Feb 29

We were originally scheduled to leave Jakarta today and head to the mine site - well, more specifically, the offices at the base of the mountain where we have our mine. However, we realized we would accomplish more by delaying our trip a day and we spent today in Jakarta. Tomorrow we will leave for Timika.

It turned out to be a very wise decision as we accomplished a lot. We started the morning with a deep-dive into the design. After discussing the application "rewrite", we realized that's not an accurate term for what we are really planning to do - which is enhance some of the key components, but not rewrite the entire application from scratch. For most of the rest of the day, I did the administrative tasks required of me each week back in Phoenix as well as having a fun discussion regarding the merits of project documentation.

When we returned from lunch, we were greeted by an ominous looking sky that, anywhere in the US would have meant a terrible thunderstorm. Though this one came through with much rain, but no wind or lightening.

View from window in the AM:


View from window after lunch:


View from window once the rain started:


At the end of the day, I returned to the hotel for the evening as we will need to leave for the airport at 5:15 AM and I wanted to pack and be ready to go to bed quite early. My colleagues - who will not return to Jakarta after our trip to the mine - wanted to spend an evening out on the town. I'll have more than enough opportunity for nightlife my final two weeks in Jakarta.

That's it from Jakarta for now. Tomorrow I'll be at Timika, Papua.

Feb 28

Today is the first day since we've been here that it isn't raining. Unlike my last trip, this time the rain actually cleaned the pollution from the sky. The sky is clearer than I've ever seen it (though the sidewalks are slick with a grime I can only assume came from the sky). This has made for some great pictures of the skyline. From the office, I also saw a mountain in the distance I did not know even existed.

I woke up before my alarm again (at 5:30) and hit the gym for an hour before breakfast. I find that when I travel I actually eat and live healthier than when I am at home. I eat a hearty breakfast of oatmeal, yogurt, bowl of all bran cereal, an omelette, bacon and two glasses of Guava juice.

Today I spend the whole day reviewing and discussing the design. There are key features that do not appear in the draft of the design documents I am seeing, but upon deeper discussions with the design team, they understand the requirements and have accounted for them, they just have not completed the documentation just yet. This is the best news I've heard so far, but we still have to have the discussion regarding whether we do a complete rewrite or if we modify the existing application. I still vote for the latter but I see the merits of the first.

For dinner, our Indonesian host takes us to another traditional Indonesian restaurant. Among 12 pages of options, I find three that I can eat and select the most adventurous one - Balinese Seaweed with fried coconut. The waiter informs me they are sold out for the day, so I settle for "beaten beef" with coconut sauce on a bed of coconut rice. It's very good and I am indeed, as the menu advertised, "addicted of it".

In addition to great food, the restaurant had tremendous atmosphere. Each room had a slightly different decoration, but all were traditional Indonesian. From traditional artifacts like gongs and wooden idols to Zen gardens, each room is a new surprise. The hostess gives us a tour of the restaurant before seating us in the "haunted room" - a room that is supposedly haunted by the spirits of the many artifacts hanging in the room.

Today was a busy day that flew by and I'm exhausted at only 9 PM. Tomorrow is our last day in Jakarta before heading off to the mine site. I started taking my malaria pills today, and I'll need to take them for the next 16 days. Saturday will be our first day on the island that varies from a tropical beach at the base of the mountain to a glacier at the top. Should be an exciting time.

I've heard from my Phoenix colleagues that the blog is blocked from the corporate network there, but my Indonesian colleagues are able to access it from the office. In any event, I believe I can configure my blog to post based on an email I send it, so I should be fine either way.

I've uploaded the pictures from the trip here.

Feb 26 - Feb 27

We ate lunch on the club level of the Ritz and one of our Indonesian colleagues joined us. We had a nice lunch and spent a few hours discussing our project after we had finished. As expected, there were some surprises on both sides we had to talk through and resolve. We also established our agenda for the first week in Jakarta.

After our meeting, I took the first-timers to the mall nearby the hotel to purchase the cheap DVD's. The selection did not seem as good to me this time around as it did my first trip, so I only ended up buying 9 DVDs instead of the 30+ I did in August. We returned to the hotel, ate dinner, and then all crashed for the night around 8 PM local time.

I slept fitfully throughout the night as my body tried to adjust to the new time zone. I woke up for about 45 minutes around 1:30 and then for good shortly before my 6 AM alarm. I quickly dressed and hit the gym for stretching and a 30 minute run before joining my colleagues for breakfast.

Having been here before, the trip to the office was uneventful for me, but it was entertaining listening to my colleagues shriek and express shock as we merge into traffic with no lanes and no traffic lights. There first experience was similar to my own.

Once at the office, we checked our email from Phoenix and responded where necessary. At 10 AM, we had a project kick-off meeting and met the rest of the team. I was relieved to finally have a fully staffed project with actual names for resources instead of commitments for head count. Knowing who the resources are, as fundamental as that sounds, is something I've lacked on this project from the very first day so it was nice to finally cross that off the list.

During the meeting, the technical lead dropped an unexpected disclosure on me. I entered into the project, and the design phase of our project, with the understanding that we were simply modifying an existing system to prepare it for global deployment, then deploying to all our locations. In the project kickoff, our technical lead informed me that he had decided it was more effective to rewrite the entire application from scratch. This lead to about an hour of debate as we reviewed the merits of this approach, discussed the pitfalls of the decision, and reviewed the completeness of requirements to achieve a deliverable solution by starting from scratch. As my original requirements were a list of gaps, and not an inclusive list of functionality, I expressed my concerns that attempting a rewrite by using what we had document would surely result in an omission of key requirements. I provided specific examples of what was missing - ie, searching for data. The lead indicated he would discuss with the Business Analyst as he was under the impression that the design document he was working from included both existing functionality and the requested changes. We agreed to table the discussion until he had time to review.

We broke for lunch after the meeting and, due to conflicting evening schedules (the lead had his final practice for a pool tournament he is in on the weekend), we decided to go somewhere nice for lunch. He took us to a traditional Indonesian restaurant a few miles from the office. Due to my food allergies, I tend towards conservatism rather than adventurism when it comes to gastronomical opportunities. On this occasion, however, I partook in the opportunity to be as adventurous as I can be and ordered fried oxtail.

Since I'm on the topic of food, I'll share what I've come to recognize as the true difference between Americans and the rest of the world and it comes down to one, single word - girth. When I received my fried oxtail, it was obvious why you just don't see obese people in Jakarta - they don't eat much. I'm sure the poverty contributes, but serving size has a lot to do with it. My main course here would have been the appetizer at a traditional American restaurant. After lunch we returned to the office and I finished out the day working with the tech lead and resource manager on project schedule and deliverables.

We returned to the hotel around 6:30 and had dinner at 7. I had to go with a strictly vegetarian dinner because the club level was serving seafood tonight. After dinner, I was able to sneak in for a 1 hour massage ($38 - NICE!) before returning to my room.

Tomorrow we'll be reviewing the project design in great detail, so I'm sure I'll have a spinning head by the end of the day.

