So You Think You Have Seen Polluted Water?

Let me tell you, if you haven't until you have been to Jakarta. Well at least I hadn't until I went to Jakarta this past weekend.

So in typical Indonesian travel style we got to the airport only to find out that our plane tickets were actually for next weekend and not this weekend. Nice. The travel agent had messed up, but luckily the people at the Lion Air ticket office were really helpful and we were able to change our flight to a flight the for a few hours later but the same day. For a price of course (6$ CAD). Oh well. I guess that is life.


So while we were waiting for our plane to depart Ashleigh bought a copy off Time magazine and we had drinks at Starbucks (see photo). It was pretty much the same as a Starbucks in Canada except there was less on the menu and the food items were a little different. I had a Iced Passion tea and a peanut butter panini. Both were fine.



So by all accounts my students and the teachers at the school Jakarta is supposed to be the worst city in the world for traffic. I have heard stories of people commuting 2 hours each way to work. This is insane. Luckily for us though our cabbies took the expressways and got us to our hotel without any major snarl ups. Which was really good. I hate traffic. Thankfully we didn't get caught in any major jams this weekend!

This was the view from our penthouse suite. Just kidding, we were on the 2nd floor. It looks like they had just finished demolishing a building next door, or maybe this had been a vacant lot for years, who is to say really, but it was an "interesting view" if not an inexspensive one.

The hotel room was nice. Two beds, a TV, flush toilet, shower, air conditioning and a breakfast was included. Pretty good all around. I would give it a 2.5 out of 5 considering bang for the buck. Turns out Ashleigh is willing to spend more money than I on hotels/hostels with 50$ being her upper limit. Mine is more like 15$. This place was 30$/night. All in all it was probably a good decision to stay in a "fancier" place in Jakarta. Just because its a big city. But the area that we were in and that our hotel was located was relatively safe and clean.

Then we went to check out a few sites after checking into our hotel. Our first stop was this giant monument. The guide book describes it as "phalic" and boy, were they right. It sort of resembles what I imagine the Washington Monument would look like. Anyways there was a man offering to take a photo of you touching the top of the monument (as pictured above) promising the photo to be ready in one minute. But we declined and did our own version as pictured above.
It was nice to be in a park again and have some green space to just walk and wander and take in city life while not having to worry about being run over by a car. So we wandered around the part and were harrassed by people saying "Hello Mister" and offering to sell us everything from water and refreshments to strange wind up toys and kites. An eclectic mix to say the least. There must have also been somewhere to rent bikes because I saw several bikes built for two and even a bike legitimately built for three! I miss the photo op for that sadly :(

That evening we went out for some great Indonesian food, I know, who knew they actually make delicious versions of the stuff that I have been ordering from the cafe at lunch! "Yes, finally" I thought to myself, "This must be what everyone is talking about!" Then we went to a place that had the Manchester United game playing. Unfortunately they didn't serve Bitang (the local beer here) so we only stayed for the first half and a juice and a campai (which is another thing I found to be delicious. Its a dough thats been rolled out flat and then they put something in the middle like jam or bananas and cook it on the grill. its goood.) Then we wandered around looking for somewhere to have a drink. We were generally disapointed and just ended up beside the place where we started for "besar" = large Bintangs and a karaoke/performance by a couple of the staff I think. Anyways, after making a few Indonesian friends (one definitely creepy and unwanted who was later seen hanging out with a suspected transvestite) we called it a night and headed back to the hotel for a good nights sleep.

The next morning we headed out for Kota after our complimentary breakfast (which also had some yummy papaya! yay! fresh fruit!) We got dropped off at harbour gate and after we (Ashleigh) got our bearings we headed into the market area. The market area ended up being a rag-tag-labyrinth of houses and shops and dirty dirty smelly stinky volatile water. Which was probably not so much water as human feces, urine, garbage, dead animal etc. Gross. The smell of some off that water was enough to make me want to puke a few times. Seriously you could hide a body in that area and nobody would notice a change in the smell.

But still the area was charming in an interesting sort of realism way. It was just so nuts. Its hard to describe. There were people selling everything from bras to car parts. And kids running around playing. There were people going about their daily business such as doing the laundry or making food. There were people just hanging out. There were angry roosters crowing and chasing chickens around. Seriously I felt like I was in another country more during this part of the trip than I have at any other point in my travels anywhere in my life.

This is a view from the bridge where we had to pay a 1,000 rupiah toll to cross (11 cents). The water here was sick. It was green and smelly and I saw lots of garbage floating in it and a dead fish. If I fell in that I know I would be instantly vomiting and also would probably catch ebola, cholera, dysentery, mono, an ecoli bacteria, hepatitis C (I have vaccines for A and B) and maybe even the common cold.

I appreciate the water quality in my hometown. This was a ditch on the side of an alley. Like I said, more garbage and filth than water.

Another view from the bridge. Looking out towards the harbor of Jakarta. And you though that the inner harbor in Victoria was dirty...

Okay. After our romp through the market and 100 "Hello Misters" and several "Bulay, Bulays!" (white person, white person!) later we ended up at some sort of town square with a statue. It was pretty, pretty hard that is to enjoy the sights as we were almost instantly swarmed by people wanting to take a picture with us like we were Justin Beiber (Ashleigh) and Celine Dion (Me). Seriously, I was just waiting for someone to ask for my autograph. I felt famous. And would never want to be famous because of this kind of attention.

A man who wanted a couple of shots with us. They were all really friendly and genuinely interested but I wonder if it is some sort of game with them...

These guys were Betawi (Aboriginal group of the area) and they were dancing. They actually came over, stopping their dancing to check out the white girls. I feel like people come here for the entertainment and the street shopping etc. but also to spot a real live white person who is just checking out the place...

They wanted to get a picture with Asheligh!

Here is a random fruit/food stall selling a random assortment of things you might like.

We had been looking for a Chinese temple after going to the square but were unsucessful in our attempt. After several blocks of an unsoclicited self guided tour and asking a hotel in the area for directions we stumbled upon a construction site where the place should have been after asking the security there it turns out the place was under construction. Thanks lonely planet! You are published this year! So we headed back to the same restaurant we went to the night before and had some yummy food. Also I discovered Avacado juice. OMG. Its like guacamole in a cup. A whole cup of avacado (alpukat) blended with deliciousness. Pretty sure tony would not approve, and it got to be a bit much by the bottom third of the glass, but it is something I will order in the future!

We lounged for a bit and had some more campai and strawberry juice (basically a smoothie made with ice and strawberries) and killed some time before we had to be at the airport. When we got to the airport our cabbie dropped us off at the wrong terminal. I didn't trust him and his long fingernails from the get go. But a nice airport staff pointed us in the direction of the yellow shuttle that would take us to the next terminal. When we finally got there we found out our plane was delayed by 2 hours due to poor weather in Surabaya. Nice. So we had a crappy airport dinner and watched some Arsenal soccer while we waited.

We got back late but safe. It was a good trip all in all and I can't believe how much you can actually get done in a weekend!