Ten Kitties: Cool pavement

Unfortunately everybody drives big SUVs here, just like in the States. At least they provide good shade.

Teh Botol

Dead soldiers in the lunchroom at work

Teh Botol, or bottled jasmine tea, is to Jakarta as Coke is to the U.S. At home or work, I don't have to walk more than two minutes from the front door to get one from a street vendor or warung.

Teh Botol is sweet, of course, because everybody loves sweet drinks here, but the tea gives it enough of a bitter edge to make it thirst-quenching. (I hate sweet drinks that make you thirsty.)

According to legend, Teh Botol came on the market in the 70's when a tea company was trying to expand its market. The company, Sosro, was sending vendors out into the field to brew hot tea as samples. But potential customers wouldn't stick around long enough for the water to boil, so the company started brewing tea at its factory and sending it out on trucks in big containers. It sloshed all over, so they started putting it in bottles. Then they realized they could sell it right in the bottles. And a marketing phenomenon was born!

Lots of companies, including Coke and Pepsi, have tried to knock Teh Botol off its pedestal with other bottled tea products. As Fairy Mahzdan notes on the quirky Jakarta fan site Myindo.com, true Teh Botol lovers accept no substitutes.

The magical dagger

A keris is born- slowly and painstakingly

A long time ago, in a rare bout of self-improvement, we went to an exhibit at the cultural center right down the street from the Jakarta Post. It was about the keris, or kris (pronounced "kreess" whichever way you spell it), which is a traditional dagger from Indonesia and Malaysia that's said to possess special powers.


Kerises are first of all quite lethal-looking weapons; they often have a curvy blade to inflict maximal damage, and they have a channel down the middle that leads to a little point at the base of the blade so that the blood drips off and doesn't make the hilt all slippery (I hate when that happens). The hilts are often quite ornate, taking the form of snakes, tigers, etc.

Guys don't routinely walk around wearing daggers these days, like they used to, but kerises still seem to retain a lot of symbolic power. Jakarta bar owner Bartele Santema writes about one of his older employees using a keris to focus his spiritual energy when doing incantations to forestall rain. Filmmaker Joko Anwar blogs about seeing his father take his keris out of the closet and talk to it from time to time. Legends abound of kerises leaping out of their sheaths to attack evil people, or rattling to warn their owners of impending danger. They're really lovely to look at, and it was somewhat hypnotic to watch them being meticuously crafted by hand -- but I wouldn't want to meet one in a dark alley.

Ten kitties: Invisible cat

The houses in Jakarta all have big metal gates, and the neighborhood cats seem to spend about a quarter of their time squeezing under or through them -- going inside for safety and coming back out to forage, fight or roam. Most of the time they have to wriggle under the gate, and they really have an impressive ability to flatten themselves and get through. Sometimes when they emerge they'll give an irritated shake of the hind leg as if to say, Stupid gate! Who put that thing there anyway?

Sidewalks paved with gold

Melon juice is another traditional fast-breaker, so as soon as Ramadhan started, all these piles of luminous yellow melons appeared around the city as if by magic. They're very festive. They must embody the season for people, the way poinsettias represent Christmas back in the States. But melons are delicious and don't pose a danger to pets, so I'm with Islam on this one.

Dates and fireworks

Adults buy dates during Ramadhan because that's what Muhammad ate to break his fast. Kids buy firecrackers during Ramadhan because they make a hell of a racket.

This woman has a convenient, one-stop kiosk near Palmerah Market.


We were warned that the firecrackers are used to wake up the neighborhood for the pre-dawn meal, but in our area they seem to get set off randomly anytime after dark.

Those are surely two reasons why kids get excited about the fasting month - the thrill of amateur explosives and the privilege of being up during the wee hours. When I was eight, there was nothing as cool as being awake during those mysterious, grownup times of the night.

Ten kitties: Waterlilies

This cat was drinking from a bowl of waterlilies outside somebody's house, but stopped and feigned innocence when I raised the camera.