.: ShaolinTiger - Kung-Fu Geekery :.

As someone aptly said - this is not urban decay..It's just Jakarta.

Majestic Large on Black.

Well I have a chair and a tidy appartment now...so I can continue with what I was doing! Live and Loud it happened to be..

So back to Live and Loud 2007!

Things really started to heat up when Project Pop came on from Indonesia - absolutely hilarious.

Really energetic and very entertaining, non-stop costume changes.

Who can fault 2 guys in dresses and blonde wigs!

A bit of atmosphere.

They really knew how to get the crowd moving.

This lady was large, and knew it and used it for comic effect

They did a hilarious techo vs rock skit as well - the drummer was fantastic breaking between a hardcore techno beat and classic rock seamlessly.

Excellent stuff - definitely one of the most entertaining performances of the night!

Lot's of things to catch up with now...so hopefully I'll be able to get the rest of live and loud done, then I can get onto the waterfalls - and various other things.

Merry Xmas!

A pig blow job on a wall in Jakarta.

Beat that?

Is it as cool as Spiderpig? I'm not sure...but it's close!

Taken in a traffic jam in Jakarta during a recent trip.

Traffic jams are extremely common there, obscene graffiti however is not.

Taken with my E61i!

I don't really get the message if there is one though, pigs deserve oral loving too?

I was in a Jakarta for a few days a week or so ago to sort out a couple of issues, I had a couple of hours spare so I took my prime lens and went for a walk around the streets of Jakarta.

This beautiful child caught my attention staring at me, with no fear in her eyes she looked at me with curiosity.

I really love this picture.

A lady died this past January, and Citibank billed her for February and March for their annual service charges on her credit card, and then added late fees and interest on the monthly charge. The balance had been $0.00, now is somewhere around $60.00.

A family member placed a call to Citibank:
Family Member: "I am calling to tell you that she died in January."
Citibank: "The account was never closed and the late fees and charges still apply."
Family Member: "Maybe, you should turn it over to collections."
Citibank: "Since it is two months past due, it already has been."
Family Member: So, what will they do when they find out she is dead?"
Citibank: "Either report her account to the frauds division or report her to the credit bureau, maybe both!"
Family Member: "Do you think God will be mad at her?"
Citibank: "Excuse me?"
Family Member: "Did you just get what I was telling you...the part about her being dead?"
Citibank: "Sir, you'll have to speak to my supervisor."

Supervisor gets on the phone:
Family Member: "I'm calling to tell you, she died in January."
Citibank: "The account was never closed and the late fees and charges still apply.
Family Member: "You mean you want to collect from her estate?"
Citibank: (Stammer) "Are you her lawyer?"
Family Member: "No, I'm her great nephew." (Lawyer info given)
Citibank: "Could you fax us a certificate of death?"
Family Member: "Sure." (fax number is given)

After they get the fax:
Citibank: "Our system just isn't setup for death. I don't know what more I can do to help."
Family Member: "Well, if you figure it out, great! If not, you could just keep billing her. I don't think she will care."
Citibank: "Well, the late fees and charges do still apply."
Family Member: "Would you like her new billing address?"
Citibank: "That might help."
Family Member: "Odessa Memorial Cemetery, Highway 129, Plot Number 69."
Citibank: "Sir, that's a cemetery!"
Family Member: "What do you do with dead people on your planet?

It's a crazy world.

(Yes I know this is on Snopes).

Well 2005 has been a pretty interesting year, it's had it's up and downs as usual, 2004 was a pretty crazy year as you can read here.

January - Archives

January was a pretty quiet month, I got my own hosting and setup some reseller packages for local users/bloggers at Malaysia Blogs.

My PC totally stopped working, was fried so had to virtually rebuild it, got back to the world of modern computing this month.

Read more

So here are my observations and pictures from Jakarta..

Warning long post, lot's of pictures.

Am back in the land of the civilised now...

So Sunday night I got home late and packed my things before crashing out..

As I mentioned the airport was very 'rural'...and empty

I arrived at the hotel, a modest affair, the Arcadia (under Ibis)

The room was normal

But the bathroom was weird, it had a rather phallic 'horn' sticking out of the mirror, horny mirror?

Another interesting thing I noticed was the ashtrays were full of Coffee Beans!

I did notice something weird though, all the lifts here stink of some kind of overpowering air freshener, it reminded me of the librarian back in highschool who used to overpower everyone with the smell of lavender oil..

In some of the lifts is was almost too pungent for me to handle, I felt faint..I mean people there don't smell THAT bad, what's it all about? If anyone knows, please enlighten me.

I caught a good view and Sunrise from the hotel when I got up at 5am by mistake..

I tried the local Root Beer..

It looks very similar to the one here (Frost), but it's not as good!

Anyway A&W with ice cream is still best in a glass mug...the A&W in a can is vile.

