My favorite websites were blocked the other day (imgur and reddit). When I tried to access them a little message popped up up saying that I could call the provider if I thought it was blocked wrongly. Since neither of the sites contain pornographic material (which is always blocked in Indonesia) I called up the provider and asked them to unblock it. The woman on the phone said the block had come from the government and that there was nothing she could do. I used a proxy to go on reddit and try to find out what had happened. Turns out that a conservative Muslim minister (Tifatul Sembiring) was about to go out of power and decided to fuck up the internet before he got ousted. It also had a link to an article about the politician that showed various tweets and statements from him saying he was too pure to ever touch a woman who wasn't a family member of his. He then accused Michelle Obama of forcing him to shake hands with him when she visited Indonesia. A video showed him jabbing someone else out of the way in order to shake her hand. Since I found all this out through reddit, the block probably had nothing to do with pornography. It was just a political attempt to choke free press.
Sembiring came up again later that week in one of my lessons. According to my students he is part of the same muslim union that banned Lady Gaga from entering the country because of satanic symbols in her performances. He was also instrumental in jailing a an Indonesian singer after a personal sex tape was found on his computer by someone who stole it from him. Then my students showed me images on the computer of 'Paris Hilton-y' type Indonesian celebrities in scantily clad clothes next to campaign posters. In some of the photos they looked like they were in bars. The women were very popular on Indonesian TV. Can't help but think if they got some decent porn in they could get rid of that shit.

Last weekend I went to a '4d' cinema. It engineers the fourth dimension by wiggling the seat around in a way that makes my amateur chiropractor/hairdresser appear to have the fingers of an angel. It also squirts you in the face with water every time something wet comes on the screen.  Towards the end of the film this seemed to have a deliberate delay so that when I put my hand over  the nozzle to block the jet of water nothing came. As soon as I thought it was safe and put my hand down it let a big squirt rip into my face.

To further satisfy my lust for water I also went to sea world with one of my students and his friends from work. At the petting aquarium I got to hold a starfish and even touch a shark. There are some photos floating around somewhere from one of the guys we went with but he has yet to upload them anywhere. This is despite the fact he took about 1000 photos a minute like a true Indonesian. The student works with a fashion company and all his fashionista friends and him were too nervous to touch the sharks. There were some instructions in Indonesian I didn't understand but I decided to have a go. When a sizeable one swam past I leant over the edge and ran my hand down its back. As I turned around to smile at everyone the bugger snapped around so quickly with its teeth bared I leapt about two meters away from the tank. 

After sea world we walked down 'The Bridge of Love,' which had a much nicer Indonesian name that I've forgotten. It was a big heart shaped bridge out into the ocean which a load of lovers had painted there names on or carved them into the wood. It was totally gay. When we stopped for coffee some of the fashionistas showed some concern about what I was wearing. They said the tattered shorts and poorly fitting 'I Love Singapore' T-shirt just didn't accentuate my natural style. I looked at my student and asked him if he knew what time it was. 'Makeover time,' we said in unison.

The sight of all the fish in the aquarium and our time by the sea got us hankering for sea food. We went to a fancy place in Ancol Mall where you could choose your own fish or crab/lobster from the tank. I saw a particularly large crab make a bid for freedom and manage to flop out of its container. I immediately knew that this was the bastard I wanted to eat and told the waiter to take it to the kitchen straight away. The satisfaction of seeing the same crab on my plate a few minutes later was profound. It was pretty expensive for Jakarta though at around £8.

The next weekend I saw the new Spiderman film with my fashion designer student and he acted as my stylist and picked me out a new 'semi-format' outfit for after the film. I proudly wore my new style out of the mall and  showed it to my housemate who said it was 'all right.' I later wore it out with a female friend and she told me I looked 'very gay,' so I might just pop the outfit in a drawer for a while.