The Life in Depok, Indonesia #1

November 17.2015

[I went to Depok to visit my friend from University of Indonesia]

I left Manila, and after changing flights in Singapore, I arrived in Indonesia. I came to Depok city to visit Andhika, who studied at Tohoku University as an exchange student. Even though he was only an acquaintance, when I told him that I was going to Indonesia, he said that I was very welcome. I guess this is the openness of Indonesians. I am thankful. For one week, I stayed in Margonda Residence which was located near University of Indonesia (UI). The photo below was taken in central Jakarta. As the picture shows many skyscrapers are being built. From signs and posters, I could see that there are more Japanese companies in Indonesia than in the Philippines. The photo doesn’t show this however.

From the airport, I took Blue Bird, a rather expensive, yet safe taxi to Depok City. I was relieved when I saw the Depok City sign. Even though I wrote it was expensive, for a two hour taxi ride, it cost less than 3000 yen. If there is no traffic jam, the ride goes much faster.

Since Andhika was attending a conference at the university,  I had to go there directly. At Margonda Residence, I met an exchange student and I asked him to take me to the university.

The campus is very big and there is also a very big pond. Henceforth, there is a bridge. HAHA

All of the buildings with red roof are research facilities. The buildings look fancy. It was only after that my friend told me that it is only appearance, water leaking is terrible and there was political corruption during the construction. Anyways, let’s leave it there. UI is one of the best universities in Indonesia; therefore there are many intelligent and devoted students. I got this kind of feeling.

The conference, The 13th Economix Conference: Asian Economic Challenges, was held by the economic students and Andhika was the chairman. The students assumed a role of Asian countries representatives and they discussed measurements and policies for sustainable development. It was super interesting. The discussion was held in English. The conference was conducted in an academic way, and they even have a web site. I attach the URL.
http://economix-febui.com/tentang-kami

This is a photo taken at the conference. They were having a five minute meeting. They calculated the time and it goes smoothly. Everybody speaks so good English. I want to be able to have this kind of skill; to be able to discuss difficult topics.

After the conference, we had a late lunch at the university.

According to Andhika, this place was rather expensive. All this food, including tea was around 450 yen. In a cheaper place, you can get full for less than 200 yen. Chicken, red rice, spinach and tofu. The currency of Indonesia is rupee, with the economic growing, inflation follows. Therefore, there are many 0’s. 100 rupees is 0.9 yen. Since it is troublesome, I calculated it as 1 yen. So, 450 yen is 45000 rupees. Coins are often not used, so paper money is the more common one; however the amount of 0’s made it difficult to use!!!!!

Two days later, I started to ignore two of the 0’s and started to see rupees as yen, therefore 45000 rupees was 450 yen. By this rough calculation it became easy. Due to the cheap prices, the money that I exchanged didn’t seem to be spent, so I felt rich.

I asked Andhika wouldn’t it be better if they abolish 100 rupee bill, but he answered like this. “It is maybe possible in Jakarta, but since there are poor people in rural areas it is impossible.” Oh, I see.

The photo shows heavy rain, also known as squall which usually occurs during the hottest time after noon. The amount of rain was really much, after only 30 minutes of rain, the streets were covered with 5 cm of water. Because of this, the ditches are very big and deep. Because there are many places in Depok that do not have concrete roads, red clay soils and mud started in an instant to flow from somewhere, which cause my pants to become dirty.

I arrived to the apartment and changed clothes. At night, we went to a nearby shopping mall. I was surprised when I saw a modern shopping mall next to street food carts. I feel that the Indonesian society is vigorously developing.

The picture shows the dish that Andhika recommended; Bamie. “Mie” means noodles, “Ba” means meat. Therefore translating it becomes “meat noodles,” you add the soup, mix and eat. It looks like instant ramen, but it is delicious. In the food court, there are also Japanese and Chinese restaurants, different kinds of noodle restaurants. There is also rice dishes.

Another food that we ordered in this food court is the famous dish “Shiirin”, which is a snack similar to fried chicken. It seems that it is a Taiwanese dish and the price was 360 yen. For local people it is expensive, but since it is delicious it is rather popular. The chicken is first fried, then crushed, then fried again. The chicken is then topped with various spices, such as salt, pepper and chili, and seaweed powder.

The dish looks like this. It’s like a luxury French fries.

Today in Indonesia, the market of smart phone games is growing. My Swedish friend who works as a game developer has his test location in Indonesia. The tax is low, the population is big, therefore it is a good country for testing. The game in the picture is not the one that he developed, but this is a popular game. The game is to link all the lines and circles by tapping.

Succeeding the task makes it look like this.

I tried the game, it was difficult in the beginning but once you got used to it, it became easier. It is a good game to kill spare time. Like, when you are in an airport or so. After dinner, I watched the movie Spectre. I didn’t believe that I would watch James Bond movie on my Indonesia Trip. The place that I stayed in was beautiful. By having both hot water and a flushing toilet made my stay comfortable. 

The view from my window.