Jakarta .... The Mecca of Indonesia

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Ok.... So I commenced my bus journey from a place close to Batusnagkar (in Sumatra) to Jakarta (in Java). The journey itself took 49 hours. This was tough on the old noggin as
a.) There was only 1 other person on the bus who could speak english and I found that out after a full day of looking lost!!
b.) I forgot to wear a jumper. The temperature on the bus drops very low at night and I was sitting on a kick ass air conditioner which refused to stop blowing lovely fresh air (like a gale force) at me throughout the 2 nights on the bus!!!


 Still, at least I started talking to Riah...He was in his final year at university and he was moing to Jakarta to finish his studies so he had never been. In one way I was lucky as I had 2 seats on the bus for the first 5 hours.After that period of time a woman sat in the seat beside me and proceeded to use me as a pillow why she slept. When she heard me speaking english to Riah, she asked him to ask me why I didn't take the plane from Padang to Jakarta as that would only have taken an hour. I replied in a universal language by rubbing my thumb and forefinger together to indicate saving some money.She replied by laughing at me and checking my trouser pockets for  money..
       We reached BanderLampung (the last stop before the bus was driver on to the ferry ) after nearly 2 days so it was time for a quick kfc (minus the forks.I think I could get used to eating without utensils!) We boarded the ferry around 3.30 am.At 4.30 most of the guys disappeared as they had to prepare for morning prayers at 5. I decided to enjoy the view of sunrise overt the ocean which created Krakatoa...well, as much as you can enjoy a sunrise when you are in that state between awake and asleep.
         I had to stick like a limpet\leech to Riah as I had already forgotten where the bus was parked on th boat and after a few minutes I realised hat if I lost Riah, I might as well have lost all my luggage/passport.....eep!!! Thankfully, Riah was  in no mood to lay hide and seek.He seemed genuinely interested in talking about hus dream of seeing man united play (which seems to be quite a common dream in these parts.) Anyway, after morning prayers, the ferry eventuall made it to Java and we only had another 3 hours to go! 
            When I got off the bus in the centre of Jakarta,a policeman helped me get a taxi and then the taximan asked for 100,000 . I said '  no way ' and he said 50000..I told him to get lost as I knew he was taking the piss (although I wih the policeman could have helped me out more when the taximan asked for 100k)..... Riau helped me get a taxi  but the taximen looking for tourists were terrible ,. Riau and I started talking to the guys on the beja .Riah asked one guy and 5 guys answered 5 different prices and started shouting to maximise the confusion.I ended up paying  50000 for  a trip that should have cost 20000 . This pattern of shouting with the beja drivers is really horrible and at the end of this bartering session, they all started laughing again ....I asked the driver 'how many km to jaksa street and he replied 20 km..... I found out later that it was 4 kms. Actually, at thhe end of the journey, the guy asked for 20,000 more to help with his studies and I cam very close to throwing his helmet at him...
            After reading the lonely planet book,I decided to stay at at the Wisma Delima...According to the book,that place seemed cool.When i went to look for it one guy who was standing 10 meters from the place told me that the  Wisma Delima  had closed down a couple of years ago and to try his place...I am used to this kind of blatent lying at this point so I just ignored him and saw the hotel 20 seconds later. I stayed i the cheapest room there, (the dorm room) For 40,000 rp a night, you could have a bed and all the mosquitos that could fit into your mouth while you sleep!!
          Anyway, I started chatting away to  a girl from London or what I perceved to be a London accent. She was in fact a dutch girl who had a brother studying as a border in Saint Columbas (I think, Rathmines) and I met another bloke from  Holland. The girl was heading on later that evening and they guy was heading on in the morning.He was telling me that  he was helping some kind speak English the following day so I ended up seeing him for a grand total of about 5 minutes the next day...  
Both of the guys said Jakarta  was a bit of a dump.....This didn't fill me with a great deal of confidance as I had 4-5 days to spend here before heading on!
I started chatting to another guy in the hostel. Max is a geman guy travelling through asia before heading back to Berlin in the Autumn.  He was telling me that he wanted to have a look at the local flea market. That sounded like a good idea to me so we walked to the location (I have never been offered so many lifts in my life!) When we got there, we discovered that the flea market really consisted of pricey Batik stuff which neither of us had any interest in so we moved on. I wish the shop owners would give the buyer some room to breathe though. The minute you enter a place, they are all over you.I think this is counter productive as it frightens away a lot of customers.
       The following day..I ended up talking to Max for some time. I noticed that he had a guitar so I asked if he would play a few songs.... and here are some of the songs which he played!!!


