Around Bandung

view out back window of car

As I mentioned earlier, the traffic here is not to be believed. Despite the incredible number of drivers on street (bus, truck, pedicab, car, motorcycle, bicycle) there are very few if any traffic lights. Everyone just negotiates their way through the intersections. Each time the cars stop, the motorcycles continue to roll, filling up any empty spaces between, in front of or behind them. It reminds me of water flowing downhill, working its way around any stationary object. There is always honking and everything is chaotic, yet no one ever seems to lose their cool.

busy street outside electronics store

Ronnie's associate Pak Dwi is an example of this. He is amazingly patient and in control of his emotions. We spent 2 hours this afternoon just looking for one house. We had learned that ITB owned a home for visiting professors, and our hopes were high that this might be the place for us. It turns out we were given the wrong address. Dwi must have stopped at least 10 times to ask for directions. Never mind that he had not had anything to eat or drink all day. Yet he never acted miffed. Even the cab driver who got a ticket with us in the car didn't show any emotion. Sheesh!

At one point in our search, the road was so narrow that when we met a car, we had to stop and let pedestrians help both drivers navigate past each other so as not to scrape each others cars. Of course the mirrors had to be taken in to accomplish this.

passing with at least a half inch to spare!

housekeeper/cook in kitchen at ITB house
 

As to the home owned by ITB, we finally found it after the second day of searching. It turned out to be dormitory style situation, where each individual or couple had their own room with shared bath, a common living area and common kitchen. As is common here, many of the houses "come with" a live in helper, groundskeeper, cook/cleaning lady, etc. We met her and she seemed like a very sweet lady, but we had to rule it out.

Oh, btw, we were told that the ITB house was "new construction". It was 40 years old if it was a day! We also looked at a "brand new" town house which had clearly been lived in. We ruled it out because it was 4 stories of winding, very narrow steps with a kitchen (sink only, no appliances) at the lowest level. Two homes we looked at (supposedly 4 and 10 years old) were at least 25 years old if a day. We learned quickly that one can't always take literally everything that is said. It was also different in that our real estate agent drives a motorcycle so we had to hire a cab to take us to see his properties.

After several days of looking at apartments, town homes and houses, we finally settled on De Hill Villa. I can't say it has all the comforts of home, but it is light years ahead of most of the places we saw.

dormitory style living at ITB house