Pasar Baru Trade Center

how about a ride?

Sunday after church we decided to try a Chinese restaurant that had been recommended to us. It was in a part of the city we had not seen before. While Ronnie was looking at the navigation on his phone he noticed there was a market in the same vicinity.

 sidewalk wares outside the market

                                                                               

So after lunch we asked the driver to take us to the market on Jalan Otto Iskandardinata street. We never actually made it inside the market. The street was extremely crowded (no surprise there) and the sidewalks on both sides of the street were packed with vendors and shoppers. The driver let us out and we walked maybe 3-4 blocks down the sidewalk that runs on one side of the market. Most of the time we walked single file because the sidewalks were so crowded. Drivers of pedi-cabs called out to us for rides, vendors demonstrated and hawked their wares as shoppers bought t-shirts, clothing, snack food items and a myriad of other goods.

some of these snacks smelled reeelly bad

I realize I must sound like a broken record when I say everything is a sensory experience, but I really don't possess the words to describe the sights, sounds and smells of a busy Indonesian market. My brain always feels as if it is on sensory overload. As is usual when we are in public, we are a spectacle with Ronnie getting "halo, Mista!" and people reacting to me with my camera. Ronnie doesn't have the highest tolerance for shopping even in the best of circumstances so needless to say, this was not his cup of tea. The photos you see here are a sampling of what I took during our short jaunt of maybe 20-25 minutes time. Perhaps I will go back sometime on a week day and actually make it inside the market itself.

Since my words are inadequate to describe our little sidewalk adventure, I will post a few extra photos today in an effort to give you some idea of what just the perimeter of a busy market in Bandung looks like.

shy helper

vendors hawk their wares

how about an after-five purse?

styles cater to Muslim women

crowded sidewalk with Ronnie up ahead

hmmm.....

market patron

mangoes anyone?

sticky rat traps

view from sidewalk looking toward street

need a lift?

grabbing a bite of lunch

one in every color?

Finally!

After 10 weeks, we now have all our required paperwork for our extended stay in Indonesia! What a pain!! I've asked Ronnie to share this experience, since I have long since forgotten all the details. Some of this may be TMI, but it's impossible to tell this story in 25 words or less. If you're not planning to move to Indonesia, you have permission to skip to the summary statement at the end.

first fingerprinting in Bandung police station

To enter Indonesia legally and work for 10 months required a lot of paperwork. Little did we know about the cost of that paperwork in dollars and time. Had I realized what was involved, I would have spent my time and money on a service to do the leg work for us. Keep in mind, the office visits mentioned below were not just in and out affairs. They always involved a period of waiting in addition to the actual service time.

copies, copies and more copies!!

While still in Texas, I had to apply for a research permit from the Ministry of Technology and Research in Jakarta (KRT). Once that was approved, we applied for a visa through the Houston Consulate ($100 each), which took 4 trips to get the paperwork correct and collect our passports with visas.

Upon arrival in Jakarta, we had to go to KRT, pay a $600 permit fee and obtain a letter needed for the police office, which we delivered. The next day we returned to the police office to collect our SKL, which is a travel permit. From there we traveled back to KRT, submitted the travel permit and received a research permit letter (in triplicate) and a photo ID card. 

typewriter in Immigration Office, Jakarta

old fashioned fingerprinting, Bandung police station

electronic fingerprinting, Bandung Immigration off

With these documents in hand we could legally travel to Bandung, check into a hotel and wake the next morning to go to the immigration office to apply for a Kitas (temporary residence permit) and POA (alien registration card). Oops! I forgot to bring a letter from my sponsor at ITB, so we were not allowed to file our applications. To make use of a trip to that side of town, we traveled to the main police office to be fingerprinted and submit photographs for our SKLD (Certificate of Police Registration), which we could not apply for since we did not yet have our Kitas. The next day we went back to submit the applications for the Kitas and POA. We returned again to the immigration office a few days later when instructed to do so to pay the application fees. (ouch!) We made another trip to the immigration office to get fingerprinted and photographed, and then yet another trip to pick up our Kitas (ID card and blue book) and POA which was stamped in our passports.

On the trip to pick up our Kitas we instead applied for a (ME/E) multiple entry/exit permit (required for researcher and good for 6 months). The Kitas must be submitted with the ME/E application which means we could not use it to visit the local police station and register where we had decided to live. The ME/E application is filed on a different floor than the Kitas application, but nevertheless, we had to duplicate the same material used to apply for a Kitas (which was attached to the ME/E application). We returned to immigration office a few days later to pay the ME/E application fee, and then a few days after that we were able to return to the Immigration office to collect out Kitas and passports (which contained the POA stamp and the ME/E permit stamp).

