Golf + Manual Labor

 I think I've mentioned how funny/interesting/disturbing I find the golf-ball-picker-upper guys at our local driving range... well, last night we decided to hit up said driving range to hit some balls, drink some beers and take a closer look.  We definitely got more catcalls than usual on our way there... four bules walking anywhere is strange enough, but four bules walking and two of them are carrying their own golf clubs?  Unheard of.  I think the ojek drivers on the corner found it particularly amusing.

Those poor guys have to brave the hazards of tens of golf balls being hit at them at once while running around barefoot in motorcycle helmets and giant padded jackets, raking together and then scooping up golfs balls.  I'm sure there are people who use them for target practice, too...  Sigh.  At least they have jobs?

I also think it's strange to have this driving range in the middle of the city, right in the shadow of towering office buildings.  It seems like the green space could be put to better use, like a park or something.

Grocery Games: Back from the Dead

It's been a long time since I've done one of these Grocery Games posts, but somewhere along the way, maybe when we moved into our permanent apartment, I decided I felt a little bit weird about taking photos at the grocery store.  At my grocery store, I should say.  I guess it seemed like it would ruin my street cred as a resident to bust out my camera while doing the daily shopping.  But let's be honest: I have no street cred.  It's hard to fit in and dodge the whole bule thing when people call out "Hey, bule!" or "Hey, Mister!" as I walk by.  Why bother trying... might as well have my camera at the ready to capture the good stuff!

Anywho... some amusing/interesting photos from my perjalanan (journey) to the toko makanan (grocery store) today:

Cocks in cages: it's not clear to me for what purpose these roosters are being sold (breeding? eating? fighting?), but I have noticed that sometimes they're in these bamboo cages and sometimes they're free to roam the jalan tikus (side road; literally translated as "rat road") between my house and the closest grocery store. 

Lady Drivers Only:  In grocery store parking lot there is a sign that says "Khusus Pengemudi Wanita/ Lady Drivers Only" (the Indonesian directly translates to "special lady drivers," I think).  Special parking spot? Is this the equivalent of those mother-to-be parking spots that started popping up in U.S. strip mall parking lots recently?

Nothing deceptive about these spuds:  Honesty potatoes... because all other potatoes are just flattering you.

Indonesian Greeting Card?

I'm pretty sure they don't have Hallmark here in Jakarta, but they make up for that in grand fashion with these massive (maybe 6 feet across?), colorful, floral "greeting card" displays for happy events.  

 Weddings, grand openings, graduations... all of these events are marked by tens of these ornate flower "cards" set up outside the venue.  This particular wedding was at a house on our block that seems to frequently host big events, but I've also seen them outside of hotels, recently opened offices or stores, newly completed construction sites.

"selamat" = best wishes, "bahagia" = happiness/contentedness (I think)

They get a little drippy and droopy after it rains on them, but they are pretty eye-catching nonetheless. 

Observations and Oddities

Just a few observations and oddities from Jakarta:

1. There are a lot of nannies in Jakarta.  A lot.  How can I tell?  They all wear uniforms.... namely pastel pajamas (pink, blue, violet...).  They sell them at the grocery store!  It's really weird.  They love uniforms here.  And nannies. Sometimes each kid has his or her own!

2. Walking places is hard here.  Sidewalks are few and far between, so most times you end up walking in the street, dodging cars, belching bajajs and motorbikes.  In the odd chance that you do end up walking on a block with a sidewalk, then it's not likely to be the most solid or safe thing you've ever walked on.  Things that may happen on these sidewalks:

Watch your step!

You may trip on an upturned brick.  You may fall 5 feet down into the open sewer to your left. You may trip over an ill-placed tree.  Or there just may be a bunch of dudes sitting/squatting on the sidewalk.  It gets really bad walking home at night, as there are no overhead lights, and the headlights on the cars are kinda blinding. 

3.  The zoning can be a little odd here. Within a one block radius, there can be huge skyscrapers housing high end malls (think Gucci, Louis Vitton, etc.) right next to a shack with hanging laundry and grazing farm animals out front.  I couldn't get it all in one shot, but the two photos below were taken from the same spot...

As a sidenote, I think the person on the back of that bike is texting. 

4. Manual labor is alive and well here.  In the U.S., we tend to lean towards using machines rather than manual labor, but here in Jakarta they have people doing those jobs.  For example, there is a driving range not too far from our house, on the way to the mall/grocery store.  It's one of those three level jobbies with the giant net around it, right smack in the middle of the city, which is a little strange.  But what really gets me is that this driving range has a bunch of dudes running around collecting the golf balls while wearing what essentially amounts to a motorcycle helmet and one of those sumo wrestling costumes (like the ones people rent for frat parties in the U.S.).

I didn't catch one of the guys working in the sumo suit, but if you click on the photo to zoom in, you can see the empty suits hanging in the cage on the green.