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Published: October 9th 2008
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Jakarta Train Station
Waiting at the station A thought crossed my mind while sitting in the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur. Ive found that foreign embassies are the perfect places to just sit and think, especially when you spend the entire day waiting for your ridiculously high number to be called in order to then, find out your fate concerning entry into their country.
“If all goes according to the new “plan”, we sure are going to be spending a lot of time in a country that we originally had no plans to visit.”
Awaking early and sprucing ourselves up in our Sunday finest, we were going to march down their, flop our ragged passports onto their desk, and leave with shiny new two month entry stickers, in no time flat. The Indonesian embassy workers must not have been too impressed with out nifty outfits consisting of our only collard shirts, the dirty pants that we’ve had no need to wear in months, and hiking boots encrusted with dried mud from our last adventure in the rainy season, as they felt the need to plant a kernel of doubt by saying something like, “keep your fingers crossed”. They then handed us a number high in the 8000s and
sent us off to our waiting positions. Waiting….we should go pro.
This is how my attorney (who’s nickname would be better off changed to Beergut-less after the mysterious disappearance of said beergut) and I chose to initiate our new alcohol councilor Tommy the Cat, into the wonderful occupation of world wander. I knew that if we really wanted that 2 month visa, it was going to take more than the fifty bucks each of us handed the slightly tired looking embassy lady. Breaking into my version of “Blue Steel”, the smile, wink, and double smoking pistol fingers that never fail, we had our new stickers just in time to get Tommy the Cat a last hamburger at Chillies before happy hour ended.
If I could borrow some words from the great 20th century poet, Rick James, “Indonesia is a hell of a drug”. Just don’t get caught with drugs here or they will quite literally, cut your head off. But like drugs, so Ive been told, once you’ve experienced one island in Indonesia, you have an uncontrollable urge to see every other Island. ..and in huge quantities. I guess that this is the basis for our so-called plan for
Isnt that cute?
My attorney and new alcohol consumption adviser with their new friend. two more months in Indonesia.
With a brand new two month visa sticker now taking up another page in the passport, it was time to choose a destination in which to start our next adventure. Jakarta, on the north western side of Java seemed like the most logical place to start. That and it was by far the least expensive Air Asia ticket we could find to Indonesia. Ahh, Jakarta. You know what a good thing to do in Jakarta is? Step off the plane, catch a bus to the train station, choose a town completely at random, get on that train, and get out of there. We didn’t know at that point, but showing up to train stations and choosing a destination from a map that we had no hope of reading , would be our chosen way of getting around the not-small island of Java.
In Java, like in so many other countries Ive recently been through, the forms of transportation that one takes, create more stories than the actual destinations do. The rail system provides an excellent way to see rural areas of Java while getting to rub shoulders with some of its most colorful characters.
Sunrise over Mt. Bromo
Actually, you cant even see Bromo, but those are his little cousins. I can remember several specific moments where I would hang my head out of the speeding train and let my eyes focus on the endless fields of rice, veggies, and grains, while off in the distance, massive volcanic cones rose out of the haze created by the smoke of the dry season. Its simple moments like these where I think that I just might be the luckiest person I know. While most people I know are hard at work making advances towards financial stability or after an ever expanding family life, Im right here. Im right here, right now, and I don’t have these demands burdening my life right now. And I know, while these people are getting ready for another day of working for the future, I get to be right here, on a train, hanging out with people like the Indonesian version of Blue from that movie, “Old School”. Or Im preparing to hike to the top of some peak, in the dark, to see the sun rise over three different volcanoes. Or it could be something as simple as hearing the story about how some guy just tried to molest my alcohol councilor in between cars, on
this very train. Does it get much better? Tommy the Cat must think so.
Since this is getting a little long winded and the fact that when you are on a computer in Indonesia, you never know when the power is going to go out and erase all your hard work, Im going to try and sum up some of my experiences on the Island of Java, in one condensed rant. Its probably not going to make much sense to most people, but if you have ever been or are ever planning on heading to this somewhat overlooked island, you should have some idea of what Im droning on about. When I think about what I experienced in Java, I think of the overwhelming smell of sulfur invading lungs that should be filled with air, the smell of tahu deep frying on the side of streets filled with 100cc motoscooters and horse carts, the sounds of people yelling their “hello misters” and the confused second looks of elderly locals. I think of the groggy feeling of being jolted awake every morning at 4:45am by multiple mosques calling the faithful to prayer, the realization every square foot of that gigantic
Market
Waking up to go to market is exhausting work. Wonosobo, Java mountain over there is covered in agriculture terraces, the thought of another bowl of nasi goreng tidak daging(fried rice without meat), the smell of clove cigarettes, dead fish, and rotting vegetables. I think of chained monkeys riding toy bikes to creepy sounding music, graffitied underpasses, trains, cheap hotel smells and Dunkin Doughnuts. Lots of Dunkin Doughnuts!
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calvin
non-member comment
it's so good , and