Hello from Jakarta

We hope you are enjoying the first real snowfall that winter’s wrath has brought upon you…

Yesterday, we have arrived safely in Jakarta -- Indonesia’s capitol city and the last leg of our trip before heading back to the U.S. We've been traveling 17 days now with 9 to go… .

Our flight from Manila took us over the South China Sea, with a quick touched down in Singapore and allowed us both to cross the equator for the first time. The flight started with our toasting to the last leg of the trip. All the airline had to offer was Dom Pérignon, fondly referred to as “DP” by the first class flight staff. We “sipped” and “sipped” -- now that I think about it, we guzzled (sipping sounds better tho) it like water and had killed over a half a bottle before the plane took off… LIFE IS GOOD! I have enjoyed this trip, thus far, immensely (thanks to my dear husband!). I tell you, although I miss our nappy head cat, Miss Boo, and our life a bit back in MD, I’m going to have a hard time adjusting back to cleaning up after myself, COOKING (what stove?), my 2-3 hours in the gym/spa, and just being catered to...

Our safety, comfort, and enjoyment in the countries we’ve been traveling to has a lot to do with the hospitality offered by Chris’s hosts – usually the local government or a contractor for the local government. So, they give us insights on what to do and not to do and often we get to see the city “from the inside out” -- not just what a normal tourist sees or encounters. God forbid, we ever travel abroad on vacation without this insight!

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Manila. I think it was the country’s hospitality and hotel amenities. Although the JW Marriott we are staying at in Jakarta is very nice (and new), the Shangri La in Manila was the BEST. Manila did come with its quirks… Chris learned during his interactions with the government officials, there is a class distinction – those with money and those without – simply put. The lavatories at the office buildings were “segregated” – executive vs. non-executives. We were offered a government driver for a “tourist” outing on Saturday. It was a spectacular day filled with learning how the Spanish control and influence molded today’s Manila. We visited the oldest Philippine stone church, built in 1599, Church of San Agustin. This tour was an up-close and personal and started out with us entering the church DURING someone’s wedding ceremony! Oops! We got a few stares, but the tour continued… With the wedding vows and music as our backdrop, we enjoyed seeing the rest of the church and the many artifacts including tapestries, statues, larger than life oil paintings, pottery, silver and gold from the early 1500s to the 1800s. I might mention that MOST of these items were not protected in casing – they were just out for us to touch if we chose. Our tour at the church ended with a balcony-view, of our second wedding while at the church. Our tour for the day also included seeing our American Embassy which had a prime waterfront location on the Manila Bay. We also saw the Manila President’s (who is female) compound. Our tour ended with a trip into the local neighborhoods where I learned just how divided the classes really are in Manila. The living conditions were deplorable – many times I wondered if the places even had running water or electricity… The word “slum” doesn’t adequately describe what I saw… After the personalized tour, Chris INSISTED Raul, our host and driver for the day; join us for lunch at TGIFridays near the hotel. We get there and I’m wondering if Raul, who’s English isn’t perfect, is uncomfortable with us. After a beer, he confided, he had never been into a local American restaurant. So, he spent most of the lunch peering out the 3rd floor window at the view of the mega million dollar hotels across the street and absorbing his surroundings in the restaurant. Anyway, it almost made me cry to think the class distinction in Manila is this bad and that people aren’t connecting on a HUMAN level. (Pics attached include – wedding, the original wall of the church, and artifacts in church)

Just a few more tidbits about Manila... The traffic is horrible . I referred to it as “Manila Mayhem” -- a term which I think I should trademark! It is like the Wild Wild West. The only rule is there are no rules. A little bit of structure like LINES on the roads would really help. Seriously, most of the roads did NOT have ANY lines… So, people just drove where and how they wanted. Also, locals travel in just about anything that has wheels -- from bicycles, scooters, to carts, but the preferred mode of transportation is the Jeepney. It holds 14 passengers and costs 15 cents per trip. It is modeled after the Macarthur WWII Jeep, but they have been retrofitted with an expanded wheelbase and each owner’s “flavor” (When you see the attached pics attached, you’ll know what I’m talking about).

Money Laundering, financial crimes, and insurance fraud – what does that have to do with my recap of our trip? Well, that is what bought “us” (Chris) to these locations… The work Chris’s company is doing at home with the IRS and Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has significantly increased the interest of foreign countries who are trying to solve the exact same problems. During this trip, Chris has been working with each country’s Ministries of Finance and their central banks, to deploy his company’s VisuaLinks (VL) systems and to offer high-level financial crimes and money laundering consulting services. The trip started with the expansion of work at the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), Financial Supervisory Services (FSS) (insurance fraud), and Customs in Korea. When in Hong Kong, he opened up new doors at the FIU, the Corruption Office, the Technical University – Forensics Department, started forging a new relationship with the region’s IBM Financial Services, and laid the groundwork for a potential big bid with the Hong Kong Police Department. In Japan, Chris met with a French defense contractor whom he refers to as an “arms dealer” (He wonders why I worry…) and will hopefully get some future leads into the Japanese intelligence world. While in Manila, Chris worked at the FIU to find “suspects” and within five minutes of coupling to their databases, he was pulling up suspicious “targets.” Now, the work REALLY starts for Chris in Jakarta as he conducts eight days of VL training and support, but this is the part of the trip that “pays” for the preceding portion of…so one must do what one must do…

At first glance, Jakarta is much different than we expected. To our surprise and liking, it is cleaner and definitely more structured than Manila, but obviously there are still security concerns because our hotel is like Fort Knox. Fort Knox with a world class spa /gym and all the JW Marriott-level amenities one would hope for. We are even privy to overhearing (via a megaphone type announcement system) the Muslim prayer services that takes place at the mosque we see from our hotel room. We are guessing there aren't "quiet hours" because the first service we heard was this morning at 4am -- 1hr before sunrise and 3hrs before Chris was to get up! I have heard 2 services since then -- I suppose I'll get used to it.... Since being here, we have “officially” declared ourselves Indonesian millionaires – we exchanged $250US for 2.5 million Rupiah, the local currency. If only, our money could grow like that in the U.S. We were also treated to our first Indonesian meal last evening. Chris turned white as a ghost when our host recommended FISH for dinner (Chris hasn’t eaten fish nor much “local” fare since Korea -- we believe the fish was the culprit when he got sick). When the fish came out with its head still on, I don’t think Chris thought he had made a really bad choice. Good news – the food was excellent, very flavorful, AND we made it through the evening without any side affects. Also, personally, I think I'm really going to like it here in Indonesia cuz I love it when I am able to eat with a fork without a special request.