Not-so-funky fowl flock to Satu Lagi

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)