Wednesday Was “Country and Western Night” at the Kayu Manis Restaurant……

…..and these guys gave it their best shot all evening. And they really weren’t all that bad. They were performing in the center of the restaurant which has open sides all around and most people were eating outside but could still hear the music. We were the only people sitting inside with the band and, as they inevitably do, the lead singer was asking where we were from, what we were doing in Pekanbaru and the usual light banter for restaurant bands. When I told the lead singer (not in the picture) that I was from Texas he got all excited. It appears he and I have a common interest in Texas music and he started singing Lyle Lovett, Robert Earl Keen, Jerry Jeff Walker and when he asked for a request, I automatically suggested Willie Nelson and he broke into “Help Me Make It Through the Night.” I’m literally half-way around the world from Austin and this guy knows all the Texas musicians. Thursday night was “Latin Passion Night” but, unfortunately, we had to miss that one.

Saturday morning I did my daily walk early before it got too hot then went to one of the local malls with the other American trainer. I’m not really a “mall person” but I did get a head and shoulder massage which was ok but not nearly as good as in Thailand. Spent about an hour just walking around looking in the stores. I wear X-Large in most shirts and there’s not a lot of selection for that over here—lots of small and medium sizes.

It surprised me that a lot of people were wearing orange today—to support the Netherlands in their World Cup championship game with Spain. I was wondering about that and it kind of surprised me what with Indonesia being a former Dutch colony (Dutch West Indies) and the colonial/indigenous relationship was not very good in the old days. You really don’t see a lot of Dutch influence over here (as you do British legacy in Kenya) but they seem to be generally rooting for the Netherlands tomorrow night. This is a soccer-crazy country over here—I can’t believe how many people are really into the World Cup. Almost all the clothing stores have soccer themes and restaurants are offering World Cup specials. Personally, I don’t care for either the Dutch or Spanish but, just to get into the spirit, I bought a Netherlands T-shirt.