Weekending in Jakarta

It started out something like this:

Email from Daven: Meeting in Surabaya next week. Anyone up for a weekend in Jakarta?

Two of us said yes. And just like that we were set. Kinda but not really. The meeting was canceled and therefore so was our free hotel. Just a teeny bump in the road. And all three of us were able to sneak out Friday afternoon and sneak in Monday afternoon without getting fired.

Things that I knew about Jakarta and Indonesia:
1. One of my (subcontracted) garment factories is there. Have yet to visit or meet any of the staff.
2. My dad went there once. Didn't care for it.
3. Rachel went there last CNY b/c she has family there. She didn't really care for it either but loved the food and the safari.
4. Bali's there
5. I learned a few things from the book Tales of a Female Nomad.
6. I've had Indonesian/Balinese food 3 times. All at the Dirty Duck Diner (Babek Bengal) in HK that no longer exists.
7. It's very dangerous. Especially for tourists/westerners.
8. It's the most populous Muslim country.

So I practically knew nothing about this place except the food is good and there is a good chance I'll get shot. Of course I'll go!


Fresh off the plane, we picked up one thing at the duty free.

And after a couple of hours of loafing about in our room, rockin out to the beats on Powers' computer and drinking the candy, we headed out. By then the restaurant we wanted to go to was closed so we tried some sketchy ass club called Stadium.

I don't even know how to describe this place. It was big. And totally sketch. And like, a one stop shopping experience with a cafe, snacks, kareoke, a club, live music, and massages... totally weird. In my Lonely Planet's review of this place it describes it as an institution, with lots of dark corners and more than likely sex in those dark corners. AH!

We did not last very long at all there because apparently my flip flops were not klassy enough to enter the club. The dude at the door said I should get shoes downstairs and we thought he was crazy. Esp because the boys were in sneakers and yet they still expect the chicks to be in high heels. F you Jakarta! WTF?

We ended up at some other place with a much much better vibe and yet remarkably empty.



But we were comfortable enough and bought a bottle anyway.






And when clubbing in Jakarta don't forget your whistle. Seriously. It's a big thing.

Let me back track a little. When we arrived at this club, we got into another altercation with with the doorman regarding my shoes. But this time they were a lot more helpful than the previous doordude. High heels mandatory for women (while dudes can still wear sneaks... lame!) BUT they had shoes for rent available at the club so you didn't have to walk away. Weird. I know. And I wasn't about to bust the evening for the boys just because of my footwear.

And when us dancing queens were done for the evening, we finally got around to dinner... some fabulous street meat!



BANG ROBBY! Oh wonderful street food. We had some kind of nasi goreng and a tasty omelet which we drenched with amazing indonesian chili sauce. Sooo dericious! To complete the experience, we could hear prayer being announced off in the distance.

At the end of all this, we just wanted to pass out. We taxi'd it back to the hotel and found a gate had been closed blocking the driveway, wrapped in barbed wire. It was serious! I'm familiar with high security at hotels and automatic weaponry at the doors so we didn't think it was a big deal. We somehow made it around the barbed wire, strolled past the sleeping security guards with big guns, and walked right into some kind of parking garage that was under construction with people sleeping on top of piles of materials!

We walked around for a good while and realized we were not in the right place. I really wish I had gotten some pics and video when we were there but we were so confused and just wanted to go home.

The following day we had time to reflect on what a weird situation that was. And with all that high security, why did no one stop three gweilos from wandering around the construction site?

Campaign Weightloss Week 1

Pounds dropped : 1

Not great but not bad. Not bad considering I've had plenty of bad foods this week including a plate of nachos and a nice homecooked meal at Joel's including some incredible lasagna and a blueberry pie by Scott.

I had some decent workouts at the gym but didn't have the chance to make it to Pilates due to a trip to China, and didn't make it to the weekend hike either because I was involved in a kareokathon until 5 AM.

