To some extent I agree.
I've often mentioned that before I set off to South Korea in 2009, I really had no idea what to expect. The only things I knew about the country were that they hosted the 1988 Olympics, and co-hosted the 2002 World Cup. I never believed the stereotype about eating dogs, before you ask. Thousands of people like me have now had the opportunity to experience teaching abroad up and down the Korean peninsular, an area that was largely unheralded due to it's bitter war with the north.
Who'd have thought that thirty years ago that people would have virtually unrestricted access to parts of the world that were previously closed off to them. When you think about countries on this continent like Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, they are still very much coming into their own as tourist destinations, and are now more frequently being visited by people from outside of Asia.
One thing I read about Laos, and I'm intrigued to see with my own eyes, is that it appears to be on the verge of a massive rise in popularity - at the moment it hasn't become quite as commercial as somewhere like Thailand or Indonesia where high-rise buildings and five-star hotels are very easy to find. Countries like the Czech Republic, Croatia and Bulgaria have gone through this phase in Europe, and there are very few countries in the world where big business and tourism hasn't made its mark.
Our ability to connect with the world is also making it smaller. A finite example of this is that I can be at one side of the world, and still contact with the people that matter who are on the opposite side of it. With the click of a button (and a decent internet connection) I can send them a picture or a video of what I'm seeing - something that was perhaps unthinkable maybe even ten or fifteen years ago.
Although I've had to do some backtracking for flight connections, most regions and areas in this part of the world now have a dedicated airport,and it is much easier to access somewhere like Borneo these days than it previously had been.
The world around us is something which we continue to learn about every day.
Whether it's the discovery of dinosaur fossils, research into the rate of global warming or connections with indigenous tribes not known about before, we are accessing new information at an incredible rate and it is helping to make us a more knowledgeable species. We are now also capable of accessing virtually anything we need to know using books, television programmes or the Internet making this information more than just the possession of university professors and scholars.
I feel like museums are becoming a more and more overlooked source of useful information, but today I experienced one of the best permanent exhibitions on this continent which gave me a fantastic insight into the culture Indonesia.
England is often lauded by visitors for its diverse culture where travelling ten or fifteen miles can often make you feel as though you have crossed the border into another country. The USA is like this in a way, but due to its vast size, these changes in culture, accent and often laws vary over a much larger scale.
Indonesia is very similar in this sense; It is the fourth most populous country in the world, and is made up of thirty-four provinces which are spread across thousands of different islands.
On my trip so far I have been fortunate enough to visit four of them: West Kalimantan, Bali, Central Java and Western Java. The regions are usually known by their geographic locations, but are separated into different provinces even within larger islands.
What makes it such a fascinating country is how all the elements of culture and tradition blend together to make one unique society - more on that later though.
Having read a little bit about it during my research, it sounded a little bit like the World Showcase at Epcot in Florida which contains several pavilions dedicated to different countries of the world.
Instead of different countries, TMII is focussed entirely on Indonesia, but split up into different sections focussing on its regions. It sounded fairly interesting with pictures showing the exhibition areas surrounding a huge lake in the middle with the option of taking a cable car to get from one side to the other, or riding a monorail which circulates the park and gives great views of its many exhibits.
Being a very large city, it seemed my options for traversing it get to my destination were fairly open so before setting off this morning, I asked someone at reception for their opinion on the best way there. He suggested catching the bus, and explained the route to me saying it would take about an hour to get there from the Harmoni Central Terminal which is very close to my hotel. Even though Gambir is the region I'm staying in, apparently the TransJakarta bus system operates out of a different terminal - not the one I arrived into yesterday afternoon.
I mentioned yesterday that the wifi is a bit of a joke, and I think I have narrowed it down to a square metre space where the connection actually works for both my laptop and my phone - what makes it more frustrating and confusing is that it actually appears to be a different area for each one. God forbid you move one inch out of the space and try and get the connection back as well. If you're going to list your hotel as having wifi in all areas of the hotel, then this should probably mean ALL and not just specific.
This place also offers breakfast in the morning, at an additional cost, and being a guesthouse I wasn't expecting anything fancy. When I arrived yesterday the guy checking me in said that you can help yourself between 7-11am which I thought was pretty good. I woke up this morning to discover that by 'help yourself breakfast', he meant toast with a selection of spreads to put on top.
I'm pretty terrible when it comes to eating toast in the morning as I feel that it never actually fills me up so I had to eat about half a loaf this to make sure my stomach wasn't rumbling by 11 am.
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With my stuff packed up I headed to the bus stop where I'd been instructed that I needed to buy a E-Top Up card first before I could board the bus. It cost me 40,000 Rp, but came with 20,000 Rp credit which is good considering a single journey costs 3,500.
I think I explained a little about the bus situation yesterday, but if not, it is pretty much like the rest of the traffic here: mayhem. I saw a bus drive past me yesterday at about 10-10.30 pm which looked as though it was rammed with people, and the only way they were all standing still is because the door was closed and they were that tightly packed in.
Being in Asia, it's every man, women or child for themselves as people jockey for position in one of the three gaps where the doorway of the bus stops, and with each vehicle that pulls up, hoards of people cram into them as quickly and impatiently as possible without too much consideration for others around them.
