Orange sunset in Jakarta

Yesterday I took this photo of Jakarta at sunset.

This was probably the most vibrant orange sunset I've ever seen.
PS: This photo was not Photoshopped.

Giant wood spider (Nephila maculata)

In the previous post I mentioned a Giant wood spider (nephila maculata) I saw on a trail run outside Jakarta. Well, I managed to record a short video (HD) of a female Giant Wood Spider having lunch:

The body is around 10cm in length. If you look closely, you'll also see a tiny red spider. This is a male Nephila maculata and it is so small that female N. maculata would not even notice it.

Aurigid Meteor Shower over Jakarta, Indonesia

On Saturday, Sept. 1, a very rare meteor shower will take in the skies. The peak time is 6:30-7pm WIB (Jakarta time), which is not a favorable time for a Jakarta observer, because of two reasons. First of all, the sky is still relatively bright before 7pm, and the second reasons is that unfortunately in Southern hemisphere the meteor shower will be less visible as Auriga constalation - source of Meteors - is far below the Horizon during the peak time.

Those of you who live in North-Eastern Indonesia are obviously more lucky, as meteors will be easier to spot on a dark night sky and the Auriga constalation is also closer to the horizon. The best spot to observe this unique event is obviously Jayapura:

y

Myself, I plan to observe it from Puncak area as Jakarta’s sky during night is little too bright to have a clear view of meteors. For those who also plan to watch this interesting event from Java, just look at the North-East side of the sky after 23:00.

Actually, this week is full of interesting astronomical events, as last Tuesday we could observe a total lunar eclipse. Good luck in observing meteors.

Jakarta Flood 2007 - Wednesday

I went back to Kelapa Gading to copy some data from my workstation. I moved out of Kelapa Gading on Monday evening, so I had the opportunity to see how the flood condition changed. The news is good. Basically, the flood is off the major streets of Kelapa Gading area, but most houses are still flooded. It is also rather difficult to get into the area using a regular car as all the access points to Kelapa Gading are still flooded:

Jl. Kayu Putih

Jl. Kayu Putih, on the left people waiting for submarine busway

Pulomas

To get to my place I first went with some truck from Superindo (near Pulomas) to La Piazza - driver didn't request any payment but accepted small tip. Then I was picked up by some truck whose driver was heading to Priok - this time driver didn't even accept any tip, shake of my hand was enough, nice to see such a good people around. We've brought some powder milk for children 1-3 years old and water for refugees and it seem that's exactly what they needed as small children don't like instant MSG loaded food to much and instant food is a type of food usually distributed around. Beside, the support for refugees in this areas seem to be working well. No people starving, just looking for some place to stay for a while.

Area near Mc. Donalds Kelapa Gading

I'm already starting to think about the best methods of helping local communities. In my opinion the best method of helping victims of Jakarta 2007 flood is to help in restoration of local schools that were affected by the flood. According to a brief report by Sampoerna Foundation, “As many as 1,489 schools in Jakarta were inundated. Specifically 1,295 SD, 174 SMP, and 30 SMU,'' said the Head of the Elementary Education Department of DKI Jakarta, Sylviana Murni". Definitely lots of help is required to rebuild all damaged schools.

When I was a kid and our school was badly damaged by the flood, I must say as a kind I truly appreciated to see rebuilt school that looked even better than before. I hope I can do something to make local kids enjoy the same feeling. Thus, if you know of any schools that need help in flood damage restoration, please let me know. I'll try to make list of such schools and try to organise some help.

Note: More information about the flood on WHO web-site.

Evacuated

Living isolated in Kelapa Gading has become unbearable, thus yesterday I moved out of the area. My evacuation vehicle was a Teh Botol SOSRO truck. More than 10 trucks from SOSRO were picking up people all around Kelapa Gading area and transporting to safe location. I'm not sure if SOSRO knows about it, I've tried to ask but they web-site is not updated since 2001, all contact details are wrong and I can't get their phone number.

SOSRO truck - evacuation vehicle

Several things surprised me over past few days:

1. I've found this on The Jakarta Post web-site "Less rain will be fall in all municipalities in the capital. If the rains fall, it will not be so heavy. Heavy rains may occur in Puncak, Bogor".

Oh, that's very interesting what Indonesian Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) says, because it was raining like crazy in Jakarta last night. Has BMG prognosis been correct at least once? I've also tried to use their RSS data feed but it never worked, their server was down like half of the time. I start to be more curious about this agency.

2. Thuggery. Well, I had to pay to cross the only path across the river. Few thugs controling the path ensured that those who could not pay had to go thorugh shoulder deep stinky water. The SOSRO truck drivers have also told us that some areas of Kelapa Gading were controled by criminals who stopped their trucks and demanded money.

3. Attitude of some people. The SOSRO drivers were very helpful, didn't ask any money and took something like 30 people out of the area on the same truck. Many of those people had cars waiting for them around Arion mal. When we arrived, truck driver stopped near a gas station (around Superindo mal) and informed everyone that he needs to buy gasoline to get back for more people. He asked for any contribution. Now guess how many people contributed? Just me and my wife. All the other people on the truck just left without even saying thank you! I could not believe my eyes. Note: Most of those people were not poor. They were shooting pictures with fancy digital cameras all over the truck like they were on some safari or something.

