A new chapter

So, Indonesia…..where to begin? It’s been a long time in the works, and I’m happy to report that I am sitting pretty here in our new digs in Bogor, Indonesia, blogging away. So what’s the story? Why Indo? What are you going to do there? How long you going for? All good questions. Let’s start with the top 4 from the past few months of random street encounters with people.

1. Indonesia?! What the?! What’s that about?! The reader’s digest version of what this is all about stems from a conversation Amy and I had a few years back. Amy, fresh from a year of teaching English in Japan stated boldly that we should go work and live somewhere. “Somewhere” meaning leaving Canada and living somewhere “interesting”. That snapped in perfectly with my long-term, yet dormant, goal of working internationally, et voila, the idea was born. Now, just gotta make it happen…..

When contemplating the reality of running away to “live somewhere interesting”, a few options exist for those not independently wealthy (in which case you just give your house away to your neighbour and go). Option 1: run away with the shirt on your back, live on a beach, eat raw fish, and sneak into all-inclusives for free booze. Fun when yer 20, not so fun when yer 50. Option 2: sell everything, pack up yer backpack, and go manage a hostel in the highlands of Ecuador. A serious consideration having just returned from a year in South America (that’s another story, see: robamysouthamerica.blogspot), but lacking the long-term sustainability factor. Option 3: get a real job with an international posting, drink the expat Kool-Aid, and live the life. We opted for the more challenging option 3. More work to set-up, but huge payoff if it all goes in the right direction. At least that’s the theory. Talk to us in 5 years.

So upon returning from SA, and plugging back into our Nelson lives, I contacted a firm based out of North Vancouver I had my eye on for a while, who (1) hires people like me (i.e., environmental consultants), and (2) have offices in cool places like Indonesia. Long story short: I took a job with an environmental consulting firm in North Vancouver, with the expressed goal of me and Amy living and working somewhere cool, like, Indonesia. OK, all set, let’s go, right? Wrong. The deal we struck is that I would work out of their base office in North Van for a while to get to know the company, and vice versa. The higher ups graciously agreed to allow me 50% time in Nelson, which worked out swimmingly for Amy who landed a great job with a provincial NGO, and allowed us to continue living in the Kootenays (which obviously is fantastic). So, after a year and a bit of office life in the big smoke (and biweekly commutes back to Nelson), the boyz kept their part of the bargain, and I was lined up for a position in the Indonesia office.

Soooooo, Phase 1 has morphed into Phase 2, and I found myself a few days ago on Cathay Pacific flight 837 to Jakarta via Hong Kong. As they say, be careful what you ask for, you just might get it. We have been passed the ball. We wanted it, and we got it. It’s game day!

2. Where the h is Bogor? Bogor is a satellite city of about 1+ million souls lying about an hour from the Indonesian hub city of Jakarta, a megacity of about 10 to 15 million (give or take a few mill) on the northwest coast of the island of Java. Though seemingly a random choice of places to start our new life, Bogor is where my employer located their office back in 1990, et voila, Rob and Amy’s new home. Bogor, AKA the City of Rain (more on that in future posts), is generally considered a nicer place to live than Jakarta due to a cooler climate brought on by its higher inland elevation in amongst the volcanoes. Home to Indonesia’s Presidential Palace, Bogor was the colonial-era retreat of the rich and famous who wanted to escape the chaos and humidity of the big city (i.e., Jakarta). So ya, by Indonesian standards, Bogor is basically a small town in the mountains (but bigger than almost every city in Canada!).

3. What language do they speak? It’s amazing how little us bules (“bule” is the Indo equivalent of “gringo” – it means “white”, but is not considered derogatory) know about Indo, myself included. Indonesians speak, wait for it: Indonesian. Well, OK, there are hundreds of cultures and languages within the Indonesian archipelago, but the official language spoken by almost everyone is Indonesian, AKA Bahasa Indonesia (bahasa means language), or just “bahasa”. A very cool factoid, again virtually unknown to us bules, is that Indonesian is a modern language derived from Malay that was only created in the early 1900s as a unifying language for Indonesians. More on that in future posts I’m sure.

4. Bali is close to Indonesia, right? Everyone’s heard of Bali, but another little realized fact by a lot of us – it would appear – is that Bali, is not a country, but is, in fact, an island IN Indonesia. Unique to be sure, but nonetheless, part of Indonesia. And, we are weekend distance away, which will come in handy I’m sure (ya baby!).

Ok, that’s the long drawn-out intro story (sorry, had to set the stage). Now I’m here, getting installed and pulling things together. The mundane tasks of finding dish soap, extension cords, tea towels and the other “essentials” of life have occupied my days recently. So no epic beach or jungle photos to share yet, just random shots from everyday Indo.  Amy is staying in Canada until June to work to the end of her contract. At that point she’ll fly over and drink the Kool-Aid too. More on life in Indo soon.