Jakarta Oh Jakarta!

Someone once told me that I should consider Jakarta my second home since I come here so often...yes I am in Jakarta now...again...and yes it does feel like coming home...

I have many good friends here and I am comfortable walking the streets of Jakarta...you can get wonderful wonderful things here if you want to the streets...cheap street food, cheap hair wash that comes with wonderful head and back massage for only RM10...I mean where can you get that in Malaysia?

People are everywhere and they do everything...you can see kids play a flute next to your car window...or that old man who sells the daily newspaper at the traffic lights or that young man who has trained his monkeys perform a song and dance...also if you are stuck in traffic, you will never go hungry as there is always someone selling something...

Jakarta with all her charms have never bored me...you can always find something new to do here though I am somewhat a traditionalist and stick to things I enjoy like that head massage and eat the lovely meatball noodles...a native of Indonesia...and when you want to cross the road, don't bother with a zebra crossing, just stop traffic and cross...BE BOLD though!

I cannot say that everything is wonderful here, poverty walks the streets too...traffic is bad...when you have gone through Jakarta traffic, you will think twice before complaining about KL traffic again...

Jakarta will draw me back over and over again....with her lovely old charm which is hidden behind the big buildings in this lovely town...and everytime I come here I will always find something new to do...even though I am a traditionalist...well I guess that's life!

New Reads

I wrote 3 years ago that I would try to read more and make more effort in this area of my life...I guess, the best results happen when we really don't try...

This year without any conscious effort, I manage to get more reading done than recent years. For some reason, my readings this year has been more Asian writers amd one Brazilian guy (no prize for guessing who)...but the point is sometimes it is things that we try the least that turns out the best..well I guess that's life....