East Eats West: Stories from Indonesia

August 11-13 - Jakarta, Indonesia - 1.-3.

Jakarta is a city with no real centre but with over 10mio. inhabitants. We spent three days in this city bustling with traffic, noise and people. Jakarta has a flashy business district with embassies and banks. Otherwise we couldn’t find any nice spots. The startling thing was that almost everywhere we were the only foreigners; no where the usual tourist crowds of Bangkok or Saigon. Jakarta also boasts Tuk-Tuks which are smaller and much noisier than the Thai counterparts (surprising but true). In The people we met, except the taxi drivers, are out rightly friendly and very polite.

For the biggest Muslim country in the world with Jakarta its capital, it does not seem religiously strict or fanatic. You can buy FHM, drink bear and only a few women wear the scarf. Only the daily prayer of the muezzin reminds one of the prevailing religions. At 6pm all TV stations pause their programs and broadcast religious images.

Indonesia was strongly hit by the Asian crisis anad every since never fully recovered. Nevertheless there is a small elite of super-rich people. The Indonesia Tatler, a magazine which caters to those, openly bashes with home stories, charity events and family portraits of those super rich.

August 13 - Bogor, Indonesia - 3.

After visiting the national museum and being ripped-off by a taxi driver we embarked on a 45 minutes journey from Jakarta to Bogor in the South-East. The train ride was very smooth in Japanese trains that were air-conditioned. We were again the only Westerners on the train but never felt hassled. In the contrary people are very friendly and helpful. At the train-station a guide from the local tourist office spotted us and led us to the tourist office. He talked us into doing a four-day trip to the South. He told us that we where the only new arrivals today. So tourism is in general very slow, not only because of the low season.

August 14 - West Java, Indonesia - 4.

We started from Bogor after visiting its beautiful botanical garden which was started by the Dutch. A teacher of a local primary school stopped us and we got to know his pupils. They asked us the same English questions again and again; a truly wonderful experience.

After lunch, we ate some local hamburgers for about 0.50 CHF each, we left for the West Javanese mountains. For about two hours we drove in a minuscule Suzuki van up and down the hills, across extensive rice-paddies and always smiling inhabitants. In the late afternoon we walked for about half an hour to an impressive local waterfall. The view was only spoiled by the mandatory garbage spillage. Pollution, noise and garbage closely follow Asian civilization.

At the end of the day we had a generous local dinner in a charming little guesthouse.

August 15 - Volcano on West Java - 5.

Today we climbed two hours through dense jungle on an almost non-existing trail to a smaller volcano on Salak mountain. The muddy trail was hard to follow and we slipped and stumbled constantly. Nevertheless the view on the top was worth it: The volcano was hissing and exhausting hot steam while the terrain looked like on the moon and the stench was clearly sulphate. This is the fourth volcano I visited and I like them more each time.

We even met Indonesian hikers with full gear, huge backpacks and in flip-flops. Strenuous spare-time occupation is very uncommon in Asia. People are too busy making a living. Our trail was littered with worn-down flip-flops so I guess Indonesian just chuck them away when they break and have some spare ones ready. Hey, flip-flops are cheap and all you need in mud!

After our exhausting hike we walked down to the local hot springs (Well, not quite hot springs, more like very hot springs). Anyhow we enjoyed ourselves in the nearby river and showered, quickly, in the hot springs.

Indonesia is a very tolerant country with Muslims having dogs, not closely paying attention to prayer and even drinking beer. Is seems that only Muslim countries messed up by the American like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and Iraq seem to develop the taste of fundamentalism.

A book I can recommend for people interested in Asia is “Fliegen ohne Flügel” by Tiziano Terzani, a former Spiegel correspondent.

August 16 - West Java - 6.

In the morning we visited a traditional wooden puppet maker who still does all the carving of the over 200 Ramayana characters by hand. One puppet takes one week to make. After we visited the sweatshop of a Galang maker, the traditional Javanese gong. The gong that comes in different sizes and is used in traditional music gets forged by three to four men in a hot oven. Ashes everywhere and the oven is operated by an experienced man regulating the heat of the fire. A truly wonderful spectacle to watch! On our way south we passed Puncak pass with its many tee plantations. On our drive through the country side we got stopped by a military check-point looking for terrorists. Funnily the soldiers had real guns whose barrels where visibly blocked by red plastic. We ended the day in Garut in a guesthouse with in-room bath-tubs heated from volcanic hot springs. Quite an experience.

