Looking For Love in Jakarta Part 3

Kuningan is a very central area in Jakarta. The area is very accessible from all parts of Jakarta and there are a lot of Western companies, not to mention embassies in the area. There are a lot of Western people staying in the area for these and other
reasons, even in the Kos where I stay there are at least 8 other bule guys staying. Actually nowadays there are a lot more Western people in Jakarta then there were 16 years or even 8 years ago, and you meet them all over Jakarta.
In the older days most Westerners would stay in the central parts of the city, but now they stay everywhere in the city, but mostly in the central part or in the southern part of the city.

Monday I had a quiet day, I worked a bit and went to the gym in the evening, after that I went to sleep quite early again. On Tuesday evening I had an appointment with Yani. Yani was a girl I had met the year before in a bar in Kemang. She
worked behind the bar as a bartender. Yani was quite tall (about 167 cm) and had a really dark skin. I am normally not so much into dark-skinned Indonesian girls but Yani was really sexy and seemed nice. She has that really curvy but slim body
that so many Indonesian girls have. The first time I met her in the bar she was really shy and innocent looking as she was 20 years old and fresh from the Kampung. At least that was what her German boss told me. Her boss, the owner of her bar,
is a guy I like quite a lot. He is already 85 years old incredibly enough but was still running a busy and popular bar. I knew him from before. I had been to his place quite a few times and Yani was indeed a new face when I came to the bar last
year. She is one of those Indramayu girls. Jakartans normally look down upon those girls because of their skin color and because they are seen as poor and unreliable. A lot of Western guys like Indramayu girls because they look exotic with big
eyes, dark skin and sexy bodies. Bars and clubs that cater to bule guys often employ Indramayu girls. Maybe they are the equivalent of the Isaan girls in Thailand. Yani also looks a bit like an Isaan girl, the same nose, same slim body
and small ass, only her eyes are bigger than those of most Isaan girls.

Yani and I had spent quite a few nights together last year after we had met in her bar and after I had gone back to Holland we stayed in touch through Yahoo Messenger.

So that Tuesday night I went to Kemang. She still worked at the same bar, which is a good sign I guess. When I got there it was already quite busy, even though it was a Tuesday night. Lots of expats were inside for a drink. Yani was busy
pouring drinks and when I came inside (I had already sent her a message that I had arrived) she came to me and we greeted each other, and I ordered a beer. Yani had changed a lot in the 9 months I hadn’t seen her, acted a lot more mature
and she also looked a lot more mature. She was wearing much more make-up than I remembered and her dress was really sexy. The year before she had never dressed that sexy. She seemed happy to see me though.

Around 10 PM it got really quiet and I sat on the bar talking to Yani and the German boss (she calls him Opa which means grandfather). Yani showed me her small laptop she had gotten from Opa and asked me to change the operating system language
from German to English. I got into it and tried but I couldn’t get it done. You probably need to get a disk to change the language I told her and Opa. Opa told me he was going back to Germany soon for heart surgery because he had had a
minor attack a couple of months back. He was stable now but they had told him he needed some surgery done on his heart and he didn’t trust the hospitals in Jakarta enough so he was going to have it done in Germany. After that he would be
back to Jakarta as soon as possible. My god, the guy is 85 years old but still has the energy of a guy half his age and still drinks faster than me. He still looked ok in spite of his heart condition.

Around 12 PM Opa told Yani she could go home. Yani and I left for my place. We said goodbye to Opa and got into a taxi. It is a long way from Kemang to Kuningan but it was not very busy on the road. When we got to Jalan Sudirman, I suddenly
heard the taxi driver say the word “razzia”. We looked and there was a roadblock guarded by police and the taxi had to stop. Yani asked me if I had ID on me and I said no which is a problem because the police would certainly request
it from me. It is always a good thing to have your passport on you in Jakarta or at least a copy of the main page. Anyway the predictable happened, they asked my ID and I pretended I did not speak Indonesian so Yani acted as my interpreter. She
got out of the car and started talking to the police guys who kept looking my way. It took quite a while and she got a bit agitated. I just laughed stupidly at the police officers when they looked my way and finally they let us be on our way.

I had probably been lucky because it could have gotten a bit more difficult. Yani told me one of the police guys had insulted her by telling her she was a hooker – why else would she go with that old ugly bule.

