apartment living part 1

I've been promising to write about apartment living in Jakarta for a while. In honor of a successful plant shopping adventure today, I will now do so... However, you will only get a portion of this now because my bloody modem lost the signal the better part of an hour before I finished writing this the first time. Then it crashed my laptop so I couldn't save what I had written. Now I am too tired to start over on water, electricity, elevators, and the manual washer. Sorry. Blame the crummy Chinese modem and Indosat broadband system! I will do these topics over another time, I promise.

Many of you know that I now live on the 32nd floor. No, it isn't particularly safe given Indonesia's frequent earthquakes. But we all have to die sometime. And, in the meantime, I have a killer view. One I could never afford somewhere else. I'll try to grab photos of it to post, but it is really best at night. There weren't many 1 bedroom apartments available in this complex, Taman Rasuna, when I was looking. And even rarer is a top floor one with a large terrace, like I have. So I had to grab it. Overall the decor is nice but the place is grungy - hand grime on the door frame, etc. I made them clean up and paint over the large area of mold in the bathroom wall before I would take it. I also think water pools in my bedroom when we get hard rains, but, well, I guess that will be a problem to deal with when it rains again.

I looked around for other complexes, but settled on this one (aka the "bule ghetto") for two real reasons: 1) it was cheaper than many of the other expat apartment complexes and 2) high, high convenience factor. The complex has more than a dozen towers, surrounding an enclosed plaza with a pool, playground, sport courts, outdoor bistro, and several small businesses such as dry cleaners and convenience marts. There is also a small business center, where I had the most amazing exfoliating body scrub ever!, with a food court. Nearby (5-10 min walk) is a very nice, and relatively expensive, tennis club/gym. The gym is my #2 oasis in Jakarta, after my apartment. It isn't crowded, it has a nice pool, I have my own locker, and there is a towel service. I couldn't afford a gym membership like this one in the U.S. either. Just past the gym is a smallish mall - Pasar Festival - with a Pizza Hut, Dunkin Donuts, a used book store with English titles, a really good Indian restaurant, and Bengawan Solo, my favorite coffee. Just beyond the mall is a stop for the air conditioned bus that takes me all the way to Deptan for about $0.40 each way in a dedicated express lane. Super convenient, really. I shouldn't complain. Too much, anyway. (I am a Pretty, Pretty Princess, though, so I have to complain a little to maintain my standing with the P3s!)

[Next was originally a description of my apartment's layout and stuff about the elevator, getting electricity, bottled water, and the automatic washer. I'll make up for it!]