8 Jan
9 Jan
10 Jan
This was another amazing city. It is nothing like what I had imagined it would be like. I thought Jakarta would be more like Bangkok was, crowded, dirty, and poor. Instead, downtown Jakarta (where we were staying) was very nicely laid out with lots of greenery, modern buildings, and monuments. However, once you left the nice part of town, you quickly crossed into the poor areas. This was more of what I had expected to see. As it turns out, on the last day, I went up to the port area to see some more of the poor areas while most of my collegues went to the safari park. Next time, I go to the safari park.
The division of wealth seems pretty clear cut. The average Indonesian makes a little more than $1000 a year yet you see nice neighborhoods with yachts and then slums right across the roadway. Likewise, the center of the city is clean with lots of nice big western style skyscrapers, then you head out of the city and turn a corner into a really tightly packed run down part, and up by the port, there were slum dwellerss who were basically using the river as their sewer.
People kept on saying that the traffic in Jakarta was much worse than in Bangkok. At least the air seemed better. The traffic on the other hand was the worst I have ever seen. The traffic grid is laid out really funny and most of the streets are not made to accommodate large amounts of traffic. In the countryside where we got lost (more on this later) what used to be dirt paths are now 2 lane roads. It doesn't help that to make right turns (our equivalent of a left turn) you usually have to take a confusing set of side streets and detours. I'm just glad that I didn't have to drive. In hindsight, if I had to drive, I probably never would have left the hotel. I would have been afraid that "oops, had to take a side street, now I'm hosed for the rest of the day".
6 Jan: This was the infamous trip to visit the Cal Alumni Association. We all stumbled out of bed early enough to get on the bus at 0630 so that we could visit the Alums for breakfast and coffee at the new (the distinction becomes important later) University of Indonesia campus. Needless to say, since we were going to join them for breakfast, nobody ate beforehand (big mistake). We took off merrily down the road looking forward to breakfast. At one offramp, Harry (our student liaison in Indonesia) told the bus driver to exit but the bus driver said no. Harry figured that the driver knew a better way. The ugly truth dawned on us when the bus driver pulled into a gas station to ask directions. I think that at this point, we were already late. So the driver heads down a side road to get to the university when all of a sudden, all the traffic comes to a complete stop. No one knows why, but they had some heavy flooding the past day and that might have been the reason. We turn around and get back on the freeway and finally make it to the campus.
Rhonda's expression when she finds out we're at the wrong place (classic)
Unfortunately, the saga doesn't end here. We all hop out of the bus relieved to finally be there when we find out that the alums are not really here, they are waiting for us at the old campus IN THE CITY. The only bright spot at this point was that everyone got a chance to use the restroom (I understand the women's was particularly nasty). This is secondhand information, I was not able to confirm this report.
So we hop back into the bus and tool down the aforementioned dirt paths now 2 lane highways, back to the city. Traffic as usual was backed up for the entire time. Again people had to pee again (because when we stopped, everyone just had to get something to drink). At some point in the trip, people had to go so badly, they had to pee in bottles because the bus driver wouldn't pull over (there wasn't room). By the time we finally saw the alums, it was 6 hours later, everyone was starving to death, and we had to cram a 4 hour visit in a quick one hour lunch.
The food in Jakarta was overall pretty good. I thought it was very much like Thai food. Harry bought us to a really good local restaurant the first night. Among other things, we had some deep fried fish (gurame goreng) and fish head curry (huge fish head). Both were really good. This was another of those all trip dinners. The dishes had a curious habit of getting passed one way down the table and not the other. Hmmmm.
Here we are in Jakarta with beer and coconuts. Life is good.
Another restaurant we ate at was Manari. We went there because they featured native dancing. They had fixed menus which gave us quite a start because the prices started at 50000 rp (2250 rupiah (rp) = $1). We ended up getting another menu from them and ordered ala carte. I got a spicy fried eggplant which was excellent. The native dancing was interesting especially all the finger wiggling. After the dancers came the mariachis, yes, the mariachis. All they needed were the sombreros. They sang a couple of songs including "Country Roads" which we all sang along with and then someone made a joke that they would sing "La Bamba" next. They did. It was a little on the expensive side but definitely a lot of fun.
Somewhere in the trip I took a run down to the National Monument (Monas). Considering the traffic, the exhaust, and the humidity, it was probably a stupid idea in hindsight but at the time is was just nice to get away from everyone else. After awhile, doing everything in a group is kind of a drag. It always took such a long time to make decisions. We would sit in the lobby for 30-45 minutes deciding where we were going to eat. Herd mentality working here big time. It needs to be said that the group as a whole was great. There wasn't anyone whose company I didn't enjoy.
The next day we went to the Jakarta Stock Exchange which was pretty neat because it doesn't have the frenzied hustle and bustle I saw at the NYSE.
The same day we went to the Toyota-Astra plant which was really neat. I've never been in an auto plant before and I was just a neat experience seeing them put one together. It was especially interesting for Kevin since he had just done a report on Saturn.
That night, we went down to another shopping street and I inadvertently bought myself a blowgun. The street vendor offered it to me and I made what I thought was a really low offer because I hadn't decided that I wanted one. I just wanted to look. So he kept on lowering his price and I kept on shaking my head then when I started to leave, he matched my price. At that point, I had to buy it. Anyway, it didn't quite make it back to the states (even though I carried it on board all the aircraft). I think I took the travel OK until we got back to San Francisco International and the blowgun happened to get between me and the large 50 or so pound suitcase some Indian woman was slinging off the conveyer belt. The blowgun felt a little mushy after that incident.
This is what everyone who went to the safari park saw. Read on to find
out what sights we saw. (next time we go the the safari park)
Our last day in Jakarta we had to ourselves. Most of the group went up to the safari park (where Rhonda had her encounter with the orang) and the Bogor Botanical Garden while Kevin and I went to the port area to see some more or the city and the museums. There really wasn't much worth seeing. The museums are poorly kept and run down and the port itself was interesting to see the trading ships but that was about it. The humidity and heat had something to do with it also because both of us had no energy. On the way back, we stopped off at Serinah to do some final shopping for batik (batik is an Indonesian art form that is like tie dye but much more intricate) scarves then veged for a couple of hours. That night we left for Tokyo on the red eye.
Overall my impression of Jakarta is that it was somewhat of a fake city. It was very impressive at first sight, but it doesn't seem to have a character of its own. Bangkok does. It's almost as if the government want you to see all the really nice stuff, be content, and never want to see the poor areas. I'm not sure I go out of my way to go back.
Lesson: Don't bring white or really light colored clothes. They won't last for more than a day.
Lesson: Don't do your laundry in Jakarta either. With such high humidity, your clothes will never dry out.
Regrets: Next time we see the Botanical Gardens and not the port. Where would you like to go now?