Anyway we got to my place and had a good night. The next day Yani stayed with me because she had the day off. She likes to sleep until around 3 PM on her day off so I was working in my room and she just slept or played a bit on her laptop.
We had some good times later and around 6 PM I took her to the bus way station in Karet, where she could take the bus way to Blok M and from there the bus to her place in Kemang.

I really enjoy being alone again after a whole day with a girl.

On Thursday I was supposed to be going to Pangandaran with Astri but she had sent me a message to cancel that trip for this week. We would go the next week instead. So that Friday I met her in a bar in Jalan Jaksa instead for a few drinks.
Astri told me she wanted a laptop but her salary was not enough to buy one. I suggested she go teach English privately. I told her I could make a website for her to offer her services and get customers, but she didn’t really looked interested
in that offer. As it got later the place got a real party atmosphere. Jos had also come in and had joined us. A South African guy who had a lot of money to burn had joined us too and I think he had plans with Astri. He kept treating her to Chivas
regal shots (big ones) and Jos and I were drinking shots of Tequila with beer. The Tequila shots just kept coming I could hardly keep up (at one stage I had about 6 lined up). Anyway we got really smashed. At a certain stage I was so far gone
I couldn’t be bothered anymore. The South African guy (big black guy) was all over Astri (who was also plastered). I went up to them and asked the African guy if he liked her and he said, of course man. I told him that he could take her
home if he wanted which earned me a very angry look from Astri. She stood up and came to me and told me she wanted to leave. Jos also wanted to go so we got in the taxi with the 3 of us and left.

Back home Astri did not want to make love with me because she said she was too drunk. She moved away as far from me as she could and drifted off immediately.

Next morning we both had a huge hangover but we made up and a bit later she left. The same day I received an SMS from her that she didn’t want to meet me again. I asked her for her reasons and she told me she did not feel any chemistry
with me. So our trip to Pangandaran was off also. I had seen it all coming but I still felt pretty bad about it, a bit heartbroken actually. I had really liked Astri even though it would not have worked out between us. I know she was more looking
for a guy who could take care of her financially, rather than a boyfriend.

Anyway I was not very happy and in that mood I decided to go back to Jalan Jaksa that night because it was Saturday night. I didn’t want to stay home.

I went back to the same bar I had been the night before and I went very early around 8 PM because I had plans to get even more plastered. Jos came too and I told him I was finished with Astri. He was surprised because he had just met her
once with me and now we were already finished but that is the way it goes in Jakarta. He still had the same problems with his girlfriend but he still wanted to try because she was important for his business. He was giving her 3 million Rupia per
month to be with him and help him but it was not enough, so she still went to that karaoke place.

I had a nasty case of heartburn, probably from the night before when I had drunk too many tequilas, so the beers did not really go in well the first two of hours, but after I had about 3 it was ok. It was Saturday night and it got busy in
the bar. Most bars in Jalan Jaksa are open places without air-con but this bar is a small indoor place that is air-conditioned, not really a place where a lot of tourists go but it is quite popular with local people and some expats. There were
a couple of girls sitting in the back and one came to the bar where we were sitting. She looked at me and I said hi to her. We chatted a bit and then she asked me if I wanted to join them. She pointed out to me where they were sitting. So I went
there with Jos and pretty soon we were chatting to 3 girls.

One of the girls was a really sexy cutie and Jos hit on her straight away. I hit it off with the one who had approached me at the bar. She was not as pretty as the one Jos was trying to get but she was good enough for me. I asked Jos (in
Dutch of course) if he wanted to take her home and what about his girlfriend if he did. He told me he couldn’t care less about his girlfriend who was even now probably being hit on by her secret Japanese boyfriend. And yes he was going
to take this beauty home if she wanted him. The girls had an ample supply of Absolut Vodka, with a full bottle on their table. I don’t know who had bought it for them or if they had bought it themselves and I did not ask. But they wanted
us to share it with them. This is one of the differences I have noticed between Thai and Indonesian girls and probably a lot of people disagree with me but I have hardly ever been treated by a Thai girl in a bar or wherever. In Indonesia, however,
I have often been treated by local girls who often are really generous and who love to share even with a (perceived) rich bule guy. It is not like they always want the white guy to treat them but when they have something they have no
hesitation to share it. I have been in bars in Thailand with Thai girls who had bottles of Whiskey or Rum or Vodka and who were happily sharing the bottles between themselves but would not even let me have a sip. Maybe I just had bad luck with
Thai girls but it is my experience. This does not mean that I don’t want to buy or pay for drinks for girls and I would happily have paid my share for the Vodka. At one time I even asked the girls if I could pay for the Vodka but they didn’t
want to hear about it. We did of course pay for the tonic.

