My First Experience Getting Hit By A Motorcycle - A Lesson Well Learned

I think I'm accumulating more and more immersive, in-depth experiences in this country faster than I thought. Over the past three months, I've been ticketed and lost my newly acquired driver's license, experienced epic (and I mean EPIC) traffic jams, re-learned driving in hellish traffic and getting honked by various types of cars and motorcycles more times than all of my 12 years of living in LOS ANGELES combined (LA drivers aren't exactly friendly, they ain't), learned how to jaywalk like a pro (frogger-style), became very adept at chasing city buses and jumping aboard at the last minute......... and today I proudly learned another essential skill mandatory for survival in Jakarta: Look both ways before you cross the street.

In the afternoon, as usual I had my coffee craving, so I went outside my office to the small "warung" (street food stall) across the street. Yes, in the US, I go to Starbucks to order my coffee, but in here, I can either send someone to fetch me the coffee or I can go myself, order it, then have it delivered to my office. Ahh....such is the life.

There was a medium-sized boxed truck parked right in front of the coffee warung. Although logically this would be a strange sight considering that the small alleyway street is only about 5 meters wide and two-way traffic normally passes by here, I've gotten used to such sights and thought of nothing further.

In a hindsight, I should've known that that was my blind spot coming out from the warung. After ordering the coffee and making small talks with the shopkeeper, I carelessly stepped out of the warung and, thinking nothing further, appeared from behind the boxed truck to cross the street back to my office.

It happened so fast. I only had a chance to swing my arm out when out of nowhere, a zooming motorcycle swiped my entire right arm at high speed. Shocked, I left my arm flailing in the air, my wrist bone throbbing from the impact, and then I turned my head around and saw everything in slow motion: The zooming motorcycle swerving and losing its balance, the driver obviously just as shocked from the thought of hitting someone full-on, and then - wobble, wobble, wobble, and - CRASH! The driver and its passenger crashed to the ground with a resounding thud, skidded a small distance, then hit an oncoming motorcycle from the opposite side, which also wobbled and fell.

I watched the entire chain reaction with my left arm still hanging in the air, mouth agape. I didn't know whether I should be mad or laughing. The entire scene would've been so comical if it weren't so f***d up. The sound of the crash was pretty horrifying, and very unfortunately for the dude riding on the back seat, he wore a short pants. I think he was fine, though, as I didn't notice any burn marks on the leg that he skidded over. He was nice enough to turn around very quickly and asked if I was okay. I didn't reply right away, still in shock, and he looked pretty concerned.

For a moment, all three of us just stared at each other, not knowing what to say. I was at fault for appearing suddenly from behind the truck. The driver of the "ojek" (ojek is motorcycle for hire, a common transportation form in Jakarta. You pay the driver to drive you somewhere and pay him an agreed-upon fare) was obviously at fault for driving up against the one-way street. And at high speed. The passenger was looking at both of us like, seriously, this is some f***d up s**t. I'm wearing a short, yo. Could've lost a leg there.

But after small mumbles and grumbles (none of us dared to point fingers because ALL of us were at fault one way or the other), everyone just went along their way. I returned safely to my office, and as I waited for my coffee to arrive, I sat very quietly and thought to myself, "I have an interesting life." I thank the Lord for His perpetual protection on my emptyheaded ass, and for this rich life that I have. Rich not in terms of financially, but rich in terms of the life experiences I've gathered over the years; the library of stories that I'll be able to tell my kids and grandkids and amuse them for hours on end. Life IS beautiful - if you only know how to look.

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JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton Are Back On Their Feet!

I went to JW Marriot and Ritz Carlton yesterday to spend a day (literally, a real full day) at the sites of recent Jakarta bombings on July 17.

The two luxury hotels are back on their feet and are fully operational during our site visit there. I reviewed Asia Restaurant at Ritz Carlton and Sailendra at Marriott. Security was tip top tight, of course, but not overly annoying. I could see that everyone is tense and the security at the gate was especially watchful. This time around I get the feeling they don't joke around and although I couldn't really tell if they were really doing their jobs, the security did a very thorough job checking our car and I could see the difference between security at "lesser" luxury establishments such as Pondok Indah Mall (that's right, I hope you read this because you still suck at security) or even Plaza Indonesia.