4. Profesional building management. I'm very surprised how Gading Mediterania Residences building management handled the disaster. They were truly prepared. They had enough gasoline to run power generators for a few days, organised well managed flood refugees centre servicing neighbour areas. Clean water was available at all time and the place was well secured. I must say I'm impressed. Great job guys!

I'll try to post some updates when I get back to Kelapa Gading. However, I'm not sure when as it looks like the current condition is not getting better.

By the way finally I understand why so many villas in neighbour areas like to use Venice/Greek a like motives:

Water is a perfect match, isn't it?

PS: Lots of people have sent me e-mails asking about safety of travel to Jakarta, thus let me answer. It is safe to travel to Jakarta, you can get from the airport to main business district, but before you come here please make sure that you have a hotel room booked. Most hotels are at almost full occupancy rate, thus it could be a problem to get a room without prior booking.

Flood related posts by other bloggers: bricolage, Jakartass (aftermath), Unspun.

Jakarta Flood 2007 - Sunday

Another day of the Jakarta flood. Today, I had to go through the flood to Cempaka Mas to buy some food. Surprisingly, there was actually more water in Kelapa Gading area than yesterday and I barely managed to cross the river to get to Cempaka Mas mal. Well, and when I already got there it was a completely different world. Business running as usualy, shops and restaurants open, supermarkets full of food etc. Meanwhile in flooded areas of jakarta the flood forced around 300,000 from their homes. Anyway, here are some photos that I took on Sunday afternoon:

Jl. Gading 7 on Sunday afternoon

Jl. Gading 7 on Saturday afternoon

Clearly the water level has increased since yesterday. It also does not look like the conditions would get better anytime soon.

Flooded school.

Area of Cempaka Mas.

As I've previously mentioned I'm amazed with the way locals handle various disasters and keep their positive nature in worst conditions. Today, I got several SMS representing positive nature of Indonesians, one goes like this: "BREAKING NEWS. Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso proudly WELCOMES TO THE GRAND OPENING of his new project, the Jakarta SUPER GRAND WATER WORLD 2007. Full of special attractions such as submarine-bus way and spectacular views of largest WATER WORLD in ASIA. FREE entry for all citizens, don't miss it!".

I just wonder who came up with this funny joke, but it could be related to this post at Blog Tempo Interaktif.

Flooded Jakarta at night

Water is an excellent conductor of electricity which makes electrocution a number two cause of death in floods. Knowing this Indonesian state electricity company PLN (Perusahaan Listrik Negara) has cut electricity in areas of Jakarta affected by the February 2007 flood:

I took the above photos on Sunday around 4AM, just after a heavy rain. The first one shows area of Cempaka Mas (view of South-West skyline), the second photo shows area of Sunter (view of city's West skyline). It is an extremely odd view as during regular night Jakarta shines with tens of thousands of lights. Last night most lights were still on but today it is just dark space with only a few lone candlelights. A truly gloomy view of Jakarta.

Jakarta Flood, February 2007

This week Jakarta experienced disastrous flood triggered by the high intensity of rain in the city and surrounding areas. It all started with a very heavy downpour on Thursday night which caused floods in some areas of Jakarta. Next morning number of offices reported missing employees who most likely could not get through the traffic havoc caused by the flood. I was myself stuck in the traffic jam on Friday morning and could not attend several meetings. Soon after I got informed that several of my clients have executed their Business Continuity Plans (BCP) and switched to teleworking. It wasn't without problems as telecommunication networks were also affected by the flood - apparently some telecommunication firms did not plan their DRP well. Fortunately, wireless networks were working well as I was able to access my e-mail from the car using 3G service.

Looking at the horrible traffic conditions and worsening weather, I decided to get back home. Luckily, I was back home early enough to avoid major downpour that happened around noon and caused major floods in South, central and North Jakarta. The area of Kelapa Gading was isolated by flood since 2pm and only trucks could get in or out of the area. I've spoken with taxi drivers who parked on a dry piece of road in front of Gading Mediterania Residences. They all were seriously troubled with the flood, as not only they were not able to make any earnings, but also they could not get back home. Moreover, they were all surrounded by people asking for a ride just to hear that there is no way out of the area as every road out is flooded.

Most shops and restaurants in the Kelapa Gading area were flooded. Those few which were still open were all out of stock by 10pm – fortunately I bought some additional supply earlier, fearing the rain will continue.

On Friday night very heavy downpours - an I mean heavy even by Asian standards - caused even greater flood. Water raised quickly and most roads turned into rivers. On Saturday morning I walked through the flood from Kelapa Gading area to Cempaka Mas mall. There was basically only one way through a very small bridge covered with water, the other option was to rent "mini-boat" which were quickly built by locals.

Anyway, here are some photos of the flood that I took around Kelapa Gading area:

Some shots from the local news:

Kelapa Gading (left), Sunter (right) - massive traffic jam on the Priok-Cawang tollway.

Sunter flood near Menara SMR - just near the Sunter exit from Cawang-Priok tollway

Flooded train station.

In summary, more than 100.000 people had to leave their homes and electricity was cut in several districts. To make it even worse, more rain is expected on Saturday evening.

Updates: flooded jakarta at night, Sunday, evacuated, Wendesday.

