City of Dreams by Mark Medley
Complimentary ebook
City of Dreams by Mark Medley
Complimentary ebook
City of Dreams by Mark Medley
Complimentary ebook
City of Dreams
An extraordinary journey, inside the heart of
Indonesia’s capital- Jakarta
Mark W. Medley
City of Dreams by Mark Medley
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Copyright
1
st
Publication 2009
2
nd
Impression 2010
© Mark W. Medley
No unauthorized photocopying
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any
means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical- including photocopying,
recording, taping or otherwise, without the prior written permission of
the author and publisher.
ISBN: 1449531385
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Preface
There is a city, that spreads from the edge of the Java Sea, and has
grown through the ages to become one of Asia’s great mega cities.
European adventurers once dreamt of visiting the fabled far flung city of
Batavia- the capital of the Dutch East Indies.
The few who turned these dreams into reality entered Batavia through
the ancient seaport of Sunda Kelapa- often after a journey of several
months.
New visitors half a millennium later, continue this ancient dream- from
the far flung islands of Indonesia to the distant foreign lands beyond its
sea borders.
The majority of visitors discover the city of Jakarta becomes a land of
dreams, a place were somehow each dream can become true, however
strange the final outcome is.
Enjoy your own personal journey inside the “City of Dreams,” and feel
free to contact me.
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Table of Contents
Preface
A Lighter Shade of Whiteness
1
Rising Waters, Rising Doubts
3
Mike’s Missing Underpants
5
Seven Floors above a Cemetery
8
Candy Culture
11
A Naturally Decaying City
13
Push Carts, Stalls and Kiosks
15
Aphrodite
17
Jakarta Sunset
22
A Mallish type of Love
24
The Fall and Rise of “Indowood”
27
Buy a Motorbike
29
Unknown Islands
32
Single, Smart and Wealthy
34
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Old Batavia
37
“Big Love” Jakarta Style
40
Exodus
43
Living on the Edge of the Quake Zone
47
Obamamania Indonesian Style
50
Love, Marriage and a Wedding Reception
52
Rush Hour Blues
56
A very Naked Maid
58
A Nation of Millionaires
62
Chicken Harry
65
Beating the Floods
69
Mystique
73
The One Year Itch
75
Devi and Bambang
78
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Monkey Business
80
An Unusual Cargo
82
Indonesia’s Facebook Generation
84
Another Farewell Party
86
A Broken Vent
89
Obsessions
92
Bandung Express
97
What’s in a Name?
100
Richards Pet Snake
103
Beyond the Tracks
107
Natural Debbie
111
Hotel Surabaya
115
Buses from Hell
118
Kampung Paparazzi
120
The Stadium
123
Bills Barstool Blues
126
A Cart called Hope
128
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Wild and Free
131
Dreams of Love
135
Glossary
136
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Mikes Missing Underpants
Mike was not too worried, when his laundry returned and he found two
pairs of underpants missing, but his best friend, Rina was. So concerned
that she went to the laundry to find them, were the staff in the laundry
admitted they could not find them.
Calling Mike that afternoon, asking him if he had had any girls around
that week. Mike honestly answered, “Yes”, still puzzled over the behavior
of his normally rational friend. “Are you thinking about meeting anyone of
them again?,” she replied- Mike wondering if his best friend was getting a
little jealous, said nothing.
The next few nights, Rina, came around and watched Mike suspiciously,
and he began to get worried about her. Mike had never slept with her, they
had been buddies at University together in the States. When Rina,
returned back to Indonesia after graduating, She found Mike a job in
Jakarta- a kind of payback for all the help he gave her in the States.
Mike put up with this behavior for a while, until he asked Rina, if she
was jealous considering they both agreed they were only friends. Rina,
laughed, “No, but I am afraid one of the Girls might have taken your
underpants, to a Dukun.”
A Dukun’ is the Indonesian version of a shaman, and many Indonesians
believe in them. All over Jakarta, you can still find houses that offer the
services of a shaman. Unlike the stereotypical African type of
witchdoctors, Dukuns are often modern in appearance, and sell a variety
of ‘mystical’ services.
