Hi guys! I have started my wish list for Xmas, please follow the link!
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Saturday, November 17, 2007
11/17
Just saw a movie last night, "Enam", a typical Indonesian horror film. Now, I've never walked out of a movie before, but it was just so horrible that after about half an hour I just had to. The plot was that there was a group of amateur filmmakers who rent a house that burned down a few years ago, to film their debut. They're going for a "Blair Witch" type of film. Anyways, the guy that rents it to them warns them of a ghost or curse or something.
Anyways, the ghost looks like just a woman in a sheet, it's not scary, and just like every other Indo movie, it's shot with a handicam or something. When I told the office girls at work, they're like, "oh, what do you expect? It's an Indonesian movie." I've never seen such apathy towards movies, and that's why nobody Stateside has ever seen an Indonesian movie. They all suck.
Well, tonight is David's going -away party at Toscana, a REALLY nice Italian restaurant in Kemang. I went there a few weeks ago, and they have a to-die-for spaghetti carbonara with REAL bacon, not smoked beef.
Anyways, the ghost looks like just a woman in a sheet, it's not scary, and just like every other Indo movie, it's shot with a handicam or something. When I told the office girls at work, they're like, "oh, what do you expect? It's an Indonesian movie." I've never seen such apathy towards movies, and that's why nobody Stateside has ever seen an Indonesian movie. They all suck.
Well, tonight is David's going -away party at Toscana, a REALLY nice Italian restaurant in Kemang. I went there a few weeks ago, and they have a to-die-for spaghetti carbonara with REAL bacon, not smoked beef.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
11/13 A video clip of Margonda
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wev0jdbLrjQ
A neat little video someone shot aboard an angkot. He starts at roughly across the street from the entrance to my complex, and drives down Margonda towards Jakarta. At about 1:30 you see Mal Depok on the left. On the right is where the new ACE Hardware opened, with an Index Furniture store.
About 2:02, on the right is Apotek Melawi, a big drugstore. You'll notice that the angkot (that's the little blue minivans) stop pretty frequently to pick up passengers. This causes all sorts of traffic jams. They will stop anywhere that there isn't a cop and pick up of let off passengers. The charge is only Rp.1,500 (9,000 is a dollar, for reference) and that can get you down the road a few kilometers. Longer distances charge more, but I don't know how they calculate it.
At 2:56, on the left, is a warung tenda, a tent food stall. Very cheap food, but you run the risk of getting some sort of stomach bug because the hygiene isn't very good.
Around 3:53, traffic stops; It's near the entrance to Pesona Khayangan, the other side of my complex. You can see the Pizza Hut sign on the right at 4:25. The motorcycle turning around, that's the break in the median that lets you cross the street to go into the complex.
At 4:37, you can brielfy see on the right, the windmill for Holland Bakery, a bread and cookie shop.
At 5:21 (blink and you'll miss it) on the left corner of the screen you'll catch a glimpse of a pink building, that's DC Billiards. Then you see an arm go in front of the camera, that's someone paying for his fare.
Well, that's as far as I got before my connection died. Anyways, if you keep going, there's a traffic light and a road that goes to the right, but keep going straight, and there's Detos on the left and Margo City on the right, with TB Gramedia (book store) just after Margo City. A little further down, and U.I. (the Univ. of Indo.) is on the left somewheres, and work is on the right. Well, gotta get going, planning classes and whatnot. Bye!
A neat little video someone shot aboard an angkot. He starts at roughly across the street from the entrance to my complex, and drives down Margonda towards Jakarta. At about 1:30 you see Mal Depok on the left. On the right is where the new ACE Hardware opened, with an Index Furniture store.
About 2:02, on the right is Apotek Melawi, a big drugstore. You'll notice that the angkot (that's the little blue minivans) stop pretty frequently to pick up passengers. This causes all sorts of traffic jams. They will stop anywhere that there isn't a cop and pick up of let off passengers. The charge is only Rp.1,500 (9,000 is a dollar, for reference) and that can get you down the road a few kilometers. Longer distances charge more, but I don't know how they calculate it.
At 2:56, on the left, is a warung tenda, a tent food stall. Very cheap food, but you run the risk of getting some sort of stomach bug because the hygiene isn't very good.