Jakarta's three-in-one solutions

Jakarta has some interesting three-in-one rule, in which a car must carry at least three passengers when passing through a restricted zone - applied from 7AM to 10AM and from 4:30PM to 7:30PM. The regulation was put in place by Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso in order to reduce traffic jams in Jakarta. You might think that this could be a very fairly annoying obstacle. Well, not for some clever Jakartans who surprisingly managed to make a living out of this regulation. If you happen to drive your car alone and need to cross three-in-one zone you can always get a "jockey", a person who for a small fee will join you for a ride across three-in-one zone. For those unfamiliar with Jakarta "jockeys" look like someone just like hitchhikers trying to catch a free ride and if you happen to see no "jockey" around and really need to get across three-in-one zone, make sure you take two friends along with you to avoid problems with police :-)

Top 10 best of living in Indonesia

Ever wondered why some foreigners like to live in Indonesia? Well, maybe my list of TOP 10 best of living in Indonesia will explain. Here it goes.

1. Best coffee and tea in the world.

Cultivation of coffee trees in Indonesia started on Java in 17th century when Dutch first brought coffee to Batavia (city changed its name to Jakarta in 1942) and started export of the second oldest commercially produced coffee in the world – Java coffee. Ever since Indonesia has been one of the major exporters of coffee and today it is the world's fourth largest exporter. Majority of production is a Robusta coffee, but production and export of high quality Arabica coffee is slowly increasing. If you happen to be in Indonesia you can enjoy freshly roasted high quality coffee from Java, Sumatra, Aceh and other areas of Indonesia.

A cup of cappuccino in Jakarta can be as good as in Rome or even better, thanks to the optimum freshness of coffee – it is premium quality up to one week after roasting. My favourite choice of locally produced coffee is Merdeka Coffee, Excelso is also great. I leave Starbucks to amateur coffee drinkers. I'll just mention one thing that I've found fairly ridiculous about local cafés and especially Cup&Cino café at Plaza Semangi. They don't have Indonesian coffee in their offer, so it is foreign franchise selling imported coffee in country which is 4th largest exporter of coffee in the word and a producer of high quality coffee! I consider this to be an example of awful lack of support for Indonesia and when I and my friends found out we decided to boycott the place.
What about tea? In Poland everyone knows Java tea and it is one of the most popular beverages (if not the most popular) in Poland. There's nothing better than enjoying a cup of original Java tea in the early morning mountain mist at the place from which this tea originates i.e. tea fields around Puncak. Incredible experience.

2. Hot weather all year long.

Yup, sun shines here all year long with only short periods of rain during rainy season. When I decided to emigrate I had to make a choice between Canada and Indonesia. Although Canada is a great place to live, I decided to move to Indonesia. I simply hate winter and perspective of not having to experience it each year was just too tempting. Since I also like when it rains this place is just perfect for me. There are number of advantages of living in a tropical country among which most interesting is: not having to buy new winter clothes each year; enjoying sun anytime during the year; no winter depression and ability to wear simple cloths such as t-shirt all year long. Indonesia is a fantastic place to live for everyone who likes hot weather.

3. AMAZING tourist attractions.

Indonesia has some of the most famous diving spots and beaches in the world. The most famous is certainly Bunaken National Park, considered as one of the top 10 dive spots in the world. However, with 25 percent of world's coral reefs located in Indonesia, there are plenty of opportunities for divers. Beside Bunaken, other known diving areas are located around Lombok Island, channel between Nusa Penida and Nusa Ceningan, Sanighe Island (North Sulawesi), Biaro Island, Bangka Island etc.

Siau
Beach at Sangihe Island

Bali has some of the world's most famous beaches such as Kuta or Jimbaran. I've personally found Siau (North Sulawesi) to be most impressive as it was my favourite spot among all my travels around Indonesia, yet unfortunately it is poorly developed and not ready for a mainstream tourism.
Indonesia has also quite a few UNESCO World Heritage sites, such as:

• Komodo National Park,
• Ujung Kulon National Park,
• Borobudur Temple compound,
• Prambanan Temple compound,
• Sangiran Early Man Site,
• Lorentz National Park,
• Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra.

Borobudur

Overall Indonesia has so many tourist attractions, from tropical beaches and diving spots, to rare rainforest flora and fauna, volcanoes, hot springs and simply whatever you could imagine.

I'll jut conclude that tourists pay thousands of dollars to get here for short holidays. If you happen to live in Indonesia all these world's famous tourist destinations are available only few hours of flight away. This also means you can get fancy holidays for ridiculously low amount of money and with no special preparations. Moreover, if you have KITAS (stay permit) you can get discounts in hotels and pay lower entrance fee at some tourists spots such as Borobudur or Bunaken.

4. Indonesian people.

The national motto of Indonesia "Bhinneka tunggal ika" (Unity in diversity) reflects the union of a various different cultures. The significant variety of cultures transfers also to the daily life and simply makes it more interesting. We can enjoy various arts from different parts of Indonesia, variety of food (more about this in next point), variety of local traditions, various religion ceremonies which overall is extremely interesting and definitely enriching our experience. Moreover, in general Indonesian people are so friendly and life enjoying that I think we could learn a lot from their positive nature. It's hard to stay positive even when everything around seems negative (financial crisis, wars, riots in the news) and somehow locals can deal with this perfectly well. Beside, the specific culture that is so much different makes our lives here interesting every day, there's always something new to surprise us.

Note: If you're Caucasian you'll have to get used to hearing "Hello mister!" and if you happen to visit place lest frequently visited by foreigners you may observe crowds of people surrounding you and asking various questions. The best advice for such situation is "smile and wave". All this can be very surprising experience and it simply reflects interest of local people in foreigners. Nothing to worry about, just enjoy the unusual situation.

