Predicting that Barack Obama could become the next president has sent a steady stream of visitors to Jakarta colonial-era house he lived as a child from potential buyers and journalists for an entrepreneur who wants to turn it into "Sweet Home Bar Obama."
Tata Aboe Bakar, 78 years old, owner, is in no desire to leave.
His family has lived in airy, cream-colored house, located on a sprawling plot of land in one of the most prestigious in Indonesia’s capital, since it was built in 1939.
"My brother was born here, my parents died here," he says, wearily taking a drag from his third cigarette as he recalls the curly hair guy who moved into two-bedroom pavilion within the compound with his pregnant mother and Indonesian stepfather in 1970.
But with a potential price of $ 3 million - and even more if Aboe Bakar may consider a broker who supports a U.S. embassy official is ready to pay five times the market price if Obama wins - he says he’ll take in seriously consider it.
Tristram Perry, the embassy’s public diplomacy official, was not aware of this proposal.
Obama’s family moved to Indonesia in 1967 and has spent two years in a humble house where chickens and ducks cackled in the yard and two baby crocodiles slithered around in a fence-off pond.
They moved to the small, red tile-roofed pavilion with Art Deco windows at Taman Amir Hamzah Street when Obama was 9 and stayed there for the next two years.
Aboe Bakar has few stories to tell about Obama as a child, except when his poodle ran away, never be seen again.
"Oh, he cried for two days," the former Navy admiral said, flashing a photograph of the young family sitting on a wooden bench in the front yard which, like much else, remains in force nearly four decades later.
Among those who have expressed interest in the house was Santemar Bartel, a Dutchman who owns the most popular pub in Jakarta.
Santemar says he has offered to rent the pavilion that was home to the presidential candidate so he could open a bar with an "Obama-blend coffee", a mix of Java Kenya and beans. He had also serve "stroopwafels," a type Carmelo deal resulted in Indonesia over the centuries long occupation of the Netherlands.
"The idea is to have snack, simple food and maybe some goods," Santemar said, adding that it was not, with all the recent interest, if Aboe Bakar would go for it. "We will see. It ‘mostly just for fun anyway."












ada rumah toh di jakarta ?
Tonys last blog post..Setahun Umur Inspirasi Blog
Wuah.. mau dijual? berapa duit tuh..
Nice to read about someone you doesn’t think about money - $3 million is quite an amount.