Karaoke in Bandung

Yesterday was Waya’s birthday (Waya is the ABV In-Country Manager for Indonesia, Philippines, and Malaysia).  She has done so much for us already by facilitating meetings with our client, making recommendations for dinners and weekend trips, translating menu items in the restaurants, etc. so we wanted to try and make it special even though she is away from her family and friends.  We went to Rocca & Company for dinner.  Their menu was very western and offered pizza, burgers, pastas, etc.  It even had quite a selection of Belgian beers!

 Then we went to Karaoke, where the real fun started!

 In the United States karaoke is something a bar will offer one night a week where people can get up and sing.  In Indonesia there are places exclusively for karaoke.  You rent individual rooms by the hour for you and your friends.  At first I was skeptical, but it was very fun!

 #ibmcsc Indonesia

Work in subteams carries on...

Today was the second day of work with the government institutions we are assigned to. Our team spent the whole day extracting knowledge from the people at BPPT, understanding in depth their processes and organization.

It was outstanding to see how far they went to help us understand their work flow. We had a simulation of how an application is submitted. We "lived" the process from the moment a citizen (one of us in the simulation) enters the BTTP office until they get their license. It was a great start of documenting the current state - especially considering we had to leverage our translator most of the time, as our bahasa is still 20,000 leagues under the sea. 

Tonight was Waya's birthday. To combine culture and fun... we went out to eat!

Sergio


#ibmcsc Indonesia 

Sub Teams in diffrent Directions.....

After the warm Welcome!! from the BAPPEDA team ....today everyone - three sub teams were ready to head towards the respective organization for the client meetings.......BPPT and DISKOMINFO team started at 7:30am with mixed thoughts....curious to know more about the project..little tensed but excited.

Sergio, Terry, Flavia with BPPT Client and Dany from ABV - BPPT      

Yolande, Karen, Manuel and Maej from ABV -DISKOMINFO

and with the same thoughts PUSDALISBANG team . Nitin, me, David, Victor and mother figure Waya :-) from ABV started at 8:30am - Lucky ones

After 20 mins of hilly drive...reached the destination called Pusdalisbang, small and beautiful office.







Client Discussion went well..in the process got to understand various factors of Indonesia and the initiative Government is taking for villagers to get them to the right level.We were suppose to come up with the draft of the discussion with inputs from CSC team.....team has discussed intensely and completed todays deliverable....Left office very satisfied

Around 5.00 pm reached back home - the Hotel which is our Home for the month where everyone was already waiting for sharing the experience, relaxed and satisfied with the day....

Since the whether was very good with breeze and rain as well ....suddenly the excitement level gone up and everyone made plans like shopping for Batik Day on Friday..some went for getting the massage done which has become popular now in home and few went straight for dinner .....

Tomorrow is Waya - our mother figures Bday.....Yes definitely we have some plans to celebrate the BIG day....

Trupty Gautam
IBM CSC Indonesia Team4

First Day at Work

Finally!! The day we'll meet our clients has arrived and we are dressed to impress!

In his welcome message, Bapak Husein Ahmad, Secretary of BAPPEDA provided an excellent overview of the West Java District and of the plans to make it the Cyber Province of Indonesia.
He was followed by presentations from Bapak Rudi Mahmud Zafrullah from PUSDALISBANG, Bapak Sofyan Sastrawiria from BPPT and Bapak Dudi Sudrajat Abdurachim from DISKOMINFO.
Ibu Hartini Haris, IBM Indonesia Marketing Manager presented the CSC program with some historical details.

All parties concluded this kick off meeting sharing a delicious Indonesian lunch.

The second part of the day consisted in a community activity in a library to encourage children to stay in school.
We first had to spend an hour in the car that drove us across town to the library but the fantastic welcome reception we received was well worth the wait and the time spent in traffic.
The children had prepared, rehearsed and memorized a series of songs, poems, dances and martial arts demonstrations with traditional instruments and costumes. What a welcome! We were as impressed by the show as they were to learn about the extreme cultural variety of our team.

The kids had the opportunity to participate in several activities and contests including using the Kids Smart computers, coloring building Origami models.