Consumed in the last couple of days:
Yesterday -
McDonalds Breakfast sammy, hashbrowns, oj on the train to China :(
Korean lunch including bulgogi (MMMmm!)with lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, kimchi and tofu, some kind of kimchi pancake, a little bit of rice, a little bit of shabu shabu.
String cheese, yogurt, and a diet Dr. Pepper as a snack when I got back to the office.
Shanghaise dinner including sweet and sour fish, pork dumplings, broccoli and cauliflower.
Post concert snack: sunchips and tummy tea

Today (so far)-
Banana and venti skim vanilla late
String cheese
Lunch: was planning for delivery since I have loads of work to do but since the cleaning lady is coming today I'd rather be out of the office. And I was just told we're outta TP so I gotta go pick that up anyway. Stocking bathroom supplies for an office gets old quick!
Oh yeah, lunch. I'm thinking about a salad at CPK since a salad by our standards here is hard to come by.

I have lots of theories. One of them being that my drastic increase in activity in the last year has increased my appetite and therefore increased my waistline. I'm more physically fit than I've ever been and yet I'm also bigger than I've ever been. It's frustrating. I'm going on a scuba/snorkeling trip next weekend and might have to try a cleanse next week.

I'm also taking a time out on the drinking.

Campaign Weightloss 2009

This is a sad day for Friendship Night. I am announcing to the world wide web that I'm fat.

Yes, I know I'm not morbidly obese. But I'm just shy of my all time peak weight and that ain't ok. I hit my all time peak weight in 2003, Pepper's first year in the army. I remember going down to San Diego and stuffing my face with easy cheese and crackers and cookies and I hit peak weight. It was so gross but I immediately shed 10 pounds by curbing the bad habits. I've never been close to that weight since.

My all time low weight was when I graduated from Arizona. That's a 41 pound difference from my peak weight. That's HUGE, especially for a person that's not tall. I don't need to be that thin again but I do need to shed a good 20 to be in a reasonable zone. And let me tell you, this shit is hard!!

I was somewhere in the reasonable zone when I moved to Hongkers. A weight gain is definitely expected since I've been drinking heavily for the last year, and with that comes late night eating and comfort hangover meals and no time for the gym. But my weight did not budge, not even an inch in the 7 months I lived above Pizza Hut.

2008 was the year of my 10 year HS reunion, and like anyone else, I wanted to look good. I was as awkward as they come in HS, so I wanted to be presentable at the least. I was very ambitious with the Campaign Weightloss 2008 until, just under a year ago, I took a nasty spill down the stairs and was out of commission for a long long time. My right ankle is still pretty weak. I think the fall was due to a first attempt at a spin class the night before. I survived it and it was great, but the next day I was so weak that I couldn't even hold myself up as I walked down the stairs. I don't wanna make that same mistake again but it is highly likely that I will fall down no matter what I do.

Then, somewhere in the middle of summer, all the weight that didn't stick added up in a matter of 2 weeks. Yes, literally overnight my clothes stopped fitting. The above picture was taken in August, and if you can see me sitting in the back with my gut hanging out... ugh, it aint pretty. And the sad thing is, I'm heavier than that now.

My new all time peak weight was reached in October. 2 pounds on top of that old peak weight. When November hit I took drastic measures and quit drinking. It wasn't a big deal for me, but was quite bothersome to just about everyone else. Whatever. I dropped 6 pounds doing this.

And since then I've been OD'ing on the fruits, veggies, and fish, and been hitting the gym regularly. I haven't cut out anything specifically from my diet because if I did that I would only obsess about what I can't have. So I just try to think about what I can have. I've been hiking. I've been able to jog more that I ever have. And yet, nothing is happening. I've put 3 pounds back on.

Bathing suit season is already here. The hot and humid temps and the teeny weeny flats leave us no choice but to hang out at the beach every week. I'm not about to traipse around with everything hangin out. So. I'm starting over.

Today is day one.

I am one pound away from old peak weight. I was running late this morning so I didn't get a chance to pick up breakfast, nor did I have time to sneak away for a minute at work to grab some fruit. So late morning I had a little frozen pizza that was in the kitchen. And lots of water. For lunch I had some baked salmon and veggies. Bought some berries, cottage cheese, and yogurt for breakfast for the rest of the week. Then had a walnut bread thingy as a snack. Lots more water. Then two pieces of chocolate because there's tons still leftover from CNY. For dinner I had a veggie sandwich and soup, which would have been acceptable if it weren't on cheesy focaccia bread.

