One thing dominants this Paris Hilton photo is the big green leaves. Even bigger than the red rose!
So much to a brown summer’s hat. We can only focus on the big green leaves for now. Is St. Patrick’s Day coming early this year?
Posted in Our Life in Jakarta
Tagged Brown Hat, Celebrity HD Wallpaper, Celebrity Photography, Green Hat, Paris Hilton
Hello, world!
We haven’t been here for a few days.
What’s up?
We are busy at our new website!
Our new website: A Midnight Visitor is now up and running. Check it out.
Well, actually the new site hasn’t totally ready yet, but we are working on it.
We will be updating the new site from now on. So please come have a visit when you have time.
Posted in Daily Life
Tagged Family, Fashion, first blog, food, hello world, new website, travel
Beautiful floral hat on a hat day.
Girl and a floral hat, so beautiful and feminale.
Love the colours: pink, white, ivory, orange.
A girl can’t have enough flowers, and hats too. Love this hat.
Posted in Our Life in Jakarta
What a week in the flooded Jakarta! Even Pope Benedict XVI is alerted and has offered his prayers to the victims of floods in Jakarta, Indonesia. The Pope said “no one should go without the necessary aid.”
As we heard, every 5 years, there is a huge flood in Jakarta. Last year, we were lucky. This year the flood has affected a total of 74 urban wards in 31 sub-districts in Jakarta’s five municipalities. More than 97,000 houses as well as some of Jakarta’s main roadways were flooded.
Let’s see the Indonesia ordinary people affected by the Jakarta Flood in our Jakarta Snapshoots.
(source)
(source)
Related articles:
Posted in Our Life in Jakarta
Tagged Asia, Flood, Government, Indonesia, Jakarta, Pope, Pope Benedict, Pope Benedict XVI
Good morning, Salamat Pagi.
How’s the weather like in your city today? Hope you have a nice day!
We have done an interview with Ana from Stumbleabroad recently. Stumbleabroad is a fabulous blog about expat life in Jakarta. Ana has a regular column on Friday about real people living and breathing in Jakarta, both Expats and Jakartarans.
You might want to head over to Stumbleabroad to meet some of our own Jakarta people? To read our original interview, click here.
Or you can simply read below. Hope you like it.
Tell me more, tell me more
1. First, tell us a little bit about you. What’s your background? Where did you grow up? How long have you been living in Jakarta for? What does your family look like?
We are Anna (aka Miss D), John and Sarah from Sydney, Australia. We are an expat family of three. We lived in Melbourne where Sarah got her MBA in Monash University and John worked in a multi-national company.
When Miss D was a baby, our family moved to Sydney and has been living there ever since. We actually fell in love with Sydney because of its beautiful beaches and warmer weather. Sydney is also closer to the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast, which are our favorite holiday destinations during winter time.
One day, after we move back to Australia, we might move back to Melbourne when we retire to join our extended families there.
2. Is Indonesia your first post abroad? What’s the hardest thing about being an expat in Indonesia? What did you struggle with the most?
Indonesia is our first post abroad, although we have traveled often in both of our working lives. We never thought we were ever going to visit Jakarta as a tourist spot back in Australia. Bali is much more well- known in Australia. Many of our friends have visited Bali before, not Jakarta.
The hardest thing for us as expats in Indonesia is being away from family and friends. Other than that the language barrier, the traffic jam, and the pollution all take their tolls.
We raised 4 beautiful chickens back in Sydney. Leaving them behind to come to Jakarta is one of the hardest things for us, especially Miss D. You can read our chicken story here.
Some days, on a gloomy rainy day like today, we wonder why we are here, in a strange city in Jakarta. But, most days, we try to live a normal, balanced life.
Do you want to see our emotional feeling about the city of Jakarta? Have a read of this poem we wrote: our city.
3.I love your blog Midnight Visitor! Why did you decide to start a blog? What’s the best thing that has come from blogging?
Posted in Our Life in Jakarta
Tagged Australia, expats, Indonesia, indonesia flood, interview, monash university, Sydney, Taman Mini, Taman Safari, vegemite
Good morning, as promised, here is the article we wrote for ExpatArrivals website about Indonesia education and school system. To read the article on ExpatArrival, click here.
But as our dear readers, of course you get to read it from our own midnightvisitor website.
What do you think? Hope it can bring you a somewhat complete picture about schools in Jakarta and we will be very delighted if it helps you in your school selection process if you are an upcoming expat to our great city of Jakarta.
For Indonesians, compulsory education lasts for a total of nine years. This includes six years of primary school education, known as Sekolah Dasar, which begins when a child is six or seven. This is followed by three years of secondary school education, SMP or Sekolah Menengah Pertama, which begins at the age of 12 or 13.
After that students have a choice to either enrol in high school, SMA or Sekolah Menengah Ata, for another three years. Alternativley, some children choose to find a job and start work.
In general, students who have graduated from SMA will go directly to university, Universitas. However, due to either financial constraints or academic stress, some students drop out and opt for pre-university or associate degrees.
Within the Indonesian local compulsory education system, there are two kinds of schools: national schools and national plus schools.
In national schools the teaching language used is Indonesian. Every subject is taught in the Indonesian language by Indonesian teachers. Even English itself is taught by Indonesian teachers who speak English.
No dialects such as Javanese are offered in any of the schools in Indonesia, at least not in big cities like Jakarta.
These local languages are still used in remote parts of the country. The language barrier is one of the main reasons why expat children do not attend national schools in Indonesia.
National plus schools in Indonesia offer some international curricula and classes are generally in English rather than Indonesian.
The majority of these schools cater for Indonesian students with expatriate students often making up only a small proportion of the school’s student population. They do however accept expat children and are a good alternative for expats who work for companies that do not cover education fees.
Most expats in Indonesia send their children to international schools. This is the best option for those working for a company that makes a provision for school fees within an expat employment package.
There are many good international schools in Jakarta. The most popular international schools include Jakarta International School (JIS), the Australian International School (AIS) and the British International School (BIS).
This is how we feel when we saw picture below of Kids swimming in Jakarta Flood. So far, over 18,000 people are homeless, 11 are dead.
Let’s pray and put the sunshine and smile back on.
photo credit: Reuters
It has been raining, raining, and raining.
This year’s wet season in Jakarta is a monster.
So far, over 9,000 people have been forced out of their homes in Jakarta. Some have lost their lives.
The place we stay, south Jakarta is safer. But the center of the city, and the northern Jakarta areas are hard hit. Even the Presidential Palace is flooded.
We feel so sorry for the local Jakartarans, especially the kids.
Our thoughts and prayers are with them.
Rain, please go away.
Related articles:
Ever since Mr D’s cousin had her baby boy, waking up at night and rushing to the baby’s bed side becomes an everyday job. It is quite tiring.
According to a new study, published this month, parents should let their babies ‘self-soothe’ and drift off without the addition of another feed, lullaby or pat and cuddle.
The good people at NY Daily News said:
“By six months of age, most babies sleep through the night, awakening their mothers only about once per week,” said Temple psychology professor and study co-author Marsha Weinraub. “However, not all children follow this pattern of development.”
