First impressions

Since we are travelling together instead of alone and for one month instead of for five, taking leave from home wasn't too difficult this time. Due to severe thunderstorms and heavy rainfall in the Netherlands, many flights were delayed on Monday the 28th of July, and so was ours. Therefore, once we landed in Frankfurt, we only had 15 minutes to catch our next flight to Jakarta. Fortunately we made it, but we have not experienced the flight as comfortable as we would normally have. Firstly, because not only in the Netherlands the weather was quite bad, but also in the Middle East. This caused violent turbulence. Secondly, because the shocking news about flight MH17 continues to haunt us. I guess the human brain isn’t made to quickly process these kind of things. Our thoughts are with the victims and their relatives, especially the ones we know.

After 19 hours from the moment we entered the airplane in Amsterdam, I was finally able to make use of a normal toilet again. At least, that's what I expected by then. When I tried to flush the toilet, a little tube appeared and spurted a powerful jet of water in the air. I stepped aside hoping that I would not be sprayed, but to no avail. Not only my jeans were soaked, the door and floor were wet as well. I felt sorry for the cleaning lady, and Wout couldn't help but laugh at me. Once we received our visa on arrival, it was my time to have a laugh at him. My backpack made it to Jakarta, but his was still stuck in Frankfurt. With such little time over there, the luggage transfer was doomed to fail. We submitted a baggage claim and left the airport. We ignored the touts outside arrivals and took a 'Blue Bird' taxi to our hostel, just like everyone recommended us.
Because of the Idul Fitri, the roads were more quiet than usual and the ride to our hostel only took 35 minutes. Still, in our opinion the roads weren't quiet at all. In our hostel, the best one of Indonesia according to TripAdvisor, we were welcomed and told that in busy times the ride could even take three hours. We cannot, and probably do not even want to, imagine what the roads normally look like. Sitting in a cab, waiting to get to where you want to go and rotting away is not our idea of a good time. Apparently Jakarta has recently been ranked the second worst city in the world to work, simply because there is way too much traffic. Not surprising, with more than 10 million inhabitants on more or less 8.000 square kilometer.

Wednesday morning we decided to visit Kota, the atmospheric old city of Jakarta. It offers an interesting insight into the capital's long history. When we jumped into the train towards Kota, which costed around 1.50 euros for the two of us, a police officer approached us. This train car was for women only. So, we excused ourselves to the next train car. After we arrived at Kota station, which is one of the oldest train stations in the country developed by the Dutch East Indies government, a tuc tuc brought us to the main square. Later we found out that we could have easily walked, and that the driver just ripped us off. For another 1.50 euros. Still, it was a crazy experience. We didn't know four people could fit on one scooter beforehand.

The first thing we did in Kota was having a drink at the Batavia Café. The building the café was located in used to be a warehouse. In 1992 it was renovated and transformed into a luxurious café. The chairs, accessories and even the music stemmed from the last period of Batavia. The only modern thing was the huge amount of pictures on the wall. From the entrance to the toilet, the walls were filled with pictures of international stars such as Marilyn Monroe and Elton John. Instead of visiting musea, we wandered around and enjoyed ourselves watching locals doing their daily routine such as selling food on the streets. We soon realized that they really enjoyed watching us as well. Being young and white in Jakarta means a lot of attention. Most of the attention is positive, but we couldn't really feel like we fitted in the place because people so obviously treated us differently. We were asked to be taken pictures of a few times, but some people even pushed their phones in our face in order to take a picture. Quite unsubtle, and without any embarrassment.

The rest of the day we stayed at our hostel, only for dinner we went to a restaurant across the street. We both ordered nasi gila. As to be able to describe what this dish contains, we just looked it up on the internet. Apparently, this type of nasi is known as Jakarta's crazy rice. Unluckily, we had to find that out the hard way. It took each of us as many as four(!) bottles of water to finish half the dish. The staff kept asking us whether it was hot and spicy, and we just kept nodding, because we basically didn't have the ability to speak - our mouths were on fire. Afterwards we catched some breath at the rooftop of our lovely hostel. I eventually went to sleep early, while Wout stayed up to wait for the arrival of his backpack, which was supposed to be around midnight. Downstairs he played pool and drank some beers with our Canadian friends. At 1.30 he gave up waiting, because his stuff still wasn't with him.

The disappointment of that night was quickly forgotten, when in the morning he finally saw his backpack laying on the bench in front of the reception. Clean clothes were urgently needed, since it had been fairly hot and humid in Jakarta. After breakfast we walked to the nasional monas. This is a 137 meter high tower that symbolizes the battle for independence of Indonesia. The tower is surrounded by a green park, where the locals who stayed in town celebrated the Idul Fitri. Children were flying their colourful kites or riding little motor bikes. Shortly after, we walked to the Istiqlal Mosque, which is the largest mosque in Southeast Asia. We as tourists were more than welcome, but did have to stick to a certain dresscode. Our shoes we left at the entrance, and in our long, shiny robes we did a tour.

In the evening we visited the Grand Indonesia shopping mall. Nothing less than two floors were dedicated to restaurants. We had dinner at a restaurant called Howdy Hello Hola Hey Ho or simply H5. Never found such a catchy name for a restaurant.
It offered a variety of old games that could be played before enjoying the authentic Southeast Asian street food that was served. Wout went for the Chili Beef Basil: beef sit-fry with snake beans, fresh chili and basil. Another spicy meal. I picked the grilled chicken vermicelli bowl: a bowl of vermicelli noodles, grilled chicken, a crispy springroll, pickled vegetables and toasted peanuts. The delicious food here we will easily get used to!

Even though Jakarta certainly isn't a primary tourist destination, it was an ideal place to start our tour to the other islands. Friday morning we flew to our next destination, the much more relaxed island of Lombok. During the one and a half hour flight we got the opportunity to read the beautiful landscape from our airplane window. Above Java we even saw multiple volcanoes popping out of the clouds. Speaking of volcanoes, over the last four days we have climbed Gunung Rinjani. For now, let's say we survived.