Sophisticated but Manual, hmmm???

Technology is supposed to make our lives easier. Heard this sentence many times, right? Unfortunately, this sentence sometimes deviates when it comes to real life. I will show you how this sentence is deviated in Indonesia.

Automatic vending machine... self service

I am sure not many of us are familiar with this machine. It is called Vending Machine, an automatic machine which will supply you with your desired drink after entering your coin into such machine. No need to worry, if you have no change, because vending machine will automatically return your money, when you enter the money which exceeds the drink price. It is really convenient and friendly used.

Unfortunately, we will find less vending machines in Jakarta. Only few places have vending machines, i.e. Vending machine at transjakarta shelters. Unlike vending machine I found in Japan and Singapore, these vending machines work traditionally.

How does it work?

1. Find the vending machine
2. After finding the machine, don't directly put your money into the machine because that machine doesn't work that way (it doesn't work practically as we seen abroad). But try to search a girl with particular uniform who sells the vending machine coupon. (It is easy, the coke girl usually sits next to the machine)
3. When finding the coke girl, give your money to her. And then she will insert the coupon into the machine, after that she will press the button of the drink you wish to purchase, then BINGO your drink comes. (yippieeee)

What is wrong with the above procedure?

The procedure is logically funny in my opinion. You give money to someone and then he/she will insert the coupon to the machine then the drink will come out. If that is the procedures, what is the point to have a vending machine there. Why they do not sell the product directly without having machine standing there. I think it simplifies the procedures. Sorry for being to cynical.

Manual vending machine... a vending with mbak mbak

The price itself is higher than the same drinks sold outside busway shelter. Hillariously, many people buy drink from this traditional vending machine just because (I think) they want people to perceive them sophisticated or look cool. OH MY...... I personally would rather buy at "WARUNG" (street side vendor) which offers me lower price and simple trading procedures rather than choosing a sophisticated yet traditional machine called vending machine ala transjakarta. Again, sorry for being too cynical.

The second picture is taken from http://aulia-m.posterous.com/vending-machine-on-busway-shelter

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A letter from Alison

As an international organization, we have many international staffs working in our project. They come and go. Honestly, the foreigners who work with us (us refers to "Indonesian staffs") now are not really close with us, compare to those who were here two years ago. One staff that I will never forget is Alison. She is now pursuing her Ph.D in Johns Hopkins University, USA.

Alison and Jen

Since she left, we did not have an intense communication, we just send email when we think we have something important to share. Just like when the earthquake happened in Padang, Alison sent us an email asking how we were doing in Indonesia.

Then, I got an email from her when I was in Kuala Lumpur. Just read it carefully:

Subject: Guess What Happened at Lunch

Slamat pagi samua,

I'm sorry I haven't replied to all of your e-mails. I keep meaning to sit down and write personal replies but, as usual, aku sibuk sekali.

Something happened this afternoon I thought you would all appreciate. I didn't have much time to eat lunch and it was raining hard so I went to a little sushi restaurant across the street from my school. I had never eaten there before because I'd heard it was more expensive than the Chinese restaurant only two blocks away, but it was so cold and rainy that I decided to try it. It was small and not fancy but very clean and pleasant and about the same price as most sushi in the US, so I placed an order for take-away and then sat down to wait. The waitress wrote down my order and then answered the phone. When she picked up the phone she starting speaking Bahasa Indonesia! I couldn't believe it so I listened for awhile to make sure she wasn't speaking Malaysian until I was confident that she must be Indonesian.

When she put the phone down I asked: "Dari mana bu?" She was so surprised she looked like she'd just seen a ghost. She called the cook to come meet me. The waitress is from Jakarta and the cook is from Surabaya. They are both young and married. If I understood correctly the waitress and her husband intend to return to Jakarta but I think the cook's family is hoping to stay in the US. I asked them: "Kalau saya kembali nanti bisa memakan gado gado atau rendang dan teh botel?" They laughed and said they don't have the ingredients but they have spicy chilis at home they can put in my food!

It was the first time I've met Indonesians in America and the first time since coming home that I've tried to speak bahasa Indonsia. It was really fun. I will definitely eat there again. Now, if only they served rendang or es buah I'd become their #1 customer.

alison.

