My Life in Jakarta

My Life in JAKARTA

DANGDUT - my most favorite music in Indonesia!!

TARA lives in the center of DKI Jakarta. Recently I have relocated to a room in apartment in Kuningan area, which is one of most famous business districts in Jakarta. Do you want to see how my daily life looks like? (*grin*)

A long story of private drivers

In Jakarta usually expatriates use a private driver for transportation. It is very difficult to find a good driver. Recently I had to separate my 13th driver and welcomed an another. Somehow, I'm a record holder of the number of drivers in three years!
There are several criteria and I learned one by one through adding more drivers in my list. If you are interested in this story, please visit here.

Entertainment - Karaoke

Karaoke is very popular also in Indonesia. There are two types of Karaoke in Jakarta. One is "self-enjoyment" type Karaoke which can also be seen in Japan (known as "box-karaoke"). There are many small rooms equipped with a Karaoke set, and we order songs and drinks/snacks by ourselves using a remote controller. I often go singing in this type of Karaoke with my colleagues in office. Usually I sing English songs like Billy Joel or Beetles, therefore some people call me "John" (^o^). Sometimes I also sing Indonesian songs like Dangdut.

DARMA at Blok M (southern Jakarta)
where I once "commuted" every other weeks. (*o*)

The other is bar type Karaoke which is VERY VERY popular among some Japanese guys. Usually they will have one-on-one service by a female companion. They help you order songs or drinks, so it's more technically convenient. They have a full set of Japanese songs, so I usually sing Japanese songs there. Some people seem to have additional fun beyond singing. For example a friend of mine mastered Bahasa Indonesia very quickly by learning it from his FAVORITE companion every day. Prices are definitely more expensive than the former ones - about 5-10 times!!!

Then GUESS which I prefer - OF COURSE the former!!! (REALLY??)

Another stressful life on the green..."Hit the ball straight !"

On weekends, I usually play golf. There are plenty of nice golf courses around JABOTABEK (Greater Jakarta). Many of them are priced reasonably, needless to say if compared with Japan!

When I started playing golf, I thought I could wipe out all my stress in the course. This is yet to be true. All my primitive mistakes during play makes me so angry!! Once my friend said to me, "TARA, we must be crazy guys. We are making excuses to wives, wasting a whole day in the weekend, spending lots of money, and yet getting more frustrated!!"

99% that's true - but we always bet for the last 1% probability to hit the ball perfectly...

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