1-20-2011

Took a morning swim at one of the hotel pools with Lina and Jojo. Afterward Lina went shopping with Jojo while I moved down to the larger pool to work on my tan and have an ice cold beverage. At noon the mosques started their call to worship. It is surreal to be enjoying the sun and pool while hearing “AllooOOooOOoo Akbarrrrrrrrrrrrr” in the background. Pretty cool though. After spending a couple hours relaxing I changed and took a taxi to Monas. Monas is the national monument in the middle of Jakarta. Just like our last visit I arrived 10 minutes after they closed the central monument so I could not get to the top – again. I talked with a couple guys there and then decided to take a Bajaj back to the hotel. A bajaj is a motorized 3 wheel contraption popular in India and used a lot in Jakarta. They belch a lot of smoke but this one was pretty clean.

The driver tried to charge me 2 times the price that the taxi did. I haggled down to less than the taxi ride. It started to rain a little when we left. He took all of these great wild back alleys and streets to get to the hotel. However, he got lost and could not find the hotel. He kept saying it is ‘there’ and pointing but I told him we were not near the hotel. He drove for another few miles before admitting he was lost and flagging down a ojek driver (motorcycle taxi). They spoke and the driver came back to tell me the ojek would take me home. He accepted half what we agreed to. I got on the ojek, put on the helmet and while we rode I realized this guy did not understand which hotel either. Evidently there are two “Rasunas” in Jakarta. They only knew one of them – not mine which was Aston Rasuna. Finally I recognized where we were and I pointed to the hotel in the distance on my right and told him “desini” (here). He kept saying that he knew where he was going and “do not worry, it is okay”. He went past the area and I realized he was not looking for a place to turn around. I actually took a left and stopped next to another ojek driver who he asked about the Rasuna. The guy took one look at me and smiled. My driver said he was looking for Rasuna and pointed in front, I interrupted saying “sebentar” (wait), then said I wanted Aston Rasuna. The old dude knew exactly where it was. He pointed back where I had said to go before. Then gave instructions how to get there. I thanked the guy and said good bye in Indo. We circled around and my driver got us on Jalan Rasuna Said and he seemed ready to pass by the driveway to the hotel. I started yelling at him “Kiri, kiri, kiri” (left, left, left) which made him laugh. In fact another ojek driver on the curb laughed too saying “boolay”. I directed him to the ‘putih’ (white) building. He dropped me in front of the hotel and I tipped him very well. Despite the adventure of getting lost, I love taking the ojeks. It is fast, moves better in traffic and is just plain fun.

I arrived back just in time to leave for dinner with “the ladies”. All of Lina’s friends were joining us for dinner across the street at the Epicenter. My nieces Juli and Helen were there along with Retta and Ellyda. Despite being the only man there I had a lot of fun.