The gates leading to the lobby of the hotels were double barricaded, so there's absolutely no way that a car can ram through both gates. Kudos for the great security details at both hotels. Then we had to go through layers of added security like metal detectors and live personnel body search.

Once we were inside, I noticed black-clad security sentries watchfully following our every movements. When we were standing around to wait for the PR of the hotels to come out, they approached us to inquire who and why we were waiting.

Once we met up with the PRs, however, it was back to luxury hotel treatments. We were treated so very courteously, perhaps due to their trying to build their images back up. But the hotels were bustling with activities, obviously not as great as pre-bombing but to be honest they were really decent.

Asia Restaurant at Ritz Carlton was formerly Airlangga and they changed their name after the bombing. It was the actual ground zero of the bombing, so I was eating at a place where at one point in time all hell broke loose. But I felt no bad aura or any chill effect while at the site. Quite the contrary, the restaurant was fully rebuilt, beautifully decorated and was quite honestly airy and sunny. The restaurant was bright, lighted by the romantic afternoon sun shining through the tall-ceilinged glass windows. I asked the director of the restaurant if the name change is due to the fact that they're trying to put the past behind, and she said that partially it is that, but in so many ways the restaurant itself has changed. For example, they've upped their culinary offerings and added new menu items as well as revamped the decor, so it is in technical terms no longer the same restaurant. And in my opinion I think they did a decent business, considering they just newly re-launched the restaurant and when we ate there, there were about 10 tables occupied. That wasn't bad, considering it was late lunch hour and it was a workday.

I would rate the food as A-. The quality is good, but some things can be improved. For example, the sashimi bar had a salmon block that is imported from Norwegia, as well as raw oysters and mussels that are imported from New Zealand. But when I requested the sushi, the cuts were not quite as precise and were just too thin for the ratio of rice. The taste was acceptable, however, and decent enough. Service was impeccable at this place. The grill section is excellent, I ate a very good swordfish steak and seafood shish kebab.

When I went to the Marriot, however, I was just blown away by the quality of their food. Everything was A+ at this place. The Sailendra Restaurant isn't named Jakarta's best buffet for nothing. From the berry ice tea to the salmon gravlax to the Brie cheese to the sashimi to the rotisserie chicken, everything is of tip top premium quality. They even use Lindt chocolate for the chocolate fountain. And, best of all, I get to taste the best moon cake in town. The restaurant makes very high quality, snow skin moon cakes that tasted exactly like the description written on each cover. The best ones for my taste was the durian flavored, followed by strawberry and finally green tea. I don't dig the beans flavors, never are crazy for those. I seriously have never tasted moon cakes as good as the ones at Sailendra.

The restaurant was surprisingly very busy as well, with almost all of the tables taken. I was almost expecting to see a waiting line at the front. The PR manager told me that the hotel has been doing unexpectedly well, with ardent supports from domestic as well as international customers. During the grand re-opening of the restaurant, she said about 100 people came to celebrate and eat at the restaurant, and that type of level has remained more or less the same since then. I'm happy to hear that. They deserve this.

I think a lot of people sympathizes with what Indonesia has to go through, particularly with these two hotels, and I think people want to show their support. In fact, All American Rejects, the American (duh) rock band from Oklahoma, just stayed at the Ritz Carlton for their August 17th performance. When asked why they would stay there, they replied, "Because we're fearless. F*** terrorists!" That's the way everyone should treat terrorists. They're nothing more but fecal matters, and they need to be taught that people the world over simply have evolved: they're smarter, they don't give a s*** about extremism any longer, and they can't be fooled with simple propaganda. It's the year 2009, and the power of intelligent freedom is in the hands of the people, not in the few backward-thinking extremists.

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My First Moving Violation Ticket - And Not A Warm Feeling

I just got my first moving violation ticket in this country. You can imagine my rising panic when I saw the policeman calmly walked closer and closer to my car as I waited by the traffic light at Bundaran Hotel Indonesia. Yes, he calmly walked toward my car as I was sitting in traffic. All kinds of thoughts crossed my mind. Why is he walking toward me? Crap. What the hell did I do? Oh s***. What do I do?? WHAT DO I DO??? Am I going to jail or something?