Traditional Irish (A german guy singing a trad irish song to an irisih guy who doesn't know the words....shocking stuff!!!  ) http://youtu.be/VVipsC9iEr8

German (Selig)  http://youtu.be/HmPgxbk5j1g
French:   (Noir Desir) http://youtu.be/7L_uoq-lB-4
Singing 3 songs in 3 different languages takes some beating!

I went for a drink or 2 outside the 'Circle K' shop. They have chairs outside all their shops and nobody seems to mind (well, mostly because it's a free place to hang out and they hav free wi-fi there!)
Anyway, I went back to get my book and update a blog (Sometimes I scribble down a few words during the day. If I remember that I wrote them, then they all go in this blog!), I ended up meeting a guy called Jon from the Basque country. He was told there was no room in the dorm. I told him to change to the dorm and save money so he rechecked and this time, they said it was ok! He seemed like an interesting dude.He was telling me that most people from his area do not see themselves as Spanish.He wanted the Spanish national team to lose in the euro finals such that the politicians would not use it as an excuse to forget about the E.U  crisis for that week (Actually, that did make sense to me!) .
      He had to fly home amd come back within 3 days as his workmates needed some help urgently. That is some flight though!! Halfway across the world and back again within one week! I should stop moaning about my bus trip! .
       we were in Bukit Lawang  at the same time [This has happened a fair bit during my time in Indonesia.I would bump into various people who have travelled to the same places as me!].....Jon (Remember he's Basque so it's Jon ,not Juan!!) came back with me to the 'Circle K' shop and I proceeded to show Max and himself a couple of youtube clips of the sport of hurling.  Jon had studied sport in uni. (and I think Max studies some sport in uni also.)  so he had an interest in the game . During the youtube clip, mam decided to skype so it was fun trying to talk to mam while half of Jakarta could hear her (I didn't have any earphones so I had to turn the sound up on the laptop to 11 just to hear her....Don't worry though mam!!! I don't think anybody can understand you over here as people are not used to hearing other speak English so quickly!!)  After discussing the merits of Jai Alai (you know the traditional basque country game.Actually, Jon mentioned that he played a game that seemed like it is EXACTLY the same game as the game we call Handball back home. Apparently, their version of handball is very popular in the Basque region!) we all decided to call it a night. The 2 lads were heading off in the morning.Max was going to India to find himself/ find a paragliding trip that Jon recommended and Jon was off in another direction. Before we all headed back to the room, Jon booked the a motor bike to the airport.The guy on the motorbike seemed like the most nervous Indonesian guy that I have ever met but he seemed cool and we arranged for me to be picked up for my flight back to kl on the Friday. 
     I woke up around 9am   ( after the 2 las had left) and thought that I  might do something today so I went to the mall and bought some runners.I think it's timee to start jogging again as I haven't jogged in quite some time "only once in the last 3 months" -
At this oint , I took it easy and bought some grub at the food court of the mall. I headed back to the hostel for a ew minutes before deciding that I should really take a tour of the area.
I went out again. while walking ,I  noticed a girl was lost . Miriam was just finishing her Masters and was flying back from Perth via Singapore...She was going to kota so I decided to tag along as I really had nothing better to do.
Miriam was telling me that she couldn't get over flying 5 hours from Perth to Sydney  and the people in both places  were very similar.This does not happen in central Europe at all (although, come to think of it, it probably does happen in the states.)
         Anyway,we took the Trans Sumatran bus  and got off at Kota...A guy started talking to us and brought us to see the snake (He didn't want to show Miriam the snake as the snakes blood had powers that only men could understand (I think he meant ... drinking snakes blood will give a man the same ....ahem....'buzz' as trying viagra. As far as I am concerned , the snake can keep his blood though!) ) and a turtle and Kotas version of  Chinatown/..(We saw some battery chickens here...  http://youtu.be/24RYVAmmONw).Then he demanded some money which was fair enough as  he had brought us to a fair few  locations. 
         We went to pnang  market ..... people really stared at miriam (She was telling me at one ppint at the start of the day, some lads were shouting 'hey honey' at her.) While we were walking up and down the night market, a little girl called her 'a loser'. Actually, she found that quite funny!.
At one stage we sat down for a few minutes by a mall as Miriam had a thorn stuck in the bottom of her foot. A few lads (teenageers) 'overtly' took photos of her while she sat down but she was more concerned with the thorn (which actually looked very sore). At one point, I got a cup of liquid (water) thrown at me from a  car window. I know 2 foreign people might stick out a bit in this part of toen but the reaction from the locals at that time of night was a little 'festive'! I thought at this point that it might be a good idea to get a taxi....we stopped 6 taxis (The first 5 asked for quite a bit of money!) and got one for 40k...
