Jakarta has been interesting to say the very least.
Not really sure why I even came here in the first place, actually I do know. There was an article in a travel magazine that showed pictures of the lovely landscapes of Indonesia. Me forever the naturalist, had to check it out for my winter vacation.
So the trip was planned while I was still working at my last job. Paid for the flight and everything, booked the hostel and then found out I lost my job. Since it was already paid for I still visited Indonesia.
My flight took me from Dubai to Doha to Jakarta. I arrived at night which wasn't bad at all. I took Qatar Airways, and was very pleased. In the Jakarta (CGK) airport, it took a bit of ingenuity to get out of the airport. There are no signs that were helpful, nevermind English. Anyway I finally figured it out, and on my way out I was mobbed by people wanting to do things for me. Kids and adults a like wanted to take me wherever, they all wanted money! So I tried to remove myself from this mob and recheck my reference to which cab I should choose. The hostel suggested Blue Bird or Silver Bird, I went with Silver Bird..they were more fancy. The driver I guess understood where I wanted to go. It cost me nearly Rp. 200.000 (~$20) to get from the airport to the hostel. Checked in easily and made my way to bed. As hostels go, I've been to a number of them now, this is a nice place. Actually really nice. The price is Rp. 120.000 / night (~$12/night), which is nothing for everything they have here. If this were a hotel in the States, it would probably be a 2-3 star, and easily be $80+/night. However, in a hostel overseas you always get an international mix of people here speaking many different languages, here for many different reasons and headed in many different directions. Which is probably by far the best reason to stay in a hostel. Not sure where else this eclectic mix of people can be found, typically very young so most have a wide range of experiences.
So...what is there to say about Indonesia? It's definitely a developing country. While the modern conveniences are here, you have to find them for sure. The roads are in a disrepair due to the abuse from the many types of vehicles on them. The most common mode of transportation by far here in Jakarta is motorcycle. I swear there are probably more bikes here than people. They supplemented with motor-tricycles (high pollution machines) and finally traditional cars, trucks and vans. Given the amount of small engine vehicles here the pollution is very high. The people know this and it's not uncommon to see people (mostly women) wearing masks to cover their nose and mouth to try and not breath this highly polluted air. Some have fancy hand made masks, while others just have surgical masks. The air is very poor here, most of the time I coughed when traffic was bad. A few times my eyes got watery, and I used my hat over my mouth to try and breath better.
I think this added to what I'm going to call the "Indonesian Smell". There is an odor here, no matter where you go in the country (at least during my travels).
Another very common thing are the street vendors. There numerous people selling products on almost every major street, corner, alley, train station or place where people may gather. Most were the same, selling cigarettes, tooth paste, water, assorted food items and candy. Some also made "fresh" foods, others provided services - such as motor cycle repair or even tailoring. I think the number of people "making" food items has added to the Indonesian Smell.
I had a chance to check out the museums of culture, history and art. The Dutch rule of Indonesia, had a major influence on the country and it's past. There are several museums of history and culture, there are were also so other random museums. Such as the museum of banking, which oddly contained a whole floor of computer relics (there was a whole shelf of 5.25" floppy disks drives - this officially makes me old!). This was quite a nice set of history, the banking part was large. The building itself was an old bank building the basement was a large vault. It was odd to see how people would store their items in a metal cash box, that itself was in a vault with a one foot thick solid metal door. There was also a room that showed large gold bars stacked all in one room. The museums seemed to be placed around a large central square where people seemed to gather. The day I was there street performers where doing their thing. They were quite young, and it seemed to be a family thing. For some reason they enjoyed using a whip, probably because of the sound it makes and it constantly appeared they were smacking people with it.
Each day seemed to start with a walk to Carrefour to grab some sort of food items. I didn't eat well here at all. Although, each morning the hostel provided breakfast of a plate of fruit, and two slices of toasted bread. That was a good start, and then usually at Carrefour I'd buy a small container of milk and whatever else. Oh and the water here is not drinkable, so I was always buying a bottle of water no matter where I was. A few times I also bought a bottle of tea to change it up a bit. I also walked nearly everywhere I was here in Indonesia. That really helped manage my weight because when I left Dubai (where I worked out nearly everyday), I stopped working out. Not really anywhere to do anything. I walked multiple miles while here daily.
