Well, where did we leave off? Train to Jakarta I believe.
Actually a pretty damn good journey, except it was rather unsociable hours. We went for the Eksekutif class ticket, and still thought we'd be cooped up with the chickens and pigs, this being Indonesia and all. Pleasantly surprised we were when we found we even had our own seats! Even more pleasantly surprised to find they reclined like an Essex girl. Even MORE pleasantly surprised to find that they swivelled. We had to swivel ours just because we could, and I wanted to watrch the shonk that was on the tele near us instead of craning to see the one at the other end of the carriage. It really was crap. If you ever see a film about a girl who finds a monkey which turns out to be an ice-hockeying super star, take my advice and TURN IT OFF! I felt stupider for having watched it.
And then we had to swivel it back round, which wasn't the easiest thing in the world to do, but we did it cos we are men. Grrrrrrrr! Curry women fighting beer.
And so we arrived in Jakarta around 7am. We were about an hour and a half late I think, which turned out to be a bit of a Godsend as it's easier to find accommodation at 7.30am than it is at 6am. So we found accommodation. As with Jogja, the accommodation is crap unless you want to pay loads. We just decided to pay loads. And knowing we were meeting Carla that night had to get her somewhere to stay as well.
Anyway thats the boring stuff. We went to the Zoo!!! It rocked.
We'd heard that they had Komodo Dragons there and as Rob and I had never seen any as we didn't do the Komodo trip from Lombok, we wanted to see them.
Wandered down to the bus stop, jumped on a local bus (2000Rp, roughly 6p), which took about an hour and a half through Jakarta - which is by the way a strange city. Don't get me wrong it's now my favourite city cept Sydney I've been to, it's just an odd layout with no real centre - and finally to the zoo. Imagine in London, 12p for a 90 minute and 20km bus journey or something. In London you get 10 metres in 90 minutes I know but...
Then the zoo itself. Have you ever been to an attraction where they have camera people OUTSIDE, trying to take photos of you to sell? I have. And I didn't understand it. "Here's me with the komodo's... here's me with the lions...Ooh here's me in the car park. I paid for that one you know!"
Anyway inside was awesome. The place is huge I tell you. And there are 3 maps. One inside each entrance and that's it. And signposting inside is similar to signposting on Indonesian roads, i.e. mostly non-existant. We got lost on more than one occasion. This place must be 3 or 4 times the size of London zoo, and much better. We saw (not in order of appearance or preference, just how they come to me) lions, tigers, cassowaries, loads of types of birds, loads of types of monkeys (vendors sell you peanuts and stuff so you can feed them. How good is that! You don't get that in London Zoo), Hippopotami, huge-ass crocodiles, elephants, giraffe, zebra, loads of weird horsey/deer/elk type things, and Komodo dragons. They are cool. They are big. They would be pretty scary up close. And I think that's about all we saw, maybe there was more but... And how much did this zoo cost??? 4,000Rp. Or 24p. Nuff said.
And then we left, and got another bus back to the mall near our house. They have a Man Utd cafe and bar in there. We didn't go in. But they also have Indonesias first McDonald's, which we did go in. And I got told I was beautiful by the girl who served me. I wondered why she'd given me so many chips!
And home, and to the pub. There was football to be watched.
And we were to meet Carla around midnight at the bar to go clubbing. So we did. We went to the first club by taxi. It closed down last year. Went to the next club by taxi. "It's usually a gay club, so be careful. It's fun though" says Carla. "Ok how do I say 'I like girls' to any non-girl-liking 'men' who talk to me?". Apparently it's "aku suka cerwick". There you go. Got inside: "Sorry, no flip-flops". I had trainers on. Rob and Carla had flip-flops. Oh well at least I didn't need to use my newly learned Bahasa Indonesian.
So we got another taxi to the next club and guess what... "Sorry, no flip-flops". So we went to the next club by taxi. Go on, guess what they said... so we got in yet another taxi to go home so the offenders could put on suitable foot attire. And then we got a taxi back to the last club. It was bloody good. Expensive (about 5 quid entry), and expensive inside (about 3 quid a beer) but it was good. And then they made us leave. So we got a taxi back home.
All in all a successful day. Jakarta I like you.
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