Asian mindset [AUGUST 18th 2007]

I bu Eni had a great time in Bali. She had been working in Eastern Promise for 20 years before we took over Eastern Promise a year earlier. Oh, she had had her outings to puncak or Anyer, but never as far as Bali. I awaited them in the arrival hall on the Bali Airport and it was a great sight to see the happy staff coming through the door one by one, all 70 of them. The ‘old’ chef Pak Herry was wearing a jeans jacket and a huge pair of dark sun glasses from the sixties. The younger female staff did not need much time to make clear to the tour guide in the bus that their ‘must see attraction’ in Bali was not Tanah Lot or Kuta Beach; they wanted men. And some of the girls wanted girls. The normally so innocent staff had switched their service orientated daily routine into a wild monsterous intention to party for three days. And so they did. Non stop. The senior BuGils girls had seen it all and displayed an image of superiority by just calmly sitting in corner, bottles on the table, while the hard core evening shift of the Cazbar was dancing on tables and EP staff was still on a shopping spree.

I advised the kitchen staff not to use the airconditioning. They are not used to this and I could see it happen that the whole group would end up with flu, batuk and masuk angin. Most of them had never experienced such soft beds and no need to tell you that these guys spent most of their time in their room, watching soaps with all lights switched on the whole night. Ibu Eni took pictures of the room, of the hotel and of everything else that did not move. When I asked if I could see the result, she happily indicated me that I could not, because she was using a ‘system lama’, where you still have to put a film roll in. I felt sorry for asking. When I asked the delivery boy from BuGils and the cleaning boy from Eastern Promise if they had a good first night of sleep, they replied: ‘No. We did not sleep.’ ‘So what did you do?’, I wanted to know, wondering why they had not used their room at all. They just shrugged their shoulders, and answered: ‘Melamun aja…’ , which basically meant they had been dreamingly staring to an emptiness in front of them, somewhere in a dark corner of the hotel garden. Maybe they felt that a 3-star room was not their level. It did not matter. Indonesians can have the time of their life by just being ‘melamun’. It is an Asian mindset, I guess….

Pendy is the EP parking guy. He is not the most intelligent lad, and I actually think that the Kemang traffic jams intensify every time Pendy parks a car. When I wanted a picture of me with my daughter Patricia on my arm in front of the Tanah Lot temple, I asked Pendi to take the photo. Patricia however was not in the mood and looked the other way. Pendi stood ready, on top of a rock formation , while the waves were bouncing dangerously close against the rocks behind him. I tried to get Patricia her attention. ‘Patricia! Look in the camera!’ No. She did not want her picture taken. Then I shouted: ‘LOOK! Uncle Lens is falling in the water!’ This worked. She quickly turned her head around, but the camera was gone and so was Pendi. Pendi had jumped off the rock into the dangerous surf behind it , frantically turning his head from left to right. He really thought Lens had fallen in the water and even when I shouted at him this was not the case, he still swept his long arms trough the waves a few more times. He was in great confusion. He slowly climbed back on the rock, and again looked back at the rough waves of the sea. ‘Pendi! Lens ada disana!’ I pointed in the directions of the concrete stairs. Lens was sitting innocently with Jasper of the Cazbar, enjoying a beer in a warung. Pendi stared in the distance till he finally saw his boss. Pendi was reliefed, and happily waved to Lens, who had no idea what was going on below him.

The above were just some fragments to give you an impression of how the staff experienced it. The staff enjoyed the outing thoroughly and through this newsletter, they thank all the people that have contributed to their trip. Even though we receive complaints about lack of service in our bars, I strongly believe that by offering such an insensitive as a tour to Bali, that it stimulates them to work better and harder after their return. They do their best and they improve. Who wouldn’t be ‘melamun’ once in a while if you had to serve big and rowdy expats 6 long nights in a row! “He! That’s is not a double!”, “Why did you put his drink on my bill!” or “Why has the Carlsberg price gone up! That damn boss of you…!” We will not accept the complaint from our female expat customers anymore ,that the staff only pays more attention to our male clientele. It is just not true. It’s a prejudice: The love women! And when it takes a bit long to get you the bill, it is probably because we use a ‘system lama’. And we like to keep it like that. Certainly as long as Ibu Eni still works in Eastern Promise. Oh, and next time when you are trapped in traffic, don’t get frustrated, but realize that it all started at the parking lot of Eastern Promise with a guy named Pendi, who innocently tried to park some cars. Pendi is doing his best. They all do. And so should we in understanding this.
-- Bartele

PS. Coming Saturday we will celebrate the Eastern Promise Birthday Party. It has been 1 one year since the BuGils Management took over. With the kind support of Bir Bintang and Heineken we celebrate this event in a no-nonsense rock show, free flow of beer and loads of fun. Everybody is invited. Even the Carlsberg drinkers.... (but they have to pay).