I hit the gym with a jog and weights. It seems like a decent workout... very close to what I used to do with Jay and Meredith in college. But I don't have a workout buddy and it's therefore terribly boring. I'm going to try and go to more classes. Did Pilates for the first time last week and it was serious. I can't make it this week because I have some conflicting appointments in the evening :(

I hate talking about this because it shouldn't be an issue and we should all be happy and not feel bad about eating. And that's exactly my problem. I'm so happy that I've stopped caring. I don't feel bad about eating and I take such joy in it. But, it's time to throttle back just a tad.

So, feel free to skip my campaign weightloss 2009 blog entries, because they are for me and not you. But if I put it out there then I'm making this promise to you that I need to do better.

Oh yeah, and I live in Hong Kong where the population is smaller than a size 0 (including dudes!) and therefore NO clothes fit me. No joke. I don't think anything bigger than a 6 exists here, and you can forget about plus sizes.

I need to drink more water.

In the Know

Friendster. Myspace. LinkedIn. WAYN. Facebook. AOL. MSN. Yahoo. Skype. Internations. Geoexpat. Blog.

There are probably more but off the top of my head I have accounts with all of the above. And now, may I present me on Twitter.

I'm not exactly sure what the deal is. My friend Kiran has his finger on the pulse of many things, and is all over this Twitter deal. The other day I heard some podcast of Kevin and Bean talking about Twitter. Do I/we need one more device? Probably not. But I'm willing to try it out.

I love Facebook. This is probably not news to you. When I moved here and everyone said they were on the 'book, I just thought it was more of a regional thing. I didn't know FB had opened up past students. It took me a good while to get used to it, being so used to Myspace and all. But now that all my friends here are on the 'book, as well as lots of friends from home, former colleagues, classmates, relatives (including a cousin that me and my parents didn't know existed!) it's just the best. So sorry Myspace, but you are soo 5 minutes ago! I would update my FB status ever 20 minutes... useless thoughts that come into my head, strange things I come across, blah blah blah, but I am aware that my FB friends include a wider audience and I don't want to be an update nazi.

Cue Twitter. We'll see how this goes.

The above picture was taken just before CNY. One of our stops on the HK gay bar scene.

CNY Fireworks

The second day of CNY is fireworks. We decided to be really posh and attend a party at the Vero lounge for chocolates, champagne, and a harborview of fireworks.









Yes, it was quite delicious but we never learn. Chocolate is not a proper dinner, especially when you are drinking.



And then the fireworks...


Fireworks? Yes, they are out there somewhere. It was a hazy evening and the wind blew the smoke south, so our view was completely obstructed. We could hear it, but could see nothing. I guess the view from Kowloon was perfect. Ah well. Next time.

We also surprised Chun Ling, who was working, a day early for her bday.




We got her tons of really crappy chocolate!


My homies: Sebastien, Kiran, Chun Ling, Cora, Amy n me!


And the A Team :)

Other CNY Phenomena

We had a really nice Chinese dinner at a Beijing style restaurant.

I'm still trying to grasp the differences between Szechuan, Shanghaiese, Taiwanese, Beijing style and Hong Kong style food. And all others in between. I probably sounds really dumb but I know Szechuan can be very spicy, I love Shanghaiese cause it tends to be saucier or maybe more of what we're used to because a lot of Chinese food is very dry. Duck is the big hit in Beijing, and as far as Taiwanese and Hong kong style... not a clue.


The duck was excellent and so was the sweet and sour fish.

I really don't eat that much Chinese food. I barely eat it. I should though since to eat locally is dirt cheap.


Yes. I barely eat Chinese. This is Cora (who I call Cang because that's her first initial and last name) and I having a lazy lunch at a middle eastern place.


A random flower market in my hood that appeared as quickly as it disappeared. They are only around for the holidays.


And another one. This is in between my old flat and new one. I love it. Flowers and trees flood the street, and when you wake up on the first day of CNY they are gone.

And on CNY eve, I went to Joel's for a Heroes marathon. We had a lot of catching up to do. When I left, I opted to wander down the hill instead of taking a cab and right before I got home I ran into a major line at the Man Mo Temple.


