Jakarta TimeKFC on a Friday night: As I noted in my post about the US – England soccer game, the place to be on a weekend night is clearly KFC. They have live music and the place is full of people older than teenagers. Same thing for McDonalds, where they have wifi, flat screen TVs, live music, 24 hour delivery. Perhaps this is because bars are absent and people need somewhere to go to socialize? Unclear.
Cat tails & cat fights: Thin, non-friendly felines are abundant in Bogor. There are a few particularly feisty ones that live on our street and several times I have been violently awoken by the sound of their fighting. It’s loud and wild and scares the crap out of me. Wilder than any cat fight I ever heard in the Bx. Also most of the cat tails are oddly shaped, I have tried to snag pictures of this when I can.
Snake oil: I call it snake oil but it is actually cajuput oil, a very traditional medicine Indonesians use for EVERYTHING: stomach pain, bug bites,nausea, Galih even tried to rub it on Dan’s feet when he was throwing up all night in Pacitan. True story - snake oil is the solution for everything. Dan likens it to Indonesian icy hot and it does have some similar properties. I was intrigued by this so I bought some, 2 little bottles (pictured below) cost me a buck so I figured I would have to give it a shot. It does a fantastic job taking the itch out of bug bites and even helped with some of the minor stomach pain I've experienced. I am a believer- the snake oil is coming back to America.
What went on in the mall: We observed a very strange performance of what I assume is an Indonesian fairy tale happening at Botani Square one Sunday afternoon. I included some pictures of the witch, princess and cross dressing male. I tried to ask a few people what the story was but again this remains a mystery.
Music: I’ve heard EVERYTHING here.. from music that is HOT off the press (Literally heard Shakira’s Waka Waka every single day since I arrived last month) to the randomest old tunes. Examples:
-Keane, Everybody’s Changing. Heard in the supermarket, this is more than five years old and never got that popular in the US, I almost fell over when it came on
-Barenaked Ladies, Falling for the First Time. At the Jakarta airport, also confusing, this one is old and did it ever get that popular??
-I forget the artist but I believe its called ‘Crazy over you’ (chorus: crazy over you, my boo, ooh!) – at a restaurant.. so random, think this one’s several years old also
-TLC, Scrubs. In the 4 hr journey from Jogja to Pacitan a few weeks ago, I was so delirious I sang word for word and the driver thought I was crazy
-Ace of Base, Don’t Turn Around . Also heard on the radio in our drive from Jogja to Pacitan, again I proceeded to sing to this jam from my youth, utterly confusing our driver further
Internet/Cell phone plans: Made a few references already to my frustrations over this. All plans are pre-paid, fairly cheap just to text and make short calls but they still prove to be unbelievably confusing. Figuring out how internet works is by far the most confusing. We purchased modems (kind of like air cards you can use in USB plugs) that use the cell phone signal/sim card to run. We were told we purchased unlimited plans but they more or less ran out after our first week of modest use. And apparently after a certain download threshold the speech decreases significantly. I tried Telkomsel (largest provider here) which did not work in rural East Java.. for trip two I bought an XL (second largest provider here) sim card in hopes it would be better there, and it proved worse. I made peace with the fact that no matter where I am I will have issue with my cell provider: it is a universal, cross-cultural truth for me.
Dear Vodafone in Australia, AT&T and Verizon in the US, Telkomsel and XL in Indonesia,
I hate you all, equally.
Love, Andrea
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