Urban Survivor

One of the last things I did before I left Kuala Lumpur was to watch Robinson (The Swedish precursor  to Survivor). Here in Paris I'm overwhelmed with the changes that comes with the continent swap. The age of buildings, the blue sky and flaky weather, the clean streets and the good quality food. Yes yes, some might object and say that there is good quality food in Malaysia too. But they are wrong. When I'm talking about food I'm not talking about the extremes that one might find after large about of energy and/or money spent. I'm talking about the readily available options every day people choose and value. Here the food culture if much more focused on the simple, organic and quality of basic stuff. Although I have to say the Italians might be the best at this concept of complexity and simplicity in one. The french are definitively up there and has it's own angle to it.  But! this is not what I wanted to talk about. It seems that whatever I start thinking of it's an inevitability that the topic will change to food. There are other things with the same symptom of inevitability. On e is the fact that all free forums will eventually turn into a mating forum. Yes meeting people with the end result of pairing up or mating. This is especially true for online forums. That is also a side topic I'll deal with later. What hit me after the initial chock of coming over here was the homeless people in the streets. I'm not sure what I was expecting but there are a whole bunch of em here and many are surprisingly young. My awareness of this problem seem to have taken a dip as the surge of things dirty in Asia seemed to have washed away the shadier parts of my European memories.

Well that or that I've once again forgot how few homeless people we have in Stockholm.  But when I think back upon the number of encounters with people needing money in Asia the homeless seemed to make less of an impression on me way out east. True, the pure numbers I've seen over there easily triumph the ones here but these ones seem to stick out more. Over there it fitted in in the surroundings of dirty and ghetto rigged as a way of life. Here they stick out like sore thumbs in the midst of historical buildings and "bobo" cafés.

The Bodyguard

One night in KL I got some info of where there where some latin dancing to be done. I figured that it might be a good opportunity to learn something. So I make a shutout on some online forums to see what happens. Suddenly I get a text with some info on a souk club. Ok, latin dancing here we go was my thoughts.

This was wrong.

During my after-work with my buddy in KL the unknown souk specialist shows up. On his walk I can tell that he is no dancer. Well that or he's a real good a shape shifting. But who knows maybe I'm wrong? (I wasn't). After a little awkward conversation it turns out that the souk club or "club zouk" is not at all a latin dance club. But they do have free drink during a few early hours tonight. So he suggests that we hit up that place before 20:00. We decide that that is way too early and that we should go check out twenty one despite his puppy eyes and black tee with a naked lady on. In fact this graphic t-shirt was the only thing that would give away and otherwise uncanny similarity to a bodyguards appearence in KL. Having shaved his head with a bulls neck, stiff walk and a tendency to not speak while walking a step after us or a step ahead of us it really did look like we had our own bodyguard. So much in fact that we where at first asked if this was the case. Later that night it was just assumed and not even asked any more. It was quite amusing to my inner self when asked who my friends where I responded that's my buddy A and that's the body guard. The amusing part was that no one questioned this. This was something natural. Obviously a 25 year old dude has his own bodyguard. No I'm not 25 but people tend to thing I'm about that age. All in all it was a strange experience. Highly amusing but strange, oh and also quite baller.

What kind of society requires one to have a body guard when going to a bar like the Hilton anyway. Well maybe like Jakarta and of course Kuala Lumpur obviously.

That guy should seriously think about changing professions though. I'm sure you get better pay as bodyguard than a bookstore clerk...

Sexual Quantum Leep

The mating and grooming habits of the Indonesians or specially the Jakartoon is something that needs a peek at. First of all one should be aware of that the heavily religious nature of the country tends to foster prudish notions. So a conception of sex before marriage being inferior to sex after marriage is the status quo, on the surface. In reality many young couples engage in sexual activities.