We all had a lot of fun and all CSC members had to sign at least 50 autographs and take numerous pictures with young and old alike! They felt special and so did we, especially since I was called Obama..lol

What a great experience and opportunity to share with the children and inspire them to reach their potential.

There are over 10000 schools in the West Java district. Kids Smart technology was provided to 2500 in 2011, 1000 in 2012 and an additional 1000 are scheduled to receive it in 2013. IBM is really making a difference where it matters; in the life of thousands of tomorrow's leaders!

After this tiring but so rewarding first day at school work, some went straight to bed while others enjoyed a well deserved massage or found the energy to indulge in culinary pleasures.

I can't wait to see what tomorrow holds in store for our team after such a terrific start...

 

Selamat Malam, Bandung!!!

The special day, welcome to Bandung!
Today we woke up early for the check out at the Four Seasons Hotel in Jakarta, and at 9AM the team was already all set in the bus for the trip to Bandung. As you can see in the picture below, we were veeery excited!

According to Waya and Dany (the ABV Managers who provide us with orientation during all the program), the trip could take 2 hours or even 5 hours depending on the traffic. In fact, it took us 7 hous to arrive in Bandung!!! But fortunately, it was NOT because of the traffic. That was because of the two amazing stops we made during our way. The first one was at Taman Mini Indonesia Indah, a nice Indonesia miniature park where we could see a little bit of the architecture styles of Indonesia, clothing, dances and traditions. We rode a cable car in order to have an overview of the entire park and it was lovely! It made us feel even more in love with the cultural aspects of this country.

 

 

After one more hour on the road, we stopped by a rest area located at km 57 in order to have lunch and a quick stop-by. Some of us tried the local food, which was delicious! The below pictures are the local food menu and the option which Karen and I elected was 424: Bihum Ayan Pangsit Rebus Bakso. It was basically a combination of noodles, chiken and meat balls. Delicious!!!

At 4pm in the afternoon, we were finally able to get to our future home for 4 weeks. Bandung is a city full of contrasts, where rich and poor live very closely to each other. The Bed and Breakfast we're going to leave in for the next weeks has a good location and has all types of facilities at walking distance. We'll keep you posted about the news from Bandung!

Posted by FALEIXOS
#ibmcsc indonesia

Our first full day in Jakarta ....

after a much needed nights sleep, today was our first full day in Jakarta.


Finally it was great that we all got to meet each other having spent the last 3 months preparing together. We enjoyed breakfast, an all you can eat buffet in the Four Seasons. Not a bad start. We were told not to get used to it :-)

We had a few hours free time, before our first Team meeting in IBM the office.  So out we go into the heat and humidity of Jakarta. At least for some of us that's a big change compared to home.

This is the National Monument in Jakarta.

After the sightseeing had a small lunch in the Food Court of Plaza Indonesia. There we met a group ladies on their High School Reunion. One of them was very excited when she heard we worked for IBM. She was very proud to tell us that her son worked also for IBM in Sydney and showed us a photo on her iPhone of his 1st Patent award.

In afternoon we visited the IBM office for a Welcome Briefing meeting with the Indonesia Country Manager, Suryo Suwignjo, and also Santi Diansari  Sarino (Senior CC&CA Specialist), Hartini Haris  (Country Marketing Mgr and CC&CA leader), Tan Wijaya  (Geo eXpansion Leader) and Kiki Achmad Rizki (Security Manager)

Suryo talked to us about IBM in Indonesia, IBM awareness and thanked us all for coming from all over the world to participate in the CSC program. He was impressed by the wide variety of nationalities on the team. 

We found out that on Monday aftermoon we will be participating in a social activity in Bandung with 50 primary school children which will involve various games and drawing  competitions. That should be a lot of fun. something everyone is looking forward.

We were shown around the very impressive IBM offices, that they only moved into recently. Here's a view from the office, the round-about is right in the centre of Jakarta. Very prestigious and central location......

