Jakarta

Singapore was very cool and I spent my time in China town and wandering the city streets. I am very happy I got the chance to go there and see what it was like. This would more likely than not be a country I don’t see myself going back to because it is expensive and not not much to do but I really love the fact I was able to go. This morning I arrived in Jakarta Indonesia. I left singapore around 5 am to bore the 8:15 flight out to Jakarta. One thing i noticed was that there was almost no foreigners coming on the flight and this s the case in Jakarta. I have not seen 1 tourist all day, and this is a big city. Jakarta has a reputation of being unfriendly, smelly, dirty, and dangerous but I have had opposite experiences on my first day. Jakarta is certainly not a “clean” city by any means, but it is not bad. I took a car to my hoste where I am staying. It is a capsule hostel which is really cool. I am inside of it now and it reminds me of what a space shop would be like. I saw some local men eating street food outside of the hostel and I tried asking them what they recommend to eat since it was my first time eating Indonesian food, but they didn’t speak any English, so I pointed at one of their meals and we understood eachother. Though the language barrier can be frustrating for both people, they were really friendly and helped me put condiments on the food and asked where I was from. One of the old men was playing really old American music on his flip phone. The meal was very good and spicy. After that I went inside the hotel where I was greeted by a young man who helped me check in and showed me to my capsule. There is like no one else staying here. Very interesting. I know Jakarta isn’t a huge tourist city but I don’t think you should skip the nations capital when visiting. I took a long nap because I was so tired from all of the traveling. 3 countries in 3 days! When I woke up I took a motor bike and got dropped off at the national monument which is situated in a huge community park in the city which is beautiful. Jakarta is not a walking city but it definitely is a communal one which I love. There are people sitting together, picknicking, playing cards, and eating everywhere. I love countries that have that feel to them! After seeing the monument and hanging out, the police game and shut down the park for the night. On the way home I ate some dry good street food. Probably one f the best rice I ever had. There is virtually no English here at all which makes things difficult but also exciting and interesting. I took a motorbike home to the hostel and I am here now. Wow all I can say is that the motorbikes are one heck of a ride. I thought it was crazy to be on the back of one in Ghana but here is a whole other level. The drivers zip up and down the street going 100mph and being on the back of the bike gives you an adrenaline rush for sure. I am planning on heading to the local fisherman dock early in the morning tomorrow to start my island adventure which should be fun. I am going the most local way possible. I think I will be on the islands for two nights and then head back to Jakarta. I was looking into paragliding about 40 minutes away from the city but I have not been too impressed by the value of it here so I think I will wait until I go to a place that’s really known for it in the future. Instead, I read about Jakarta having one of the biggest rash dumps in Southeast Asia, where sadly, many families are forced to live by and make a living by searching for valuable scraps in the dump. Many children live here and are not able to attend school because they need to help the family. There is an organization where you can volunteer and help the community and interact with the kids in many ways. I really want to do this and I emailed the organization to see if they have an available time for me to come and stay in the small lodge they open for volunteers. I saw today while I was getting food, a mother who was cooking street food while her daughter who wasn’t even old enough to talk, was washing dishes. It was crazy to see because We would never see this type of thing back home in the states. Overall I like the city so far and it is more of the type of destination I prefer, despite what I have heard about it. One thing for sure is that the laws are very strict here and the country is under strict Islamic rules, for the most part. I am excited to see how my trip to the islands go these next few days and there are a few things I still wanna do around Jakarta such as eat king cobra. I also saw that a restaurant serves monkey and bat, which I will most likely not try. These animals are dangerous and I read a lot about how they caused the Ebola outbreak in west Africa. It’s crazy to see how diverse Southeast Asia is and how different the cultures between countries are. I am excited to explore Indonesia for the next 5 days!