Jakarta, capital of Indonesia

Trip Start Feb 01, 2009
1
13
25
Trip End Jun 12, 2009


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Flag of Indonesia  , Java,
Saturday, May 2, 2009

As we've previously mentioned, plans don't stay the same for long.  We were planning on going to the Philippines next, but localised flooding followed by a typhoon but a stop to that.  Seemed a bit pointless flying from Manila to Cebu and then out.  Maybe next time.  Although we've just found out Luzon, the area we had eyes on is currently out of bounds due to flooding, so we're not missing too much...

Anyhow, our back-up option of Indonesia came into play.  We fly from Malaysian Borneo to Jakarta, the city of pollution, thieves and gun-toting taxi drivers.  Or so the internet would have you believe.  We did some research and arrived apprehensively after all the scare stories on the net.  We should have known to take it all with a pinch of salt.  Jakarta, a capital of some 10million folk was a great place.  Not a huge amount of touristy stuff, but it is the financial centre of this country and where 'people come to live and lose dreams' apparently.  Nonetheless, we liked it a lot.

As we arrived on a midnight flight we pre-booked our cab for the hour long journey into town from the airport and pre-booked digs at a mid-budget hotel.  We pre-book the cab due to the stories of cabbies all being up for it and secondly because when I enquire for a price online they quoted less than a tenner which is only about a quid over the going rate with a normal cab we've since learnt.  Arrive at the airport for a suited gentleman with our name on a banner and a warm welcome to Jakarta.  Off we're whisked to our waiting un-marked posh car with air-con roaring.

Great start. When things go smoothly they instill a sense of paranoia in me ;-)  We arrive at our hotel booked online after reading 'it's a hole', 'mouldy rooms', 'no breakfast' etc etc, but hey it's a 2-star (Indonesian rating) hotel.  Frankly, it couldn't have been better.

I decided to take a wander through these darn dangerous streets at about 1ish in search of some water and snackage, check with the hotel desk if it's safe romping around at these times, he laughs and points at the police station opposite.  Although when I later ask them directions to Circle K (yes, they're still here) they both stare at me and wave me out of the room.

We spent the following day hitting the main tourist attractions, which are fairly frugal, as mentioned, and booking our train tickets for the following day.  We're informed the daytime train is the better journey as the scenery is wonderful.  I would prefer the night train (quoted 8 hours, took bit longer) but it arrived at 4am, so we opt for the nice day train.  Couple of beers in town at night and we hit the road to Yogyakarta.

Sadly due to a further camera malfunction on our secondary camera we cannot show the video of the scenery.  Modern technology has so far failed to give us two functional cameras.  What ever happened to just having a casette camera?  They never screwed up.  We're back running again though.

When we book the train ticket, it leaves at 8:15am, the ticket lady advises to be there an HOUR before! We agree hesitantly, and arrive about 45mins before.  Obviously by 9am there's no sign of the train and it's getting warm.  Thankfully we were soon off and arrived in Jogja (short name) about 6ish.

Next update from Buddhist New Year and the historic Yogyakarta...
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