Dessy and Chevi

I needed a few ingredients for my coffee fix this morning 07:30, so popped along to my local Alfamart store which is only about 100 yards down the road.

Introducing Ms.Dessy and Mr.Chevi, who always greet me with smiling faces and a 'welcome' like they mean it. Being a man, I can never find what I am looking for, but the staff are always willing to help me and show a lot of patience when I struggle to explain what I am looking for.

Alfamart is a franchise with a similar format to the 'seven eleven' in the west and has an outlet on just about every street in the country, selling all the usual emergency items, from tooth picks to tapioca, just two of the items that I purchased in the last few days, thus saving a trip into the city. They even have a back-up generator for those frequent occasions when the power goes down.

The prices are slightly higher than all the small shops, but it would take all day for me to find what I wanted in the hundreds of small shops lining the street, I guess it is a very small price to pay for the convenience. The beauty is that although the mini markets do good business, they are not a threat to the smaller shops as people look after every penny in Indonesia.

The Bandung story - part 10

Back to the hotel for today's episode. One of the highlights of staying at the Papandayan was the long stay resident's party. The hotel threw a free food and drink bash once a month, from 7 until 10pm and it was quality too! I don't think that they had accounted for a herd of beer guzzling contractors invading their classy gathering, but at least there were no more trumpets around to disturb the peace.

It was Friday and there was no work, one of the many public holidays, seems like they have a holiday just about every week. The day started by the pool at midday, taking in the suns rays, the occasional dip and a few frosty beers to help keep cool of course.

Being of a freckled complexion, I have to take great care in this ferocious sun and I spent the day under the table canopy with towels over my legs. But as I stepped out of the shower in the evening, I was horrified by my reflection in the mirror, I was a patchwork of bright red burns, I looked a mess and the pain was starting to kick in. Still, I wasn't going to miss the party.

Most of the boys were drinking the red wine but experience had taught me that wine was not a good idea. I was going to be in enough pain tomorrow without adding a severe hangover to the mix, so I stayed on the beer. We had done a few of these parties before, but for some reason, everyone, including me, was getting really stuck in and it was a relief when 10 o'clock came and the bar shut, as by now, the sunburn pain had really taken hold. Every hair on my legs was screaming at me.

Tesa, being Christian, was allowed alcohol, had been sampling the wine and was now in the mood for braga and a night on the town, but I just wanted to curl up and die. Geoff announced that we were all going to Pangandaran for the weekend. My refusal was not accepted and they badgered me until I agreed, once I had established that Rena, Geoff's wife would be driving.

Pangandaran is a fishing village about five hours torturous drive, winding, pot holed roads all the way. There were seven of us in the van, Geoff and Rena, Bruce and Ena, Tesa, me and Mark. This was such a bad idea as by now I was in so much pain, I stripped off down to my underpants, to minimize contact with my now blistered skin. We did the five hour journey in four hours, I won't tell you who drove, except to add that I was furious.

We checked in at a little after 2am and Geoff managed to talk the staff into opening the bar, like we needed any more to drink, still the cool sea breeze across my body as I lay on a sun bed by the pool, was very welcome. I could have spent the night lying there, but after one beer, we all retired.

To be continued.

Dave