Blok M update, November 2004

Status report

Early November is, by common consent, not bad considering it’s Ramadan. The more relaxed regulations this year allow for later opening - until 1.30 am - and live music in bars with the appropriate licence. As the Id approaches many of the regulars drift away - they’re going to take a few days holiday out of Jakarta - leaving the show to the diehards who are staying in town.

The only fly in the ointment is the shortage of girls, but we all know this is a temporary phenomenon and that they’ll be back. As a mate of the Reveller’s puts it one night, when he’s shedding a silent tear for the absence of his favourite Sweet Young Things, "Don’t worry. They’ll be back. After all, you’ve got that certain something they really want, that turns them on and makes them go for you." Cheered, the Reveller asks "Do you really think so?" His friend replies, "Yeah. Money."

Sisters’ week and the Batam girls

It’s the end of Ramadan, the Id is over, and the guys are rubbing their hands in lustful anticipation of that time-hallowed Blok M tradition, Sisters’ Week. Yes, the Sweet Young Things return from the kampongs with sisters, cousins and family friends in tow, all eager to experience the bright lights of the big city - and earn some much-needed cash to help out the family back home. For the harsh economic reality is that the Blok M girls may be the only source of family income, as subsistence farming and fishing is the norm out there in many parts of rural Indonesia. And of course life in the kampong can be stultifying for ambitious youngsters whose only knowledge of city life is formed by occasional visits to the nearest small town, and what they see on TV.

The Blok M cognoscenti rate this year’s intake as lacking in quantity, but excellent in quality - the Reveller hears favourable reports on quite a few of the youngsters. But there’s one anomaly, an odd phenomenon that several of the guys have picked up on but have no ready explanation for. And that is the obvious sophistication of quite a few of the new girls, streetwise and clued up about clothing in a way that is at odds with their supposed backgrounds.

As usual, it’s Deep Throat, the Reveller’s inside informant down in Buncit, who gives the game away. Apparently they’re from Batam, and the reason they’ve washed up in Jakarta is that there’s been a pretty serious - and surprisingly sustained - crack down on the bars and discos there. So here they are, economic migrants eager to make their mark (and an honest Rupiah or two) in Blok M.

All well and good. There’s always room for a little healthy competition. So why are more than a few of the regular Blok M girls distinctly unhappy about this small influx? After all, it’s reckoned to be fewer than twenty girls all told. Well, apart from the fact that the new girls are petite and very attractive, they’re so much more fun than the regulars and are quite simply better value. No Sharks or QuickFits here, and most emphatically no Starfish - these girls not only perform, they’re great company and real characters. One of the old hands reckons it’s the best intake on record. The message for the established girls is, look to your laurels or you’ll be yesterday’s news.

Top Gun regains lost ground

Top Gun, as our long term readers will know, used to be the Reveller’s regular watering hole until a spat that made him leave the place to stew in its own juices. But the whirligig of time goes round, and the old place is undergoing something of a renaissance. Some of the guys who quit D’s Place in protest at the loud lousy music there have stayed on in Top Gun, and made it their early evening dive of choice.

But what was really killing the place was the girls. Regular as clockwork they’d troop across the road to D’s Place for the nine o’clock lucky draw, and many would hang around there until the late night draw. The demise of the D’s Place early evening draw, and the incredibly short-sighted pushing of the late night draw into the early hours of the morning, persuaded the girls that they’d be better off hanging on in Top Gun, then flitting across the road to My Bar after midnight.

Another fatal error that the management made was in sacking their most popular staff a couple of years back, on the grounds that they were getting a bit long in the tooth and the guys would relish younger and sexier barmaids. It’s taken the bosses a long time for the plain stupidity of that decision to dawn on them, but it finally has and they’ve now got some very pleasant girls working in the place - cheerful, charming and efficient barmaids who bring back a much-needed touch of class.

Epilogue

All in all it’s been a pretty good month on the Blok. Most of the new girls are still around as December approaches - a good omen, as usually a fair proportion drop out after their first month either because they can’t take the way of life, or are disillusioned that they haven’t struck the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow that their sisters promised them. But more importantly - for the well being of the Blok - is an influx of new guys, predicted earlier in the year and now apparently happening. The Presidential election seems to have impressed even the most pessimistic gloom-and-doom merchants, and if the promises to root out corruption and encourage outside investment are even only partly kept, things can only get better.