            Then we got back to the hostel, Miriam was looking for a bandage for her foot. a guy stopped her on the street and asked if she was interested in going to a concert....she said no but he then proceeded to help Miriam get some mosquito repellent.Actually, he seemed like a good bloke! He worked in Holland for 1.5 years as a hotel manager. He hung out with us for a couple of hours, even driving us to the train station and seeing if he could get the ticket to JogJakarta that Miriam was looking for. He drove us up to the national monument and gave us a quick history of the area so all in all, it was a cool 'chance' meeting!!! He mentioned meeting up for beers the following day.
  The next day , I met a  japanese guy and a french guy in the hostel. The french guy  had travelled to tasak chini! (I was there at the start of my trip but I met nobody else (until now) who had gone on a similar journey! He ws telling me that he met a woman who was travelling around the world on a motorbike while he was there and apparently, she is only one of 4 people who are doing this!)
       I was going to visit 'taman puring' to get some cheap gear but then I realised, I always wear cheap gear anyway, so there would be no point going there!!!
       I went to the mall and the  independence tower with Miriam. Actually, if you ever go Jakarta, go here as it's quite an interesting place to visit as you can read all about th history Indonesiia has with Holland and how the country developed into the place it is today. (A quicke mp4 of the tower: http://youtu.be/Hfudk_I2GIM) Also don't worry about getting lost. I lost my barings at one point and one of the street sellers saw me looking around and said   'you are going home that way. you came from jaxsa' ....and you' will prob see your friend this evening... Wow, I was kind of stunned as a few days earliier, i though nobody had heard of Jaxsa .Now, it's obvious that nearly all foreigners stay there so EVERYBODY knows exactly where it is!
We headed back to our respective hostels and a guy who was selling the blow dart gun came over to me again. I have never seen somebody try to sell one thing to me so many times ver a 4 day period. The thing is, I show absolutely NO INTEREST in buying the gun at any stage!
        I decided to take a rest back at the hostel. A guy saw me lying on the bed and stared at me for about 10 seconds.... I said ...'hi, i'm  John'  and he responded, 'It's Sam!'  I had met the 'Grizzly Adams' version of  Sam in Bukittinggi and 2 weeks later (and maybe 1200 km later also) a shaved headed Sam (still with beard) was in town!! This is happening more frequently now! It was good to see Sam as he had lots of movies that I could copy to my hard drive.....hang on!!! I gave him something in return...Although I am not sure if a computer virus is a good thing...sorry Sam!!! Sa was thinking of trying to cycle his way from the UK to Australia next year.....Sounds like a good idea Sam . Just use this guy as your inspiration ! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinz_Stucke) 
     Anyway, Sam notice the mosquitos straight away....I think they must have a mosquito community living in the dorm room! Sam was saying that the Wisma Delima was the first hostel established in Jakarta way back in the day. It's an ok place to meet people but the mozzies are something else in the dorm room!
        I headed off with Sam to the mall and we  ended up heading to the wrong mall...Eventually, we went to the correct mall (which was a round trip of maybe 4kms!) where they had traditional instruments and postcards! I had a go at some of the musical instruments.I saw the security guard giving me the evil eye so I thought I'd better move on !
         Anyway, Sam made his way to the airport that evening and the following morning I went to the postoffice to get some stamps for the postcards. The postoffice woman started laughing when I gave  her 8000, Miriam had paid 7500 and 4000  for various stamps the other day....so i knew I was being duped but I had no tim to go to the otther post office...dang!
           The Blow dart guy tried to sell me the blow dart today but he got the same answer as before ! He didn't hang around for too long though as I think he is coming to the conclusion that I have no interest in buying the damned contraption! He told me , he had them specially shipped in from Kalemantan every 3 months but Sam bought the exact same one in the shops the other day!
           I got a lift to the airport with the nervous guy. He drove like a madman but he was cool, his English was not great and the helmet that he gave me to wear  kept falling over my face (which was a good thing as then i could not see where the bike was going (i.e: at some point, the wrong way up a 1 way street, at another point, diectly into a bus.)) but he wished me well and told me to come back to Jakarta next year..Anyway, next stop Kuala Lumpur and then Thailand awaits!