Around 3:53, traffic stops; It's near the entrance to Pesona Khayangan, the other side of my complex. You can see the Pizza Hut sign on the right at 4:25. The motorcycle turning around, that's the break in the median that lets you cross the street to go into the complex.
At 4:37, you can brielfy see on the right, the windmill for Holland Bakery, a bread and cookie shop.
At 5:21 (blink and you'll miss it) on the left corner of the screen you'll catch a glimpse of a pink building, that's DC Billiards. Then you see an arm go in front of the camera, that's someone paying for his fare.
Well, that's as far as I got before my connection died. Anyways, if you keep going, there's a traffic light and a road that goes to the right, but keep going straight, and there's Detos on the left and Margo City on the right, with TB Gramedia (book store) just after Margo City. A little further down, and U.I. (the Univ. of Indo.) is on the left somewheres, and work is on the right. Well, gotta get going, planning classes and whatnot. Bye!
Friday, November 2, 2007
More vacation pictures
Ok, so more pictures from vacation. This is out front of a Batak museum (Bataks being the native people here)
Same area, me in front of the King's Grave
Me posing by a waterfall
More to come. Also, Halloween Party pictures!
Same area, me in front of the King's Grave
Me posing by a waterfall
More to come. Also, Halloween Party pictures!
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Saturday, left Depok at 6 to catch a flight to Sumatra. Got there waaay too early, and sat around playing cards for a few hours till I could get in. Then, the flight was delayed, twice, and I was finally able to board, 2 hours late. A friend picked me up at the airport, and we went to Lily's Cafe for a few beers. Went back much later (2 a.m.) to the same place to watch England kick France's butt in the rugby championships.
Sunday morning I caught the tail end of game 2 Boston vs Cleveland. What a disappointment, the first time in a long while of being able to see the Sox, and they lose it in the 11th inning. Later that afternoon I got a ride with Banzai, and he took me to the Sunday H3 run. It was just up and down this mountain, through some of the muckiest terrain I have ever encountered. I nearly lost my shoe in 2 feet of mud. There were a few children who washed everyone's shoes for about $0.30. So anyways, I got pretty hammered that night.
Monday, took a bus (actually a minivan, about $8) to Prapat. 5 hours in a minivan is not fun, btw, and I got a pretty mean sunburn from leaving it outside the window.
The first 2 nights were at Samosir Cottages, but moved to Hariara for the rest of the vacation.
The first night there was very fun.
As was the second...
I rented a motorbike, and got horribly lost in the middle of the jungle
And that was the good part. It just got muddier and rainier from there. I was in the jungles for over 4 hours. Not good. Anyways, more pictures coming up!
Sunday morning I caught the tail end of game 2 Boston vs Cleveland. What a disappointment, the first time in a long while of being able to see the Sox, and they lose it in the 11th inning. Later that afternoon I got a ride with Banzai, and he took me to the Sunday H3 run. It was just up and down this mountain, through some of the muckiest terrain I have ever encountered. I nearly lost my shoe in 2 feet of mud. There were a few children who washed everyone's shoes for about $0.30. So anyways, I got pretty hammered that night.
Monday, took a bus (actually a minivan, about $8) to Prapat. 5 hours in a minivan is not fun, btw, and I got a pretty mean sunburn from leaving it outside the window.
The first 2 nights were at Samosir Cottages, but moved to Hariara for the rest of the vacation.
The first night there was very fun.
As was the second...
I rented a motorbike, and got horribly lost in the middle of the jungle
And that was the good part. It just got muddier and rainier from there. I was in the jungles for over 4 hours. Not good. Anyways, more pictures coming up!
Monday, October 8, 2007
Weekend of 10/7
So, Friday David Chrys, Megan and I went to Eastern Promise in Kemang. I had the "All-day breakfast special" with real bacon and sausage. It was excellent, and is sorely missed. There's no IHOPs here, and normal breakfast is noodles or bubur ayam, a chicken porridge. Next time it's the pork chops. So later, we had beers and were out of there by 3:30.