Feb 24 - Feb 26

Keeping with the tradition of my last trip, I am starting the blog for this trip with a recounting of the flight out. Last time, we flew from Phoenix, to LA, to Hong Kong and then to Jakarta. That route resulted with more layover time - a few hours in Hong Kong - but the legs of each connecting flight were nicely split. This time, our route was Phoenix, LA, Singapore, Jakarta with a few hours in LA but none to speak of in Singapore. What does that mean - nearly 19 hours on a flight only to arrive at an airport and take another flight 90 minutes later without enough time to shower, use the restroom or any other "luxury" of life. So, when we finally did arrive, I was the first to recommend we retire to our rooms for showers before meeting. I was offended by my own smell so I can only imagine how the others felt.

Now, as I've said before, the company I work for takes excellent care of its employees and that is especially true when we travel. So, it's tough to complain even when things go wrong, and I hate to start my trip with some complaining, but....

1) Singapore Airlines is not as good as Cathay Pacific - or even American Airlines. The staff was tremendous, but the "perks" were lacking. Both CP and AA provided a toiletry bag to those of us in Business Class that included, among other things, a toothbrush and toothpaste. We can't really carry these on now with the new travel rules, so it came in handy when you wake up from a fitful airplane sleep. Singapore Airlines provided slippers and a sleep mask.

2) The passenger next to me was brutal. He was a nice enough guy, and, as seems to be a trend with American companies doing business in SE Asia, he worked in the natural resources industry and did business with my company. We chatted a bit and got along quite well....until he went to sleep. Thank God the airline provided the Bose noise reduction headphones and at least one, soothing classical radio station to listen to because this guy's snoring was horribly loud. If it were just the snoring, I probably wouldn't be writing about it. Couple the snoring with a case of halitosis that made me question if the air flowing through the cabin had some how mingled with the waste disposal from the restrooms and we have a situation that had me trying to time the intake of air with his intake of air so I didn't faint. And although I cannot confirm if I was in a sleep daze or if I truly did see what I thought I saw, I think in one of my waking moments when I had to adjust to the new direction of his airflow, I swear I saw a bare, naked, hairy chest just inches from my face. I mean, do they really let you sleep without a shirt on?

3) SE Asian airlines never have food I can eat. For most of you, the menu in business class was top notch - lobster, crab legs, roast duck. For me, it's a death sentence, so I get stuck eating the veggie dish. I ate more fruits and vegetables on this 19 hour flight than I typically do in a week.

All said and done, we arrived safely, we arrived on time, and our luggage all arrived with us. So, it's tough to seriously complain.

Like last trip, I am travelling with colleagues. It's been good cultivating our relationship because I haven't had much interaction with them since I began working with this organization other than when I've been a situation where I needed to complain about something. It's nice to have an opportunity to just discuss how we're each handling the new challenges with the merger, our families, as well as our thoughts on the project we are out here to kick start - implementing a global Help Desk system.

We're spending the first few days of our trip in Jakarta, then flying out to Timika on the Papua island of Indonesia for the second week. During the second week I will get the opportunity to finally see our marquee asset - the Grasburg mine. I'm pretty excited about seeing one of the great marvels of the world, as well as working with our Indonesia team once again. After the trip to Timika, my colleagues return home while I return to Jakarta for another two weeks where we'll, hopefully, make tremendous progress on updating the existing Help Desk system to prepare it to become a global application.

A few other random items for today:

1) It's 1 PM in Jakarta and I'm dog tired. When we arrived, I was full of energy, but now that it is 11:15 PM where I came from (Phoenix), my body is going into shut-down mode. I'm going to fight it until 8-ish....I hope.

2) This is my colleague's first trip internationally for any reason. Since they only have 3 days in Jakarta, these next few evenings may be packed with outings so they can take in the city.

3) It's the rainy season. We were told that for the mine site, that means it will rain 3-6 inches per day instead of the normal 1-2 inches. In Jakarta, it's been raining since we arrived (it was raining in Singapore, too). I'm on the top floor at the Ritz, and as I write this, I'm seeing lightening flashes and hearing the thunder clap simultaneously. I have a corner room, so I'm able to see the storm from many vantage points. When the wind blows, my windows rattle. I hope the rain stops before I go to sleep, though something tells me it isn't going to matter.

4) Before I left, I asked our CIO - who spent 6 years in Jakarta before relocating to Phoenix after the acquisition - what I should do while I'm here. He recommended a drive-through zoo that sounds fascinating, so I'll probably try that my second weekend in Indonesia.

We're meeting for lunch, shortly, to create an agenda for the next two days while we're in Jakarta to ensure we maximize the time my colleagues have. I will try to update the blog each day, though my travel schedule may cause me to miss a few, and I'm not sure what access will be like at the mine site, so bear with me.

Jakarta Home Safe - Lessons Learned

My trip to Jakarta was one I won't soon forget and one I probably won't soon repeat - though I would have no issue going back. The tough part is being away from my wife and daughter for so long, the rest of it was actually quite pleasant. So, what did I learn on this trip?

1) Not all first class is the same. The business class on Cathay Pacific was better than the first class or business class on American and Japan airlines. That's probably why it was 3x the price, too. I also learned that I will not travel overseas in anything but business class anymore. The difference in quality is just too great.

2) If it seems too good to be true, it is. I already knew this, but I had a $50 reminder of this lesson with the coins I bought. All fake. I had heard that, after I bought them. I was wary, which is why I only bought a few, instead of as many as I could find. Apparently, the Chinese make barrels of these coins - and the stamps are extremely high quality - but they don't know the history. I've also learned how to tell the difference between real and fake coins, now, so I'll be more prepared next time.

3) Don't think you know more than the frauds. As a corollary to #2, don't assume that because you live in the US and have better access to the internet that the poor street vendor wouldn't try selling their products on eBay if they actually had value. They know what their products are worth better than we do.

4) Flying east is more difficult than flying west. My sleep schedule when I returned home was much more difficult to correct than going to Jakarta. Part of it was the quality of the flights home, and the spacing - 7 hrs during sleep time and 11 hrs during wake time returning vs 14 hrs during sleep time and 5 hrs during wake time on the way there - but part of it was arriving home in the middle of the day instead of early evening. I've had similar issues travelling to Paris and back.

The upside to the flight was we flew over active volcanoes in Oregon in the middle of the night and got to see the hot magma flowing. It was cool. From Tokyo to Dallas, our flight path took us over Alaska - seems odd, but it has to do with the curvature of the Earth, it's actually shorter going that route - but it was too dark to see anything.

I think my next business trip will be to Santiago, Chile later this year or early next year. I'll use this same blog for that trip, though Santiago will have much less intrigue as it is very much like Phoenix.

Jakarta Sunday and Monday

Sunday, as has become our standard, was a do nothing day. I slept in late, and then joined a few of my colleagues for lunch at the Indian restaurant at the hotel across the street. We stopped by the new Bellagio hotel on the way back to check out their mall - but it was empty. Must be REALLY new. The rest of the day I lounged in my room reading and sleeping.

Monday was a very busy day at work. We worked well into the evening to try and work through some of the more complicated scenarios for a system we need to design. We did break for lunch, but after lunch was hours of diagramming and walking through various scenarios to validate we had everything covered. As another day has passed without much to blog about, I'll share a few more observations.

