No, it's not a symptom of massive global climate change - although we have those too. It is, in fact, Jakarta's only ice skating rink!
The Sky Rink is located in a fancy shopping mall. It's open-air so shoppers can hang out in front of the A&W, the KFC, the American Grill, etc., and watch you skate. There's a big emphasis on lessons, and some of the kids do very fancy moves, including jumps and spins and stuff. Others just fulfill the traditional role of small children on skates - they wobble around crashing into everything.
The little girls all have fancy bows in their hair and these enormous red, woolly gloves that you can rent for 70 cents.Sky Rink costs about $4 for two hours of skating, pretty affordable for us but not so much for the 100 million or so Indonesians living on less than $2 a day.
Skating here is kind of thrilling because it's one of the few ways you can go fast without a vehicle. We don't bike, run or rollerskate outdoors in the city, there's no skiing to be had, and surfing requires travel, so skating satisfies that need to work up a good head of steam ... to blur the landscape ... to fly.
2 comments:
that looks nice, like a really good sized rink. ice rinks should be as large as possible I think.
the only thing missing for you is a jakartan based, ice hockey-obsessed band playing live tunes on the ice while you skate.
"hockey holidays" for ramadan!
Oh man, the Zambonis could do a great Idul Fitri song! I wonder if they've thought about that; it'd give them a whole new market.
By the way, I made sure to load "Hockey Holidays" on my computer before leaving the States. It'll be my own little Christmas celebration.
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