A very late post.... I'm blaming it on internet connection

December 31... We started our day with looking for a hotel nearby Thamrin st and Sudirman st, where the new year's eve celebration will commence tonight.  Of course, last minute reservation was impossible... All the nice hotels I am planning to spend the night instead of getting my dad to pick us up were fully booked..... so were the standard hotels.  Apparently, now in Jakarta, they close Thamrin st and Sudirman st for the new year's celebration... they called it car free night.  Thamrin st and Sudirman st are one of the main streets in Jakarta.  A little background info of these streets, for those tourists who would like to dare the hussle and bustle of Jakarta, one of Thamrin st's famous landmark is one of the oldest department store called Sarinah which had been around since the year 1960's during the reign of Sukarno, the first president of Indonesia.  Further down the street, another famous landmark on Thamrin st is the fountain of Hotel Indonesia.  Hotel Indonesia also built during the reign of Sukarno. Since we couldn't find any vacancies in the proximities of the street, we decided for my dad to pick us up close to Sarinah as possible.

Shinji and the Bajaj driver

This next paragraph may be good info for people planning to travel to Indonesia and use their credit card.  Shinji and I decided to go shopping.  We went to nearby cheap retail/wholesale mall by bajaj, a tuk tuk like transportation.  I guess first time for Shinji to ride on one :D . There did some errands, then I decided to shop for laptop for my dad.  My dad's computer is from the jurassic time, and he deserve somethin new!  So we went off to the 6th floor, and on the whole floor are computer retailers, side by side each other..... nasty competition :D.   I decided to buy a very pretty 17 inch white Asus laptop, very cheap, $300, but comes without any operating system.  Apparently according to my dad, this is a very common way to buy computer in Indonesia, to keep the cost down.  People usually will install pirated software or seller will be able to for around $5.  The seller said the store next to him gave permission to use their credit card machine.  So, I told the person to put operating system in and I will pay when it's done.  When we return, the seller hasn't finish installing the operating system, and asked us if we could pay for it then, so we went to the store next door to do that.  The girl at the store refused to process it because even though it's a visa card, it's not Indonesian card.  They asked the next store and they gave us the same answer.  Didn't make sense because visa is visa, and I just used it twice the day before in Mangga Dua...... So after a long argument, thankfully Shinji had enough cash to lend me.... Stupid and didn't make sense how just because your visa is from foreign bank they couldn't accept it! I think those merchants didn't understand how credit card works..... Almost similar thing happened to me when I was in Yogya.  I paid my groceries with master card, but despite it said was approved, the cashier girl was calling the local bank to talk to me to verify the credit card.... So, that was the most complicated attempt to use my credit card in Indonesia.  Travellers can use their credit card in Indonesia however, this kind of difficulties is quite common.... In Jakarta, it is very easy to use credit cards, especially at the big malls. Some cheap retail/wholesale outlet mall also will accept your credit card ..... but the odd times your will run into sellers who do not understand that it doesn't matter what bank issue the visa card or where the bank is, when visa approved the  transaction the seller will get their money.  Oh yes... and of course, most places will charge you 3% for using credit card.  Basically to cover their user fee.  I think it's good for foreigners to be aware of these, because sometimes it is a very irritating situation, but it was just because credit card use is not that common yet in most population of Indonesia, therefore people don't really know how credit cards actually works.
I want this to be a suprise to my dad, so I decided to use cash for the payment.   The poor seller was a little worry because he already install the operating system into the laptop and payment had not been made :(  If he hadn't install the operating system I would've said nah, I don't wanna buy it anymore when I found out I can't use my credit card there.  But I guess all the events leads to a good thing at the end.  So we waited some more for the operating system to finish installing.  I was so irritated by the whole situation that I didn't even feel like shopping for something else.
By the time we were done, we were late to go to my grandma's.  I called my dad to pick us up.  We went straight to my grandma's house, where I was scolded for being late :D .  As usual, her cooking was amazing and very healthy.  After I told her that I will be off to Bali January 2 and may not see her before that.  We went back home and my dad opened up his present...... The whole chain of event that initially irritated me did lead to a very good thing..... My dad was suprised and very excited of getting a new laptop!  He couldn't seem to keep his hands off of it ^^

Ondel Ondel, Jakarta's
traditional item

At this point we were both tired, and we still have another event to go to that was to see the new year's eve parade and fire works on Thamrin st.  My dad dropped my mom off and went ahead to drop us off there. A little traffic jam (for Jakarta's standard :D) but we made it there .... so many people!  I should say, the event wasn't that exciting after all because it was raining, and suprisingly quite chilly that night for Jakarta.  We walked towards Bunderan Hotel Indonesia (Hotel Indonesia's roundabout), another landmark on Thamrin St.  Then Shinji not feeling good, so we decided to end the night at 2230.  At this point, traffic jams were everywhere, and it was very hard to spot a cab that has no passanger in it.  So I called my dad, and by this time it was past 2300, apparently he hadn't even made it back to my mom's church because he was stuck in traffic!  We finally managed to flag down a cab.
In Jakarta, or anywhere in Indonesia, it is very notorious amongst tourists that cab drivers will take you the long way just to make the extra cash.  I told the cab driver my destination and off we went.  Jakarta is such a big city, only certain areas I was familiar with and this area in the center of Jakarta isn't one of them :(  and it's quite far from my dad's place. I started chatting with the cab driver, and told him that my dad got stuck in traffic around Gambir train station.  Then he went off to some little streets, and another dark little streets, worried me a little at first, but before I knew it we reached Senen, an area in Center Jakarta not too far from my place.  Amazing.... my dad can't even take that short of a short cut :D! A very familiar area to me, definitely know my way now, but I am so proud that some Indonesian cab drivers still honest and tried to provide the best customer service!  Very very pleased with him.  Along the way we chatted some more.  He's quite a young man, without family.  He had been working from 0400 December 31 and will not be done until January 1 at 10 in the morning.  He was paid by comission, not salary, so definitely no overtime pay or stat holiday pay for him.  Cab drivers are poor in Indonesia, cab companies are rich.  He is one example of the hardships in Indonesia.  Long working hours and shitty (beyond shitty actually) pay.  It is not a suprise that corruption even in small scale is a problem there.  The effort you put into work definitely not worth the pay! The young cab driver honesty is an exception definitely, and I hope the new year will bring him new and better life.
We started to get quite close to my dad's place, and I kind of remember the way.  15 years change the neighborhood a lot.  I did remember the way, and when we arrived, I told him to keep the change which was as much as our cab fare.... he deserved it I think.... especially on new year's eve.  Guess how much our cab fare cost?  In Saskatoon, that trip would cost me at least $50..... Our cab fare  was 48,000 rupiah, which was about $5!

We got home and Shinji started to feel better.... apparently we had fireworks in our neighborhood too, so we just watched that.  My parents didn't get home until 0200, thanks to the traffic.  Of course, we said our happie new years and they went straight to bed :D

Video will follow.... I'm too tired to edit them :D