Then he saluted me (yes, the police are very polite here) and motioned to lower my window. He said, "Sir, there's a no crossing lane at the turnabout. Would you please kindly pull over to the side over there?"

You need to know that I understand nothing about the law here. I have no idea how to handle this. In the past, I have always been able to bribe (hey, that was just the way things are) and get away fairly quickly and hassle free. Now, though, I've heard that things have changed a lot and the anti-corruption law is so prevalent that they actually offer policemen Rp. 10 million to bait and trap bribers.

At the same time I don't want to say the wrong thing and make things worse, I also don't want to sound like a total foreigner and let him rape me even more. So I pulled over and he explained to me, so very politely (and that's the ironic part, because I still end up getting the ticket) that I needed to make a left after I got off Plaza Indonesia and not cross the oncoming traffic directly to the turnabout.

I decided not to challenge his knowledge about the post he works at every day. But just how the hell did he see my car cross that from that far away? He was at the other end of the huge turnabout. So he asked for my driver's license (thank God I already have one!) and my vehicle registration. Lucky I have both with me. And then, here's the funny part, he asked me very politely, "So, sir, I'm going to have to ticket you, okay? You're fine with that, right?" I tried to weasel my way out by saying, oh, come on now officer, let me go this once and I won't do it anymore, and tomorrow is Indonesia's Independence Day, come on, show some mercy, but he budged none.

Lucky for me I received a forwarded email this morning that basically tells everyone to ask for the "blue" ticket form instead of the "red." The email said that if you ask for the "blue" form, it's basically stating that you're guilty and you'll pay the fine. If you get the "red" form, which is the default ticket given by the police, you'll have to contest the conviction in court and the email further explained that besides the hassle of actually going to court, you'll be standing in line and be extorted more wild fees by the court officials. In short, it'll be a long process since you're contesting the ticket.

Red ticket means that you're pleading guilty and the email so says, the process goes like this: You transfer the fund (whatever the fine amount is) to the National bank via ATM, then you bring the slip to the police station center to reclaim your driver's license. Case closed. Oh yeah, they took away my driver's license until I can prove that I pay the fine amount. The biggest boon to this method is that the money will go straight to the country's cash registers and not to any corrupt officials. Also, be advised that the fine amount cannot exceed more than Rp. 50,000.

Since this is a forwarded email, and my general philosophy is to view every forwarded email with a grain of salt (you can never check the actual truth of forwarded email) , I shall see if this advise will actually work or not. So far it seems like it's playing out like the email said. In my panic that email was the only thing that popped into my mind, and I blurted out I want the blue ticket. At once I can see the cop's behavior changed toward me, it seemed like he took me in more carefully, maybe because he thought I knew the law. I really hope it will turn out to be exactly what the email described. We shall see.

The Blue form of moving violation ticket

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Riva Bistro & Bar French Cuisine

I got my third assignment today and went to the Park Lane Hotel in Kuningan area to interview Chef Gilles Marx, the exquisitely authentic French Executive Chef of Riva Bistro & Bar.

Riva Bistro specializes in superbly authentic French cuisine and is elegant yet modern with its open kitchen setting. Chef Gilles, as he prefers to be called, is also Riva's Food and Beverage Director and passionately engages himself in all things French, such as buying locally produced, daily delivered freshest herbs and vegetables and hosting monthly food & wine pairing introductory courses at the restaurant.

Check out some of his signature dishes:

THAT is the biggest pepper grinder I have ever seen in my life. The only time I see someone tipping something that tall was when I was drinking my half yard at the Yard House. I miss that place.

This is the signature appetizer salad, the seasonal Girolles Mushroom Salad. Girolles mushroom is a special type of mushroom grown in France, and it's in season now over there. The salad was light, springy and refreshing. I thought I tasted a bit of clam juice and tomato, while in fact the chef said the sauces contained walnut oil and a secret vinaigrette recipe.

