Ian heads off to work early in the morning to avoid the traffic and I start my day by taking a run around a jogging track in our apartment compound.
On my run, I have been watching the steady progress of a new apartment block being built close by. It is currently going up a floor a week. They work from early in the morning to late at night and all weekend. They had only just started on floor 6 when we moved in and now they are making a start on floor 12.
I find the building progressing at this speed quite amazing especially as here many of the population are celebrating the month of Ramadhan. This is the month during which Muslims observe fasting from dawn to dusk. Here that means around 5 in the morning to 6 in the evening. During fasting they are not allowed to eat or even to take as much as a drink of water. How they work in the 30+ heat all day is hard to imagine.
Away from our apartment block you can see another side of Jakarta, shopping malls.
There are many modern, flashy western style malls full of designer boutiques and there are also slightly older, cheaper malls where the local Indonesians go shopping. I visited one of the latter recently with a friend who was in search of a new pair of glasses.
We ventured to North Jakarta and found ITC Mangga Dua. This mall was a bargain hunter's paradise. It was filled with hundreds of shops crammed into 6 levels. Everything to be had from handbags, shoes, clothes and of course the glasses my friend was looking for.
The picture below shows just about half of the glasses on offer in this mall.
Here you should always be prepared to bargain and never accept the first price!
On another of my shopping adventures, this time in the search for food and only 15 minutes away, I came across one of my favourite snacks from Sweden, Cheez Doodles. This is just one of the many international foods you can find here. You can also find things like Marmite, Typhoo Tea and Stroopwafels to name but just a few. We will not go hungry here.
Away from the bustling air conditioned shopping malls, another side to Jakarta can be found.
This weekend we visited a street in central Jakarta which sells antiques, things made to look like antiques, suitcases, shoes, vinyl records, etc, etc. Again bargaining is the key to a successful purchase and makes for a fun couple of hours.
Down the many crowded and dusty streets you can find examples of what must have once been beautiful buildings crumbling away before your eyes.
Ending on a lighter note, you see some amazing things flying past the window of our apartment on the 6th floor. Not often you get to see a flying dinosaur..... !?
