Salimat Pagi Indonesia

Good Morning Indonesia

That's it. The warm up is over, the trip has now begun. We're one week into Indonesia and it's quite the different experience so far.

On arrival, we stayed in Jakarta and because it was all new to us and scary we got help form Nita's brother to book a hotel before we left New Zealand so that when we landed we didn't have to worry about anything like that. We stayed in the hotel Ibis in Jakarta.

We spent three days in Jakarta becoming familiar with the ways of the people and customs. Rule number, don't use your left hand for anything at all, especially not eating. Indonesian toilets don't have toilet paper you see, they have a ladle type thing that they use in conjunction with the left hand. Some customs I'm not going to try and get used to (bog roll in the bag). As it happens though, most places that cater for westerners have western toilets anyway so it's not a big crisis.

One of the biggest culture shocks is the number of people who, as soon as they see your white skin, coming rushing up to sell you something. On stepping out the airport, it felt like a mini ambush of taxi drivers all trying to lead us to their car - it would turn out that, with it being after midnight, we got off light. The city centre is just the same and until you get used to it it's hard work trying to keep your wits about you while people deliberately disorientate you so that, in confusion you give up and take their service.

It is also hard to walk on the pavements here, because every little bit of pavement space has been taken over by a trader of some sort. Most of these are little kitchens, many of which are on carts and get pushed around from corner to corner, but others are larger, tarpaulin covered structures that are fully established eating venues. You walk past them in the afternoon and they are busy cutting up all the meat on the same pavement table tops that later on everyone is eating off. The result is that most journeys undertaken on foot are spent walking on the road.

The roads are a whole new experience again. I looked out my hotel window one morning where there was a road with two lanes going in each direction. The traffic however, was five cars thick in one direction, with even more cars forming a sixth row at parts (but only if a right turn was less than a couple of blocks away) leaving about three quarters of a car's width for the traffic in the other direction to squeeze through, which they often manged two cars abreast. However this account would lead you to think that the roads are full of cars and while this is true, they come a distant second to the number of motorbikes on the roads here. Everyone rides a bike here, from girls who look like they should be at school to old gnarly solicitors with stack of papers tied down on the seats. The motorbike is also the perfect trading solution, with many of these having big wooden boxes that hang out behind the driver and make the bike as wide as a small car. Other bikes serve as family vehicles with mum dad the two kids and the new baby all comfortably settled on board. Usually one of the kids gets to sit on dads lap and steer the bike as they go. It's also funny to see a lot of woman riding as passengers, side saddle. At first glance, these roads just seemed absolutely anarchic but in actual fact it all works rather well. The white lines are meaningless and the traffic lights seem to be more suggestive than compulsory on some occasions, one way doesn't apply if you can sneak down the side or make your self as obvious as possible down the middle, but if you follow the code, which seems to be cut up others and let them cut you up too, it all works blissfully well. No one gets road rage here, no one quibbles. The level of awareness these drivers have is astounding too. I don not understand how it is possible I have not seen a single collision yet, but everyone knows exactly what is going on amidst all this chaos, the motorbikes are the worst causers of it too, as they nestle themselves through all the traffic. They will squeeze through the most ridiculous places at high speed, cross car bumpers, brushing them with their legs as the go and then pop out the other side as if they'd just done a normal start and stop. It is insane, but perfect. It's also worth noting that on our first encounter with a zebra crossing we stood looking at the mele wondering how to even begin negotiating the crossing when we noticed, everyone had stopped and was waiting for us.

Anyhow, whilst in Jakarta we just took the time to get used to all this and walked most of the places we went, taking in a museum where it cost a pricey 6 pence to enter and nearly 25p for my camera. We also walked down to the harbour to see all the fishing boats and wandered through a couple of markets - the poverty in some of these spots is eye opening, leaving you reluctant to bargain down any prices you are offered despite them being hugely inflated by 'tourist tax'. As it is though, neither of us are interested in the usual fare that is bird sounding whistles and blow darts or packs of postcards (this is them folks) so little bargaining was called for.

We have been very cautious with the food so far too because of our delicate little western tummies, so rather than eat from the pavement kitchens (which as the trip continues are starting to look within stomach tolerance) we chose slightly classier restaurants. We found a Korean place on our first night that was totally fab but rather embarrassing. The two of us sat at a table for four and there is a little barbecue in the middle of the table where, after you have ordered, a girl comes out with a wok and the meat and cooks it up there and then in front of you. But while we are sitting there, having ordered, we get brought complimentary (though not according to the bill - which we didn't argue) starters, and then various other little dishes, then accompaniments, and salads and what-ever else's. Our table for four was entirely covered by all these things which we barely made a dent on. However, on leaving we got a couple of free cigarette lighters with torches in them. .?. There is little concept of no smoking here.

Our time in Jakarta ended with a trip in a bajja (pronounced badge eye), which is a little mostly enclosed orange three wheeled putt-putt to the train station. A trip in one of these gives you an even worse perspective on the road because you feel entirely vulnerable in the face of head on traffic thundering down on you and squeezing past. We then got a train to Bandung where we spent a night with Nita's parents before catching a train again the following evening onward to Yogyakarta.

Yogyakarta is where we are now and we have been here for about three days, staying in a little losman which is a very rudimentary hotel costing £2.78 per night. From here we have seen the temples of Borobudur and Prambanann which was fab. They are absolutely massive and we went to Borobudur which is a Buddhist temple very early in the morning and got to sit at the top for a wee while all by ourselves, surrounded by life size Buddhas looking out over the cloud covered hills and jungle below. Prambannan which is a Hindu temple was less special sadly as it was a later in the day, and much hotter and the place was a lot less accessible because there had been an earthquake last May which has left the whole thing teetering. As such you couldn't enter the main temple but we did sneak off to one of the littler ones where no one was around and where you could scramble into the more solid looking ones for a wee squint around. Returning in the afternoon, we decided we had gotten a little bit of heat stroke and went to bed in the late afternoon and slept for fourteen hours.


So Indonesia is going well. We have adjusted rather well to our strange surroundings and have shaken off our fear of everything strange. One other thing too, it's not only people selling stuff who come up to us. It seems we are quite a novelty to school children who keep greeting us and asking for photos with us. This must be what it's like to be famous - and rich, £1 buys 18,000 rupiah. All is good, Bali comes next.