Moving to Jakarta - help, please.

My husband has just been asked work in Jakarta. Wasn't something we were even considering 2 weeks ago and yet we are suddenly moving from Australia to Indonesia at the end of the year.

So many questions, I don't know where to start. The forums have been very useful so I'll try not to repeat things that have already been covered.

Schools for a 14 year old boy - presumably moving mid year (at most schools) it's almost a case of finding somewhere with a place. He's studying the IB programme at his current school. anyone have any recommendations of which schools to look at ahead of others. I have been advised to look at JIS, then AIS ahead of BIS and NZIS but that was from Australian teacher at Australian School, and not all of those are IB.

Houses - any opinions anyone of house v apartment. South Jakarta seems to be the main area to look at for accommodation. Correct?

It looks like it's expected that you have a maid and a driver. Correct?

I'm trying to convince son and husband that it is more important that we live in a nice area where I have things to do in the day ahead of minimising their commute to school/work. Am I being selfish? Do non-working spouses have a good social life/find things to do to keep busy? I've found in Australia that it has been harder to break into social networks without young children - and not planning to have another baby now to do so!

We're heading over to Jakarta for a week on 6 October to have a look around/get our bearings etc. Staying in Central Jakarta for simplicity, though hotel not finalised yet.

If anyone is around to catch up and tell us what it's really like living here, I'd love to hear from you. Sadly not there in time for the next organised get-together.

Emma