Jakarta - BINUS - Kamis 19 Nov

Lecture 2: to the English faculty. Singing for my supper, as they say. Afterwards, photos with the faculty and then the students. Rest of the day free. Blogging frenzy. Time off only for lunch. Will be hitting a mall, a shopping one not a university one, this evening.

At 5.30pm, Priscilla, Greta and I leave, with Priscilla driving us to Grand Indonesia, a mall for Jakarta's elites. "Selalu macet," said Greta (Always traffic jams), as there was a bit of a bottleneck in the carpark. Absolutely gridlocked in front of the campus, yet the traffic yields as Priscilla edges her way against the flow to make a righthand turn towards Jakarta. Earlier that morning, waiting to be picked up, Greta texted to say that they were running late because it was macet. As we crawled along, Priscilla piped up, "Sometimes it can take an hour to get from here to the city, sometimes an hour and twenty minutes." Jakartans love their traffic jams. They submit to the flow (or the non-flow), Zenlike in acceptance. Nearer the city, jockies beside the road raised their arm, attempting to hail customers. A jockey is someone who offers to be a passenger, for around 10.000 rupiah, thus allowing the driver to use the special lane reserved for cars with three or more passengers. Some jockies had a child with them - good value for those driving alone to get a family of jockies. Sluggish progress, then we reached a point where we went against the flow of workers leaving the city, thus increasing our speed. Took less than an hour to arrive.

At the mall, which has an East and West wing, and at least 6 levels, there's a pameran batik (Batik exhibition). President SBY's wife has loaned her collection, while President Obama has loaned his mother's collection. Barack, as I like to call him, has an amazing signature - a letter from him was on view, framed. Then, jalan-jalan - walking around. Ended up in Gramedia, a mistake really as I find it difficult to resist bookbuying. Tomorrow I'm going to have to send more packets home. Got another handful of graphic novels. Thought I'd finished, but as I was walking away from the cashier I spied an Indonesian thesaurus, which I couldn't resist. Heavy, though. Tersesat di Mal (Lost in the mall). But great being here because it's empty, so can walk without feeling hemmed in, as I am when walking around the streets near BINUS. Dined, eating some classic gado-gado, the sauce made from cashews. Followed by homemade icecream - tiramisu. Was shopped out, conscious that my suitcase cannot keep on gorging. Encouraged by Greta to try one more shop, for CDs. Left it with 8 items, mostly Indonesian films with subtitles. The Watson Indonesian film festival will run all summer.