On Thursday
10th October I flew from Singapore to Jakarta with an airline called
Valuair. £53 all in, but I was a little
concerned with the name & especially how it was spelt. Was the plane going to be air worthy? Turns out it was a cheap (due to distance)
Jet Star plane which looked brand new.
An Easy Jet of SE Asia & Australia.
I walked over a marked blue river on a map – it was a black slick open sewer.
I no longer had the human calculator Yvonne. I was to be in Indonesia for 1 month. 16,000 Rupiah to the £1. I did not want a repeat of Lao. I wrote my own converter.
In the end I
did not go on a day trip to snorkel around & see Krakatau. The company did not offer group tours-just
private. I decided that would not be
much fun & too expensive. I spent my
time wandering around the streets seeing the city.
Even though
I’d seen a lot on my journey this year, I’d say Jakarta ranks high on the
culture shock ratings. Wandering about
by myself made me realize group travel really softens negative culture shock. Friends actually make it positive as you can
all point things out, share thoughts, make comments & learn together. Also, with group travel if you have no plans
of what to do, there is always someone who has an idea what they want to do,
which you can then do together. There
were times in my 4 days here when I wish I had my Odyssey friends.
Jakarta is a
massive city & another one I’d say without a centre. Just made up of many districts. The 1st stand out feature was the congestion. In most busy SE Asian cities I’d been in, the
population gets about on mopeds = very manic but flows. In Jakarta, there were just as many people
& vehicles – but they were all in cars.
There is no subway. Bus lanes
have been created called the Trans Jakarta Bus Way with chicanes to prevent
cars physically using the bus lanes. Every
road was a traffic jam. My taxi driver
cut along back alleys & various hotel forecourts to get off main congested
roads from the airport to the hotel.
It was also
very noticeably polluted. The sky was
not blue, white or grey but yellow with smog.
Many people wandering about in costumes at the National Monument
I walked over a marked blue river on a map – it was a black slick open sewer.
I saw hardly
any green space at all. That which
existed was covered with hawker stalls.
Rules ignored
Weapon anyone? For sale at the national monument
There seemed
enough tower blocks to rival New York.
On closer walking many tower blocks were empty.
There were many
shopping malls. The few posh malls like
those in Singapore & KL were almost empty of shoppers. The malls full of ‘market type’ shops were crammed
with people.
I saw a
massive flyover road system derelict & full of graffiti right next to a
posh new shopping mall.
Another great pavement of Asia
There were
shanty towns under the train flyovers.
Beat-up tuk-tuks,
lack of street lighting, open drains, beggars, grubby looking street food
stalls, corrugated tin buildings, many construction sites & many people
wandering about with no footwear, teeth, matted hair & dirty clothes.
I guessed my
hotel was along the tourist road as there were other hotels along it + it was
walking distance to The National Museum & National Monument. I’d describe the area as London’s Hackney.
This was a
real mish-mash of a city where poverty was right next to extreme wealth. I’m glad I did not fly direct from London to
here as my first stop.
I met 12
more people making up the Intrepid Java to Bali group on Sunday 13th
October. Our guide Sally took us to one
of the best restaurants I’d eaten in on this journey & a real insight to food
of Indonesia. Also, good value.
Just
wandering the streets I’d never found a place like this. I felt this was a city you needed to know to
get the best from it. If I end up in this
city again, I’ll research it thoroughly before arrival, because not much seemed
on offer to a visitor except shopping at the expensive malls. It took a lot of wandering as they were far
away from each other.
On Monday 14th
October we left Jakarta on the train. The
4 hour journey to Bandung wound around rice terraces. I discovered Java was lush green jungle covered
mountains. I knew it was a volcanic
island, but in the back of my head I imagined it to be more a barren rock place
– being volcanoes.
Bandung was
an art deco era city built up by the Dutch & now a city where The North
Face & other such companies make their clothes. We all wanted to get our bargains but were
only in the city for one day. Much to
our disappointment we did not have time for a factory outlet visit during the city
tour.
