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Published: February 22nd 2010
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After a three hour flight with Air Asia, we were there. Indonesia - home to over 240 million people, and the fourth most populous country in the world, not to mention more than 17,500 islands under its archipelago. A quick purchase of a 1 month visa on arrival and we were all signed in!
We arrived at about midnight in Jakarta which is never good. Luckily I had done some research on the city before we got there, and had arranged for the hotel to pick us up at the airport. Jakarta is not somewhere you want to be wandering around by yourself past midnight! For some reason, I don’t know why, but we got picked up in a limo! It only cost about $8 (what a surprise!), and we were treated to watching Conan O’Brien via satellite (I think) in the back seat for 30 minutes. The hotel seemed to be in a bit of a dodgy area, but it was dark which may have made it look worse than it really was!
The history bit… The Dutch colonised Indonesia in the 17th century and Japan took control during the period of WW2. It declared independence, once the
Japanese were humbled after World War 2. However the Dutch didn’t give up easily, and it took several years for them to go. Since then it suffered many years of repressive rule, and didn’t ring the bell of free elections until 1999. Now it is a shining beacon of light and the proud sponsor of the world’s third largest democracy!
The first time I ever heard much about Indonesia was when the 2004 Tsunami struck on St. Stephen’s Day, of which
Sumatra bore the brunt of; accounting for casualties of more the 140,000 confirmed dead. Apocalyptic images were flashed around the globe as the world was stunned.
This combined with “Islam-phobia”; protests which have turned violent over the years and years of disputes, leading to terrorism, have kept the vast tourist infestation away. But not us intrepid travelers!
Jakarta
We spent one night at the aforementioned accommodation, and the following morning checked out and arranged a taxi into the city. Confirmed! - hotel was in dodgy area! There were very few westerners in Jakarta that we saw. In the four days we were here, we saw only a handful.
We stayed in
Jaksa Street for the
remainder of our stay; cheap guesthouse area near the city centre. Guided tours were not something you’d want to take here, as they charge outrageous prices for city tours. We spent the majority of the time walking around the city ourselves / or via taxi (cheap also). The city is not particularly tourist friendly and perhaps needs to re-invent itself in that respect.
It mightn’t be on the top of your list for sight seeing, but food & shopping are the main attractions here. With the average salary being about $100 a month, both are reasonably priced.
We ate out in several Indonesian restaurants; mind you some of the dishes can be spicy, hot beyond belief so come prepared. We also had afternoon tea in the Hyatt… Ah - so this is where the few westerners were hiding out!
Shopping-wise: it’s fast approaching Christmas and yes even in Indonesia (home to the world’s largest muslin community) the commercial businesses make the effort with a few Christmas trees, in an attempt to get the punters to part with their hard earned money. Scary though, to have your taxi checked for explosive devices underneath the car, when going into
Traditional symbol of Bali
Left outside doorways of houses & shops the main shopping centre in
Plaza Indonesia. Jakarta has made the press over the years for all the wrong reasons - the bombings in 2002 is just another example.
On certain roads in Jakarta you need to make up the numbers in your car. i.e. you can’t travel in such and such lane or on a given road as a single driver in the car; a law I’ve already seen in operation in other cities that I have visited before; San-Francisco as an example. Being stuck for work, the locals here have come up with a clever way of earning a buck. They stand on the roads just before these zones and thumb! They’re known as
Jockeys and basically if you need them, you can pick them up and pay them a dollar or so to ride in the car with you, until the end of the road and then they get out. As far as I know this practice is illegal, but it is widespread. For other unofficial money making gigs - expect young men with guitars to entertain you while you’re stopped at traffic lights!
Indonesia still struggles with poverty, unemployment, corruption, and a plethora of
other problems such as high oil prices, which threatened the country as a whole recently. However the country seems to have weathered the financial crisis well and its stock market was one of the first to recover in Asia.
YES - I also managed to loose my iPhone in Jakarta. Traffic is unbelievable in this city (it would remind you of the gridlock in Dublin) and after spending two hours in a taxi trying to get the airport, we were dropped at the wrong terminal with only a few minutes to spare before our flight for Bali… and with all the foraying around I left my phone in back seat of the cab. Watching a taxi in a foreign country speed down the road & you’re standing there knowing your phone is in the back is never a pleasant feeling… 😞
Bali
We had nothing organised beforehand, and we were landing in Bali at about half past midnight. But you never have to worry about accommodation when arriving into a tourist spot, as there are always loads of places on show trying to get you to part with your money…. Bali was no exception and by the time we
left the airport, we had accommodation organised.
The town of
Kuta was less than 5 minutes away; wall-to-wall commericalisation and located by the beach. Just what we wanted after Jakarta - to relax! We checked into a really lovely resort at a fraction of the rack rate, with a lovely pool and “breakfast included” - a backpackers favourite words.
One night here turned into 6 nights, as we designated this another worthy addition to the backpackers five star holiday accommodation list! The place was lovely; most of the rooms were empty and we had the pool to ourselves most days; the massage lady comes to the pool so that was another plus, and the beach was less than a 2 minute walk away…
There’s a lot to do in Bali for the adventurous!! …. surfing, diving, kayaking, sight seeing tours, and buckets of other stuff. Unashamedly we did none of them!! After traveling for 6 months we were here to relax for a few days. We visited the nearby areas of
Seminyak, and
Legian. We wined and dined, and took in more than one sunset. That was about the height of our activities! One thing that was
really really strange though was to hear Christmas songs playing in the shops, while things were heating up outside to 30 degrees!
So, was it as nice as people make out? YES - and there is much more of the island to explore than we did. Touts can be a pain around the town though, and prices for lots of stuff was jacked up 500%. Like the t-shirt I bought which was originally priced at €15, but which I managed to purchase for €1.50. The ol’ negotiation skills are improving after 20+ countries! You need to be sharp here; unless you’re well practiced, they’ll wear you down little by little. Many tourists get fleeced buying stuff; the locals know that the crowd who come here on holidays often have cash to burn, hence their target audience…!!
The one noteworthy thing that we did do, was to go to the site of the Bali bombings, which rocked the town in 2005 when a bomb exploded in a packed pub on the main street. A couple of hundred people were killed and the tourists subsequently vanished. Thankfully for the local people they have returned again, and Kuta was bustling with
activity when we were here.
After 6 days we were very sad to leave. We had a flight booked to
Kuala Lumpur; again with no prep work done or accommodation booked. We also had to figure out how to get to Singapore afterwards to catch a flight to Japan for Christmas later in the week…
Next stop
Malaysia.
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