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Published: December 14th 2005
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Want a lift?
This guy offered me a ride on his horse to hike up the volcano. When we arrived in Indonesia at the Jakarta airport, I had to show proof of a plane ticket out of Indonesia in order to be granted a visa. I didn't have a plane ticket yet - this was a problem! Luckily the customs official was corrupt and took at 5,000 Rupiah bribe (50 cents! haha!). He was risking his job, but the extra money must really pay off!
Walking away from the customs official, we were greeted with a large sign threatening death to drug smugglers. Most of you have probably heard that numerous young people are on death row in Indonesia for possessing drugs.
Jakarta was a huge dirty city with about 2 million Tuk Tuk drivers and 5-6 tourists. The main backpacker street is supposed to be full of life, but since the Bali bombings the tourism in Indonesia is quite dead, expect for the odd few like us who don't care. We realized that we have a higher chance of dying in one of those $25 plane rides than from a bomb in Indonesia...
We left Jakarta on the next available night train - boy was this a rough ride! The train was a piece
Welcome!
I am used to a sign with a nice greeting...this was a surprise! of crap, and was a grueling 10 hour ride in a dirty dirty coach with more hawkers (street vendors) in the cabin than travelers. The whole night, non-stop, we were harassed by people selling duck eggs, inflatable pillows that have holes in them (thanks to whoever sold it to me), tofu, and all sorts of (in)edible items. These hawkers would sleep on top of trains or beside the track waiting for their next victims. At some points there would be a non stop line of people harassing us for about 30 mins street. Most prefer to drop the item of food on your lap and walk away, hoping to collect money if you have eaten it 5 mins later. The funniest part is how 10 of them at once are constantly calling out what they are selling in a low monotone murmur. This place is weird.
Our next stop was a great cultural town called Yogyakarta. We visited bird and animal markets (a market full of caged animals - quite sad), the Sultans old palace and pleasure room, old ruins overlooking the city, and many Batik shops. The Sultan had about 15 mistresses and had them bathe nude right
below his perch where he could watch them. When he fancied one, he would call her back to his pleasure room and personal pool. The Batik shops were really fun. Batik is an ancient Indonesian technique to produce drawings on fabric. Pieces of wax are melted onto the fabric and then the whole fabric is dipped into dyes. Only the uncovered fabric is dyed. This process is repeated over and over again until a drawing is created with many different colours. It's a lot of work!
Yogyakarta is full of rickshaw's. Richshaw's are modified Tuk Tuk's that have a bicycle on the back, a carriage on the front and a raggedly dressed Indonesian chauffeur. These drivers are the poorest people in Indonesian, and usually sleep in their rickshaw's at night and bathe in the rivers. They only make about 50 cents for a 10 minute peddle. One night, we sat in the front of a rickshaw sipping on beers on the way to the bar - it was like we had our own chariot. So much fun!
Indonesia doesn't have a welfare system like ours - so these people are forced to find a job. Most of the
Snakes anyone?
no sorry, I already had some for breakfast.
This guy sliced up snakes and put them in water - sort of like tea? rickshaw drivers live on about $2/day, and can make that in half a days work. The rest of the time they all hang out together in huge groups on the side of the road. Sometimes we would walk buy and give them beer or bread - I have never seen somebody so happy in my life!
When we wanted an upgraded form of transportation from the rickshaw's, we took the public bus. This was great until one incident. We were falling asleep and then all of a sudden the front filled up with smoke and the driver screamed something in Indonesian. Everyone bolted out of the bus - we sat there half awake and confused. Eventually catching on, we ran as well. The bus didn't blow up, but it did die in the middle of the street, and forced us to walk the rest of the way. No refunds here.
Our next stop was to visit a childhood friend named Geoff who now lives in Indonesia with his Indonesian fiancé. We arrived at his house and were pleasantly surprised. He had guards for his neighborhood and a very eager house maid who was waiting to make us banana
Another fight with a Tuk Tuk!
We argue with Tuk Tuk drivers everywhere we go. This was about the 15th installment. Here you can see Jeroen having a coin chucked at him.
The guy agreed for one price, and then demanded 10 times more after the ride. pancakes and wash our laundry. The maid is paid $30 a month and would do everything for us (make us chocolate cheese sandwiches, go on beer runs, clean up all of our mess, make our beds, etc). This was such a nice change from roughing it in our usual $2/night accommodation!
While we were visiting Geoff we dropped in to play in one of his league soccer games. Our team was called the "Sexpats" (expats) and our competition was a bunch of little Indonesian dudes. They kicked our ass. It was great fun though and nice to play some sports again! After our game we went to a really posche country club for hot showers (I have had about 2-3 hot showers in the past 3 months), great food, and some local beer.
After a few days of living like kings, we visited an active volcano called Mt. Bromo. This was amazing. There were 3 active volcanoes in the middle of a huge crater from a volcano that was active millions of years ago. We hiked up a peak to view the sunrise at about 5am, and then relaxed and enjoyed the views as the sun came up.
On the train...
On the left I had a duck egg salesman leaving duck eggs on my lap, and on the right window I had a crazed woman trying to sell me a newspaper in Indonesian language. The guy at the train station said we could sleep on night trains...? The pictures are the best way to show this experience.
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linda sparling
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Merry Christmas
Your mother forwarded you latest visit and I enjoyed visiting part of the world I have never seen, with you. Keep safe, love and best wishes