As you might expect, I have been thinking a lot about the differences between living in Jakarta and Honolulu. One thing struck me as my good friend insomnia was visiting me. I realized that there was no good reason to get up because there was no place more comfortable in the house than my bed. Some of this has to do with the lack of furniture in the house, but it also has to do with the fact that the bedroom is air conditioned and there are no mosquitos. Last night, I decided to get up and sit at the dining room table and doomscroll. Within 15 minutes, I had 4 mosquito bites.

We had to leave everything behind, so anything we need has to be purchased. I was a little concerned about this because 1) there is no Amazon delivery here, 2) we don’t know where the best places to buy are, and 3) the minute they see a foreigner, a vendor will immediately jack up their price 25%. Fortunately, they have their own online service here called Tokopedia. Toko is the Indonesian word for store. From the relative comfort of my plastic patio chair, I can order whatever I want. As long as I filter based on free delivery, I can get just about anything. This is the recliner I ordered that was delivered in 4 days.

Another thing to get used to is shopping for essentials/perishables. I think it is a lot like Japan, where they shop for their food each day. There are Alfamarts/Ceriamarts/Indomarets around every corner where you can get bread, milk, mosquito repellant(!), and the all-important soda. Also within walking distance are produce vendors. The only thing you can’t get easily is fresh meat. The convenience stores also have ATMs, so they are the defacto bank in the neighborhood.

Western goods are a little different. You can’t get Diet Coke, but they do have Coke Zero. Milk only comes in vacuum-sealed boxes. Bread only comes in half loaves. Another interesting thing is that many vendors have switched to electronic purchases only. They don’t take credit cards, but they have this QR code that you scan with your bank app and enter the amount to transfer.

Oh yeah, I think OSHA took the decade off, and here is what amounts to ADA compliance.

I am sitting on the patio writing this and waiting for my recliner to arrive (see above). It is about 11:00 AM and it is about as quiet as it will be until 12 hours from now. Anytime now, the traffic will start up as students go home to lunch. That will be followed by the rush hour traffic that will last until 9:00 PM. In spite of the noise, I have been able to keep up with my writing and should complete the first draft of my novel this week. 

It just started to rain, and that will keep the traffic to a minimum and hopefully lower the temperature. I’m going to take the holidays off, so you can look for my next post in the first week of 2025. Have a safe holiday season!

Between retiring, packing, moving, trying to create a writing routine, and adjusting to a new city, it feels a lot like I’ve been through a rinse cycle and then thrown into a dryer that someone forgot to turn off. We have been here almost 4 weeks now and things are finally settling down. My swollen feet from flying are normal size. I’m not sleeping on a Hawaii schedule and waking at 3 AM. My stomach is more or less used to the bacteria count and I don’t spend nearly as much time in the bathroom. We got our bank accounts established. Mostly, we’ve settled into a routine with the house. Here are some photos from our wanderings.

One of the fun activities has been going from office to office in search of our “papers”. It occasionally feels like I’m in a WW II movie where a gestapo agent is going to ask for my papers. Fortunately, it seems that they are just as confused as we are and, after two weeks of searching, we are now official. Still, after reading these signs, I’m not sure that they know what they are doing.

It seems that we will be ensconced in my late father-in-law’s house for a while because we need to stay in Jakarta until his estate is settled. He didn’t have a will, so now we need to contend with a declaration of heirs and transfer of the deed before anything can be done with it. The house is located in West Jakarta in the Grogol area. When I came here for the first time, the narrow streets seemed quaint and it was amazing to watch cars navigate two-way traffic on a road where there are only 1 1/2 lanes. However, traffic in the city has gotten a lot worse since then and it seems that many drivers have discovered that they can use this street as a short cut that they refer to as jalan tikus or ‘rat street’.  What this means is that there is a lot more traffic night and day. It also means that they made it a one-way street, but that doesn’t stop the motorbikes from going in any direction that they want.

This is probably my eighth or ninth trip to Jakarta, and it never ceases to amaze me how different this world is. To say that this is the land of unlimited sweating would be an understatement. The temperature is often over 100 when you add the heat index. It’s something you get used to and I figure it will take a few months for me. Every once in a while, there are couple of really nice days where the clouds keep things cooler and a breeze makes it even better.

Amazingly, I have been able to get my writing done in spite of the barrage of distractions. I have two choices for where I do it. The bedroom has A/C, but there is no desk and no windows. It’s a bit like sitting in a prison cell. Or, I can sit on the veranda in a plastic patio chair. There is a koi pond and I can see the outside (kind of), but the traffic noise is constant. Also, there is a padlock on the inside of the door. If there is a fire, I’m going to burn up, or find myself impaled on the spikes. This setup is all temporary and in spite of everything, I have been able to get into a flow state and finish my work.

The distractions come in all shapes and sizes. I was sitting and working the other day when I heard a loud bang in the living room. I thought the aquarium with the arowana had sprung a leak. I looked at the front door to see if a wave of water and the giant fish was coming out, but I saw nothing. I slowly got up and went in to see this:

A cat had been chasing a rat in the ceiling, loosened a tile, and fell onto some boxes. It was unhurt, but everyone in the house was afraid of cats and didn’t want to approach it. I finally got them to leave it alone and it eventually made a beeline for the door. Never a dull moment.

By March, we should be moved out of here and maybe I will be able to get a desk or even a comfy chair to sit in and write.