We finished the whole bottle and after that we took the girls to one of those outdoor cafés / bars in Jalan Jaksa where it was more quiet. We treated the girls (who could all handle a good amount of alcohol) a few big bottles of Bintang
and we had some ourselves of course too. The girls told us they did not come to Jalan Jaksa often (like they all say). They told us they worked at one of the big banks in the Insurance department. I said yeah, yeah, and the girl I was with produced
such a thing you have to clip on when enter certain places and people who work in offices in Jakarta have them all the time. It shows a photo and your name and a number and your position. Her position showed “Customer care”. Well
if they go through such lengths to prove they do what they say they won’t be lying I guess. After finishing them it was already over 12 but the clubbing was only starting and these young girls wanted to go to a club.

Jos with his 58 years is not really into clubbing normally but he was in the mood for everything now, and he obviously did not want to disappoint his new found lady friend so he wanted to go along. I did not want to stay behind so a couple
of minutes later all 5 of us were in a taxi heading to the south. There was some disagreement about where we should go. Jos wanted to go to Blok M to D’s Place and Mybar in Jalan Felatehan, a very popular area with a lot of grotty bars
where a lot of bule guys like to go, but the girls wanted to go to more upscale places.

Finally we decided on a place called Red Square and we went there. I had been there before and the girls also, it is a small disco/pub kinda thing where lots of white guys go to pick up the local girls that go there in droves. It is now the
number one pick up spot in Jakarta. We got to Red Square and we paid our and the girls' fee to get in the place. It was 100.000 rupia for each person which is about 12 USD. That is also the price for one mixed drink. Clubbing is pretty expensive
in Jakarta but the place was packed. You could hardly walk inside but we all managed to get a drink at the bar. The girls started dancing, drunk as they were. In this place people don’t generally dance at the postage stamp sized dance floor
but anywhere, also on the tables and on the bar. I can’t dance at all and I am normally too shy to dance but now I was dancing like crazy (thanks to the drinks) with my girl who got prettier and prettier. I had gotten really thirsty from
the Vodka so I was drinking beers now. Jos who dances even worse than I do was busy doing some kind of dirty dancing with his female friend. We really had a nice time in the disco and my girl whose name was Jane even treated me a few small bottles
of beer. The third girl who had also gone with us to Red Square had also found a guy for the night in the meantime, who was treating all of us Tequila shots from a bottle he had purchased at the disco. He was actually a really nice young guy from
Germany who had just arrived in Jakarta about 3 weeks ago for work. Around 3 PM we all left to get a taxi.

Taxis are a bit hard to find outside Red Square around 3 PM. There were some lousy taxis cruising round and picking up people but I insisted we should take a Bluebird or an Express.

But we didn’t get one from those corporations and after waiting a while the girls hailed a suspicious looking old taxi from some unknown company. We were with 6 persons now all of whom were horribly drunk. Two girls ended up in the
front (one sitting on the other's lap) and the rest of us was propped up in the back. Jos had his girl on his lap in the back.

Luckily the German guy did not have to go too far, so we dropped him off and the girl went with him. After that we were soon in Kuningan where me and Jane parted ways with Jos and his girl, whose name I had gotten but long forgotten.

Jane and I got to my place and even though we were plastered we did not go to sleep right away but got to know each other a lot better. I was drunk as I could be but that didn’t matter at all, we really had some great times. This really
had been one of the best Saturday nights I had had in a long time. Then we went to sleep and the next day we got up rather late. Jane was totally not shy about her body like some Indonesian girls are (but almost never as much as Thai girls pretend
to be) she was parading through the room naked and seemed to like that. Her body was a lot better than I had expected. The previous night she had been wearing some wide T-shirt which did not show much of her shape and made it appear she hardly
had any breasts. But now I could see her breasts were actually ok, not too big but nice and firm, they fitted her slim body perfectly. She also seemed to be a very nice girl and we had a nice time during the day and talked a lot. I cooked some
Italian food and tomato soup which she really liked.

