Jakarta is just as ‘macet’ as I remember it and the two-day forum was as packed as I had expected it to be. But having the forum in Jakarta was a nice change of environment. Me and my colleagues from the MENA countries were treated with 1st class treatment by our host in typical Asian style hospitality. We were chauffeur driven from day to night, served with authentic Indonesian cuisines and believe it or not, followed around by our ’in-house papparazi’ everywhere we went.
The forum was initially planned in Bali but had to be changed to our host’s office in Jakarta due to Bali having a ‘vacation flavour’. The last thing we want is to be accused of having a blast in a resort while we actually work our ass off. Anyways, it didn’t really matter much to me, in fact I actually prefer Jakarta to Bali, at least I get to see my nieces and nephew that I missed so very dearly. It was a rather brief ‘hi & bye’ as they left for school while I left for work early in the morning and they were asleep by the time I got home. I also managed to catch up with an old colleague / friend that I have been keeping in touch with, even after I left my old company. I absolutely loved the food in Indonesia and savoured every drop from mouth watering kuih-muih to delicious dishes and did I mention hard-to-resist durian? Fuhh, best giler! I also brought back to Doha 2 boxes of kek lapis and 2 boxes of bika ambon. I didn’t realize how heavy the cakes were but definitely well worth carrying along what with the stopover in Singapore with the 4 boxes in tow…
