The real Jakarta - who knew?

So before I ever moved here it was constant speculation such as ...what's the weather like, what will the dress code be like, what will the city look like?!? So I thought I'd update everyone on the real Jakarta!

First off, it's a huge HUGE city. Certainly bigger than anywhere I've lived before. Of course what did I expect since Jakarta has almost 10 million people and Indonesia is the world's fourth most populous country in the world. Whew. They aren't lying! This place is packed. My Dad would just LOVE it :)

So second of all, the traffic is horrible. And not just traffic but getting a taxi as well. Tonight I waited in line for one entire hour just to get a taxi - not fun. Here they have lines for taxis, you don't just hail one.  Well the traffic was no surprise to me since it is the one thing Alo did mention beforehand and every review online mentioned the horrendous traffic! DC has alot of traffic but this is even more insane. And add in a million motor bikes, old grungy buses and pollution and you can imagine what it's like.  They don't really have traffic laws or speed limits. I think it's just kind of a free for all so it's quite the ride getting to a from work everyday!

Which leads me to my next point, the language barrier. I think I imagined that more people would be able to speak English. Cab drivers usually don't speak much English so I've learned the basics to get myself around town. The language barrier at work is a bit challenging but not too bad. In general everyone speaks some bit of English. Some of my colleagues have studied in the states and speak perfect English however others speak very broken English.  I help some of my co workers by correcting their English when they write and they help me by teaching me Bahasa so it's a win win for everyone! My boss mentioned the company would pay for a classes today so I'm really excited and hope to sign up in the next couple weeks and really start learning!

Speaking of learning, I've learned that there must be some pretty wealthy folks in this country since the shopping is insane here.  I've never seen anything like it. There are so many malls I literally cannot keep up. And they are all HUGE. There are at least 3 Louis Vuitton within a mile radius from our apartment. Along with multiple Guccis, Tiffanys, Mont Blancs, Pradas..well you get the point. So I haven't got to shop much at all ...which is both a good and bad thing. Besides all the designer high priced stores, they also have normal American stores like Banana Republic, Gap, Nine West, and even Forever 21 !(but it's more expensive of course). I was originally imagining Jakarta having lots of markets with vendors who sell lots of arts and crafts they make but I think I was just thinking that because Bali had all those great things.  So far no great market like that, but I'm still on the look out.

The dress code is what I hoped it would be like - the same as home! I basically wear anything I wore before. All my colleagues dress just as I would, so that was a relief to find out.  I didn't have to buy a new wardrobe :) Being the world's largest Muslim country, I expected to see alot more conservative dress. But really it's not that different.  The majority of Indonesians in Jakarta do not wear the Hijab (the scarf that is worn on their head).  Oh and one more thing I forget about the dress code - you can't leave the house without your high heels! Whether it's a Friday night or a Sunday afternoon, Indonesian women have their high heels on wherever they go.  And I mean HIGH heels.


One of the biggest things I miss....water. This might sound silly but being here has made me appreciate water so much more! Not being able to drink and cook with the water that comes right out of the faucet really makes you realize how we take it for granted.  One night our water dispenser ran out of water while Alo was out of town traveling and man was that a small crisis of the night. I ran down to our mini mart in the basement and there was only one guy working so he wasn't able to help me bring the water up to our apartment. So I decided I could carry it by myself. I'm a strong girl but wow those things are heavy! I finally somehow get it through all the doors and up the elevator, and then hard part came next...getting this huge water jug turned upside down so fast that I don't pour the entire thing all over the floor. Well you can imagine how that worked out :) I made a big mess!

Which is my next topic...cleaning. Something that is hard to remember doing often since we now have a maid! It's truly awesome and I'll probably never be able to live without one now - thanks Jakarta.  But really, it's great.  She comes twice a week and does everything from cleaning to laundry to even cutting up our fruit (like watermelon, etc).  Asians surely live an awesome lifestyle when it comes to service. Everyone has drivers, cooks, maids, and nannies.  What a life!