I was so happy when I finished reading this email. Alison misses Indonesian food, and she felt so happy finding someone speaking Indonesian in US. Ahhh Ali, If you were here, I will treat you rendang, es buah and teh botol. Definitely.

Miss you, Alison

PS: Alison, I still have your heritage : a tennis racket, digital clock and lamp. Thanks :)

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Batik-ing

October 2, 2009 has been declared by the President of Indonesia as Batik Day. And on October 2, I saw many people wore batik to go to the office (including me off course). What does it mean?? It means that Batik has been acknowledged internationally by UNESCO as the cultural heritage of Indonesia. It is a relief for us since our neighbor keeps trying to claim some of our cultures as their culture.

Happy Batik Day, Guys. See how charm we are on Batik... :D

It was friday when we celebrated the "Batik Day". Actually, many government offices have started to oblige their staffs to wear batik far before the batik day was declared by the president. But such October 2 was quite special day because the people who wore batik were more than it used to be.

Batik is not an obligation in my office although it is located in the government building. But still, some friends of mine wear Batik frequently especially on Friday following the government officials in our building. I personally do not wear batik frequently but I do have some batiks collection. some friends who do not usually wear batik try to have different look by wearing batik on October 2, and it made them be center off attention in our office. And they were inaugurated as the Best Dress of the Month. (Thanks for wearing Batik, dude).

Photo session in front of th sacred tree

To make the batik day more happen, we held photo sessions for the whole people in the office. And here are some pictures that shows us how batik really make us much more handsome/beautiful than we usually do. (It sounds a bit exaggerating, huh? Come on, just accept that we had better look on batik).

Me, surrounded by the Batik Angels

The government indeed succeeded to acclaim Batik as our heritage, but we have to remember that Indonesia has many heritages which are so potential to be acclaimed by other countries. If we do not continue keeping such heritages, we will lost them. We know that many things spread quickly nowadays because of a trend so called globalization but it is not an excuse for other countries to claim something which historically do not belong to them. And we do not fight for what we have, we will lose them.

My office neighbors... We are quite lho??? *wink wink*

How about those who did not use Batik on the Batik Day? Do not worry dude, the nationalism is not that narrow, not wearing Batik doesn't mean you do not care, right?. It is just that you lost your chance to be cuter during the Batik photo session, hehehehe.

When UNESCO declared officially that Batik is the cultural heritage of Indonesia on October 2, Indonesia people massively wear batik everywhere. Now my question is: what if UNESCO declared "KOTEKA" as our cultural heritage, will we (I mean the men) happily go to office wearing KOTEKA?? Wakakakak, I can't even imagine people put that on their p***s and walk proudly to the office. If it happens, I think I would prefer say I am sick and won't go to the office. Jyaaaaaah.

Are you ready for Koteka day?? (thinking)

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Kopi Darat: when you meet your online buddies

I join in some social networkings and collect many new friends from there. One of my favorite site is Plurk. In Plurk, we know or identify someone's character through their responses or their comments. Unlike other social networking which enables narcissism to be exposed, Plurk only allows its users to use one picture as picture profile.

@Starbucks Semanggi

To some extent, Plurkers (plurk users) will tend to know deeper their loyal plurker mates after having some interactions. And therefore, online mode will never be enough to fulfill such demand. And Plurkers gathering was initiated (in Indonesia we call it Kopi Darat, abbreviated to KOPDAR) as an event to know our online plurker mates and to diminish our curiosity over our online mates . The term "Kopi Darat" literally means Coffe on the Land. And I made my own term which Coffelander for those who attend this kind of gathering. So from now on, I will use "Coffeelander".

@Citos

Me, myself, have attended many Kopi Darats start from the small one to the big one. Indeed, I found some true friends from my Kopi Darat activity. I realize that some people are totally different in reality compare to their image when they are online. Kopi darat has brought a lot stories, some couples have been produced from this gathering activity. JYaaaahhh mmmm no need to mention who they are, right? :p

If usually Kopi Darat is carried out at the restaurant or food court, now the trend changes. Kopi Darat is not only conducted in a restaurant anymore but it is conducted in many ways such as social activity, travelling and dating (especially for those who feel matched after series of meetings), wakakakak.