When Phoenix's downtown started erecting large buildings, the AZ Republic ran an article on the importance of cranes. Apparently, cranes are very expensive, and hard to find. When a city is building something that requires the types of cranes needed for tall buildings, it's a big deal. The article mentioned that when the World Bank visits third world nations to see if they are a growing economy or a struggling economy, they literally count the number of cranes they see in the major cities. If there are two cranes, the economy is doing well. By those standards, Jakarta is exploding. From our office, I can count no fewer than 6 cranes hard at work. On the other side of the building, there are several more in operation building a new mall with a Ritz Carlton hotel. If Indonesia can only shore up its piracy - both digital and nautical - issues, they could really have something here.

Driving here - even as a passenger - always amusing and an adventure. Motorcycles are definitely the way to get around. When a light first turns green, it's like someone has waved the starters flag at a bike race. All the motorcycles have weaved their way through the stopped cars and trucks to the front of the line, and when the light turns green, you have literally dozens of bikes out in the front of the pack. They also get very creative with their driving "rules". When traffic is extremely bad - which is M-F, 6 AM to 8 PM - you'll often see motorcycles drive on the sidewalk to get past the traffic. This must be illegal, or I think we'd see everyone doing it.

Elevators here are weird. You push the button for up or down, and the light of the elevator you'll be using immediately goes on and the bell dings. The elevator, however, continues to make its stops along the way before opening its doors. I've even experienced a time when the elevators apparently changed their minds! The original light went off, and the light went on at a new elevator. I'm beginning to think that maybe one of the government required jobs is someone to act as the "logic" for elevators.

Finally, "rudeness" is definitely a subjective term. The French are notorious for rudeness, but American's are not far behind - internationally speaking. However, I really think this is cultural. For example, Americans have nothing on the Asians when it comes to hospitality. Every day it's "hello sir", "nice to see you sir", "thank you for coming, sir" - and that's just from my hotel room to the car! But when it comes to getting on an elevator, it doesn't matter if you are the first one there - or if you are male or female - whoever can push their way into the elevator is geting on. I've never seen that in America. While I'm on the topic of elevators again, I've noticed that in addition to not having a 13th floor, none of the hotels have floors that end in 4. I tried looking online to see if this is a Muslim thing, or an Indonesian thing, but I couldn't find anything. Our office building has a fourth floor, but none of the hotels have a 4th, 14th, or 24th floor.

Two more days and I'm on a flight out of here and back to the States. I've really enjoyed my time here, but I am anxious to get home. We are supposed to have thunderstorms the next two days, so my trip out should be an adventure. We leave a thunderstorm in Jakarta and arrive in Dallas as Dean bounces off Cancun.

I probably won't blog again until I am safely back in the States, so wish me safe travels and I'll see everyone soon.

Jakarta Friday and Saturday

Friday is Jakartan Independence Day, and no one is in the office. We decide to work out of the hotel, as there is no benefit to head in to the office. We have a meeting with the directorate and CIO in the morning - another update on what we've accomplished and the plan for moving forward. After the meeting we worked until about 2PM - just over a half day - wrapping up the week's activities and planning out the rest of the trip based on the feedback in our meeting.

For lunch, we went to an Indian restaurant - the first one I've ever been to. Our Indian travel partner is vegetarian. We've had some interesting gastronomical challenges trying to find restaurants that served vegetarian meals and/or meals without chicken or seafood. Lowest common denominator is vegetarian, so we look for that. One day, we didn't have enough time to go out for lunch, so we went to the Wendy's in our office building. The vegetarian in the group ordered a "Cheeseburger" - I ordered a salad and chilli. We were surprised when he sat down with the cheeseburger. He, apparently, was more surprised that a "cheese"-burger came with a meat patty. He thought it would be a grilled cheese sandwhich. We had a good laugh about that one.

The Indian restaurant was very good. I put myself into the hands of our vegetarian, and had lentils and chick peas. It was extremely good. So much so that I'll probably eat more Indian food. The lamb curry they served on the club level at the hotel was okay, but wasn't anything that made me curious to try more. The food at this restaurant, however, made me want more. However, I couldn't get the smell off my hands, and I tasted the food the rest of the night - I don't think my body was accustomed to Indian food. I finally crashed about 10 PM - forgoing dinner - and woke at 9 Am the next morning. It was a long week.

Saturday, while the same crew from last week went golfing - at a much better course (they had both golf carts AND caddies - they rode on the back with the clubs) - the rest of us had convinced one of our local colleagues to show us around Jakarta. The plan was to go to an area of town that sold antiques, visit the new, upscale shopping mall, and then tour old town Jakarta.

When we arrived at the "antiques", I initially thought we were going to see something no different than the shops you see in Mexico that really just sell junk to tourists. I was very mistaken. There was a lot of the tourist junk - wood carvings by local craftsman that you can find in a mall - but there was some major finds, too. They had 9 foot porcelein vases. They had artifacts from ships that have sunk in the waters around Jakarta - diving helmets from the US Navy, navigational compasses, manual calculators that look like typewriters. If I had $1000 to spend, I probably would have purchased a lot of what I saw just to sell it on eBay.

One of my colleagues had mentioned that a few years back a road merchant tried to get him to buy some coins. He was tempted to buy an 1810 US dime, simply because of its age, but didn't. When he returned to the states, he looked it up online and discovered that it was worth several hundred dollars. With that in mind, when I came across some coins, I was intrigued. I ended up buying two 1840 US Silver Dollars, and 1870 US Silver dollar, and several Spanish coins from as early as 1704 and as late as 1776. I paid roughly $8 each. I looked up the value of the 1840 US Silver dollars when I returned to the hotel and discovered they are worth up to $500 each! I can't find a value for the Spanish coins, but I imagine they are worth far more than the $8 I paid for them.

In addition to the coins, our colleague was able to locate some Kopi Luwak coffee. I'm not a coffee drinker. I've never had a full glass of it in my life - I can't stand the taste. But a good friend of mine owns a coffee shop. Ever since I've known him, he has been interested in trying Kopi Luwak coffee, as it is considered the best tasting coffee in the world. With a wholesale price of $250-$600/lb, however, he didn't want to try it that badly. For those of you who have never heard of Kopi Luwak read this, it's basically monkey poop coffee (now I'm sure you'll read about it). It's made in Indonesia, and I got it for $8/lb. If it turns out to be as tasty as its reputation, I may begin importing coffee on a small scale.

The mall was not much different from an American mall, other than the employees outnumbered the patrons nearly 2:1 in the department stores. A far cry from roaming the store looking for someone to help. I bought two Indonesian dolls for my daughter, but couldn't find anything authentically "Indonesian" for my wife or anyone else. I did find Ralph Loren polo shirts for $18, but don't need any clothes, so - unlike my wife who would have bought them because they were cheap - I didn't buy anything.

We then took a tour of the city. We toured the Jakartan equivalent of Manhattan, Wall Street, and Pennsylvania Avenue. The Indonesian Capital, Supreme Court, and other ministry buildings were interesting. The national monument is similar to the Washington Monument, only there is a 24k gold flame at the top. I was finally able to take some pictures, but I have been disappointed in how many pictures I've taken. I thought there would be plenty of pictures worth taking, but, quite frankly, Jakarta is so much like any other big city, I didn't encounter anything that I would say was picture-worthy. There is much beauty, and much uniqueness here, but it's just like Chicago, New York and other large metropoli.

