I'm sitting in Cafe "Oh-la-la" in Matahari mega mall on my day off (Sunday). This mall deserves a blog entry of it's own.
The mall is a four-story complex on the main drag in Pontianak, and comes complete with a set of American restaurants (Dunkin' Donuts, KFC, A&W), a movie theater, blasting AC, department store, and target-like shopping center.
The mall is THE place to be on Saturday nights. Last night the SIMPUR employees and myself met at the mall for dinner and window shopping. For dinner we had rice and fried chicken (not my favorite foods, admittedly, but I'm trying to be a flexible eater here) and then went into the mall. It was packed with people. But the funny thing (for me) is that most everyone was just window-shopping, or simply hanging out. Very few transactions were taking place, as far as I could tell.
The best part of the mall is the huge bookstore here. It has a wide selection of books in Indonesian, but the English section is quite small -- mostly cookbooks, a few classics (such as Jane Austen and Shakespeare), and lots of mysteries. So I'm going to read my way through Agatha Christie mysteries this year. The Indonesian books are mostly non-fiction, and of these about half are religious books -- Muslim, Christian, and a few Buddhist books. Reading novels is simply not a big part of life here in Indo. Some of the books made me laugh -- they have an entire wall dedicated to animal husbandry (wanna learn how to breed goats? how about koi? hopefully you speak Indonesian!).
Okay, gonna leave the nice AC mall to brave the heat and walk to the SIMPUR office to retrieve my bike. Happy Sunday!
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2 comments:
Kim,
I totally feel for you right now. It is as if every word brings me right back there. The Mega-Mall WHOOHOO!!!!! That AC was the best treat after a long day in the peat. I am SO SORRY that your bag was stolen and I can only imagine the pain in the behind this is going to be. Expense is one thing but sheer annoyance is another.
I am happy that you saw Kuala Dua and are having a decent time. I have some other comments that might be more appropriate for an email so I might get to that this afternoon.
Please tell the folks at Hotel Santika and at Simpur that I say hello and I think of them often.
And let me know if there is anything I can do for you back at Yale...seriously there are only a handful of people that know what Pontianak can be like.
David
Wow Pontianak now has a mega-mall. Even in 1996, it was disappointingly developed for what I thought Borneo should be like. i cannot imagine it now. I did not realize you were going there too. Are you going to Gunung Palung as well?
I feel your pain regarding your bag. It is such a trauma but I am glad you have not lost your camera and replaced everything. Good luck in the field
Cagan
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