Living La Vida Jakarta

So, I missed an item on my list of things we "miss": Bagels. My wife has been hounding me to find her a nice, warm, soft, chewy bagel with cream cheese. So, I found one. It's at the American club.

On Monday it poured again in the late afternoon, shortly before I was ready to leave work. I had no intention of spending 2.5 hours in traffic again, so I had my first opportunity to make use of a uniquely Jakartan innovation - the Car Jockey.

In its infinite wisdom, presumably in an attempt to prevent traffic jams and encourage car pooling, the Indonesian government created what they like to call a "Three Way" (for those of you with prurient interests, no, it isn't that). Much like the carpool lanes in the states, these lanes require three people in the car in order to use them. When I travel home, it's me and my driver. For most, much like the US, it is just themselves. So, these lanes travel faster than the average traffic lane.

Indonesians have never found a money making opportunity that they could not exploit for profit so, as you leave the business district and make your way towards a 3-way, you'll pass a line of people with their hands out trying to hitch a ride. Only, they aren't hitch hikers. They are a 3rd passenger who, for a nominal fee of 15,000 Rupiah ($1.25) will ride in your car as long as you need them to so you can use the fast lane. Talk about your externalities! The Indonesian government is missing out on a massive tax opportunity. If they just made the 3-ways a toll road and charged 15,000 Rupiah per entrance, they would eliminate this untaxed cottage industry.... of course, they would take food out of the mouths of those doing it, too.

I'm told the trick to finding a car jockey is to find one that doesn't smell. I wish they had told me that BEFORE I used one. From what I understand, if you choose a male, there is a 50/50 chance he has showered in the last week. If you choose a female, you have a 75% chance. On my coin flip, I called heads and it came up tails. The car still had the odor when I entered it in the morning. But, I sure got home fast!

Tonight we went in search of a Mexican restaurant. I have a map of Jakarta and saw that, near my house, there was a Chi-Chi's and a Salsa House. When we were in Bali, I noticed the Chi-Chi's I'm familiar with from the Midwest of the US, so I had high hopes. Our driver took us to the map location for both restaurants. In both cases, the restaurants had gone out of business and a new establishment stood in their place. Mexican food just does not translate well in Indonesia. Not enough rice...though I think Chipotle would do AWESOME here!

We ended up at an Italian restaurant called Toscanos. An appetizer, four meals, a bottle of wine, and four desserts later, our tab was still around $90 including tip. Not bad considering the bottle of wine was 1/3 the cost. The food was amazing, too. I had a slow roasted prime rib with black pepper and rosemary spice in a beef gravy with cheese covered cauliflower - $10. The banana split only had one slice of banana, which didn't quite make it a split, but as long as it has 3 scoops of ice cream I'm not going to complain.

I think this weekend - the last my mother-in-law will be here - we are going to make a trip to the beach closest to us and also spend a day at the American club. Should be interesting.