The only time I've ever felt unsafe on my entire trip out here was in old town Jakarta. As its name suggests, it is much older, and much more run down than the other areas of Jakarta. It is also the busiest part of the city. Their is a major trade center in the heart of old town where they sell everything - including cheap electronics that you need to replace after 3 months. The traffic was immense. We were literally side mirror to side mirror, 20-25 cars wide. City buses would come to a complete stop in the middle of the road to unload and load passengers. We were moving about 10 feet per minute. I kept thinking someone would see the only white face in the crowd and come up and mug us. Thankfully, it was bright daylight, and I later saw a heavy police presence - and nothing happened.

The last stop on our trip was again cheap DVD's and CD's, where I bought 10 Disney cartoons for $7. When we returned to the hotel, we all grabbed some dinner, and returned to the club level for some dessert, drinks, and pool. We met colleague from the environmental group from the NOLA office. While sitting at a table having drinks, he casually asked if we were up for some billiards. We go back to the table, where he proceeds to play without ever allowing us a shot. He breaks, runs the table, and shakes our hand. "Anyone for billiards?", I guess was code for "do you want me to kick your butt in pool?"

It's now Sunday morning, and we have four days left in our trip. I've really enjoyed both the work we've done, as well as what I've experienced - but we're all ready to get home to our families. I would definitely be up for doing this again. Hopefully next time, I'll get to see the mine site. Everyone has said they prefer the mine site, but their wives prefer Jakarta for the shopping. I need to make one final trip to the shopping to buy gifts for the rest of my list, and then my shopping days are over for this trip. When I get back to the States, I'll post my coins on eBay and see if I need to send one of my colleagues back to buy a lot more and send them to me (people don't buy things on eBay from an Indonesian address or he would sell them himself).

Jakarta Catching up - Hodge Podge

Okay, so I'm way behind posting on my blog. Thursday we worked a 12 hour day wrapping up the documentation of our discussions, so nothing blog-worthy happened for a non-technical blog. To keep this dialogue segmented for easy reading, I'll use Thursday's blog for some random observations and other thoughts.

First, I forgot to mention that when you arrive in the Hong Kong airport, as you enter the airport, you walk past an infrared camera. The purpose of these camera's is to determine if you have a fever. If you remember back a few years, Hong Kong had a major outbreak of avian flu. Checking arrivals for a fever is one of the measures they put in place to prevent a pandemic.

Second, the team here in Indonesia is extremely bright. I've been thoroughly impressed by not only the quality of the products they've developed here, but the simple elegance of the architecture. Individually, the people on the team are not only broad in their technical knowledge, but in their particular space, they are very deep. This will be a great team to work with moving forward.

Third, the gap between the wealthy and the impoverished in Indonesia is much more pronounced than in the United States. The increasing gap in the US has made national news lately as the rich get richer, and the poor get richer and a much slower rate. In Jakarta, you have a whole class of people - businessman, lawyers, doctors and politicians - that have separated themselves from the rest of the nation. Indonesia tries to supplement this wealth gap by requiring companies to hire more staff than they normally would. For example, at the hotel, each day we arrive about 10 people greet us at the door. That's all they do - greet people when they arrive. The net effect of this is more employment, but at a much lower salary. For example, the typical sales person at a mall is making $100 a month.

Fourth, Indonesia is considered the world's largest Muslim nation. There are more people in Indonesia that call themselves Muslim than any other country. However, the Muslims here are not as fervent in their beliefs as the Muslims in other countries. I don't mean to say they are bad Muslims, or are not devout - it's more that most Muslims in Indonesia are like most Christians in the United States. They affiliate themselves with those beliefs, and that philosophy, but they only attend the mosque on the major holidays, they don't pray five times a day, and they don't adhere to the strict, basically Kosher, dietary requirements. They also don't hate America; though they aren't fans of George W. Bush (and they really liked Bill Clinton).

Fifth, before travelling to Indonesia, most of my family expressed concern about the safety of the country. I, too, read everything the US Embassies published about Jakarta, read articles on the Internet about Jakarta - and the information wasn't reassuring. There is an old saying that says "he who wins the wars writes the history". Basically, when you have the power, your perspective endures. America, American media, and Americans, see Indonesia as a terrorist infected, dangerous location with bombs exploding every day. The same group of people think Israel is a very dangerous place because it is always under attack and bombs explode around you every day. Well, as Amit told us when we asked about living in Israel - "there is what the media tells you about, and then there is the reality". People in Jakarta, and Israel for that matter, don't live in fear every day that a bomb will go off. Jakarta is just like any other major city - there are areas you don't go into unless you have to (even if you are local), and there are areas that you want to go to. There may be more areas in Jakarta you want to avoid, but the concept is the same. People who don't visit nations out of fear for their safety really miss out on some fascinating parts of the world. I'm not saying take a vacation to Iraq, Afghanistan or Sudan - but don't fear Indonesia, most of Africa, Pakistan, or eastern European countries.

Finally, watching the international news here is quite interesting. For news, I have the choice between CNN Asia, BBC, Australian Network, FOX News, Al Jazeera (in English), and some channels in languages I can't follow. The international press despises George Bush. I knew there was some animosity, but I've been shocked at just how deep the dislike runs. Even the way they ask questions, like this one posed to a member of Bush's cabinet "now that American presence in Iraq has been a disaster, how do you withdraw" are laced with disdain. The global media, and, quite frankly, the population, view GW as a moron. They can't understand how America could elect someone like him - twice. If we wonder why American relations with Russia are deteriorating, why Germany has publicly condemned our world activities, why Spain pulled out of the fighting in Iraq after one retaliation - it's because GW has alienated the rest of the world. It's quite unfortunate. Never has one person done so much, so fast, to alienate America in the eyes of the rest of the world. I hope whoever succeeds him, be it a Republican or Democrat, can repair many of the relationships we've strained in the last eight years.

Jakarta Wednesday

Thanks to all of you who are sending emails and posting comments - at least I know my blog is entertaining at least 5 people, and someone from work who somehow found my blog online.

The Australian BBQ turned out to be a bit of an adventure. We are in Jakarta's dry season, so they aren't supposed to get any rain. Well, they did. The BBQ started with a spectacular light show - though it wasn't planned by the hotel, Mother Nature provided it for us. Lightening and thunder exploded all around us, but there wasn't any rain, and we could count 5-10 seconds between flash and crash, so the evening continued. About thirty minutes in, however, rain began to fall in torrents, and we had to seek shelter.

Regarding the food - apparently an Australian BBQ, Indonesian style, means steaks, lamb chops, chicken, and seafood hors douevres - so I'm sure I gained a few pounds again. It also means some of the foulest smelling cheese I've ever been around. This stuff was so pungent I left early. We originally thought it was the smell of the rain washing the pollution out of the air, but when I went for some salad, I discovered it was the cheese. If any of you have ever smelled a dirty fish tank - one with rancid water, typically partially filled - you know what this cheese smelled like. No, I didn't try any.

Today at the office was painfully slow. We only have two more topics to finalize, and the people we need to meet with on them aren't available until tomorrow, so we were documenting and planning the implementations for all the things we have discussed. Boring, but necessary. On the bright side, the air was quite clear in the morning, and we saw buildings we didn't know existed. By afternoon, however, the air was worse than I've seen it and buildings we used to see regularly disappeared behind a thick, brown cloud. Even the sun was just a yellow dot in the sky - and you could look directly at it.

