Ramadan and getting out of the big J

Ramadan

The last few weeks have been interesting as it’s been the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan and we’ve had some family visit from Australia. Jakarta is mostly Muslim and so when Ramadan started on the 1st of August, it means most eateries are shut (or at least visibly shut) during the day. The month of Ramadan is supposed to be when Muslims reflect on spiritual things and fast between the hours of about 5am and 6pm. This includes abstaining from drinking water, smoking, swearing and marital relations. This means things generally slow down, work finishes an hour early and everyone else feels guilty for eating. For me (Nat), work continued to cater for us as many people at Komnas Perempuan are non-Muslims. The nightlife in Jakarta appears to quieten down a bit during this period and many establishments pretend to be shut so that they are not smashed up by zealous Islamic moral hardliners.

Excited Muslims riding atop a van on a highway at high speed

While Ramadan is not always the most exciting time for tourists, it does present an interesting cultural perspective to the visitor – plus it meant our pool was usually free during the day!

Trips here and there


Tiger Island

We try and get out of Jakarta as much as possible on weekends. We have a few expat friends who share this passion too and together we’ve been trying to experience as much of Indonesia as we can while we’re here. In our last post in July we mentioned a bit about some of the things we get up to but we forgot to mention Pulau Macan (Tiger Island).

Candice wading between Tiger Island and its sister island

If you’re on a tight schedule or only have the weekend to spare, taking a trip to the Seribu Islands is a great choice. The word ‘seribu’ means a thousand but there are more like about 50 islands. These islands are just off the coast of Jakarta and can be reached by boat within a few hours. They range in size, popularity, accommodation price and standard but one of the pricier options is the Tiger Island Eco Resort. Mainly visited by expats, a night here will set you back about $200 (including transport, food and accommodation) but it’s totally worth it. The island is tiny and is privately owned. About 100 metres away is another uninhabited island also owned by the same mob which you can swim, wade or kayak to. Accommodation is in open-air huts and the food is excellent. There are some great snorkelling trips and by the end of the two days it feels like you’ve been there forever. Gee this is starting to sound like an ad. Anyone in Jakarta with a weekend to spare check out the Pulau Macan website.

In July we went with friends Leslie, Cambria and Manuela. Here are some pics:

Cianjur and Oz Visitors

Candice: My sister and her boyfriend, Larissa and Michael, came to Jakarta for a couple of days. We were able to show them the massive shopping malls and constant traffic jams that Jakarta has to offer. It was a great time with a trip to the Magnum restaurant where you can make your own magnum and a night out at Karaoke.

Enter Sandman karaoke

About a week and a half after Larissa and Michael left my other sister Odette came to visit. She had been living in China and was on her way back home to Australia with a stop off in Indonesia. We took Odette on the standard tour of Jakarta, again visiting the shopping malls and the famous Magnum cafe as well as the old town of Jakarta and the markets out at Tanah Abang.

Candice and Larissa

We were also able to take Odette on a weekend trip to Cianjur. Cianjur is about 2 and a half hours drive from Jakarta. We stayed with an awesome home stay program, as this trip was really off the beaten track. It was so great to breathe in fresh air and experience what life is like

for Indonesians who live outside of Jakarta. On the Saturday we went to a floating fishing village and saw how they farm fish and live on a dam. On Sunday we did a trek to a traditional rural village. It was so relaxing to walk through rice paddy fields and to take in all that precious fresh air. The people in this village not only farm rice, but they also farm zucchinis, beans, palm sugar, lemon grass and bananas. All this they take to the markets to sell. When we arrived at the house all the women were making a traditional sweet out of the palm sugar, which they then go and sell back in Cianjur. It was a very interesting experience and such a great time to show Odette a different side of Indonesia.

Riding a boat through the water village

The water village on the dam

Our preferred mode of transport: back of truck

Village rice paddies

Three little pigs

Making palm sugar to sell at the market

Delicious lunch in the Sundanese village

Back to town after a long day's trek

Work and other stuff

Nat: Compared to July, work at Komnas Perempuan has been a lot slower. I’ve mainly been working on translations with a bit of research here and there but things are going to pick up come September and the Eid-il-fitri holidays are over. This has meant though that I’ve been able to start an English Club at work. This is part of the effort to improve and encourage the use of English at the commission and due to the number of people interested, I hold 3 sessions a week after hours. Although I have stressed that it’s not a class, I am not an English teacher and I am not really qualified as such, my colleagues persist in calling me ‘teacher’ and asking about ‘class’. I have given up and embraced the misnomer. English Club has been fun so far – we read articles, have discussions, play games and learn new words. The only drawback is that I have to do brief ‘lesson plans’ that can impinge on my actual daily duties. Thankfully so far it hasn’t been too much of a problem.

