JALAN SABANG

The reasons why I lobbied to stay at Mercure Jakarta Sabang are to:

• claim a repaired watch and trade a bag of oversized red onions for a TV remote control in Ortigas;
• soothe a loose bowel with a Nagi Izakaya ramen brunch and high ball, a dose of Mabuhay Lounge wine and a measure of PAGGS Premium Lounge beer;
• dispose two oversized underwears and four unwanted shirts;
• splurge on Lamongan's sate kambing and Restoran Garuda's padang spread.

Such are the perks of my impending departure --- to be feted by an all-women plane crew to a first ride in an electric taxi and not lose a phone, to be able to meet with Melbourne from the backseat of a Bluebird, ACE a lunch of ayam bakar and convene the PMT at a hidden sanctuary for Italian junk food.    

But there's a short list so I wonder if the durian at Jalan Sabang will taste the same in Bangkok after the Ides of March, or if the feeler for a possible role as the 4th Beatle will pay for the beer tower at Penny Lane.

It will be open season once St. Benjamin passes through with nothing confirmed by the ASEAN Secretariat until the last day so in the last hour, we crawled through Jalan Sabang then swam in a savory bowl of hot noodle-less bakso from East Java, gorged on three shapes of tasteless pempek from Sumatra, and had a mini PMU meeting over 10 skewers of delectable sate kambing from the only street stall that serves cold Bintang beer.

Maybe that's why I forgot that there's a TV remote in the hotel safety deposit box that I was suppose to bring home to Bakal 2 and perhaps the reason why the beer got warm at Garuda Lounge and the wine from PR 536 tasted like vinegar, not enough to fuel my daily grind of at least 20 kilometers for the last two days of the week...