Indonesia:
Southeast Asian country of about 235 million who are predominantly muslim.
Transportation: Trains, buses, andong and becak (pronounced “bay check”). Andongs are horse drawn calesas and becaks are man pushed cycles. They are great vehicles for sight seeing.
I am a Millionaire!
For the first time in all my travels, each time I passed currency in my hands, I had to pause and calculate. I withdrew money from ATM at the airport for Rp500,000. As I approached the taxi and bus areas, it did not take me long to figure out that it will barely get me a ride, a meal and a room for the night. I had to get Rp. 2.5 million more which is the maximum in some of the ATM will disperse.
Jakarta, capital and financial capital, so I have to avoid. I took the Demsari bus to Jaksa Street. It took over an hour due to heavy traffic. It is for sure a one night stay for me. Holy smoke! Everyone here has a cigarette in their hands. I had a headache the entire time. I decided to have an hour of Thai massage for about $6. Be careful! It was not the same Thai massage I had in Thailand. I went to see the National Monument and Taman Mini, a miniature park that replicates a sampling of about 250 cultures in one setting. I left the next day via executive train to Yogyakarta. It was a very nice train and only made three stops. A 14 hour bus ride took 8 hours via train for only Rp. 250,000 so I spent the night on the train. I finally arrived at Limpuyangan station at dawn. Menu was available at the train like a mini restaurant (extra pay). The famous “nasi goreng” (fried rice) is served everywhere. As for the language, due to my partial Indo Polynesian heritage, I was able to pick up the language so easily and found myself partially conversing with them in their tongue on the first day of my arrival. For sure, there are many nice places to see in Jakarta but I felt the ambiance was not for me. Even the people were all quadrupling their prices. Overall, I was not impressed at all with Jakarta. It was time to move on.
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