Candice has been edging closer to getting an official assignment with Sahabat Anak as well. Fingers crossed that everything will be sorted by September.

Before we arrived in Jakarta we thought we would definitely purchase bicycles to get around. This way we’d keep fit and save money. A few weeks ago we went looking for second-hand bikes but couldn’t make up our minds. We’re still undecided at this point as my office is fairly close to home, we can get around cheaply by public transport and cycling in Jakarta is not as pleasant as we had envisioned.

Having a 'creambath' and posing with a pig hat

Life in Jakarta

(we've been slack and this post was meant to go up in early - mid July)
We've now been in Jakarta for the last over a month. In that time Nat has started work at Komnas Perempuan, and we went on a massive accomodation hunt and found an awesome apartment (left) in central Jakarta. We moved in about 4 weeks ago. We are living on the 28th floor so we have a great view of the city. Well at times its a great view when there is a wind that blows away all the smog. On other days like today the view is spoiled by the smog and you can't see very far at all.

The same view from our place on a normal day (top) and a good day (bottom)

Jakarta is an massive city with a greater metropolitan population bigger than Australia's entire population. Traffic is always crazy and taxi drivers will always say macet, which means traffic jam. Everything is so much more expensive in Jakarta then the rest of Indonesia. We could eat a meal for 5000 rupiah in Yogyakarta but in Jakarta its hard to eat for 15,000 rupiah. So many Indonesians move here to earn more money, but prices are pushed up by the extreme wealth that you can also see in Jakarta. While we were looking for a place to rent, we were staying at a hotel in a suburb called Menteng. Menteng is full of massive houses for rich Indonesian politicians and foreign embassies. On the other hand, right near this suburb there is a "river" which is more like a drain it’s so flithy. Undernearth the bridges that cross this river we saw whole families living there. The massive gap between wealthy and poor here is so obvious.

Looking for a place to rent on an 'ojek' or motorcycle taxi

Jakarta does not have many tourist hot spots to offer except for copious amounts of shopping malls. The shopping malls vary from massive malls with rip off hand bags and watches or massive malls with authentic Chanel, Hugo Boss etc. etc. The only thing for Indonesian families to do in Jakarta on weekends is hang out at shopping malls. So we have seen many a wealthy family with their one child and two nannies. One nanny to mind the child while the other nanny pushes the empty pram. Nannies also have to wear a uniform with nanny written on the side of the arm. These shopping malls are a strange environment where an Indonesian women will happily buy a $17,000 hand bag. And then the minute you step out side you can find children begging on the streets.Many poor people live either on the streets or under any available shelter, such as this bridge located over an open sewer near where Nat works.

Nannies and maids are the norm here. Each apartment that we looked at comes with a place for the maid to sleep. It is a tiny room, think Harry Potter under the stairs type of situation. To have a full time maid who works 7 days a week it costs about $70 for a month. Not much at all. And the maid will do everything for you, cook, clean, wash clothes and even run errands. One Indonesian woman told me how it is just so difficult having children, you have no time to yourself. This is a lady who has two children, one is 6 years old and the other is 18 months. She has two nannies to look after them, she doesnt work and the 6 year old goes to school on week days. I am not sure what could be difficult about that, sounds like a life of luxury. Maybe its difficult because it would be easy to become bored with nothing to do.

A colourful 'bajaj' or auto-rickshaw which appears to be sponsored by the United Kingdom

The 'economy class' train which is so full that people risk their lives sitting on the roof

Motorcycles, what would you do without one?

Nova and Candice ride a bajaj

Nat:

I’m writing this section a couple of weeks after the rest of this post. On the 15^th of June 2011, I started my assignment at the National Commission on Violence Against Women (aka Komnas Perempuan). Having never worked professionally outside Australia, my first day was a daunting experience, although after Candice and I were introduced to most of the staff I was told to come back the next day to formally start. This let me catch my breath a bit. I’ve now been there for over a month and I’m quite enjoying it.

