North Jakarta: USS Cowpens, Old Town, and Ancol

The Columbus Day weekend was a weekend of exploration and adventure.  The destination this time was North Jakarta. 

In North Jakarta, is the pier and shipping areas.  We visited the area called Sunda Kelapa, an old shipping area in Old Town Jakarta.  Smaller shipping vessels loading what appeared to be construction materials and sand were in this area.  The vessels here definitely were beginning to show their age and the pollution in the waterways was noticeably visible.

Pepto manufacturing

The most interest occurrence while at this pier was a rather odd fellow that trailed behind us attempting to show off card tricks, speak random phrases of English, and sing any song he might know.  He was not at all seeking money and he was harmless; an interesting character perhaps not all there in the head.  Upon departing, he sought to gift me his deck of playing cards which I could not accept.  From our brief hour at the pier, he clutched the cards as his treasure but it was very kind thought.

He was a very odd man.

Next up that weekend was touring a Navy ship.  This was my first experience on a military ship and while we did not have to the opportunity to see everything, we were able to see everything on the deck of the ship and some of the inside.  The sailors were very hospitable for our tour group and we really appreciated their time.

Maybe my HHE is in one of these containers..

Battleship

After touring the ship, we ended the day with a trip to Ancol in North Jakarta.  This is an area where they have Jakarta's theme park, sea world, as well as a couple beaches (not good beaches).  This is also near the area where you can board boats to take you to one of the many "1000 islands" to the north for a nice weekend getaway.  We came for the seafood!

Picking out our crab.

Oh yeah!

Grilled fish.

Trying the snails!

Moving to My Permanent Home

Moved to my permanent home today.  For the past two months, I've been in temporary housing.  The last place was a two bedroom, 2 bath apartment with a really large living room and dining room.  I'm now in a very tall building apartment in a 3 br, 2 bath apartment.  However, in just size comparison, it's probably actually smaller in terms of square feet. 

The facilities though are nice!  The apartment is fully furnished and has a pool and gym so I'm excited to getting back into the fitness routine.  The embassy has a crossfit group every day after work but I always struggle to make it out on time since they begin at 4:30 in the afternoon.

It is also very newly constructed and modern.  I already received my UAB (Air shipment) and now I'm just waiting on my HHE (house hold effects, shipped via boat). I'll really start to better understand the extent of Jakarta traffic as before I was able to walk to work and now I'll have an actual commute.

One quirk that I will have to get used to is the sound of prayer and religious chanting/music.  The apartment is near a residential neighborhood and the local religious group uses a loudspeaker or sound system to broadcast out.  So from morning till late evening, it's easily audible from inside all the apartments.  Really is a reminder that I'm in Indonesia!

On the different note, I went to karaoke with some friends and had a blast.  Happy to have found a new karaoke group!

The master bedroom.  Artwork came with the apartment.

The kitchen and dining table.

Opposite of the kitchen is the living room.

Guest bedroom.

Third bedroom or office.  I think I'm going to use it for storage.

The view during the day.  I do also hear the construction from across the street during the day.

The view at night.

First Month at Post / Front Office Rotation

Since arriving in Indonesia, after a brief two weeks getting settled in and supporting my home office in procurement, I've been on rotation to the Mission's Front Office.  Essentially, this position is a mix of being an Executive Assistant and being a Staff Aide.  Responsibilities include preparing agendas for senior staff meetings, taking notes in meetings for the Mission Director, and miscellaneous document preparation in response to "Embassy Taskers" (these are requests from USAID, typically for State or for the Ambassador, to provide input on documents, prepare talking points or briefing memos for meetings, and various fact sheets on USAID programming).

So far, it's been a pretty good experience and I'm learning a lot about how the Mission operates, the USAID interaction with the embassy community at-large, and the various personalities and protocol within the Mission.  A fun aspect to this rotation is attending various events and meetings with the Mission Director and getting to see some of the programs that we are implementing.

Socially, there has been a pretty good group of other officers in Jakarta.  I tend to spend most of my free time going out with other USAID colleagues and colleagues I knew through language class.  Continuing to work on building the social network, but I'm pretty content with things so far.  Jakarta has a variety of places to go out to eat, numerous elaborate brunches on Sundays, and lots of shopping options.  I think prices generally are higher than other South-east Asian countries, namely Bangkok, but are still OK.  There also seem to be a lot of nightlife options and I hope to eventually check those out as well.