In the
afternoon we did a real tourist thing of seeing a traditional show. I thought it was going to be a bit tacky
& not my thing at all – school kids singing & dancing in traditional costumes. It turned out to be a really good interactive
afternoon. 1st as the British
contingent to sing part of The Sound of Music (I think there were only 3 of us
out the 300 people) & then part of an Angklung orchestra. The young children were a good laugh &
the older children were very talented playing in their Angklung band. At the end of the day, the moral message of
the ‘tourist’ event was spelled out – different cultures having fun together, generating
knowledge, sharing wealth & proving we can all get on without violence. I was really glad to be part of it.
Next stop 7
hours away by mini bus was a Javanese beach tourist town called
Pangandaran. We were all spooked on a
nature trail. In a Japanese WW2 tunnel we
discovered a monitor lizard & bats sharing the cramp space with us in the
pitch dark!
Wed 16th
Oct was a tour of the Pangandaran area.
Puppet maker
Bamboo foot bridge
Also strong enough for mopeds!
Naomi Krefti Kaela green canyon tour
Green canyon swimming
In the
evening we had a seafood feast. I tried
crab for the 1st time – a bit fiddly & not much of it - is my
verdict.
Thur 17th
October was a 4h train journey to Yogyakarta.
Whilst staying in this town we visited the Buddhist temple Borobudur
& the Hindu temple Prambanan. Our 2
guides knew none of us followed either religion & were probably “templed”
out as most of the Intrepid group had already travelled through SE Asia. The guides were both a little different, but
made the tours fun & I actually learnt info – not just in one ear & out
the other. (The Angkor Wat guide could
learn from these two)! I remember both guides
pointing to the intricate carvings & saying something like “The stories
they depict are very important but long, I’ll summarize it for you” & did
in about 4 sentences, pointing at 4 carvings.
Not 4 hours & 400 carvings later!
Like in so many places before we were the main attraction for the school children
Sat 19th
Oct I spent wandering around the main street of Yogyakarta & did a guided
sunset walk. We discovered the local bus
driver’s carry-on like most in Asia = avoid head on collisions by inches. Those of us looking out the front windscreen held
their breath, the rest dare not look. I
was concentrating on not falling out the side door left wide open next to my
seat!
Sun 20th
Oct was a 4 hour train journey to stay at an environmental education
centre. Lovely scenery. Open bathroom. I did encounter a frog in the bog looking at
me from under the loo seat!
Train vendor food in banana leaf
On Mon 21st
we had a guided tour through the herbal garden & local village. We popped to the village coffee shop for a
cup of fresh ground Java coffee.
Apparently, the villagers have coffee here early in the morning where
they find out the local news/gossip before heading out to the fields. During the day I saw chilli’s, passion
fruits, guava trees, mango trees, rice & peanut plants. The tour was finished off with a cup of
herbal tea. We then had a 5 hour mini
bus drive to our next hotel.
Hot
Under passion fruits
The local village shop-typical of many shops across Asia
Mango tree
92 year old lady in her house/coffee shop & proper Java coffee
Peanuts
Bernie looking at the tea contents
Naomi looking a bit concerned at the tea contents
Fresh into the pot by medicine man
Roberto's reflection with my tea
Cheers
On Tue 22nd
Oct we were up at 3am for a jeep ride & walk to see the sun rise over the
active volcano called Mt Bromo. It was a
clear morning. It was the first time I
had seen such a landscape. It was weird to
see smoke rising every now & then.
We walked up the crater. It last
erupted in 2011 & a 2km restriction zone was implemented.
With Richard Rosie & Bernie
Later on
that morning we had a 5 hour mini bus drive to Kalibaru. Wed 23rd was a plantation
tour. I saw coffee trees, papaya trees,
coco bean tree (which is actually a fruit), pepper vines, rubber trees, clove
trees, Dorian fruit trees & lemon grass plants. We ended the tour with a cup of Java coffee
in the old plantation house.
Fruit bats at our hotel
Coffee beans
Rubber tree
By Java. Ferry to Bali
No comments:
Post a Comment