And the last thing for now...TV! I was pleasantly surprised at the selection of channels we have. We have a basic cable so no guide that tells you when and what will come on but that's ok considering it would be in Bahasa Indonesia anyways.  We have a variety of Australian cooking channels I really like. Alo already thinks their Australian accent is rubbing off on me! ha We also have a channel called "Starworld" and it's probably my favorite. It has a European form of the America show, "So you think you can dance?" which I now love and also has American shows like Greys, 90210 and Desperate Housewives. The funny thing is though they are a season behind so I've seen everything. But it's still nice to turn on the TV and see familiar shows. Oh and a couple movie channels like HBO and Star Movies. We don't really need the movie channels since you can purchase DVDs here, like new one still in theaters or not yet released in America, for about $1. And series of TV shows cost about $3 or $4 for an entire season. We have probably bought about 40 movies and 10 seasons of shows so I think we are set for awhile!

Hope this helps you understand a little bit about what it's really like over here so far..much more to come!

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh my!

Alo took off a couple days from work and since we were both without our passports (still in the process of getting our Kitas - 1 year stay visa) we decided to venture out of the city and head towards the mountains and rural areas close by.

Our first stop was Bogor.  As we drove along, the view was much greener than Jakarta but the traffic still held strong.  We decided to try out the safari park called the Taman Safari.  It turned out to be awesome and I would highly recommend it.  We stayed in the car and drove through the entire safari park.  This might sound boring since we had to stay in the car but it was honestly really fun.  Alo and I bought lots of carrots from vendors on the street before we entered the park. So as you can imagine...the animals LOVED us :)

I just adore this guy - he looks like he is smiling at all times!

The lions and tigers would walk right next to the car so we were too scared to put the window down all the way! I didn't want Alo getting eaten by a lion on his day off :)

This zebra wanted some kisses! They were so funny!

After the Taman Safari, we headed to Puncak to check our the paragliding. Luckily we were there too late in the day and there were others in line ahead to paraglide so we had to postpone that one :) Not quite sure if i'm ready to run off a mountain in Puncak yet, but stay tuned! It was fun to see others do it. They made it look so easy! No worries, we found a zip line instead so we got a small thrill for the day!

While driving up the mountain we got to see all the tea plantations. I really admire the women who pick the tea leaves as a living. Talk about a hard job! They are on very steep hills in the hot sun picking the tiny tea leaves off the trees and carry a huge woven basket on their back to put the leaves in.

Move over Michael Phelps

I'm really happy with the apartment Alo found for us to live in while we are here in Jakarta.  It's called The Peak and I would highly recommend it to anyone.  I feel very safe here and there is lots of security which is always a plus.  The greatest part of all though....is the POOL!  Those of you that live in DC know, pools are few and far between. Either you are very lucky and live in a fancy building that has a rooftop pool or you sneak into a pool your friends are members at (Thanks Julia!).

This morning I went down to the pool and swam a mile. I know my mom must be proud - she is a pro at swimming the mile!  It was so relaxing and there was only one other person in the pool for the majority of the time.  For living in such a large building it's crazy to Alo and I how few people we see out and about at the pool.  It's an olympic size pool so it seems like you are never going to make it to the other end sometimes.  Too bad I don't still have a Tinkerview Tarpons swim cap from the old days.  Maggie - maybe you could mail me your old one? haha.

Hope everyone at home is staying by a pool or some body of water this weekend! I hear it's going to be a hot one!

Watch out for those waves...

This past Sunday Alo and I went to Sepa Island, part of the Thousand Islands of Indonesia.  We took a cab from our apartment to the marina which takes about 20 minutes and then hopped on a boat which takes about an hour and a half to get there. It was a windy day, and I was just getting over some Indonesian sickness... so to say the least - it was quite the ride.  We rode in the very front of the boat so by the time we arrived we looked like we had already snuck in a quick dip with our clothes and all! 

The Thousand Islands were beautiful.  They are made up of 105 islands stretching 45 kilometers north into the Java Sea.  Development is allowed on 37 of the islands, some are uninhabited, and some are owned by wealthy Jakartans (need to make friends with one of them to get on their island!).