Next we located the local police station for our particular neighborhood and registered with them using our Kitas and SKJ. We returned again the next day to collect a letter certifying that we had registered our residence. Btw, since we live near Secapa, a military training school, the police station suggested to my host that I might be a spy and that he should watch me. His justification was that I am an expert in computer technology and I chose to live next to a military training base. As a side note, I will mention this is the only person my host gave a small amount of money to as we were leaving. It was not a bribe since we had our letters in hand, but it was clearly a personal payment for signing our letters.

 here we are - all nice and legal!

Finally, we used out letter of registration to go back to the main police office and file an application for an SKLD (a certificate of police registration). Again we paid a fee to submit the application. All the paperwork was sent to the main police station in Jakarta (which we visited on Day 2 in Indonesia) and a month later we made another trip back to the main police office in Bandung to collect our SKLDs.

After two and half months, we now have all our required paperwork! However, I still need to take my SIP (research permit letter) issued in Jakarta to the local Ministry of Home Affairs and Regional Autonomy. They will issue a SPP (letter of research notification) the following day, and I need to take this notification to the Governor’s Office in West Java along with a copy of my research proposal and the notification letter. I hope to get this done soon (just to be legal and all). HA

Summary: 3 trips to Ministry of Research in Jakarta and 2 trips to the main police station in Jakarta. 10 trips to the local immigration office in Bandung, 2 trips to the local police station in Bandung and 3 trips to the main police station in Bandung. And we are not quite done yet….

Just Between Friends

BFF's

Cultural differences are really quite interesting. For example, something Americans might not consider rude at all might be interpreted as very rude to Indonesians. As I've mentioned previously, one of the first things we had to learn to do here was point with our thumbs because pointing with any other finger is considered rude or vulgar. It's awkward and weird looking to us, but we have learned to do this so as not to offend.

Here's another one. In the US, if two males or two females show signs of physical affection in public, they are immediately looked upon as homosexual. However, in Indonesia, holding hands or walking arm in arm in public with a member of the same sex is quite common and people do not appear to be self conscious about it in the least. I observe this in all ages - children, teens, even men and women, although probably less often with men than women. My friend Marcia who has lived here since  '89 tells me that it means absolutely nothing - except that they are good friends. How refreshing!

women holding hands

very common sight among young boys

However, I've read that public displays of affection (between persons of the opposite sex) are very frowned upon here, as are public displays of anger. I've not personally observed either one but Ronnie  was witness to one angry encounter. Still, they are noticeably rare which is really quite amazing when one considers what their traffic is like! We Americans could take some lessons from the Indonesians on both counts. And I might as well add modesty to the list while I'm at it. Of course their rules for dressing are strictly regulated by their Muslim belief system, but I do think there is something to be said for a little more modesty. NO, I'm not advocating covering the body from head to toe, but showing a little less skin (girls) and pulling up pants (guys) could be a good thing on many levels. HA!

As you may have guessed, most of the women's clothes that are sold in the stores here are designed and manufactured for women who are adhering to strict dress codes. For example, the woman (above right) is not in adherence because her blouse is sleeveless and it does not fall below the hips.

teenage guys - just friends

It's nice to know there is no "meaning" behind women/women and men/men friendships beyond the friendship itself. Touching need not be interpreted within a sexual context. Two men or boys, one with arm around the other or two women holding hands or walking arm in arm simply means that they are good friends enjoying each others company. Nothing more. Nothing less. I like that.

Sidewalk Sales

whoo, me?

One of the first things newcomers to Bandung cannot help but notice is that there is no shortage of stuff for sale!! Whether it is food or merchandise, it cannot be missed as it seems that just about everyone in this city has something to sell!

Yesterday we went to Hyper Mart. Outside the mall, vendors lined both sides of the street with their wares. I snapped a few photos of some sample offerings. It is not uncommon for people to solicit, beg or sell goods along any street and especially in areas where traffic typically backs up. 

You never know what you might find for sale. Everything is cash and prices are always negotiable. They may be higher if you're "bule" (light skinned) but your bargaining power will be much greater if you're fluent in Bahasa Indonesia.

friendly couple selling rugs or place mats outside McDonalds

Ronnie walking along street in front of Hyper Mart

phone covers are EVERYWHERE

handmade bracelets

most people like having their pictures taken

for sale - whatizit??

how about a reptile?

view from back seat with Dadang driving

I’ll also include some miscellaneous photos taken from the back seat of the car on the way over and back. Cars, trucks, pedi-cabs, scooters and pedestrians have to literally negotiate their way, inch by inch, through extremely crowded intersections. Study the photo below.

SERIOUSLY?!!

It's amazing the things that people try to sell in the middle of traffic jams. In the US, we're used to people selling newspapers or perhaps panhandling. Here people weave in and out of stopped traffic trying to sell homemade snacks, fresh strawberries, cigarettes, drinks and trinkets of all sorts. On one particular corner there is a man in woman's dress who comes up to your car window and tries to solicit something (?) Sometimes it is good not to know the language!

how about a little mid-afternoon snack?

mother and child - have any change?

how's this for mobile sales?