A couple of culture things I learned in the last few days. First, Indonesia may be one country, but with 17,000 islands, it is not one government. The laws vary by island. In Bali, for example, which is a favorite of locals and tourists alike for its beaches - if you steal something, a motor cycle, a wallet, a chicken - and it is on tape or a policeman witnesses you doing it, the shoot you. No trial, no jail. They just kill you. Needless to say, the theft rate in Bali is EXTREMELY low. Oddly enough, if you rob a bank, you are likely to not even go to jail. It's all about priorities, I guess. Robin Hood lives in Jakarta.

Second, Australians are everywhere up here, and they seem to travel the globe for business. Maybe it's because they are trapped on an island. Every Australian I've met in Indonesia has lived in five different countries. They're also all married to Indonesians. When in Rome, I guess.

Third, apparently Independence Day here doesn't mean much. There are no parades, no fireworks, not even back yard BBQs. Everyone just takes the day off of work and refrains from polluting the air (by not driving). Even the government doesn't do anything special. I guess the Independence is too new for them. I don't imagine we had July 4 celebrations in 1810, either.

My trip is half over, now, and I'm excited about what we've accomplished and what the coming months will mean for me, my team, and our organization. There are some great complimentary technologies and skills - and some extremely skilled technologists on staff in Jakarta - which should make the next few months very interesting. This weekend I've made it known I want to venture out to the country side, so one of our local colleagues is going to help me plan an itinerary to get a real taste of what it means to live on Java (the island, not the drink) in Indonesia. I should finally get pictures worthy of taking.

As a side note, did anyone notice that VM Ware had an IPO this week that was the largest since Google and nearly doubled in price? VM Ware - ticker VMW - is currently an underutilized technology that is, quite frankly, revolutionizing server management and saving bundles of money on server management. If you are looking for a new investment, this one should pay off handsomely.

Jakarta Tuesday - August 13

Today absolutely flew by. In the morning we tackled a subject that we had very little direction on, forcing us to cover all angles. That may or may not have been intentional by our management, but we talked through a lot of the challenges and have a very solid plan, as well as some open questions we need upper management to decide. A very productive morning. After lunch, our afternoon was even more productive as we addressed probably the single most difficult challenge we face from an application perspective as the merger moves forward: integrating our security platform and the ability to recognize a person - contractors and employees - by one, unique identifier.

For lunch, we returned to the same restaurant we visited yesterday. It is the first restaurant in the mall we've found that has both A/C and a non-smoking section - both of which we very much appreciated. I haven't discussed the food experience here as my allergies prevent me from being very adventurous, however, I have witnessed some interesting choices by my colleagues, as well as even more interesting items on the menu.

Culinary delight varies by culture. Island and coastal nations favor seafood, jungle nations favor exotic fruits, and vast, flat nations tend to favor large game. When travelling, cuisine always affords an interesting glimpse into the culture and the history. In Jakarta, we've encountered the following gastronomical curiosities:

1) Pizza. Sounds safe, right? No such thing as a bad pizza? Try pizza with clams and broccoli. Or lobster, salmon, and mussels. The vegetarian pizza wasn't olives, sun-dried tomatoes and onions. No, in Jakarta the vegetarian pizza is cucumber, carrots, eggs and broccoli.

2) Desserts. I've heard of some interesting dessert choices - fish eyes in the Inuit tribes; raw sugar cane in the Caribbean; even fresh fruit as a dessert instead of as part of the meal or a snack has raised my eyebrow. I was ill prepared for - coconut ice cream surrounded by creamed corn, green beans, sweet pinto beans, and pineapple; something one of my colleagues actually ate. They also had green tea ice cream, an ice cream with those same sweet pinto beans. Apparently there is also a "dessert" that smells so putrid that many people often vomit from the smell before eating it, and some Asian countries have actually banned it in restaurants. Not sure I'm interested in that one. Milkshakes, I was unfortunate to learn, are literally shaken milk. If you want an ice cream shake, you need to ask for an ice cream shake.

I have also found I much prefer mango juice (which I knew from my summer in Cuernavaca) and guava juice to orange or apple juice. The orange juice served here is fresh squeezed, too, which is far better than the store bought variety. Despite the palette challenges, I find that I am very pleased with the food. I thought I would lose weight while here because I'd be eating vegetarian to avoid any allergic catastrophes - but I think I'll return home heavier than when I arrived.

Tonight, the hotel is having an "Australian BBQ" at the pool. We were trying to determine what that would mean for food, and the only thing we could come up with is "Shrimp on the Bar-B" and probably kangaroo and dingo meat - though we are definitely hoping for steak and Yellow Tail Cabernet.

Jakarta Sunday and Monday

We finally made it to a mall, and all I can say is I'm glad my wife didn't accompany me or we would still be there. The mall had more shops than I've ever seen - though they did get redundant after a while. It's very interesting to see what items are cheaper than the US, and which items are not. For example, high-end electronics like laptops and computer peripherals are comparably priced. DVD's, CD's, and games for the Xbox, etc are not. I bought 14 DVD's for about $9 USD. Some of the DVDs, like the Simpsons movie and Evan Almighty, have only been in theaters for a few weeks. I had them play the movies before I would buy them so I could verify the quality and insure it wasn't a camcorder recording while seated in a theater. I'm not sure how they are able to sell DVD's at such a low price, but I have a pretty good idea. They are either pirated, or the theaters realize the only way they sell in Indonesia is to make them affordable to the masses, and then they limit quantities. My guess is that it is a little of both - not sure how else they could have a DVD of a movie that has been in theaters just a few weeks. CDs are 45 cents, and the full version of MS Office, including visio, is $7.

What I think would keep my wife busy, is the shoes and apparel. Store after store of clothes and shoes under $5 each. Jewelry is dirt cheap, too. They had electronic keyboards for 1/3 the price in the US. I'm sure there is a business possiblity in here somewhere, but I'm also sure there are import taxes and Digital Rights considerations that make the profit margins more realistic.

Monday was back to work. It's very odd for me to finish a day feeling like I have accomplished nothing, but the rest of my crew feels the same. When we reflect on what we discussed and decisions we made, however, we realize just how much we truly did accomplish. We're tackling such broad subjects, at varying degrees of detail, that it feels like we accomplish so little when we are really accomplishing a great deal. We have roughly 6 days left to accomplish everything on our list and are half way through, so we are right on schedule. I think when we put together the final report we'll be quite proud of what we've been able to accomplish while here.

Jakarta - Friday and Saturday

Friday morning began with a presentation to the directorate on what we have accomplished, and our architectural recommendations thus far. They received our presentation well, and gave us addtional work to focus on prior to our departure. Encouraged by the meeting, we began tackling some of the more complex issues and finalized our plan for the rest of the trip.

Friday evening, after most of the crew had resigned to bed, myself and one of the guys from New Orleans went to the Mystere nightclub in the hotel because I needed dinner. The others had all eaten at the club level, but they had only served fish and poultry dishes, so I needed to go elsewhere. Entrance to the club is free for hotel guests, and non-guests pay a nominal fee.