Let’s test this theory on our new baby, see if it works…
Related articles:
With a curious soul like ours, we have to dig out the dirt now that we have started this Hugh Hefner married Crystal business. Why did Crystal Harris called off the marriage to Hugh Hefner the first time? Don’t you want to know?
Here a look here:
(CBS) Crystal Harris says she called off her wedding to Hugh Hefner, which was to take place on Saturday, because the Playboy founder’s lifestyle wasn’t for her.
“Hef’s lifestyle isn’t the most normal lifestyle,” Harris, 25, told Ryan Seacrest on his radio show Wednesday. “This isn’t the lifestyle for me, multiple girls around all the time, the Playboy lifestyle. I don’t know. I just wanted to be true to myself.”
“For a while, I’ve been having second thoughts about everything,” she said. “It all happened so fast, and they were going to air a show on it. It was all happening too fast for me.”
It was initially reported that Harris, a Playboy Playmate who appeared with Hefner on E!’s “The Girls Next Door,” called off the wedding after the couple had a “nasty argument” on the phone, but she told Seacrest that was untrue.
“It was mutual between Hef and I,” Harris explained. “There was no fight, we sat down and we talked about it.”
“We both agreed that it wasn’t the best idea to get married. He kind of told me that he was doing this wedding for me because he thought that’s what I wanted,” she said, later adding. “We were both kind of relieved.”
Read more here.
Interesting, Crystal called off the wedding because Hugh Hefner’s lifestyle. Isn’t the lifestyle what she wanted in the first place? And how long has been Hugh leading this lifestyle? As a playmate herself, sure Crystal knew this very well?
Oh, BTW, the argument reported earlier, was rumored about pre-nup (which Crystal 100% denied), of course. 😀
Related articles:
While traveling in China, we used the scale provided by one of the hotels we lived in. Look at this BMI chart, interested?
Hopefully you haven’t put on much weight after the holidays. A few weeks in the winterland with family and friends, umm… wonder how the weight is pumping up.
Does this BMI chart scare you? Are you within the healthy weight range? We are now back to our daily routines and some hot yoga, fitness workout and fun swim are in order.
We have to keep our self-esteem high and fit back into that favourite dress of ours, don’t we? 😀
According to this BMI chart, everyone’s body weight should naturally preprogrammed to remain around the weight on this chart.
Knowing the ideal weight for you can actually help you to set your goal and maintain a healthy weight.
Want to know some tips about how to eat well but still keep a healthy weight? Well, here they are:
Basically that’s the real secret for not getting over weight.
No over eat, no over weight.
But if you insist on having a few more tips, here they are as well:
We love a bit of gossip every now and then. We were shocked to see the picture below. Do you know what it is?
Well, this is the first home of Crystal – Playboy boss Hugh Hefner‘s new wife. As you know, Crystal married 82 year’s old Hugh Hefner at a tender age of 26 in the new year.
Glamorous girl, humble beginnings.
If she were Paris Hilton, will she marry Hugh Hefner? Maybe it is not only money that attracts Crystal to Hugh, but it certainly plays a part. Quite a big one, we guess…
We were shocked even more to see the picture below. This could be in Jakarta. Looks so familiar and run down. No, sadly, it is the surroundings of Crystal’s first home.
Now, we start to understand why there are so many Indonesia boat people risking their lives.
Don’t believe it? Have a look at the rubbish dump in Jakarta we took a while ago.
Even worse one below:
To see more daily life in Jakarta, read the D’s Snapshots here.
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We love gifts and Christmas is the busiest time of the year for the Gift Business. So do your kids love your Christmas gifts this year?
We were thinking of doing a 2012 year in review as it is the most proper way to end the old year and begin the new. Somehow, we end up creating this gifting problem cartoon. Hope you like it!
Modern day gifting can be a tricky business.But don’t worry, in the olden days, Christmas gifting also can be very, very dramatic. Why not have a look at this short story?
We will do a new column on the new Midnightvisitor site (Yep, the new site is still in progress, we haven’t forgotten about it :D). We will put up a new short story every weekend. Hope you like them. We certainly love to read in the D house.
BTW, have you got your Gift list ready on Amazon yet? We are preparing for next year’s Christmas gifts already, haha. 😀
Related articles:
Playboy Hugh Hefner married again in the New Year!
No more lonely nights! Hugh Hefner is officially off the market, again.
86 years old Hugh Hefner married 26 years old Crystal during the new year holiday. The marriage was called off once half a years ago in June last year. What was going through Crystal’s mind at that time?
Is this true love?
Not sure.
Guess what, China has a very similar story back in 2005. The then 82 years old Dr. Yang Zhen Ning ( A Nobel Prize winner in Physics in 1957) married his 28 years old wife.
It had caused a huge social debate that year and is one of the hottest press in China even today.
Good news is Dr. Yang and his wife are still happily married until now. Eight long years, marriage brings longevity for sure. We will see if Hugh can do the same. 😀
Oh, BTW, it rained again today. When can the rain go away? Here’s another raining song. Hope you like it.
Early in the morning,
The sun was up and the sky was very blue,
Without a warning,
As I looked out,my thoughts returned to you
A noise in the city made the children run,
And hide themselves away,
And thunder boomed and lightning filled the sky.
Looking from this window,
A thousand rivers running past my door
Standing on an island,looking for someone
Upon the shore,
I can see it very clearly nothing’s really changed,
Then lightning strikes across an empty sky,
Chorus
Ooh-the rain is falling,
Ooh-the rain is falling,
Ooh-the rain is falling,
Will it wash away the lonely tears,
With their brand new time transporter,
They’ll think maybe I fought to get away,
But with all their great inventions,
And all their good intentions here I stay,
Down on the corner where the sun had shone,
The people gathered ’round,
Then scattered as the raindrops hit the ground,
Chorus
Good morning and welcome to the New Year!
It is hard to believe we were still in China yesterday, watching snow falls and we are now back in Jakarta and watching the rain again.
It has been a great holiday, and the weather is on our side. Miss D has finally seen the first real snow fall in her life! She is beyond excited. Stay tuned for some snow pictures we took very soon.
Beside the snow, we have many other stories to tell. Gosh, where should we start? Below are a few stories we are going to write about our China trip.
Interested? These are only a tip of what we will write about our China trip.
Be patient, we will need some time to write quality articles. 😀
For now, we will just put up a good, old nursery rhyme about the rain. The raining season in Jakarta this year seems quite different from last year. It rained almost everyday. Dark skies, and bad traffic, how long will this last? Rain, please go away…
Rain Rain go Away
Rain rain go away,
Come again another day.
Little Johnny wants to play;
Rain, rain, go to Spain,
Never show your face again!
To read more nursery rhymes and lyrics, click here.
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Good morning, dear readers,
How are you today? We are in China by now and this is a scheduled post. Hope you like it.
So what are these children doing in the photo below:
These children are very excited. But no, they are not rushing for the red ribbon-ed Christmas gift boxes. No, they have more exciting stuff to chase.
Such a happy girl, what are you staring at?
See that silver machine in the center of this photo? See those oozing white bubbles coming out this machine?
Yes, you are right. It is a bubble machine. It has created such a festive moment for the kids. They are chasing around like mad. Childhood memories, magical and unforgettable.
Do you have any childhood memories that keep you warm this Christmas? How about create one for your children now before they grow up too quickly?