I managed to get on the bus successfully, and looked at the instructions I'd been given which said to go just two stops, and then get off, before changing to a different coloured line. None of the buses come with numbers on them, but alot do follow the same route and stop at major destinations, so it was easy to get off at the correct station, before making my way to another terminal to take the connection bus to Taman Mini.
A bus pulled up just as I got there, and I tried to look for some kind of markings to say where it was going, but a man on the platform very kindly asked me where I was going, and when I told him he said that this wasn't the correct one. He also told me he was going to TMII too so I could just follow his lead which was very helpful. I can certainly never criticise Asian people for being unfriendly.
When the bus eventually did pull up, it was standing room only so I found a handle to hold on to, and prepared for a nineteen stop journey which took about an hour and a half through the horrendously horrendous traffic of the city centre. Buses mostly have their own special lane here, but there are so many of them that it really doesn't solve the problem. I was trying to keep my eyes on the road, but the lack of air conditioning meant that it couldn't have been far from 30 degrees, which is about the same as it was outside. I kept drifting off to sleep as it was warm and comfortable when I eventually got a seat, and I just kept my fingers crossed that I wouldn't miss my stop.
The guy at the hotel said the bus would drop me off right at the entrance, but I saw a sign pointing towards the museum, and a long line of people heading in that direction so I figured that there must have been a difference between his and my interpretation of 'right in front of'. I stopped in a large mall to get some lunch - a mini pizza with pepperoni and mushrooms - before attempting to continue my journey.
I stood and ate my pizza under the cover of the shop I brought it from as the rain had started coming down again, but deciding that being from England, I could probably cope with a bit of drizzle I set off in the direction of all the traffic.
It was quite a long walk down the road, and after about ten minutes, I started to doubt my own sense of direction. At this point there was a massive crack of thunder and the heavens opened once again so I was forced to take shelter under a tree before carrying on a little further thinking that it wouldn't be too bad.
I made a left at the next road and kept walking until I reached the entry gates. There was a huge statue at the front of the park, and whilst I was one of the few people walking, I was able to pay for my ticket without queuing. There was an information centre not far from there so I ran in there to avoid the rain once again, and get a map. Asking the lady to point out where we were, it looked a bit of a confusing mess, with the lake in the middle surrounded by a bunch of exhibits, but a few museums scattered here there and everywhere.
Nobody seemed to be making moves on foot either, with people on mopeds or bicycles outnumbering pedestrians quite considerably.
The cable car was 40,000, and considering the weather, it probably wouldn't have made for any fantastic views so I started walking, and eventually found myself in front of what I presumed was the beginning of the exhibits.
From what I understood, the lake in the middle has patches of grass all over it which represent the islands of Indonesia (when looked at from above). Around the outside of this there were areas for each different region of the country with examples of different types of housing, clothing, animals and replicas of landmarks that you might find present.
One of the first ones I found was West Kalimantan which is where Pontianak is, so it showed some houses on stilts which are built across the river and then it had a model of the the Equatorial Oblique which brought back some fond memories.
This continued on and on, with different styles of housing shown, and different traditional dresses and animals depicted by models within each area. It was fascinating to look at, but I had to keep remembering to take a picture of the sign outside each one as when it comes to looking back at the pictures, I will have no chance at remembering which one is which:
He pointed me in the direction of the rest of the exhibits as I came across Bali, Central Java (Yogyakarta), and Jakarta which led to another area with famous monuments from the region displayed within. It all made very interesting viewing, and I think by this point I'd taken all my brain could handle so I decided to make the walk back to the bus stop, and stop to get some dinner in the mall along the way.
My experience at the museum / exhibition was an enjoyable one, with plenty of information for me to take in, and some good exhibits which gave examples of each region in an interesting way. I feel like it was set up as a bit of a tourist attraction, not only for international visitors, but I can also see it as being an educational tool for children, and Indonesians themselves who are unfamiliar with some of the 'lesser-known' regions which they may never have visited before.
This goes back to my point about access to information at the beginning. Without places like this, we would not have as great an insight into the culture of different parts of Indonesia as we do now. Perhaps the world really is getting smaller, but I guess that doesn't make it any easier to explore all of it.
The Jakarta traffic was hell on the way back to my guesthouse and it took almost two hours before I finally got back to Harmoni. No chance of a little sleep on this occasion though as I was standing up the whole time with my back leaned against the concertina thing in the middle of the bus, so I had to stay awake and fully focussed as the rain splattered against the windows. As I was walking from one terminal to another after the first stop, I got an experience of why this city is known as 'The Big Durian' as a waft of sewage was sent spilling from the drains below. Apart from in Bali, I don't think I've actually seen any clear water anywhere. It seems like pollution is a big problem, particularly in Jakarta, and I guess even if you live here, it's a stink that takes a while to get used to every time it rains.
My first experience of the bus service here was a positive one, even if a little long, and I intend on using is again tomorrow as I head back out onto the streets of the capital for my final full day in Indonesia.
Weather With You
Crowded House (1992)
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