For me it's more the way there and what other implications this brings that's interesting. As the image, surface or face is what counts it is ofc seen as very obscene and maybe too exciting with public displays of affection (PDA). But there are modern and cool people that may hold hands while walking and things like that. For making out, you can forget it. This is way beyond the J-towners borders. You will however see foreigners doing this with small or no attempts of prevention by the locals. This lack of displays of affection has even seemed to enter the private domain. What I mean with this is that few attempts to engage in physical interaction will occur before there is a clear indication the coupleing. This gives rise to an interesting process of sexual exploration. Which I call the Sexual Quantum Leep effect. Here is small summary of what might happen during courting.

1. you get her number from a friend
2. you text, cause it might be so scary for her if you call out of the blue...
3. you call
4. you go for dinner, coffee or something like that
5. you repeat this and also engage in lots of BBM activeties (black berry messenger. Yes, I too was hoping for a more exciting explination to this ebriviation)
6. maybe you get introduced to your respective friends
7. Eventually BAM! you are a couple
8. Now it might be considered ok to do the down and dirty, if he or she is open to that at all.
9. Sexual Quantum Leep --- Sex, touching and kissing follows.

Now it might be me, the traveller from a coulture far, far away that got some of this wrong or right and I'm just unused to the schematics of it all. But for you, my compañeros in exploration to understand my notion of this casm I'll copare to the process I'm used to.

RELATIONSHIP PROGRESS	SAMPLE PHYSICAL PROGRESS	JAK BBM PROGRESS	JAK PHYSICAL PROGRESS
Live Conversation 1	Non sexual physical contact	Moderate	N/A
Live Interaction 2,	Kissing, Making out	High	N/A
Continued Live interactin	Sex	Very High	N/A
Coupeling or non-coupleing relations	Sexual Exploration	Extreamly High	Sex

The Americans use a baseball analogy to help quantify the sexual progress in a given senario. to help us define this sexual progress leep I will also use numerics. from 1-4. Since the relationship building progress seem to share sertain characteristics these will be used as a base measurement.

As you can see the rate of sexual advances is significantly higher for the Jatowneese than the sample population of my experience. This means that when it comes to that last step it's a all or nothing situation where there is little previous experience to build on. One can easily make comparisons to a vast amount activities like flying an airplane with no previous training in a simulator and such but I will refrain from that. Instead I'd like to highlight some side effects of this environment which might me interesting.
So stay tuned for a second report of social interaction and grooming in Jakarta.

Getting Around J-City

With it's tentacles streaching inward covering large part of the land the it streches so much further than the little city once considered a big city in a country made of old kingdoms. Jakarta's origin, It's old town still has a lingering colonial feeling about it despite the stampeedes of modern day Jakartans. It clearly cherishes it's history and in many a place there are clear affiliations with the golden age of the film industry. Cafes and restaurants are likely to have designs inspired by icons of fiction or reality like Bogart, Casablaca or maybe Marylyn Monroe. This is the Indonesia I think of from traveling around these volcanic lands as a kid. But Cities evolve and grow. They become something else with time. In my native Sweden there are songs about the concrete Jungle but in reality I'd more compare those environments to concrete tundras. Now Jakarta is a true concrete urban Jungle. Sprawling and bustling in so many ways. It's filled with the unexplored and the dangerous.
Photos by: http://www.flickr.com/people/jantomarzuki/

I'm not sure which of these dangers would be the worst. One comes with certain benefits. The city has protected itself from most of the sun's heat and radiation through a skin of smog and smoke effectively eliminating a lot of potential sun burns and cancers. With air so think with pollution I'd call it something else, has it's own influences on the people of Jakarta. While the well off little chieftains and their corporate minions erect protective shelters using air condition and air purification around their territories (Malls, Villas, Shops, small palaces and dorms). The low class people, as someone here called them just deal with it. Well that or die.

The other great danger and terror of the Jakartians is the macet. It's terrible creature that used to stalk the city mostly during dusk and dawn. As the urbanization grows it has fed the macet to disproportional extents. It now strikes ruthlessly from dawn till late evening while resting during the night. In all of the cities I've visited in all of the countries I've journeyed to, the macet, or "jam" here is the worst. Attempting to travel when it hits is completely futile as you will for certain be stuck for many a hour during these jams.

