We’re currently in a shopping mall in Central Jakarta called Sarinah. It features a McDonald’s, a Chili’s, and a Hard Rock Cafe…don’t worry, we’re not patronizing any of these establishments. The main draw of Sarinah is the delicious air conditioning and the cheap internet service.
Our hotel is quite nice. In addition to being only 33 bucks a night, it has a free all-you-can-eat yummy Indonesian breakfast (including their version of oatmeal–bubur ayam, or rice and chicken porridge) and lots of cable. It’s only about 20 minutes’ walk from the Freedom Institute, where one of us will be doing most of his studies.
OK, so on to some observations.
Cats. Cats here are just tiny. Even the big ones are far smaller than the ones we have here. Voltron is going to look like an SUV when we return. And many of them are missing most of their tails.
TV. One of us would like to move here because you can watch soccer at all times of the day on ESPN. And no Stuart Scott. It is hard to be missing football, but it’s bearable. Besides, we get CNN World, so instead of watching some fake newscaster give us the latest lowdown on what Scott Petersen is wearing in the courtroom, we get to watch documentaries of market development in Tajikstan and the like.
People and Traffic. If you think that you’ve ever seen crazy traffic and drivers, you haven’t. Just no. And there are people everywhere, walking around and sitting around and trying to sell you stuff.
Food. Yuuuuuuummmmm. Last night we ate at a West Sumatran restaurant much patronized by locals. West Sumatran (masakan Padang) food is like pizza, subs, and hamburgers to Americans…kinda like the national cuisine that you can get anywhere.
Tom Pepinsky 