First week of work in the books

I didn't realize it has been over a week since my last post. I am trying to post at least once a week - probably Saturdays - though I am going to try to post twice a week. Waiting so long I have a lot to catch up on, so this may be a long post.

Finishing out Bali. A few things I forgot to mention about Bali. First, my wife and I had both read that many Indonesians view children with blond hair as good-luck charms and that we should be prepared for them to want to touch them. This was EXTREMELY apparent in Bali. All of the beach merchants wanted to shake our daughter's hand, pat her head, whatever. People on the street would stop to take pictures of her. When we went to the Kecak ceremony, as the dancers were preparing, they wanted to shake her hand for good luck. Everyone is always calling at her, asking her name, etc. As we left the Kecak ceremony, and were returning our modesty skirts, the people at the counter also wanted to reach out and touch her. I think she had finally had enough because she said to me, exasperated: "I can't talk to EVERYONE."

Second, Kuta beach is a party beach. This is where people go when they want to enjoy the party scene. When we return to Bali - and it is "when', not "if" - we will probably go to a different beach.

Kemang Club Villas. We really like our neighborhood. I had forgotten how nice it is - two pools, 4 tennis courts, soccer field, playground, gym, spa (with 1 hour massage for $12) and a small cafe all on site. There is a grocery store with expat food that we walk to when we need groceries. I learned a new Indonesian phrase from shopping there - "terlalu mahal". It means "too expensive". We have 24 hour maintenance and security as well as a property management team that will help arrange for anything we need.

The house itself has a few peculiarities. First, we do not have central air. Instead, every room has a remote controlled air conditioner. Oddly enough, despite the heat and humidity, we've only turned them on in a few rooms - my office is not one of them - and it seems fine. We've met a few of our neighbors, but are not yet friendly with any of them. All our expats, most have children.

Time Off. I spent a few hours in the office on Thursday, April 2. This was so my official first day in the office - 06 April - was not spent going through email. I had nearly 400 to read on Thursday. Friday we took the opportunity to go to Safari Park. This was the place I had visited a year back when I took pictures with the tiger and orangutan. This time, we purchased carrots to feed the animals on the way in. We had some great animal encounters. From the car, we fed zebra, llama, camel, antelope, water buffalo and a monkey. One zebra became frustrated when I stopped feeding them and literally bit a piece off the car!

After the drive-through portion of the park, we spent some time at the petting zoo. I took my daughter for another attempt at pictures with the orangutan. He was very interested; she was absolutely not and SCREAMED whenever he would try to hold her hand. She did get to ride a pony again and several of the amusement park rides. They were also in the process of building a water park, so we will have to go back when they open it.

After Safari Park we went to Pencak, a mountain city near the park. We went to the Pencak Hotel which has amazing views of the plateaus and vistas in the mountains. Both the park and the hotel were at a much higher altitude than Jakarta and the temperature reflected it - about 10 degrees cooler.

Jakarta Shopping. Our rental package includes the basics - beds, desk, couches, large appliances and a water cooler. It did not include essentials - blender, toaster, iron, ironing board, floor lamps, bedside lamps, extension cords. These, along with place mats, pillows and a few other items we needed to buy. We went to a nearby mall called Pondok Indah.

These people saw us coming. We first went to a department store to buy pillows, dishes, small appliances, etc. We had a team of people following us around. In the department stores, everyone has commission as a portion of their pay. SOMEONE needs to get credit for every sale, so they are very eager to help you. With all the different departments we shopped in, five different people received credit for our purchases - which, by the way, amounted to more than the per capita income of Indonesia ("Terlalu Mahal!!!").

We couldn't find everything we needed - tools, lamps, etc - at the department store. When we asked where we could find it, everyone said "Ace Hardware". I was hesitant. I know Ace Hardware as a more expensive Home Depot with a lot less selection. In Jakarta, Ace Hardware is like WalMart. They had everything - tools, dishes, towels, lamps, aquariums, fish, plants - everything! Well, almost everything. We asked for nails so we could hang the paintings we bought in Bali. They only had screws.

