Stealth Mugs

I have said before that as a guest in Indonesia i will do my best to respect the laws and customs of the country. However, sometimes after a hard day at work what you really want is an ice cold beer.

But where to get said beverage during the holy month of Ramadan? 99% of the shops remove it from their shelves, the local bar "Barrels" in Sumeracon Mall is selling only mineral water and even the "Happy Puppy Karaoke" establishment next door to EF Gading Serpong has closed for the month.

Now I could travel into Jalan Jaxa or Kemang in Jakarta but when I have to teach 3 hours of IELTS (international exam preparation) at 9am tomorrow and when all I want is one beer, help comes in a somewhat unique form.

I have mentioned Salsa, the food court near our school before and it was to here that Emma, Katie the new Irish teacher (she's from Ireland, not teaching Irish) Oli and I went to our favourite food and beer seller "Amie's"

"Three Bintangs please Ari" was the speculative request (Oli's fasting so he's decided this means no beer either) to which we were told "it'll have to be Heineken cans and we serve them in coffee mugs so no-one knows, is that ok?"

Well, no problem there then, we thought so asked for the menus as well.

Now here comes my favourite part of the experience........the beer duly arrived in said coffee mugs, but what was the pattern on the mugs?? yep, you've guessed it...."Heineken".....I promise, you couldn't make this stuff up!