As one would expect for a bar/nightclub, the menu options weren't that great, but I was able to get a fairly decent burger. The nightclub's band - System of Sound (SOS) - played a set while I was eating. Surprisingly, they were extremely good. They performed covers of a number of popular American songs and sounded very much like the original artists. We called it a night shortly after I finished my meal - the club was still more staff than patrons when we left.

Saturday, while Ravinder and I stayed back at the hotel, the rest of the crew went golfing. I had decided that I didn't like golf enough to wake up at 6 AM on a Saturday to go rent clubs and play an unknown course. This turned out to be a great decision. When the golfers returned, they had some very interesting stories about the golf course.

It starts with the descent to the "Caddy Shack". The course has no golf carts, but they do have caddies so you don't have to carry your clubs while you walk 18 holes. Once you pay, you walk down a long hill to a nondescript building where you rent clubs and all the male caddies are waiting. They said they felt like they were walking towards a prison. Rough looking men milled about and leaned against walls smoking cigarrettes. When they arrived, the men swarmed them, hoping to become a caddy. The rented clubs included all the necessary numbers and not much else. They were a mix-match of brands, and many had obvious dents.

The course itself was not much better. Being a city course, the fairways fell right next to each other, with trees separating one hole from another - this didn't make it any safer. While standing on the first tee, errant shots from other golfers would roll up to them. My colleagues errant shots - which I'm sure they blamed on the quality of clubs - attacked the course from all angles. Every time one of their shots would hook or slice into another fairway, the caddies would not yell "FORE!", but instead made some high-pitch sound that reminded everyone of a some tribal scream. The caddies would laugh at them if they topped the ball or scuffed it.

If chasing errant balls and hitting balls nestled against brick walls was not enough of an annoyance, the river of sewage that ran through the course made the day that much more grueling. The "river" for the "water holes" followed them across many holes on the course. They described the smell as alternating between defecation and donuts. They said they even saw a diaper float by. Groups of people selling various things from golf gloves, to golf balls they had obtained by wading through the sewage and retrieving them, to golf clubs awaited the group at every other hole. Everything seemed to cost $100,000 Rupiah - the equivalent of $10.

While my compatriots suffered through a hot, sticky, smelly round of golf, I indulged in a massage at the hotel spa. For $32, I had a one hour massage - a price point that assures I will have several more before departing. When I entered the room to disrobe, the assistant handed me a robe and something they called "commitment". I didn't ask what they meant by that, but it was basically paper underwear they expected you to wear while receiving the massage - at least that was my interpretation. The massage started with more or less a pedicure without the trimming of nails - the tiny woman washed and massaged my feet and calves. From their it was the standard full body massage.

Saturday evening, we had dinner at a hotel buffet we hadn't realized existed. In one section of the restaurant there was a large faction of young people for what appeared to be a sweet 16 birthday party. A small band consisting of various string instruments played requests in the background. It's a very odd thing listening to an Indonesian string quartet play and belt out country music songs like "Take me home" and "Dahlia" as well as 80's pop songs from "The Cure".

After dinner we retuned to the club level for drinks and billiards. I was on my game and kept anyone else from taking control of the table. While playing, an Israeli named "Amit" - prounced "ah - meat" - joined us and let me beat him a few times. Amit is an architect by trade, and runs a construction business that has a patent on prefab modular housing they can erect in 24 hours. They specialize in preparing housing for those affected by natural disasters. He said they tried to provide housing in Katrina but all of the governmental paperwork, licenses and other bureaucracy made the effort not worth it. Amit was quite the character, and visits Jakarta every few months, so he recommended a few restaurants and nightclubs.

Later, he joined myself and my colleague from the other evening at Mistere. Apparently, Amit is well known at the Ritz, as well as at Mistere. The band knew him well and we sat at the VIP seats in the club. We arrived much later than we had the night before, but the place was still fairly empty until after midnight - that's when people started to show up.

For me, the most memorable part of the evening was recognizing the stark difference between a nightclub in the US and what we saw at Mistere. When the band played, the dance floor consisted of a large group of men dancing by themselves, with Amit leading the way. Some of them would go into the crowd and grab a woman or a waitress every now and then, but for the most part just danced alone. The dancing was not spectacular, either. At one point, some Arabs ran out on the floor and "danced" by putting both hands in the air, extending one leg in front of them and hopping on the other leg. Eventually, they hooked their extended feet around the other and spun in a circle. Women were mostly spectators to this event.

The highlight of the evening was when the band played a disco song and they gave Amit the microphone so he could sing the chorus. Amit was actually very good. My colleague and I finally retired to our rooms around 12:30.

One of the challenges my company faces having mines in remote locations is housing. Our flagship mine in the US is in Morenci, AZ. There is such a housing shortage that hotels are always booked with our employees, and some have to commute hours to get to the jobsite each day. There are large pockets of available acreage nearby, but we can't find any builders who are willing to build houses. I spoke to Amit about this situation and we plan to discuss the idea further before he leaves on Wednesday. Basically, I'll by the land, he'll install several of his prefab houses, and we'll rent the units back to Freeport McMoRan so they have housing for their employees, and everyone is happy. My colleagues keep laughing at me because since we've been here I've discussed four separate side businesses with people we've met.

It's Sunday morning as I write this, and my plans for today are to get another massage and then we are all going to a local shopping center to see what we can buy.

Jakarta Pictures from the trip

I've uploaded pictures from the trip.

Pictures from Hong Kong Airport

Pictures from Jakarta

Jakarta - Day 4

The more time you spend in Jakarta, the more you realize two things:

1) The mass of humanity is tremendous
2) The pollution is horrible.

Traffic today was much worse than it has been.



Probably just like holidays in America, the day after everyone tries to get to work early to catch up on work they didn't complete by taking a day off. Probably the best way to describe traffic is by comparing it to a closeup of blood flowing through a vein. If you've ever seen how the red blood cells flow through a vein - colliding with each other, moving in close proximity but all flowing the same direction, that is how traffic looks in Jakarta. Also, I'm sure you've all seen pictures of people hanging off crowded trains in India. In Jakarta, they hang of buses and taxis. We saw one vehicle, an Indonesian version of a mini-van, that had 14 people in it and on it - 6 of them were hanging out the open side doors.

The pollution is just terrible. The minute you walk outside you are assaulted with the stench of car exhaust. There are no real sidewalks in Jakarta, so you are basically walking on the street, and every time a car drives by you get a fresh whiff of exhaust. Today the pollution was even worse than normal. It felt like you could bite a piece of the air. I can't imagine how people live here with the pollution. You'll often notice people driving and walking with handkerchiefs over their nose.

Though I haven't seen a drop of rain, it must rain in torrents here when there is precipitation. The gutters on the side of the street are moats 2 feet wide by 4 feet deep. They are at the side of every paved road. Most are covered in a dark green algae.

With such a large mass of people, you can imagine the vast numbers of cultures present. One thing you learn quickly is that culture plays a larger role on wardrobe and behavior than does religion. You see Christian women in burqas and Muslim women in shorts and tank tops. Many of the men I work with our Muslim, and they hold no animosity towards the US or its citizens. In such a poor country, most of the people are just happy to be alive.

Jakarta EARTHQUAKE!!!

