Alterity | Jakarta and Bali

Another one of my bugbears about living in Jakarta – A lack of Indian restaurants! I say this because as someone brought up in Old Blighty (the UK), and having lived in the curry-mecca cities of Birmingham and London, I am more than a little partial to a good Indian curry – and not only after a few beers either!  I realise that Jakarta doesn’t have sizeable Indian communities like either Malaysia or Singapore but that doesn’t offer any consolation when you’re craving fresh naan breads, spicy tandoori chicken and other Indian gastronomic delights.  Of the Indian restaurants in Jakarta most are medium-to-high priced and only a few are in the cheap and cheerful mould. So what are your options?   Well here’s my list of the top ten Indian restaurants in Jakarta (the ones I’ve visited at least!)   - Satoo in the Shangri-La Hotel – excellent and authentic Indian cuisine as part of the restaurant’s excellent Asian buffet. It’s a classy and plush setting but lack...

A bizarre thing happened last week. Michael Jackson ’s old man – Joseph Jackson - swung by the Big Durian as an honored guest of Michael Riady, CEO of the St. Moritz & Lippo Shopping Malls Group! Quite a surprise I’m sure you’ll agree! But why was he invited? Well, ostensibly as an interested investor in the Rp11 trillion superblock project being built in Puri Indah, West Jakarta. Or that is how it was reported . But the real reason is quite different, of course. Indonesian property is off limits to foreigners and Joseph doesn’t exactly have the sort of cash needed to make him the ideal investor anyway (he makes his cash mostly through product endorsements and entertainment bookings). Even so, perhaps we shouldn’t be too surprised by Joseph’s visit to Indonesia. Lippo does, after all, have deep linkages into America. The Jackson’s are good friends with the Clintons, for example. As are Lippo . And Lippo’s superblock project is in many ways as vacuous and over-the-top as the very wo...

I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike. I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride it where I like! ~ Freddie Mercury With four SEA Games “Down Hill” Titles to her name, Risa Suseanty is indisputably the hottest thing on two wheels in Indonesia at the moment. And this year she’ll be looking to add a fifth title to her collection. Certainly this is not beyond her immense talent in light of her recent good form, and we here at Simply Indonesia, are confident the 31-year old head turner will deliver the goods again. Risa sports the latest cycling fashions Risa, who hails from Bandung in West Java, is always careful to take precautions when going into unfamiliar territory, and she says she prefers a good, hard ride to simply coasting downhill. But dangers lurk at every corner. So getting back on top again is of the utmost importance in the case of accidentally falling off. The worst thing about riding is being with someone who is having trouble keeping up, she says. In that case ...

Despite showing its age a bit, the Sheraton in Yogyakarta has retained enough of its charm to allow for a pleasurable stay. On the bright side are the rooms: they are still well-appointed, comfortable and clean. No problems there – I slept very well thank you very much. What is of some concern, however, are the hotel’s facilities. The gym? Well it’s small and the equipment is rather basic but I still managed to get in a decent enough workout. The spa, however, looks to be rather neglected. The fittings are kind of gaudy and a throwback to the 1970s. The water in the whirlpool was not hot and we even had to switch on the lights ourselves! Basically it was as if the spa had been completely forgotten about. Perhaps it has been: by both the hotel’s management and guests alike! Head outside and you will find a large swimming pool modeled on Yogyakarta’s royal baths. Again, the swimming pool is showing its age and didn’t seem to be particularly clean. A total rebuild – turning it into...

If you wanna be right at the “center of action” in the “Big Mangga’ then it can only mean one thing: the infamous Lokasari “entertainment” complex. This is where the rot started all those years ago: definitely as far back as the 70s and possibly even before. It’s skuzzy, decrepit, rusting and wanton. A lot like an old and battered Skoda left out to rust at a scrap yard, really. At Lokasari, the venue of choice must be the infamous Atlanta (click for my short review). Since those days things have changed a lot of course, and there are now a multitude of gaudy looking spas in the Mangga Besar area, many bizarrely paying homage to ancient Greek, Roman and even Egyptian architecture – evidence perhaps that sleaze and culture can be adroitly mixed. Located just behind the Lokasari complex - it’s actually sort of attached onto it really – is the three-star Olympic Hotel – which thanks to some refurbishment is in pretty reasonable shape. For some reason there seem to be quite a ...

It’s just another day in the office for Brigadir Avvy Olivia – Indonesia’s most famous traffic policewoman (polwan). Avvy Olivia  But while many of her colleagues will be out on the mean streets of Jakarta booking recalcitrant motorists, lovely Avvy is more likely to be in the make-up room getting ready to do another televised traffic report for Metro TV, the country’s leading television station for news. Dressed in a perfectly-fitting and well-pressed police uniform, Avvy gives her traffic report in the fluent and confident style of an experienced television presenter. But arresting criminals and captivating the attention of a delirious television audience aren’t the only things she does well - Avvy is also a wife and proud mother. And damn good with the handcuffs…

If Wikleaks cables be the food of love, then read on.   A new batch of cables have been uploaded by Wikileaks, and whilst most of them are a bit too tepid for my demanding palate, there are thankfully some really “tasty” morsels to sample as well – including some marked “TOP SECRET” (which really get the juices flowing!)  So without any further ado, here they are:  1) James Riady finances the travel of NU participants to Israel as an “inducement” for them to participate in a “hush-hush” Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KADIN) delegation. Why? https://bit.ly/ndJAvj  2) The US Embassy seems impressed by polygamy, quoting a high ranking member of NU who says that “polygamous institutions actually fulfill women's desires and reproductive rights”. https://bit.ly/oS2YwR Could it be that the US sees polygamy as a way of bringing down the US’s high divorce rate?  3) PERTAMINA MUST NOT BE USED "AS AN ATM MACHINE" No, no, no! This cannot be true!!!! “*** all...

If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever. ~George Orwell  It was the 1960s. A time when the hippie mantra of free love was being spread in the west by LSD loving rock groups like the Grateful Dead. Over here in Indonesia things weren’t quite so lush however, and an increasingly bitter struggle between leftist (communist) groups and their nationalist adversaries was set to culminate in the bizarre and tragic G30S “event” which set forth a savage orgy of killing in which up to one million communists were “purged”. The G30S event - so called because it took place on 30 September 1965 - involved the murder of seven army generals.  But this was no ordinary murder mystery - far from it. The backdrop to the murders was the increasing strength of the Indonesian communist party (PKI), whom Sukarno had incorporated into his “inclusive” NASACOM philosophy – an intrinsically unstable mix of nationalist, religious (primarily Islam) and commun...