Being an expat in a place like Jakarta has it's good points and it's bad points. First of all and I think the most significant difference is the culture.

Although I was born in Asia (Philippines) I grew up in Australia. I was "westernized" from the age of 6 or 7 so I didnt have much recollection of Asian cultures and Asian traditions until I started travelling at the age of 20.

Being born in the Philippines, with strict Catholic parents, Jakarta is even more "isolating" because it is the largest Muslim country in the world. So the culture and religion are very alien to me. This is not necessarily a bad point about living here, it is a matter of adapting to the protocols if you like, of living in a very strictly religious society.

I live on a very small and very short street for instance, and right at the end of this street is a huge mosque. This mosque has a very loud PA system and at least four times a day the PA system blares out the chants and calls to prayers.

What I find very intriguing about this is, a few minutes before the PA system starts, there's a procession of men walking past my house towards the mosque, carrying their prayer mats and dressed in sarongs (long pieces of fabric wrapped around the waist that comes to just above the ankles) instead of trousers. I watch this procession from my balcony above the street in the evenings about 6pm.

Ifind it intriguing that only men go to the mosque for prayers. Women are not allowed but some do congregate outside, maybe the wives or girlfriends, I dont know. The worst time is on the muslim holy month of Ramadan....the PA system blares 20 hours a day....unless you get used to it, it just about drives you nuts!!

This mosque also has a huge tennis court which doubles as a polling booth at election time....the tennis court is set up with a huge marquee, polling booths, chairs, and of course the regimental food and drinks carts that supply refreshments for voters for a very small price. Women are allowed to vote these days, so here's some progress I guess.

The other thing this mosque doubles for.....and this is not my most favorite time...I always go to Singapore for a couple of days while this goes on....is "goat killing day".

This is the one day of the year where the wealthier Muslims buy goats and even cattle and have them butchered, and the meat is distributed to the less fortunate and poor people who cant afford meat in their daily diet.

The tennis court gets covered in plastic or canvass tarpaulins and this is where the butchering happens.....it is so revolting and the first time I witnessed it.....I didnt know about it at the time....it grossed me out so much to see these cows and goats gathered around to be butchered. A nice clean hygienic abattoir it was not, I must tell you!!!  I didnt stick around to see exactly how it was done but I was told it is a swift slice through the throat and the deed is done. And thats all I'm gonna say about that!!!

The meat is then put in little black plastic bags in lumps of one kilo....yes, apparently they actually weigh each portion....and people start distributing them to all the households in and around the mosque. AND....it is impolite to refuse to receive one of these bags if you are a resident in the street. Even though you are not one of the poor, you have to accept it and it is up to you to give it to someone if you dont want to use it or cook it or eat it. Goat meat absolutely stinks...I gave my portion to the old guy across the street. He has a huge family and another kilo went a long way.

This was one of my most profoundly, distasteful, "unwestern" experiences here but again, this is their way and you either respect it or you leave. There is a saying here among expats and visitors....''WELCOME TO JAKARTA"  Whenever we stumble across something that is very "un-western" like, we say Welcome to Jakarta.

On the upside of living in this street, anything and everything you want or need, you dont have to leave the house. Everything is brought by vendors down the street everyday.

It starts very early in the mornings....the bread vendors come down the street at about 5am every morning with freshly baked bread.....normal western bread as well as sweet buns with Indonesian fillings.

Then the ''bubur" (Indonesian rice porridge) man comes down the street dinging his bell and yelling BUBUR!!! I tried it once and I didnt like it...it is a porridge made of very overcooked rice that has turned to mush, cooked in fragrant stock and garnished with chicken, strips of cooked egg (omelet I guess), lashings of dried fried onions and garlic, lashings of chilli and even more lashings of a sticky sweet/salty soy sauce and topped off with chilli sauce. If you are not from here, you need a caste-iron stomach to get through it. You can either provide your own bowl or they will supply a bowl, youeatitrightthere on the street, return their bowl which they dunk in a plastic ten liter bucket of dirty water, and you're done.

Next comes the fruits and vegetables vendors. Now this I like....very fresh vegetables everyday, and they're good quality produce so I dont have a problem buying them off the street. These guys also sell fresh fish and fresh chickens which they clean and chop right there in front of you. The feral cats all congregate underneath these carts to get what little morsels are thrown out at them, which saves on garbage disposal and some cats get fed.

Throughout the day, you get food carts (I used to call them cholera carts until I tried a few, and didnt get sick from eating their stuff) like the satay man, he cooks chicken satay sticks right in front of you....quite yummy little pieces of chicken barbequed on a grid placed over hot coals in a caste-iron box. When it is cooked the satay sticks are dipped in either the sweet sticky soy sauce or a chilli/peanut sauce and ten sticks will cost less than a dollar.

There's the noodle soup guy who cooks noodles in a big pot of hot stock and adds meat balls or fish balls and vegetables. Again garnished with lashings of chilli, soy, dried garlic and red onion flakes and whatever else you want. This one I have not tried....too worried about the fish balls and meat balls....you can only imagine how it was prepared. I dont think food hygiene is a top priority from what I have seen.

Then there's the "goreng" man. Goreng literally means fried. He comes along with a cart set up with a huge wok over a small burner fuelled with a little gas bottle stored under the cart. He deep fries pieces of battered tofu, banana, sweet potato and taro. And something else they make out of soy bean paste which they form into cakes, batter and deep fry them. Havent tried it, dont intend to.

Then there's the guys that come along with carts kitted out with big woks and they cook Indonesian fried rice (Nasi goreng) and fried noodles. You can see how hot the wok gets, take it for granted it is enough to kill harmful germs and it is quite yummy, so this one I like to buy once in a while. It costs a few cents and you get a hearty meal. Use your own crockery and you'll have no problems.

Other times of the day you will get a shoe repair man, a seamster....someone who comes along on a bicycle with an old tredle sewing machine and he sews up hems, mends or repairs tears on clothes, replaces zippers and buttons and anything else you want done. There is also a curtain maker, he comes along on his bicycle with swatches of fabric. I decided to try him out on my lounge-room window curtains. He came in, measured up the window, I chose the fabric and the next day he was back to put them up, paid him a paltry sum of money......gave him a huge tip because I liked the curtains...and he was a very happy man.

There's guys that come down the street selling cooking oil, gas lamp oil, motorbike fuel...so if you use a motor bike you dont have to go to the gas station to get fuel.

At about 4pm every afternoon, there's a guy that comes down the street on a bicycle (pedal power at its most innovative) pushing a little cart with kids animal rides...you know the ones you see at shopping malls that little kids ride, animals or little cars that you put coins in and they start moving. I think I have a photo of this which I will upload to my photos file if you want to see it. He pedals away and this generates the power to make the rides move and there's funny music that goes with it to.

And there's lots and lots more.

This is just one aspect of living here, I can go on and on with so much more but now I'm too lazy to start on something else. Maybe next time I will write another article on other things about living here. Some might find it interesting, others will be bored to tears, I just write because I like to share.