Thank you Jakarta!

Almost in a flash my three months has come to an end! And it's a day of mixed feelings as I make my preparations to head back to the UK; yes I can't wait to see Donna and spend Christmas with my family, but I am also very sad to be leaving my new friends in Jakarta.

My final day is marked with a leaving lunch (a joint celebration with the beautiful Liwi's birthday) and the office Christmas party in the evening. Right from when I stepped off the plane in September people have been unbelievably welcoming and warm towards me. I feel almost overwhelmed by people's generosity and the attention I receive on my leaving day. Indonesia will always have a special place in my heart, and I hope to be able to return soon.

Thank you Jakarta!

Makan Apa? - Top Five!

Here it is the long awaited Pete's Top Five places to eat in Jakarta:

5. Abuba Steakhouse
After more meals of chili and rice that you can count, a steak can be hugely welcome. Abuba keeps if simple essentially just offering a choice of meats (I’ve plumped for NZ sirloin both times) which are served with vegetables and chips. The steak’s are grilled perfectly the whole meal comes in for under a fiver (remarkably you can even upgrade to a wagyu steak for an extra £3). Would be perfect to accompany with a cold beer but the only downside, Abuba is alcohol free.

4. Kuo Tie Dumplings, China Town
It’s a bit of a trek to Glodok, the site of China Town in North Jakarta, but worth the trip for the excellent grilled pork dumplings. A one dish meal in a market side café, the dumplings with pork and chives are grilled on an open fire and tossed on the table with some chopsticks and a bowl of chili. Few marks for service or general cleanliness, but somehow the food was still great.

3. Coca Suki
Site of my first lunch in Indonesia, Coca Suki offers a hearty Steamboat with your choice of a gamut of goodies such as kobi beef, seafood dumplings, Chinese mushrooms and a range of healthy greens. Served with rice and chili sauce (notice a theme?) and once the goodies have gone there’s a delicious soup remaining to wash it down. You can also get a great steamboat for an even better price at the Hai Tien Restaurant located near Tjen's house in North Jakarta.

2. Ikan Bakar, Canteen "BW"
This Manadonese food stall near my office offers a selection of fish that can arrive fried in a spicy sauce, or my favorite, grilled on the barbeque and served with a tomato and chili salsa. Stock up on the greens of the day, rice and a delicious sambal (fresh chili sauce usually with tomato and a little garlic – an Indonesian staple), this makes a perfect and healthy lunch. If you’re feeling extra hungry, they also do an excellent corn fritter. Expect to pay about £1 for the full meal. Yum.

1. Mie Laker
Situated in the Grand Indonesia Mall, this fast food chain attracted long queues at its opening last year, and still remains a popular favorite. In a city where dried noodles are the norm, Mie Laker’s unique selling point is freshly made noodles. In fact they are so fresh you actually get to watch them be made right in front of your eyes, as an extraordinarily skilled chef works a sausage shape of dough into a long string of noodles through a sophisticated skipping-rope type procedure. Served in a soup (or fried) with chicken, beef or seafood, Mie Laker is definitely the finest noodle bar in town.

Golf

On my last weekend in Jakarta, I finally took the chance to play one of the amazing local courses. We had perfect sunny weather (one of the sunniest since my arrival) and it must have been over 35 degrees (very hot!!). Abley guided round by my caddy Ade, although eratic I hit some good shots and won our mini competition. Here are a few shots...

Makan Apa?

You don't have to spend much time in Jakarta to realise Indonesians are crazy about food. Instead of asking how you are, it is far more common to be asked "have you eaten" or "what did you eat". With this shared passion I have happily munched my way round town and put together a chart of my top ten favourites. Today numbers 10 to 6. Watch this space for the top five...