5. Great variety of food and fresh fruits.

Ever seen Durian, the infamous smelly king fruit loved by Indonesians? Well, you can actually eat it here for most of the year. Beside if you live in Indonesia you can enjoy lots of other unique fruits that you won't be able to find in supermarkets in Europe such as fresh Mango, Rambutan, Bali fruit, Snake fruit etc. You can enjoy all these tropical fruits daily and fresh. Beside this the variety of food available in Jakarta is also interesting. Padang food (spicy), Balinese food, Manadonese food, various of soto and satay from all over Indonesia or even such a strange delicates like snake satay (can be found in Kota). Additionally, lots of unique Chinese food and very cheap seafood.

Well, there is one minus, that is a lack of immunity to local diseases which can quickly result in a very bad stomach ache. However, the good news is that after two years or so you'll get immune to nearly everything, including typhoid and God or "kaki lima" chef knows what strange food related diseases.

6. Exciting and challenging life.

Since Indonesia is so big and different, it is actually a big challenge to live here in a very different culture. However, this can just make our lives more interesting. Actually, there are so many events here daily that you'll hardly get bored. If you're news junkie you'll here about number of disaster each month, from crashing planes, sinking ferries up to mudflows or floods, earthquakes and volcanoes, you name there's everything here. It's quite sad actually. It also frightens foreign tourists a lot – especially bombings – but for those of us who live here slowly get accustom to such extreme life and simply watch these extreme events as they unfold and discuss it with friends. Are we crazy to still stay here? Well, foreign news agencies like to exaggerate a lot and the truth is that Indonesia is lot safer than most think and actually often even safer than your own country. Just to let you know USA just released new travel warning for Indonesia and let me quote it:
Due to the possibility of terrorist attacks directed against American or other Western citizens and interests, the Department of State urges American citizens to evaluate carefully the risks of travel to Indonesia. The October 1, 2005, terrorist attacks in Bali in which suicide bombers killed 20 people and injured more three than 100 are a reminder that terrorists remain active in Indonesia. The possibility of future attacks in Bali, Jakarta, or other areas of Indonesia cannot be ruled out.
They are certainly right, but base on plain statistics lot less people died as a result of terrorism in Indonesia than in USA, so it really is not that bad as you might think. Life is unpredictable and we can't be completely safe anywhere. Actually, I find myself feeling lot safer at night on the streets of Jakarta than in my small city in Poland. More than five years here and I had not a single incident of someone attacking me or trying to start a fight, while I had such experiences quite often in Poland.

7. Efficient government service.

Now, it'll get bit controversial as opinion on this subject is highly diversified.
Few months here and you probably already know the term KKN (Korupsi-Kolusi-Nepostisme), which obviously means Corruption-Collusion-Nepotism. Indonesians often use it to describe all corruption related experience and it is definitely significant issue here and has a various forms. You're probably surprised with my introduction as what corruption has to do with efficiency of government services? Well, I see several kinds of corruption and surprisingly, one small type of corruption activities of local government officials I actually consider as beneficial. Why? Well, if I lose some important document in Poland it could take a month to get a replacement, while In Indonesia if you are in rush you can simply pay bit more to the officer and get your documents done the very same day, as I've heard. If for some reasons you have a problem with documents i.e. you can't find Hungarian/Russian/Mandarin/Hindu/Hokien/Irish translator of some document that you need for certain govt procedure, you'll only have to pay bit more and government official will suddenly read not only the previously mentioned languages, but also Dutch or even Farsi, Klingon and any language you can imagine – as I've heard. So, some are of something called here KKN is actually often helpful. In our countries red tape can be very annoying and time consuming while here we you still have other options and don't have to look for certified Klingon translator.
FYI I'm very surprised to read information about suppose lack of efficiency of local government in the process of establishing companies here in Indonesia as compared to neighbour countries. If you want to know how ridiculous it is just take a look at this document. According to some Law Firms Interview (World Bank 2005), number of days for setting up a business (PT. company) in Indonesia is about 151 days! In reality, it is very different from what was described in the report. For comparison The University of Indonesia’s Institute of Economic and Social Research (LPEM) shows that it takes only 80 days (57 working days) and all Indonesians know it can take even shorter, less than 14 days. If you are really in hurry can even have everything done in one week – with some additional budget and help of professional notary service. So, I personally think some government offices are functioning here fairly well and definitely not as bad as described in some official reports.
Of course there are number of bad examples of corruption in Indonesia such as the one that results in loss of lives, state funds or unfair judgement. However, not everything considered as corruption is all bad and some kick-back just helps to go quicker through all the red tape. Unfortunately, with limited funds a service of a government official can be very slow, thus clearly there are two sides to this story and my point of view is obviously not objective.

8. Dynamic business environment.

Indonesia's Economic growth accelerated to 5.1% in 2004 and reached 5.6% in 2005. The most interesting is that markets here are still relatively unexplored and full of opportunities. It's definitely not easy to do business here due to number of factors, but if you happen to succeed the potential revenue is substantial. Considering the big population, consumer attitude, richness of natural resources I believe Indonesia has a huge potential and it is definitely good place to invest.
Furthermore, Indonesia has number of highly skilled people in various areas, such as IT, art, mining etc. My focus is mainly in IT and I already noticed how highly skilled Indonesian programmers can be. It's interesting to know that Indonesia has one of the largest Java (programming language) user communities in the world and many local Java programmers able to work on most difficult Java projects - I believe the popularity of this language has lot to do with its name. Indonesia is actually a very good place for outsourcing and I myself managed to outsource several IT project to Indonesia with a successful result. I hope more will follow and one day Indonesia will be as popular destination for outsourcing as India. Unfortunately, Internet connection is still extremely expensive here, but I believe it will eventually get cheaper.