We hung out on the beach all day with a couple of Alo's friends who came along with us.  We didn't see too many fish right off the beach but it was still great to swim and relax in the water.  The area is so small it only takes about 20 minutes to walk around the entire island.  Alo and John saw the Komodo dragons that live on the island but unfortunately they scurried away when I was near and I only heard one rustling in the bushes.  Komodo dragons are the largest living species of lizards and can grow to be as long as 9.8 feet - yikes!  Other than the sun, sand, blue water, and Komodos, there isn't too much on the island.  There is a resort with cute little huts but unless you are looking for the bare minimum in accommodations, you may just want to do a day trip like we did.  There is one restaurant which we ate at for lunch and they served basic Indonesian food such as Mie Goreng (very similar to Lo Mein) and rice of course. Everyone here LOVES rice.  Rice for breakfast, lunch, dinner and desert. ha!

Our boat departed around 3pm and the winds were picking up and things didn't look so pleasant for the ride back.  We took a different route home meaning a longer trip.  To help give you a mental picture of our trip home... if you have ever watched that show on Discovery called Deadliest Catch and seen how enormous the waves are and how it almost looks like they are going to take over the boat...that's what it felt like. I love the water and rarely get scared but I was slightly nervous. Even at one point the crew made Alo and some of the other guys in our group sit on the left side of the boat to help even things out. They were soaked! It made for a good laugh though! And I surely won't forget my first visit to the Thousand Islands!

As you can see in the picture below, Alo and Steve are drenched - luckily I scored a middle seat :) There was a nice lady from Jakarta sitting beside me with her little 3 year old girl on her lap (she is trying to shield her from the water with a towel and life jacket). I think the little girl was the least scared!

I told Alo he really has to stop running around in his speedo :)

Finally made it!

After months of planning, stressing, worrying, and craziness - I made it to Indonesia! Very excited to finally be here. There were a couple hiccups on the way, such as my flights being canceled due to a big storm,  but other than that I made it fine.  My flights were great and I celebrated the start of my new adventure with lots of champagne - Thank you Korean Air!  Alo picked me up from the airport and I was greeted with a slew of balloons! Did you expect any less from Alo? ha.  I was so happy to see him. It's still pretty unreal to me that I'm living over here and finally with him again :)

Our apartment exceeded my expectations as well as many other places in Jakarta so that's always a good start.  I also think Alo kept me in the dark about a lot so I'd be impressed when I arrived rather than let down - smart boy! Everyone is so so nice and just has a big smile on their face all the time.  I honestly haven't encountered one rude person yet. Indonesians just love life and are so happy, which makes this experience much easier and enjoyable.

The language barrier isn't too bad although I'm very anxious to start a class. Alo is already taking one with his co-worker and has taught me how to say numbers 1-10, good, and thank you.  I got a cell phone the other day which is helpful so I can also show the cab driver addresses of places if they are confused by me.  I usually just point, nod, and smile a lot and it seems to be working just fine.

The first morning I was here Alo plugged my blow dryer in the outlet with a converter and blew it up! Ops! Of course it was my FAVORITE blow dryer of all time - but no biggy we just went on a hunt to find a new one. Note to self, a good blow dryer here costs around $80-90 bucks whereas my great one I loved was only like $25. On a good note, since I had no blow dryer for a couple days I went to the salon to get my hair blown out. Ladies - it's only about $5-$10 bucks depending on where you go and it's great. Turns out Alo blowing up my blow dryer wasn't so bad after all! I've been to the salon twice already.  Yesterday I went and they washed, dried and straightened my hair and also gave me a mani and pedi - brace yourself.....$21 American dollars - with TIP. Pretty awesome.

I took a trip to the Indonesian Immigration office yesterday for finger prints and paperwork for my Visa. That was pretty interesting. It was a crowded, sweaty, loud mess in a tiny little building.  I might have stood out slightly ha.  Luckily, JLL has an agent (a person who basically pays off the officials so you skip to the front of the line) and I was there for about 5 minutes!

Alo and I went to the grocery store called Ranch Market the other day. It's really nice - kinda like a Trader Joes look to it.  Lots of great fresh produce and meats. The prices however are not cheap, especially anything American. If you know me, you know I LOVE candy, and a bag of candy such as p-patties or snickers was about $9 dollars so I had to hold off and save it for an excuse like a bad day or feeling homesick.

This is a picture of one of the samples they were giving out at the grocery store - Grass Jelly - yummm! ha

Don't worry...I've already made my first friend!