24hrs Jakarta

FINALLY, Selamata datang Jakarta!!! ( welcome to Jakarta)

 

Now we had to restore to a Starbucks in order to post this thread for you and also this warm weather was killing us, so some iced mocha latte was seriously needed. Yesterday we arrived to Jakarta, we were not really tired because we were lucky and slept like kings cause each one of us got a whole 3 row seats, so it was pretty much OK.

The weather was incredible warm, so mental, it was feeling like in a sauna. As soon as we stepped out of the terminal we drew everybody’s attention and everybody was so friendly, but it was love to the pig not the bacon, everybody wanted us to pay them something for actually nothing.

We got the bus, quite luxury, it surpassed our expectations. While in the bus we got to see Jakarta. We could say, MENTAL!!! Jakarta is the epitome of rampant capitalism; it’s just so different from the whole Americas or Europe. Massive skyscrapers everywhere, construction cranes seemed to be over the whole sky line, junk food in every corner. So much wealth, but under the highways and bridges the reality was another, massive slums so many people living next to the most polluted rivers we have ever seen. Regarding the traffic, OH LA LAAA, so many scooters and BAJAJ (a 3 wheel hybrid of a car and a scooter, indeed my favorite) people flocking the streets in thousands and lines of cars extending as far as our sight can get, bottlenecks seem to last forever. People were so kind and especially when we try to communicate with our few Bahasa Indonesian words, the hundreds of motorbikes rushing through the streets like suicidal drivers, the massive numbers of street vendors and the nice and spicy smell of Nasi Goreng on the streets make Jakarta a very special city that has earned a special place in our memories.

Anne, that’s our host, she is very fun and basically loves every major big beer producer country, so we get a long pretty well.  She lives relative close to the centre of the city, her house has the basic amenities but it’s quite gezellig.  It’s like some sort of a hostel, well she is really into the couch surfing stuff, there is a French german couple as well. We arrived at her home and straight away we decided to discover the city with them. So the Jakarta adventure begins!!!

 We had some nice Goreng Nasi noodles and we were heading to some sort of bazaar. Along the way, we had to cross several avenues, ohh my god, it was mental, no traffic lights and soooo many cars, it felt like suicidal, we crossed the street and we learned that the French girl was actually the one with the balls cause she was fearless and determined to cross the street, while her boyfriend and us, we were really scared and seriously having second thoughts, at the end with some of her shouts we all managed to cross in one piece.

We were heading to a bazaar, but we ended up in the biggest Mosque in East Asia, pretty cool, especially since they allowed us to get in and gave us a tour, quite massive inside. Definitely worth visiting it, oh yeah, and there was a madrasa there, wonder if Obama studied there back in the days, mmm?

Later in the night we got some beers, and Anne got some of her friends over. Indonesian beer was actually very good, even better than a lot of Dutch beers.  We were planning to sleep early but then, Anne and the German dude pulled out a guitar, it was great. Some Indonesian tunes and some backpacker melodies made the night quite joyful. Finally, we went to sleep around 1 or so.

Steffen slept like a baby, he just laid his head down and he was in a deep sleep, ohh I was so jealous. I was fighting with jet lag, it felt so confusing, finally I managed to get to sleep but around 4 am or so we were abruptly woken up. Damn, we thought there was a revolution or jihad sth going on, we just jumped out of our couches and stared each other in wonder. It turned out to be praying time for Muslim. We have 3 Mosques, or so, close to home, but it actually felt as if the ceremony was in our garden, they use massive loud speakers. Just mental, I guess then we had a cultural shock, cause Indonesians seem to sleep so calmly as if nothing would have happened.

The break of morning brought other sort of cultural shock with it. This time it was our WC, it doesn’t work, so we are supposed to pour some buckets of water to make it work, oh yeah, and did we told you that using paper is not common around here, water bucket does it all. I felt a bit sick because of dinner time, must have been Java’s revenge or sth like that, but luckily I had some Etihad nappings, god bless Etihad!

Shower time….  guess what was involved? …. Of course.. the bucket. At the beginning its kinda hard and it feels very cold to pour cold water on your body, quite hard to master showering with one hand while pouring a massive water bucket with the other hand, it’s like eating with the hands, looks easy but its quite complicated, trust us, hopefully we will master those arts by the time we will leave. The shower bucket is quite refreshing and helps to wake up, it’s actually kinda cool to go back to the basics, life feels quite relaxed without many things. Definitely worth trying, even though we doubt that could be possible during European winters.

Then we were done ready to head to visit government officials ,we were eager and  wearing our best smiles looking forward to meet them, and also looking forward to have a crazy ride in the awesome TUK TUKs!!!  They rock! If I would be Indonesian, I would be definitely riding one of those!!

Next thread will tell you our great time at the offices of Bappenas (urban planning governmental offices)