In the evening we were entertained at a local Indonesian Restaurant in Plaza Indonesia ( the same building as the IBM office ).  I've no idea what the names of all the foods we ate, there was so many different dishes ordered, all very nice and some very very spicy and hot :-)

 A great end to a very enjoyable afternoon and evening. The staff at IBM Indonesia  were very  friendly and hospitable. couldn't have done more to make us feel very welcome here.

Tomorrow we leave the luxury of the Four Seasons Hotel and Jakarta and head for Bandung where we are based for the next 4 weeks.

Flavia will update on how our journey goes.

Dave
#ibmcsc indonesia

Our first stop....the Jungle .....and than Jakarta!

After a save journey we arrived in Jakarta at 6.10 PM local time, almost 18 hours I left home.

At Schiphol I met David for the first time, finally after all the months of preparation! Time went quickly with all the talking we did.

We were on time at the gate! Security check was ok! Boarding was fine, so everything seemed to go according to plan.

After 10 minutes in the plane the Captain had a message for us that we couldn't leave yet due to some technical issues, so a delay of at least 40 minutes. And indeed it was 40 minutes, good guess!. At 9.30 PM we left!

The flight was ok, it was a bit bumpy for a while but not as bad that you couldn't relax. The advantage was that they took away the food trays pretty quick after finished dinner because of the turbulence.
I watched one movie and catched some sleep.

Two hours before breakfast/lunch the lights went on again and we had a light meal.
We arrived at Kuala Lumpur 10 minutes behind schedule, so not to bad.

We had to leave the plane, welcome to strech your legs and we had the opportunity to visit the Jungle, the what, yes the Jungle! There is a small Jungle at the Malasian Airport.

Yolande & David in the Jungle

In Jakarta customs went quick, we were picked up immediately and after an hour driving through traffic jam we arrived at the hotel! Our car was checked, for explosives, our bags had to go through the scanner.

And guess what: we jumped immediately in the pool after we arrived. How relaxing at the end of long journey to be able to do so. Listening for half an hour to the crickets giving their night concerts.

Tomorrow at breakfast we will meet the rest of our team! Really looking forward! David is the team blog host for tomorrow!

A great start of our journey!

Yolande
#ibmcsc indonesia

Bandoeng, Bandung,........here we come!

Bandoeng, Bandung is the title of a Dutch book that tells about a “famous Dutchman” who experiences a sentimental journey when he goes back to the place he grew up after 40 years: Bandung, same place where we are going to.

Tomorrow CSC Team Indonesia 4 arrives in Indonesia and we will start our own kind of sentimental journey. It will definitely be exciting, fun, challenging and sometimes tough to work for 4 weeks in a country so different from our own countries. After 4 months of preparation the time is finally there!

Who are we? We are group of IBMers who may work in an emerging country as part of a highly selective program. So, I don’t have to tell you we are really honoured to get this opportunity. We are with 10, coming from eight different countries: Karen & Terry (USA); Manuel (Canada); Victor (Mexico); Flavia (Brazil); Trupty & Nitin (India); David (Ireland); Sergio (Italy) en myself Yolande (The Netherlands).

We will work for three different companies, which we explain later in this blog, being updated at least until the end of our assignment!

The last months we already had a chance to get to know each other via the weekly calls, which for me were on a very convenient time at 1 pm, but for some of us almost in the middle of the night or in the evening.

These last months were filled with all kind of preparation work, as learning about the do’s and don’ts, the language, dress code, social & business behaviour and many other topics. And we had a lot of chat’s about the packing list, what to bring….? The only thing we didn’t had to think of were gifts as it is not allowed to bring gifts to people working for Indonesian (governmental) organisations.

Finally the moment comes that we can meet each other face to face! We are so thrilled and cannot wait. Some of us left already yesterday and will not arrive in Jakarta before tomorrow, some have to switch day and night when they arrive. For me it is 6 ours difference, so reasonable easy to overcome, as I also will fly in the right direction from that perspective.

I will meet David already at Schiphol Airport as we are on the same flight! So we already have a chance to start getting to know each other better as of the first minutes.

You will hear about our flight experiences by tomorrow after we arrived in Jakarta!

Our travel story will be continued!

Yolande
#ibmcsc indonesia