Bye for now and see you soon.
We are going to chase our own bubbles now…
Related articles:
DIY Christmas Ornaments – Christmas Wreath
Heavenly Beauty – Jakarta Snapshots through D’s Camera
For rambling blogs
Or no blog
Or blogs we put up and then lost in transistion
Or blogs we delete/heavily edit
Or maybe, just maybe
if we are lucky, and everyone else is lucky
business/blogging as usual.
Who knows?
We are going to China.
At least that’s for sure and we are excited.
Are we continuing to blog while we are there?
We are not sure.
Time
Time, we guess
Time will tell
Love. D
A Serious Black Cat with a batman hat? Nanjing, China.
Have a look at this Cat! This is no ordinary cat.
This is the original Batman Cat!
Have a happy day today.
Have A Hat Day!!!!!
Love. D
A Post without a Hat? – Mad Hatter Hotel, London England.
They even have a Mad Hatter Hotel in London, England! Have your heard about this hotel! Sounds like a fun hotel to us. 😀
Have a look at the Mad Hatter Hotel at A Hat Day today. 😀
You might want to check out the Mad Hatter Hotel next time you are in London?
Love. D
“You were told that I was a secret agent, a spy, dealing in espionage and danger. You wished to meet me because you are a writer, young and romantic. You envisioned mysterious figures in the night, the crack of pistols, drugs in the wine.”
“Instead, you have spent a dull evening in a French music hall with a sloppy fat man who, instead of having messages slipped into his hand by dark-eyed beauties, gets only a prosaic telephone call making an appointment in his room. You have been bored!” The fat man chuckled to himself as he unlocked the door of his room and stood aside to let his frustrated guest enter.
“You are disillusioned,” Ausable told him. “But take cheer, my young friend. Presently you will see a paper, a quite important paper for which several men and women have risked their lives, come to me.
Some day soon that paper may well affect the course of history. In that thought is drama, is there not?”
As he spoke, Ausable closed the door behind him. Then he switched on the light.
And as the light came on, Fowler had his first authentic thrill of the day. For halfway across the room, a small automatic pistol in his hand, stood a man.
Ausable blinked a few times.
“Max,” he wheezed, “you gave me quite a start. I thought you were in Berlin. What are you doing here in my room?”
Max was slender, a little less than tall, with features that suggested slightly the crafty, pointed countenance of a fox. There was about him — aside from the gun — nothing especially menacing.
“The report,” he murmured. “The report that is being brought to you tonight concerning some new missiles. I thought I would take it from you. It will be safer in my hands than in yours.”
Ausable moved to an armchair and sat down heavily. “I’m going to raise the devil with the management this time, and you can bet on it,” he said grimly. “This is the second time in a month that somebody has got into my room through that nuisance of a balcony!” Fowler’s eyes went to the single window of the room. It was an ordinary window, against which now the night was pressing blackly.
“Balcony?” Max said, with a rising inflection. “No, a passkey. I did not know about the balcony. It might have saved me some trouble had I known.”
“It’s not my balcony,” Ausable said with extreme irritation. “It belongs to the next apartment.” He glanced explanatorily at Fowler. “You see,” he said, “this room used to be part of a large unit, and the next room — through that door there — used to be the living room. It had the balcony, which extends under my window now. You can get onto it from the empty room two doors down — and somebody did, last month. The management promised to block it off. But they haven’t.”
Max glanced at Fowler, who was standing stiffly not far from Ausable, and waved the gun with a commanding gesture. “Please sit down,” he said. “We have a wait of half an hour, I think.”
“Thirty-one minutes,” Ausable said moodily. “The appointment was for twelve-thirty. I wish I knew how you learned about the report, Max.”
The little spy smiled evilly. “And we wish we knew how your people got the report. But no harm has been done. I will get it back tonight. What is that? Who is at the door?”
Fowler jumped at the sudden knocking at the door. Ausable just smiled. “That will be the police,” he said. “I thought that such an important paper as the one we are waiting for should have a little extra protection. I told them to check on me to make sure everything was all right.”
Max bit his lip nervously. The knocking was repeated.
“What will you do now, Max?” Ausable asked. “If I do not answer the door, they will enter anyway. The door is unlocked. And they will not hesitate to shoot.”
Max’s face was black with anger as he backed swiftly towards the window. He swung a leg over the sill. “Send them away!” he warned. “I will wait on the balcony. Send them away or I’ll shoot and take my chances!”
The knocking at the door became louder and a voice was raised.
“Mr Ausable! Mr Ausable!”
Keeping his body twisted so that his gun still covered the fat man and his guest, the man at the window grasped the frame with his free hand to support himself. Then he swung his other leg up and over the window-sill.
The doorknob turned. Swiftly Max pushed with his left hand to free himself from the sill and drop to the balcony. And then, as he dropped, he screamed once, shrilly.
The door opened and a waiter stood there with a tray, a bottle and two glasses. “Here is the drink you ordered for when you returned,” he said, and set the tray on the table, deftly uncorked the bottle, and left the room.
White-faced, Fowler stared after him. “But…” he stammered, “the police…”
“There were no police.” Ausable sighed. “Only Henry, whom I was expecting.”
“But won’t that man out on the balcony…?” Fowler began.
“No,” said Ausable, “he won’t return. You see, my young friend, there is no balcony.”
We haven’t shopped for Mr. D for a long time now. Actually we haven’t shopped for Mr. D since our last failed pants shopping trip. He hates shopping. We hate shopping for him. 😀
But, don’t worry. Organized as Mrs. D is, she has even got a Christmas Gift Guide ready for Mr. D. Actually it is the perfect Christmas Gift Guide for any man. Why not have a look?
We have the usual toilette, perfume, tie, undies, and casual T shirts for Mr. D. He needs them everyday anyway. A good excuse to go shopping.
If we have a bit more cash, we will buy him a nice pair of new shoes. Good quality shoes which can last another 10 years, we hope. OK, make it 5 years. Ten years is a bit ambitious, even for us.
We might even buy him a nice piece of jacket. Not that we need it everyday here in Jakarta. Just that it feels nice to wear a jacket every now and then. Besides, we might travel and it might be chilly where we go. So a nice but causal jacket will be good for Mr. D.
But what Mr. D really, really need is a great leather sofa. Mr. D is a night owl and can work really late till the wee hours. A great leather sofa will make his night peaceful and comfortable. A great investment, don’t you think? A hard working man deserve a great comfortable place.
OK, a great sofa might be great. But that’s only Mrs. D’s wish upon Mr. D. If Mr. D had a choice, guess what he really, really want? How about a Harley-Davidson? If he had a choice, we think him might opt for a good old Harley. 😀
Too bad, that’s not allowed. Not when we are in Jakarta anyway. Maybe, just maybe, we will get one for Mr. D, if we are back to Sydney. And if, he has worked really hard for it. 😀
For more fashion style, check out our online shopping guide
Midnight Visitor’s Online Fashion Shopping Guide for Women’s Fashion here…
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Gosh, only two more weeks to go before Christmas! Thirty days to be exact. Are you excited?!
Not everyone is celebrating Christmas in Jakarta, we have 80% population of Muslims, the world’s largest Muslim country.
But been a metropolitan city Jakarta is, we do run Christmas Tree Competition here.
