused. Continue Reading →
While most Jakartians spend their weekend in Bandung, Bali or one of the >150 malls I decided to spend mine in the hospital. Around a year ago I broke my arm pretty bad just below the joint, multiple fractures, crushed and the bone penetrated my muscle. The surgeon on Bali reconstructed my arm during the first operation but because he used screws that were too long and sticking through the bone he had to do a second operation.
After a year running around with a bionic arm I decided to use this weekend to get all the metal out of my body and so it happened. Still somewhat dizzy from the shitload of anti-biotics and pain killers I’m looking at the stuff that came out and keep being amazed about the size of the 4cm screws.
Anyway, for expats who are looking for a good hospital in Jakarta I can definitely recommend the Siloam hospital in Kebun Jeruk, since they’re the only hospital approved by the US embassy it was my first choice and I must say that everything was 100% ok.
As bule living on Bali we tend to complain, you know, that’s what bule do best ya! So one of our “frustrations” is a lack of enforcing the law because frankly besides checking people on their motor bike for their papers in the hope to make another Rp. 50.000 (cari uang) nothing much happens. You can drive drunk, texting, watching TV, calling someone in the car or park in the middle of the road, it’s all good.
Well, my business partner was happy to report that his Jakarta field research showed a different police attitude, in two days booked for ignoring the 3-in-1 rule (during rush hours you need to have at least 3 persons in your car) and calling while operating a motor vehicle, total damage Rp. 1.250.000. No talking your way out of it with lame excuses like “I didn’t know cos I’m new in Jakarta” or “I thought that only apply to local people”, no sireee, just and fair, that’s how Jakarta works, the law is the law. Fortunately Jakarta does also have the pay-me-now-I-give-you-cheap-price-discount which reduced the total cost to Rp. 200.000. Now that’s why we love Jakarta.
Yep, when some guys from the country of molded cheese decide it’s ok, cool and just normal to steal 10.000′s of pages of content from classified sites that actually worked hard(!) an invested money to get this far, I get upset, really upset. But I stay polite and just tell them in my best french: “Faut péter dans l’eau pour faire des bulles” which to my understanding means “have a nice day”.
For the rest I would say enjoy the totally unrelated, off-topic, nothing-to-do-with-this video which doesn’t necessarily express my own opinion or feelings…… Btw, the video is courtesy of Youtube, South Park Studios and Comedy Central. Now, you see? That isn’t so difficult to just follow netiquette and mention the source, comprendre??!!!!
This weekend the first group from Tokobagus moved to Jakarta to start working from our new office there. And judging from their first reactions on twitter (“depressed”, “Sad”, “Angry”) live isn’t all that bad in Jakarta. As a sign of support and sympathy some of the colleagues still on Bali are waving to our heroes in Jakarta! And yeah, some faces show some signs of malicious pleasure (Abe’s smile seems just a slightly too big) but their fate is already sealed and the same. So we salut Jakarta. WE MISS YOU GUYS AN WILL JOIN YOU SOON! (but not too soon….)
Stadium is a phenomenon in Jakarta, a huge place with 4 floors and a capacity of 5.000 people. So this was my second and probably my last stop of the evening. I have been in Stadium not so long ago but was at that time pretty drunk and stayed for maybe half an hour so I was curious to check the place out with a pretty clear head. Located in a small alley in a pretty shabby part of town you will find “Discotek Stadium”, probably the most (in)famous club in Jakarta and by many men considered to be paradise. Since Stadium is open from thursday till sunday 24-hours a day (!!) many stories circle about men staying in the Stadium for 3-4 days.
After a few days of meetings, traffic jams and Galaxy Tab misery I decided it was time to blow of some steam and start to get familiar with the Jakarta Nightlife. So far I’ve only been in Loewy’s, Illigals and Stadium (more about Stadium here) so I decided to do some research before hitting the town. After some googling I ended up on a great site from I guess a fellow buleh who seemed to have done a good job in reviewing the hot spots in the Jakarta club scene. I decided to look for a place with some class and where I wouldn’t be bothered by the ‘working’ girls and I decided to head for “Blowfish” which seems to be a bit more exclusive and classy night club. Continue Reading →
As some of you might know, at the moment Tokobagus is housed on Bali, also called paradise island. Anyways, someone on the other side of the world came up with the brilliant idea that it would be better for the business to move to Jakarta. Though that seems to make sense, the general feeling here is that this move is not considered as an upgrade. So what do you do as management? You start a charme offensive! I mean it won’t be for nothing that 16mln people chose to live in Jakarta, if Bali is really all that good there would be 16mln people living on Bali. Right? So in this new category we’re going to educate our co-workers on what Jakarta has to offer and why Jakarta beats Bali.
This weeks reason beats Bali on their on turf: water sports facilities and flexible public transportation.
Any ideas from real Jakartians can be dumped in the comments!
Jakarta, it’s not the most attractive or pleasant city in the world and that might be considered as an understatement. Only the traffic and the smog can drive a man crazy but just when it’s getting to me Jakarta gives me something simple that completely brightens up the day. For friday night I was invited by a business relation for celebrating the finish and success of a project. The venue they chose for this was “Eastern promise” in Kemang, which I’ve never been before. Arriving there was a bit of a shock because it was 5 in the afternoon and the bar gave away free beer for 1 hour so the bar was full of buleh’s cos you know buleh’s have a nose for free beer.
Today the office of the Liberal Islam Network, a moderate Islamic group, received a book which seemed to be addressed to the group’s former director and liberal Muslim scholar Ulil Abshar Abdalla. Because someone detected cables with a strong smell they suspected it might be a bomb and decided to call the police. So far so good. However, the police officer who arrived at the scene clearly tried to dismantle the bomb which ended bad resulting in four people injured including the policeman losing his hand.
While most Jakartians spend their weekend in Bandung, Bali or one of the >150 malls I decided to spend mine in the hospital. Around a year ago I broke my arm pretty bad just below the joint, multiple fractures, crushed and the bone penetrated my muscle. The surgeon on Bali reconstructed my arm during the first operation but because he used screws that were too long and sticking through the bone he had to do a second operation.
Stadium is a phenomenon in Jakarta, a huge place with 4 floors and a capacity of 5.000 people. So this was my second and probably my last stop of the evening. I have been in Stadium not so long ago but was at that time pretty drunk and stayed for maybe half an hour so I was curious to check the place out with a pretty clear head. Located in a small alley in a pretty shabby part of town you will find “Discotek Stadium”, probably the most (in)famous club in Jakarta and by many men considered to be paradise. Since Stadium is open from thursday till sunday 24-hours a day (!!) many stories circle about men staying in the Stadium for 3-4 days.