RIP D’s Place! Gone But Never Forgotten!

My thanks to Indonesia Expat magazine, or at least its online edition –

Legendary Blok M Bar D’s Place Shuts Its Doors

– for sad tidings today.

D’s Place is no more!

I won’t offer you the picture of its locked doors which the link provides.

Way too depressing.

..

Jalan Falatehan

..

Instead there’s a picture of Jalan Falatehan, taken one night maybe ten years ago or more, back when ‘The Street of Dreams’ was at its zenith.

Many’s the tale all of us expats could tell – except many are too outrageous to be told!- about the clientele and carry-ons in that never-boring bar.

I recommended it to a Scots visitor.

He subsequently moaned that-

‘The wummen therr widnae geez peace tae watch the fitty oan the telly!’

My fault, of course!

It had never occurred to me that anyone would take exception to young ladies seeking to introduce themselves, some, admittedly, known for their importunate style of approach.

.

.

I stopped going there about seven years ago and I’m told it’s been going downhill ever since, though I’m confident my absence is unconnected with its demise.

But the happy memories, especially of the Happy Hour, will be with me, and hundreds, thousands, of Jakarta guys forever.

 

 

Indonesia Expat Magazine- Always A Rewarding Read!

Not paying much attention today, got a few bottles of Anker to drink out front on this magnificently hot arvo. Also have Indonesia Expat to read, picked up on my dawdle around town yesterday.

• 

• I took a brief nostalgic detour round Jaksa, a scene of dereliction, the Obama Bar seemingly defunct (or has it moved?) and Romance Cafe sinking into a ruinous state, a sad loss still, after four years or is it more?

I only went to Jaksa to exchange some books, but Ning’s little store was closed for the holiday.

So off to Ya Udah, quieter than usual, where a couple of reasonably priced  Bintangs accompanied me for the hour or so I spent there.

===================

 Ya Udah

——————

• That’s where I got the mag, and thoroughly enjoyed it.
• Good articles, in particular the one about the ‘cat weddings’ in East Java…   http://indonesiaexpat.biz/other/playing-for-rain/

• 
• ooooooooooooooooooo

• …but also burst out laughing at some of the ads.

There was one depicting some blonde bint hovering by a sink in a posh restroom, in a dress which was obviously designed for easy access to body-parts not allowed on our tv by the Indonesian censors.

—————–

•  Jalan Falatehan
• ———————————

• The said bog was way too fancy to be that more or less uni-sex facility in D’s Place on Jl. Falatehan, but she could do well there.

What was it advertising?

Posh taps!

Seriously! Who advertises taps?

• 

a tap’s a tap, for pity’s sake’

oooooooooooooooo

• Who shops for posh taps?

Presumably the guy who masquerades as the ‘Clandestine Critic.’

He actually writes amusingly of the joints he goes to, but although I had a chortle or two at his put-downs of the standard of service and the food, do he and I live in the same city?

His reported bill for two people was over a MILLION RUPIAH!

I pay about Rp.15000 for a very tasty and filling meal in my warteg.

——————————————

• 
• ————————

• Maybe if I wanted to impress some hoity-toity slapper encountered in the Mo Bar Ladies’ Night, I would stretch to Ya Udah, but c’mon, a HUNDRED dollars plus-plus to capture her heart?

In a city where many people get by on a monthly income less than he paid for his dinner?

• 

• YUK!

Having said that, his comments on fish and chips held my attention for seconds and seconds. Rp.140,000? That’s twice what I paid for PROPER fish n chips in Sydney.

He moans about how the pub concept ought to be tried seriously in snobby Kemang, but how about the chipper concept?

Real fish n chips is HARD to get here. 

Fish and Chips in Jakarta! A Veritable Grail-Quest! 

A lot of Indonesians think chips should appear (and taste) like fries, as Yanks call them.

If some guy or gal opened a REAL chipper – not in Kemang, please; it’s such an isolated kampung due to the terrible traffic – maybe in Blok M or Kota – it could be a gold-mine!

=

=

And Indonesia has not been lumbered with the moronic hang-ups afflicting the UK, where it’s now forbidden by health nazis to wrap the food of the gods in old news-papers…

Like I say, Ankers away today…I’ll resume this tomorrow!