Jakarta

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Jakarta
After a total travel time of 28 hours from cheltenham to my hotel in Jakarta (which I might add was pure luxury) I managed to grab a few hours sleep before getting out into the big city of Jakarta which was where the culture shock really began!

After sitting in about an hour and a half of traffic with people walking down the middle of the road begging and selling water, food and, strangely, large wooden boats and motor bikes, I arrived at my first hostel - sunny days hostel. This place was clean and had a communal pool and I thought to myself Jakarta doesn't seem too bad so I decide to go for a walk.

After nearly being ran over by the mopeds who had decided that the pavement was a good option to the traffic I found a local shopping centre for the wealthy of Jakarta (and sadly having a Starbucks to use their wifi) which was in the bottom few floors of the very western looking building in the photograph.

I then headed across town in a taxi to find the hotel where my trip was starting the next day and to confirm a few things. The attached picture gives you a taste of the sheer volume of traffic. Not only was the traffic dense but so was the driving, it was mind boggling that I didn't see any accidents.

To really get the experience of Jakarta i decided to walk back to my hostel through the city. I cannot explain how shocking this experience was..... on a good note, I felt very safe but, on the bad notes, there were open sewers everywhere, a large amount of the accomodation was just tin shanty huts and there was obviously no reliable refuse collection because there was litter everywhere and as i turned the corner from poverty and the smell of open sewers, there was one road of gated buildings with nice cars and large houses. Contrast is an understatement.
The final straw of the day, which really saddened me, was when a 3 year old girl came up to me (i.e. not much older than my niece) asking me for money........ I knew that, although I wanted to, I could not give her any money because it validated the actions of her parents who were probably hiding round the corner somewhere. So I jumped into a taxi and returned to my hostel.

At the hostel I met up with 5 dutch girls who invited me to go for a swim and a beer with them so at least that raised my morale.

The next day I met up with my room mate (also called Simon) and we went exploring the tourist parts of the city. We saw the National Monument (sokharno's last erection), went into the National museum and headed to the largest mosque in town which was local.
At the national monument we were accosted but a Australian girl called Bella who was just happy to find some English speaking people. Coincidentally she happened to be one of our tour members for the tour starting later that night.
After being tourists for the afternoon we headed to Sunda Kelap (Coconut Port) where we found a gorgeous Marina building called Batavia where we had dinner.

After dinner was one of the most memorable experiences I've ever had........ we walked through the local area near the ports and was greeted by a community of smiles. These people were living in shanty shacks which are built over a 5 foot wide open sewer with a large number of them being shops or places of work during the day. These people exuded such warmth and took huge interest in us as some of them had never seen white people before. They treated us like we were famous and, the next thing we knew, we were being dragged into a party for a 10 year old boy who was about to be circumcised (he didn't look too impressed - not that I blame him). They wanted photographs taken with us, the offered us food, cake and gifts..... it was a bit overwhelming that these people were so poor but so giving and happy.

That night we met the rest of the tour group who I must say are an eclectic variety of ages and personalities without any pain in the asses - which is good! So my final day in Jakarta was overall a memorable one!

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