July 25, Wednesday to July 31, Tuesday {Indonesia}

July 25, Wednesday   to    July 31, Tuesday    {Indonesia}

This is the day I leave Singapore and fly to Indonesia.  This will be my 25th country so far.  

My flight out leaves on schedule and we arrive on the Island of Java and the city of Jakarta in late afternoon.  11 hours behind Ottawa local time.   Missed the office to obtain the travel visa on the way to the Immigration desk, so after waiting 10 minutes in line, I was sent back to where I missed the office, got my 30 day tourist visa and went back to the back of the line.  20 minutes later I was through without a hitch and looking for a taxi.  I had exchanged by remaining Ringit for Indonesian Rupiahs the Singapore airport, and gotten change in Rupiahs from my travel visa ($25 fee out of my $50 US).  I had enough to pay for the taxi ride which was almost $100,000 Rupiahs.   Thank God the exchange rate is about $10 to each 10,000 Rupiahs.

Although I had printed out a map from Booking.com when I made my hotel reservations, my taxi driver did not seem to know how to read it.   We eventually got there, but through a very round-about way.

The drive in from the airport is absolutely crazy with traffic.  I think I'm back in India; doesn't matter that there are only 4 lanes, there are more than 6 cars across !

Jakarta has beautiful monuments everywhere; expecially on their round-a-bouts.

 I’m staying at the Merlynn Park Hotel.

 The view from my room



 The lobby area below and on the 5th floor

The restaurant on the 5th floor

Indonesia comprises 17,508 islands spread around the equator between Asia and Australia.  It’s major islands are Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan and Sulawesi.   It consists of 33 provinces, 6 of which are in Java, Bali is a 7^th. 

The island of Java (Jawa in Indonesian) has a population of 135 million (to Canada’s 34 million!)  13^th largest island in the world, it has 44 volcanoes, 20 of which are still active.   Put all of that population on an island that measures 1050km (650 miles) long and up to 210km (130 miles) wide, with the bulk of the people living in Jakarta (population over 9 million). The city of Jakarta is the capital city of post populous city in South East Asia and is spread over 661 square kilometers. 

The first thing I read in the tourist brochure was that it is not easy to get around in Jakarta; no kidding, they don’t have a metro system!  It also indicated that taxis were cheap and the best way to get around, but the traffic is extremely slow and the drivers don’t want to use their meters, so you get charged much more than you should. 

 Streets of Jakarta go from this in an older part of the city

 to this,  nice housing area where everything is behind secure gates

 They are digging up the ditches at the side of the roads since they are cluttered with garbage debris.  Since there are no sewers to catch the water when it rains, they really need these ditches to work.

 Modern parts of Jakarta.  Love the architecture.  We really have to start doing better with ours.

 Looks very outer space looking.  No idea what it is.

 Sometimes the traffic moves fairly well, sometimes it doesn't.

MoNa (Monument National) about 1 km from my hotel
The notes from this week are going to be extremely short, since I did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING while I was here.  First:   Ramadhan has started.   Second:  I’m hearing strange sounds from the streets below at night (hopefully fire crackers and not gun shots).   If you want to travel anywhere in Jakarta, you have to do so by bus and they are ALWAYS overcrowded.   I took a short walk just as the sunset one night to find a convenience store to purchase some juice and soft drinks, and did not like the look of things.   For some reason I’m not confident about walking these streets, although my hotel is located close to a main boulevard. 

I don’t have access to the internet from my room since the hotel charges $10/hour and when I log on to do any research or to post to my blog, I’m usually on for about 3 hours.  There is free connection from the hotel lobby and from the restaurant levels on the 5^th floor, but I end up with bites all over my ankles each time I’m down there.  They look like sand flies or midges, and they bite and sting like crazy.  Deet does not seem to deter them either, so I’ve got swollen bites all over my lower legs again and on my arms.  Also, on most days the internet keeps cutting out.  It took me 2 hours to post 1 day of travel photos into my blog yesterday.  

My research on the Internet has paid off however and I’ve managed to book a solo tour through the Island of Java, on my way to Bali.   I leave on Wednesday August 1 and arrive in Bali on Sunday August 12.  I’ve also looked up some Indonesian phrases to help me

hello = Selamat;   Welcome = Salamat datang  or   Sama sama;     Good bye = Sampai ketemu;

please =  silahkan;   thank you =  Terima Kasi    or   Marku Sukmo

Yes = Ya      No = bukan       Hati hati = be careful !     

{During the drive through Java I kept seeing a yellow diamond shaped traffic sign with a big exclamation point on it  “ ! ”    When I asked what it meant I was told it meant “caution” or “be careful”  or  Hati Hati !} 

I’ll keep trying to catch up on my blog postings for June & July while I’m here, but I have to go to the lobby or the 5th floor to have the wifi connection.  Unfortunately I get bitten by these tiny little flies that REALLY sting, whenever I go down there.