Alterity | Jakarta and Bali

I’m going to Bali again. For the third time this year. Leaving behind me the turdgit waters of Jakarta’s Venetian canals and exchanging them for the clear, aquamarine seas of North Bali .  Not a bad deal huh? But there’s a catch. Because just as Cinderella couldn’t stay at the ball, I can’t stay forever in Bali. That’s just the way it works. The clock strikes midnight and before you can say “Schapelle Corby” you are in the departure hall of Bali’s Ngurah Rai International airport and carefully nursing an overpriced can of warm Beer Bintang…   Tourists have been going to Bali for ages now, of course. But that sort of got me thinking – exactly how long? Now I know the hippy dudes first set up camp in the small village of Kuta in the ‘70s (yep just imagine that, Kuta as a small village!), but that hardly marks the beginnings of tourism in Bali. For that, you have to go back much further. To the 1920s and 1930s, and even before. A time when the Yanks banned booze, the term for...

Ada dua laki laki Indonesia yg lagi omong rencana pernikaan salah satunya. “Tapi, bagaimana saya tahu dia tidak bohong dan dia masih perawanan?,” laki yg akan menikah tanya temannya. Temannya balas: “Itulah gampang. Kamu hanya perlu cet merah, cet biru dan sepotong bamboo. Kamu harus ngecet satu bolamu merah dan satu biru. Kalau dia tertawa malam pernikaan dan bilang: “mereka adalah bola paling lucu yg saya pernah lihat!” kamu harus pukul dia dengan bamboo loh!!!!!” Hahaha!!!! And so we have Keperawanan Bukan Untuk Dijual (My Virginity Is Not For Sale), yet another titillating masterpiece from those fine folk at Rapi Film, who previously gave us the equally preposterous The Virgin’s Shroud . But while the lovely girls in Keperawanan Bukan Untuk Dijual may not be willing to sell their virginity, it doesn’t mean they wouldn’t be willing to give it away for free of course. And there’s another reason why they may not be able to sell their virginity of course – Because they don’t have thei...

This film puts an interesting twist on the conventional “Meet the Parents” theme to create a movie plot only slightly less believable than Ariel or Luna Maya ’s version of events in the ongoing sex video saga. Okay. So what we have here is a young chap (Arya) who has promised to introduce his girlfriend (Amara) to his parents after not seeing them for over two years. But Arya is very, very nervous about the whole thing. Now why could this be? Well, you might be thinking it’s because Amara - with her tattoos and revealing clothes - is just not the “sort of girl you want to take home to meet your parents”. But you’d be wrong. Cos what really worries Arya is that Amara is a successful career woman!! And his parents wouldn’t like that would they?! So what does Arya do? Well, he persuades an equally sexy girl (called Fani) to pretend to be his girlfriend and to agree to meet his parents in place of Amara. For a cool Rp30 million - naturally. Now, for that sort of money Fani (what a silly na...

Despite being named after the goddess of love, beauty and sexual rapture, Aphrodite is not a girly bar but probably Jakarta’s best sports bar. Huge plasma screens dominate the set-up and they show a vast range of sports from football and tennis to cricket and even that strange game from down-under where butch men squeeze into very tight shorts to the delight of obviously very camp crowds.  Besides the plasma TVs, there are also a couple of billiard tables at Aphrodite if you fancy shooting pool. Getting here should not take too long from most central Jakarta offices (less than three hours during rush hour) but watch out: the bar is located dangerously close to Bakrie Central where a well-known business scion (some would say megalomaniac) is creating a mini-city in his own name (he has even named a university after himself, and, most incredulously of all, a mosque!). As you’d expect from a sports bar, the grub at Aphrodite is pretty good on the whole and reasonably priced to b...

STOP PRESS : Setelah sekian lama, developer (Pikko Land) sudah mulai membangun proyek ini! Kontraktor utama adalah Pulau Intan. Ini adalah angin segar untuk pembeli apartment ini yang lokasinya sangat strategis di posisi hoek Jalan Dewi Sartika/ Jalan MT Haryono. Selain access ke dua busway juga ada pintu gerbang toll persis di depan proyek (di Jalan MT Haryono). Access ke Bogor melalui Cawang juga gambang kerna bisa lewat Jalan Dewi Sartika.  PROGRESS @ 14 May 2016 Konstruksi gedung cukup complete. Sudah ada jendela. PROGRESS @ 15 August 2015 PROGRESS @ 14 June 2015 Di depan adalah apartment Green Signature sementara apartment  Signature Park Grande (yg progressnya cukup banyak) ada di  belakang. PROGRESS @ 25 January 2015 Facilitas apartment yg menarik termasuk kolam renang yang besar. Setelah Pikko success dengan "Signature Park" di Tebet, prospek untuk proyek ini (Signature Park Grande dan Green Signature) semakin bagus.  PROGRESS @ 2...

You are hardcore, you make me hard. You name the drama and I'll play the part. ~Pulp In a large metropolis like Jakarta, the competitive sp ir i t is well-engrained and everyone is keen to outdo everyone else - whether it’s driving the fastest car, dating the hottest girl or just wearing the snazziest shirt. Jakarta’s nightclub scene is no exception, of course, and the winners are those who take things to the max: the sexiest dancers, the loudest sound system, the fanciest drinks.  But there is one measure on which all nightclubs will ultimately be judged – how late they are open to! Over the years, more and more clubs have extended their opening hours but few can hope to match the legendary Mille's, a self-named “International Executive Club” (whatever is meant by that), which only really gets going after 8 o clock in the morning. Although this should mean that only the most committed revelers are still left standing, the unwritten rules are often flouted, and it’s not unkn...