9. Domestic servants.

Ability to hire domestic servants is one of the significant advantages of living in Indonesia. An average monthly salary of a maid who can take care of your house of apartment can be around 100$ a month - if they work at apartment usually they take care of few apartments to make more profit. Driver's monthly salary can be in range of US$150 plus overtime. Clearly it does not cost much to hire domestic servants in Indonesia. Their work make our lives lot easier and saves us lots of precious time.
Certainly, presence of domestic servants in Indonesia is caused by poverty and overall it is quite sad. Yet, I personally think that considering high unemployment in Indonesia, giving job to people is always a good thing, even if it is job of gardener, house keeper or security guard. Just make sure you appreciate their work and help them in some ways i.e. by supporting education of their children.

10. Low cost of living.

Indonesia can be very cheap place to live and if you have foreign source of income you'll definitely enjoy staying here. The gasoline is extremely cheap if compared to Europe (only around US$0.5 per litre). Food at restaurants is also lot cheaper than in neighbour countries and extremely cheap if compared to Europe or USA. Property is also not too expensive (yet) and if you're a smoker you can buy very cheap cigarettes.
Clearly, Indonesia is a very interesting place to live and now you probably understand better why some foreigners decide to live in Indonesia. Simply speaking it is a beautiful, dynamic country with fantastic people. Definitely a great place to live, invest and enjoy your life.

Sunday morning M5.7 Earthquake felt in Jakarta

This morning around 6AM my wife woke me up as she has felt an earthquake. Accodring to her the appartment building was swaying which was fairly scary. I couldn't feel anything in my sleep so I was actually wondering if it was only a dream. However, just few minutes later I got an SMS "Moderate earthquake (M5.7) occured on 24-Dec 05:59:47 (WIB/GMT+7) 52km (SW) from Labuhan (West Java), 148km (SSE) from Bandar Lampung.". It was an SMS from Earthquake Information Service offered by one of the local companies - I subscribed to it sometime ago. It is a really useful service which informs about important earthquakes within South-East Asia region, often long time before you even hear about it in radio.

If you wish to subscribe just send SMS with content "REG EARTHQUAKE" to 6768 (works with all Indonesian operators i.e. Telkomsel, XL, Flexi, Mobile 8 etc.) - costs Rp1000 per received SMS (US$0.1). Anyway, this just shows how useful mobilephones can be in informing/alerting people about all sort of threats, thus I believe few years from now mobile phones will not only be used as a communication device, but also help to save our lives by providing all sort of threat warnings and information to citizens.

Rainy season arrives in Jakarta (Dolphins?!)

Long-awaited rainy season clearly arrives as we finally have some rain in Jakarta. This certainly brings risk of floods, horrible traffic jams caused by massive rainfalls, need for an umbrella etc. which all is obviously nothing fun. Fortunately, there are some positive aspects of heavy rains such as less pollution after the rain or cooler weather. Strangely, I've always had strong interest in extreme weather especially strange cloud formations. I'm often amazed with storms that I can observe in Jakarta and I'm pretty sure there will be lots of opportunities to shoot some interesting pictures over this rainy season. I'll try to post it on my blog if I have something interesting.

Anyway, there is something strange about me that relates to the rain. All important events in my life (including my wedding this year) were accompanied by rain. The wedding was especially interesting as hotel already prepared outdoor wedding ceremony at the beach, but frankly speaking I was already sure it will rain for the ceremony, thus I've already asked about the possibility of moving everything indoor if it rains. Not surprisingly, it started to rain just before the ceremony and we had to move everything indoor. Rain can be seen as either a blessing or a curse, and it is up to us to determine which way we will perceive it. Fortunately, in my culture rain means blessing thus I take it positively and simply look forward to see what rain brings me.

Anyway, I browsed through my photos and found one photo that I've been trying to find for quite some time.

I took it at Lovina (North Bali) while swimming around the coast and trying to shoot some photos of Dolphins, which as you can see on the photos below, was quite successful.

Google shoots a satellite Photo of Jakarta

Very good news! Google Maps and Google Earth finally provide high quality satellite map of Jakarta. Finally, after waiting for so long, I’ll be able to use this precise satellite map of Jakarta in my own applications (through Google API), I can also measure the distance between various points of Jakarta (using Google Earth), record location of various places in Jakarta, use this map in my research etc. The list of possible use of this map is very long and I bet many of you will find it extremely useful in your own projects.

Unfortunately, the map is approximately 2 years old, so if you need a very accurate current map of Jakarta or it is a commercial project, you’ll probably have to buy a commercial map. The area of West and South Jakarta is also not included, thus you won't find Blok M there nor Fatmawati street. However, considering that Google provides this map free of charge, I think this is not a reason to complain about.

Anyway, find links to satelite zoom of some well known spots in Jakarta:

• Monas
• Bunderan HI (Hotel Indonesia, Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Grand Hyatt, Plaza Indonesia)
• Plaza Semangi (still under construction)
• Ancol
• Senayan
• Kelapa Gading Mal
• Jl. Rasuna Said
• Gedung MPR/DPR (parliament building)

Cool isn’t it?!

