Life is a Shangri-La Part 2

Honey bun and I had a change of venue just a few days ago. We moved from the Shangri-La Hotel to the Shangri-La Residence. To go from living in one hotel room for 11 weeks (well, one day short of 11 weeks), which is almost 12 weeks (one week short of 12weeks)to a three bedroom, four bath serviced apartment is a massive change. It felt odd to actually have more than two rooms to explore. You know it is time to move when you consider the bathroom a room to explore.

As mentioned before, things got a little close. However, with all of this space we now seem to loose track of each other. On the plus side, if nature calls, there is no urgent plea to please hurry up in there. It reminded me of a time during my childhood when there were six of us sharing one bathroom. With that many people sharing the bathroom, there was always lots of urgent banging on the door and lots of people yelling, "Hurry up in there."

We are living in what is called a serviced apartment. Let me tell you, that is the way to go. Every day, except Sundays and public holidays, housekeeping comes to your apartment. They strip the bed of its linens, take your used towels and wash cloths, clean the toilet, tub and shower, vacuum and mop all the floors, dust the entire apartment, wash the dishes if you didn't do them the night before, clean the kitchen counters and even wash the windows. Now that is what I call S-E-R-V-I-C-E!

We are renting this apartment month to month until the never ending stream of nonsense ends with our quest to find a more permanent place to live for the next three to five years. If the foolishness goes on much longer, I am going to say forget it and just live the life of luxury at the Shangri-oo-La-La.

The patio off the living area faces kind of South Easterly. We look toward lots of skyscrapers, high rise apartments, and over kampungs, mosques, busy streets and a cemetery. Kampungs are the local "villages." Some of them are clean an neat, some are really more like slums and rather grim. The kampung we look across has little shops along the street, a school or two and all assortment of houses. There are even a few folks who have goats, 20 or so in the herd, some geese and a few roosters. Several of them also have the bathrooms located outside the living areas. Unlike an outhouse, some of these bathrooms include a place to bathe as well. Bathrooms are called kamar(room)kecil(little or small)or small rooms. One of the reasons I mention this here is that even though they are small, they have an even smaller amount of roofing to cover the top. We have had the unfortunate timing of catching a few people answering nature's call, or like yesterday, someone trying to bathe. When we realized what was going on, we decided it was best to give them a little privacy and wandered back in to our apartment.

The master bedroom has a pretty spectacular view from the 17th floor (which really isn't the 17th floor because it is a Chinese owned hotel and residence and they are superstitious about the number 4. Therefore, there is no 4th floor, or 14th floor or 13th floor for that matter). The windows are from floor to ceiling. When you look out on a clear day, you can see the mountains in the distance. Not sure if they are old volcanoes, but it is pretty cool sight.

The master bath has a wonderful tub that you can fill at night to relax in while looking out at the sparkling lights of Jakarta. It has floor to ceiling windows as well. Therefore, just like out kampung neighbors, folks can see in so we have to make sure they don't get a lesson on how bules bathe. Unlike the photo-op at Tamin Mini - turn about is not fair play in this case. Since we are in the city and the residences are at a very busy intersection, there is lots of traffic noise. I think the next soak in the tub requires a little Balinese music to drown out the honking and motorcycles so I can attain Indonesian bliss.

Just like the hotel, the security is very good here. You still have to come in through the same main entrance as the hotel, so your car is checked out completely before they open the large metal gate to let you through. Once you finish that, you make your way toward the residences. The doorman opens the car door and the front door and you are greeted as you enter the lobby by polite staff, just not quite as completely as at the hotel - which by the way I miss along with those electric curtains that I hated to part with. Passing through the lobby you must go to the correct elevator bank to reach your apartment. An electronic key card and biometric finger print system are used to keep you from accessing anyone's apartment but yours. Once you pass that test, you are delivered to your floor and only your floor. When the elevator doors open, you step out in to a small entry way with your front door just waiting to be unlocked. Nice.

Downstairs, is a small, but nicely appointed workout room looking over a beautiful pool. There are lush tropical plantings all around. What is surprising is that just behind all that tropicalness is the kampung that I talked about earlier and an entire herd of goats. It is an incredible contrast. I know that I am immensely fortunate to live on this side of the wall even though the kampung next to us is above average and I am sure the people there feel pretty safe and lucky that they are there and not some of the other places they could be. Perspective is key no matter what side of the planet you reside.