"Toto... I have a feeling
we're not in Kansas anymore." - Dorothy Gale"Toto... I have a feeling
we're not in Kansas anymore." - Dorothy Gale
So I arrive in Djakarta, without Eric. Originally Eric was
supposed to accompany me to Indonesia, but for some reason still
not known to me, he bailed.
Eric did arrange for a Limo for me though, as for the last week,
Djakarta was in severe civil disorder; Apparently the ruling
party sent the Army into the headquarters of the leading
opposition party, and the people would not stand for it, so they
rioted. Our business partner in Indonesia had their office looted
and burnt to the ground.
Djakarta is a HUGE city. Indonesia is the
4th most populous country in the world, and fully ½ of the
population live in the capitol of Djakarta, and a lot of
them drive motorcycles. They have made every road in Djakarta
(and maybe the whole country; I don't know) one way, because no
one obeys any traffic laws whatsoever. If there are lane lines
painted, no one must see them because they are completely
ignored. It is also impossible to go anywhere in a straight line;
I never did figure out the loopy one way system. It always seemed
that we were going in circles.
Early the next morning, Handi showed up to collect me and
bring me to a hotel where we would conduct a seminar on our
Internet product line. So, I am in Java, in front of a large
group of Javanese businessmen, drinking a cup of java, and
extolling the benefits of a development tool that is based on
Java! The irony was not lost on the audience.
Our next stop was at an "American" style diner, where
we were to meet a Colonel in the Army, who was evaluating our
tools. It seems that this Colonel was CIA trained, in Monterey,
CA. Interesting. He would not talk about what he wanted to use
the tool for, or what problems they were having, or even let us
know how many were working on the project! So we talked about the
good old US of A. he was a real Americana buff (hence the
restaurant).
Our next stop was the largest Automobile importer in the country.
They assumed that I had come all the way to Indonesia just
to talk to them! Boy, were they impressed. It seems that one of
their concerns was that our business partner did not have the
proper contacts or support of Centura (They had a bad experience
with Borland's distributer). Sometimes, just by being there
enables business to happen.
After this meeting, Handi was trying to convince me to go with
him the next day into the countryside to where the national
telephone company was headquartered. I did not feel that the
schedule could handle it, as I had a flight to the Philippines
the next day. Good news! The guy from Telekom that we were going
to meet, was in Djakarta that day, so we were off to Chili's to
meet with Abdi (the owner of our business partner) and the guy
from Telekom. We talked long term strategy, and future direction
of our products.
After the meeting with the guy from Telekom, Abdi (Indonesian,
but ethnic Chinese) the owner of our business partner in
Indonesia, and I go out for a night on the town. Djakarta rocks
at night. It is so full of life, I don't even know where to
begin.
We went out for a traditional Indonesian Satay, with Nasi Goreng.
Delicious if you like spicy food (I do), and headed out to the
bars. We ended up at the hotel bar where I was staying,
apparently it is one of the hot spots in town. It was packed.
With girls. With women. With babes of all shapes and sizes. I
like it already. There were easily 4 or 5 times as many women in
the bar as men. All vying for the attention of the handful of
foreigners in the room. Gotta love it. One girl in particular, an
Indonesian beauty with coal black eyes, sets her eyes on me, and
won't take no for an answer. Several hours of laughing, drinking,
and dancing later, Abdi heads for home. My date wants to go
elsewhere as well. I want to change out of my business suit
before heading out, so we go upstairs to my room so I can change.
My date has other ideas, and attacks me as soon as we close the
door.
The next morning, the phone rings early. It's Handi.
Apparently, Abdi has dictated that he show me around Djakarta for
the day. Bad news. I wanted to ride in a Took
Took, walk through the slums, etc, and Handi was way too
scared to do these things. We drive in circles, as Handi points
out the sights. I'm thoroughly bored. I demand to go to the old
Dutch district, and as soon as we get there, I get out of the
car, Handi protests! I say that I want to walk to the waterfront.
Handi says it's too far. I show him a map. Handi says it's too
dangerous. I point out the old ladies milling about. He resigns,
and gives in.
These things are all over Djakarta. They are what passes for
taxi's. I didn't get to ride in one, as Handi was too paranoid.
They are Indian in make, and extremely cheap. Say, about 50
Rupiah (12¢) for a 20 minute trip. Cool.
There was this open air market on the way from the Dutch
district to the waterfront. I like open air markets in foreign
countries, as you are guaranteed to see weird shit. These two
guys were dripping quicksilver (mercury) out of their hands onto
a piece of silk, pointing at me and laughing. I asked Handi what
they were doing, and Handi got really embarrassed (he's a devout
Muslim like 99.99999% of the rest of the population) and said
that they were selling the mercury to "Help man get
erection".
After more closely questioning Handi, apparently most Indonesians
(himself included) believe that drinking quicksilver helps a man
have sex. When I tried to explain that it would actually probably
kill the person drinking it, he told me that I was mistaken, and
didn't know what I was talking about (I got the impression that
he himself probably partook).
One of the coolest things I did was hire this guy to take me
around the waterfront in his canoe thingymajingy. He quoted a
price in Rupiah, and since I had no idea how much it was in US$
(Handi having paid for everything so far) , I bargained with him
like a Ferrengi (on general purposes) and brought him down to 1/4
of his original price. Handi was quite amused, as his original
asking price turned out to be less than $1.00US. These boats here
are identical (except for the engines) to the same boats used
thousands of years ago. They are all hand made, and make round
trips from here to the jungles of Borneo where the crews land,
and cut down the rain forest to load up as much lumber as will
possibly fit in their boats.
It's now prayer time. Both Handi and the driver are (like the
rest of the country) semi-devout Muslims, and they need to go to
the Mosque for thier noon-time prayer. Handi wants me to go, as
the Djakarta Mosque is purportedly the biggest in the world. One
problem though; I'm not Muslim and Handi does not know if the
Mulah will let me in. He rectifies this, by dressing me up like a
Muslim. We buy a sarong, and sandles and in I go!
The Mosque was HUGE, and ther were lots of
people sleeping on the cool, tiled floor. Handi had me
imitate his movements, so that it appeared I was praying along
with him. I tried to sneak a photgraph (it didn't turn out) and
was caught when the flash went off! After much appologizing, we
left the Mosque.
I needed to head to the Airport, and Handi needed to get back
to work, so he caught a cab, and the driver took me to the
airport. Whilst waiting for my Garuda flight to Manilla, I met
another American at the bar whom was also traveling SE Asia on
business. While the two of us were boarding the plane, some
Italian guy was going bisirk because he didn't get claim checks
for his baggage. Obviously, he was a complete moron. He did show
up in Manilla, and pestered me to explain for him in English to
the Philippinos that he didn't have his claim checks. I absconded
whilst his back was turned, and don't feel the least bit bad
about it. He doesn't need the damn things, and his loud behaviour
would likely get me hassled by customs as well.
We're
not in Kansas any more! (Part I) |