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!