So it's been a while since the last post, but there are very good reasons for that...
The first reason is we had to take a 4 day trip to Singapore in order to get our 6 month visas processed. It's safe to say that we actually had a really good time while we were there, but it's also safe to say it wasn't because of the city. Imagine a place where you can't chew gum, it seems like you would get beat mercilessly for littering or jay-walking, and where the fun and culture seem like they've been sucked out of the atmosphere like the scene from Spaceballs with the giant vacuum cleaner...put yourself in that city and
you're still probably in a better place than Singapore. I guess that's a little harsh. After living in New Orleans for the past 6 years, and now Bali for the past couple months, two places absolutely overflowing with culture and a joy for life that make you realize how beautiful the world can be, it's hard to really find the beauty in a place like Singapore.
One of the cool parts of Singapore is how unique it is in its population. A major trading port for hundreds of years, and a British colony for a while as well, it is a relatively young country (a little over 50 years since its independence). The population
there is a majority Chinese, with strong minority populations of Malaysians and Indians. They say that Singapore is good for two things, shopping and eating, and anyone who knows me knows that I'm not much of a shopper, so eating it was. We visited Little China for some Chinese food, Little India for some chicken tikka masala and a bunch of other things that tasted great even though I have no idea what they were and couldn't understand a word our waiter was saying. We visited food courts that felt like a hall of mirrors...each stall has the same exact menu and they still shove it in your face like that's all you needed to make up your mind.
Singapore is kind of like the song New York, New York. If you can make it (fun) there, you can make it (fun) anywhere. I think we succeeded in that which definitely is a good sign. One of our daily laughs came from our 45 floor elevator ride where we freaked out a few loads of Singaporeans by making ridiculous faces at ourselves in the mirrored walls. We also made sure to follow all of the instructions we saw, including signs painted on the road(check out the scene in the humps ahead photo)...
Anyway, the second reason that I've been too busy to put this together is that I finally kind of maybe found work out here! Dan and I got hired on a temporary basis to help a guy we met out here, Craig Smith, with a new big project he's working on. A little background on Craig. He has worked for several non-profits throughout his life, and after writing an article for the Harvard Business Review about how to structure corporate philanthropy he was hired by Bill Gates, personally, to be the head of the philanthropy division at Microsoft. After 18 months he decided that the corporate life was not for him and he went on his way, but needless to say this guy knows some stuff.
We are currently helping him put together a report called the Meaningful Broadband Report, which will be presented to the Indonesian government along with his sponsors BRI (Bank Rakyat Indonesia - the bank with
the most successful microfinance branch in the world), NSN (Nokia Siemens Network), and others. The report talks about how the effective implementation of widespread mobile broadband to the Middle of the Pyramid of the Indonesian population can help in numerous ways to help solidify the infrastructure of Indonesia and also provide a platform for sustainable economic development. I hesitate to elaborate more, and I'm not sure if Craig would want me to, as the report is still yet to be published. It's some pretty visionary stuff, but I must say that if this report is taken seriously by the government, and by investors, it could not only transform Indonesia, it will become a model for all the emerging/developing markets in the world, and will change the way that MNC's do business worldwide. Over the past two weeks we've been putting in some long hours with Craig trying to get the report together for his partner Ilham Habibie (son of the former president of Indonesia).
The third reason is that last week we went to Jakarta for the first time. Jakarta is the capital of Indonesia, and is located on the island of Java. A friend of ours out here, Alan Solow, has a beautiful place out there and invited us to stay with him for a few days. He wanted to introduce us to some of his business partners in the hopes that it might materialize into some good work opportunities for us. He also wanted to show us the nightlife in Jakarta which is absolutely insane. Clubs with elevators to take you to all the different floors, that don't close until Monday...and by that I mean they are open (and apparently always absolutely packed) 24 hours a day for 6 days of the week, and they close for about 6 hours on Monday afternoon to clean up for the reopening that night. Jakarta is the type of city you'd expect in a country like Indonesia. Hugely crowded, some of the worst traffic in the world, and a huge disparity between the immaculately clean ultra developed business area and the sprawling slum that is most of the rest of the city. It's crazy to think that the capitol city in a
country with the biggest Muslim population in the world has one of the most off-the-wall party scenes anywhere in the world.
Now back to Bali. About a month ago we moved into a nice two bedroom villa. Our living room, as you can see in one of the pictures, is all open air. It feels like we are living in a bungalow in paradise...because we are. We have a "small" plunge pool in our garden/living room, and a bigger pool that we can use to swim laps about two doors down located at the cafe that delivers breakfast to us if we so choose consisting of eggs, bacon, bread, fruit salad, and your choice of
coffee or tea for a reasonable fee of around $3. I also included a picture of my bedroom, bed complete with fan (a.k.a. air conditioning) and mosquito net, which provides futile defense against insects at night...small price to pay for living out here. We've both rented motorbikes to get around our area, which is amazing. I never used to like motorcycles that much but there is something exhilarating about just hopping on and going, weaving in and out of traffic, flying into the opposite lanes to get around slow moving cars...just kidding mom. The beach is about a 2 minute ride from our house and I usually go for a run right before sunset at around 5 PM, come 
back and jump in our pool, change clothes, and go back out to the beach to have a drink while I enjoy the sunset. 
The nights here can be whatever you make of them. If you want you can find a nice quiet open air bar on 
the beach and have a few drinks, you can go dance salsa at some of the bars on Jalan Dyana Pura. There are world class clubs on the beaches in Seminyak, and Kuta if you're into that, but they don't really get going until around 2, 3, maybe even 4 am. Liquor is expensive out here as it is all imported, which means the prices are bumped up because of taxes and most likely even more because of massive corruption. So instead we drink Bintang, which is the local water...I mean beer. The clubs are always filled with a mix of Bule (westerners) and Indonesians, and I have to say that there must be something in the Bintang out here because the Indonesian women are absolutely gorgeous.
We are still having the time of our lives out here, and I 
just hope I can find some continual work so that I can stay longer than my current savings would allow. As usual I've also included some pictures of local friends, beaches, and some of the sites that we've seen over the past few weeks, and like the last time it is too hard to organize the pictures into the blog in the right places. I miss everyone back home, especially with thanksgiving passing and new years on the way, but you will never catch me complaining about the situation I’m in. That's all for now... If anyone reading this blog decides, screw this, I need some phone eric in my life, then download skype...my skype name is broaderic and as far as I know I'm the only broaderic living in seminyak Indonesia so I should be easy to find. Selemat Tahun Baru!
