4 Uber + 2 Grab equals…

…a very interesting first night in Jakarta, to say it in the most positive possible way… Typical of course of my usual positivity!

That was Sunday night…

After a great seafood dinner in a bit of remote place in Jakarta north I had to get a bike to go back to my hotel, in Jakarta west. 

Amazing seafood

Like in Vietnam I like the motorbike taxis more than the cars, because of the crazy traffic and jams in this overpopulated city! In fact the only Indonesian word I know is “macet”, meaning traffic jam.

On the roads of Saigon

So I sent my request for Uber bike referring to the location given by the Internet signal…

Uber

The first 2 Uber after apparently riding around my position with the time for arrival changing from 2 minutes to 15 than 3 and randomly increasing again cancelled.

I take this as a partly personal mistake since then I realized my position was about 50 meters wrong. So I corrected it and try again..

One of the first 2 Uber driver accepted again but then after 20 minutes he canceled again.. And the same happened with the 4th attempt..

Then I gave up on Uber…

Grab

….and tried my favorite application for my Vietnamese time… but here more expensive than Uber, still… it was time to change!

I must admit that the drivers seemed to get to my location easier than Uber ones, maybe even too easily: the first driver was a little too eager to pick me up, and start drinking.. Maybe he had a hot girlfriend waiting for me at home, or a hot meal or both..

But after not even a minute when I ask him if he was sure of the direction (I know nothing but I can read maps and I know the cardinal points) he showed me his application with the destination and clearly it was not my hotel…
He had picked up the wrong person!!! Bad luck the first 3 digits of the license plate were the same as for my real ride…
…that luckily arrived a few seconds after the wrong one brought me back…
You might think the adventure was over, right? That was my thought.. and of course I was wrong..
I realized that even if all drivers have a special holder for the mobile phone to put on the front of the motorbike, they are not so good at following the GPS! He stopped 4 times to ask indications to other riders until we got to an area I thought to recognize, I took out my phone with my own Google maps and told him where to go…
After about 1.5 hour (instead of 20 minutes max that I took on the way to the restaurant) I was back to the hotel..
FUNNY THING OF THE DAY – Today I noticed my Uber rating is going fast downhill! That is not good: I’ve been rating almost all drivers with a 5, even when they got lost or I had to support with my own maps… And I wonder why hey have been rating me low.. Occasionally I hit my helmet on theirs with the sudden breaks and accelerations (I always think, hypothetically, a Kaya driver turning and punching me in the face) and most of the time I need help to latch/unlatch the helmet straps.. But these are not so negative points I think.. Once I even gave one driver the laugh of the day putting on the helmet from the wrong side (no, I had not the back of the helmet in front of my face, but the latch was not under my chin but over my forehead… I have no idea how I managed..). Today I tip the driver (almost the same amount of the ride,still cheap for us.. but… not common I think) and he gave me a 5 (my rate was higher than before)… I must carry some change for my rating!!!

My Uber rating Sunday

My Uber rating today before tipping the driver (after it was 4.42)

Here I come Bali!

Ready…. And so sleepy!!

I was at the check in counter and I put on the scale the hand luggage, keeping on my back the backpack to be checked in!!!!

The woman at the counter had a good laugh!!

First time ever!!!

Fruit fruit fruit

I have just been to the small shop out of Jerry’s compound to buy something to eat and if course I focused in the wonderful South East Asian fruit offer:

When I saw the mangosteen and the dimensions of the papaya I could not stop myself. One dragon fruit later I found, still in the fruit session, something I had never seen before (or maybe once in China) and went for it as well:

One box of cookies filled with dates and a couple of drink juices I went to pay and this makes me enjoy this country even more:

…that means:

FUNNY THING OF THE DAY – My first surprise when I arrived in Jakarta was that here they drive on the left side, like in British countries and Japan. Quite a surprise since I can’t recall a British occupation of the area.

Sexy Qixi Chinese S. Valentine perfect present

Today it is Qixi festival, the equivalent of Chinese S. Valentine and a fruit vendor got out with a brilliant funny sexy idea:

sexy Valentine

They call them “Ripe Fruit” (蜜桃成熟時) and they have changed the life of the guy that made them, and patented them!

Bring the alcohol back!!

After seeing people drinking it in more than one occasion I have decided to try the “famous” Vita-malz, alcohol free malt beer.

Why?? Why??? why on earth was I so foolish?

Utterly disgusting taste! I’m going to sort of finish it just because I paid for it (at a kiosk, not in a bar!!).

Supposed to be healthy?? Bleah!! Give me the alcohol please!!

I was boarding the wrong flight!!

First time in my life!! I did not notice the two flights to Amsterdam so close in time !!

Of course the machine did not recognized my ticket!

Wrong:

Right one:

Lucky mine was later, unlucky I almost ran a very long distance in this huge airport of Frankfurt. And it’s warm today… and feeling a bit the good practice of the weekend!!

Now it should be ok and I hope the people taking care if the luggage were more awake than me!!!

Veronica

Long time I don’t find something funny worth mentioning.

This goes in the category of funny if you don’t wear my shoes.

Veronica is the name of both a radio station and a tv channel here in the Netherlands.

At work we usually listen to that radio station because it has the least repetitive selection and also good quality/mix of genres.

At home I often watch the tv channel since it has a very good ofer of action movies and tv-series.

My typical luck is that Veronika is also the chosen German name of my ex, who recently kicked me out of her life since she now is seeking something new and more exciting…

Apparently, at work, at home, I am chased by Veronicas….. Wrong ones?? 😉