International Football Superstar

Week 11: 02/07/2012 - 08/07/2012

My colleague Jon, plays football for a KL based football team. They arranged a friendly in Jakarta, and when they were a few players short of a full squad, Jon asked me to go along. Now, first up, Jakarta is a not the most picturesque place. From what I saw it is a low rise sprawling mass, 8 lanes of gridlock everywhere you look, smelly, dirty and generally horrible.

Friday night we headed out to Top Gun Bar, which although it was slightly seedy (plenty of young Asians waiting to be picked up) it had Wimbledon on big screens and a pretty good live band. A never ending supply of beer towers ensured that everyone had a good night.

Jon didn't realise quite what a good night out he'd had until the morning. He couldn't eat breakfast and he could hardly drink water. An hour after getting up we were stood on the side of a dusty pitch in 30 degrees under clear blue skies. Despite the opposition having a much larger squad and a much lower average age, we somehow managed to do enough to win 4-0 with Jon unbelievably scoring a hat-trick (all quality finishes too).

Victorious Duo

The celebratory night out was in Malio Club, which was a bit full on after Friday night and a day of sport, so Jon and I didn't stay out long.

A welcome break from stinky Jakarta in Cafe Batavia

On Sunday we had explored the old harbour watched some dubious health and safety at the docks and headed towards Jalan Pintu Besar Utara. The place was pretty busy and Jon and I could hardly move for school kids and families wanting to have their photo taken with us, or practice their English. We had a good lunch at Cafe Batavia before heading back to airport for our flight home.