The tale of Mba Sri and a missing mobile phone

Majority of Jakarta’s middle class families employ at least one domestic servant. For few hundred thousands Indonesian Rupiahs monthly (US$40-100 + food) servants cook meals, wash dirty dishes, clean the messy house or apartment, wash and iron dirty clothes, take care of kids while parents are away etc., the list goes long. Overall they save their employers lots of time which they can spend in a better way. Due to the nature of their work, domestic servants are also those trusted the most. They are the one with easy access to our food, kids and our property and are almost like member of the family. But, can we trust them as much as our family?

Most expatriates living in Indonesia used to do the house work themselves. This is why they quickly tend to notice and truly enjoy the benefit of employing domestic servants. It is something new, very enjoyable and unfortunately very addictive. After several years of living in Indonesia life without maid becomes difficult. Lack of domestic servant is actually one of the most common elements of Indonesia missed by expatriates returning home. Suddenly, after few years of being lazy again they have to do all the housework by themselves. It actually gets shocking to this point for some, that they ask their Indonesian maids to join them.

The benefit of having maids (called here “pembantu”) or drivers (“sopir”) is so great for an average expatriate, that they often tend to forget about the risks involved. As previously mentioned domestic servants are almost like member of our family as they have very easy access to food, our children and our property, definitely highly trusted individuals. But, how did they get to this position? Well, in fact most families employ their domestic servants fairly quickly and very irresponsibly. Usually expatriates get their housekeepers by asking around, getting some recommendations and after little bargaining hire the person.

The result as I’ve learnt can be often very surprising.

Early experiences (if this article sounds boring skip this chapter)

I employed several house keepers over the period of living in Indonesia. The first two house keepers were not hired by my employer, thus I had not much to do. I think they were relatively good. The next one I hired myself when I moved from house to apartment. She was from Java and had a children and husband. I found here thanks to the recommendation of my friend living in the same apartment complex. Since there was not much work at my place, she used to come once a day to clean the apartment. She continued to work for me for about 6 months and then she decided to go back to her village – as far as I remember she was expecting a baby. Overall I had no problem with her and the apartment was always well maintained. In fact I’ve even rarely seen her as she had the copy of the apartment key and we’ve met only on the salary day.

My next maid was recommended by security guard at the apartment. He vouched for her and asked me to let him know if I’d ever have any problem. This maid also came once a week except weekends and as previous maid she didn’t have much work. Two hours a day and everything was done – I paid Rp400K (~40$) monthly which considering that she had to work only two hours a day was very high, if compared to the local standards. As my friend was looking for a maid I recommended her to him and she started to work for both of us, making pretty decent income I believe.

Then I decided to move to my new apartment and my house keeper started to work full-time for my friend and take care of his kids.

It would be long story so I’ll just briefly mention that sometime later I got married and my wife moved to my apartment. Since there were two of us living here, it added some housework, and since both of us are pretty busy working, we decided to get some house keeper.

Mba Sri (here it gets interesting)

Mba Sri was a house keeper at my wife’s home. She was working there for only six months, as the previous maid got some rich sailor as her boyfriend – actually my wife’s uncle - and she moved to his place and proudly quit her maid position. Her replacement was Mba Sri, woman around 40 who was recommended by our driver. Mba Sri was a bit overweight Javanese lady who dragged her little son everywhere. The kid was actually really something, but I’ll leave it for another story. Anyway, as we decided to get maid we asked her to come once or twice a week (Saturday and Sunday) for few hours and clean our apartment. To make it easier for her we asked our driver to pick her up and drop her back, plus we paid her Rp300K (~30$) on top of her current salary, which increased her earning to more than double of an average maid’s salary. As expected she always came with her kid, who definitely enjoyed that as he was getting some sweets and some enjoyable stuff such as drawing something with colour pens. One Sunday he seem to enjoy drawing a lot so I gave him some blue marker to draw and after he could keep it to himself. His mother was cleaning the floor and after my driver took all of them home.

Well, frankly I must say I didn’t like Mba Sri since the first day I met her. The kid was funny, but I had rather negative feeling about his mother – actually for no specific reason, there was just something wrong in her.

Where is my mobile phone?

I used Telkom Flexi for internet connection and sometimes to make a phone call. The phone is Nokia 6585 and in fact it is replacement for the original Nokia 6585 that I’ve bought. The phone I’ve bough was stolen from an organiser of charity event that I supported in many ways, which also included providing my CDMA phone for the event information line. I got Nokia 6585 owned by event organiser as the replacement for the one which was stolen from him. Anyway, one Saturday I ran out of credits (ind. “pulsa”) and left my phone on the desk. I bought new credits (ind. “pulsa”) on Monday and wanted to reload my phone and surprisingly couldn’t find it. Half an hour of searching and still nothing, thus I decided to call it and find it when it rings. I called. The phone was on but no ringing around and suddenly something surprising happened.

Some guy: “Halo?”

Me: “Eeeeee … Halo?”
Some guy: “Ini Siapa?” (eng. “Who’s that”);
Me: “Eeeeee?! Huh?! Ini Marek? Ini numor berapa. Ini siapa?” (“This is Marek. Which number is that?”)
Some guy: “Saya tidak tahu. Itu bukan telepon punya Saya.” (eng. “I don’t know. This is not my phone.”)
Me: “Ya?” (eng. “Yes?”)
Some guy: “Saya di rumah Mba Sri. Mau bicara dengan siapa?” (eng. “I’m at Mrs. Sri house. Who do you want to talk to?”)
Me: “Itu hand phone saya. Kenapa anda punya telepon saya?”. (eng. “This is my mobile phone. Why have you got my phone?”)
Some guy: “Tidak tahu. Saya perlu tanya dulu.” (eng. “I don’t know. I need to ask first.”)

