I'd been told that you have no secrets and no privacy in Indonesia. That somehow, everybody will know every detail about you. I don't really have any deep dark secrets, so this didn't trouble me much. If the office staff somehow manage, for whatever unknown reason, to find out and chat about where I went to dinner on Saturday, fine by me. Don't care.
I wasn't expecting random strangers to observe my every habit, however.
About a month or so after arrival, CT and I decided to check out a local happy hour within treacherous walking distance from the office. We enjoyed one or two delicious half-priced cocktails, then decided to brave the empty pool table, even though neither of us have the skillz. A few minutes later two guys came up and asked if they could join, probably realizing that since neither CT or I have any talent, playing with us would largely be like playing by themselves.
And so it went. I teamed up with the Indonesian who worked with expat companies doing something, and CT teamed up with his buddy, a quiet expat who worked for a development org. I thought they might be a couple of some sorts, but I wasn't sure. We chatted a slight bit, but as all of us had been drinking quite a bit the conversation did not delve too deep. We mostly just laughed at CT's and my lack of talent, finishing 2 rounds of pool before calling it a night.
A week later CT and I headed back, this time for dinner. As we were walking up the stairs behind the waitress, she turned and asked if Tim* would be joining us. "Tim?", I asked. "I don't know a Tim." I couldn't quite understand what all she was saying, but at one point I made out "boyfriend". "No, sorry, I don't have a boyfriend," I replied. Then she started gesturing wildly and CT and I finally figured out she was talking about us playing pool last week. "Oh, the tall guy? No, I don't really know him. But thanks for reminding me his name."
Then another waitress came to give us our menus and said "Hello Bethany*. No Tim?"
She remembered my name too??
As bizarre as all this was, the place has amazingly good and cheap cocktails by Jakarta standards, so since there's nothing else to do, CT and I decided to make a weekly habit of it. The next time we just hit the bar. "Hello Bethany. Caipiroska and Mojito?" Huh??? The waitress had remembered our drinks from two weeks prior. We'd each had three. 8, maybe that's worth remembering. But 3?
Oh well... Odd and little creepy, yes. However, the truth is, it's nice to be remembered and to be able to greet people by name. After repeated attempts, our waitress finally learned how to pronounce CT's name, so I wasn't the only one in the spotlight. This made the weirdness of it all decidedly more tolerable. She also seemed to finally accept the fact we had no established relationship with Tim and Aron. We jotted down the waitresses' names too, so we could hold up our end of the greetings the next time we returned.
And so the friendly exchange began. Since everyone there was so friendly and the drinks so refreshing, we made the conscious decision to embrace this phenomenon and consider this our own quirky Jakarta version of Cheers. We had no friends in Jakarta, really, but when we walked into this bar each week, everyone knew our name. And our most recently ordered beverage. And the last people with whom we conversed.
* See A Note on Aliases and Blurry Pics
In case you are wondering what happened with Tim and Aron, we ran into them several more times and briefly became drinking buddies. Until Aron started acting rather psychotic over a girl he had only extremely briefly dated. And then suddenly became very flirtatious with me and texted me to go out for coffee. Just me, not me and CT and Tim, and so I clarified I was happy to hang out but wasn't interested in any kind of dating. To which he inevitably replied, "We can't plan romantic intentions. We can't plan love, Bethany."
In case you are wondering what happened with Tim and Aron, we ran into them several more times and briefly became drinking buddies. Until Aron started acting rather psychotic over a girl he had only extremely briefly dated. And then suddenly became very flirtatious with me and texted me to go out for coffee. Just me, not me and CT and Tim, and so I clarified I was happy to hang out but wasn't interested in any kind of dating. To which he inevitably replied, "We can't plan romantic intentions. We can't plan love, Bethany."
Hmm. Well, uh, actually, I just remembered I'm kind of busy tomorrow....
