Areas other than Felatehan...
[QUOTE=Dorman]This is a report directed more towards long term residents of Jakarta, people who have an idea of the lay out of the city and who can get by on reasonable Bahasa Indonesia, I appreciate it will be of no assistance to anyone who is newly arrived, a tourist or someone on a tight schedule on a business trip for example.
There are two main reasons for my report and I'd be interested in hearing the opinions of anyone, like me, who is now long past the kid in a sweetshop phase of Jakarta life and is now a jaded old stager. The first element related to a recent move in my career. It was a promotion I am happy to say but a transfer that saw me leaving the comfort zone of my well established happy hunting ground along the Transjakarta Busway corridor 1 in central Jakarta. No longer would I be within twenty minutes of Blok M or Kota depending on my mood, instead I found myself in the dreary (so I thought) wastelands of east Jakarta.
On arrival at my post my heart sank at the grim vista bisected by a railway line and a six lane highway; no bright shopping malls, bars, clubs, karaoke joints, five star hotels, upmarket restaurants or plush offices, instead just a vast swathe of minor government offices, unfashionable shopping centres, car showrooms, warungs, down at heel military bases, second rate further education institutions and cheap hotels. Oh dear, they were going to have to pay me well to stay in this godforsaken wilderness.
However a few weeks into this drudgery I soon realised that of course Jakarta is still Jakarta and all is not what it seems under the surface. I mentioned the colleges and cheap hotels, well they are the key and one afternoon I grasped the connection. I was at a loose end and mooching around outside a seemingly uninteresting mall when I noticed three young ladies hanging around who appeared to be at a similar loose end, when one of them approached and mentioned that I might like to take them for a bite to eat I realised that things might be looking up.
Not having come down in the last rain shower I cut straight to the chase, how much would it cost for the three of them to join me for a bit of afternoon delight? The princely sum of 200k each was agreed. Where could we go? Just grab a taxi and she'll work out the rest, we jumped on a taxi and my procuress had us at a suitable establishment within five minutes. Lo and behold they did "transit rates", 175k for six hours, so, thought I, there's a lot more of this going on than I imagined.
After a thouroughly enjoyable foursome in the room (similar decor and style to the Melawai hotels for less than half the price) I questioned my lovely companions more intensely. They were locals, they attended one of the colleges nearby and typically of students were always short of cash. They met blokes regularly indeed they were waiting for one such appointment when I picked them up (I am fairly sure by the nature of phone calls that they took that they merely delayed their prior appointment and no doubt he had fun with my sloppy seconds).
The beauty of it is that they of course have dozens of friends who are more than willing to accommodate me if I wish and with the genius of FaceBook I now have far more leads than I can actually handle at the moment.
This leads me to the second point. I used to be an absolute devotee of Blok M, there was no more fantastic place on planet earth than the handful of bars that lined Jalan Falatehan, however in recent years work and domestic issue have meant that I rarely ever got to visit the place. One such occasion presented itself during the World Cup and I immediately seized the opportunity to once again sample the delights of a late nighter in My Bar or Top Gun.
OMfuckingG! What a shithole.
Was it always that ghastly? Or is it just that I saw the place for the first time without rose tinted spectacles? Such a collection of hard faced, worn out slappers I have never before seen, actually that's not true, I've seen them before, years ago back when I was a regular, they're still there, going through the motions but charging absurd amounts of money for the privilege, I couldn't believe it.
What was worse however was the blokes themselves, they were fawning over these tired old trollops as if they were catwalk models, buying them drinks and even fighting with each other to dance with them! What shocked me most is who these guys were, they were pretty much the longstanding regulars who have been propping up the bars there since long before I arrived on the scene. Do they not know anything else about Jakarta? Have they never been out and about to see what else is on offer in this heaving metropolis? Presumably they speak reasonable Indonesian, they must know their way around a bit but still they pay way over the odds for overpriced booze and way, way over priced totty.
Like I say, if you're new to Jakarta or are time constrained you have no choice but to stick to the main drag but for heaven's sake gentlemen, if you can handle your way around this crazy town get your asses out of Falatehan, take a few risks, you'll be amazed at what's out there.[/QUOTE]I can't agree more. I recently moved to BSD (western Jakarta) and the pickings are great. The malls are not posh, but full with syt willing to make a few rupiah on the side.
Blok M is totally overrated.
