A ferry took us away from Singapore and on to our first
Indonesian island, Batam. We were warned beforehand that we would be staying in
a fairly nice hotel as it was the cheapest option for accommodation which is
not a brothel! So it’s fair to say that this place does not have a great
reputation, maybe in part due to the large number of boats coming and going
from this part of the world. Whatever the reason, I saw no signs of the sex
trade and just made use of the local food carts to indulge in my first
Indonesian meal, a lovely coconutty chicken curry with spicy vegetables, happy
happy! We were in Batam in order to catch the bigger ferry to Jakarta, this
ought to take around 26 hours and as always I was quite excited about the
prospect of another mode of transport, I always love boats and find it
interesting when I can compare them to others I have been on.
Boarding the ferry we were in 3rd class, which is
one level up from economy class but there are obviously 2 others above us.
Instead of benches for sitting on the benches are huge and have many mattresses
on them so that each aisle has about 6 beds opposite each other, going to
breadth of the boat there are about 20 beds across and many many more of them stretching
the length of the ship, it accommodates a lot of people! As I chucked my bags
on my bed and climbed on I could immediately count 8 cockroaches crawling
around on it, scuttling away from my flying bag, looking around I could see
these were not the only cockroaches, this was going to be cockfest! It’s a
funny thing to say but I immediately accepted that I was going to spend the
journey being crawled on by bugs, once that had sunk in I didn’t seem to mind
at all and fell asleep within half an hour of boarding, waking a couple of
times as my friend was trying to flick cockroaches off me! As the journey got
underway it became clear that cockroaches weren’t the only pets aboard, small
rats were also spied running around the deck. The safety of the passengers is
at the top of every Asian’s list and with this in mind we were frequently
locked in as the crew checked tickets, mopped the floor or maybe just thought
it was funny to freak out the westerners, of which we were the total sum on
board. There were 3 free meals a day, rice and fish for lunch and dinner and an
omelette for breakfast, the food was fine, certainly not the worst I’ve eaten.
The toilets were less than average, sometimes my flip-flops weren’t thick soled
enough to keep my feet dry but having a head cold I was exceptionally lucky to
not be able to smell what I could see, as the flushers didn’t work very well!!
I was in a cubicle at one point and my foot was getting a lot of splashes from
the cubicle next door, good grief how I prayed that I was next to a shower
block! Thank you thank you – I was!! I’m not sure I had enough alcohol gel to
clean my feet if that was a squat toilet next door, eurgh! There was a prayer
room aboard and it was in full session as I walked past, looked like hundreds
of flip-flops and sandals had been abandoned outside the door, a sight we are
unlikely to see back home. The most exciting part of the trip was knowing that
we were crossing the equator, which we did at around midnight. Having travelled
for 6 months already it’s hard to believe it’s taken this long to cross the
equator! The ferry was (of course) late and we ended up aboard for around 33
hours, but overall I quite enjoyed my ferry journey, it might not sound like
the most enjoyable sailing but it’s their ferry and part of the lives I have
come to experience so who am I to turn my nose up at it? Admittedly I slept
most of the way, head colds are not always welcome while travelling but this
was perfect timing as I didn’t have to move and could sleep as much as I
wanted.
I only had one day to
explore Jakarta and chose to do so by foot, heading through the city via the
national Monument of Indonesia, the old town square and the marina. Jakarta
does not seem very geared towards tourists although there are several museums
to visit there do not appear to be any amazing tourist must-sees here. Two of
us walked 5km through the city, as the only white people and often as the only
females we got quite a lot of attention, at times unwanted, but overall very
friendly and positive. The streets are built up and are a strange mixture of
regular cheap Indonesian shops with a sprinkling of very rich and posh looking
coffee shops, banks or residential suites. The old town is not very obvious
against the rest of the city and we did not recognise that we had reached it
until it opened out into the square, a large open and relaxed space. We
continued through in search of the old marina and while attempting to follow
our map we ended up in the tiny winding paths of a seaside village, full of
people shouting ‘hello mister’ and waving at us from point-blank range. When we
reached what seemed to be a dead-end and looked confused all the locals would
point in the direction for us to continue, through a gap between house walls
and on we walked until it opened out onto a small wooden bridge from where we
could see their little wooden boats and bigger boats in the distance, all lined
up at the marina we had been trying to find! The locals kindly assisted us with
directions out of their meandering village and we popped back out on the main
road where we started, though none the wiser as to which way we should have
gone in the first place!
We took a train to Jogjakarta, or Yogyakarta, leaving
Jakarta the slums were on display, little shacks propped up between the train
tracks, children playing nearby and begging from the journeying passengers. Out
of the city it was a lovely train journey, through green Indonesian fields and
crops and I spent the journey staring out the window, mesmerised by the
landscape and watching the people working their fields. Jogja is far more touristy
and has a very relaxed and friendly atmosphere. There’re a lot of markets
around us and plenty street food to choose from. We visited an art exhibition
of batique work by the teachers at the local art school, fabulous colours and
interesting modern and traditional works using wax and local dyes. I haven’t
seen batique work for many years and I had no idea that such wonderful art
could be created using this method.
