slapphead_otool

Om my recent visit I spent some time visiting old haunts, hoping to catch up with long lost friends. Here are my notes:

BATS - the bar at the Shangri La. Still buzzing, good expat crowd, fun bar staff, lots of "ayams" (ladies of the night) but they were not pushy and just smiled. Crap expat band.

CJs - Wednesday night was packed, lots and lots of bules and many more ayams, who were outright aggressive. Slow bar staff who didn't smile and stuffed the order up. Even worse expat band. Not a pleasant night.

Red Square - Empty even at 11pm. Apparently gets busy later at night. All I saw was 4 old fat westerners and a couple of no hoper girls looking for fun. They didn't get any. Bar staff were cool. A couple of years ago this place rocked - maybe later or a different day. It used to be the place to pick up local girlfriends as opposed to commercial deals with young ladies.

De Barons - was the Stamford Arms, now stripped of much of its character and a very plain bar at the Ambhara.

Oscars (Blok M) - closed. Shut, locked and abandoned. No one seemed to know what happened. A notice on the door said closed for renovations, but the dust and lack of activity said closed for a long time to me.

My Bar (Blok M) - Busy even weeknights, as long as its late. A few expat guys and a lot of ayams looking for a wallet. They have rearranged the place and its not an improvement. The bar is now to the left of the door where the sofa area used to be. Nothing else has changed. Sadly I heard that Hatish the UK Indian owner is in hospital in Singapore, and only a liver transplant will save him. Very sad, he was a good guy.

Top Gun (Blok M) - still the scene on the bloc. Packed, lots of expats, a live band, lots and lots of ayams who were friendly and funny. No pushy CJ style here, they just had a laugh and a dance, and I bought a few a drink. Same pool table, and it probably still leans to the left.

I didn't make it to Sportsmans, Everest, G String or Ds Bar. Next time....

Lintas Melawai was still shut, and I guess its over for that place of fun. Oh the old days.

I didn't bother with the South Kemang expat scene - if I ant to drink with a bunch of overweight bigoted old westerners and hear them moan about life I can do that in Sydney. So no De Hoi, Eastern Promise etc.

I did call in at the Club (next to the bank on the main road. with the Bali Club sign above it - even though its name isn't the Bali Club). They are rebuilding over it, and they have inserted a HUGE inverted V shaped support right inside the bar, by ripping out the floor above and bolting this thing to the walls. I guess it will add character. The Gryphon is still on the wall, and the dark side is still dark (and avoided by me).

There is now an underpass and a flyover at Blok M (shock horror - fixing the traffic problem?). Pasaraya Grande shopping mall looks run down, lots of new malls have taken its place.

There seems more money about, and a bit of excitement in the air. Maybe it really is Indonesia's golden age. ....

Davita

Ah!!! memories of all the greats....so sad Oscars is shut. The owner is a friend of my wife....they used to be flight attendant colleagues. She sold it recently...don't know its future.

You didn't mention my local Jaya Pub...it's still flourishing and dangdut is still an event on the bar...I'll be there tonight but my pool-playing-pal is in Padang this weekend.... so maybe I'll just listen to my wife and drink.....lots!!!

slapphead_otool

Ahhh the Jaya......

i can say no more than repost something I wrote some time ago in another thread:

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...89#post9356389

I saw “The Year of Living Dangerously” many years ago. I took my sister, who wanted to see Mel Gibson, to a cinema in Derby. I don’t remember being impressed, and I knew nothing of the country.

Three years later i landed in Jakarta in the middle of the worst thunderstorm I have ever seen. I was shocked that the pilot tried to land, and amazed that he got away with it. Maybe he had no choice.

The arrangement to pick me up on arrival failed. I assumed it was due to the storm, but later realised that this was Indonesia, and such arrangements seldom worked. No one was waiting with a sign.

Dejected and forgotten, I stood sheltering under an awning, in a very strange country, a long way from home, and watched the massive flashes light up the raid sodden night sky.

I don’t remember being hassled at all, which would be the one and only time I have not been offered a watch, woman, boy or girl at Soekarno airport.

Eventually I caught a taxi, or what laughingly passed as a taxi in Jakarta in those days. The taxi rank looked like someone had emptied a scrapyard of rusting relics and put them in a row outside the arrivals terminal. The driver didn’t speak English, but when I showed him the name of the hotel he nodded and smiled. I think he found it by trial and error.

I spent the next few days in meetings. Or at least waiting for meetings which never eventuated, or were not about the planned topic but about something I had no expertise in. The principle object in any meeting seemed to be to extract bribes.

The nights were amazing. Someone in the hotel bar suggested the Jaya Pub, which still exists, the sole survivor of those heady days. Time has stood still at the Jaya.

From there some guy took me to blok M, starting a sordid love affair with the bars in that boulevard of broken dreams.

Someone in Blok M took me to Tanamur in Tanah Abang. It was the oldest disco in South-East Asia , one of the sleaziest spots on the planet, a great place to pick up women, a great place to pick up men, a multi-ethnic melting pot and was the Queen of Jakarta's discos.

