I'd like to pretend that I wasn't just posing for this one, but then, that would be lying.
Sunday, July 16, 2006
Indian MTV
I just flicked on TV to get my sporadically required fix of Indian MTV, and by some bizarre coincidence (or tasteless joke), or cultural quirk, they are screening India’s best ever “Rail” tracks. Given what happened in Mumbai this week it seems like a strange choice of special feature, but I am not sure whether I am more surprised by the fact that there seems to be a genre of music in India devoted to music about trains. I just watched two film clips- one with a Bollywood star who I see every time I turn on the channel, running along the roof of a train, and another one with some happy looking guy hanging out the side of a train and smiling at all the girls picking tea. Of course, I can’t understand anything that they are singing about, or what the VJ’s are saying, but if anyone can provide an explanation on this apparent love affair Indian MTV has with trains I might be able to go some way toward actually understanding why the hell they would be screening this crazy stuff in the same week that a bunch of trains got blown up. Aku lagi bingung.
Anyway. I had my last day in the firm yesterday, and was kinda sad to finish there. The people have been so absolutely lovely, from the “office boys” to the partners, they were all very welcoming to me, as well as patient and kind. I got some good feedback on my project from my Supervisor – it is going to be made into a guide for the office on Broadcasting in Indonesia, and apparently I even get my name printed in it, which is kinda cool. It is tradition in Indonesia to buy cakes, or noodles or something on a special occasion like birthday, last day or whatever, and I bought some nice sponge cakes from a shop nearby. It was amusing to see some of the lawyers that I had never seen before emerge from their offices to eat it. Hehehe!
I then had dinner with my fellow “magangs”, that is interns, as well as Ryan and Rizky, at my favourite restaurant so far in Jakarta- the Italian restaurant Trattoria at Pondok Indah. It is the closest service I have come to that is reminiscent of Australia, and even better, they give you free appetizers and a chocolate liqueur free for dessert. I had warned them all that the dinner would be “Australian” style, i.e. I would not be paying for their food, because for that kind of function here it would also be usual to pay for your guests. However when the bill arrived and for the 12 of us who ate the bill was like about $120 including wine and beer, I decided to bring out the card and pay for everyone. Being on occasion a bit of a dunderhead, I didn’t realize that they didn’t accept credit, and ended up looking silly because I only had enough cash to cover about a third of the bill.
Luckily, one of the partners had showed up late to eat dinner on his way home (which by the way was also cool because it was just us interns there) and he put in another third of the bill, leaving the rest to be split between the others. In true Indo style, or perhaps true Australian style, the Indonesian’s left leaving myself and Ryan (mate from Yogya who is also here) to sit at the bar and drink a quiet beer. We started talking to the owner of the place and the chef, who from the looks are maybe a tiny bit older than me – and they gave us some more free beer. I highly recommend that place to anyone who comes to Jakarta. Fabulous food.
So we finished the beer and went on to that old favourite bar of mine Second Floor. Ryan and I got another beer, took a seat at some random table and within about 10 minutes were drinking Chivas Regal…..gratis. Rizky showed up a while later and we hung out with his friends, who were also buying us drinks. To cut a long story short, I had a headache this morning which is from a combination of over-consumption and hitting my head on the sink in my bathroom before I went out yesterday because the electricity was dead and I am unco. I stayed in bed for a long time today feeling sorry for my head and watching the Lost marathon, and now I am about to go out and watch Rizky’s band one last time.
I fly out of here Monday morning (I lost my paper ticket at the office– so I have to practice the dramatic “Oh dear I must have left it at home” thing), after I stop off at the office one more time to say goodbye to the head of the firm, an Aussie, who was in China last week. I will then be arriving in Yogya midday-ish, dropping off my bags at a Losmen (cheap hotel) in the tourist area, and get to Immigration so that I can get my exit permit within the week and head to Bali to join Alana.
It’s all action. I am gonna do Yogyakarta like a (budget) tourist this time. See all the things I missed last time, and see how things are going after the earthquake.