Extra stuff!!!!!

Things I dislike about Indonesia:
1. People will try to make friends with you before asking for money. I would prefer if they just asked for money. e.g: th tourist guides would start talking away to you for a few minutes and walk around with you. Then, some might ask for money at the end of the talk and some others woukld not.
e.g2: the guy who tried to sell me the bamboo blowdarts was super friendly but when he realised that i would not buy the blowdart, he stopped chatting and moved on.

2. people getting on buses and playing musical instruments really badly and then looking for money. Normally, you can sit down outside restauants and some 'musicians' will come up to your face and shout/sing/hit the guitar and wave a bag in your face. as soon as you give money, they stop playing and move on.

3. The state of the traffic. Without a shadow of a doubt, there is a God and I know this as I am still alive after a month of being here. The rules of the road here state that people drive on the left hand side but I see people driving from the left , from the right, up the wrong side of the road, on the paths (beeping the pedestrians to get out of the way.) Using the horn for any useful purpose is rendered a bit obsolete if it used all the time!

4. Knowing that you re being ripped off and at the same time, knowing that you are being laughed at. I experienced this at the post office when the lady asked for 8000 to send the postcards....Now, I knew for a fact that they are cheaper than that but I had no time to go back to the other place. I don't actually mind being ripped off as I am not losing too much money. The killer thing is ....she started speaking to her friend in Indonesian and was laughing like crazy at the same time. I don't need to know the language to know why she was laughing. The same thing happened with me in Bukit Lawang.The tour guide asked me if I wanted to share a meal with me after our 3 days of trekking. I had no problems with that until he asked for an extortionate amount for the meal...Then, he proceeded to invite half the tour guides to the meal and speak in Indonesian for the whole period of the meal.
when I arrived in Jakarta from the 2 day bus journey from Bukittinggi, I asked the policeman to help me out and he told me to get a cab .The taxi man then asked for 100,000. I hadn't a clue where I was or where Jalan Jaksa (the only place (for the most part) where foreigners stay) was but i guessed that it was too much so I told the driver to go away so he dropped his price to 50000 straight away.... I said no but then i got a lift on a motor bike for 50,000. The guy told me the place was 20km away when it was only 5 km away and when i asked him how much it would cost, you would get 8 or 9 people shouting different values  at the same time and when you accept a price, they would  always laugh... I ended up asking 3 or 4 people for prices of everything just to see if anybody would say the same price and for the most part this was not the case.When I went into a shop to buy something and they had a calulator on  the desk ,I tended to walk out as they would always type in an amount when I wanted to buy something.This amount was always a random amount.

5. The feeling that you know they know the answer to your question but they are siizing you up for money....An example of this was in Jakarta. I was lost on a side street and was not sure what street to take to get to Gambir train station so I asked a guy. He looked at me and repeated the word gambir as if I used a word that he had never heard in his life. I guess he was going to ask me if i wanted a lift after a couple of seconds so I walked off.Another time, I got to the Jalan Jaksa andlooked for the wisma hotel. I asked a guy for the location of the hotel as I knew it was closeby, he told me that it had closed down 2 years earlier. I thanked him and continued walking for another 15 metres before I saw the Hotel ...and it was open for business!!!

