The last two months

Haven't been blogging for a while, so here's a quick-n-dirty synopsis of the last two months: I am no longer in Jakarta. Things were getting hazier around the beginning of September, and at the hint of a fade-out (which was made quite obvious one afternoon by SH), I decided to look out. Thankfully, recently the PTT contract had been signed, and my old-time buddy RS was looking for people to work in that project. So, took the plunge. It was not really a great feeling to leave Jakarta, but anyway... Packed my stuff on the weekend of 8th September, my 'Iron Maiden' E was kind enough to visit my apartment 10 o' clock at night, just the day before I was supposed to leave, and pressed tons of clothes for two long hours. Thank you, E; I won't forget this favor. MB was in town, he was a co-joinee in the new project as well, so we took him to visit Top Gun. By the way, since I were to leave Jakarta, I had been visiting TG more and more frequently those days. Also went to Jaya Pub for a few hours, they were celebrating their birthday that weekend. CANDLES & CAKE AT JAYA PUB, AND GANJIL, ROCKIN' THEIR WAY THRU THE NIGHT. IT'S THE SAME BAND THAT PLAYS AT OSCAR (jl. falatehan) ON FRIDAYS. We were supposed to leave for Makassar (or newly known as Ujung Pandang, situated in the Sulawesi island) on the evening of September 10th, so I transferred my baggage and all into SC's room, and just took one week's stuff with me. It was nice to visit a new place, a new island in this archipelago. Work-wise, it was an interesting start, full of workshops with the customer, but life-wise was a bit boring, since everything had closed down for Ramadan. And it would remain so for the following one month. It would be worthwhile to mention here that while we were in Makassar, there was yet another strong quake, rooted in Sumatra, but felt quite heavily in Jakarta. This was more intense than the previous one. ST, my colleague, who used to stay in the same hotel in Jakarta, had become so paranoid of higher floors, that he slept in a sofa (absolutely crunched up I believe) at the hotel restaurant for the next few days. We finished the workshops and returned to Jakarta after a week, spent the weekend in SC's apartment, watched the dusk setting down from his balcony (left), did the usual night-outs and set off for Bandung on the night of September 16th. The cab driver was a great Hindi-movie freak and continuously played Bollywood songs of the nineties. Have been in Bandung for a month now, and have started to like the town. Weather-wise its cooler than Jakarta, and hospitality-wise warm. No traffic jams, but sometimes it's a pain to get hold of a taxi. The bars had closed down for Ramadan, but have started to open now. The street just across the hotel is full of them, so probably I wouldn't have to hitch-hike to Jakarta on Fridays. It was Lebaran last weekend, and the newspapers say that a million people have traveled in to Bandung to spend their holidays. It's kids galore all over. And are they cute!! I wish I knew more people in Bandung, and hopefully I will, eventually.