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Published: December 15th 2014
Jakarta - Friday, 12 December, 2014
After the long and uneventful flights to the country, we arrived at our hotel, Artotel, just before 2 a.m. The hotel is, as its name implies, arty. Not a single wall (interior nor exterior) was spared decoration. The lobby is decorated with a large purple and silver Christmas tree and the ambient speakers blare modern American-pop versions of holiday favorites. Our room has a large flat-screen TV and cable with all our American channels, all of them. A special reserved channel advertises the Artotel while playing an instrumental version of "On The Bus Mall" by The Decemberists. On another station, the Travel Channel is doing a show on the most haunted places on earth, this time featuring Portland's Shanghai Tunnels. Being so early in the morning, we went to bed.
After we awoke, we headed out to see the area. Jakarta is not a touristy place. It is the capital and largest city in the country, boasting a whopping 9 million inhabitants. It's dirty, grey, and plagued with around-the-clock traffic. Ironically, as chaotic as it the city feels, everything happens slowly and all its people have a laid back demeanor... island life.
The business and shopping culture in the city was also shockingly different than we had expected. Big business and brand names are plastered to the sides of buildings and in the modern malls. In fact, their malls are so nice here, America could learn a thing or two. One mall, Plaza Indonesia, is 8 levels featuring all the luxury brands in high-end fashion.
North of the malls is the city center. In the center is the National Monument, resembling the Washington Monument in DC with a gold flame at the top. There is an enormous park surrounding the monument and the walking paths in the park are lined with coconut trees, with fresh coconuts actually hanging from the tops, which actually seems really dangerous for passersby. If the people here were even as half litigious as we are in America, imagine the consequences of those fruit bearing trees.
After our walk about, we returned to the hotel and slept from 3 p.m. till the next day.
Jakarta - Saturday, 13 December, 2014
Since we slept so much, we made for an early start back toward the National Monument. A festival for the Army was taking place and
the park was crowded. Displays of tanks and armored vehicles surrounded the park grounds. Soldiers sang karaoke to the crowds and food carts served fried soybean cakes and nasi goreng (fried rice) to visitors.
To the east of the monument, was the Istiqlal Mosque (the largest mosque in SE Asia) and the Catholic Cathedral. The mosque allows non-muslims entrance with a tour guide accepting donations. The building itself is utilitarian and unimpressive aside from its sheer enormity. The cathedral was far more opulent and smelled of frankincense in the nave.
On our return to the hotel, we made a stop at the Gambir train station to buy our tickets to Yogyakarta (pronounced joke-jakarta). Later in the evening, we ventured out to a restaurant that received some decent ratings on TripAdvisor. The food was an interesting mix of Dutch/Indonesian cuisine, reminiscent of the Dutch East Indies when the Dutch colonized the region prior to Indonesia's independence after WWII.
Jakarta - Sunday, 14 December, 2014
We woke early again to catch our train from Gambir Station to Yogyakarta's Tugu Station. We rode Eksekutive class (which is like 1st class) in a fairly comfortable air-conditioned, although slightly outdated, train for
8 hours. Our seats came with outlets which kept our phones charged. Jen played Soda Crush and took photos outside the window and Curtis played Doom and Destiny. Our view was slightly obstructed due to a patch job on the window which appeared to be fixing either a bullet exit or an errant rock.
Speaking of phones... Now, T-Mobile doesn't exactly have the best reputation in the States for quality of service, and for good reason, they have shitty coverage. But, their standard $80 unlimited plan automatically comes with a world plan. We both have UNLIMITED data and text over here and the 4G coverage is uninterrupted everywhere on this island. Phone calls are $0.20 per minute which is a fair price, but with our connectivity elsewhere, calling is practically unnecessary.
Yogyakarta - Sunday, 14 December, 2014
We arrived in Yogyakarta in the evening just prior to sunset. Our hotel is called Rumeh Mertua and is a 10 minute taksi (taxi) ride outside of the city center. Taxi rides cost about 36,000 IDR (rupiah) which is equivalent to $3 USD. Everything here is cheap. Our boutique hotel is this little luxury complex of heaven. Service is impeccable and
it only costs $30 per night. We finished the evening at our hotel having dinner and attempting to get drunk off of 4.25%!B(MISSING)intang beer.
Yogyakarta - Monday, 15 December, 2014
Yogyakarta is much prettier than Jakarta. It is lively and colorful. It does, however, have some of the most aggressive touts we have ever encountered. From our first interaction just outside of Tugu Station, locals tried ushering us into special art schools that provided galleries and art just for us. We barely made it half a block before some aggressive batik vendors began haggling sarongs. One guy actually followed us for over half-a-mile trying to sell us some ugly green dolphin sarong when Jen specifically said she wanted sea-turtles. Half-a-mile, that's some serious dedication.
As we approached the Sultan's Palace, the touts shifted gears and tried getting us to go to the Water Palace and would tell us the Sultan's Palace was closed. Always the Water Palace they wanted to take us. We still don't know what it is. The Sultan's Palace, however, is large with plenty of open areas to meander. Artifacts, statues, and structures are poorly maintained and not labeled. You are truly never sure
what the significance is of anything of which you are taking a photo. The grass plazas are replaced with dull gray sands making the complex look drearier than otherwise could have. The gazebos, however, provide shade from the relentless and pounding sun. While there, several school-children were on field-trips and, for some odd reason, wanted to take lots of photos with us. We probably ended up doing like four photo shoots with children. As Jen would put it, "they were super paparazzi".
We went back to Tugu to purchase our next train tickets to Surabaya. This time, we had the pleasure of walking passed several durian vendors. If you do not know what durian is, it's worth Googling. The fruit's unique and offensive odor is so unpleasant, it is often banned in several SE Asian public places. Curtis gagged several times.
After buying our train tickets, lucky for us, we caught our return taxi just in time. It is rainy season here and current temperatures fluctuate between 29-32C (85-91F). A huge storm passed over the town as we rode back to our hotel. The rest of our time here in Yogya will be spent at the Borobudur and
Prambanan archeological sites. We will post more after those trips.
P.S. We will add more photos as soon as we figure how to get Jen's camera photos uploaded.
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Sally
non-member comment
Yea!
Love the updates! Love the pictures! Thank you for sharing your trip with us. Sounds like the vendors in SE Asia haven't changed much :) it looks like you are meandering through some incredible countryside...stay safe my friends!