New Years

New Years
I decided to celebrate New Years in Jakarta with Tamara and Lisa (who made other plans) and my friend, the guard from the Hotel Aryaduta, Budi. Tamara and I met Budi at the mall (there are really no other landmarks in Jakarta) not before Budi called to make sure we had a “janji”—agreement to meet. As usual, Budi had no real plan so we sat at a back table in McDonalds near the kids play center and tried to communicate while Budi smoked Marlboros in the prominently marked no-smoking restaurant. Tamara and I tried to hypothesize as to why Budi felt smoking near the children would be most appropriate but finally decided it was because we were near the door and he’d be able to run if anything went down.

Budi rode his motorcycle and we followed him in a cab to his ‘hood, which he claimed was 2km away and was much further. Our taxi drove us down a tiny alley teeming with kids and activity and some guy followed us on his motorcycle and shouted for our cab to stop. He told Tamara to get on his motorcycle and Budi told me to get on his and we rode back down the way we came over the multiple speed bumps, which, at first, were quite challenging for me to navigate on the back of a cycle. Got better later though. The guy that kidnapped Tamara was Ogeng, and quite popular in the alley.

We were offered seats on plastic chairs while lots of neighborhood boys milled about giggling and overting their eyes. Budi got us teh botol to drink. Since it was Idhl Adha, (a day of lamb and cow sacrifice for the poor) the boys started grilling lamb satay.

Budi’s friend Ogeng started polishing his car. Actually two friends started polishing Ogeng’s pimped out ride. Budi told Tamara to sit in front with Ogeng and we rolled down the street blasting dance music and rolling slow over myriad speedbumps. Periodically the guys would wave triumphantly at friends on the street. Tamara and I couldn’t stop laughing at the silliness of it all. We tried to go play pool but the place was full so we pulled over to hang out on yet another street corner, this time by Funny Motorcycle. We got more drinks.

Back to the first street to sit some more. More drinks. To Budi’s house to meet his large family. More drinks. More waiting, but not on the street. Budi went somewhere and left Tamara and I to talk with granny and everyone else.

We went to eat and then spent more time waiting around. We went on a hair-rising ride around the neighborhood without helmets, looking for liquor. At one point, we got separated and Tamara’s driver decided to go the wrong way down a highway dodging in and out of cars to catch up, even though he had no idea where we were anyway. After successfully locating vodka, we asked if they might want to mix the alcohol with something. That became the new pressing concern. We suggested mango juice and the guys went to the market, got mangos and juiced them themselves. Needless to say, it turned out deliciously!

The other pressing concern was that Tamara and I wanted a BIG trumpet to blow at 12 am. We kept seeing them earlier but never got around to buying. Budi’s friend went out to look for a BIG trumpet and if not BIG, we assured the worried Budi that LONG was also ok. After about 1/2 hour, Budi’s friend came back empty-handed. He said he just couldn’t find any big enough.

So we celebrated on the street corner, while people drove recklessly by on their motorcycles sometimes crashing and the guy across the street danced to his own song. Firecrackers went off, trumpets were blown and it was all good. Happy New Year 2007 a la Indonesian Streetcorner Stylee.