I arrived here on October 2002, and I decided that this year I was not going home to Perth for Christmas. For personal reasons, but also I hadnt earned enough money to make another trip and my piggy bank was running low.

So my first couple of months actually living here took some getting used to. Although I have travelled a lot around Asia, I never actually "lived" here on a day to day basis, going to work, coming home and all the normal things people do in their everyday lives. So it wasnt easy.

The most difficult thing was the language barrier...not too many people here speak English. So one of the first things  I did was enrol for Indonesian language courses at the Jakarta International Community Centre. 

 I also started a course on learning the cultures of all the different ethnic groups...there are many of them....different islands, different cultures.....and that was really interesting. It was helpful too because I was doing a lot of island hopping back then...the most I've done was in my first year.

 I went to Kalimantan, Sumatra, Flores, and also Bali which is an island on it's own, and Java...the main island where Jakarta, Jogyajakarta, Semarang and Surabaya are situated.

I did a trip by bus right across from east of Java to the western tip where I caught a ferry boat down to Bali. That was an awesome trip in itself....a story for another time.

(Digressing again....lol)

Anyway, the first two months went very quickly and Christmas came. Most of the expat friends I'd made went home for Christmas...back to Australia, England and the US of A. So it was a little bit lonely, I guess.

The week leading up to Christmas, I got very sick. I was bed-ridden that whole week. I had a fever and I couldnt move very much because my whole body ached like you wouldnt believe, and every bone in my body felt like it was broken. It was difficult to sit up or even get comfortable lying down, and walking around was very uncomfortable.  I thought I had just come down with a really bad flu....they're awful here....worse than in Australia. I was alone except for my maid who came in everyday. She did the best she could for me, but I'm really stubborn when it comes to going to a doctor. I hate going to the doctor at the best of times, I have always been a firm believer that your body takes care of itself.

By Christmas eve I got so bad, my maid who stayed with me all day decided that I needed to go to the hospital. The nearest one is a local hospital in the suburb where I live and it is only a few streets away from my house but on the main highway.
 
So she called a cab and managed to get me to the emergency room of this really strange hospital. Strange in that I am more used to our hospitals in Australia and this one was quite different. But a hospital just the same...with an emergency room and a triage area downstair and all the wards upstairs.

They have their own dispensary and also their own lab for blood tests and such. So in way it is modern enough but still a scary place by comparison because it is very foreign to me.

I was really sick so I didnt have to wait in the triage area and they took me straight into the emergency ward. The doctor came in but only spoke very minimal English so it was already frustrating trying to explain to him what was wrong. It was dark and dingy in there (in the middle of the night)...not like hospitals in the west where it is normally all lit up. But then it was a very quiet night and I was actually the only one in the ER.

Most of the staff had gone home and there was only skeleton staff that night. Even though this is a Muslim country, they do take Christmas into account.

The ER ward is really weird....only six beds (gurneys) in there....mind you this is a small suburban hospital...and most emergencies I presume go to the main city hospital.

 Three beds against one wall of the room and the other three beds against the opposite wall. No windows, just a very plain room with the beds. Separating these two sections were plain green curtains. What struck me as funny is, one side is for "infectious diseases" and the other side was for other I presume non infectious ailments.....separated by a curtain.

They actually had signage on the wall indicating which side was which. As sick as I was, I found it quite amusing...lol. They stuck me in the infectious side.

The doctor decided the quickest way to find out what was wrong with me was to take a blood test. Then I started thinking...okay, how conscientious are they about hygiene here...and all sorts of things that run through your mind when you're in a strange hospital in a strange country. AND..I hate needles....more times than not I am one of those who actually faints from the thought of having a needle, much less having blood drawn.

Anyway he took a sample and said I had to wait a couple of hours while they were getting it tested. I dont know if they had to call in the pathologist or what, but a couple of hours didnt make much difference to me that night.

They wanted to test me for denghe fever (among other things) because apparently my symptoms were indicative of denghe fever. I dont know much about it but I found out later on, it only kills you if you if it gets to the hemorrhagic stage.

Denghe fever is very prevalent here because of all the mosquitoes around. I will tell you in another article about the fogging they do here to keep the mosquitoes at bay...that's another story...lol

So there I was trying to get comfortable on this gurney feeling very much alone because I was basically left there all alone in this dark dingy scary little room. My maid had to wait in the triage area just in case I had something infectious...never mind that she'd been with me all week...lol.

Over in the far corner of the room next to the door is a little cubicle which is sort of an office with a desk and a chair. It is not completely enclosed, it is just a cubicle with glass walls so you can see in and whoever sits in there can see out. These walls have about a 6 inch gap from the floor, most probably for ventilation.

I was sitting up on my gurney when out of the corner of my eye I caught something darting under this 6 inch gap wall of the cubicle. It looked like a cat from where I was sitting...a small cat but I thought definitely a little cat. Strange that they allow cats inside the ER, I remember thinking to myself.

Being all alone I decided to try and call it out  (for those who have gotten to know me here, you know how much I love cats and I take care of a few strays in my street). I wasnt feeling well enough to get up off my gurney but I was okay sitting up.

Next minute I caught another one darting under the wall and this time I wasnt sure whether I was happy about the situation (cats in the ER???) or not.

Then to my absolute horror, these cats turned out to be dirty great big RATS!!!!  Where the hell is the buzzer???.....no buzzer...surprise, surprise!!

I must have waited another 30 minutes or so before one of the orderlies came in and I was franctically trying to tell him in my worst Indonesian that I saw rats darting around all over the place!!! Of course by this time my description was getting blown way out of proportion....these rats were now the size of wombats.

 (Google it......tee hee) I love wombats but these wombats I didnt like one little bit!!! Dont forget I was feverish and maybe I got a little bit carried away but there was no way that orderly was going to leave me alone in that room with those wombats....lol.

He was very kind though, and he tried his best to find these rats...but they of course took off when he came in....God only know where. Was I hallucinating? NOPE....definitely not hallucinating....I saw what I saw and they were definitely there.

How come nobody believes me to this very day?

The blood tests came back...it was inconclusive for denghe fever...no surprise there....but no alternative cause of my illness either. The doctor says, "I think you better stay in tonight so we can keep you under observation" .

LIKE HELL!!! There was no way I was going to stay there overnight with those wombats. (I'm sure they knew that they had rats around the place...just by the way they reacted to my hysteria....they didnt even try to look surprised or say something like....rats???....we dont have rats here lady...or something like that). To be fair, these Indonesians are very polite, if you say you saw rats, then you really did see rats....I'm not going to tell you you're crazy or anything like that.....lol.

He prescribed some anti-biotics....like they ALL do...just in case I had some kind of infection...some strong pain killers for my aching bones and some stuff you mix with water for hydration (tasted bloody awful) and got them for me from the dispensary and I was out of there. My maid called a cab and we went home and she stayed over that night.

It took over a week to get through whatever was wrong with me....New Year's eve I was still in misery. For a month or 6 weeks afterwards I was very drained, but I just put it down to getting used to living here.

My first Christmas/New Year here........WELCOME TO JAKARTA.

(If I ever write a book about my experiences here, that is what the title will be...probably not very imaginative...but it works for me.)