Have a look at this, do you know what it is?
The green, orange and gold colour, very Christmas like, isn’t it? Well, you are right. It is not only Christmas related, it is actually the certer of Christmas!
It is the Christmas Tree!
How about you? Have you put up your Christmas tree yet? Time is running out.
Wanna join the Christmas tree competition? Have a look, there are some amazing trees here: unique and environmental friendly to say the least.
Polluted as Jakarta is, we do have a green cause. Please vote our Christmas green tree:
We have throw in a giant candy cane for whoever supports our green course. 😀
Hope you like it.
How about a golden Christmas tree? Actually we love the magical lights at the background better.
To show our gratitude for your readership this year, we have gifts glore for everyone. Enjoy your Christmas and have a great new year.
Love. D
Related articles:
This is a picture we took in PIM (Pondok Indah Shopping Mall) in South Jakarta. Look at the three hats the magician and his helpers are wearing, and their outfits. It can be in any other cities in the world, can’t it?
Oh, we have created a brand new blog for A Hat Day because it is focused only on Hats!!!
Check A Hat Day – Hatter’s Paradise now!!!!
Love. D
Posted in Our Life in Jakarta
Looking for some Christmas table decoration ideas? We are excited when we see this Martha’s Woodland Christmas table.
Maybe next year we will try this table if we are back to Sydney? We always have a nice table setting during our Christmas season back home. Here in Jakarta with only 6 cubic meters of shipping, we have to make do with a simpler and rented table. 😀
Anyways, we will be traveling this Christmas, guess the Christmas table can wait…
Related articles:
From the food and recipes we put out on Midnightvisitor, you would agree that we don’t believe in diets or restricting ourselves in the D house. We love our chocolates, cakes, and anything yummy. But don’t get us wrong, we do believe in a balanced diet (or to a broader extend – a balanced life) so to speak.
We are so looking forward to Christmas, and one of our priorities for this Christmas is to eat all the decadent treats we crave! Think chocolate brownies, chocolate mousse, chocolate cookies, chocolate fudges…
Oh, my, our mouths are watering the moment we write this. How about a Jakarta Chocolate Roadshow for today? We can’t wait.
Of course, we will do some high impact cardio, a hot yoga and a soothing swim after this. That’s the secret why we can keep on eating this Christmas. 😀
Jakarta is not a sleepy fishing village any more. Those years are long gone. Jakarta is in fact a big metropolitan city today, and it has all the Chocolates in the world.
This week, the D’s camera is going to show case some of the best Chocolates that Jakarta is on offer.
Enjoy.
So many chocolate cakes, which one to pick? So hard, yet so tempting…
How about checking out the brochures first? That’ll get us going.
Cheese cake we bought.
Smaller but better chocolate cheese cake!
We love our cheese cakes. And a chocolate cheese cake? That’s even better. This is the same cheese cake as we bought for Miss D. The only difference is it is topped with chocolate filling and laced with white meringue.
And the price? It is RP11,500 for the smallest 20x10cm cake, and runs up to RP1,220,000 for the biggest 60x40cm cake. (1USD = RP9,600)
How did we miss that the last time we went shopping? We love the topping! One more reason to go back.
Another great chocolate cake, tiny but great. We always enjoy dark chocolate. The bitterness keeps us want more. Enjoy a great cuppa after this. We will add some coco on top, just for you.
How about some chocolate ice-cream? Actually, any kind of ice-cream will be fine for us. After all, it is always hot in Jakarta, and ice-cream is so popular here. We won’t mind a truck load of it, in fact.
Wait, we not only have chocolate ice-creams in Jakarta, we also have chocolate cup cakes. They are smaller but taste as great as their bigger chocolate buddies. Why not give them a go? You might like them, too. Besides, the sales girls in Jakarta are super nice. We don’t want to disappoint them, do we?
You won’t think that we would leave you empty handed after all these, would you? We can’t do that. Chocolate is for everyone, so here it goes, the shops where we normally get our chocolates and cakes in Jakarta. You’ll find them at the end of this article.
Still, this is only the tip of the iceberg. We guarantee that Jakarta has much more chocolates on offer: in fancy restaurants, hotels, cake shops, chocolate shops…
If you really, really want more, you have to come over and see for yourself. And God knows, we might even put up a few more of our favorite chocolate shows before Christmas. After all, this is the holiday season, what more excuses do we need to enjoy Chocolate?
The chocolate/cakes shops we frequent:
The harvest
Jl. Arteri Pondok Indah, No.38E, Jakarta Selatan
+62-21-7201710
+62-21-7268409
Royce Chocolates Indonesia
Pondok Indah Mall 1
Awfully chocolate Jakarta
Plaza Indonesia
Level LB#31 Jalan M.H Thamrin Kav.
28-30 Jakarta,10350
T: (62) 21 3199 0205
F: (62) 21 3199 0208
Open 10am – 10pm daily
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Oh, the weather outside is frightful
But the fire is so delightful.
And since we’ve no place to go,
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.
It doesn’t show signs of stopping,
And I brought some corn for popping;
The lights are turned way down low,
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.
When we finally say good night,
How I’ll hate going out in the storm;
But if you really hold me tight,
All the way home I’ll be warm.
The fire is slowly dying,
And, my dear, we’re still good-bye-ing,
But as long as you love me so.
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.
To check out more Christmas songs and carols, click here.
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We have only got till next Tuesday before the world is going to end. Scary stuff. Angles, arrows, guns? Which one to pick? Who to believe? Does anyone know the Mayas? How reliable these ancient people are?
Whatever will happen, we are going to stop blogging and spend all the remaining precious time with our family and loved ones. Actually we will be on a flight to Sydney as soon as Mr. D finishes his work on Friday. 😀
How about you? Is there anything on your mind that you must do before the end of the world?
We know, we have just published our Christmas wishes this week. But we can’t wait any longer, we are gonna publish the D’s Bucket List right now, until it’s too late.
So here is D’s bucket list:
……………………………………………………………..
OK, this list is already too long, hope you have got the drill by now…
We have got an around the world flight to catch.
To complete these trips in less than a week, aren’t we ambitious?!
Last but not least, while we are on the airplane, we will eat all the chocolate we can possibly eat. No time to be wasted. Not until next Tuesday.
What is your bucket list? Do you have one? Time is running out!
Love. D
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The Royal baby name game has officially started. People are making royal memorial plates, cups, mugs to celebrate.
So which baby name will you pick? No, not for the royal baby. Our baby’s name, of course.
We will use the next 9 months to pick a Royal baby name!
For now, we have to pick a name for our baby: our new website, that is.
OK, we might just stick to the midnightvisitor name, but upon checking, it’s been taken.
How can that be?
We can have as many David as we like in real life, why can’t we have the same midnightvisitor name in blog sphere. So not fair!
That’s OK. We are not going to complain. Naming is our specialty, too. If you don’t know this already. We have beautiful names for our pets: our chickens, turtle, and cat. Miss D loves to name her toys. All her toys have their very own names: bluey, shinny, angle, Brenda, etc, etc…
Even funnier, if you are lucky enough to know us in person, we might have named you, too. You see, when we know 8 Davids in our house, it is very hard to tell who is who. So being creative as we are, if you are lucky enough to be the David we know, your new name might be:
……………………………………………………….
