Batam, Indonesia

This was a sweet idea.

We get up going around around 8:30. The boat pushes off around 9 AM, and it takes around 1 hour. I am not having a great time because I slept probably 1.5 hours the night before. I really didn't enjoy much up to this point, especially because my breakfast consisted of weird noodles and my stomach was already upset from the night before.

Probably 10 minutes into the boat ride, however, I realized I was in for somethin' real sweet. On the way across the ocean, we went past these **HUGE** ships. I was just having a good time. I tried to sleep a little bit but it was pointless; there was a lot to pay attention to just on the way there.

When we arrived, I realized how really cool this was going to be. Batam is the third world, no doubt. We drove to the resort where we were staying, and I was checking out the houses and people along the way. It reminded me of a Puerto Vallarta a bit, but less touristy and cooler.

We arrived at the resort and it was super cool on the inside. Very good looking on the inside, beautiful large wooden strucures in this rich, dark indonesian timber. The people who worked there were very sweet, but we couldn't get into our rooms right away, so we ate lunch and checked things out.

In general, this resort was past its prime. You could tell it was absolutely past its prime. The grounds and the pool weren't very well maintained at all. Apparently there used to be horse racing somewher near, but the Muslim government ended that, and thus the source of money for a large number of the resorts and people right around there.

There wasn't that much to do, but I didn't care. I sat in the pool, had a spectacular conversation gently going over old things I needed to discuss with my old boss.

Anark was tough for me in the beginning. The code base wasn't very impressive. The product showed great design potential but the technical aspects were just really poorly executed. There was a lot of ego (some of it mine) and it just really left a large negative impression overall.

We talked a bit over the technical issues and we found a lot of common ground. Then I went to my room and passed out for three hours.

We gather into a van, and went into town. Klarinda, one of the Anark employees, is from Jakarta. She acted as our translator (which helped things out so much it was crazy). We ended up in sort of an Indonesian beer garden. We sat in the middle of an open court with cute beer women filling our cups and vendors around the edges. The table ordered all manner of crazy food, and I had this really weird crushed ice desert that tasted like crunch berries from captain crunch.

We then headed to the "hypermart". King Supers, comp USA, and everything else. Giant supermarket with stalls with an open mall-like section with various different electronics and sunglass vendors and such.

The supermarket was decent, except one thing. I wanted to check out the fresh fruit, because sometimes I find really cool or interesting fruits and such.

1. There weren't any interesting fruits.
2. The fish section was next to the fruit, and it smelled like nothing I have ever smelled before. I wandered through it trying to find the source of this incredibly strong fishy smell, and finally I did. They had small, dried fish in this large open crate. These things smell very *very* strong; it almost made my eyes water.

Next day, we ate breakfast and then played a wicked round of paintball. I lead one team, and my old boss (Justin) led another. Their team out-played ours cleanly twice. I tried clean, well thought out tactics (moving good over the ground, one guy covering the other guy).

I then decided to mix it up. We switched the game to capture the flag (it was basically storm-the-base). Here a fast opponent has a significant advantage for two reasons; you get to the flag first before they cover it and then run back through your own defending teammates to your base . So I bum rushed the flag and we won easily. We played another round of this game, and I rushed their base (not bum, though; I took cover and was kind of careful). Unknown to me, another teammate bum rushed this time and we won again when I was probably 10 meters from their base and closing.

Last game was pretty much open season capture the flag, and everyone ran out of paint. The other team won (mainly due to lack of paint).

Our lunch was in town this time, and this seemed to me to be real indonesian lunch. A small very aromatic shop where they just had several dishes laid out. I started with rice in banana leaves. One of the women in the shop walked me through things in Indonesian (which sounds like, and is very close to, Malaysian). I just kept telling (with my fingers) little bit. So I had a bunch of tasty stuff, but not so much I couldn't finish my lunch.

I also bought Teh Botol (tea bottle) from a shop near the lunch shop. I tried to take it back to the resort, but Klarinda saw it and said I had to finish it. You return the bottles to the shops where you buy the tea! I bet the owner was thinking about how all the rude tourists keep stealing her bottles.

Back to the resort, back to the pool. No nap this time, though; Justin and a few guys wanted to play some volleyball so hell yeah. We played till just before dinner (like two hours). It was super cool; I say my team learn visually. They wouldn't bump or set at first, but by the end we had a solid set of sessions and they were beginning to get confidence in the strategy we were using.

Dinner was cool, we went to an actual indo restaurant. Klarinda again came to the rescue and we had a bomb dinner and a good time. Later we went shopping again and I got some sweet shirts. I had to have Klarinda and the shop owner help me out (color blindness) on what colors things were, but I know enough that once I know what color things are I have a good chance of knowing if it will look good or not.


Next day we head back. What a sweet session.

On the cab ride back to the apartment, I had some more good discussions about the difference between Anark years ago. From my perspective, the biggest is ego. Everyone here really wants to succeed; we have all been in the position where it was obvious that we were our own worst enemies. And it seems like we are in a position where everyone is willing to just let ourselves go and just really try to make things work. That is a very, very hard life lesson to learn.