SELF STORAGE KARAOKE

As I sit here in my air-conditioned perch, I see that I have more to tell you all about than I initially thought. I suppose I’ll just keep flowing with it until I’m all flowed out.

So today. . . SELF STORAGE KARAOKE.

This can be officially put down as gossip since I havn't been there myself but if portly Englishmen are to be believed. . . .

STEP 1: Enter Karaoke joint and select a companion from one of the many girls standing at the entrance. The price is $100,000 rupiah (approx $10) for company during your stay. Anything else may be negotiated directly with your companion. If you are out for status you might want to try renting 2 girls for the evening to chat with you and eat your French fries.

STEP 2: Find your Karaoke room. This could be one of many along the long hallways of garages, identical to a self-storage palace.

STEP 3: Relax on the couches provided in your cement storage unit with your brand new girlfriends and sing your heart out -- doors rattle shut, closing you, your friends, your cigarette smoke, and your terrible singing inside. Every unit has an air conditioner so you don't die of suffocation.

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WHY ? ? ?

Seems like since most women here stay at home and venture out with their husbands only during the day or for weddings, it’s very normal for men to hang out with girls for hire on a regular basis.

In Jakarta, the capital city, things are a bit more complex and nuanced. Women have a greater degree of mobility there and society is much more progressive. However, here, in the relative backwaters of Indonesia. . .not so.

According to my informant many of these Indonesian wives who stay at home fulfilling their duties to their husbands and families are winding up with AIDS thanks to their husbands’ extracurricular activities.

It might just be me but I don’t really see the draw of sitting around all night and doing whatever with someone you’re PAYING to be nice to you. I guess boredom and lack of imagination make people do all sorts of things.

While I’m on a roll, divulging the jolly Englishman’s gossip, here’s a list of other tidbits he passed along during our short car ride together.

• If you get a woman pregnant you must marry her or the police will arrest you.
• Foreigners cannot own land in Indonesia unless they have a HUGE amount of money (even by Occidental standards) to bribe with.
• The penalty for _______________(you guess) is imprisonment or having your hand cut off.

Yes, a wealth of information.

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On a parting note. . .

I was thinking about our little toddler friend Ardi last night and about how people come from all around Indonesia just to see him smoke. He's becoming a proper little freak show isn't he. Which inevitably got me thinking about the VENUS HOTTENTOT in a melancholy sort of way.

http://icarusfilms.com/new99/hottento.html

Over and Out,

Tuesday