Errr…….. Actually, we will pick another name to show you how we do this naming game. We certainly don’t want to be offensive, and who knows, the David we are talking about might just be reading right now. 😀
How about Dumbledor, yeh, Dumbledor will do. Everyone knows Dumbledor, yet lucky enough, we have no real life friends named that yet. So here we go:
In the D house, if you are the Dumbledor we know, we might call you a million things:
An older Dumbledor – ‘Old man’.
A Dumbledor who likes fruits – ‘monkey’.
A tall Dumbledor? ‘bamboo’ sounds like a fitting name. 😀
For a Dumbledor who eats a lot, we name you ‘tiger’. Sometimes, we might call you HT if we happen to see you in action. Don’t know what HT is, it is short for Hungry Tiger, of course.
If Dumbledor was a woman (this is only a game, alright?), her names can be:
A Dumbledor who married a banker, that’s easy, her new name is the ‘banker’s wife’.
A Dumbledor who is from Spain – ‘that Spanish Girl’.
A Dumbledor who enjoys a bit of laugh like us? How does ‘Joker’ sound? Actually, we don’t like that. Joker is not a good name for a girl.
We like chocolate, so we named one of the Indonesia beauty queen after that when we saw her on TV. Indonesians are dark colored, but very beautiful, too. Chocolate is a compliment in the D house, OK?
Anyways, the new names are mostly for fun, sometimes can be a bit over the top, but nothing offensive here in the D House. After all we have to be good role models for Miss D.
So what about our new website name? Well, we have come up with a few different ones. We are still brainstorming. Stay tuned.
Oh, want to see the David in the D house? We actually have one.
Meet our very own David D. Miss D fell in love with this wooden doll in Ikea and had to have it. Miss D loves to draw and she wants to draw this doll as soon as she saw him.
And guess what name she picked for him?
David D.
So here is our David in the D house. We love him and he is a pretty good dancer.
Love. D
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Now that Mrs. D has a second wish for Christmas, she has to make it happen.
‘World Peace’, this is a hard one, especially when we live in Indonesia. Every day we were reminded of ‘danger is looming’ around the corner.
We have guards in our house (although their job is mostly sleeping during the day and night.) 😀
Guards at the shopping mall (they can’t sleep, day or night, poor guys).
Guards at school and office entrance (OK, they can sleep, sometimes, when the rush hour is over).
And don’t even mention guards at the Embassies, they hold real guns, and they won’t be afraid of using them.
Etc, etc…
So a big thank you for those who reminded Mrs. D. World Peace is a must have this Christmas in the D house and everywhere else in the world.
How about sending a little bit of ‘World Peace’ to you family and friends, and spread the love?
To do that, we have come up with a very simple, yet elegant idea:
Why not create some DIY Christmas cards with the simple words :
It is easy to make. Simply find a piece of craft paper you like, and gather a few great ideas and away we go. You can even put your favorite photo and send together to the world (aka your loved ones)…
How about a Royal Blue one, royal blue is popular this Christmas thanks to our royal baby:
Or a cute little elephant. Elephant is such an adorable animal and we love riding them. They sure can help with world peace with their mighty trunks and good personalities.
Or a classic Christmas bauble with your favorite family photo:
What does world peace mean to you?
Love. D
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We might as well change our name from MidnightVisitor to Jakarta Weather Station!
Yep, you got it, it rained again this afternoon here in Jakarta. Some places were flooded soon enough after 10 minutes of heavy down pour.
Can you imagine it is all started with this:
Blue skies, white clouds, nice flow traffic (oops, actually no traffic in this picture! Well done, Jakarta, you amazed us again). Satu Lagi (means AGAIN in Indonesia Language. :D)
Mrs. D got really frustrated in the car stuck in the traffic on her way home after a lovely lunch in Pacific Place (a fancy shopping mall in central Jakarta). All the happiness from earlier of the day was slowly winding away.
She’s got a kid to take out of school and she was running late. There was nothing she can do, not even with a driver who knows all the short-cuts in South Jakarta. She was rather anxious. She really didn’t want to be late.
Sigh…
Until she saw this man:
A rubbish man braving the wind and rain, treading in the flood, and just kept on going.
What’s going through his mind? Was he frustrated like us?
We would never know.
Unlike Paris Hilton, Mrs. D would never stop her car and talk to a total stranger. Not in circumstances like this. Everyone has his own dignity. Who are we to judge? After all, it was not a street beggar she had seen.
Anyway, Mrs. D was much calmer and relaxed after this. No way she was going to turn herself into a banker’s wife, that’s Mr. D’s job. 😀
Happiness, isn’t it a strange thing? Have you figured out yours yet?
Love. D
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We have talked about Miss D’s forever Christmas wish recently. How about Mrs. D? Woman and Christmas, dangerous areas. Watch out, Mr. D and your bank account. 😀
To have more fun this Christmas, Mrs. D has a wish. Only one wish, she’s not a greedy person. After all, Mr. D’s wallet is her wallet, too. We are a traditional family, ‘AA share’ has no place in the D house (well, Mr. D might think otherwise, why don’t you ask him?). 😀
So what is Mrs. D’s Christmas wish? Well, Mrs. D’s wish is the D’s wish anyway. It’s something better for the D family for sure. Actually, you might benefit from her wish as well.
Is it ‘World Peace’, Mama?
See, we have already put a puzzled look on your face. Haha.
OK, ‘world peace’ can be her Christmas wish, too, only for you.
Second wish, alright? We all entitle to three wishes when the genie asks, don’t we?
Back to Mrs. D’s first Christmas wish: all Mrs. D wants this Christmas is (music and drum rolls here):
Disappointed? Woman, why can’t you be grand, be worldly? ‘World Peace’ is a much better choice!
Bad luck. Mrs. D’s only wish this Christmas is a new website, with good reasons, too. And being an obedient husband Mr. D is, he will be our Santa Claus this year.
So, yeah, you will see a brand new website after this Christmas, when we are back from our holidays. It’ll take a while for us to figure out the technicalities, but you will see.
What is your Christmas wish this year? How about ‘Peace on earth’ or IPad III? We think those are much better choices.
Be wise, choose carefully.
Love. D
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No more rumors! Kate and William are having a royal baby!
Sorry to deviate from our normal Jakarta news. But what news can be greater than a Royal baby news this Christmas?! To say we are excited is an understatement. Any baby gets us excited, let alone a Royal baby! This is the best Christmas ever. Let’s celebrate!
Congratulations Kate and Will! Well done!
Now that the Royal baby is on the way, what about baby names? Oh, we love naming babies. The next 9 months will be spent on picking the best baby name for our Royal baby. Free entertainment. 😀
What about baby clothing? We love to buy cute clothes for new born babies. A batik dress for a royal baby girl, or a batik shirt for a royal baby boy? Oh, imaginations, ours are running wild…
For now, we will stick to our Christmas red. A red dress if we have a princess.
What if we have a prince? Well, we will have to do a prince outfit soon, don’t we? Stay tuned. 😀
How about you? Any baby names you like? Any baby clothes you gonna design? Good luck. See who’s the winner in 9 months time.