Hiking the Cilengkrang Trail

On Thursday of this week, Ronnie hiked the Cilengkrang trail with a group of expats so I asked him to share that experience for the blog. I'll also include some photos that he took along the trail with his phone camera.


Ronnie:
At a dinner meeting of expats last weekend, I learned from a lady named Carol about an upcoming hike in the mountains around, or in the hills of Bandung. Rather than run, I decided to take the hike as my exercise for the day. We met at a local restaurant, where cars loaded with bule caravanned out to the remotely located home an expat from Holland. The drive took well over an hour and after a bathroom stop, we headed up to the entrance of Cilengkrang national park for a hike. Our arranged guide didn’t show up, so one of the locals lead us up the trail.


At first the hiking was easy and I thought Jan would have liked it, but soon we made several steep ascents up rocky slopes with a barely visible trail. We crossed the small stream flowing down the craggy gorge several times. Several of the women hikers began to fall behind and I realized there was no way we’d make it to the waterfalls in less than 4 hours. It should have been a two-hour hike, but the rough trail and slower members of the group made that an unreasonable goal.

before the going got tough

sun drying clothes drying on a roof

Carol on right

bamboo clothes lines

We hiked back down the trail we came up. Many people sat on their rears as they came down the steep slopes. Fortunately we made it back without any injuries and had a very late lunch at the home of our host.


It was a nice escape from the city noise, air pollution and general liter of Bandung. I hiked with an eclectic group of expats from France, Germany, Holland, UK, New Zealand, Japan, Indonesia, the USA and Texas. Conversation along the trail was a cornucopia of accents.

Some Stuff I've Learned

I have learned all kinds of things since we’ve been here. Not necessarily the “need to know” type of information or anything earth shattering, but just stuff I've absorbed over a couple of months of living in a completely different culture. If you’ve been following my blog, much of this will not be “news” to you.

•  I have learned that roosters crow at all times of the day. I was under the impression that roosters only crowed early in the morning. Not so. It’s 2 pm and they are crowing their heads off. 

• I have learned to recognize the difference between rat and lizard (cicak, pronounced chee chack) poo. I won’t elaborate on that, but there is a difference.

•  I have learned that young boys leave their homes at an early age and live in community while they do whatever they are told to do to make others’ lives easier. The boys at our apartment complex literally run to open and close the gates, check for rats in the attic, mop and clean (?) or do whatever else needs doing. At night they watch tv, play cards and smoke cigarettes. 

• I have learned that “goreng” means fried and that Indonesians eat a tremendous amount of fried foods and consume unusually large amounts of MSG.

• I have learned that motor scooters get you around this city much faster than cars do.

• I have learned that many people are not one bit bothered by flies on food. 

• I have learned that pretty much every male in Indonesia smokes cigarettes.

• I have learned that at least one Indonesian lady considers Disneyland an exotic destination. This is the same lady who told me I sound like Dolly Parton.

• I have learned how clove, cinnamon, vanilla, guava, mango and passion fruit grow.

• I have learned that Indonesians grind their coffee into a powder and they do not use coffee makers.

• I have also learned that Indonesians do not drink decaffeinated or sugar free beverages. In fact, they prefer their drinks almost sickeningly sweet.

• I have learned that many people live their entire lives without the blessing of clean water (I already knew that, but have never lived any place where it didn’t exist).

• I have learned what a Muslim woman’s swim wear looks like.

• I have learned that I can survive without certain creature comforts, but they do make life easier!

• I have learned that all of us “don’t know what we don’t know” and are no less happy because of it.

• I have learned that women are expected to start having babies as soon as they get married, and to have as many as they can.

• I have learned what an angklung is.

• I have learned how difficult it is to shop for groceries when you can't read labels and don't recognize brands or product packaging.

• I have learned that a Diet Coke in Indonesia (only found one in Bali) does not taste the same as a Diet Coke in the US. Same goes for Cheetos and Special K - same packaging, different products inside.

• I have learned what a cream bath is.

• I have learned what it feels like to want to go somewhere but have no wheels.

• I have learned that there are many ways to accomplish a task, and our way is not the only way.

• I have learned that it is hard to be a minority group and feel like a spectacle.

• I have learned that if you stay in one place long enough, you can grow to love it and call it your home. And NO, I don’t plan to stay here that long!!!

• I have learned that people’s stomachs will eventually adjust to whatever “bugs” they have to deal with and that the body is a resilient thing. Our cleaning helper cooks with water straight from the tap and seems healthy enough. We use boiled water and bleach for washing dishes and drink and cook with bottled water only – yet we still have constant stomach issues. Our bodies will adjust in time. “Pelan, pelan” as our language teachers always say, meaning “slowly, slowly.”

• I have learned that the smell of burning trash is such a normal thing here, people pay absolutely no attention to it.

• I have learned that Indonesians have never even heard of a flu shot.

• I have learned that expectations and reality don’t always match.