Our little piece of the expat bubble!

We haven't moved in yet, but I am super stoked about our new apartment!!! We gave in and decided on Kemang. It was just too easy. There's a grocery store a few hundred yards away, a really awesome gym, and more fun bars and restaurants than we could ask for. The best part is that because it's just a touch further away form the Central Business District, you can actually walk outside!

It's in a new development called Kemang Village, which, when it's complete in a few years is going to look like a crazy new age resort. Check it out: http://www.kemangvillage.com/

We're just getting the contract through our local legal and finance departments but we should be moved in by next weekend. Hooray! Here are some photos:

Here’s the master. Check out the bathroom – it has a ceiling shower and this crazy awesome ginormous tub!

Guest bedroom and bathroom!

Kitchen, with wok and rice cooker. How did they know!!!???

This is a mini study area right when you walk in. I love the built in bookshelves. Looks like a great place for wedding photos! :D

Our long living/dining room. I love the space - it's very bright and open and CLEAN! You can't tell, but the living room furniture has some West Elm-like elements to it.

An interesting part of every apartment or house is maids quarters. There is a small room off of the kitchen that boasts enough space for a little bed and there is also a maids bathroom, which is just small room with one of those Asian hole in-the-floor toilets and a hand held shower nozzle. Everyone who is wealthy enough to live in a nice place has at least 1 servant/employee because the labor is so incredibly inexpensive, which has to do with the huge gap between wealth and poor and after having spent a weekend at the mall I've realized that people have hired help for EVERYTHING here. Yes, even trips to the mall - there will be an entire mall post so stay tuned for that.

Anyway, now that you've seen how pretty your guest bedroom is, I bet you can't wait to visit!!! We'll be ready for you in a week!

Jockeys and Traffic and Poor Urban Planning, oh MY!

When leaving work every evening this week, I noticed a large number of locals standing on the sides of the street waving their fingers around. Not doing much, just standing and waving. Some women with babies holding up 2 fingers, some young men holding up 1. I asked my apartment agent about them the next day.

"They're Jockeys," she replied.

"They ride with you during rush hour so you can ride in the 3 in 1."

This week I learned about Jockeys - not the oddly named undershorts, nor the compact sized horse racers but rather, Indonesian locals who hop into your car to make it a "High Occupancy Vehicle" in order to ride in the "3 in 1" lanes. Wahhh? Let me explain...

As I mentioned before, traffic in Jakarta is horrendous and is the result of explosive business growth following Indonesia's newly gained independence, and extremely poor urban planning. Prior to Jakarta's independence and transformation into the sprawling metropolis it is today, it was a network of "kampungs" small villages consisting of small homes and shops.

As businesses flourished in Jakarta, building development was virtually unrestricted, the kampungs joined in on the sprawl but there was no planning for the influx of new traffic, both vehicle and pedestrian. In a nutshell, buildings and houses came first and roads were an after thought.

The result now, is a few major highways (that are jammed with cars, taxi's, buses, and motorbikes) and a network of tiny side roads throughout the kampungs and behind the larger buildings and businesses. The major highways of course were also not planned properly for traffic flow and are slam packed with the ~1.5M daily commuters. In an attempt to control traffic, these highways are designated "3 in 1" lanes during the traffic commuting hours. It's like carpool, but imagine you can't get on any of the major freeways unless you are in a car pool lane. Your only option is to snake through the kampungs which could add up to hours to your commute. Inadvertently, this has spawned a culture of traffic jockeys.

Jockeys mainly consist of local Indonesians representative of the lower-middle class (keep in mind $2/day per person is considered middle class for some perspective). They dress nicely, and locate themselves near the entryways to the 3 in 1 lanes, next to big businesses where wealthy folks have nice cars and can afford to pay the standard 1 - 2 US dollars per trip. For some, it's their only source of income and considered a great unofficial occupation. They sit in air conditioned cars, listen to the radio for 30 - 60 minutes and get some easy money. Having a Jockey can cut your commute down by hours simply by allowing you to ride in the 3 in 1 lanes.

Appealing isn't it? Take a look at my video below. It's just a snippet of my morning commute which is less than 1.5 miles from my temporary housing.  These are the weaving kampung roads and it's relatively early. Imagine trying to go 5 miles in this both ways in rush hour traffic. 45 minutes to 2 hours easy. It's no wonder Jockeys have created a market here in Jakarta:

48 hours in Jakarta!

Hello Jakarta!

I’ve officially been in Jakarta for 48 hours and it is quite the culture shock. Neither Brian nor I have ever spent more than a few weeks outside of the US and certainly not in a developing country, yet here we are just two weeks into our marriage, starting our lives as a married couple on the other side of the world!

How did we get here? For those who don’t know, I am part of a leadership development program (Esprit) for my company GlaxoSmithKline – a global pharmaceutical company. The program consists for functional and regional rotations for 12 months, 2 in your home country and 2 in 2 other countries. We chose Indonesia for a few reasons. From a career standpoint, working in a developing country presents a number of challenges and experiences you wouldn’t encounter in a western country and can only help us gain a broader perspective and appreciation as we progress in our jobs. From a personal standpoint, we wanted something unique, challenging, and that would push us beyond our comfort zones to learn and understand a culture different from our own. Plus, we don’t have kids yet, so now was the perfect time.

A few observations and interesting things in my first few days here:

• -          The traffic is insane. It’s like a video game entitled “try not to kill anyone”. It appears as though the high rises and more modern city were just built up around the existing small rural-like homes and there’s really no way to fix or work around these roads to improve upon the infrastructure. The streets are narrow and winding and filled with narrower versions of western cars, people on scooters and pedestrians. Around some of the more dodgy corners, pedestrians actually help to direct traffic and motorists hand them a few rupiah (Indonesian money) as a tip.
• -          Crossing the street is like a game of frogger. Strategic. Fast. But if you decide to go, you better go.
• -          If you have any sort of money, you have a driver – locals included, and  it’s a must if you are a foreigner. Ours is named Viko. It’s really an adjustment being reliant on someone else to take you places and it will definitely take some getting used to.
• -          Every Friday is a holy day for the 86% muslims in Indonesia so nearly everybody observes prayer at lunch and some of the streets are closed off for parades. It’s really quite interesting
• -          People think I am a local. I’ve been spoken to in Bahasa more than I was spoken to in Cantonese in Hong Kong.
• -          There is very little outdoor activity area so people spend most of the weekends at the mall, which would explain why every shopping center here is practically like an amusement park. They are HUUUUUGE and have tons of entertainment.
• -          The disparity between the rich and the poor is immense. One of the apartments I looked at was practically a resort (catered to expats of course) and right next to it was a very very rural almost village-like town where kids ran around barefoot. It looked very similar to a shanty town in South Africa.

I’ll be spending the next few weeks looking for a place for Brian and I to call home. We haven’t quite figured out whether we will bite the bullet and live in the Central Business District or if we’ll wuss out and live in the “Expat bubble” in Kemang. There are several great places I’ve looked at so it’s just a matter of making the decision. Don’t worry – all are 2 bedrooms or more so there’s plenty of room for you to come visit and stay!

I’ve not been here long enough to make any assesments so far but I will say it is very overwhelming and completely different from anything I’ve ever known. I’m sure we’ll adjust beautifully and I’m glad I’m not doing this alone. Hooray for trophy husbands.

Peace, Love, and Jakarta