The klinik and more

Today was our "get to know the process" day at the International SOS Medika Klinik in Cipete.

We had dermatologist appointments at 8:45 and 9:00 and general practioner appointments at 10:00 and 10:15.  Having no idea about what traffic we would encounter on an early Saturday morning, we left the Fraser at 7am. We were there at 7:20. Traffic is very light on Saturday mornings. During the week or even later on a Saturday, the trip could take an hour. They do open at 7:00 and because we were there so early and the doctor had openings we actually ended up seeing the GP first and then doing the dermo as scheduled. We both liked the GP though the dermo was a little more difficult to interact with because her English was not quite as good. The real goal was to start the process of getting new scripts and such.  We have concerns about the process to get us our drugs. If they actually have your drugs on site you can walk out with your meds in hand on the same day without an additional stop at a pharmacy. They have one on site. We didn't walk out with any meds. We will see how this all plays out.  They are looking for which drugs they can source from Singapore. Around 10:00 we were done waiting at the Pharmacy area and had paid our bill (will submit for reimbursement). Note: here, we pay for everything and then get repaid.

Next stop was for lunch and a department store near the Klinik to look at bathmats. We got some good intel that we might find bathmats there. Yes, indeed, we found a suitable size and color in the home section. We will let our agent know.

This mall is a new one for us and is one of the ones where apartments exist above and around the mall in the Kemang area. The mall sits inside these towering structures and looks tiny in comparison. It is, however, a huge five-story mall.

There were so many expat folk there it seemed strange to us. The help in the stores was much more fluent in English than we've previously encountered and the help a little more stand-off-ish. In many places, even before you slow down near something a clerk appears to offer help. It is a little disturbing how fast they appear. Also, if you pick something and put it back down, before you even leave the airspace, they've arranged it in perfect order once again. Honestly, I don't mean to mess up the display!

In the lower, below ground, level of the mall was our last stop --new grocery named Hypermart. I'm not sure if there are others, but Brad really liked this place. It's like a Walmart in some ways. Less expensive prices than we've seen in many places. We will go back there for some household items we need for the new apartment.

We also saw the oddest thing in a bakery. A loaf of bread or a cake or something with one half of the top covered with grated cheese and the other side covered with what appeared to be chocolate jimmies. No, we did not purchase this item, but I would like to know why it exists. (B says it is bread and needs to be microwaved to melt the cheese and chocolate and then voila, dessert).

PS While at this mall today, in this city of 16 million people (if you count greater Jakarta 26 or 28 million people) we ran into a woman I played Mahjong with this week! She wanted to be sure I knew the game was at her house this Tuesday. Guess I'm going back.