10. Bakmi Alok
This Palembangnese open fronted restaurant, offers a simple but tasty noodle. The menu gives four choices: noodle with chicken, noodle with beef, noodle with mushroom, or noodle with chives. Clearly not a place to go if you don’t like noodle, it is actually more common to have a selection of the above; I chose chicken, mushroom and chive. The specialty is a sour mini orange that is squeezed over the noodles to give extra pizzazz. Served with customary chili and a small soup, this was a great post-badminton snack.

9. Pork Bites, Cazbar / Eastern Promise
My favorite Jakarta bars Cazbar and Eastern Promise have come up with the ultimate bar snack. In a country where pork is hard to come by, these bite sized chunks of crispy pork are extra welcome. Served with mustard and / or apple sauce they’re the perfect accompaniment to a draft Heineken, and are a regular order on any night out.

8. Leko Restaurant
Hidden away in the City Walk Mall. Leko offers an excellent “Iga penyet” (Ribs with Chili). The beef ribs are tender and meaty, and were on an excellent sambal (fresh chili sauce usually with tomato and a little garlic – an Indonesian staple). Along with some greens and rice – yum.

7. Nasi Goreng Lempar Street Stall (just outside the office)
Nasi Goreng is an Indonesian national dish of fried rice with egg, vegatables, various spices and often chicken or shrimp. The street stall version is known as “nasi goreng lempar" based on how they cook by throwing (me-lempar) the rice into the air and catching it with the cooking wok. Probably best to order a meat free version as the “meat balls” it comes with don’t resemble any meat I’ve ever seen, but otherwise the end result is fresh and delicious. If you do need a meat fix, the stall next-door grills a great chicken satay.

6. Saung Grenville
It’s about an hour’s trek to Grenville in West Jakarta, but worth the journey for Saung Grenville’s famous Black Pepper Crab. Racks of live crabs (claws bound) greet you on the restaurant’s forecourt; you can choose male or female depending on whether you like the roe; flip the crab over and tickle its belly to find the one that’s most lively. The specialty is black pepper, but you can also enjoy Padang style in a strong chili sauce. Ten minutes from rack to plate, and a messy fingers job begins as everyone hacks away to reach the juicy crab meat. Various accompaniments such as squid, or the somewhat disturbing bamboo clams, complete one of the finest seafood meals you can have in Jakarta.

Beyond Bogor

Last weekend I took the chance to make a return to Bogor at the kind invitation of Andreas & Devi (see wedding below). Andreas spends most of his spare time backpacking around his home country, from the forests of Lombok to the depths of remote Aceh, and is essentially a walking talking Lonely Planet guide to Indonesia. And so with the prospect of such an excellent guide I put my Sunday morning weariness aside and clambered onto the 'Aircon Express' from Kota Station Jakarta.

The Bogor Botanical Gardens were built by the Dutch in the early 1800s, and are regarded as one of the finest gardens of their kind; the orchid house alone contains over 3,000 varieties of orchid! The gardens are situated alongside the Presidential Palace and have been used to host a number of APEC summits. A proudly displayed photo in the orchid house of former President Megawati alongside cult bad guy Kim Jong-il aptly demonstrated the venue’s international pedigree.

Regarded as the culinary capital of Indonesia, a trip to Bogor is also a great opportunity to feast, and one that we grasped with both hands. Lunch was fried & barbequed Gurame (lake fish) served with customary chili and rice, and dinner the somewhat bizarre grilled macaroni. More to follow on Indonesian food in an up coming post…

Back to Jakarta for the International Film Festival and middle row seats for the Indonesian Premier of the Australian blockbuster “Love the Beast”, which included a Q&A session with the producer afterwards (he may possibly have been the assistant producer). And Tuesday, another badminton lesson from the local experts.

P.S. Reassuring result from last week’s poll with only 18% mildly authoritarian respondents wanting to ban the film 2012 from our screens. Check out this week’s quiz for a surprising fact about North Korea’s Kim Jong-il unearthed while checking how to spell his name on wikipedia; the man is clearly not to be underestimated.

Beautiful Bogor

Kuala Lumpur

Long weekend in Kuala Lumpur, a few photos...