A funny thing happened on the way to the launderette......

Proof that nothing in Indonesia should be taken at face value was confirmed recently by this particular incident.
A live in maid is not exactly compulsory here but it is extremely normal. Paid the equivalent of about 70 pounds a month, the maid usually has a room in the house and her (although sometimes it's a his) duties entail cleaning and laundry with a possibility of shopping thrown in too.
We have two teachers houses here in Gading Serpong and up until recently we had a young maid based in the main house. She cleaned the two teachers houses on a day to day basis and also did the laundry. I attached myself to this rota by having her visit my house once a week to clean and took my laundry to the main house to have it done.
2 weeks ago, the maid left.
Now, I live on my own and my house is easy enough to clean, but laundry and ironing I have always considered to be time I'll never get back and that there are more worthwhile things I can do with that time. So, it was with this particular philosophy that I looked around for someone to do it.
As luck would have it, there was a sign saying "laundry" outside a house two doors away from my house.
I ventured into the driveway one day to enquire and was met by a sweet old Indonesian lady. Using my limited Bahasa Indonesian, I asked if she could do my laundry for me to which I was met with the reply of "EH-EH"
This wasn't the response I was expecting so proceeded to re-request my laundry needs. The woman appeared to understand but yet again said "EH-EH" this time followed buy a further sucession of "EH-EH"'.
It was at this point I realised that the poor old dear had some sort of speech impediment or some such disability, but her frantic nodding made me return to my house to collect the stack of clothes that had built up. I left her my name and address and my phone number and left to a cheerful chorus of "EH-EH"s.
3 days later I went back to check on the status of the laundry and was met by a middle aged woman called Veronica who, it turned out, was the sister of the lady I'd first met.
Veronica looked worried, never a good sign and especially when your worldly clothes posessions are at stake.
Very calmly, Veronica apologised for her sisters enthusiasm at being able to do my laundry and immediately I wondered why. There was a perfectly good sign saying "Laundry" outside the house and EH-EH, as she will always affectionately be known to me as had completed a very formal printed out laundry request form.
The next part didn't take me quite by surprise as it would have done when I was newly arrived in Indonesia. Veronica explained that their laundry was an agency for dry cleaning and that all the clothes are sent away to be dry cleaned at a cost of RP5,000 per item. I was now looking at a bill of over RP200,000 for what should have cost less than RP50,000...................and then she handed me back my laundry bag containing my dirty underwear and tea towels.
On the plus side, Veronica did direct me to a place called "Nina's" in the next street where the sign saying "Laundry" evidently meant they could do day to day laundry.

The moral? It always pays to ask...............