Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Jakarta
Thanks to Air Asia, after a three hr flight we were in Jakarta. Getting off the plane was easy, but getting into the country was a different story. We didn’t have any currency to pay for our visa as we assumed there would be ATM's like in all airports, the airport was small an empty for a big city and ATM's were all miles after border control, so we stuck in Limbo. After being passed around like a hot potato for half hour Al was escorted by border control to an ATM. All good, free to go.
We had a feeling Indonesia might end up being a challenge!
We got dropped off by the airport bus and grabbed a Jakarta style Tuk Tuk to Jalan Jaksa, backpacker's area. The tuk tuk's were smaller, noisier, and smellier than Thai ones and looked like they were made of cardboard. We barely fit in with both our bags. The ride was even crazier. There were roads the size of the M1 all meeting an huge junctions and there were no traffic signals, you might get one little policeman with a gas mask on directing hundreds of cars/bikes/buses etc if your lucky.
Compared to Koh San Road in Bangkok, Jalan Jaksa was much smaller with only a hand full of hostels and bars. It got more lively in the evening though.
We woke up and off we go to explore the Asian mega city of Jakarta. We quite quickly realised its not the most pedestrian friendly city in the world. If there was a pavement, there would be cars driving on it, street cafe's and people chilling on the floor. The roads were insanely busy with buses honking ever second, hundreds of scooters weaving in and out and cars somehow avoiding collisions. This place made Bangkok look like a quiet village!
I knew Indonesia was 90% Muslim country but with the 32oC degree heat & humidity I couldn’t face wearing something long so decided on a short skirt. A big mistake!! Walking down the street all eyes were on me, all age of guys to sniggering young girls in head scarfs.
We went to National Museum, then across to the National Monument. Views of the city were a little cloudy cos of pollution, but still impressive. We felt like celebrities as all during the visit, groups of giggling Indonesian kids and adult couples wanted to have their picture taken with us, the western couple!
The next day we went exploring again and saw the biggest mosque in South East Asia, I was very tempted to go in but my outfit was a no no! We also visited a few other attractions, Mini Indonesia, which was like a theme park with all the good rides taken out and a Indonesian version of Disneyland.
The modern business district was a different world in contrast to most other parts of the city. There was huge new shopping malls full of all designer shops, hundreds of posh cafe's and restaurants, cinema and an indoor theme park. Oh how I wish I could take it to Leeds. My fav was Grand Indonesia Mall. We had done enough in Jakarta, and the pollution was getting to us so we booked a train to Yogyakarta.
- comments