The Indonesian Tales: "Home sweet home in Jakarta"

My first real business travel led me to the capital of Indonesia, Jakarta. One month spent in this crazy city made it to my top 10 life experiences so far and I decided to let you know why through these short stories that I named "The Indonesian Tales".

One of my tasks in Jakarta was to contact embassies for professional networking purposes and the first one that I contacted, obviously, was the embassy of my home country. I googled up the contact information and wrote a kind of stupid e-mail asking about expat activities and community of Slovaks in Indonesia. For my surprise, I actually did received a response. And not only that but also the invitation to meet the ambassador in person.

Meeting was scheduled on one Tuesday afternoon at the embassy itself. The day came; I selected carefully what to wear and went through all the rules of etiquette that I could remember from my college times when I took a class on social behavior.  I must say I felt pretty important when the company driver, Tommy, stopped in the black BMW limo in front of the embassy. However, the best was yet to come.

I was received by a local lady offering me tea right after entering the main door. In a short while the ambassador himself appeared and led me to a small meeting room. "Welcome to Slovakia!", he said with a smile and I felt relaxed. He was a tall man in his fifties (I hope he won't read this cause I am terrible guessing the age :D). I had no idea how to behave and I tried to stick to my classy "general approach" behavior that many people refer to as cold. But then, out of a sudden the ambassador asked me a question of the day: "Would you like to get a shot of a Slovakian pear spirit?"

If you would like to imagine my face at that moment, don't even dare to try. I guess all the rules of etiquette were gone in that moment and I appeared to be drinking with the ambassador at 3pm on a working day. That afternoon meeting finished with the offer of a another shot and the invitation to attend Slovak national day in Jakarta this coming September.

It felt good to be 'in Slovakia' for a little while on that day and I hope I can make it in September because I have a feeling that the ambassador has more aces on his hand than that bottle of Slovakian pear spirit ;) Well, now I know why they say "home sweet home" ... 

Singapore haze ... moving to Jakarta

Although they are not related, these are the issues giving me a bad sleep at night ...

HOW NOT TO CHOKE IN SINGAPORE

Pollutant Standard Index (PSI) hitting 400 today. Reaching level of 300 is already considered hazardous for human health ... what else to say, you should see it on your own: Singapore in haze

From my personal experience, you know the air is polluted when:

1) You can see an orange sun "shining" from behind a grey veil few days in a row that reminds you of apocalyptic films and finally gets you environmentally conscious. 

2) You start coughing even indoors and smell bunt wood with all your windows shut and cannot remember that you was doing a barbecue dinner.

3) You see smoke inside of the shopping mall or even in the corridor of your office even though no one is allowed to smoke indoors.

4) Your eyes get itchy and infected and it is not caused by your late return from fiesta last night.

5) You buy yourself a face mask not because you admire Michael Jackson but because you cannot even cross the street without it anymore (Btw, pharmacies ran out of face masks in one day ... MJ would be happy seeing so many followers).

Moving on, I just happen to be in Singapore when the highest pollution ever threatens this city. I don't intend to blame anyone be it companies (maybe also from Singapore itself) that want to plant palm trees in Indonesia and local people trying to clear the agricultural land for these companies by fire because it's cheap and fast. Only one thing makes me wonder and gaze in relation to the big Singapore haze ... why am I still obliged to come to work which makes me spend 40 minutes in the health damaging environment ... 

Previously, when the PSI reached 250 all the people stayed at home already. Is making money (or better to say not losing them) over my health? But I guess it is the way people think here since I heard some locals saying "I wanted to come to work, I have a presentation to do" ... well good luck, I hope you won't choke when presenting (no offense, you know who you are ;) This is just how I feel it and you know I wouldn't compromise my health for the company's success). 

MOVING TO JAKARTA

Second issue, but nothing less important than the previous one, is my temporary placement in Jakarta. I am moving to the Southern hemisphere to spend working the next 27 days in the capital of Indonesia with almost 30 million inhabitants. I am hearing from every side that the city is a dangerous place and I cannot even cross the road  ... I have to take a cab which may take 1 hour to bring me just to the opposite side of the street due to the heavy traffic (4 lane roads each way in the plain city centre ... well, sounds a bit scary).

However, I made some research about the most dangerous cities in the world and I have to say Jakarta has not been mentioned even once in any of those resources. All the ranks to up to 30 were taken by cities in Brasil, Mexico and Latin America in general. To be honest, traveling to Southern America has always been my dream so experiencing Jakarta can only make me readier for my future "latino" trip ;)

Finally, looks like Indonesians are more scared of their own city and country than foreigners are. Of course, everyone should avoid danger while traveling but this is exactly how Singapore is - rules and sometime exaggeration of safety. Some call this place also a "Nanny state" because making videos on how to stand on the escalator or being scared to top up your travel card with the amount of more than 30 Dollars is simply ridiculous taking into consideration Singapore is one of the safest cities in the world. A bit of rebellion, dirtiness, chaos and danger is not that bad people. It brings "spice" to life and makes it interesting. Some of you will think I am crazy but actually I cannot wait to go to Jakarta and experience something that you would not find in the comfortable life of Singapore :) 

Fingers crossed that my living space in Jakarta will have a decent internet connection so I can bring you some first hand experiences and who knows ... maybe also busting some travel myths!