This is my favorite: Goose liver with orange sauce. I'm sure the menu name is a lot more sophisticated than that, but I left my note at the office. Check out the upcoming edition of Maxx Media magazine for my complete coverage. Anyways, goose liver is basically pate, and on this dish, it's pan fried to a crisp perfection and drenched in, again, secret orange sauce recipe. The citrusy, acidic orange sauce really finely complements the fatty and creamy goose liver sensation as it cleanse your mouth for each bite. By the way, that big piece of orange up there can be eaten whole, like a pickled orange marmalade. Chef Gilles, characteristically a Frenchman, hand made and pickles those oranges himself, blanching the oranges for 2 days and keeping it in a chamber, where he replaces the seasoned water every 2 days or so. The entire process is, again, a secret :-)

This is Chef Gilles' proudest signature dish: the Bouillabaisse soup. As you can see from the picture, no expense was spared on quality ingredients. From the 12/15 shrimp centerpiece to the extremely well-seasoned red snapper to the green mussel to the fish stock and crab meat juice to the fresh, crisp vegetables, the entire soup was like an explosion of flavor each time I put a spoonful into my mouth.

Here's their signature dessert and special-of-the-month: Apricot....something. Pudding? Ice cream? I'll be honest, I don't care much about desserts, so I don't really remember much details about the ingredients on this one. It was very good of course, but like I said, if you want to get the complete scoop, be sure to check out my upcoming reviews on our next edition of Maxx Media.

Here's another dessert sampler for the ladies to drool over: There's the Praline at the topmost, then the Creme Brulee (so GOOD btw!!!!), then the Wilton? Wafton? Wilfton? Aggghhhh! Just check out my next edition of Maxx Media for September!! It was a dreamy cream-in-the-middle-of-crusty crisp layers. The bottommost is Peach Sherbet.

This is Park Lane Hotel's Junior Suite bedroom. With a camera phone, I can't really convey just how spacious this room really is. Curse my stupid broken camera!! I bought it right before I went back and now it's broken? How the hell am I supposed to claim the USA warranty?

View from the junior suite

This is their Premier Club Suite Lounge, a members-only room suites designed with upgraded priveleges and amenities for business travelers and upscale clientele. The Premier Club is located on the sixteenth and seventeenth floors, the hotel's tallest floors.

The view from the Premier Club Lounge. Check out the Saving Private Ryan-style memorial cemetery! These are fallen national heroes from the Dutch Colonial time.

Cute little chapel...... if not for the fact that it's for..... well, you know.

Park Lane Hotel Jakarta is a 5-star boutique hotel strategically located on Jakarta's Golden Triangle commercial district. The Park Lane Jakarta is the sister hotel of Park Lane Hong Kong.

Now, about this Maxx Media I kept on mentioning above. I just got a job as an Editor (yay!!!!!!) for Maxx Media, Asia's only premier magazine focusing on upscale hotels, restaurants and spas for discerning readers. Our goal is providing informative entertainment for busy executives and professionals wishing to unwind from their hectic schedule. I think that with my intense passion for traveling, food, adventure and photography, I can really bring value to the magazine's already-established brand and take it to a higher level - and achieve our mission to become Asia's only trusted authority on premium hotels, spas and restaurants!

My blog, of course, will not be an exact copy of the magazine. I will still cover underground, little known eating places as I discover them on a daily basis. I LOVE these localized places, and to me they will always represent a particular city's true soul.

Maxx Media is a monthly publication and is currently distributed free of charge. You can find it in the lobbies of premium hotels and establishments. We're working hard to launch an interactive website and once it's up and running, you can bet that it's going to be interactive, revolutionary, and loaded with goodies! Be sure to check back often as I will posting development updates of this exciting project.

Riva Bistro & Bar

The Park Lane Hotel Jakarta Lobby Level

Jalan Casablanca Kav. 18

Jakarta 12870, Indonesia

Phone : (62-21) 828 2000

Fax : (62-21) 828 2222

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Busway ride experience

It's 9:24 am and I'm way early on my first day of work. I'm now sitting in an unopened food court at Gajah Mada Plaza, with nothing to do. I had left the house at 8am for fear of traffic. They told me to show up at 11am. Jakarta traffic is famously horrendous in the morning, so I decided not to take any chances. I arrived at Blok M terminal, dropped off by my driver at 9am. From there, I took the busway to go to kota area (downtown area of Jakarta). The experience has been super positive, the bus was not at all crowded and it was cooly air conditioned. There was absolutely no traffic, since the bus travels on its own special lane. So I got here extremely early, and I'm happy. Although I got off one stop too early and had to walk about a quarter mile, but I'm happy that there is now a proper transport for the people of Jakarta. It remains to be seen if my positive experience will continue with the traffic going back home. The busway only costs Rp. 3000 (30 cents) and it runs all the way from the main terminal at Blok M all the way to the last stop, at Tanjung Priok (? Not sure if correct).