I just came back from an evacuation due to an earthquake. Read about it here.

I was fast asleep when the earthquake hit about 12:10 AM. The shaking woke me up. Sounded like the windows were cracking and the whole room was swaying. I stood up, not sure what was going on and it felt like I was walking drunk. It felt like waves moving under my feet. The fire alarm went off for three seconds, then ceased. I followed a bunch of people down the stairs.

They finally let us return to our rooms about 35 minutes after the initial shaking. Time to try and get back to sleep.

Jakarta - Day 3

Today was election day. The Jakartan population voted for a governor. Much like the US, they had only two candidates to choose from. Much like Chicago, some of the guys we work with voted more than once.

The island of Java treated election day like a national holiday so that the entire population could vote. Voting here is much different than in the US. Anyone can go to any voting location to cast their vote. After they vote, the workers at the voting station dot their hand with an oil-based marker, much like a permanent marker, to indicate that they have voted. This is supposed to prevent someone from voting multiple times. Obviously, many can clean their hand and vote again. Also, they do not expect to know the results of the voting until Monday. If demonstrations will occur, it will be on Monday after the results are public.

With most of the city voting, the streets were empty on the drive to the office. Jakarta is a unique city. Once you look past the sepia hued daylight, you see great beauty among stark poverty. For a large, metropolitan city, there are vast areas of undeveloped land. The Jakartan equivalent of Manhattan, for example, has entire city blocks of undeveloped land. Where there are no buildings, there are mini-jungles with lush vegetation and rich, red dirt.

Street vendors are few and far between along the major roads, but the back roads are cluttered with small shops, shells of burned out and abandoned buildings, and crowded restaurants. Motorcycles are everywhere, and you'll often see three people riding on a single bike - usually a husband and wife with a small child either clutching to the mother (like I saw one infant doing) or riding on the handlebars (like I've seen several preschoolers do).

Driving home tonight after a long day of listening to our developers discuss our architecture in much greater detail than I could or cared to understand, the streets were still empty. Without the din of engines, we were able to hear the wailing prayers of muslims over the loudspeakers of the mosques in the city. I had come here expecting to have the prayers awaken me at 4:30 AM as some of my colleagues had experienced. I, however, appear to be on the side of the hotel opposite the nearby mosque because I hear nothing, while some of my colleagues are indeed awoken at 5 AM.

One other item of note before I go grab dinner. The work life in Jakarta is much different. It's much more communal than in the US. The workers arrive at 8 and work until 6, 6 days a week, but they take breaks in groups and often have gatherings in the cafeteria after work. The break room here in Jakarta has ping-pong tables, several large screen TV's and even a piano with a microphone for singing. Our first night, the company choir practiced after work. Apparently, they do this once a month for fun. After lunch today, two employees were playing a vigorous game of lousy ping-pong. There are signs everywhere for some kind of office olympics. Four motorcycles sit in the break room as prizes for the winners of the Olympic games. Today, I saw a poster for a "Dominoes War". Not sure what is involved in a domino war, but I'm sure curious.

It does not sound like we will be working this Saturday, and next weekend will be a three day weekend due to Indonesian Independence Day celebrations, so we are hoping to spend some time actually seeing the country - at least the island of Java. We learned today that there is a Sea World here in Jakarta, so we may go there. We are planning a golf outing for Sunday.

Jakarta - Day 2

The work we are doing is progressing much slower than I would want it to. I'm not the driver, though, so I just need to sit back and let it develop the way it develops. We're getting good things accomplished, just very slowly. We're not doing much outside the hotel and the office right now. We are at the office all day, have dinner at the hotel, and then hang out at the club level having drinks before turning in for the night. Not much going on, so not much to tell.

That said, I made a mental note of some observations today. First, on the way to the office, traffic was much worse than it was yesterday. I kept thinking we were stopping and starting due to traffic lights. Then I realized, I haven't seen a traffic light since I've been here. I don't think they have traffic lights. The cars just budge their way through the city. Traffic only moves at 20MPH, so crashes are rare and seldom injurious.

Second, we returned to the same mall for lunch. The mall is three or four stories tall and is full almost entirely with restaurants. As you walk by the restaurant, they have these "barkers" - like carnival barkers - that try to persuade you to eat at their restaurant. I don't recall ever seeing this in the states, though one of my colleagues says they often do that at the Italian restaurants on Cape Cod.

Finally, we took the back roads - the REAL back roads - back to the hotel. Supposedly, it's faster than using the main roads. When travelling the neighborhoods, the lanes are barely one car wide, and cars travel both directions. Neighborhood kids stand in the middle of the road and direct traffic so there are no collisions. Drivers pay them a "toll" to thank them. It isn't mandatory, but it appeared that most of the drivers paid.

The backroads are a true demonstration of the poverty that most people live with in Jakarta. The average salary is $1,000 a year. This causes all of them to be very frugal. You don't see American cars on the road because they aren't fuel efficient. You do see Toyota, Honda, and Hyundai, though you wouldn't recognize the models. For example, you see Honda City's. The desire to save money on fuel costs is why most Jakartans drive motorcycles. We saw one that had apparently lost its gas tank because there was now an old two-liter of Sprite acting as the gas tank.

I haven't had much chance to take pictures of anything but the actual city and the traffic. Tomorrow, we're anticipating a half-day of work because election day is often treated as a national holiday. Hopefully that will afford me the opportunity to get more pictures.

Jakarta - Day 1

My sleeping plans didn't work out as well as I had hoped. Sunday evening, I fell asleep at 7PM while watching a movie on TV. I was up at midnight. I stayed awake a few hours moving around a bit, and fell back asleep by 2 AM. At 6, I got up for good.

We met for breakfast at the club level. I had fared better than the rest of my group, so I guess there was some benefit to my plans to avoid jet lag. At 8, our drivers picked us up at the front of the hotel and drove us to the office.

Rush hour in Jakarta is busier than anything I've ever seen. I've driven in Manhattan and downtown LA during rush hour, and it's never taken 30 minutes to go three miles before. I also now understand why foreigners do not drive here. First, they drive like the British, including having the driver sit on the right side of the car. Second, I don't think there are any real traffic laws. You merge by sticking your car out in front of oncoming traffic daring them to hit you. If they don't hit you, or don't go around you, you've successfully merged.

Morning was mostly introductions - who each person is, what the systems do, what we plan to accomplish over the next few weeks. We also discussed safety concerns for the visiting team. The building is close to the Australian Embassy that terrorists bombed about 4 years ago and suffered damage and broken glass, but no injuries. The region also has frequent earthquakes, so knowing the evacuation routes is very important. They also mentioned that the local elections occur this Wednesday, and it is often treated as a national holiday. Apparently, the elections are typically followed by demonstrations - aka, riots - regardless of who wins, so we discussed contingencies for working at the hotel if it wasn't safe to go to the office. All in a day's work for the Indonesia team.

At lunch, the local team had another meeting, so us visitors went to a local food court for lunch. The food court was only two buildings down, but with 88 degree heat and 80% humidity, it may as well have been two miles away. During the walk, I realized that the smoggy haze is not just visible, it's palpable. Every breath I took I could taste the air on the back of my tongue. If you've ever smelled car exhaust, that's how the normal air tastes here.