When Toshiba took on Luna Maya as their brand ambassador some bright spark at the Japanese electronics giant came up with the rather salacious and (as it turns out to be) highly prophetic tag line “Luna Loves It”. Yes quite. So with egg on their face, the Boys at Tosh are now scrambling to get things cleaned up by closing down their Indonesian website as they give it a full makeover. I wonder what lovely Luna would make of that?

Wow! Rayuan Arwah Penasaran is now out! But while most of the gossipmongers debate the upper half of Rahma Azhari’s undeniably attractive body, what is just as interesting is that the film poster for the film is yet another work of unashamed plagiarism – this time of the poster for the classic film “Where the Truth Lies”. About the only creative thing the makers of the Rayuan Arwah Penasaran film poster did, was to flip the perspective of the original image! So I’ve flipped it back again! And here’s the poster for “Where the Truth Lies”: Rahma Azhari

Bizarre medical conditions. So strange you’d think someone was pulling your leg (or perhaps hacking off theirs). Yep, that’s called Body Integrity Identity Disorder and it ain’t very nice.  Then there’s Persistent Sexual Arousal Syndrome (that must be hard to come to terms with!), music-induced seizures, Fatal Familiar Insomnia and even – would you believe it – a condition affecting people who are unable to open their eyes !  But the bizarre medical condition which is sweeping Indonesia at the current time is slightly different. Stiff neck syndrome. And here’s a sufferer from Jakarta being examined: So what’s causing the problems? Well, at first the doctors were completely perplexed. But after collating data from a large number of cases, they were soon able to ascertain some interesting facts: Many of the affected were either office workers or university students! Further investigation finally pinpointed the cause of the problem: Yep, that’s right, Indonesians have been...

English pub gardens are magical places in the summertime. The long shadows of the towering oak trees and the easy breeze. The buzz of a bee and a pair of flirty, carefree butterflies. The sweet and sensual fragrance of an English rose. A lacing of foam gently sliding down the side of your glass, the definitive sign of a quality brew… Such gardens of beer-drinking Eden are difficult to find in the tropics but in deepest Kemang, home to Jakarta’s stressed out expat community, you can find – if you look hard enough - the aptly-named Beer Garden tucked away down one of the narrow streets. As beer gardens go this one is very small (seats 20-30), and whilst you may have to make do with mosquitoes for bees and a palm tree for a giant oak, it’s still a pleasant enough place to sink a few beers before you head back indoors to enjoy the ice-cold air-conditioning! Beer Garden Kemang JL. Benda No.7 Kemang Jakarta Tel: (021) 789 1145 6pm- 2am (3am on weekends). Live music on Wednesdays and ...

Tight fitting jeans may recently have been outlawed in Aceh, but one of the finest daughters of this radical Indonesian outpost is currently making waves in cyberspace. And for all the wrong reasons…. Malu Malu… Kenapa sih?!!!!! Okay, Cut.. Only smile if it’s true. Ah ha!!!!!!!!!

Okay. So here's the deal: The girl in the notorious sex video has a butterfly tattooed on her left hip. And here is a pic of Luna Maya frolicking around at the beach. The question is - can you see the butterfly or not? Look hard and look close. Can you see the butterfly? (click on the image to see the large size version) Luna learning something about the much-loved doggie position at the beach!

Money can't buy back your youth when you're old Or a friend when you're lonely, or a love that's grown cold The wealthiest person is a pauper at times Compared to the man with a satisfied mind   >The late great Johnny Cash  One of the strange characteristics of “developing” countries is that they tend to have “silly” money. What I mean by that is that a coffee will cost you twenty thousand and a TV four million. A house could well cost you above a billion!  It takes some getting used to, but it’s a nice feeling to know you are a millionaire (well, at least until you receive a six hundred thousand electricity bill in the post.)   I’m not sure why it’s worked out like this but I guess it’s a sort of compensatory gesture by the central banks of developing countries to make their country’s impoverished citizens feel richer – through the astute use of the good old “zero” (costs nothing right?)  Going down the scale, the smallest Indonesian banknote I can reme...

Borobudur Hotel is one of few hotels in Jakarta with any character and is located on very expansive grounds right in the center of the city , just opposite this chap , and also very close to the Jakarta Cathedral and Istiqlal Mosque . The hotel is home to the Grand Manhattan Club, a pretty undistinguished bar where a small percentage of Jakarta’s one percent plot their devilish schemes, sink imported whiskies, and check out the few hookers that have wound up here. The main attraction of the bar is the live music (every night Mondays t hru Saturdays) as very few revelers come here just to admire the retro décor.  All in all, it’s very much a hit and miss affair at the Grand Manhattan Club. You could end up having a fairly average night singing along to some old favorites that the band is playing, or, by contrast, you could get lucky and be in there when the flight crew of Air Asia just drops by…. :) Grand Manhattan Club Borobudur Hotel, 1st -3rd Fl Jl. Lapangan Banten...