Indonesian women sometimes visit a Dukun to have ‘susuk’, where shiny
particles of enchanted diamonds or gold are somehow placed onto their
face, and they somehow become irresistible to men.
I have seen many girls, whose faces often glitter slightly with gold, even
one girl at my office who acts like a perfectly respectable and religious
Indonesian woman.
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Dukuns can also make someone fall in love with you, all you need to do
is take to them a pair of underwear, and they will do the rest. I am not sure
it works, but many seasoned expatriates swear their friends often get
married to some often unsavory girls because of a Dukun.
One time I mislaid my passport, we could not find it anywhere. My
fiancées mother was worried, and told her that she knew a ‘Dukun’ who
could find it.
My fiancées mother is a practicing catholic, so I guess the belief in the
unknown does cross religious borders.
Rina never found Mikes underpants, and he did marry someone a few
months later- a village girl he met in a club in Kota. To this day Rina
swears that somehow a ‘Dukun’ was involved, and the cause of Mike’s
marriage was somehow related to his missing underpants.
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The Fall and Rise of Indowood
Only a decade ago, many Indonesians used to look down on locally
produced movies, with major movie theatres in Jakarta rarely risking
showing an Indonesian movie. Many people at the time even believed
locally produced movies would disappear altogether by the start of the 21
st
century.
Some locals watched them, but only in the cheaper movie theatres
around the city, including the old Roxy Theatre that had a reputation of
being rat infested.
Indonesian movies barely survived on filmgoers in poorer towns and
villages across the archipelago, who could not afford to watch a Hollywood
movie and needed cheap entertainment.
Today, a decade later the best cinemas in the ‘big durian’ prefer showing
local produced movies, then some latest Hollywood offerings, with theatre
queues longer for local comedies like, ‘Sorry, I made your Wife pregnant’
than ‘Mr Beans Holiday.’
So why the sudden change?
Love sells in Indonesia, especially to teenagers and young adults.
Indonesian film makers only realized this when, ‘Ada apa dengan Cinta?’
was released, and millions of teenagers flocked to see it. A movie based on
a high school love story, that gave Indonesian movies a new start.
A new genre in Indonesian movies started, love stories, often innocent,
very simple and extremely effective. Catching the hearts of millions of new
movie goers that started snubbing rival Hollywood movies- making
theatre owners gain a new respect for home produced movies.
Indonesian film makers then had the confidence to get more
adventurous, and released a mythological ghost story in a modern setting,
called “Jelangkung”, were a group of modern teenagers, called up the
dead spirits, and they would not return, haunting them. This movie
proved more successful than many popular love stories.
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Today Indonesian style horror movies, are more popular than the same
ones produced in Hollywood. Both types of movies now compete with
each other, for the millions of young Indonesians that regularly visit
movie theatres every weekend, leaving other movies, a poor third.
Most Indonesian produced movies may never do well internationally,
but for the crowds that love to watch Movies like ‘Love is Cinta’ and
‘Suster Ngesot’, that’s not important. What is more important is that they
can cuddle their sweetheart, or hold each other in fear during the
midnight show.
So watch out Bollywood and Hollywood-a new rival has arrived,
Indowood.
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Unknown Islands
One thing that makes Indonesia unusual is that it is the largest Island
nation in the World. There are over seventeen thousand islands that are
officially part of the country. Many are uninhabited, remote and unnamed,
only a dot on the map of this vast island nation.
Then there are the disputed islands that Indonesia, Malaysia, and the
Philippines claim. One Island aptly named, “Mischief Creek,” lays between
all three countries, Malaysia uses this atoll as a kind of military outpost.
The island has no value, it is too small to have an airstrip, and a long
distance to reach by sea. So, the dispute is forgotten, although all three
countries still officially claim the island.