Rome burned whilst we partied inside. It was jam packed every night with every nationality, social level and sexual orientation. It was decadence in an aircraft hanger. The girls wore next to nothing, and would make pole dancers blush. The gays and transvestites wore even less. You would bump into high ranking government ministers, expats, millionaires and your hotel maid, who was earning a few extra Rp selling her ass. Tanamur was a drug, and it held you firm in its grip.

In those days the world was just a bit bigger and more mysterious. All a Jakartan girl knew about Sydney she had learned from a book, or from a guy. Most had no television in those days, there was no internet, and the Lonely Planet brigade hadn’t arrived to teach English.

The only Western men in Jakarta were there for work, they earned good money and spent it having fun. The local girls loved that fun, and I loved the local girls.

Over the years I have maintained my connections with Jakarta. I still have friends from that first trip. I was there when the economy crashed, when Suharto resigned, and when they blew up the embassy.

It has never lost that initial moment of wonder and magic for me. A fierce thunderstorm in a dark and unknown city full of beautiful girls


The Jaya is described far better then I ever could here:

http://www.jakarta24.com/review_bar_032004.php

Vale Felix. You made me dance in dark corners.

Davita

A beautiful story slappy....Tanamur....dreams and memories are flooding out and I haven't started drinking yet.

The Jaya Pub pool table was old when it was installed and is still played on night after night. The 'chief' still serves there and is older than the pool table...it is said he's older than God.

Frans and Rima (the owners) are friends of ours...will see Frans tonight but Rima is unwell...they are famous movie stars.

The Jaya Pub in Legian, Bali is going to be refurbished as it really is looking grim...they will move it to street level to get more clientelle.

Love to read some of the old wall plaques...one I recall says "don't get a hangover---stay drunk" Another "My wife ran off with my best friend and I really miss him!'

Gotta luv it.

slapphead_otool

I lost all of my youthful innocence in Tanamur. I went it thinking I know the world, and came out a man.

I was truly heartbroken when it closed, although like any grand old lady it didn't look good in its final years.

Bur in those pre krismon years there was nothing I have ever seen to touch it.

Not seen before and not seen since. I guess I never will.

Davita

Oahh!! stop getting so nostalgic slappy... you'll have me crying in my beer....cum on...be realistic...some of those beautiful ladies of the night that taught you how to be a man will be great-grandmas by now.

The place was in ruins when we went but probably was so drunk and, being the wee hours, we just didn't notice the eminent archaeology.
S**t couldn't spell arkalogy in them days.

Hong Kong's Wanchai still has bars like that...I was in one last year and saw one of my old galpals....now she owns the friggin building.

bakedbean

Hehehe sounds like a great pub crawl Slappy had OK can you enlighten the unelightened and tell me what a bule is.

Ayam? but that's chicken innit?

slapphead_otool

A Bule literally means an albino - but means a white skinned westerner in Indonesia. It's a touchy topic as some long term expats see it as a derogatory term. I really don't care....


A bule gila means a crazy westerner.... Again a bit of a derogatory term....

An Ayam means chicken, in this case meaning a young girl who offers services... Although to be honest sex isn't really the true definition, and bar room friendship is a better term. Most would be horrified if you called them a prostitute and most really are not... Thr Japanese escort would be a better concept.

Most are just. Trying to get by, and if you give them the price if of beer for bring good company they are happy.

Jackwow

A few references to the Tanamur here but what about the bar/disco that was around the corner from the main bar street in Block M. Was it called the Tamburah? Crazy place I recall but that was 20 years ago so memories are fading.

photomania01

Wecome to Jakarta with crazy traffic jam

nonthaburi

Some interesting memories there ,

But also , don't forget ! It's the good old days today . Don't waste time !

slapphead_otool

Ahhh the Tambora. It burnt down (quite deliberately) many years ago. Famous for having "rooms" upstairs where you could entertain young ladies. It was owned and opened by Darryl Patton, partnered by a very shady character.

You may also recall Hotman, and Pentagon. And of course Lintas Malawi which wasn't too far away. You may also remember k-Bar as well.

I just got back from Jakarta again. Oscars is shut forever by the looks of things, and the Club looked like it had closed for ever too. The whole boulevard of broken dreams looked like its day had passed.

Sadly Darryl, who had such a big part of the Jakarta expat bar scene, passed away last year. Here is a link to his obituary:

http://jakartaexpat.biz/other/darryl...he-expat-bars/

RIP Darryl.

Davita

The owner of Oscars for 23 years is a friend and retired Flight Attendant colleague of my wife.
She had dinner in our house in Bali last night. She said she wanted to purchase the place as her long-term lease ran out but the landlord didn't want to renew and didn't want to sell....maybe speculating on added future value...maybe mass transit station ...she doesn't know.
Anyway, she was tired of the bar business and now lives near us in Bali and is employed in realtor advertising.

slapphead_otool

If you get chance, say thank you for a lot of fun nights from an old expat.

I had a lot of good memories in Oscars, especially before they "remodeled" it. It was the last of the old style bars in Jl Falatan.

I used to love the place, the bands were good, the atmosphere was great and the girls were pretty.

I first saw the famous Indonesian Elvis impersonator in Oscars...

slapphead_otool

and after a bit of research: The Tambora burned down on Friday 13th February 1998. And to jog memories, here is a floor plan of the place.