Indonesia's Counter Terrorism Unit Killed 3 Terrorists, Foiled Suicide Bomb Attempt

Sometimes I don't get those negative people who only seem to want to say anything, as long as it's bad words, about their own country. Following Indonesia's counter-terrorism police forces' successful operations at killing 3 terrorists and seizing various bomb caches, these sourpusses still find their voices to critize the police's efforts. They even accuse the police for setting up the wrong people and staging the raid! Sure, it's the wrong guy; he only happens to have 100 kg of explosives with him. Morons.

APPRECIATE what the police and special forces are trying to do for you. They're trying to keep you safe and put another day in your life. And they actually did quite an impressive job, having managed to sniff out the main guy responsible for the JW Marriot and Ritz Carlton bombing, Noordin M Top, safe house and network in less than a month. What's even better, the police succedeed in foiling a plan to blow up the president's private residence during the Indonesian Independence Day on August 17th. These terrorists are truly insane.

It was rumored that Noordin was killed during the raid, but the police have yet to release a formal statement following the result of DNA test. Two of his accomplices were shot dead in another location for trying to toss pipe bombs into the police when arrested. The two were to be suicide bombers for the president's residence bombing on Aug 17, and they were accomplices during the Australian Embassy bombing in 2004. Good riddance. And GREAT JOB KAPOLRI!! Keep up the awesome job.

Here are some photos of the drama. Photo credit to username: Ed Lee from Kas Kus (http://www.kaskus.us/come_inside.php) and AFP Getty.

Raid in Temanggung, East Java

The house where the terrorist holed up lit with police spotlight

The raid started at Friday afternoon, around 5pm and lasted for 18 hrs, until 9:50am the next day. The police were wary of previous experience with booby trapped entrances and suicide bombs and chose to flush the suspect out of the house instead.

Snipers and members of Detachment 88 (Indonesia's elite counter-terrorism unit) took up the high ground and shot up at the house

Drama during the siege. Check out the white smoke billowing after police rocketed the house.

White smoke billows from the house. Police blew up the house 5 times with low explosives to flush the terrorist out

Police securing post raid perimeter. 1 dead terrorist was taken out with body bag. One less evil person on the world. Let's celebrate.

Separate Raid at Bekasi, near Jakarta. The House of Would-Be Bombers for the Presidential Palace and Residence During Celebration of Indonesian Independence Day, Aug 17.

A lone officer of Indonesia's elite counter-terrorism unit Special Detachment 88 stands guard at the street entrance to the terrorists' house. That's a nice shotgun, dude. But no semi-auto assault shotgun?

Activity surrounding the raid at suspected terrorists' house in Bekasi.

Look at the luggage. It's the same delivery method used in Marriot and Ritz Carlton bombing.

Bomb squad officer trying to defuse the assembled explosives material. Dude, careeeefuul.

A flock of special forces officers. I wouldn't mess with these guys.

Confiscated bomb making material enough to make 100 kg (220 lbs) explosives!

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Remedy for traffic jams: Close more roads!

Before I start, I've decided that I'm going to convert my blog from black background to white

from now on. Black is cool and gothic, but it hurts my eyes when I read this too long. You know what they say, simplicity is best. Until I can work on the code to make a white box against black frame, it'll be white. Too bad though, you can never have too much black.

Anyways, so I found this interesting piece of article about traffic management in a highly congested city.

The solution to severe traffic jams? Well, this study says, COUNTERINTUITIVELY, close more roads and limit drivers' options. Strangely enough, it reasoned that this would actually provide for a better, holistic flow system. Something termed the Nash equilibirium.

I wonder if this principle can be applied in Jakarta, where cars and motorcyles' growth stands at 11 percent while growth of public roads and highways are at..... get ready for it....... 1 percent.

Read it and you decide.

http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2008/10/06/does-closing-roads-cut-delays/


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