Now although Komnas Perempuan’s title appears to confine it to ‘violence’against women, in actual fact it is one of the foremost women’s human rights defenders in Indonesia (and probably the region). The commission was set up under legislation in 1998 after the infamous riots in which ethnic Chinese businesses were destroyed and ethnic Chinese women were raped in various cities around the country. Despite the government connections, it is entirely independent and has been responsible for documenting, reporting and researching various human rights abuses against women around Indonesia, including events as far back as the 1960s. Many of its work and data is used by UN independent experts and it is held in high regard by UN bodies and other international organisations working in the region. Komnas Perempuan also plays a large role in law reform and advocating for legislative changes on discriminatory laws and acts as an intermediary between grassroot activist organisations and the government. My position title is Research Editor and my responsibilities include editing English language publications, international legal research and assisting generally in its English language output and capacity.

Due to my Bahasa Indonesia skills, one of my main duties has become translation of documents and publications into English, which suprisingly I quite enjoy. This last week and a half have been quite busy as we’ve just hosted an international conference on discrimination against women in the context of religion and culture in conjunction with the UN Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights. I was fortunate to have been involved in helping organise the conference and I’ve met some very interesting and incredible people. Anyway, I’m sure there will be more posts on my job to come!

Candice:

Nat and I are getting into the swing of things living in Jakarta. We even had a house warming the other night with some friends from AVI and others we have met along the way. Two weekends ago we did a day trip to Bogor, a city/suburb nearby with our American friends Leslie, Kate and Amy. It has a massive botanical garden which was quite interesting. Although in true indonesian style there was still rubbish everywhere. However we saw cocoa trees with the cocoa fruit on them and many beautiful orchids. We also made our way to the gong factory in a little industrial side of town. Quite the experience! We are quickly learning that there is no such thing as safety standards here!

The MONAS (Monumen Nasional) also known as Sukarno's last erection

We’ve been trying to use our free time wisely by being proactive and seeing as much of Jakarta and its surroundings as possible. A few weekends ago we went to Old Batavia and Sunda Kelapa, the old port and Dutch colonial side of town which is sadly now falling apart. Buildings built in the 1500s simply lie abandoned and rotting away. Some have been turned into museums but the lack of conservation and hordes of local tourists sitting on antique furniture and touching artifacts will mean they won’t be around for much longer.

Some scenes and videos of Old Batavia and Sunda Kelapa:

Fatahillah Square - this 16th century building is now a museum

Candice and the old Portuguese cannon dubbed 'Si Jaguar' by the locals

Indonesian primary school students love practicing their English and taking photos with white tourists. It gets exhausting but they're really cute.

The old canal


Colonial-era buildings in need of repair

A drawbridge from the 1500s - the oldest in Indonesia

Ironically, this monument was erected in 1996 to commemorate the efforts of preserving the old town. Look at it now.


Children play soccer in Sunda Kelapa amongst the rubbish



View from the old Dutch tower into the slums

Last days in Jogjakarta

It’s 10 June 2011 and we’ve been in Jogja now for almost exactly 4 weeks. So far things have been pretty relaxed and we’re not missing anything too much yet except maybe orderly queues. Tomorrow we leave this fascinating city for Jakarta to begin the next phase of our lives. This is our last post for Jogja and we thought we’d cover a few things that we’ve been up to since our first Jogja post.

Streaks of clouds emanate from Mount Merapi over paddy fields in suburban Jogja

Borobudur

After several weeks here we finally managed to visit the famed ancient Buddhist temple of Borobudur on a language school field trip. Built in the 9^th century, this relic was abandoned a couple of hundred years later and fell into ruin until it was discovered by Stamford Raffles in the early 1800s. Years of painful restoration have finally returned Borobudur to its former glory and it’s now probably the most famous attraction for visitors to Jogja.

