Morning all. I am fresh in the office after a Halloween weekend of activity and a harrowing ride to work. Ojeks are guys with motorbikes who wait all round Jakarta giving lifts to people looking for a quicker way through the constant traffic jams. One enthusiastic driver has waved at me outside my apartment every morning for the last month and so I finally decided to give him a try for an agreed 90p fare. Standard (or indeed any kind of) traffic regulations seemed not to apply and we wizzed to the office in a speedy ten minutes, slightly sweaty but grateful to still be alive.
Saturday saw my debut for Buglis FC, one of the most prestigious footballing sides in the Jakarta expat league, playing in a crucial local derby. My arrival coincided with a lastminute goalkeeping crisis which I somewhat foolishly offer to fill, and spent much of the game throwing and banging myself against the hard tropical pitch. A decidedly mixed performance by me, but the team attacked well and we emerged with dignity intact after a late equalizer made it 3-3.
After a good sleep I took the opportunity to soak up some Sunday culture at the National Museum, which is full of artifacts from the numerous cultures that make up Indonesia. One of the most fascinating regions is Indonesian Papua (the west side of the New Guinea island), that comprises a mass of different ethnic groups between them speaking over 269 indigenous languages. Papua was annexed from the Dutch in 1969 and was originally known as West Irian, the name Irian apparently standing for Ikut Republik Indonesia, Anti Nederland (join the Republic of Indonesia, rejecting the Netherlands).
See if you can answer this week's more challenging quiz on Indonesian Culture!
Saturday saw my debut for Buglis FC, one of the most prestigious footballing sides in the Jakarta expat league, playing in a crucial local derby. My arrival coincided with a lastminute goalkeeping crisis which I somewhat foolishly offer to fill, and spent much of the game throwing and banging myself against the hard tropical pitch. A decidedly mixed performance by me, but the team attacked well and we emerged with dignity intact after a late equalizer made it 3-3.
After a good sleep I took the opportunity to soak up some Sunday culture at the National Museum, which is full of artifacts from the numerous cultures that make up Indonesia. One of the most fascinating regions is Indonesian Papua (the west side of the New Guinea island), that comprises a mass of different ethnic groups between them speaking over 269 indigenous languages. Papua was annexed from the Dutch in 1969 and was originally known as West Irian, the name Irian apparently standing for Ikut Republik Indonesia, Anti Nederland (join the Republic of Indonesia, rejecting the Netherlands).
See if you can answer this week's more challenging quiz on Indonesian Culture!
Dear Peter,
ReplyDeletePerhaps you should stay away from Ojeks in the future!
A worried,
M x