I am not exactly sad to be leaving Jakarta, I think it would be hard not to look forward to less traffic and fresher air. However, I could easily have stayed here longer if the opportunity had arisen. I have really liked my kos, maybe because I haven’t been in it a lot (I still haven’t really met anyone else who lives here, I have come to the conclusion that they are either ghosts or werewolves) but having cable has been fun. I will be very unhappy not to be able to watch Lost, Project Runway, Rockstar Supernova and CSI whenever I feel like it. On the other hand, perhaps I should stop rotting my brain and start reading, or having intelligent conversations, or pondering on life’s mysteries.
Ok, enough, rambling rambling rambling. See some of you soon, and others of you sooner.
Anyway. I had my last day in the firm yesterday, and was kinda sad to finish there. The people have been so absolutely lovely, from the “office boys” to the partners, they were all very welcoming to me, as well as patient and kind. I got some good feedback on my project from my Supervisor – it is going to be made into a guide for the office on Broadcasting in Indonesia, and apparently I even get my name printed in it, which is kinda cool. It is tradition in Indonesia to buy cakes, or noodles or something on a special occasion like birthday, last day or whatever, and I bought some nice sponge cakes from a shop nearby. It was amusing to see some of the lawyers that I had never seen before emerge from their offices to eat it. Hehehe!
I then had dinner with my fellow “magangs”, that is interns, as well as Ryan and Rizky, at my favourite restaurant so far in Jakarta- the Italian restaurant Trattoria at Pondok Indah. It is the closest service I have come to that is reminiscent of Australia, and even better, they give you free appetizers and a chocolate liqueur free for dessert. I had warned them all that the dinner would be “Australian” style, i.e. I would not be paying for their food, because for that kind of function here it would also be usual to pay for your guests. However when the bill arrived and for the 12 of us who ate the bill was like about $120 including wine and beer, I decided to bring out the card and pay for everyone. Being on occasion a bit of a dunderhead, I didn’t realize that they didn’t accept credit, and ended up looking silly because I only had enough cash to cover about a third of the bill.
Luckily, one of the partners had showed up late to eat dinner on his way home (which by the way was also cool because it was just us interns there) and he put in another third of the bill, leaving the rest to be split between the others. In true Indo style, or perhaps true Australian style, the Indonesian’s left leaving myself and Ryan (mate from Yogya who is also here) to sit at the bar and drink a quiet beer. We started talking to the owner of the place and the chef, who from the looks are maybe a tiny bit older than me – and they gave us some more free beer. I highly recommend that place to anyone who comes to Jakarta. Fabulous food.
So we finished the beer and went on to that old favourite bar of mine Second Floor. Ryan and I got another beer, took a seat at some random table and within about 10 minutes were drinking Chivas Regal…..gratis. Rizky showed up a while later and we hung out with his friends, who were also buying us drinks. To cut a long story short, I had a headache this morning which is from a combination of over-consumption and hitting my head on the sink in my bathroom before I went out yesterday because the electricity was dead and I am unco. I stayed in bed for a long time today feeling sorry for my head and watching the Lost marathon, and now I am about to go out and watch Rizky’s band one last time.
I fly out of here Monday morning (I lost my paper ticket at the office– so I have to practice the dramatic “Oh dear I must have left it at home” thing), after I stop off at the office one more time to say goodbye to the head of the firm, an Aussie, who was in China last week. I will then be arriving in Yogya midday-ish, dropping off my bags at a Losmen (cheap hotel) in the tourist area, and get to Immigration so that I can get my exit permit within the week and head to Bali to join Alana.
It’s all action. I am gonna do Yogyakarta like a (budget) tourist this time. See all the things I missed last time, and see how things are going after the earthquake.
I am not exactly sad to be leaving Jakarta, I think it would be hard not to look forward to less traffic and fresher air. However, I could easily have stayed here longer if the opportunity had arisen. I have really liked my kos, maybe because I haven’t been in it a lot (I still haven’t really met anyone else who lives here, I have come to the conclusion that they are either ghosts or werewolves) but having cable has been fun. I will be very unhappy not to be able to watch Lost, Project Runway, Rockstar Supernova and CSI whenever I feel like it. On the other hand, perhaps I should stop rotting my brain and start reading, or having intelligent conversations, or pondering on life’s mysteries.
Ok, enough, rambling rambling rambling. See some of you soon, and others of you sooner.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
