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.