So what use are all these uninhabited islands?, aside from being an
anonymous dot on the map of Indonesia. Some enterprising individuals
started selling them on a website, and apparently gained a lot of interest.
I am sure most of us would love to own an island, but what would we do
with it? Not every place is like the island on “Lost”, there could be nothing
there, but perhaps the odd banana and coconut tree. It would probably
take a week or more to get there by boat-if you can find it.
You could become a voluntary Robinson Crusoe or if you are a genuine
millionaire. Escape, and create your own imaginary world for real.
Religious sects could move to one of these paradises, creating there own
brand of heaven upon earth.
Sounds idyllic, for the price of a new Lexus, except there is one
important catch, foreign nationals are not allowed to own land in
Indonesia, never mind an island. People would not suspect this, given that
most countries do sell land to any nationality. It is simply an elaborate
con.
The Indonesian Government were so annoyed when they found out, that
they are now naming many of these unknown islands, and still looking for
the website owners.
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One thing is sure, if no one has ever been on many of these Islands. I
wonder if they could find a real latter day castaway or even a lost tribe that
time has forgotten.
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Big Love Jakarta Style
Big Love has never been watched by the majority of Indonesians, only
those lucky enough to subscribe to a cable network. But I am sure this
show, would be a hit.
Indonesia is neither a monogamous or polygamous society, it is a
mixture of both pleasing both the monogamous Christian minority, and
polygamous Moslem majority.
Unlike the USA, it is not illegal to be polygamous and is socially
acceptable, depending on your religion. So Big Love will no doubt surprise
conservative Christians, and interest many of the nations Moslems.
Indonesian Law respects the rights of all the major religions,
represented in the country: Buddhism, Catholicism, Christianity,
Hinduism and Islam. Other lesser traditional tribal beliefs are also
respected, and even encouraged by the Government keen on building a
religious, but plurist society.
So when “Big Love” is aired. Many Indonesians would be puzzled at the
legal dilemma of the family. After all, in an Indonesian sense, all the wives
are happy, the children are well cared for, the Father provides well for the
family, and the entire family all have religious values.
Many polygamous families, in Indonesia do not share the same house
and live in a family compound, like on Big Love. Although I do know
many polygamous families here, the subject is never raised in
conversations much. So I guess the subject is kind of taboo in Indonesia.
There are Christian husbands, who have “second” or “third” Wives, in
Indonesia. Often they stay in apartments or better kosts, close enough to
drive to from the home or office.
Some wife’s secretly know their husband has an often younger “second
wife”, and reluctantly accept it. Not the wife of the quiet, diminutive
Chinese/Indonesian guy, who every Friday would visit the apartment next
to mine.
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One night, when I was getting ready to go out I heard a lot of noise
coming from the outside hallway. Reluctantly, I went out into the hallway
to check it out.
Outside was a typical middle aged Chinese/Indonesian mother, with two
eager police officers. Her irate husband was between them covering, a
sweet looking younger woman by the next apartment door. I went back
inside, as I heard her start wailing like a child.
Deciding not to hang around, I made my way out, quietly locking the
door, trying to ignore the small but discreet crowd of onlookers that had
formed outside.
The next day, everyone is gossiping about it in the lobby cafe.
Apparently, the wife had discovered her husband was looking after a
second wife, in an apartment next to ours. The police were called, and they
had agreed to acomply her, and check out the apartment.
Catching her husband red handed with his second wife, she wanted the
police to arrest him. Which is feasible under Indonesian Law, as sex
outside marriage is a criminal offence- unless you agree to marry the
woman you are caught with.
The fact that her husband was already married technically created a legal
loophole on religious grounds, so he had technically broke no laws. So
after arguing outside, all parties involved entered the apartment, sat down
and discussed a solution.
A few days later, the apartment was quietly vacated, and a family with
two noisy kids moved in a week later. I later heard them watching “Big
Love” on cable TV.
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Connect to the Author
www.authors.com/profile/MarkMedley
http://twitter.com/markwmedley
www.scribd.com/MarkinJakarta
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