Saturday I got up around 10, had some water, and fell back asleep, finally waking up for real around 4?? I went to Senayan City, got a book for my vacation and ate lunch at Burger King. It was just as good as America, but you couldn't substitute onion rings for fries. Have it your way, indeed! But it was the first real "big" burger I've had since I've been here. McDonald's only has Big Macs and regular burgers, so forgive me for going off on a tangent about Whoppers. Also stopped at an international grocer and got some Doritos and Dr. Pepper.
Today, Sunday, went to the stables with Chrys, it was the owner's wife's birthday. Had way too much wine, grapes, cheese, etc. Megan finally got some medicine for her kittens' ear mites. That's about it for my weekend. This Saturday, I leave for Toba in Sumatra for a week, relaxing on the beach. See you later!
Saturday I got up around 10, had some water, and fell back asleep, finally waking up for real around 4?? I went to Senayan City, got a book for my vacation and ate lunch at Burger King. It was just as good as America, but you couldn't substitute onion rings for fries. Have it your way, indeed! But it was the first real "big" burger I've had since I've been here. McDonald's only has Big Macs and regular burgers, so forgive me for going off on a tangent about Whoppers. Also stopped at an international grocer and got some Doritos and Dr. Pepper.
Today, Sunday, went to the stables with Chrys, it was the owner's wife's birthday. Had way too much wine, grapes, cheese, etc. Megan finally got some medicine for her kittens' ear mites. That's about it for my weekend. This Saturday, I leave for Toba in Sumatra for a week, relaxing on the beach. See you later!
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Weekend of 8/30
Hi all! I know these are becoming more irregular, but not a lot happens around here save for the weekends. On Saturday I managed to convince Chrys, Meg, and David to join me on the Hash. It was in Cibinong, some place out in the boonies between Depok and Bogor. Very beautiful run, through 8.5 km of Cassava plantations, rice paddies and villages. It was interesting to see the different stages of production of the Cassava root, from growing, to harvesting, peeling and mashing to a pulp, and the big tubs of processed Cassava starch at the end.
Running through the villages (David was with me), we passed a big group of kids who had apparently never seen a white guy before. They called me "putih sekali" very white! I guess I need to work on my tan...
About 2/3 of the way through, we met up with the hashers that took "the long run", which was 19km! And these old farts ran right by us! We had the on-in, an hour and a half circle-up, the virgins got initiated, and we got dinner at the nearby restaurant. Container offered us a ride back to Kemang, to Eastern Promise, a local hasher's hangout. Chrys went home early because she was feelink icky, but the rest of us stayed till closing, around 2:30.
Chrys missed an excellent fight, between some Brits and Indonesians. I'm not sure who started it, but it was a fight about the pool table; I heard a crack, turned around, and there was a broken pool cue, some scuffling, and the Indonesian guy being dragged out, shouting "Get out of my f------- country!"
Sunday, no hangover, but a little sore. I rode my first horse at the stable (scary as heck!) and celebrated the stable owners' birthday with wine, cheese, and a traditional Indonesian dinner.
Yesterday I saw the Bourne Ultimatum; hadn't seen the previous movies, but it was full of action.
Well, that about sums it up! Catch ya later!
Running through the villages (David was with me), we passed a big group of kids who had apparently never seen a white guy before. They called me "putih sekali" very white! I guess I need to work on my tan...
About 2/3 of the way through, we met up with the hashers that took "the long run", which was 19km! And these old farts ran right by us! We had the on-in, an hour and a half circle-up, the virgins got initiated, and we got dinner at the nearby restaurant. Container offered us a ride back to Kemang, to Eastern Promise, a local hasher's hangout. Chrys went home early because she was feelink icky, but the rest of us stayed till closing, around 2:30.
Chrys missed an excellent fight, between some Brits and Indonesians. I'm not sure who started it, but it was a fight about the pool table; I heard a crack, turned around, and there was a broken pool cue, some scuffling, and the Indonesian guy being dragged out, shouting "Get out of my f------- country!"
Sunday, no hangover, but a little sore. I rode my first horse at the stable (scary as heck!) and celebrated the stable owners' birthday with wine, cheese, and a traditional Indonesian dinner.
Yesterday I saw the Bourne Ultimatum; hadn't seen the previous movies, but it was full of action.
Well, that about sums it up! Catch ya later!
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