Around 4 PM Jos sent me a message to ask if Jane was still with me and if we wanted to come to his place. Jos place is walking distance from my place so we walked there. Jos let us in and his girl was still with him. I could see from Jos's
face that his night had been very good indeed but I asked him anyway and he confirmed what I thought with a big smile. I also asked him if he hadn’t had any problems with his girlfriend (of course in Dutch again) and Jos told me she had
sent him lots of SMS messages during the night that she wanted to come but he had told her that he was too tired. She had probably felt with that female intuition that something was not right she had kept sending him messages so he had shut down
the phone. Luckily she hadn’t come to his place otherwise things could have gotten a bit ugly.

Around 7 PM we took the girls to the Ambassador Mall for dinner and soon after that they went home. Jos and I went back to his place and a bit later I went home to get to sleep.

The Monday until Friday of the third week were not very interesting. I finished some websites during the day and went to the gym most evenings. I had a few dates with girls I met from the dating site
IndonesianCupid but nothing happened between me and these girls, so I stayed alone every night. On Thursday I got a call from Imoet who told me she
had come back from Singapore. She invited me to a birthday party of a friend on Saturday evening which I happily accepted.

On Friday night I went to Blok M with Jos. Before going to Blok M we went to our bar in Jaksa to get in the mood. Jos told me that his girlfriend would be coming to Blok M too. I had never seen her before so I was looking forward to seeing
her.

I was now exactly 3 weeks in Jakarta and I had not yet been to the Blok M bars this time. Jalan Felatehan is the street where the so called bule bars are located. There are about 12 I think and the most famous at this time are D’s
place and My Bar. Earlier in the night until about 1 PM D’s place is the place where it is happening and after that most of the people who haven’t found a partner for the night head to My Bar which is just across the road from D’s
place.

We got into D’s place around 12 and it was still quite full. There are lots of girls there looking for a rich bule guy. Lots of old girls too mostly seated at the bars. These old girls are quite desperate and really aggressive.
The young girls are mainly dancing at the floor or standing somewhere around. I noticed quite a few Asian guys in the place, they would normally (at least the Japanese) go to the areas of Blok M catering to Asians but they either had taken a wrong
turn somewhere or they were there for the girls. Most of the girls in D’s place are hardened freelancers (even the young girls) and all of the girls there are looking for money, and they all ask you for a drink within 2 minutes after you
started talking to them. I started chatting with a pretty young thing. I always talk Indonesian to the girls in these places which is almost a certain guarantee they will not go with me. Guys who don’t speak to them in Indonesian always
get and keep their attention while if a guy talks to them in fluent Indonesian most of the girls will lose interest right away. This also seems to be the case in discos or clubs where not all the girls are looking for money. I don’t know
exactly why this is but many girls have told me that I should NOT speak Indonesian to the girls if I want them to be interested in me. Almost all of the girls in the clubs in Jakarta speak good English so they can communicate with guys who don’t
speak Indonesian.

I really don’t like it if girls ask me for a drink right away but the pretty girl I was talking to asked me to give her a drink after I had been talking to her for about 30 seconds. Ir really turns me off, not because I am too stingy
but it is the attitude I think, so I left her and walked round the place. The real sexy and young girls were already firmly attached to a guy like usual (they never last long alone), there were still a few good looking ones alone looking hungry
at me so I started talking to another one with the same predictable result.

The girlfriend of Jos arrived at the bar, they seemed to be on good terms again now. She was a pretty, short but sexy girl. Jos had told me she was 30 years old but she did not look older than 25. When D’s place got a bit empty we
decided to move across the road to My Bar. My Bar was full with girls dancing on the floor and standing and sitting at the bar. There were also quite a few white guys there, I think the ratio was 3 girls to one guy. Most of the girls however did
not appeal to me but I had been 5 nights alone and wouldn’t mind to take somebody home that took my fancy. I did not find one though and around 4 PM the 3 of us were heading back to Kuningan. Luckily I had the next night to look forward
to because I would go to a party with Imoet.

Stickman's thoughts:

I bet this series of submissions results in some guys choosing to visit Jakarta.