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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