The Indonesian business is not what I expected. They totally have their act together. They now their positioning (and why they are positioned that way). The head guys understand both what they want and don't want to do with the business. I was very impressed.
I am staying in the financial district / diplomatic district. It is primarily wealthy. It is kind of weird that at every stop (the hotel, the bank development building, the mall - everything) you have to go through a metal detector and the car is searched. Very Colombia in the 1980s. It isn't for kidnapping, but for bombings (so far so good. I leave tomorrow morning at 7:30). There haven't been demonstrations or anything so far.
We finished early and the ladies wanted to go shopping - and I had to go with them. Then it turned out there was a NEXT in both malls we went to... Suffice it to say I bought more than the ladies did.
Dinner tonight was great. Very spicy in a unique way. Not curry or Chinese but really really good. I got some sauce mixes at the supermarket tonight.
The city has a lot of Facist architecture and sculpture. They were ruled for a long tim e by a strong man / dictator and he built some very facist things. This is a picture of my hotel, with the sculpture he built in the front. Jakarta is changing fast though. This is a picture towards the area of my hotel. And the air looks just like that.
I have to go to the airport at 5AM so I am not staying up late.
I hope everyone is doing well. Rumor has it the evil Fienbergs racked up one more PTown biking incident. After last year's "I wasn't racing - stop your whining" charmfest with the Fienbergs, this year's topped it. Whereas I stopped racing and cursed them and their little short legs of steel - little Ron apparently was actually winning. Gavin got annoyed, smack Ron's back tire as he was being passed, and Ron took a tumble. Don't get on the wrong side of Gavin in PTown. He is mean as spit there ("all our friends get along great" my ass).