Getting around Jakarta is an experience. Since I chose to walk most of the time I had to risk my life walking down the street because there are very few side walks. Often a motorcycle would pass by, as well as motor-tricycles and cars where quite close as we all fought for our share of the road. There really are no rules for the roads here in Jakarta. It really is just every man on their own, and good luck to you! A few times I didn't want to walk any more so I hopped on a motor cycle and they took me where ever I wanted to go. Helmet? Haha. The only time I was given one, it was just for show because the strap was broken, another time I was told to just jump on. So that was interesting. Actually makes me want to get motorcycle though, they are quite fun and quick. Although mine will be bought with a fully functioning helmet, I don't want to die from cranial contact with a hard service that can easily be avoided. The angkot was another interesting experience. It's basically a miniwan that is always working. The driver goes from one point to another and back all day. It's like a bus in that you can get off where ever you want, yell "kiri" and the driver will pull over and let you off, anywhere. You hail one by standing any where along the route and the driver will pull over and you jump on. I noticed during my trips that the driver was always honking his horn to try and get people standing around to hop on (of course to make money). Quite a cool way to get around assuming you know where to get on and off. The ride was Rp. 2000 ($0.20/trip no matter the length), so very cheap. Yesterday I went to a sufari (zoo). The location was several miles away. I took the train to the last stop, over an hour to get that far Rp. 9000 ($0.95/ride), then one angkot Rp. 2000 ($0.20/ride), talked to locals onboard and they told me where to grab the next angkot Rp. 2000 ($0.20/ride). That one took me to the first entrance gate to the safari. So just over $1USD to travel nearly 3 hours through the Indonesian traffic. At this point I should have hired an ojek (hired motorcycle) to the final gate, it was a 6km walk! On the return trip I did just that, although the ojek didn't charge me he just took off. He must have just been happy to talk to a foreigner. Same return trip on "public" transportation.
So I guess I'm saying to get around here you need to have a sense of adventure, and willingness to let go of your western standards of safety. There are always taxis available too, but that's not nearly as fun, and it's much more expensive (of course that's relative).
I suppose if I had a good job here, and housing I may stick around. Indonesian seems like a language I may actually have a chance at. At least it uses the Latin alphabet, people are really nice and try to be helpful as possible in their very broken English. One of the first foreign countries I've been in where the population has very poor English. Typically when I visit a foreign place the locals have a decent command of English. I'd probably have a motorcycle rather than a car, I guess that depends too. It does rain a lot here. Since I've been here about every other day.
Jakarta - Day 6
I visited the Taman Sufari, Bogor, Indonesia. It's basically what we'd call a zoo in the States. Here are several pictures from my experience:
Not really sure why I even came here in the first place, actually I do know. There was an article in a travel magazine that showed pictures of the lovely landscapes of Indonesia. Me forever the naturalist, had to check it out for my winter vacation.
So the trip was planned while I was still working at my last job. Paid for the flight and everything, booked the hostel and then found out I lost my job. Since it was already paid for I still visited Indonesia.
My flight took me from Dubai to Doha to Jakarta. I arrived at night which wasn't bad at all. I took Qatar Airways, and was very pleased. In the Jakarta (CGK) airport, it took a bit of ingenuity to get out of the airport. There are no signs that were helpful, nevermind English. Anyway I finally figured it out, and on my way out I was mobbed by people wanting to do things for me. Kids and adults a like wanted to take me wherever, they all wanted money! So I tried to remove myself from this mob and recheck my reference to which cab I should choose. The hostel suggested Blue Bird or Silver Bird, I went with Silver Bird..they were more fancy. The driver I guess understood where I wanted to go. It cost me nearly Rp. 200.000 (~$20) to get from the airport to the hostel. Checked in easily and made my way to bed. As hostels go, I've been to a number of them now, this is a nice place. Actually really nice. The price is Rp. 120.000 / night (~$12/night), which is nothing for everything they have here. If this were a hotel in the States, it would probably be a 2-3 star, and easily be $80+/night. However, in a hostel overseas you always get an international mix of people here speaking many different languages, here for many different reasons and headed in many different directions. Which is probably by far the best reason to stay in a hostel. Not sure where else this eclectic mix of people can be found, typically very young so most have a wide range of experiences.
So...what is there to say about Indonesia? It's definitely a developing country. While the modern conveniences are here, you have to find them for sure. The roads are in a disrepair due to the abuse from the many types of vehicles on them. The most common mode of transportation by far here in Jakarta is motorcycle. I swear there are probably more bikes here than people. They supplemented with motor-tricycles (high pollution machines) and finally traditional cars, trucks and vans. Given the amount of small engine vehicles here the pollution is very high. The people know this and it's not uncommon to see people (mostly women) wearing masks to cover their nose and mouth to try and not breath this highly polluted air. Some have fancy hand made masks, while others just have surgical masks. The air is very poor here, most of the time I coughed when traffic was bad. A few times my eyes got watery, and I used my hat over my mouth to try and breath better.
