Thirty-Three At 33: Tale of Two Islands: Indonesia

Mount Bromo from a distance at sunrise!

My two weeks in Indonesia is basically a tale of two islands: Java and Bali. This is the Java edition.

Street food! Yum...

I flew from Singapore into Jakarta for what was supposed to be three nights, but what ended up being two due to the disappointing lack of amusement in that city. I take that back; it was exciting, but not in the way you’d expect. Ramadan had just ended my first night there and since Indonesia has a largely Muslim population, people were celebrating everywhere. The call to prayer was played for 6 hours STRAIGHT (whose idea was this!!!) and a plethora of guns and few fireworks were being sprayed through the air for a large portion of the night.

“Do you want to go out there,” the sweet, little, Indonesian, assistant girl at the hostel asked. Answer: “Umm… that would be a hell no!” I know physics! What comes up, must eventually come down and that’s all I needed was to get hit by some random, stray bullet on the streets of Jakarta. I could have stayed in NY for that type of entertainment. I’m good… So, I stayed in that night and so did nearly all of the travelers at the hostel; which is how I met my Dutch travel partner for the next day.

Jakarta from the train window

Jakarta only has a few “tourist attractions” and my travel partner and I set out to see them all the next day. Unfortunately, we didn’t realize that the end of Ramadan is really almost like Christmas in the U.S; people go on vacation the week following it and basically the city shuts down. The Hard Rock Café in Jakarta was even closed! So, we ended up viewing the National Monument and eating at Ayam Goreng carts throughout the city. Jakarta was my first major travel disappointment, which is probably why I’m going to keep it real and tell you that I cannot remember that chick’s name! (Sorry if you are reading this.)

Yogyakarta: View from the train

From Jakarta, I took a train into Yogyakarta. I love riding the train and the service on the Indonesia Executive trains is fabulous! I had electrical outlets for my computer and such, hot meals served by waiters and the staff spoke a multitude of languages. I was pleasantly surprised and so very happy to be able to take the 19 hour ride to Yogyakarta on that train. On a side note, I wasn’t very happy with all the children. I think its torture to bring children on the train (for everyone involved) and they should have family only carts. I’m not “anti-children”, but towards the end of the trip, I literally sat through hours of kids running up and down the aisles, jumping on empty chairs, and screaming for no reason at all. This happened in China and Vietnam as well, so Indonesia wasn’t the only culprit.

Tuk tuk along Jalan Malioboro (main street in Jogya)

A part of me was jealous because I was getting antsy too; but being an adult it wouldn’t be cool if I popped my seatbelt off and just ran through the train like a grown ass banshee, yelling at the top of my lungs and jumping onto seats. Another part of me was pissed. “Where are all of the “Tiger moms”? Certainly not on the trains!” I was tempted to “accidently” trip one of those children and then reach down to help them up, while whispering, “Now get up, sit your ass down and read a book before I call forth demons from the pits of hell to reclaim your soul.” The one thing I can’t stand is unruly children, but I digress.

When families go on their Ramadan vacations in Indonesia, they go to Yogyakarta. I didn’t know this until I got off the train at 8 pm and headed towards the guesthouse that I thankfully emailed earlier. Everything in the city in terms of accommodations was basically sold out and there was a crush of people, horse carts and tuk tuk drivers everywhere. People were shopping, eating, playing music and basically just hanging out and I sighed in relief because this was already better than Jakarta.

Borobudur Temple

What am I eating?

While in Yogyakarta (the locals call it Jogya) I visited Borobudur, which is marketed as the Biggest Buddhist Temple in the Ninth Century. This temple was actually built three centuries before Angkor Wat and it was beautiful. Like many of the temples around Asia, this temple is also being restored, but the stories painted in the reliefs are still worth going to see. I also visited the Kraton, which is essentially the King's compound. I spent my time at the traditional market that was in the city and wandered around spice markets tasting everything. Here's the thing: I don't know much about spices or even cooking, but tasting one wrong spice can ruin an ENTIRE day. The next time I do this, I'm hiring a guide and bringing loads of water!

Steam from the Volcano

From Jogya, I made my way south to Mount Bromo; Indonesia’s active volcano. Sitting along the crater of an active volcano is a very surreal experience! I would recommend it. Of course since this is Indonesia, there aren’t any safety rails up there or anything; just a crush of people and one wrong move and you’re a sacrifice. Nevertheless, I would do it again. Just not anytime soon because there are A LOT of stairs and it’s cold as hell up there!

The United Nations!

Part of the enjoyment of traveling to Bromo was the 10+ hour bus ride there and the 10+ hour bus ride from there to Denpasar. I don’t care who you are, if you spend that much time on a bus with the same people, then you are bound to make friends. And boy did I make some new friends… There’s the Danish Banker with model looks; the Canadian teacher; the German musicians; the Basque traveler who was doing the same trip as I was; and a ballsy group of girls from London, who I liked immediately. We laughed, sang songs, told jokes and talked so much that the nearly two days of traveling by bus was almost worth it.

Java was just “ok” on my travel scale. Thankfully, Bali made up for it in a MAJOR way!

Stay tuned…