@Bumbu Desa

I uploaded pics of some Kopi Darat events that I attended. Wish the pictures encourage others plurkers to invite me for other kopi darat, (self promotion: mode ON) :p

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Enjoying beach at Anyer

I didn't join in my office's outbond program last two weeks. The actual reason for my absence was I don't like the location (my office mates decided to conduct the outbound in Taman Safari). Besides, I don't really like a well planned outing with tight schedule, I prefer an outing which has no clear schedule so we may play and do whatever we want to do.

I think my wish came true, a week after my office's outbound, I was invited to an outing program held by my office's counterpart. I was invited as an honorable guest (wakakak, too much) representing my office. There was a timetable prepared by the outing committee but I didn't feel good when I saw the timetable because I am more into a spontaneous activity. What made me attracted to attend this event was the beach in Anyer which they selected as the place for the program.

We arrived in a cozy hotel next to the biggest hotel in Anyer. The first place to visit was absolutely the beach, tried to enjoy the coastal breeze and sat on the sand. I was mesmerized by the beach panorama (as always). Afternoon was supposed to be the time to play the games, but then most of us were more attracted to swim in the hotel pool. (Out first violation against the time table). So to turn on the mood, we decided to play volley ball in the pool. Sounds stupid but indeed it was really fun. After that, we decided to move to the beach which locates just right behind the hotel. We swam, walked around the coastal then decided to try banana boat. Don't worry for those who can't swim because all the passengers are equipped with life vest.

What made this outing special was not only the location but also the food provided by the committee. The foods were mostly home made (not catering made), and varied. That's the reason why I kept feeling hungry. I couldn't remember how many foods that I transferred into my stomach. (Greedy mode: ON). That night was ended with karaoke, sang till we hang.

Next morning activity was enjoying the beach and shopping along the beach. I did jogging and then swimming with others then playing water polo. It was exhausted yet fun. After having our lunch (still with abundant food), we head home happily ever after ;p

Although it was only one night program, but I will not reject if someone would love to invite me for the same program again.

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Enjoying the less polluted Jakarta

Jakarta... hearing this city will lead our mind to think about traffic jam and pollution. Yeah, Jakarta is undeniably one of the most polluted cities in the world. The inexpensive yet bad public transport contributes to this situation. The only convinient and cheap public transportation in Jakarta is busway (but not always convinient).

Today, I feel a different atmosphere when I passed Thamrin and Sudirman streets (the streets which locate at the heart of Jakarta). Almost everyday, these streets are full of vehicles which spread the smoke around these areas. But, today I found no cars and public buses (except busway) passes through these streets. Yeah, today is car free day which is usually commenced on Sunday.
It is so amazing to see the road that is generally full of vehicles turning to be a road which is full of pedestrians and bicycle riders. No smoke produced for some hours. I felt free to breath at the heart of Jakarta, a rare occasion, isn't it?
Many events are carried out during the car free day along Sudirman and Thamrin streets. The events are mainly concentrated at Bundaran HI (the centre of Jakarta which is marked by a round shaped fountain). Some temporary stages were constructed to perform music show, many "ibu-ibu" (means: ladies) do aerobic in a large group. It was really crowded along the streets to the National Monument. It is like a celebration of Jakarta residents for the less pollution intake. Hehehehe, I personally expect to have more care free days in a month. Maybe during the weekend, Saturday and Sunday :p. Let's wish

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Another Shots From the Old Town

Actually the pictures were taken during new year. It was on the first of January. Me, Vonny, Ragil and Kiki spent the new year by taking pictures in the old town of Jakarta sorry, I mean Batavia.


We visited the old town soon after we bought our new short. So FYI, we all wore our newly bought shirts. Wakakakak.

There are many beautiful spots available for photo shoot here.....




The pictures were edited by Bang Kiki, so credit should be given to him who touched the pictures with his magic hands. Bravo Bang....


Actually I have more pictures to upload but... too many pictures will bored you, right? I am sorry for being too narcissistic. So for you who live in Jakarta, if you have sometimes, visit this place and feel the atmosphere.... :-)

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