Jakarta

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The flight from Kuching to Jakarta was one of the worst flights we have taken. We were flying at night and we both had an ominous feeling from the start. It was a bit stormy and the flight was bumpy but its when it starts to feel as though its falling from the sky that we started sweating and holding hands and the whole plane went silent. Its kind of annoying when the hostesses are laughing and joking like this is nothing, or its just good training (or drugs) to try and keep things calm. Anyway, we arrived safely and were counting our blessings.

We had read that Indonesia is very corrupt and this becomes evident from the word go. People who didnt have onward tickets were told they had to buy one before they could leave the airport (despite having just bought a visa on arrival), yet it was midnight and there was not really an option to buy one. This situation can be easily resolved by placing some money in your passport, although luckily we had tickets in our luggage so they let one of us through to collect the luggage to return to immigration and prove we had an onward flight. It was getting pretty late and we still had a 35Km journey to get into Jakarta. When we exited the airport there was about a hundred people wanting us to go in their taxi or change money at their counter. We got sorted with the taxi and made our way into Jakarta. It was immediately apparent (having spent 6 weeks in wealthy Malaysia) that we were in a more dog eat dog world again where you have to barter for everything and might get ripped off at every corner, but we dont get upset by these things anymore and just get on with it.

We pulled up into Jalan Jaksa, the only street that has any backpacker accomodation. It was 1am and we didnt have any accomodation so we asked our driver to point us in the right direction but again realising we had left Malaysia, that English is no longer widely spoken, he just pointed and said "your friends stay here", which having no known friends in Jakarta we assume he meant your kind stay here. We checked about 3 places which were all completely full and things were getting to look like we might have to sleep in the street as time was cracking on so we had to move into a more upmarket place. At about 2am we headed out in to Jalan Jaksa very hungry, but this was not a problem. This street was buzzing with locals out on the street drinking Bintang (despite this being a 95% muslim country), there was plenty streetfood on offer but we got great Nasi Goreng at a cool cafe pumping out the best of Led Zeppilin. We started to have a good feeling that our travels in Indonesia would be good fun and interesting.

There is not much for tourists to see and do in Jakarta except see some town square that is in the Dutch style. We stopped a taxi who was trying to charge us an astronimical price until a friendly local came along and advised us that we should just take the train for 100 times less cost! This guy Herman, (pronounced Herrrrrrrrman as Indonesians trill their R's) had the biggest smiliest face and was very friendly. He offered to take us to the train station. On arrival at the station we gave him some money for the tickets and 3 returned, we didnt mind as it was very cheap and he was being very kind. We got on the train which was dark, dingy and it clattered along with all the doors open (thankfully, due to the smoking on the train of the famous clove ciggarettes they adore here). We were getting closer to our stop and there were goats and people on the tracks and shanty houses with washing hanging out. We got off and left the station with Herman leading us to the dutch square and into Cafe Batavia, an art deco fancy place that costs a fortune, but we all just went in for a look and left as it was too expensive. Herman started to lead us off to the canal and trying to cross the street was near impossible and definately the most difficult of all the countries we had been to so far. It was in the both of our heads that although Herman was being lovely and friendly now, did he have another agenda to lead us up an alley way and steal our money. We kept going along with it as we were getting to see more of the town this way and it certainly seemed genuine and we figured that we would give him some money for his troubles later anyway. Herman led us up over railway tracks, which was a little frightning because at certain points your on the rails over a bridge and there was nowhere to jump off to the side (only down onto the crazy traffic) if a train did appear. We meandered down onto the streets and ended up going through a shanty town with tiny little back streets buzzing with families living on the water and lots of little boats. We came out of this back onto the busy streets and Herman waved down a little red Mitsubishi colt (common mode of public transport but you need to have a local or speak good indonesian to use these), we all jumped in and we were heading to the fish market. The surroundings of the fish market are filthy. There are ditches filled with black water and litter and an awful smell. Herman took us into a large warehouse where men were still selling fish. The sight of the two white people caused a bit of excitement and they were all trying to get our attention and they all wanted their photo taken with different fish - it was all pretty funny. We headed off to the harbour to see thousands of really worn boats and lots of fisherman lying about sleeping or fixing their nets. Again the sight of us caused a bit of a stir and kids all wanted their photos taken whilst leaping into the water off a boat. Everyone was so friendly and it was really intersting for us and exciting being back into not being able to speak the same language and the sight of us in these areas being really unusual.

After leaving the fish market we had to take a few more colts to get back to the train. At one point the colt was so full that Herman had to hang on the outside of it but still managed to be the perfect host by chatting to Neil who was sitting inside. We all headed back on the train and Herman said he had to go. He didnt ask for anything from us and just seemed to enjoy spending the time with us, but of course it would be naive of us to think that he would not be grateful to be offered something for giving his time up for complete strangers so we gave him some money and he was grateful for the "commision".

Jakarta turned out to be an interesting and buzzing stop for us and we were very lucky to have met Herman otherwise it might have been really boring. Sometimes it has paid off to trust people, but at the same time you have to really keep your wits about you. We also liked the laid back atmosphere of Jalan Jaksa which must be like backpacker streets from years ago where you can really mingle and drink with the locals, its not very big and worlds away from the tourist central khao san roads of Thailand where its really really tacky, full of souvenirs and loads of drunks with dreadlocks and baggy trousers. Having nothing more to see in Jakarta and feeling that we had made the most of our time there, we booked a bus to take us to our next stop in Java, Bandung, another large city. The deal with the bus included transfer to the long distance bus station which was 18km away. The following morning when we turned up at 9-30 for our "trrrrrransfer" to catch the 10am bus we had to actually wait until 1015am just for the transfer. The transfer turned out to be a vehicless young man who escorted us to a bus stop to wait for a local bus. We all got on together and then we got off, all walked together to the next bus stop and got on another bus. Thinking that that would be it and we would arrive at the long distance bus station, how wrong could we be, we had to go through this a total of 5 times! We were starting to get hacked off and backs aching with the big bags. We didnt catch the Bandung bus till about 12pm and the guy was still looking for a tip for being our escort. We realised not to take anything for granted now and we just had to laugh it all off.

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Photos

Nice salon
This is where Neil gets his hair done

Down a dark alley way
two ladies at the end of this alleyway asked if we wanted to stay at their house whilst we were in Jakarta and some lads wanted their photos taken with us

Neil and Herman
Walking up one section that was relatively safe

Shanty towns in Jakarta
Easy to get lost in here if your not with a local, there are lots of little narrow streets to wander down

Little boat
This will have come in handy as about a week later this place was completely flooded, something that often happens in February

Fish Market, Jakarta
The guys love posing with the fish to get in a photo - this was our favourite one

Fishing boats, Jakarta
These things have seen better days, many have huge chunks in the side and there are often accidents

Kids jumping into the harbour
The kids were having a great time

Fixing the fishing nets
Some stares and "Hey Misters" coming from the boat

Neil walking in the streets near the fish market
This place is pretty grimy

Rambutans and Bicecs
Rambutans (the bright pinky red fruit, is not as good as it looks)

No seatbelts required
Herman chatting to Neil whilst hanging on the outside of the vehcile and zipping through crazy Jakarta traffic

Comments

[Kirsty]

Hi
Hi guys Are you still in Oz? Hope all is going well. Nice to read about your travels... can't wait for the NZ episode! Take care Kirsty