I think this added to what I'm going to call the "Indonesian Smell". There is an odor here, no matter where you go in the country (at least during my travels).
Another very common thing are the street vendors. There numerous people selling products on almost every major street, corner, alley, train station or place where people may gather. Most were the same, selling cigarettes, tooth paste, water, assorted food items and candy. Some also made "fresh" foods, others provided services - such as motor cycle repair or even tailoring. I think the number of people "making" food items has added to the Indonesian Smell.
I had a chance to check out the museums of culture, history and art. The Dutch rule of Indonesia, had a major influence on the country and it's past. There are several museums of history and culture, there are were also so other random museums. Such as the museum of banking, which oddly contained a whole floor of computer relics (there was a whole shelf of 5.25" floppy disks drives - this officially makes me old!). This was quite a nice set of history, the banking part was large. The building itself was an old bank building the basement was a large vault. It was odd to see how people would store their items in a metal cash box, that itself was in a vault with a one foot thick solid metal door. There was also a room that showed large gold bars stacked all in one room. The museums seemed to be placed around a large central square where people seemed to gather. The day I was there street performers where doing their thing. They were quite young, and it seemed to be a family thing. For some reason they enjoyed using a whip, probably because of the sound it makes and it constantly appeared they were smacking people with it.
Each day seemed to start with a walk to Carrefour to grab some sort of food items. I didn't eat well here at all. Although, each morning the hostel provided breakfast of a plate of fruit, and two slices of toasted bread. That was a good start, and then usually at Carrefour I'd buy a small container of milk and whatever else. Oh and the water here is not drinkable, so I was always buying a bottle of water no matter where I was. A few times I also bought a bottle of tea to change it up a bit. I also walked nearly everywhere I was here in Indonesia. That really helped manage my weight because when I left Dubai (where I worked out nearly everyday), I stopped working out. Not really anywhere to do anything. I walked multiple miles while here daily.
Getting around Jakarta is an experience. Since I chose to walk most of the time I had to risk my life walking down the street because there are very few side walks. Often a motorcycle would pass by, as well as motor-tricycles and cars where quite close as we all fought for our share of the road. There really are no rules for the roads here in Jakarta. It really is just every man on their own, and good luck to you! A few times I didn't want to walk any more so I hopped on a motor cycle and they took me where ever I wanted to go. Helmet? Haha. The only time I was given one, it was just for show because the strap was broken, another time I was told to just jump on. So that was interesting. Actually makes me want to get motorcycle though, they are quite fun and quick. Although mine will be bought with a fully functioning helmet, I don't want to die from cranial contact with a hard service that can easily be avoided. The angkot was another interesting experience. It's basically a miniwan that is always working. The driver goes from one point to another and back all day. It's like a bus in that you can get off where ever you want, yell "kiri" and the driver will pull over and let you off, anywhere. You hail one by standing any where along the route and the driver will pull over and you jump on. I noticed during my trips that the driver was always honking his horn to try and get people standing around to hop on (of course to make money). Quite a cool way to get around assuming you know where to get on and off. The ride was Rp. 2000 ($0.20/trip no matter the length), so very cheap. Yesterday I went to a sufari (zoo). The location was several miles away. I took the train to the last stop, over an hour to get that far Rp. 9000 ($0.95/ride), then one angkot Rp. 2000 ($0.20/ride), talked to locals onboard and they told me where to grab the next angkot Rp. 2000 ($0.20/ride). That one took me to the first entrance gate to the safari. So just over $1USD to travel nearly 3 hours through the Indonesian traffic. At this point I should have hired an ojek (hired motorcycle) to the final gate, it was a 6km walk! On the return trip I did just that, although the ojek didn't charge me he just took off. He must have just been happy to talk to a foreigner. Same return trip on "public" transportation.
So I guess I'm saying to get around here you need to have a sense of adventure, and willingness to let go of your western standards of safety. There are always taxis available too, but that's not nearly as fun, and it's much more expensive (of course that's relative).
I suppose if I had a good job here, and housing I may stick around. Indonesian seems like a language I may actually have a chance at. At least it uses the Latin alphabet, people are really nice and try to be helpful as possible in their very broken English. One of the first foreign countries I've been in where the population has very poor English. Typically when I visit a foreign place the locals have a decent command of English. I'd probably have a motorcycle rather than a car, I guess that depends too. It does rain a lot here. Since I've been here about every other day.
Jakarta - Day 6
I visited the Taman Sufari, Bogor, Indonesia. It's basically what we'd call a zoo in the States. Here are several pictures from my experience:
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