Love. D
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Good morning, dear readers,
How are you today? A lovely day here in Jakarta.
You might be surprised to see that we have a Red background for our blog and wonder if you have come to the right one. Yes, you have. This is still the MidnightVisitor you have been reading all those years.
But, we have changed our colour scheme from a crispy white background, to the Christmas holiday red. Put a bit colour on this holiday season. Why not?
Actually, initially we only wanted to sprinkle some snow flakes on our blog. We love snow flakes and BTW here is our official reveal for last week’s MidnightVisitor Quiz:
Now back to the Christmas red. When we did that (sprinkle the snow flakes, of course), we found it didn’t work because of the white background we have.
What the hack, why not paint the town (aka our blog) red this Christmas? That’s exactly what we did and that’s why you have seen our Red Christmas background today. Hope you like it.
This red Christmas background will be kept forever, since we are the 20% Christmas advocates. Will you still coming back after the Christmas just because we do this? We hope so.
Don’t worry, we couldn’t do that to you. We still love our crispy white background. After all it has been with us since the beginning through all those tougher days. How about keep the Red theme till January? After that we will switch back to our white background.
Enjoy.
Love. D
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Obviously, we went to the wrong shopping mall last week. To do Jakarta justice, this week we will show you the real Christmas celebration in our beloved city Jakarta.
Not only will we show you all the Santa Claus in Jakarta, we will also show you some ‘heavenly beauty’, just to make up the misunderstanding of our part from last week’s Hello Kitty roadshow.
Enjoy.
To start with, we will show you the grandest Santa Claus and sleigh we have ever seen in a shopping mall:
Like it?
Have a look from the back. Santa is flying in the sky with silver reindeers. Mind you this shopping mall is 6 floors tall. Look at those tiny people on the ground floor.
This Santa Claus and silver reindeers sleigh is at least 5 meters long. It is huge, built with great efforts and is magnificent indeed. We have never seen anything like this in a shopping mall back in Sydney. Have you seen anything like this in your city? We would like to hear.
Jakarta not only has the grandest Santa Sleigh, we also have white Christmas snowy castles.
Plus Christmas gift shop. Snowman, Christmas trees, baubles, candy canes, ornaments. You name it, we have it right here. With a coconut tree standing by. 😀
Christmas in Sogo, a fancy department store.
Now that we have proven that we do have Santa Claus in Jakarta. We will start our real topic for today. How about some more Heavenly Beauty? And a blue one would be nice?
This is called Hijab. It is a everyday wear for Muslin women and is a fashion icon in its own right.
Back in Sydney, girls are interested in topics such as ‘How to wear scarves in a hundred ways’ in winter time. In Jakarta, we have ‘How to wear a Hijab in 100 ways’, all year round. As a matter of fact, we have a Hijaber community here just to do that.
Do you have a scarf community in your city? Maybe we should start our very own right now.
Want to see some real life hijaber in action? Jakarta has plenty.
A single lady entering the shopping mall. Love the beige colour she is wearing. Very on the trend, slim, modern and beautiful. Wait, did we just say ‘modern’? Actually, it does have a very modern feeling to it, if you have seen it yourself in person.
Another young lady. This time in grey outfit and matching hijab. The girls in Jakarta sure knows their colours.
A mum buying a toy for her little boy. And that’s the aunt in the far right corner wearing a white hijab. Young and pretty. The best age.
Obviously, older women wear hijab more often. This couple looks lovely. Great colour match. How long have they been married?
Here comes the true ladies of Jakarta. Middle aged, content with life’s offer and always, always dress in nice clothings. Hijab or not, our ladies in Jakarta always look presentable. BTW, they carry authentic branded bags, not fake / factory outlet stuff, alright?
How about pink? No pink in this one?
OK, to end today’s show, we will show you a true Arch wedding and our darling beauty girl – our very own pink Barbie. Side by side, these women can conquer the world.
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Here we go again. Can anyone tell us how this photo of ours have anything to do with the term:
Well, obviously, Google thinks this picture has everything to do with the term ‘medical assistant office outfits girls’ . In fact, this photo not only has everything to do with ‘medical assistant office outfits girls’, it is also one of the best photos for ‘medical assistant office outfits girls’.
Why?
Because out of hundreds of millions of photos for ‘medical assistant office outfits girls’ , this photo of ours is ranked on the 5th page on Google image search. That’s like ranking the top 0.00001% out of Google pictures for this search term.
How cool is that!
Actually this is not our best photo yet, check the other photo of ours.
Look familiar? Well, this one has ranked on Google image search page No. 2 for ‘medical assistant office outfits girls’. Wow, now that Google mentioned it, she sure does look like a medical assistant to us. Cosplay in bright day light in a crowded Jakarta shopping mall. Is that even legal? What do you think?
We are really impressed by the genius behind the Google search team by now. They must have held double PhD degrees for what they are doing.Don’t believe your eyes? Why not Google yourself. 😀
Next time if you want to cheat on Google, just throw in some random pictures and put a nice title to it. You might hit your jackpot too. Google is an easier lover, he will be contented with just that.
Oh, we also like the photo below for our beloved search term ‘medical assistant office outfits girls’. This one ranks very well on Google image search. You can find it on Google search page 2, very close to our second photo above.
Talking about a mad hair (head) day? Here we go:
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We love wine and candles. The Christmas season won’t be complete without our two dearest friends. How about a glittered candle to light up the darkest winter nights?
This red and gold glittered candle is our kind of Christmas decoration for the Christmas dinner party. It is beautiful, magnificent for the eyes and is super quick and easy to make. This one is for those romantic at heart. Why not have some fun this Christmas and glitter away!
Materials needed:
Enjoy your Christmas dinner with your very own red and gold glittered candle this Christmas. Have fun.
Photo credit: vivalavidabonita
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One of the benefits of living in Jakarta is there are many factory outlets here. Every now and then, we will go there and do some treasure hunt. It is fun.
You would think we have paid the original prices for our winter clothes below:
Hack no, we won’t buy any winter clothes without checking out the many Jakarta factory outlets.
As we have said before, shopping in the factory outlets can be a hit and miss. There are lots of fake products in these factory outlets. So have we bought the authentic products?
Check out the actual hoodies and see the labels, textures, and feelings. What do you think?
Are these genuine branded garments or not? We think they are. Our guess is these are current season genuine export clothes. For whatever reason, they are left behind and are now sold in the many factory outlets in Jakarta.
And this is what we paid:
A pale white coloured hoodie by Junk Food. On sale for USD 40, down from USD 80. Bought for RP99,000 (1 USD = RP9,600)
A grey hoodie by Aerie for American Eagle. USD 49.99. Bought for RP89,000.
A grey turtle neck long sleeve top . On sale for USD 19,99, down from USD 39.99. Bought for RP79,000.
Here is the picture of our grey hoodie from the AE website. It is called Aerie boyfriend sweat shirt:
Upon close look, we have actually figured out why our sweat shirt ends up in the Jakarta factory outlet: it’s missing the tie at the bottom of the sweat shirt. Oh, well, guess we can live with that.
We have even seen the cover girl fur collared sweater below as well. It is on sale for RP99,000. But we don’t like the fur collar, and have passed it on.
Happy shopping.
Seasons greetings from our beloved Captain Jack Sparrow. That’s really, really nice.