PRESTASI
The first event I attended was the PRESTASI Pre-Academic Training Orientation.  This is a one of USAID Indonesia's scholarship programs for graduate studies.  This allows Indonesians to pursue Master level degrees in the US or in Indonesia.  This particular launch was to first meeting for the scholarship recipients to get together and understand processes for applying to universities and how the scholarship worked now that they were selected.  Various USAID technical offices came and congratulated the recipients as well as imparted the imperative that they study and obtain the knowledge and skills in their various fields and bring that back to make an impact in Indonesia.

USAID Mission Director and Office Reps speak to the scholars.

Group shot with the scholarship recipients.

MTV EXIT Documentary Launch
I also attended the MTV EXIT launch event for the anti-trafficking documentary that takes place in Indonesia.  This event took place at the Hard Rock Cafe Jakarta.  The event was attended by Indonesian celebrities and the various supporters of MTV EXIT, which includes USAID, AusAid, ASEAN, and more.  The documentary series is just part of the MTV EXIT campaign and also would include a concert that would be held in the city of Bandung in Indonesia.

The Mission Director providing remarks at the event.

Mission Director with an Indonesian official and the project head of MTV EXIT.

Secretary Clinton Visit to Jakarta
Secretary Clinton also dropped by Jakarta during her travels.  During her time here, as per protocol, she held a meet and greet for embassy staff.  It was only for a very brief moment of time, but it was still good and she commented in her address the great work of USAID's programs, particularly our education programs here in Indonesia.  Unfortunately, she didn't have any time for individual photos.  Ah well, maybe some other day.

Being introduced by the Amb. to Indonesia and Amb. to ASEAN

So that pretty much highlights some of the more noteworthy events thus far.  Looking forward to what else will come.

Weekend Singapore Trip

Had a long weekend and took a trip to Singapore.  Singapore is close and quick to get to with just a 90 minute or so flight from Jakarta.  It was a very impressive city.  What people say about the orderliness and cleanliness holds up for the most part.

View from the taxi ride into the city (traffic free!)

I found the city to be a very English-speaking friendly place as many, many Singaporeans I came across spoke it very well.  Mandarin and other Asian languages were also very prevalent.

We took the subway a lot to get around the city.  It was very quick and convenient with trains coming often.  One thing I never liked about the DC subway was that it took forever to get anyway on it during the weekends as trains came so irregularly that it was usually just easier to drive into town.

One of the many subway stations.

Some of the crosswalks make fun laser sounds to alert the blind when it's safe to cross.

Malls were all over the place with many connected to each other that one could continually be walking in a mall not know they had already traversed through several of them.  One mall we had to visit was the Marina Bay mall.  It had a channel for people wanting to take rides and a skating rink.  It also had some great views of the Marina Bay Sands resort, the most expensive casino/resort property in the world.

The mall at Marina Bay

A view of the most expensive hotel in the world.

Entrance to the Art Museum.

The only skating rink I've seen where people wear ice skates but there is NO ice.

We also took a trip to the Singapore Chinatown.  First impression, this was the cleanest Chinatown I've ever been to.  It almost reminded me of how a museum might display a Chinatown.  Very clean, free from any vendors of knockoff Rolexs, pirated DVDs, or fake purses/perfumes.

We ate a late lunch here and had some excellent steamed chicken and visited the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple which supposedly holds a tooth from Buddha.

Pristine Chinatown streets.

Buddha Tooth Relic Temple

 In the evening, there is a light show put on by the Marina Bay Sands each night that was fun to watch.  To finish the night, we strolled the Clarke Quay area that had tons of nightlife with bars, live music, and clubs.
 

The next day, we went to the Sentosa area to go for a walk and see the sights.  The train to cross over had a huge line as there was some sort of event going on at the other side.  We decided instead to just walk around instead.

Yep, we rode this train.

 To finish off, we went to go try chili crab.  Crab cooked and topped with a spicy chili.  Yum!

Overall, it was a short, but great trip.  We saw a lot of Singapore but will definitely have to take another trip to see the rest.  There was still the aquarium, zoo, and Universal Studios to check out.  Plus, there are a number of nightlife places that would be fun to go to as well.  Next time.