So the next evening as I mentioned I wondered out to get some food..as you can see something like Bangkok, or Chinatown in KL.

A couple of people mentioned Bakso, so I looked for Super Bakso, instead I found Raja Bakso (King)...giant beef balls in a nice oniony clear soup, usually served with rice noodles (bihun/vermicelli).

Along with that I had the famous Teh Botol..

Cost: 8000 Rupiah (A measly 4 rm).

On my way out I got cornered by a tour-guide who went on and on and on and proudly demonstrated his cockney accent, yeah nice one fella..

After that I had to try some Satay, as you do in Indonesia, it was everywhere, so I sat down at a roadside stall with a good view for people watching, must check out the local scenery you know

The only thing was, it felt like smoking was more healthy than breathing normally, what with the charcoal smoke from the stay grill and the fumes from the cars, bikes and bajajs, it was pretty putrid.

The satay was GOOD though, I had lamb and chicken and teh botol ais..

Cost: 10,500 Rupiah (5rm)

Lamb was quite a bit more expensive than chicken...there was also a small chilli on the plate, I can take spicy food, so I thought looks ok, I proceeded to eat it, following that I proceeded to piss from the nose and cry for a while, it was good! No really it felt like there was a large hole burning through my cheek..

My colleague was again surprised at how I managed to get everything at bottom local prices, not inflated at all..

Here you can see a trio of Bajaj's in action..

Another thing I noticed is here is the predominance of Dunkin Donuts, I mean there are a few here in KL, but all within the confines of shopping centres, in Jakarta they were everywhere, on virtually every street corner, every 2-3 blocks you pass, you'll see a Dunkin Donuts, weird..

As most people know the traffic in Jakarta is horrible, you tend to see stuff like people pushing small carts piled up with 40 used rubber tyres on them (quite a site), people walking down the middle of the street selling newspapers and magazines, people walking from car to car playing whistles or banjos, when you eat you'll be plagued by people selling books, small children with some kinds of certificate asking for money and shoe shine boys..

People really do mostly smoke Kretek aswell, apart from those happening chicks, their ciggy of choice seems to be Marloboro Menthol.

Went to one of the high class shopping malls to pick up some snacks and bumped into a load of models just leaving a show, sorry was too stunned to take any pics (Yeah tall with boobs and good looks, hmm).

We headed off to Hard Rock Cafe to have a beer, they had a live band on who were really good (Phillipinos, no surprise there), and had some beers, a jumbo platter, and some more beers

Yeah the female singer was hot!

Another habit of Indonesians, is more extreme than Malaysian parking, it's very common for them to double park there, blocking other cars in...

But everyone parks with their handbrake off...so you quite often see groups of people pushing cars here and there so they can exit..interesting eh.

After that I went for a tour around, checked out the national monument, national museum, china town (and the red light district) and a few other places, even saw the local police buying pirated DVD's at one of the stalls Indonesia apparently has the highest corruption index for Asia (and perhaps in the world?). You pay/tip for everything here, my colleague said if the beggars are very insistent you have to give them something or they might scratch your car..

Went down Jalan Jaksa aswell, backpackers haven, loads roach-ridden hotels and cheap bars with the white dudes hooking up with LBFMs (Little Brown Fuck Machines). There was a whole bunch of dodgy Nigerians selling coke aswell, not a place to go if you aren't street smart..

Also not such a great place to go with the current political climate as the extremists and fundementalists know Jalan Jaksa is where they can find all the aussies and yanks..

After that headed off for some more food, I was still stuffed, but well gotta try everything..

Another road-side stall, but at least this one wasn't like sitting in an exhaust pipe.

The Nasi Goreng Kambing was awesome (Lamb Fried Rice).

With a nice plate of condiments..

So the next day I took class then headed back, grabbed a taxi and endured the infamous Jakarta traffic, huge wide roads, but traffic chaos...there are loads of roads that split into 2 seperated lanes (like going the wrong way up a dual carriageway), round-a-bouts which you can round either way? Man it's confusing..

I bought a load of indo snacks back for my homeys including nice stuff like chicken intestines Hope they enjoy them..

I would like to spend a few days here on holiday some time checking out the scenes, pretty cheap now with Air Asia. Of course I'd like to venture outside Jakarta and check out the rest of the country, supposed to be a beautiful place.

I did notice a language difference aswell, even though I'm quite ok with Bahasa Melayu, I had real trouble understanding them...the accent is quite different due to the Dutch rather than English influence, some basic words like Orange are totally different (Oren in Malay, Jeruk in Indonesian).

That's about it..I've added the Photo Gallery for the trip just now.

BTW Free booze tonight at Espanda (used to be Emporium), might see you there.

Don't forget THE PARTY OF THE YEAR, tommorow night in SS3.

Enjoy the weekend, I will.