Breaking my journey up into short parts has kept things fresh I guess with new things to look at, new places to go, and new hotels to check in to, though I feel like there are some re-occurring trends developing throughout my travels.
Firstly, as I have mentioned before, I really dislike the days when I have to move from one place to another; It doesn't matter if its somewhere I'm looking forward to going, or somewhere I am only planning to stay one day for. The element of travel in the last month has not been something I've relished.
Secondly, when arriving in a new city I tend to be completely overwhelmed by everything I'm seeing and experiencing. Sometimes I feel like I should be writing everything down so I can convey it all in my blog, but there is simply too much for me to take in sometimes and often when it gets to writing my blog, those little moments get left out.
Finally, I seem to feel slightly more insecure about my travels themselves on days when I'm going from one place to another. I haven't really established a reason for this. Perhaps because each one of my journeys has so far been made on a plane,and whenever I arrive at the airport my brain might associate this with travelling home from previous trips to Asia. It could also be that once I'm comfortable and settled in a location, I start to get my bearings and feel a bit more like I know what I am doing, and where I am going.
Travelling to a new location obviously wipes this away almost entirely and I feel concerned that a multitude of things could go wrong - this perhaps is also a reason why I don't like the days of travelling.
Last night was my last in the horrendous cupboard hotel. I couldn't wait to be out of there this morning after another boiling hot night in my confined space. I now have just three nights remaining of my stay in Indonesia, all of which will be spent in the capital, Jakarta.
I actually got round to looking up some information city last night, and it gave me some good ideas of how I can fill my final few days here.
I'd obviously been slightly more sensible booking my flight to Jakarta than I had been with my previous three trips as I didn't have to wake up at the crack of dawn in an effort to make sure I got to the airport on time.
No stray dogs to worry about this morning either so I packed up my bags and waved goodbye to the Ndalem Guesthouse at about 9.15am this morning.
The experience of the last couple of days has made me consider writing more reviews online about my hotels. I always get emails asking to write about my experiences, and I have filled in a couple, but I now think I'm going to make a concious effort to at least write a few words about each place I stay.
I find it useful to read what people think about where they've stayed and although it can be difficult to judge purely on reviews as guests have different standards, presumably looking for different things with each stay, I'd say that it certainly weighs a lot into my decision. If a few people have commented that their stay wasn't great, I follow their advice - especially if there's a reoccurring problem with something that people mention.
I decided to be a little adventurous this morning, and try to avoid an expensive taxi ride by getting the Transjogja bus to the airport. It took me a while to realise, but on the way to Prambanan, the bus made a stop at the airport just before it terminated, so I figured I'd set off a little early and see if I could navigate my way there using public transport.
A taxi cost me about 75,000RP ($7.50) on the way to my hotel when I arrived on Tuesday so I figured that paying 3,600 ($0.36) was probably a little better deal and should take about the same time.
Boarding from the bus stop closest to my guesthouse, I figured I would just retrace my route from the other day getting on the first bus that came along and then changing after one stop to drive all the way to the penultimate stop.
I got off the bus at Malioboro, but instead of catching the 1A as I had done the other day, the conductor ushered me onto the 3A saying that it was the correct bus for the airport. Unfortunately the map for the bus route isn't shown anywhere on the bus itself, but I'd had a brief look in the bus shelter where it was hanging up and it seemed as though pretty much every bus, except the one I'd boarded near the hotel headed in the direction of the airport.
Obviously it was slightly more uncomfortable then the other day considering I was having to lug my two backpacks around, but thankfully the bus wasn't too crowded so I managed to put one by my feet and keep one on my lap.
The bus followed a slightly different route than the one I'd boarded to Prambanan, so I got to see parts of Yogyakarta I hadn't visited on my stay.
Eventually the bus pulled in at a terminal, and all the passengers got off. I was slightly confused, as it definitely wasn't the airport, so I asked the guy conducting the bus, and he gave a response of "Yes, airport, OK" before shutting the door and instructing the bus driver to pull into a nearby bay.
I was very confused by this, and figured that perhaps I'd mis-interpreted what had been said to me, or I needed to wait for another bus which would take me to the airport as that's all I'd said when I asked for a ticket.
I stood there for about ten minutes, with three more buses getting rid of all their passengers before eventually the same bus I had arrived on pulled up to apparently continue it's route after a brief rest stop. I can only imagine that this is some kind of law which is in place to say that bus drivers are only allowed to driver a certain distance or a certain number of miles without taking a break.
All the same passengers I was on the bus with got back on, the driver was the same and so was the conductor, it seems like a very bizarre move if it isn't an enforced thing.
Back on the move again, I looked at my watch, and realised that I'd actually been on the bus for over an hour and a half,and was now starting to venture towards the realms of having to rush for my flight.
I was going to be flying with Air Asia this morning and I know that they usually have boarding times about 35-40 minutes before the plane sets off. To my relief we eventually got to the airport for about 11.20am, so I quickly had to find the right place to queue, and hope that the desk was still open.
I think I was definitely the last person to check-in, but despite my ticket saying that my 12pm flight would be boarding at 11.20am, there was no information on the board about it and no sign of any movement when I eventually reached the departure lounge.
It was about 11.45am before I walked out onto the tarmac to get the plane, and we were up on the air by 12.15pm and on our way to Jakarta.
As is the norm, I slept through most of the flight but woke up to the rather bumpy landing of my plane touching down in Jakarta.
I arrived into terminal three, which is where I left from on my connecting flight to Bali last week, and I was again planning on using the bus to head towards my hotel and avoid paying extortionate taxi fees.
