Article 18
Friday 28th Sept KL to Jakarta
We caught up with my Friend Darryl and his lovely wife this afternoon and had drinks at the Irish Pub, caught up on past and present history and doings. They are in KL on a brief holiday, returning to Jakarta tomorrow (Sat 29 Sept.) the same as us. We are travelling Malaysian and they, Garuda.
Dinks done, time for Macan and off to a local Chinese road-side café…one of those with ten chefs all working over steaming/red-hot woks turning out twenty meals a minute for the slavering crowd! We ordered, as usual, about two more dishes than we needed on a shared dishes basis and al hogged in. Delicious Sweet and Sour Pork, Crispy-Chicken and cashews, Sliced beef and pineapple and some sort of green vegetable mix plus steamed rice and, yet more beer, Carlsburg this time. Very, very good and also, surprisingly, very cheap too for the amount of food.
Then, to close out the night, back with Darryl to yet another Irish Pub very near their hotel. We stayed at the Federal which has its own Irish Pub (Delany’s) and Darryl stayed at the Park Royal and around the corner was their Irish pub. A few more rounds of Kilkenny , we all called it a night because of our flying next day and went back to our respective hotels and bed!
Saturday morning we were collected on time by our Transfer Driver and taken to the KLIA. Speedily processes, we proceeded to ‘immagracci’ and on to what we thought would be Duty- Free shopping. WRONG! The Duty Free shopping at Kuala Lumpur International Airport is after check-in but before Immigration!
Now cleared by Immigration we are stuck in no-man’s land! Cannot go back to Duty Free, Cannot go to the Gate because it doesn’t open until 60 minutes before flight time…and nearly two hours to kill! Pat read a book and I had a few beers at the only operational establishment in this airport area…a bar and grill at exorbitant prices. Fortunately for me a toilet…I suddenly developed an attack of gut-trouble and urgent need to unload…this led to having to take another anti-gut-problems pill and, for that, I needed another beer…nuff said!
Even though our plane was late arriving, they speeded everythin up and we were all boarded, and away on time with me winning the usual lottery…the seat next to the young mother with the screaming baby! It quietened down once we ere airborne and only started screaming again during our decent into Jakarta.
Finally back in Jakarta, in our hotel and even with money, thanks to the airport ATM we raced off to SO-GO supermarket and purchased some basics like salted butter, French bread (Well that’s what it said, but it AINT!) double smoked ham, coffee and jam…breakfasts for the coming week. Our hotel is Indonesian, ie, not an International 5***** Chain like Hilton etc which are all facade and higher prices with very little service if one is not a multi-millionaire Yank! Breakfasts in an Indonesian hotel leaves a lot to be desired…rice porridge, cold boiled eggs or hot, half-raw ‘boiled’ eggs, salad items and sweet-bread toast. Then there is cake and chocolate sprinkles on bread-and-unsalted-butter!! Not for us!
Necessities, including beer, obtained I left Patricia to unpack and went to buy a local SIM Card for my Handphone so that, simply, I could contact our various Indonesian Friends. SIM Card purchased, I called into the old Romance Bar and the Captain (Captain Morgan, British Expat, owner) was in his usual captain’s chair. One of his staff volunteered to input all the necessary info into my phone so that I could get connected, eg, Passport number, name, D-O-B and so on. Problem is, if you don’t understand Bahasa, you don’t understand the questions and cannot get connected until they have this information.
Meanwhile, the Captain informs me that Ashley, a ten-year friend in Jakarta, had a motor-bike accident just last week, seemed to be recovering well and just two days ago suffered a terminal heart attack! Next good friend John, is away on an assignment for the Captain and won’t be back until the day after we leave, and not to be outdone as things come in threes, our other, long-term friend, Dickey and his wife have left for Surabaya having been transferred by his University! These are friends of both Patricia and myself. There are many others who are friends of mine, met after Patricia had left Indonesia.
Not much joy there! There are some others whom I may catch up with in the coming week. So, off, over the road to the Ya-Udah restaurant owned by our Swiss friend, Pedro. He walked in as I was ordering my usual (in Ya-Udah) meal of Hungarian Goulash and cheese sticks…Pedro makes the best Hungarian Goulash anywhere in the world including Hungary where, for me, the Goulash was an insipid and watery soup??? Hungarian Goulash IS a soup but one that you can stand a spoon up in, ie, THICK! It should be made with loads of meat, vegetables and paprika and all sorts of unknown goodies (like pickled onions) for additional but subtle flavour.
Pedro and I talked for about an hour about mutual friends, past and present plans and his businesses. Again, or rather, still, Pedro is planning a move to Thailand to get away from the bureaucratic and corrupt Indonesian Business imposts, which, Pedro says, are now becoming impossible to comply with, not only because of stupid regulations but the high and ever higher Government applied costs for simply being able to conduct a business here.
There are few, if any of these type of regulations and controls in Thailand, or much of Malaysia for that matter. For example, In Indonesia, no Expat may own, operate a business and/or own property unless he has an Indonesian Partner or partners. In KL and Thailand, any person may purchase a business or property in his own name and he will have his licence or property deed in his name, in his hands, within three weeks of signing the purchase contract! The Governments of both these countries are offering tax concessions and start-up funds to anyone who wants to establish a business there! The exact opposite of Indonesia. Pedro is again thinking…next year!
Once my phone was working with the local SIM Card, I SMSed all my Jakarta Indonesian and Expat friends and told them we were here for a week and, what my new hand-phone (Mobile-phone) number is. Within seconds, my old Driver ‘Bambang’ was calling me asking when and when can we meet…others quickly followed. We plan to have a small re-union dinner at Ya-Udah for all our friends, during this week but we will also try and see Bambang’s and others families as well. Just a case of organising things. Cheers Lynne and Patricia
Speaking of which, today/tomorrow I will try and organise some tailor made clothes for myself plus get some loose stones mounted…today is Sunday, and it is also Ramadhan so we are not sure what shops and establishments will be open. Hence I sitting here writing this at 0630 because if all the shops we want are shut today, I will go to Starbucks WI/FI and up-load this epistle to the appalled!...and check our emails as well.
Enough for now and there are no more pics to put in the Journal…we have hundreds of Jakarta/Indonesian photos and really, we don’t need to take any more! Cheers Lynne and Pat