This is midnight, CNY,

CNY Kareoke Challenge

My friend Aaron is a pretty chillax dude, really nice and totally mild mannered. Not the type you'd expect to be gung-ho about kareoke. Sebas and I planned to trick the A Team into a kareoke challenge after CNY fireworks. But it turned out he beat us to it. A few days before fireworks, Aaron inquired about kareoke and we did not hesitate to seal the deal.


The only place I've ever been to for kareoke here is the drinking towers. We ended up on the 25th floor where they had teeny tiny kareoke rooms... Japanese style. This is precisely what the A-Team was looking for. Turns out they used to do kareoke all the time when they lived in Japan.

Yes, that is the extent of the room.


The rules of kareoke challenge are easy. You pick a song for someone else to sing, and when the round is up there's a group song. After a little while we just all sang together. This is our rendition of Dione Warwick's That's What Friends are For.


Other great hits included:

Enrique Iglesias' Hero
Linkin Park's One Step Closer
Pearl Jam's Better Man
Smashing Pumpkin's 1979, and Today
Bon Jovi's You Give Love a Bad Name
MJ's Thriller
Air Supply
Meatloaf (I did not select this)
Toto's Africa (I did not select this either but I'm glad my friends know me well enough to pick the right songs for me)
Neil Diamond's America

And, just to emphasize our Americanness to the Canadian A-Team, This Land is Your Land.



We rocked it til the break o'dawn.




And two bottles of sake later...









We danced and sang until we barely had voices and that didn't stop us. Around 6 AM they finally kicked us out.

Superbowl Monday and the OTHER Arizona Football Team

I roughly estimate that I got 2 hours of sleep last night since I had to wake up super duper early to catch the big game. I feel pretty gnarly and have a meeting in about 30 mins.

And since I have yet to upload pics from this morning, I'll bring you back to another important Arizona game. This one has a happy ending.

After an entire day of traveling from Hongkers, I finally arrived in the desert for the University of Arizona vs Brigham Young University Las Vegas Bowl. This was the beginning of my xmas vacation. Our flight was delayed so we missed the pep rally on Fremont St., but nothing really mattered since I was with my college roommie and Pepper.

The next morning, Christian arrived. We stocked up on goods at the grocery and drove far and away to the stadium. Let the tailgating begin!



I love tailgating. It's one of the best things ever, and I'll never get any of that here in Hongkie. One, because there's no sports. Two, because the masses don't own cars. Three, because Hongkongers are boring. There. I said it.


Did I mention that the day before I left, I got news that a friend was SNOWED IN at the Vegas Airport. My wardrobe in South East Asia does not call for things like gloves and winter coats so I did some mad shopping before departure. Got myself a snow jacket, long underwear and a couple other things to keep me warm on game day.

With plenty of time still before kickoff, Hasselhoff, the featured National Anthem singer, did his thing. It was TERRIBLE. We couldn't figure out if it was the real performance or a rehearsal. The timing was kinda odd and left us really confused. So, we kept drinking.



Turns out it was not the real performance and in the end the Hoff was worlds better than he was earlier. And he's a total liar for saying he didn't rehearse. We all heard him.



Let the games begin!





I love football. I really really love football. I really really really love my team, even if we're not usually winners.


And so does my fam. Only a week before, when I said I was making a stop in Vegas for the game, they decided they would too.


If you can believe it, we kicked the ranked Mormons' ass to the curb. That's right. 2 bowl games in 10 years and we won both. Despite all our losses, the few victories are incredibly sweet.

I've done it once (1998 when we beat UCLA) and I did it again. Time to rush the field!



You will never ever see a happier girl.




And then I ran into Mere's bro Matt who I haven't seen in AGES. He was def my older bro when I was in college and I've missed him.


And some of Matt's crew.


And still traces of snow on the ground.

We didn't get to crazy in Vegas. We didn't really do anything or go anywhere besides the game. It went by too quickly and I was still exhausted from traveling. But it doesn't matter cause I got to hang with my peeps even for a minute. I'm so glad I did cause I don't know when I'll see them again.




I love Mere's shirt





PEACE