Have you found your treasure yet? We have traveled thousand miles across the high seas, just to say: Merry Christmas, me maties!
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We have just reinforced that MidnightVisitor is a family blog, and we are quite sensible in not showing any not kids friendly stuff here. The next thing we know, we have landed ourselves in hot water, again.
How does this happen?
Well, after a day’s hard work, we are enjoying our peace and quiet and doing a bit maintenance on our blog. Guess what we found? Some strangers have landed on our blog via this:
If you not already know, this is a screen shoot of who’s who in the blog sphere. Basically it tells you how people find you using what search terms. Amazingly, someone found us through the term ‘best hot woman in a swimming pool’, among our Christmas lyrics and Christmas ornament and crafts.
How did this happen?
Being curious souls like us, we frantically put the term on Google. We love Google, right? Google sure will not fail us.
Guess we are wrong, yet again.
We searched and searched, but among the millions of pictures shown up, we cannot find anything that belongs to us.
To love, or not to love, that is the question. Now we are utterly destroyed. Our hearts are broken. If we can’t trust Google, who else can we trust?!
Since we are heart broken, we need to see a doctor. But, it’s already too late here in Jakarta. What to do?
We love jokes and we believe laughter is the best medicine. So instead of finding our ‘best hot woman in the swimming pool’, we have found someone else’s hot lady: in the swimming pool and naked, via our great trusty friend Google:
Don’t believe your eyes? Why not Google yourself? Put in our title for this article, and see how you fare. Google might as well surprise you. You might have some pool side fun along the way. You never know…
Who said we can trust Google?
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We all know our Jingle Bells by now. Guess who is coming to town this Christmas? The town, of course, is our beloved Jakarta!
We have prepared a nice roadshow for you on another topic this week for D’s Camera. But our plan is not relevant any more as soon as we see this:
Yep. Obviously, this Christmas Hello Kitty is coming to town, and we’ll paint the city red PINK?
Not happy? Nor is our snowman here. Snowman and Hello Kitty? An innovation idea. Does it work?
Look at the snowman’s face, hint, hint, hint…
To make this Christmas the best ever in Jakarta, the marketing team has worked hard and even throw in a few goodies for us. How about a lucky dip by our very own reindeer? That would cheer us up in no time.
Or how about all the other relevant cartoon characters we like? We have the most popular ones here.
Alas, although we looked very hard, we couldn’t find Santa Claus in this fairytale land. Soz, nothing we can do.
Maybe we should ask those marketing people at the back stage? See, they are still busy planning. There’s still time till the big day, right?
Actually we admire this Christmas fairytale castle so much, we have even dug out some news for you. Curious to know who is the boss of this fairytale land of Hello Kitties?
We waited, waited and waited. Well, our effort didn’t wasted, here comes the BOSS (music and drum rolls here…)
Well out of this group of impressive marketing genius, guess who is the boss?
You’re right.
The Lady.
It has to be her. Now we understand — errr the PINK.
So what is NEXT? We’re a bit disoriented after all these pink. Haven’t see this much pink since Miss D was 5.
Gosh, time flies by so quickly!
How about a bit black and white? Our eyes need some rest after all these hello kitty…
This is more like our style. Feel better now? How about a bit more color, like RED? After all it is Christmas season we are in. Be sensible.
What? This is not sensible enough for you? Are you a 5 years old?
OK, OK, admittedly it’s a bit crazy. Christmas underwear? Not allowed here. After all this is a family blog. We want to set good examples for our kids, don’t we?
How about bring in some real Christmas magic? For that, we give you the magical moment! (with a price tag of RP32499.000, you will need to work out how much it is by yourself, you’re on your own on this one :D)
And just for our record, please don’t get Jakarta wrong. We have plenty Santa Claus here. We haven’t got the chance to show you any only because we are a bit dazzled by all the Hello Kitties we saw today. That’s all.
To end today’s show on a high note, we present you our very own Jakarta Santa Claus:
Umm… he looks pretty normal to us, just like any other Santa Claus you would have seen in any other cities around the world, what do you think?
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A great Tuesday morning and the sun is actually shinning. Have just got out of our pool. A morning swim is so soothing. We can enjoy pool side fun everyday. What a bless.
Just a quick note to show you the eBook cover for our 31 Days In Jakarta. Takes 10 minutes to make, not a bad effort, right? Hope you like it.
If you have any suggestions to change the cover, we would love to hear, all ears. Now the cover is out of the way. Only 200 pages more to go before we finishing the editing. 😀
Hurry up! We have a plane to catch before Christmas. We are recruiting an editor in the D house now. Anyone?
Photo credit: Miss D
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Went to the Jakarta Immigration Office today to sort out the visa for the family. The Jakarta Immigration Office has moved to Kemang which is quite far from where we live.
We raised early this morning to make this important trip and boy it took 1 and 1/2 hours just to get there. Funny thing is, guess how long it took to come back? Half an hour!
Tells you a lot about Jakarta traffic, doesn’t it?
The trip was less boring thanks to the D’s camera. We got chances to be stopped in the traffic, and snap away! Well, it was a lot of fun in the beginning, but it petered out after this looonnnng trip. Miss D almost felt car sick at the end of the trip.
What we do to earn a living in this city.
Price to pay, friends.
Price to pay…
Anyways, we had some great shots, and the weather was on our side as well. Blue skies and white clouds. What a change from the crazy stormy weather yesterday.
Love today’s Jakarta blue sky, not the ugly power lines though. Coconut tree is forever a street scene here in Jakarta.
So beautiful.
Miss D was fascinated by this house. Look at the rooftop. Was it telling us a story?
Better be a good one.
The trip had just started, and we have 1 and 1/2 hours to go. (although we didn’t know at this stage, lucky or not?)
How about some breakfast before we get started? It is a long trip after all.
And our very first man in action. This is what Jakarta’s breakfast shop look like. They only appear in the Jakarta streets in the morning or late afternoon. Maybe it’s just too hot during the day?
Now that our tummies happy. We need to get going.
How about a bus trip?
It is crowded but it gets you to places. Besides, the service is superb. We will stop right in the middle of the famous Jakarta traffic, just for you.
Forget about bus stops, or traffic lights. Raise your hand now, that’s what locals do. And we will stop the traffic, no kidding, alright? RP 3,000 please, that will get you anywhere in Jakarta ( 1 USD = RP 9,600).
Don’t like the bus? How about a taxi? Our very own version of Jakarta taxi, that is. Look at them, the becaks. So flashy and bright. They get Jakarta very polluted as well.
The conventional way to get to work is, of course, by motorbikes. And guys, you already are late. See the delivery man? This is his 3rd round this morning.
Early birds get worms.
A very relaxing seller amid the whole traffic chaos. How can he be so calm?
Love this wall. Great graffiti! And another man in action.
Where are you going, mate?
A blind beggar, yet smiling. Must be because of the good weather.
No rain, no pain.
And just when we start to think we know Jakarta traffic by now.
What is this thing?
Snacks galore, on a motorbike?
Call Circus De Soliel now. This man is who they need. How good is that balancing act? Definitely has taken the whole jiggling action into another level.
Truly amazing.
Yet another amazing scene to show you. The famous garbage dumps of Jakarta. What legends are made of. True Jakarta style.
