After only one week in Indonesia I had met my future love to be. It was not at all intentional, as I was not looking to fall in love with anyone. This eventually led to a love affair that had some very interesting episodes from England to Mexico.
In October 1996 Capsugel purchased a plant in Indonesia from the competitors. All of the process systems were outdated or did not exist that Capsugel normally used. A major project was planned to bring the plant up to date. My responsibility as Project Technician was to coordinate and organize the control system upgrade of the production machines. This included the capsule machines, melting system, sorting machines, and design a tank washing system.
After all the planning was completed and the machine was shipped to Indonesia the mechanical people from Capsugel went first to handle the physical Installation. I followed a few weeks later for the installation of the control systems. It took more than 40 hours to get there. I arrived in Indonesia in the morning, by now I was very accustomed to meeting new people and going to different countries. The heat in Jakarta was unbearable. I checked into the Crystal Hotel where everyone else was staying. The rest of the day I lounged around the pool and soaked up some rays. That night I had dinner in the hotel restaurant with my friends. After dinner we planned to go to the plant early the next morning and went to our rooms. The workday was difficult because they had no air-conditioning in the area we had to work. I had a meeting with the people there and explained to them our task. After work we had a one-hour drive back to the hotel. One of the leaders of the group had planned a dinner for the evening at a local restaurant called the Green Pub. I did not really like group dinners but I would go occasionally. We got back to the hotel and agreed to meet in the lobby at 8pm. I went to my room and showered and then had a massage. The massages were really cheap, only about $3 US. Then I dressed for the dinner and went downstairs. It was about a 30-minute drive to the restaurant. There were also some people there from our plant in France whom had already arrived at the restaurant. They had reserved a long set up table just for our group. We ate our dinner and had a few drinks. Some of the men in the group had girlfriends with them. One of the men from Greenwood came back from the bathroom and told me he had seen some women at the bar he wanted to meet. I told him to go and meet them then. He was new to traveling and for some reason thought I was the expert. I hesitated a moment are so hoping he would give up. But he was sure that I could bring them over so he could meet them. I guess I wanted to show off a little and thought what the heck. I went to the bathroom myself and passed by the bar on the way. I saw the women sitting there talking. There were three of them. On the way back I stopped behind them looking their way. I was a little shy about meeting anyone so I did not say anything at first. After a few moments one of them saw me staring and invited me to talk. I told them that my friend wanted to meet them and invited them to our table. They smiled at me and talked about it for a moment in Bahasa Indonesia. They then followed me over to the table. I introduced them to my friend. While I was gone some other women had joined the table and taken the empty chairs. I think that the people from France whom had been coming to Indonesia from the beginning of negotiations for the plant had invited them. Maybe they thought that us the newcomers need girl friends like they themselves had. That way we would not tell on them since we knew they were married. I had no intentions of meeting someone that night. We had a few more drinks and then started dancing. I danced with the woman from the bar named Teti whom I took a liking to. I found out she spoke very good English and we danced for several hours off and on. I told her I was married and lied to her by saying I was in love with my wife. I was trying to encourage her at first to dance with my friend but she liked dancing with me. Later that night we all decided it was getting late and time to return to the hotel. Somehow it came to be understood that she would come with me. When we got to the hotel everyone else went to the rooms all with new girlfriends I think. I took Teti to the poolside and talked sometime. I was really not thinking at first to spend the night with her. After talking some time we went to the room together. We had a wonderful night together. The next morning she said she needed enough money to go back home to Bandung. I gave her several thousand Rupia not really knowing the value since I was new to Indonesia. She did not say anything and I left her in the room and went to work. When I came back that night she was still there. It turns out that 2,000 Rupia is not very much money. I was happy she was still there. She stayed there for the next few weeks while I continued my work. I found out that she had a boy friend named Ken from England whom she had known for more than seven years. That was the reason she was in Jakarta. She had to make a visa to go to England the next month to be with him.
I went back to America after working in Indonesia for about 1 month. I was there for several weeks before going back to Indonesia. My wife was in Mexico during this time. She preferred to be with her family than stay in America all the time alone. I stayed in contact with Teti by telephone and found out where she was going to be at in England. Ken worked during the day and I thought it would be interesting to make a one-day stopover in England on my way back to Indonesia. I arrived and rented a car. This was my first experience of driving on the opposite of the road than that of the US. I managed to do OK except when I came to the traffic circles. These I could not get the hang of. I lost one hubcap but did manage to stay on the correct side of the road. I made my way to the small town where she was staying in a hotel there. I asked the landlady if I could go up. Half way up the stairs I met Yuli her youngest daughter. Yuli let out a scream. I found out that Ken was married and would be gone for a few days before returning to the hotel apartment he had rented for Teti. We spent a wonderful couple of days together site seeing England. I then had to continue my trip to Indonesia for my work. She made me promise not be out meeting any more girls. That was not a problem because I had never planed to meet anyone else in my life that I would love after the divorce with Tiffany. I began to think about my feelings for Teti and at one time I thought that maybe the stories you here of exotic women having some kind of magic was true. In Indonesia I remained true to my word and mostly went to work and had a massage every night then ordered room service.
I returned to the US before going to China for some machine installations. I contacted Teti often. She had gone back to Indonesia so I invited her to China. It took some time to get the visa together and by the time she had it I only had one week left there. I told her it were better we waited. She did not like it but agreed reluctantly.