Borobudur scenes

Given I (Nat) had been in dire need of a haircut for some time (which is of course entirely my own fault) I decided it would be for the better if I just bit the bullet and got a buzz cut. Besides, what did I have to lose? Nobody knows me here and it would help with the heat. I asked around for the most economic way to achieve this and here’s what we found: Transportation to place of haircut = free, cost of actual haircut = 50 cents, the experience of getting my head shaved by a random bloke with manual clippers under a big tree on the side of a busy highway while being curiously observed by gawking locals after watching the bloke use exactly the same instruments on a kid before me without cleaning them = priceless.

My 50 cent hair cut

Solo

We try and make every weekend count by seeing as much as we can outside of Jogja. Since the weekend before we had conquered a volcano, we decided to adopt a slightly more chilled approach this time and so last weekend we took the train to Solo, a nearby city. The trip was just over an hour and the train was absolutely packed. We felt it deserved a video.

Where Melbourne has Sydney, Manchester United has Liverpool, Aussie Rules has Rugby League and Alien has Predator, well I guess Jogja has Solo. The two cities share many similarities including their proximity to Merapi, the fact they both have Sultans and their love of batik. History tells us that they’ve had their share of squabbles including the split to the thrown a few centuries ago which resulted in two competing royal households. They both also lay claim to the fact they have the best batik in Indonesia. Jogja seems to have a slightly more relaxed air about it with a booming arts and music scene whereas Solo seems to be a tad more conservative. It was unfortunately also the site of some of the infamous race riots of 1998 during the fall of Suharto when ethnic Chinese were assaulted and murdered, their business and homes burned and their women raped. Apparently gangs of men were marching from Solo to Jogja to do the same but the Sultan of Jogja called on all the citizens to gather in the city and to protect it. Jogja escaped unscathed.

Just like Jogja, Solo (aka Surakarta) has both a sultan and (for want of a better word), a prince (or second in charge royally). The Sultan of Solo lives at the Kraton and the Prince of Solo lives at a separate palace called the Istana Mangkunegaran. It got a good rap in the Lonely Planet so we paid it a visit and were not disappointed. It’s in much better condition than the Kraton in Jogja and way less crowded.

Scenes from Solo

We also visited the markets and paid a visit to a privately owned batik museum called House of Danar Hadi. The collection is amazing and I (Nat) know more about batik and how it is made that I ever thought I would care to know after a tour of that museum. Some of the collection is over 200 years old and it includes extremely rare Dutch Batik which is apparently no longer produced. We weren’t allowed to take any photos but out the back were rows and rows of women waxing and dying the batik. It was a tad sweatshop-esque. Handmade batik is such a labour-intensive process that it would probably be too expensive to produce on a large scale in a Western country.

The hardworking batik makers

Life in Jogja

Indonesians love their karaoke and they have state-of-the-art facilities that cater for it. We’ve been out with language school buddies, teachers and other volunteers several times to exercise our vocal cords at Happy Puppy, an excellent family karaoke centre where you get a spacious private lounge you rent by the hour.

We’ve been enjoying our daily classes at Wisma Bahasa and it’s become somewhat of a routine to go to class in the morning, have lunch, do an activity of some sort and then spend the rest of the afternoon at the nearby swimming pool. We could get used to this! We ride our bikes everywhere and apart from a particularly annoying mechanical problem on a hot day in the middle of traffic, they’ve been awesome!

Above: Life is good in Jogja

Our homestay

The actual language classes at Wisma Bahasa have been great. They are one-on-one and we each have about 5 teaches that rotate throughout the week. Since we’re all at different levels, our courses are really tailored for us individually. I (Nat) generally spend 90% of each class just chatting with the teachers about life and about 10% of the time doing work. I’ve been mainly using the classes to refresh my language skills and identify core differences between Indonesian and Malay. Lately I’ve been looking at articles dealing with women’s rights in Indonesia and discussing other interesting issues with my teachers.

Us at Wisma Bahasa: Candice in class, Nat on bikkie break

Today was our last day of class. Candice and I visited Rifka Annisa, a local NGO that deals with female victims of domestic violence and other women’s advocacy issues. Given my assignment will be with Komnas Perempuan in Jakarta, it was a good introduction to my work in Indonesia. It was a bit sad farewelling our teachers but we’re sure this won’t be the last we see of Jogja!

Our fieldtrip to Rifka Annisa

Farewell to our teachers at Wisma Bahasa

With Pak Sunarto and Bu Ning on our last morning in Jogja