The guy disconnected and 15 minutes later the phone was off.

Well, I checked the number on my phone display and everything was correct, it was a phone number of my Telkom Flexi phone. Surprisingly, this guy was in possession of my mobile phone! But wait, he said “Saya di rumah Mba Sri.”, this name sounds familiar. I called my wife and asked about the name of our maid, so my wife answered “Mba Sri”. Well, this definitely was name of my maid who was here yesterday with her kid cleaning our apartment! Dot to dot and I believed I had a good idea of where my phone could be and how it got there.

I explained all this to my wife. She called her mother and sister, explained everything and asked to talk to the maid when she comes.

“It is always the best policy to speak the truth--unless, of course, you are an exceptionally good liar.” - Jerome K. Jerome

When Mba Sri came to my wife’s house her sister immediately asked where the mobile phone is. Mba Sri surprised asked which mobile phone and later assured that she doesn’t know anything about the missing mobile phone. The conversation lasted for several hours and included my wife’s mother and sister and crying Mba Sri. When we said to Mba Sri that we will call Police, she said to do so as she is innocent. Anyway, to make it short I’ll just summarise the top statements of Mba Sri:

• “I swear to my husband's life that I didn’t steal any mobile phone”;
• “You rich people accuse me poor servant of stealing. I would never steal anything. I’m poor but not a thief”;
• “You people are cruel. I want to tell this to Marek. Please ask him to come, I want to tell him how cruel he is to accuse me poor innocent servant of stealing”;

Right, this is so convincing that most of you already think I’m the pure evil expatriate who abuses his domestic servants. Because of me poor Mba Sri was sitting there crying with her kid also crying and assuring everyone that she is innocent. In fact this was convincing to this extent that my wife’s mother was already thinking I’m cruel and I accuse this poor maid of stealing while she is innocent. My sister in law also started to think the same about me. Moreover, my wife started to question if I really had my mobile phone on the desk or maybe I’ve lost it somewhere. Things were getting bit out of control and I started to get upset with everyone around, thus I decided it would be better to deal with Indonesia's famed Police.

The Police

Fortunately, there was one fact which assured me that I was right. Someone on the phone did say that the phone was at Mba Sri’s house. This just couldn’t be a coincidence and even if almost everyone was against me I knew I was right. She was the only one who could have stolen the mobile phone as there was no one else at the apartment. Moreover, my driver added credibility to my story by saying that Mba Sri once tried to sell a mobile phone to him explaining that she had found it on the street.

All this looked rather feasible so I hoped Police officers will believe in my story. I went to the Police station accompanied by my wife and my driver. After short description of the problem to two police officers, they said it would be best to talk to Mba Sri or maybe visit her house first and see if someone remembers the mobile phone. I must say that since beginning the Police officers were very professional and helpful – they didn’t even ask for any payment, really.

Accompanied by two police officers we went to her house. Doors were shut, lights were off etc., so we went to my wife’s house and meet Mba Sri there as she continued to cry and assure my wife’s mother that she is innocent. When we arrived and she noticed us walking with two police officers she started to look bit panicked. She immediately stopped crying and in fact she got into pretty positive mood, even laughed a bit. When questioned by police officer she assured that she didn’t take the phone. She repeated this many times and said that I’m wrong, that I’ve lost my mobile phone sometimes - not true - and she didn’t take it.

As someone who does not understand everything she says I was paying more attention to her face expressions rather than words and in my feeling she was clearly lying. Whatever she said was not convincing to me at all.

The best part of the story starts.

When my wife explained that her position is very weak as there was nobody else at home, just us, things started to change. Also, my wife explained about the phone call and that we can get location of the mobile phone and if it is in the area of her house she will go to jail. We also said that if she gives back the phone, we will not press any charges against her. If not, she will be arrested tomorrow. After hearing this she suddenly started to talk in a bit different way.

- “Pak Marek must have put his phone somewhere at the apartment and forgot. I am sure it is in his bag or somewhere. Let me go to the apartment and find it”;

Huh? I said to my wife “This is totally ridiculous! Does she think I’m an idiot?” However, my wife said that it seems she wants to return the phone. After short discussion we agreed to this scenario as my wife started to believe that she wants to return the phone pretending that I’ve put it somewhere at the apartment and forgot where. After this discussion we went back with Police officers to the police station. On the way police officers told us that after three minutes of discussion they were already sure she was a liar. They investigated number of criminals and it was really obvious when talking with her that she was the theft.

Anyway, now it gets even better. Half an hour later Mba Sri calls my wife’s sister and says “The mobile phone was found”. “I called the number and some rubbish man answered and said he has found it among rubbish! I already have this phone at my place and I’ll return it tomorrow.”

Can you believe this?! The best thing was that SHE DIDN’T KNOW THE PHONE NUMBER OF THAT MOBILE PHONE. Plus, there was another thing that really knocked me down. She asked some money from us for the rubbish man as a gratitude for his kindness of returning the mobile phone. Can you imagine? We just caught her on stealing mobile phone and she wants to get some money to return it! Unbelievable! All this after we treated her extremely well, gave lots of stuff to her kid etc. and paid her a very high salary.