6. The exit tax (150,000 RP) and entrance tax (25 dollars). Apparently,a few years agio , you could get a 2 month visa for  Indonesia and it would not cost you anything. This is not a big problem though as people have to get money some way although you do have to pay the entrance fee by cash so that money could go missing quite easily.

7. When I go into fashion /clothes shops, nearly all the models are westernised or are from Europe...(This seems to occur over all of South East Asia that I have visited). The local people are EASILY as good looking as western people in all the places that I have visited    (Although beauty is in the eye of the beerholder!) and the preoccupation of selling whitening creams to woman is something that I will NEVER understand!!

Things I like about Indonesia:
1. For every person that will come up to you and chat you up so they can take your money, I have met people who will come up to you and chat with you because they are genuinely interested in why you have come to visit their country.Some people would like to practise their english speaking skills and some just have an inquisitive nature (similar to me.) I have had some interesting conversations (re: the man I met on the streets of Bukittinggi 3 times) with people who have maybe 200 words of english but that would not bother them when speaking to me so why should I be bothered!!


2. Some people are genuinely willing to help you out.I remember getting off the Bus from Bukit Lawang and some guys kept shouting at me so they could sell me stuff.I found a place 50 meters away (beside a warehouse)  I wanted to gather my thoughts before going to the next place and needed a few minutes of peace and quiet. One particular guy who only had a few words of english noticed me and clocked that I just needed some space so he advised me about chea places to eat and where to go to get the next bus and how much it would cost.He talked to me for maybe 5 minutes before moving on and this was REALLY appeciated. He wasn't in my face and didn't want anything in return. That was nice and it happened a few times over the few weeks that I was here.

3. Being treated as a family member - not a Bule by the zakaria family. While staying at various hostels/hotels I was made to feel like I was a tourist who was here to pump money into the economy and that was all. This is na horrible feeling as it feels like I am just using people for me own needs. My whole point about traveling is to see how people live their daily life.It is really cool for me to learn various things along the way (e.g: experiance climbing a volcano, see various fruit trees,coconut trees) but it is noce to see people going about their daily business and how different/similar it is to the way I go about my life back home. The Zakaria family could have treated me like a tourist but they went out of their way to invite me to various gatherings and events ans that's something that I would never see as a tourist. Thanks guys!


4. The people who are genuinely friendly will give you the clothes off their back (well, nobody would give me their clothes as I am 5 sizes bigger than anyone here!) If you are sitting on the side of the road and looking tired, the chances are that somebody will come up to you and ask you if you are ok (Even if they can't speak english.) The trick is knowing which of these guys are looking for a way to make money and which are being genuinely friendly.


5. Peoples honesty: Everybody kept asking me , why was I traveling alone and why wasn't I married. These were genuine questions and it showed that people took am interest in where I was going/ my state of mind. [ By the way, in case you were wondering, the answers to the questions are ... I am traveling alone as I never really know where I am going next and I am not sure if there are many people who are willing to travel with someone who does not know where they are going next (Although, there are many,many ,many people who are traveling alone.I am surprised as I never realised that most people that are traveling around this part of the world are doing it by themselves. This is a pleasant surprise to me!) and I am not married as I am still a bit on yet over my shyness at some stage...I hope]

6. When traveling on the buses, most people will stare at you but that's because you look different so that's no big deal. Also, most will try to speak english.This can present a bit of a challenge when trying to hold a decent conversation but it is an interesting way to pass a few hours! I have never talked with my hands so much!

7. Eating with your hands. This is something that I have done in the past but that was due to the fact that I was too lazy to use a fork. Over here, most people eat with their hands and I noticed that they made no mess while eating (unlike me who seemed to drop rice / chicken / vegetables everywhere while I was eating!)

8. Peoples willingness to help. People over here will always help you out. some people will look for money and some will not but people will always ask you if  you are lost or where do you want to go!

9.The haggling woman in Tomoc. Now, I HATE haggling but when the woman trying to sell me the shirt tells me to haggle, then I found that strangely amusing. I felt like haggling upwards!


I always have to remember the following....it's easy to have an opinion when you have money in this country. There are quite a lot of people who have nothing here and it's completely understandable that they have to sell anything and everything to get by. I would rather they be completely honest and not pretend to be friendly before looking for money but then again I was never in that position that I needed money to survive or I would starve.