Hairstyling Demo In Jakarta

Jakarta never stops amazing me. Every time I visit Jakarta, I discover something new, something practical, something memorable.

This time around, while going around a famous mall in North Jakarta, I found a simple looking man repeatedly doing a particular act with hair on a dummy's head. Out of curiosity I went near and realised that he was selling a kind of hairband with which ladies can do different kinds of hairstyles.

The entire demo with 3 or 4 hairstyles took less than 2 minutes. I asked for his permission to shoot the enclosed video. Enjoy.

Video (HD) taken with Samsung Galaxy Note 8 megapixel Camera

This was in JITC Shopping Complex in Mangga Dua. If and when you go to Jakarta, don't miss this shopping mall which is of 7 storeys full of goods. In the recent years, Jakarta has become popular shopping destination.

Btw, impressed with the person's artistry, I immediately bought one of those bands for my wife. Cost of the same was IDR (Indonesian Rupiah) 70,000, which is around Rs. 440.

Jakarta's Umbrella Children

The picture below was taken at the taxi stand at Ambassador Mall in Jakarta. When you look at the picture below, it may appear like a normal picture where a bunch of children are holding umbrellas while it is raining.

(Picture taken with my iPhone4)

Actually the story has a slight variation. As you may have already known, traffic in Jakarta moves at excruciatingly slow pace. Some times it takes more than 30 minutes to travel 500 meters. While it rains, the traffic moves even slower and takes a long time to get a taxi.

During these times, kids wait with umbrellas to escort the shoppers who come out of the mall to the road where they safely make their 'passengers' get into a taxi. For providing this service the kids take tips of  small sums of 3,000 to 5,000 Indonesian Rupiah, which is equivalent to 50 to 70 cents Singapore Dollar (20 to 30 rupees).

Sounds interesting, innovative and enterprising right? That's Jakarta for you.

Jakarta Travel Report - Hands-free Toilet!

During my last week visit to Jakarta (Indonesia), I was staying at Hotel Indonesia Kempinski. It is a refurbished modern hotel with excellent service levels.

Of all the hotels that I have stayed so far, in Kempinski Jakarta I found some thing new that I want to share with the readers of my blog.

The rooms come with a hands-free toilet. Here is the description.

Once the door to the toilet cubicle is opened, the commode senses the presence and opens its lid. (Gentlemen, don't get worried, there is a button to lift the seat also!). 

On the side wall there is a control panel, with buttons containing symbols to - 'flush', 'open the lid, the seat', 'flush' and 'to close the lid and the seat'.

On the control panel, there are buttons to 'stop', 'rear cleansing', 'real cleansing soft', 'front cleansing', 'pressure' and for 'position'. 

After the performance, once you exit the cubicle, the lid closes on its own. 

Innovative but expensive to maintain as well!