We had two other shopping adventures. One was to Carrefour, a grocery store that the locals shop at. Here we found much better prices than at the Bule store near our home. The store is about 3 miles away. Took us 45 minutes to get there and, because it was a Friday evening on the way home, and Kemang is THE hot place for nightlife, the ride home took over 2 hours and involved several U-turns and redirections as traffic and police blocked our preferred routes. Carrefour was more like a Super WalMart - groceries and other items. It is here we finally bought lamps.

One of the greater challenges is finding alcohol. Beer is pretty available, but I don't drink beer. Wine is usually available and is 3-4x the cost - Sutter Home white zinfandel cost me $23. Liquor and spirits is impossible to find. I asked around and was directed to a place called "Duty Free". This was a nondescript store in Kemang with black, tinted windows. We walked through the door - plastered with signs indicating they took Visa, AMEX, MC, etc. - and discovered a huge store with nothing but bottles of wine and spirits. There were rows and rows of three shelves high of wine from all over the world - New Zealand, Australia, Chile, Spain, California, France. One wall was spirits, but a very limited selection. Midori, Jack Daniels, Johnny Walker, Cognac. No Vodka, no Gin, no Rum, no Seagram's. The Johnny Walker Green Label was $71. Ouch!

Jakarta Living. We are settling in to our living in Jakarta. I was already accustomed to having a driver before coming out thanks to all my prior trips. My wife, on the other hand, is still uncomfortable with the idea that we have someone who sits in our garage waiting for us to need them. She enjoys their help loading our purchases into the car, however, as well as not having to find parking. However, we have already replaced her first driver because he could not speak any English and she speaks no Indonesian.

The weather here has been very hot and very humid. Our first few days found temperatures 90+ with 80-90% humidity. Two steps out the door and a bead of sweat would fall from your forehead to the ground. We have had rain every day so far, and two days have been cloudy the whole day.

Monday was my first day in the office. I am trying to overlap my hours to some extent with our team in Phoenix, as well as avoid as much traffic as I can. This means that, for the first time in my life, I am waking up between 5 and 5:30 AM every day and leaving the house by 6 AM. Of course, my driver has to get up before me because he has to wake up, dress, and drive here by 6 AM. Luckily, he is devout Muslim and is up by 4:30 AM for his morning prayers, so I don't think he is experiencing any hardship. Each day, including Monday, my trip to the office has required a mere 15 minutes. I leave by 4:30, so I am usually home shortly after 5 PM. Monday was an exception.

On Monday, we had a very heavy rain for about 90 minutes from 2 - 3:30. This rain caused flooding. Flooding caused traffic jams. My commute home on Monday took 2.5 hours. In addition to spending 2.5 hours in the car, we also drove through a flooded area. Freeport has provided me with a Ford Everest. This is an SUV with very high carriage. We needed it on Monday.

We weren't sure we could drive on the flooded road. Most cars were turning around. Turning around probably would have made my 2.5 hours 4 hours. When we saw people pushing their motorcycles through, we decided to forge ahead. To get the picture of what we were dealing with, the people pushing their motor cycle were wading through water that reached to just below the seat of the bike. As we drove through, we created another 1-2 foot wake as the grill of the SUV pushed through the water. The waders were not happy. As we drove by we literally submerged their bikes, and sometimes them. Several of them rushed the car and banged on the windows to express their displeasure. It took about 3 minutes to navigate through the flood waters and I'm glad we saved me another 90 minutes.

Finally, I feel like I am easing into this role. I took two weeks off before I started (with a few half days of work and meeting with vendors along the way). This week I only had to work 3-days. Friday is a public holiday for Good Friday. The current President declared Thursday a national holiday because it was a national election. Can you imagine Barack Obama just picking a day in a month and requiring all companies to give their employees the day off? So, I'm enjoying a four-day weekend this week.