Misadventures in Jakarta: Something That Goes Bump in the Night

Japanese katana

A few nights ago while everyone was sleeping, my husband and I were still up interacting with our electronic devices. All of a sudden there was a deafening boom overhead. It made us freeze in whatever actions we were doing.

I thought that it sounded like an explosion but it couldn't have been the fireworks that have been going off every so often since New Year's Day. Usually the firecrackers have multiple explosions but this was one big boom. My husband, on the other hand, thought that some buglars had broken into the house from upstairs.

He quickly checked all the downstairs rooms where we were all staying. Everything seemed fine. Then he looked around for a weapon to use before he went upstairs. He said there used to be an air rifle that his father used to use to scare the burglars away buthe couldn't find that so he looked for the sword that his father had. He couldn't find that either so he grabbed two things that he found.

Misadventures in Jakarta: It's Showtime!

We were in a bookstore, yes it's Gramedia but at a different location. You must think we love Gramedia but really it's because it's the only store that has books in English. Anyway, my children had finished reading the Lucky Luke books that we bought so it was time to stock up on more Lucky Luke books.

So we were in the bookstore when all of a sudden the loud speaker began blaring out loud music. Why on earth would they play loud music in a bookstore? A bookstore is usually a quiet place so people can read the cover and back cover and maybe a few pages in between to decide whether to buy a book or not. The deafening music didn't help in making that decision.

After a few beats there came loud clapping sounds. We looked around and saw that all the shop attendants were in a line and doing the same actions in what seemed to be a dance routine without moving from their spot.

Misadventures in Palembang: What's the Big Secret?

The Old Ampera Bridge in Palembang

Palembang, on the island of Sumatra, is my father-in-law's home province. Originally he was born in one of the villages upstream. When he was a school boy he would walk through the jungle with his brothers to get to school. Sometimes they would encounter the Sumatran tigers and crocodiles. Imagine going to school like this every day!

What I really wanted to write about is the food. The one food that Palembang is well-known for is pempek. Everyone has their own special recipe but the great tasting one has a strong fish flavour (if it's not fishy then they're skimping).

Misadventures in Jakarta: Like Rats in a Maze

Reading is one of my passions so I'm always encouraging my children to read wherever we go. They ran out of reading materials so today we wanted to pop into another bookstore to find some books. But finding books in English is always hard in Indonesia!

We were told that a bookshop called Gramedia stocked imported books in English so we drove to the shopping centre that has this bookstore. It wasn't very far away from where we were staying and soon we got there without incident. Spoken too soon, of course.

Misadventures in Jakarta: Into the Dark We Go

It was 7:00pm and it was night time. Before dinnertime my children were drawing in their sketch pad and I was typing on the notebook. All of a sudden the lights and all other electronics switched off. It was pitch black. 

To me, this wasn't unusual as I've been through this before during my previous stays. My children, however, had forgotten as they were younger when it happened before. It was a regular occurrence as every few days the electricity would shut off for about an hour.

My husband, though, came prepared. He had brought with us two wind up torches and a head torch. While the others quickly gathered candles and lighted them, we groped around in our suitcases for the torches and switched on our iphone torches.

A colourful array of food

No misadventures here. Just some interesting food. Went last minute shopping for essentials at ITC shopping centre. Only in Indonesia can you find coloured and flavored bread.

Misadventures in Jakarta: The Long Lunch

My brother-in-law invited us to lunch. What we thought was a fairly short drive (keep in mind that this is overcrowded Jakarta) to his house turned out to be over an hour's drive to the middle of nowhere just to eat seafood (in Sentul which is 35km away and not even near the coast). The trip was so long that everyone fell asleep (except the driver of course).