Haven’t seen anything like this before. Honest.
But we ain’t seen no boss yet, mama?
Where do you think we live, son?
The moon?
It’s Jakarta we’re talking about. Bosses are faceless man, anonymous.
OK, let’s show you some politicians. They’re bosses, too. And if you vote for us, we will throw in a good, old massage, just for you.
We can’t show you any bosses. Sorry about that. To make it up to you, let’s show you one secret, OK?
Do you know why the bosses in Jakarta are so powerful? Well, obviously, they get help from a secret weapon.
Look at these shoes, they’ll empower any man, anytime. ‘Take you to any place you wanna be’, literally.
Seven centimeters? What?! They must be kidding! We went straight to our doctors after we seen this.
No, there is nothing wrong with our feet, or legs. We did check our eyes though. Some things are just too good to be true.
Remember: buy some shoes next time you are in Jakarta. They will ‘take you to the place you wanna be’, any place, hopefully. And shhhhh … don’t tell your bosses. That’ll get them very upset. 😀
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In true spirit of celebrating this year’s Christmas, we are starting a new project in the D house: the grand Christmas Ornament project.
Every week, we will pick one Christmas Ornament entry we like, and feature it on the Midnight’s blog here. Yes, the judgement is final and we have the say on which one to pick.
Unless, of course, you get lots of votes your way to say that you are the best Christmas Ornament for that week. Power to the people, or your family, children, friends, workmates, pets, passers-by, rein-deers and maybe even Santa Claus himself. 😀
Logo for our Christmas Ornament project is here:
Come and grab the Logo now, and send your Christmas Ornaments our way. Your effort won’t be wasted. Your Christmas entry will be shared on our Christmas Page, with a nice picture from your blog and a link to the post you shared. Take a look now, there are already some great Christmas Ornaments there.
Sounds like fun? Why not submit your post now? It’s only one click away and the community will remember your contribution to this year’s Christmas and beyond.
Who knows, Santa might even pay you a visit for the good deed you have done. Worst case, anyone who enter will also receive a Christmas card from the Ds. And that’s a promise!
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Good evening, dear readers. How are you today?
Have just finished ‘Jakarta Ghost Story One’. So happy! This will be our very first ghost story and will be included in our upcoming eBook: ‘A piece of Jakarta – 31 days in Jakarta’, remember?
This is a really interesting one, and definitely ghostly. It starts something like this:
Sounds scary already, isn’t it? Well, we wrote it this way partly because today is a dark, stormy day here in Jakarta. Not only dark and stormy, but also with lightning and thunders.
Today is a perfect day to tell a ghost story. God sent. And no, we won’t publish it here. You have to download our eBook to read that one. Haha. 😀
Just a clue, don’t tell anyone, alright:
This ghost story has something to do with Elevators. Not any elevators, but the Elevators in Jakarta shopping malls…
We love it.
Today is such a great day, with lots of traffic jams thanks to the heavy rain. We finally get the chance to take some great pictures.
Want to see some flood in Jakarta? Here we go.
Cars driving in heavy rain.
See the flood? Jakarta cannot cope with the rainy season, a 10 minute heavy rain and road is already like this.
More cars braving the heavy rain.
Motorists, too. Poor guys.
Some of the motorists actually stopped and hid under crossing bridges where they got some shelters from the heavy rain.
After all these, we deserve some ice creams, don’t you think? The best kind please.
We love Haagen-Dars. A truck load would really be nice.
What’s the weather like in your city today? Hope you have a nice day.
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Just got the email from Catherine at ExpatArrivals. We did an interview with Catherine earlier this month and she advised us that the interview is now published. To see a link, click here.
We are so happy. We are going to share the whole interview with you right here this moment. We have to, there is no other choice. So why wait. Here is the interview in its full glory.
Hopefully, you get to know us and Jakarta better after you read this.
Most importantly, enjoy the experience. We won’t stay here all our life. We are mere passers-by in Jakarta. Someday, we will be back in our home country. Hopefully, our blog can help us to preserve the memories of our adventure in Jakarta.
~ Interviewed November 2012
Sometimes we are really fascinated by what people wear in Jakarta. Today, D’s camera will show you the Jakarta street fashion and Jakarta girls in Uniforms.
It is easy to understand why we take snapshots about Jakarta street fashion. Everyone loves fashion. Every city has its uniqueness and has its own fashion style. It’s a great way to know our city.
But why uniforms? Anything peculiar about uniforms in Jakarta? Well, we are showing you snapshots about uniforms because we have seen so many people wearing uniforms in their profession in Jakarta, we think it’s a great idea to share some of these snapshots with you.
Fancy some coffee? Come to Jakarta. Jakarta is very famous for its coffee (or Kopi in local language). What is the most famous and expensive coffee here in Jakarta? The Kopi Luwak. This is actually the world’s most expensive coffee. It is made of coffee beans eaten by cats. Yuck, you would think. But actually, this coffee has less bitterness and is one of the best coffee in the world. Strange, isn’t it?
Look at the coffee girl in red uniform. Very pretty and love her smile. Local people have the most adorable and friendly smiles in Jakarta. We are really lucky.
Cosmetic sales girls in blue uniforms and matching headscarves. They look very trendy and fashionable with immaculate make ups and smiles. BTW, Waradah is an Indonesia cosmetic brand and is quite famous here. They make quality make up products and sell among other world renowned cosmetic brands such as Maybelline and Lo’real.
Ticket sales girls in IMAX cinemas. The ticketing system is like anywhere else in the world. But the ticket prices are so cheap. For IDR 25,000 (1 USD = IDR 9,600) we get to see a movie. Sometimes, if we are really lucky, we can even get promotional tickets for as low as IDR15,000.
Where else can you watch a movie at such value? If you find one, please let us know. We are very curious. BTW, how much do you pay for a movie ticket in your city anyway? We would like to know as well.
Want some snacks after the movie? How about some sausages? Indonesians love their meat balls and sausages. Such a happy cow. What’s so funny?
Again, sales girl in yellow uniform with headscarf.
How about boys? Do they wear uniforms, too? Of course, they do. But we are not ready to show you yet. Stay tuned. We need time to snap away, don’t we?
How about street fashion? Are you ever going to show us any? OK, how about a cute little girl? Girls start to wear headscarves at a very young age here in Indonesia. She looks so cute and concentrated because that’s a bowl of hot soup she is carrying. Watch out.
The woman in the background with the colorful headscarf is her mum. Very pretty as well. We love the aqua color of her outfit.
Last but not lest, how about some normal, everyday looking office outfit right here in Jakarta?
Look at this lady in shirt, skirt and high heels. She could belong to any other city: New York, Paris, London. Many office girls dress like this in cities all over the world.
To avoid any legal issues, we haven’t show you any pictures of fashions from the rich and famous here in Jakarta. Actually they might not mind that at all. But we are running out of time and haven’t got our pictures ready.
Use your imagination, think about the top brands in the world: Versace, Prada, LV,Gucci, etc, etc. Anything you know, you would find it here in Jakarta. Even with a higher price tag to match. The rich and famous here can afford them.
Alas, such is Jakarta. Vastly different, yet people work and live together in a harmonious way, at least, for now.
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