Step 1: Lose your passport. How to add some extra turmoil to the situation? Don't notice until you have taken an hour flight away from the capital and a 3 hour bus ride to your destination.
Step 2: Spend hours trying to contact airlines and buses in hope of finding said passport to no avail. Step 3: Lose sleep and wake up at 4:30 am to fly back to the capital where a new passport can be obtained.
Step 4: Skip seeing the sights you were most looking forward to seeing to procure new passport.
Step 5: Spend money unnecessarily to purchase an expedited passport.
So yeah, that's how I broke in our Indonesia trip. It sucked. The process of getting the passport was actually pretty painless, it was just the stress to me, Joel and my friend who was helping me that was the big downer. Now that I've moved past the lowlight of the entire trip I'm glad to discuss the highlight of Indonesia, which was seeing my friend, Asra. I met Asra 12 years ago via the Bjork chatroom. Remember, chatrooms? Those were the days (also the days of AIM)! I first met Asra and some other bjorkers from the chatroom in San Francisco. Asra ended up being a generous and kind guide, showing me San Francisco sights. Over the years I came to share lots of memories with Bjorkers in San Francisco, with Asra leading the way taking us to great restaurants, coffee shops, etc. About 8 years ago Asra moved back to Indonesia and I hadn't seen him since, until now!
He's still the same generous and kind person, of course. It was really special to get to know Jakarta, Asra's city. He patiently translated for me and helped get me get my passport. As you all know, I love food, and Asra took us to some great Indonesian food. My favorite was a restaurant that made food from Asra's home region on Sumatra.
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| Padang style |
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| Us at the aforementioned amazing Sumatran restaurant |
We had the good fortune of being in Jakarta when one of Asra's several bands (Efek Rumah Kaca) was playing a show. It was so awesome to see the venue packed and the crowd singing along and passionate. Additionally, we got to meet several of Asra's friends and chat it up. We even stayed out until 4am, a very late night for "Old Lady Ramirez."
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| crowd surfing at the final Efek Rumah Kaca show |
We ended up spending 5 days in Jakarta thanks to my passport woes. What's Jakarta like? It's a massive city and holds the title of worst traffic in the world. I can attest to the insane traffic, it can be astounding. Note: Asra is a badass driver. In a city with so much traffic one must be decisive and aggressive and Asra rocked it. A subway system is under construction so it will be interesting to see how much traffic is reduced. We stayed in Kemang which has lots of restaurants, shopping, and was very lively. We didn't actually see sights in Jakarta since we took some days to recover from non-stop Vietnam travels, and just hung out; it was really nice. It's different to visit a city, spending time with a friend, rather than racing around trying to see a city. Of course, we'd like to see more of Jakarta at some point, but we enjoyed our time there.
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| Bogor Botanic Garden |
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| Bogor Botanic Garden |
I also have to mention the weather. It's the rainy season which means that there are these amazing downpours that last hours. I love watching and listening to downpours, from the safety and dryness of the indoors, of course. We got to witness lots of great downpours and the accompanying humidity. Lots of 80-100% humidity days which my California-dry-weather-body was not a fan of but I'm much better at tolerating after 8 weeks in Southeast Asia. I actually found myself thinking, "It's pretty good weather for 80% humidity." Never would have said that before.
Bali
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| Goa Gajah |
Bali wasn't our first choice of places to visit in Indonesia but they had the cheapest flight, by far, to our next destination so we ended up going to Bali. It's the most visited island in Indonesia and attracts hoards of tourists. We didn't have much time on the island so we only got to spend time in 2 different cities, Sanur and Ubud (Ubud is famous for being that place where Julia Roberts finds love in Eat, Pray, Love). Bali is beautiful, of course, but we didn't find it all that interesting since it is so touristed-out. Still, we had a good time walking around.
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| not sure. as seen on the streets of Sanur |
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| Saraswati Temple |
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| evil macaque monkeys as represented in Ubud street art |
Observations:
- KFC is suuuuuper popular in Indonesia. Like 2-story-restaurant-24 hours-popular.
- No surprise here, I blend right in with Indonesians.
- Joel can generate a B-list celebrity status crowd (see video below)
- Whats that smell? You know, that smell I've never been to place all these years. It's durian! Turns out I do not like the taste or smell of durian.
Next stop: Malaysian side of Borneo.
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Jakarta photos
Bali photos
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