Office Spaces

The world is filled with office buildings and inside them are office workers. Sitting in their cubicles or open landscapes doing "office work". I can't say I'm that experienced but I've tried out or had a look at a couple of corporate cultures spanning a few industries and continents.

Having this experience in my bag I thought I had a decent guestimation of the corporate culture of Indonesian banks. I'm currently sitting in the office of the Electronic Banking Group of one of the major banks of Indonesia. Currently I am trying to figure out stuff about adoption and diffusion of mobile banking but that's not what peeks my interest enough to write down in these notes.

Corporate culture and the banking office, that's what strikes me. When I first arrived here and went to the main office of one of the largest banks here I was stricken by the sheer size of the buildings, the immense waiting rooms and the mid last century architectural atempt of imposing awe in visitors. Together with the overly focused mindset of degrees or titles (whether authentic or bought) I was sure it would be a stale and and boring office environment. Entering the electronic banking group I saw a gray and glass landscape with spots of shiny blue. Designed cold and clean. Could have been in a office design magazine actually. Design wise it lacks the green areas for increased productivity but style wise it's coherent and clean.

A little more "with the times" than by guess but still pretty much in line with my expectations.

Then came the surprises. People here are warm and even though the work hard there is a lot more fun here than I've seen in plenty of office spaces. People joke around and laugh loudly together and after closer examination I've fond table soccer and a table tennis table that they pull out on breaks and after hours to throw down. In two of the three most different work places I've been to the sense of community here seems way stronger despite my preconceptions.

The other three where a game development studio, a motion capture development company and a dive center. In the two other high en computerized industries I can honestly say the offices where much more friendly and fun looking but there was way less time for fun and friendliness. Strange no?

Missing the Snow

Coming from a nation plunged into darkness and cold for most parts of the year, spending time in the Tropical regions of the world seems like a great vacation. It does replenish ones energies and I can't say I miss the snow too much. That's what I told myself at least. I am starting to realize that I do miss some parts of the frozen world. This being mainly Snowboarding and what comes with it.
Snowboarding is a passion of mine I discovered not too many years ago. I'm mainly self though and like most people I had my part of bloodied noses and bruises. This being said I still love the sport and would recommend anyone to try it.
I specially remember this one night in Andorra where my buddy Simon Wagemyr and I decided to play around in the fresh snow after a beer or two.

This is some footage of us playing around in Soldeu after we left our "go to" bar, The Harp.

A night on the town from Filip Marzuki on Vimeo.

How I chose where to do my Dive Masters

Spending two months on the beaches of Koh Lanta isn't all bad. Koh Lanta is a larger small island on the west cost of Thailand. It is definitely one of the calmer beach places one can find in the region.
There are plenty of foreigners on the island but since it's all quite spread out the beaches always seems quite empty.

Before coming to Koh Lanta I was looking for a place to do some serious diving. To get my Dive masters. I tool a couple of requirements and places into consideration before I decided.

Requirements.
Cheap living, Convenient travel, Friendly people, Good food, Good diving.

With these I ruled out the Americas, Africa and Europe. Egypt was in fact a candidate but since there where ongoing riots throughout the nation I decided not to.

Looking at prices and dive spots it came down to three countries.
the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand. Although Indonesia has plenty of great diving is also have plenty of corruption and little annoying things to deal with. Besides I was planning to spend the following two months after my Diving in Indonesia so Some variation was required.

So what where the differences between the countries in question. Well a good thing about the Philippines is that it's Christian or rather not Muslim. The implications of this is that beer and pork dishes are commonly available. This also goes for most of Thailand as they are Buddhist.
When if comes to food I have to say that the Thai food is on an un-threatened favorite among these countries.

The cost of living is cheapest in Thailand compared to the others.

Language wise Malaysia is definitely a favorite. Since I speak the language or at least enough to interact with the locals quite easily. This would mean that I cound integrate with the community fast and easy, a big bonus.

So basically it was down to Thailand vs Malaysia. Personally I think the best dive sites in the area are around Borneo. But then again the simian island and north of there in the Andaman sea are not too bad either.

Taking the living environment into consideration I decided I wanted to try out the island life and so I listed a few options.

Location	Cost of Living	Quality of Diving	Beaches	Cost of Diving	Food	Cummunications
Phi Phi	High	Medium	Medium	Medium	OK	OK
Koh Lanta	Medium	Medium	Good	Migh	Good	Good
Perhentian	Medium	Medium	Medium	Medium	OK	Good
Sipadan	Medium	High	Small	High	OK	Good
Tao	Medium	Low	OK	Low	OK	OK
Similan	High	Good	OK	High	OK	OK

Having this in mind I decided to just go down and try out a few places before I decided.

That's when my girlfriend informed me that she got a volunteering gig at Koh Lanta. And soo it was all decided. Haha.

Here are some of my photage from one of the dive sites. Koh Haa.

Surprise visit

Early this morning I got a call from my cousin. I figured she and her friends wouldn't show up since their friend Chris sent me a message that they wouldn't come.

Apparently one of the girls lost her passport and is now on a quest to get a new one.

For me, this meant that my tiny room became a bedroom for four. my room is about 3x4 square meters which means thats it's well cosy haha. I do wonder what my neighbors assumes though.

Kinda of strange with Swedish Company too. It's been ages since I've spoken Swedish with people.