Jakarta is a fairly huge place, so picking where to stay was a bit of a nightmare. I tried to get somewhere centrally in an area which is known as Gambir.
Very helpfully, the hotel I am staying at sent me a map and a set of instructions for how to get to them, so I went to the information desk at the airport and enquired firstly about the bus - which goes to Gambir station, and how to go onwards from there.
Outside there was the usual mess or taxi drivers, and people offering lifts for inflated prices, but I managed to navigate my way to the Damri (public) bus service and brought a ticket which would take me to Gambir. As well as its smell, Jakarta is notorious for its horrendous traffic at all times of the day so I wasn't expecting it to be a quick ride. The bus filled up pretty quickly with people from all three airport terminals boarding before we eventually set off towards the city.
I wasn't really sure what to expect, but first impressions gave me the idea that Jakarta was a bit of a mixed bag. Firstly, most of the billboards and advertisements were in English, which I found a little strange. As we wound our way through the traffic, I started to notice that there were a lot of houses with tin roofs as I'd seen in Manila and once again I was amazed by the sheer crush of people squeezed together. On the horizon you could see what seemed to be hundreds of skyscrapers and in contrast to what was close by and the rice fields I'd seen close to the airport, it was an intriguing mix with the people seemingly living in the shadows of the business district.
I realised we were starting to get close once I saw a huge monument in the distance which I recognised from the map I'd been given at the airport, when the lady had indicated to me that the Gambir terminal was close by. Getting off the bus, and collecting my bag it was like being a celebrity with people throwing themselves at you to offer you lifts to everywhere. I showed no interest first off, determined to get my bearings and try to understand which direction I'd be heading in going from the bus stop. I was also going this to try and 'play it cool' to put myself into a better position to barter, should I need to later on.
My hotel looked to be about a five minute drive away so I factored that in when one guy came to speak to me, and offer me some help. He seemed a little unsure of my destination, so called one of his friends over who explained the direction to his colleague before offering me a lift for 50,000 Rp.
At this point I actually think I laughed out loud saying that I'd been there before and could probably walk it, by which time has asked me how much I'd pay. I said 20,000 which I figured was pretty low, and he countered with 30,000 which I refused and started to walk off before he eventually said: "Ok, OK, 25,000".
There were was a row of tuk-tuks and taxis in the station so I wasn't actually sure how I'd be getting there despite agreeing a deal, and eventually he walked me over to his motorbike and handed me a helmet - at least I was going to be a passenger today....
This would have been a fantastic moment for the GoPro camera as we weaved through traffic, tail-gated cars and eventually made a huge u-turn when we saw a sign for my hotel.
It was down a bit of a dodgy alley, but no stray dogs to speak of so I was happy. I paid the guy and went to check-in before eventually being taken to my room.
I decided to go out for a bit of a walk to get my bearings a little and thought I'd re-trace my steps by heading towards the large monument next to the bus stop. The traffic was starting to pick up a little now, and just down from where I am staying is a huge bus terminal which was packed full of people and buses as I walked past it to go to a nearby convenience store.
Not to harp on about the traffic again, but you know a road is busy and massive when you can't walk across it, but have to walk around in small stages.
It took me five road crossings to get to the right side, on at least two of which I was definitely forced to take my life into my own hands!
Eventually I crossed the road towards the huge monument; the noise from the city was deafening as traffic of all different forms orbited around the huge junction. The heat was almost unbearable, and it was nice to get to the park, get away from the fumes and breathe in some (slightly) fresh air.
Leading up to the path I saw that there were quite a few people running around the outside of the concrete area, and on the far side there were people renting out bicycles, and those miniature motorbikes that make a deafening racket. Along the way I spotted these....
...it seems as though they were going for something slightly more than a conventional than a regular bin, and I thought they were very entertaining. I only hope they encourage people to put litter in them, and aren't just there for novelty value.
I feel that I arrived at the perfect time as there were only a few tourists in sight, and most of the people looked as though they were quite happy to just be sitting on the grass taking it all in. There were some futsal pitches to the left, and also a basketball court there too. I had a walk around before picking a spot to sit around the outside of the monument, allowing myself a few moments to take in the sounds going off around me, and watch the sun disappear from the sky:
Once night had completely fallen, I decided to head back in the direction of my hotel, and grab some dinner. I stopped at a burger bar which was just down the road from where I'm staying before returning to my room.
I had slight issue when I got back, as I discovered that none of the plug sockets actually worked in my room, and managed to get the guy behind reception to move me from my twin into a double room. The wifi signal was still terribly bad, but at least I had some sort of access to electricity which is a bonus. I spent a bit of time in Dunkin' Doughnuts tonight making use of their free internet service, before coming back to the Citi Residence for the night, and making plans for tomorrow.
My initial impressions of Jakarta have been fairly positive - as much as I said to hate to make them having only spent a couple of hours in the city. I can see why people are drawn here, but also why it gets such a bad reputation as a polluted, over-crowded and daunting place. It's definitely not for everyone, and people who are used to the quiet environments of small towns and villages would probably struggle to adjust.
Not that I'm an expert, but having had some experience in a few of Asia's capital cities, I'm more than willing to throw myself in and not been intimidated by its noise, its people or its aroma. For the three nights I'm here, I intend to get the most out of my experience as I do everywhere, and I feel like today was a good opportunity to start taking in exactly what Jakarta has to offer.
Cum on Feel the Noise
Slade (1973)
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