Saturday 7 November 2009

The Garden...autumn in Indonesia?



Originally uploaded by Marcel_Ekkel

One of the perks of living and working in Jakarta Indonesia, is that it is possible to have a nice house, with a garden... and yes even a pool! For not toooo overly crazy prizes.

After a little search, we found ourselves a decent place...with a spacious garden and a pool indeed! The climate is such here that it allows sitting outside pretty much throughout the year. Something I do appreciate big time, as during the day I am locked in aircon-environment for most of the time.

Although Indonesia doesn't have 4 seasons, it looks like it is autumn in my garden. The week started with a trip to Singapore. Upon my return, a big part of the garden was covered with leaves and branches that fell down.

The rest of the garden is not in that bad shape so most of the work had to be done on cleaning up the leaves and branches. As I had not bought a hose yet... the rest of the plants could not be watered (just as well it rained a bit).

In total the gardener cleaned it up quite fast, which makes things look way better.


I am thinking to put a little waterfall in the garden, probably close to the terrace.....coz I like the sound of it. The other thing is definitely a dining set.

Thursday 5 November 2009

Jakarta traffic troubles


Jakarta traffic troubles
Originally uploaded by Marcel_Ekkel
Last week I moved house (subject to another blog posting). As I knew that traffic can be a bit tricky in jakarta, it was one of the factors to keep in mind when choosing a place to live.

With my newest gadget purchse (iphone 3GS), it is not too bad to travel as it allows me to read stuff on the web...and am slowly getting into the habbit of catching up with email.

Anyways, the first time I drove from the office to my house.... (a distance of just under 15km), I spend a lovely 2 hours in the car! The next morning I was blessed with a 1.5 hour journey.

The 8.7km should be covered in 14minutes according to the photo which is from my Iphone. I gave up on this time estimate pretty much the first time I used it, as it is utterly useless in Jakarta.

The route pointed out here to me around 40 minutes to cover today. Certain areas are a total gridlock.

Complaining doesn't help. A good driver and ways to kill the time are the best way forward here.