Anyway hope they make it safely to Singapore for more adventures =)

Jakarta Shopping

The main extra curricular activity of the middle and upper class Jakarta people is "hanging out at malls". Hanging out at the mall has become the main activity of entertainment during the last 20 years. I cannot remember that is was such a big deal back in 1987. coming back to this island nation every decade I've noticed a clear increase in popularity of this "entertainment".

Since I'll be spending some time in Jakarta this time around I've decided to write a small guide on the "Malls" and other shopping areas in Jakarta. I'm no expert in shopping, specially not compared to my local friends when it comes to hunting down those bargain prices. Malls in Jakarta vary a lot and are not the same despite what a heap of travel guide say. There are bargains to be made, there are great fun to be had but you do need to visit the right place for your taste.

Pasific Place

Living a stone's throw away from it, I've taken a walk or two in it. This is more or less the epiphany of an upper class shopping center. This is where you find you nice cars, brand boutiques and "I pay so I feel rich" restaurants.

It's connected to the Ritz-Carlton hotel and like all malls it's easily accessible by Taxi.

There are NO good deals to be found here. It is very clean and calm. I would not recommend you to go here for a good time unless you like walking around in expensive boutiques and paying generous amount for simple things and a good helping of status. Which a surprising amount of Indonesian people do.

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Scaling Jakarta

I'm having some trouble writing this post since my fingers are't adhering to my will completely. The reason they're on strike is that I went rock climbing for the first time in ages.

After some searching I managed to find Jakarta's only place to Boulder. I'm quite amazed by the obscurity of the sport in a city hosting 20 million people or so. There are a few places where you can do some wall climbing with a bilayer but only one place to boulder.

The place is quite small and it's in a abandoned staircase of a football stadium. It's like if someone ghetto rigged a bouldering gym. But it's perfectly good to practice at. Just like at almost every climbing place the guys there are really friendly and talkative. It's a great atmosphere to hang out in it you don't mind the mosquitoes and neon lighting.

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My shopping addiction

I have to admit that I too enjoy shopping. Today I spent a bunch of cash on sports gear. I tend to spend my money or sports, travel, tech stuff, food and nerdy stuff. Can’t say it’s any different from anyone else I guess.
I am curious about my ability or lack of restrain in spending far too much of my available funds on a whim when it comes to these things. I think that if one made a graph of spending over time I’d be similar to a heartbeat. quite low for a long time and suddenly consumption rises enormously with some smaller variations in spending amount before and after.

This time I happened to spend it on a new Badminton racket. Last trip around the world I think I bought a couple too. Anyway it ended being a nanotech 200. It felt good so I hope it works well too. Stringed it with BG 66. tried to find BG 80 but I’m not sure if it doesn't exist any more due to my long time absent from the world of Badminton or if they just didn’t carry it.
Did learn that it is impossible for me to play with a traditional grip in this hot weather due to not being able to hold it sweating like crazy. I changed to a towel grip long ago but I never realized it was vital for me to even being able not to drop the racket.

You are what you eat

I'll start this post with the words "Who am I". Well I would if it diden't start with "I'll start this post with...". This since this will be the first post where I vent my thought of life, who I am and what I want to achieve.

At some occasions when I encounter people in a life crises, trying to find them self I am always relived that I don't have to do that. When I think about it thought my fitting is not really that good when it comes to figuring out myself and who I am. Nor is it really good when it comes do deciding which path to take in life.

Some people say you are what you eat.

Well if that was true I'd be a little bit of everything and very different from banana. I do like to try new, different and strange foods. So and I an transient dude with plenty of quirks. We'll maybe. I do tend to not stick with the same thing for too long and enjoy facing new situations. I don't really like to stay in one place for too long either. I tend to like spicy food. Does that mean I have a hot temper. If so that's not very true at all. Or is it. What do you think? Maybe I like burning experiences..
I wonder what one food would represent me. It's definitely worth a tought.

Playing the Hood

It's in the humid and dirty streets of Jakarta where it goes down at night. Where it's decided who is the strongest, fastest and most dangerous. At Badminton that is.

Badminton is the national sport of Indonesia and it's played my most people in most places. In fact there is a street badminton court outside of where I live where the local crew hang out at night. And as the ''new kid on the block'' I had to throw it down too.

Jakarta Street Badminton from Filip Marzuki on Vimeo.

Pain I tell you. My right leg is so tiered and I realize I'm so out of shape. I have been spending some time looking for a gym around here but maybe these night badminton games will serve just as well.

Playing barefoot on a concrete court my old practice with Suryanaga Gudang Garam Badminton in 1998 paid off. I did win my games despite problems with, well everything haha. Maybe I'll get to play someone better next time. Win or lose it's real good fun and besides I need the practise if I'm gonna be in shape or the annual get together with my old club mates from Täby Badminton.

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Right off the bat

Well pretty much right off the bat I managed to engage in random activities with some peeps in Jakarta. Like some of you might now I do like to try new sports. This time it was a sport called Kasti. It's like a variation of softball or Bränboll as they say in Sweden. the major difference it that someone throws the ball to you from the side so you hit it from a 90 degree angle. Don't know why but I really sucked at it. Think I only hit the ball once in nine tries.

Here it's played in grade school and it's really a lot of fun. Some of the really fun parts is when you need to throw the ball at an opposite team member when you change sides.

Spending the afternoon playing Kasti was a lot of fun and I recommend you to try it if you're ever in Indonesia.

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