Indonesia. I think this was the first time I'd ever been in the Southern Hemisphere. I flew on Garuda Indonesia Airlines for my whole trip through the country; all 4 of the flights by this carrier were late. But yea, Indonesia was the country I went through with the least amount of forethought into. I was travelling by myself and went with almost no game plan at all, which upon reflection now seems kinda dangerous, haha. (Indonesia is like ALWAYS on the US State Department's travel advisory list; and the Bali bombing had happened not too long ago.) Admittedly, there were a few times that I did fear for my own safety, like when I was being led down maze-like passages by my guide and surrounded in shops with exit path blocked being pressed to buy something. (When that happened, I coughed up the US$5 for crap I didn't want just so they'd let me leave.)
So my travel in Indonesia was limited to the island of Java (the big island). I had wanted to go to Bali, but between not having friends to go with and the bombing, it just didn't happen. So anyways, I spent about 3 days in Jogyakarta and 1 day in Jakarta. The people in Jogyakarta overall were very friendly; in Jakarta, not so much. Most of my stay in Jogyakarta was spent looking at temple ruins. My first day, I went do Candi Plaosan (a small temple) and Prambanan- the largest Hindu temple in Indonesia. On the second day, I went to Borobodur- the largest Buddhist monument in the world. Then I went to Candi Mendut (another small temple) and to see a batik (wax dyeing fabric art) gallery, then I went to the Sultan's palace (Kraton Palace and the Water Palace (Taman Sari)). I also saw a wayang puppet show at the Sono Budoyo museum; it's pretty amusing watching the puppets fight, but then sometimes they stand there for like 10 minutes just talking, and when you don't understand it gets boring. Didn't do a whole lot the third day. Flew to Jakarta after that. The traffic in Jakarta is horrendous, and all the shops closed really early. I basically just saw a fountain that's supposed to be pretty famous and window shopped at Plaza Indonesia and Entertainment Xenter. Overall, Jakarta wasn't so great for me, and I gotta say, it was probably the most not-big-city-like of all the big cities I've been to.
I don't think I really enjoy travelling alone in unfamiliar territory that much. I always feel like I'm watching my back. It's like I can feel myself hardening on the inside (especially when walking through those seedier areas, and I put on the mad-dog expression and puff out my chest a bit to make myself more intimidating and don't-mess-with-me-esque).
Pearls of Wisdom gained in Indonesia.
1. "Special morning price" - no such thing!
2. Everyone always says, "oh there it's just for the tourists. HERE it's the real thing." - they're all just trying to sell you something.
3. If a guy walks up to you at the airport asking if you need a taxi, cuz he's a taxi driver- he's NOT. A REAL taxi driver waits in his CAB. These are the kind who don't run meters, and you haggle over price. This can work either for or against you.
4. Admittedly, I can see now how certain kinds of travel & exploring can only be done while you're young. Some stuff you just can't really reasonably expect to do while dragging kids around. Kids just can't appreciate some stuff, and trying to force it just ruins the experience for everybody.
Afterthoughts. It was interesting to see how a strongly Muslim country like Indonesia (the most populous Muslim country in the world) could be so vastly different from the Islamic countries I envision in the Middle East. They're not so hardcore fundamentalist, so they're more chill about their religion, it seems. So yea, although the country's been Muslim the past few hundred years, it had been Hindu for nearly a millenium before that. Old habits die hard, and the result was an interesting hybridization of customs and the like. I also didn't know beforehand that the Indonesians are of the same ethnic group as the Malays and speak the same language (Bahasa) with a few vocab variations here and there.
At the Sultan's palace in Jogyakarta, I had the chance to talk to one of the palace servants (of sorts). And though ultimately he was trying to sell me something, I did manage to get some good information/conversation first. I was surprised by the sense of loyalty the people had to their Sultan. All the servants nowadays are descendants of the servants from back in the day. None of 'em get paid to do their servantly business, and they have to hold real jobs outside of that- but they all do the servant thing out of a sense of loyalty to their ruler. I think a people are really united by having a person or an ideal they can rally around. The people in the Jogyakarta province, like a lot of people around Indonesia, are cynical of the national government; but they back and trust their Sultan.
So my travel in Indonesia was limited to the island of Java (the big island). I had wanted to go to Bali, but between not having friends to go with and the bombing, it just didn't happen. So anyways, I spent about 3 days in Jogyakarta and 1 day in Jakarta. The people in Jogyakarta overall were very friendly; in Jakarta, not so much. Most of my stay in Jogyakarta was spent looking at temple ruins. My first day, I went do Candi Plaosan (a small temple) and Prambanan- the largest Hindu temple in Indonesia. On the second day, I went to Borobodur- the largest Buddhist monument in the world. Then I went to Candi Mendut (another small temple) and to see a batik (wax dyeing fabric art) gallery, then I went to the Sultan's palace (Kraton Palace and the Water Palace (Taman Sari)). I also saw a wayang puppet show at the Sono Budoyo museum; it's pretty amusing watching the puppets fight, but then sometimes they stand there for like 10 minutes just talking, and when you don't understand it gets boring. Didn't do a whole lot the third day. Flew to Jakarta after that. The traffic in Jakarta is horrendous, and all the shops closed really early. I basically just saw a fountain that's supposed to be pretty famous and window shopped at Plaza Indonesia and Entertainment Xenter. Overall, Jakarta wasn't so great for me, and I gotta say, it was probably the most not-big-city-like of all the big cities I've been to.
I don't think I really enjoy travelling alone in unfamiliar territory that much. I always feel like I'm watching my back. It's like I can feel myself hardening on the inside (especially when walking through those seedier areas, and I put on the mad-dog expression and puff out my chest a bit to make myself more intimidating and don't-mess-with-me-esque).
Pearls of Wisdom gained in Indonesia.
1. "Special morning price" - no such thing!
2. Everyone always says, "oh there it's just for the tourists. HERE it's the real thing." - they're all just trying to sell you something.
3. If a guy walks up to you at the airport asking if you need a taxi, cuz he's a taxi driver- he's NOT. A REAL taxi driver waits in his CAB. These are the kind who don't run meters, and you haggle over price. This can work either for or against you.
4. Admittedly, I can see now how certain kinds of travel & exploring can only be done while you're young. Some stuff you just can't really reasonably expect to do while dragging kids around. Kids just can't appreciate some stuff, and trying to force it just ruins the experience for everybody.
Afterthoughts. It was interesting to see how a strongly Muslim country like Indonesia (the most populous Muslim country in the world) could be so vastly different from the Islamic countries I envision in the Middle East. They're not so hardcore fundamentalist, so they're more chill about their religion, it seems. So yea, although the country's been Muslim the past few hundred years, it had been Hindu for nearly a millenium before that. Old habits die hard, and the result was an interesting hybridization of customs and the like. I also didn't know beforehand that the Indonesians are of the same ethnic group as the Malays and speak the same language (Bahasa) with a few vocab variations here and there.
At the Sultan's palace in Jogyakarta, I had the chance to talk to one of the palace servants (of sorts). And though ultimately he was trying to sell me something, I did manage to get some good information/conversation first. I was surprised by the sense of loyalty the people had to their Sultan. All the servants nowadays are descendants of the servants from back in the day. None of 'em get paid to do their servantly business, and they have to hold real jobs outside of that- but they all do the servant thing out of a sense of loyalty to their ruler. I think a people are really united by having a person or an ideal they can rally around. The people in the Jogyakarta province, like a lot of people around Indonesia, are cynical of the national government; but they back and trust their Sultan.
posted by Dear Daniel at 11:00 AM
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