|
|
|
 |
 |
| |
|
| |
|
Tom, Susan and Andy are all spending their first Christmas away from mom, dad and a great big roaring British fire. And none of them sound to sad about it either. |
|
|
|
|
|
Tom, 27: Christmas in Jakarta
There'll be no snow and pudding for me this Christmas here in Jakarta. I've been here for the last six months, working for a huge Chinese engineering company building tower blocks. I don't know when I'm coming home. I want to come home right now, really, but then I'd have to give up the cushy life I've made for myself here.
I'll be spending Christmas Day at the Shangri-La, one of Jakarta's most expensive and poshest hotels. A bunch of us Britons living here are getting together and have hired a private room like you've never clapped eyes on before. In rupiah it's kind of expensive – about 3 million rupiah. Thing is, that's only a bit more than £200 and that's between 12 of us – for the sort of luxury you wouldn't ever find at home for less than £2,000 minimum.
The food will be like nothing I've seen before: on paper, it looks like we're getting a traditional British dinner cooked by the man reported by The Jakarta Post newspaper as Indonesia's greatest chef. Of Indonesian food, that is.
I know he's an absolute wonder on gado gado (an Indonesian speciality, a delicious veggie dish) – I've eaten his food before. I'm also betting he'll be an absolute disaster area where stuffing a turkey is concerned – but then I have been surprised too many times in this amazing city to be wager very much on that bet.
Most food you get here seems to be either (a) fantastic Indonesian food or (b) truly revolting Indonesian interpretations of Western food.
But then why should a cook be able to fry a hamburger, or stuff herbs and spices up a bland turkey's bum when they've lived in this heat all their life?
The temperature should be around 30 degrees, the traffic will be unbelievable, the smog inconceivable. This'll be a Christmas I'll remember forever.
|
|
|