All of the advertisements in the food court, as well as the menu, were in English. The waitstaff, however, only spoke the English on the menu. Ravinder is vegetarian, and watching him explain "no meat" was a painful experience. I ordered lasagne with meat sauce, figuring it was probably pretty safe. We also remembered to order our beverages without ice. For forty American dollars - 400,000 Indonesian Rupiah - we all four had lunch and a drink.

The meetings after lunch were again a general discussion of our respective technical architectures. We have another colleague arriving this evening who will need to be present for the more detailed discussions. One of the local guys mentioned to me that he knew a place to go and get brand new DVD's for $0.50 USD. I asked him if they were originals or duplicates. He said "you can get originals". Looks like we're probably going to try and go golfing next Sunday, too.

For dinner, we went to the "Cork and Screw" restaurant. I had a braised beef brisquit in benaise sauce and we split three bottles of wine between 5 people - we all had drivers. We'll probably eat at the hotel the rest of the week, except Saturday, when we plan to visit a popular, authenticate restaurant famous for its decor and how it presents the food.

For now, I'm tired. It's 9:45 PM Monday night. I've already spoken to Jessica and Gabi via web camera - Gabi even said "dada" when she saw me, though she looked very confused. I need to get up at 6 tomorrow morning, so it's off to bed with one more day of my trip in the books.

Jakarta

The flight from Hong Kong to Jakarta was bumpy but uneventful.
Walking through the airport, my first impression was that it seemed a lot like airports in
southern Mexico - Acapulco, Cancun. Hot and humid with jungle foliage outside the windows.
Everything is in English first, with Indonesian second. Getting through immigration reminded
me it has been a while since I last travelled internationally as I had forgotten to fill out
the paperwork the flight crew gives you for immigration and customs.
The airport is much smaller than one would expect for an international capital city with
over 9 million people. There are few terminals, very few gates, and no one is watching the
luggage. My immigration papers are stamped without review and no one asks for a customs form (which I didn't have anyway).

Our drivers, who speak no English, are waiting for us just past customs holding signs with
our names on them. Others in my party remembered to bring some currency from prior trips so
we had 10,000 rupiah ($1) to tip the baggage carriers. The air is very hot and very humid as
we walk to the car. At 5'9", I'm towering over most of the crowd, as well as outweighing
most of them.

The drive from the aiport to the Ritz once again was very similar to Mexico. Two lined
lanes, but cars form three - five if there are motorcycles. Goats wander freely along the
highway, and there are a number of marches with small shacks lining their banks. Families
are fishing and others are lounging by the water.

It's a Sunday afternoon in Jakarta, but the streets are still crowded. Our driver tells us
it is 5 minutes from airport to hotel but it really takes us 30. The air is hazy with
omnipresent smog. The suburbs of Jakarta have unpainted concrete homes with red, tiled
roofs. Most of the homes look in disrepair, until we get near the major hotels.

In Jakarta, the Ritz Carlton is across from the JW Marriott, which I see out my window.
Pulling up to the hotel, we are stopped in the driveway checkpoint by about 20 local police
who spend time sweeping our car for bombs. They open the doors and look inside the car,
inspect under the hood, and walk the circumferance of the car with mirrors inspecting
underneath. At the hotel lobby, we walk through a metal detector like they have at the
airport.

My room, as you would expect, is spacious and luxurious. Wide screen plasma on the wall,
marble floors, and a room as large as my living room. It's 4:20 PM as I write this, and I've
just finished ironing my shirts and unpacking. I think the rest of my party is napping prior
to dinner at the steakhouse in the hotel.

The only issue I've had thus far is figuring out how to change my location settings so that
my websites display in English instead of Indonesian. We head to the office tomorrow at 7:45
AM. I've taken a few pictures since our arrival as well as at the Hong Kong airport which I
will try to upload this evening or sometime tomorrow.

The trip out

I've travelled several times on business in my career, though I've never truly been a "road warrior". I've also travelled to many places around the globe. However, my business trip to Jakarta represents two firsts for me - first time 've travelled internationally for business, and first time I've travelled to Asia. My itinerary for flying to Jakarta is:

• Phoenix to LAX
• LAX to Hong Kong
• Hong Kong to Jakarta

Phoenix to LAX:
I arrived on time for my flight out of Phoenix only to discover that while our plane was on time, the flight crew was late and the pilots would not be on time. Ravinder (the architect on my team who is travelling with me) and I grabbed a bite to eat and waited for the takeoff. We finally left Phoenix around 9:30 - our original departure time was Friday at 7:50 PM.

We arrived in LAX with just over an hour to catch our connecting flight. We had to walk about a mile from our arriving Terminal 1 to the Tom Bradley International terminal. After walking past it the first time, we found our check-in counter, showed our passports and began walking to the security line. That's when we discovered the line was about 400 people deep - and approximately a 2 hour wait. The status screens indicated our flight was boarding, so we were stuck. Luckily, an employee of Cathay Airways recognized we were running late and escorted us through the security line - which still took 20 minutes.

With a flight departure time of Friday 11:52 PM, my watch saying 11:40, a departure gate of 105 and us standing at 163 - we decided we needed to run. Luckily, we both wore running shoes. We arrived at our gate to see our New Orleans compatriots standing in line to board. Despite announcements to the contrary, the boarding process had not yet begun. At roughly midnight, we were comfortably aboard the plane and sipping the complimentary champagne.

LAX to Hong Kong

The estimated travel time for our flight is 14hr, 30 minutes, arriving in Hong Kong at 5 AM Sunday morning - where did Saturday go??? Trying to minimize the impact of jet lag and travel fatigue, I have planned to stay awake util 4 AM AZ (7 PM Jakarta) sleep for 6 hours, then stay awake until 8 or 9 PM in Jakarta so I can be fresh on Monday morning.

I remember from my trips to Paris that international coach was far superior to domestic coach. Now that I have flown international business class, I don't know that I'll ever be able to fly international coach again. For those of you who haven't flown business class internationally, here are some of the perks:

1) Seats that are like a craft-matic adjustable bed! You can sit in it like a La-Z-Boy or
fully recling it into a bed.
2) Free in-flight movies on demand
3) Actual linen napkins and silverware. Real glassware for drinks.
4) Hot towels 5-6 times throughout the flight.
5) A free toiletry bag full of stuff - sleeping mask, ear plugs, toothpaste, etc
6) And, of course, all you can drink.

I opt to watch two movies over my vegetarian dinner of rice pilaf and mushrooms. "300" - a story of how 300 Spartans held of a Persian army of tens of thousands, and "Black Book" - a Dutch movie of WWII intrigue. Both were very good.

I took a six hour nap, then watched "Fracture" - an EXCELLENT movie with Anthony Hopkins as a genius who almost gets away with killing his wife, and then Spiderman 3 - that I'm glad I didn't pay for.

Arriving in Hong Kong at 5 AM Sunday morning, the airport is empty. We wait until 6 AM and go to the Cathay Pacific business class lounge which allows me to get some refreshments, take a quick shower and post my first entry on this blog.

The airport is not what I expected, but, of course, it's also empty. The mountainous scenery
I can see out the airport windows make me wish it hadn't been pitch black when we arrived. I
don't see the infamous house boats, but I can definitely see the appeal of this city. I'd
like to come back.