First Day in Semarang

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Semarang January 10, 2013



My first day in Indonesia is almost over. I started the day still with fear and a sense of why the hell did I want to do this again. But by the end that feeling was gone. Yes, in stead of a shower you have to mandi, meaning, you stand in a big tub with cold water and you throw water over you with a big scoop. The house is tiny and is in the outskirts of Semarang as is the little company I work for (it is more sort of a warehouse). When I walked in this morning I was greeted by smiling Indonesian people all with bad teeth(no dentists or orthodontists here). But they are really friendly and go out of their way to make me feel welcome, taking me to lunch, bringing snacks and more. They eat by the way all the time and there is very little opportunity to walk as there is no public transportation so all is done in the car trying to fight the traffic and trying to miss the plague of scooters. Apparently, Indonesia used to have a great railway system, build by the Dutch, but here too the all mighty car is the big winner and the rails are in disrepair. Unfortunately there is no infrastructure to deal with the explosion of cars. Let me describe to you the travel from the house to the office. The house is sort of a row house in a newly developed neighborhood. The area is called Mijid. You drive out of the neighborhood and than you

get onto an older neighborhood with little streets, shops and sort of messy. It is called the kampong. Tons of people everywhere and tons of scooters with sometimes whole families on them. It seems there are more scooters than cars. They also driver faster and moredangerously. The streets going to the office are mostly narrow, sometimes with lots of vegetation, mostly it is kampong like setting, with lots of activity. It takes about 30-40 minutes to get to the office. It is all on the south- west side of the center of town. In theevening it looks very different because than all the shops are closedand there is not the beehive activity. Hopefully I can take some pictures at one point. Maybe tomorrow when I don't have to go to work.





After work Erni and Iit, my two new best friends (wonderful women), took me for a massage (Pidgit) which was the best thing you can have after sitting on planes for 20 hours.



Yes, the fear is gone. Instead I feel the excitement that my adventure has really started. This is exactly what I wanted, I wanted to emerge myself in this culture, this country, that I grew up with, heard so much about, but never experienced.



Sampai Nanti

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