North Sulawesi, Indonesia 2010

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Two more random pictures.

And this is the end of Sulawesi pictures.

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After going back to Jakarta, we played two rounds of golf.

First in the Padang Gold Pondok Indah. It's inside the upscale residential development Pondok Indah at the heart of Jakarta.

The following Google map image tells a lot about the place. The original very large Pondok Indah property developments was done by the same group that now developing Citraland Manado. The neat row of houses on the left are the very nice houses each occupying min 500 square meters of land. The houses in the middle of the gold course is the most prestigious and expensive and visibly much larger. However on the right side of the golf course is outside the luxury property development, and the houses there are squeezed into very tight spaces.

Right under the cloud is the upscale Pondok Indah Mall. This Google satellite image is very dated. The mall is now at least twice as big.

I will have larger images with my photos later.

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One of my playing partners there is a very talented golfer. At his younger days, he played at low single digit handicap. After a neck surgery, he may not be single digit but still a good player at advanced age.

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The interesting point about these two pictures is the house behind.

This house is inside the golf course and part of the very expensive and prestigious property. The house was built half way and then abandoned for a few years. I was told that the house is owned by one of Soeharto's sons Bambang. After Soeharto's oust, the building project stopped.

In around 1996, I was contacted by one of my clients in Hong Kong, about potential joint venture with a prominent family in Indonesia. When I arrived in Jakarta, I was greeted at the gate right outside the airplane and breezed through the immigration & custom. I found out just how prominent that family was when they took me to see the family patriarch. Their house was in a small street and 20 meters away from Soeharto's prime residence! With soldiers guarding both entrance of the street. One of that family's many businesses was the monopoly to print the laser markers required in all cigarette sold in Indonesia. And at that time, there were hundreds such "monopolies" in place to enrich the connected. Perhaps that's how you can afford to buy a land inside Pondoh Indah golf course and build your dream house. Or one in Bali.

The 3rd image show where the two photos were taken. The google satellite image probably was taken before Soeharto's fall from power in 1998. The plot was still empty.

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Few more nice pic. 

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Before pictures of the second round of golf, some random pictures taken in Jakarta.

First, want to be a neighbour with Miss Tourism Indonesia? I wonder if this could really be a reason to buy a property...

The second picture probably has no meaning to anyone but me.

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We went to a "people's mall" and found a few pet stalls outside.

The fish was probably a baby 羅漢.

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Today we played a round of golf in the Jagorawi new course. It was far more difficult than Pondok Indah.

In this photo, the two boys in swimming gear were ready to dive in if the golfer miss hit the ball to the pond. That's how they can make 1 or 2 HK$ equivalent.

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The weather was beautiful for playing golf.

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One of my playing partners was this 86 years old man. I hope I would be healthy enough to golf at that age.