I got my phone back next day. The power button and Infra Red sensor were all scratched as they tried to switch it off and didn’t know how. We were all totally shocked for a few days. It was just unbelievable that someone we trusted, someone we treated so well could be such a liar and a theft and most of all lie to us in such a convincing way. We have also found out that she had stolen not only the mobile phone but also some of my wife’s clothes.

Shocking, isn’t it? Anyway, the positive meaning of this story is to learn that we can actually count on the local policeman. They can be very helpful and actually solve our problem. However, if you are an expatriate just remember to consider they extremely low salary and also remember about the policeman day. This way you will assure they will be maximum helpful to you, not the criminals.

Yes, I’ll do the same thing again, give you some useful advice, sorry just can’t resist. If you’re the kind that hates advices just skip this part:

• Find your house keepers by recommendation, not by newspaper advertisement. The best people to ask are apartment security guards, security guard in nearby shop or apartment, your friends etc. However, keep the concept of ‘segregation of duties’, thus if you live in a house and have a security guard for the night, I’d rather advice you to ask the security guard at the housing complex or nearby house; otherwise you may end up being robbed by your security guard and house keeper working together – this happens often in Jakarta;
• Beware of the most common trick used by house keepers, I call it “hide and seek”. House keeper simply put some of your belongings in a place that you most likely won’t check. Then she waits few weeks or even a month and check if you ask about the missing thing or found it by yourself. If you didn’t, she just takes it. If within few weeks you suddenly ask about it, she can still tell you that she’ll try to find it and then she just says she has found it (in that place). By observing how frustrated you are trying to find it she will evaluate if she keeps the thing or returns it;
• Keep photo copy of your house keeper documents and at best know where she lives – try to verify this from time to time, as house keepers tend to move often. This will be extremely useful in case you need to deal with police;
• Know where your house keeper family lives;
• When you hire new house keeper, tell her that the previous one was arrested by police for stealing. Put on your desk some photos of you and police officers;
• Trusted housekeeper will be most likely skinny, shy and speak quietly. The least trusted will be most likely loud and arrogant, overweight who talks often about money or her poor financial situation;
• Avoid hiring domestic servants when: they are in debt, are in very difficult financial situation – this may sound cruel to some, but one of the major reasons for stealing is the financial pressure. Also when in general they don’t like rich people or expatriates (if you’re expatriate) or your ethnic group – this could give them motive to steal;
• Pay your domestic servants fair and on time; consider supporting education of their children;

If you know some other stories or advice, just post it in comments. I myself heard many stories about car stolen by drivers, anyone could write more about this?

PS1: I know this story sounds like a top quality “Sinetron” (Indonesian soap opera) thus I’d like to remind that I reserve all rights to it. PS2: Should I order coffin for her husband?

Copyright © 2006 Marek Bialoglowy. All Rights Reserved.

Clouds over Jakarta

Since my holidays, I haven’t got much time to publish anything on my blog. I’m working on a bigger research paper covering banking security in Indonesia, which unfortunately requires lots of work. Beside that, I’m still heavily occupied with my current projects, thus hardly can find spare time for anything else, such as my blog. I hope to be able to write some security related articles when I clear up my TODO list a bit.

Anyway, I wanted to write about something else. The rainy season is almost over and a heavy rain such as the one yesterday won’t happen to often. I personally love to watch storms, thunders and some other crazy weather conditions. This fascination is not rare as around the world there are number of “tornado hunters”, “storm hunters” and other enthusiasts of extreme weather condition. They even got clubs, web-sites with amazing photos and lots of papers on the science aspects of weather.

Jakarta is an extremely interesting place for everyone interested in extreme weather conditions. The weather here can change rapidly and often turns into very heavy storms or thunderstorms accompanies by heavy winds.

Here is some of the best photos from my collection of most interesting weather conditions from the ending rainy season.

The three photos bellow document one of the most interesting weather conditions that I’ve ever seen in Jakarta. As you can see on the photos below, a massive low-level cloud formed and hanged at a very low altitude leaving clear air pocket below. What I’ve found interesting is the almost uniform altitude of the massive dark-gray clouds for distance around 10km from the center of Jakarta towards the sea, while a clear pocket of air without rain appeared bellow.

It looks very interesting on the photos, but in real it looked simply amazing, especially when the storm became very heavy and clouds got very dark. I’d call it a dooms day effect.

One of the other interesting aspects of weather in Jakarta is the difference in weather conditions depending on the area of Jakarta. You may have crazy storm in Mega Kuningan and not a single drop of rain near Merdeka Palace (only a few kilometers away).

I think this photo is a perfect example of this effect.

As you can see we got a heavy rain above Kota, Merdeka Palace and nice sunset over Sudirman, Kuningan, Kemang. One more photo:

The most impressive weather condition I’ve ever seen in Jakarta happened two years ago. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a digital camera with me thus I could shoot some photos only with my mobile phone. Just take a look at this:

Believe it or not, these photos were taken around 3:30pm. Normally, at 3:30pm we got a bright shiny day here, but that time it was almost dark.

Heavy rains in Jakarta certainly bring floods, creates massive traffic jams and cause lots of problems. However, beside these negative aspects, it's just interesting to see this amazing power of nature. I think heavy storms just remind us that we are not so powerful when it comes to the weather and that we should respect the environment.