Not-so-funky fowl flock to Satu Lagi
JAKARTA (JP): Somewhere between the hideous, architectural insanity that is Pondok Indah and the semiorganized chaos of Jl. Fatmawati, you'll find Hotel Kristal perched on a hill at the side of a winding road that could almost be in the countryside. What's so important about Hotel Kristal, I hear you ask? Well, nothing much except that it's home to the Satu Lagi bar, one of the longest established and most popular watering holes in South Jakarta.
The particular Sunday afternoon that I ended up heading in the direction of Satu Lagi had been touted by this newspaper as the day on which all self-respecting Jakarta Post heads and readers were supposed to traipse down, for some unfathomable reason, to Bung Karno Sports Complex on a mission to watch birds (in the ornithological sense, that is), the sports complex apparently being home to some rare species of fowl. Well, I decided to forego that pleasure. But, as it turned out, the watering hole in Hotel Kristal was also home to quite an assortment of weird and wonderful birds, most of them of the pale, plump and peripatetic variety.
Location: Jl. Tarogong Raya, Cilandak Barat, Jakarta 12430. Tel: 7507050, 7507060, 7507070.
For me, living as I do in Central Jakarta, Satu Lagi bar is by no means an easy spot to get to, especially at any time around peak hour. If you're heading there from the center or north of the city and if you don't want to sit for hours in a jam on Jl. Fatmawati, it's best to take Jl. Arteri south and go through Pondok Indah (even then it's likely to take more than an hour). Of course, for those living in South Jakarta, Satu Lagi couldn't be better located.
What's it got: Major hotel means fully stocked bar, and Satu Lagi is no exception (no Irish whiskey on the day I was there, but told that it was on its way).
Price points: Draught Carlsberg and Anker for Rp 18,000. Premium spirits (Johnny Walker Black Label, for example) for Rp 45,000, second line spirits Rp 26,000. For cocktail aficionados, most seemed to be going for around Rp 42,000. Great news, though. There's an (almost) all day happy hour from 11 a.m. until 8 p.m. with 50 percent being knocked off everything, so take heart all indigent tipplers!
Hours: 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. Monday to Friday. 11 a.m. to (around) 2 a.m. Saturdays and Sundays.
Here's looking at you: This is a spacious and airy bar, not the sort of place where you're going to get choked to death by clouds of semi-radioactive Kretek smoke. The air-conditioning system is superb and even though the joint was heaving during my visit, the temperature never crossed the line into discomfort territory.
As you walk through the door, the first thing you notice is the large selection of mostly migratory fowl supping greedily as if a drought of biblical proportions were in prospect. To the right of the bar, which is straight in front as you enter, is a large loungy section with lots of comfy seats and low tables. These particular perches were mostly occupied by expatriatus reasonable civilisidae, a bird species not so commonly found in public bars.
Meanwhile, to the right of the bar is an even larger section devoted to stand-up tables. During my visit, this area was the haunt of two more common species of migratory fowl, expatriatus volubus vulgaris and expatriatus drunkasaskunkius. The males of both these species were in full mating plumage, although vulgaris appeared to be having somewhat more success with the local chickens than drunkasaskunkius. One particular group of males perched behind us had particularly irritating mating calls, responding to the incessant female cries of "You funny, Mister" with various forms of cackle, guffaw and donkey-like hee-haws.
Believe me, this place on the Sunday afternoon in question was as noisy as any aviary in Ragunan Zoo.
If you can't take the wildlife in the bar anymore, Hotel Kristal has thoughtfully provided a poolside terrace right outside the bar where you can sip your drink under the shade of a parasol and relax as the late afternoon breeze gently massages your troubled brow. For this reviewer, suffering as he was from the excesses of Saturday night, this was infinitely more preferable to the horrors lurking inside.
Odds and Ends: For those who like to gyrate to the sounds of the sixties and seventies, there's a kind of impromptu disco on weekend evenings, which no doubt gets the chickens out flapping their wings.
Last Call: Let's face it, on my visit to Satu Lagi, I was feeling somewhat under the weather and so was viewing the scene with a rather jaundiced eye. Perhaps had I been in better condition, the place would have suited me right down to the ground. Neither Satu Lagi nor its clientele could even be remotely described as "funky" or "trendy". It's crowded, it's noisy, it's raucous, but for those craving sociability, especially those far removed from their home climes, it's a lot better than being alone in some hipper place that's little better than a morgue. But if you've got a headache, just don't forget the aspirins and the earplugs. (Bill Blade)