saturday to indonesia (jakarta n bali) for work, mostly meetings, but many meetings.
Mulia hotel appears to be in SW part of Jakarta. I've been hanging out in the northern part of the city, near Ancol. Not the nicest, but have a lady friend who lives near by.. (hehehe). And I enjoy the "earthier" parts of the city, like Sarinah area (where Plaza Indonesia is also near by) and Mangga Dua. Just huge malls in Jakarta. Larger than I've even seen before.
Definitely agree there is a sense of "booming" about this place.. The traffic has been horrendous every day I've been here (nearly a month on this visit). It's so frustrating to try and get from point A to point B that I think that's the major obstacle to Jakarta's future development. They need some major urban renewal, to include mass transit.
As for stability, on it's surface it would appear to be the case. But I sense lingering frustration under the surface as costs for the masses increase, (while their salaries do not) and corruption seemingly pervades the culture. In fact, was speaking with one Indonesian fellow the other day about corruption and he jokingly told me that there is no corruption in Indonesia... "We call it tradition".. Had to laugh at that sense of cultural self-deprecation. They understand the problem, but don't know how to quite deal with it since for anyone to thrive in business here, some powerful official has to be paid off.
I was in Bali over the Muslim holiday.. Wasn't quite what I expected of the place.. Nice, but over-rated, IMO. Stayed in Uluwatu near Dreamland Beach area in a nice Villa resort. But wished I had gone to Lombok instead. Did manage to get nailed by a Jellyfish while swimming at Dreamland.. Didn't hurt, but left some nasty looking "slash" marks on my calf, which are still healing (drawing questions from a lot of people when I wear shorts.. ;0)
Hawk |