With a wide range of methods devised to get around this monster of a city only a few are recommended. Your average local way finder will prefer the Ojek or motorcycle taxi. It does have the ability so swiftly navigate even through the worst traffic macet with a skilled guide. This is not without danger though. When luck runs out and Ojek and any other vehicle decide to mate your unfortunate Jakartanese is definitively left in a bit of a pickle or maybe that is a word that might describe their future prospects after that. The other two ways I'd recommend are quite a bit safer. At least the drawbacks are less instead. Riding the bussway might soak you in the odeur of two or three busloads of sweaty J-towners cramped into one small buss from the last millenia. While some genetic advantages can help alleviate some of the discomforts it also has it's disadvantages. If you happen to be unnaturally tall, Say over 175cm. you can easily pop your head up and breathe the less hot air, say under 30 degrees Celsius. Blunt head trauma will follow if you are not careful though. There is always you standard upper class carriage which here is the taxi. It's safe and air-conditioned. Well safe in the context. Most cabs do not have seat belts but will survive small collisions and warm weather, all for a small extra fee. Here you just have to choose the right type of flock for you. The safest is the colored bird company. They come in two prominent colors blue and silver. While the blue bird is actually blue or at least grayish blue depending on how long it has prospered in the Jungle, the silver one is undoubtedly black. While these birds will carry you safely I prefer the white one. It's called an express and will cost you about half your gold compared to the other ones.

From lifeonthego

• Ojek 5min 10.000 RP 30 min 25.000 Rr
• Buss way 3.500 Rp
• Taxi 5 min 10.000 Rp 30 min 30.000 R

The Hood, The Turf.

I'm not sure about you but in a whole bunch of places people define them self by the location of where they matured or live. In Stockholm we have the snobby posh peeps of Östermalm or maybe Danderyd. In Oakland, CA the hood defined it's crews but here we have something else. Here we have the people of the malls.

Don't know if you've read my previous post of the prominents mall culture of Inonesia and Jakarta but lets just say it's a very dominating part of life for the middle class and well off in Indonesia. Instead of beloning to a crew or living in a selct neigbourhood one is often described why what mall one frequents and what mall one lives close to.

We have our Yupies and business peeps (pacific place), Our soccer moms (pasar raya), suburban shoppers (mall ambasadeur), OC brats, (taman angrek), chill outers (semangi), and many many more. As a funny note there is a kids attraction at PP named Yupi land. Quite fitting if I do say so myself. Having Pacific Place in my back yard forces me to endure the snobbiest of all malls in Indonesia. Seeing families with more nannies than kids here are not at all uncommon. Needless to say they have at lest one part of designer strollers for their kids. Kinds like home, in Stockholm I guess but with way less of a fasion sense.

Shake that Mony Maker

I'm sure some of you have heard the expression shake that money maker. Well them gold diggers come in all shapes and sizes. There are always plenty of articles online describing how there are plenty of girls in the developing world wanting to date those "rich" foreigners. Specially here in Jakarta I'm finding a whole bunch of articles about it and how to meet those hot local girls. Ha ha, you thought I was gonna write something about my experiences here didn't you. Well OK then. The night scene is in fact filled with plenty of women one might call gold diggers. Looking for a man to pay her bills or take her away to a richer place. I'm not going to claim that all women here are like that but a whole bunch of em are, at the clubs. I'm not even counting in the prostitutes now. Anyway that's not what surprised me. What surprised me was to what degree money makes the wheels turn here. I recently went to a salsa place here in J-town and learnt something else than salsa moves too. I learnt that almost all the men in the club where hired my women who want to dance. There is in fact such a shortage of dancing men here or at least that don't require to have their steps lubricated with cash that the whole Latin dance scene here runs on it. Where did the spirit of dance go? Well at least both men and women here shake their asses for them dolla dolla bill ya'll.

Photo by: http://www.flickr.com/people/chifeng/

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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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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