7/1

7/1

So on the plus side, my boss doesn't think I have Typhoid. I'm feeling better, though still achy and congested. I got a thermometer at the pharmacist and I'm running about 37.1C, which is normal.

About a year or so I think, the US cracked down on cold and flu products containing Dextromethorphan, or DXM. The reason was, in high doses it's classified as a hallucinogen, and causes feelings of floating and such, like ketamine or PCP. And too many kids went robo-tripping, that is, taking large amounts of Robitussin, Coricidin, or other products containing the chemical. Here, it's dirt cheap and sold over the counter. Panadol contains 15 mg/DXM and 30mg/Pseudo ephedrine. Now that's not to say that anyone has or would, but if one wanted to start their own meth lab, it would be darn cheap to do it here.

Well, I just took some Wood's peppermint expectorant (plus mucolytic!), just has guaiphenesin, and a hell of a lot of mint.

Moving on to lighter news, today is July 1st, and we're going to Chili's to celebrate the 4th. I made the joke that the party should start out at David's house (he's a Brit) and then everyone leave him and come to my house, ha ha.

. . .


So tonight 4 of us went to celebrate the 4th at Chili's (well, Chrystina was celebrating Canada Day, and David was just there for the food). Trouble was, we couldn't find the place. And Indonesians -suck- when it comes to giving directions. Instead of just telling you that they don't know where it is, they'll make something up and send you on a wild goose chase, so as not to embarrass themselves for not knowing the way. We walked around 3 different malls in Blok M before giving up, and just went to the Outback Steakhouse instead.

It wasn't cheap, but it was worth it. A pair of crab cakes, an 8 oz sirloin plus baked potato, and a bottomless Coke set me back around Rp. 210,000 (about $23). Take into account that minimum wage in Jakarta is Rp. 900,000/month, and most people make at most 2-3x that, and you can see that this is not a luxury that most Indonesians can afford.

After that, we took a taxi home, the driver looked like he was falling asleep and kept weaving in and out of traffic, but then again, that's typical of Jakarta drivers. We -totally- bottomed out on a speed bump and the taxi started making a weird clunking noise. I was riding shotgun, so I could see the grimace on the driver's face.