We ate from the same lovely man every night having different
combinations of Nasi Goreng which is mostly just chicken fried rice, but so
much tastier! We had a spicy one, a very garlicky one and I also traded in the
rice for noodles one night making it Mie Goreng. This man’s cart has a built in
oven and from it he slides out his little cooking stove which looks like a
plant pot. It’s a clay or concrete pot with a fire burning within, a hole in
the side to waft the flames and a section on top to accommodate his wok. The
cart has cooked chickens, coriander and large spring onions hanging from the
top, there are pots of salad, bottles of oil, soya sauce and chilli sauce,
smaller pots of garlic, salt and other spices, and a big drum of stock
(presumable the liquid left from cooking the chickens). He has a small chopping
board for chopping the vegetables and at the side of the cart are containers
filled with noodles and rice, already cooked. From here he can make delicious
fresh dishes of fried rice or noodles or soups within minutes, and he has a
couple of stools to sit and eat at the side of the street. This fantastic fresh
food is so flavoursome that I’m getting hungry thinking about it and comes at
the bargain price of 10,000 Indonesian Rupiahs which works out at around 60p in
the UK!
From Jogja we visited Borodupur, Indonesia’s answer to Angkor
Wat. There are a collection of temples to visit but I settled on this one site,
a huge Buddhist monument in the shape of a pyramid you can climb to the top of
it and wonder at the many pieces of art carved out in rock. This fantastic 9th
Century building seems to have rows and rows of stone bells, which make a
beautiful sight on their own, get closer and you can see that each bell has a
Buddha sitting inside it and as some are broken you can clearly see the Buddha
sitting proud.
That afternoon we ventured into the world of cave tubing, a
far more relaxed form of the tubing we had tried out in Laos. Before we started
we were offered some local snacks, a plate of fried grasshoppers!! Of course I
ate one! It was very crunchy and pretty salty but not at all bad, having said
that, I refused a second one! We sat in our lorry tyre inner tubes and were
taken slowly through dark caves by our guides who pointed out the different
rock formations and shone their torches up at the bats hanging from the cave
roof above us. It was a great little adventure that was over all too soon, but
to pad out the day they then took us to another river to gently float down
admiring the countryside and savouring the tranquillity. To get to this other
river we had a walk through some local paddy fields, among working people who
all shouted ‘Halo’ and waved at us. As we reached the end of our tubing
adventure we heard a small clatter and looked round to see a large coconut had
just fallen from a tree and was bobbing towards us. We took the coconut home
and a kindly local chopped it up for us, he wasn’t pleased with it’s quality,
said that it was too old and would be better if it were greener, not than any
of us knew the difference, I thoroughly enjoyed my large chunk of fresh coconut
flesh, it was very nice.
The next day 10 of us ventured off on an extra trip to visit
an active volcano. Mount Bromos last eruption came to an end only 21 months ago
and so it still funnels out blasts of steam from the sulphur pool within which
is visible from the edge of the crater. We were firstly ferried to a viewpoint
for sunrise and treated to a stunning sight as out of the darkness three
volcanoes appeared before us, Bromo being the smallest but also the only one
emitting clouds of steam making the sight all the more special. We were then
taken to its foot from where we could climb to the rim of the crater and view
the yellow pool inside, watch the steam rising out, listen to the deep rumbling
and catch a whiff of rotten eggs, sulphur is not kind to the nasal passage!
Everywhere you walk is soft fine lava dust and it gets everywhere. Mount Bromo
is a definite highlight of Indonesia, it’s not often I get this close to active
volcanoes and it’s the first time I’ve been able to see and hear things
happening inside from the lip of a crater. Very exciting! Add to this the
threat of slipping and falling in and it’s a real adventure playground!
The local villages reminded me of the Himalayan villages as
they all walk around in winter clothes, wearing blankets around their
shoulders, their homes have flags flying and they seem to have a similar
atmosphere, it’s a very pleasant feeling. Up here they make use of their
nutritious lava soil with crops growing on every spare piece of land, cabbage
and onions in abundance!
The bus journeys to get to and from Mount Bromo gave me
hours and hours of window watching as we travelled through more greenery, miles
of crops and villages and hills in the backdrop. From Mount Bromo we were
travelling directly to Bali to meet the rest of the group and it was another
long day but we had another ferry journey to break it up which was short but
provided a nice breath of fresh sea air.
Bali is the surf beach paradise that it promises. We are
staying in the fairly touristy Kuta area which is full of shops, stalls, bars
and a big long beach busy with surf wannabes and bikini babes! It was exactly
what I imagined and a fine place to relax for a couple of days and catch up on
some domestic duties. It’s the final stop for Asia and so the last chance to
feed my belly with delicious Asian food! The airport is nearby and built on a
piece of land jutting out into the sea, from Kuta it looks like they are
ditching into the sea but having walked to the airport along the beaches I can
confirm that there is some form of landing strip to greet the planes!
Indonesia a gorgeous country to travel around and I admit I
have been caught out here as I hadn’t dreamed that I would enjoy it as much as
I have, on the contrary I was quite intimidated by it and a little concerned
about past coverage of Jakarta and Bali terrorist attacks. I am disappointed in
myself, I always try not to let media coverage or people’s opinions change my
outlook of a place and give everywhere a fair trial so I have been delighted by
what I’ve found and I would place Indonesia high on my list of favourite
countries, not that such a list exists, how can I possibly choose?! Sadly it’s
the last part of Asia and the end of a huge part of my trip, I’m so unwilling
to leave but it’s time to get back to the western world and see what Australia
holds in store!
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