Jakarta

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hello



I made it to jakarta in one piece(amazingly) the plane I was on was such a derilect p.o.s, rumour has it that once the planes in N.america are unsafe to fly, the give them to russia, then the russians give them to africa, and when they are to unsafe to fly in africa they are given to indonesia, the plane I was on was no exeption. frist off, the extieriour was rusting in some places, the interior was yellowed with age, seats had gashes in them, and the t.v closest to me screen was smashed out. How i dont know, when we going for take off, it seemed that every crack in the runway that we went over felt like we were driving over a lindmine, during the flight, a strange ratteling sound was coming from the engine for the entire 4 hours :s, on top of that the flight attendands uniforms looked like they were stolen off the backs off poor indonesian women in more of jakartas many corragated tin slums, and at the immigartion desk, the official told me that if I trafficed drugs in indonesia, that i would get the death sentance and be shot!! A nice warm welcome indeed! Jakarta is HUGE!!! the books say 12 million, but in fact it is more like 20 million due to the slums and shantytowns, people from rural areas sem to think that they will instantly become rich if they move to the city, and when they get here they end up in a disgusting shanty town. The gap between rich and poor here in Jakarta is amazing, you see people in bmw's driving by shanty towns where thousands of people are straving. Jakarta is much more than i expected it to be, i thought it would be similar to bangkok, but it is very different. wayyy bigger and much more poverty, its real an eye opener.. and I thought cambodia was bad. my taxi driver from the airport warned me of all the places that I would be beatin and robbed in Jakarta, which by the way he explained it, seemed like almost everywhere exept the small area where i am staying, thank god, he also told me to stay away from the chinese and the black people, as they are "evil" quite rascist indeed. and whenever i tell an indonesian that i am going to east timor, they become furious, saying" why the hell would you go to east timor, they are a bunch of idiots!" seems like there is still alot of resentment stemming from their independance. ....anyway... the place i am staying is called the jalan jaksa, in central jakarta. ive already been woken up to the muezzins call to prayer, which is a beautiful, but eerie at the same time. jalan jaksa is recommened in the lonely planet as the backpacker haunt, i also think it seconds as jakartas gay area, as i have been whistled at by men and had a few lewd comments directed towards me :S creepy. I actually have a gay stalker! he has been following me around and paying for my food and drinks, he says that he wants come to east java with me, so hopefully i can run off to the train station without him seeing. but anyway i am actually really enjoying Jakarta aside from a few things, it is way different to all the other asian megacities that i have been to, more exieting, more real, a bigger challange and more risky.... all the things I have been looking for. ill probably stick around for a few more days before heading to the active volcanos gunung bromo and mt.Merapi..should be fun! I am also really looking forward to papua, where you are more likely to see a penis gourd than a cell phone, anyway wish me luck, i miss you all, and dont worry, i know where not to go, and i have developed a 6th sense for detecting shady characters and situations that will turn bad.

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