August 17 - Papadayan, Indonesia - 7.

After one night in a nice guesthouse with in-door hot springs in Garut we drove to the volcano Papadayan which erupted last time in 2002. A short hike brought us to a sulphur and hot steam vested area and we were impressed by the foreign scenery. The rest of the day we spent mostly driving at breath-neck speed to Pangandarang, at the south end of Java. We stopped at a primitive village without electricity and drove through scenic rice-paddy valleys. Today was the 60th anniversary of Indonesian independence and the day was celebrated by speeches, parades and climbing of slippery poles for kids, similar to Maibaum-Klettern. In Pangandarang we said good-bye to our lovely Indonesian guide Alex. We strolled across town and met a member of the local vintage motorcycle club who is a proud owner of a 1955 Horex and a 1944 Ariel motorcycle. He restored the two bikes himself. Nine other people are members of the club with a total of 15 motorcycles.

A quite astonishing fact about Indonesia is that a man is still allowed to have up to four women, according to Islamic law. But all the men we talked to agreed that one woman is more than enough.

Additionally it is striking that streets are littered with plastic bottles and other garbage, but cars and motorcycles are meticulously clean.

August 18-19 - Pangandarang, Indonesia - 8.

Do you know any Indonesian words? I am sure you do, here are a few: Amok, Nasi and Bami Goreng, Sambal Olek, Batik among others. We are enjoying some quite time at the beach and I even found an Indonesian gym. I was the big attraction with the instructor helping me with the weights.

Here in West Java Asia is not on the move. It is still lingering in its easy lifestyle of doing not much in-between naps. Unemployment is high at 45 percent, the population is growing and areas of its vast empire with almost 12’000 islands demanding more independence after the autonomy of East Timor and the continuous struggle of Banda Aceh. This makes for an explosive mix.

August 20 - Pangandaran-Jogjakarta - 10.

Today we travelled from Pangandaran to Jogjakarta, or Jogja in short. Traffic is a bit more civilised here than compared to Thailand. Sometimes we still hold our breath but in general they drive more cautiously. Nevertheless we already saw one nasty, probably deadly, accident with many bystanders. Because of the absence of traffic police people help you with whistle blowing to back out into the street. You simply just hand them a few rupiah and you are on your way. In stark contrast to the rubbish that piles up everywhere.

August 21 - Jogjakarta - 11.

This morning I visited the sultan’s palace in the middle of Jogjakarta. The sultan still lives in it with his family. He is the governor of the city and holds real power. The former sultan still had a harem, not the current one anymore. All Indonesian I asked so far if they liked to have more than one wife agreed that one is more than enough. The sultan has over 700 staff that all live in the city around the palace. He supports locals arts like wayan (shadow puppets), traditional dance and Batik painting. Batik painting is a technique that applies wax to cotton or silk and then dies the fabric. With paraffin wax the typical Batik pattern is achieved.

According to the Indonesian calendar they are in the year 2088. Thais are even more advanced somewhere in the year 2452.

Today I went for the second time to an Indonesian gym. The one in Pangandarang was very small and I was the main attraction. The instructor changed the weights and everyone stopped when I did my exercise. The gym in Jogja was bigger but almost empty. Like in the one in Pangandarang the CD-player repeated endlessly the same Indonesian tune and the barbells where greasy. Like when Schwarzenegger was young!

Today I took a becak (rickshaw) to visit the sultan palace. The driver constantly insisted that I buy Batik. I refused and finally got rid of him after he wanted to visit a silver manufacturing village.

August 22 - Jogjakarta & Borobudur - 12.

In the morning we inquired about possible train connections from Jogjakarta to Bali via the famous and scenic Mount Bromo. Most travel agencies insisted that this is not possible. Of course it is and the train station was a very pleasant experience with knowledgeable staff and friendly service. There are three classes of trains with economy, business and executive coaches (most trains are exclusively one class).

Later we went to the local Western shopping mall Jogja with Pizza Hut, McDonald’s and Polo. Well, not Ralph Lauren Polo, only Polo. The polo shirt is only 10 USD and manufactured under license in Indonesia and I bought one from the charming Lenny.

Like in Thailand the best way of local transport are metered taxis. Rickshaws are a rip-off and horse-carriages, well, we have not tried them yet.

In the afternoon we drove to our first highlight of our travel: the ancient Buddhist monument of Borobudur. With Angkor and Pagan it is one of the three major temples of South-East Asia. Built in the 9th century it is quite a sight with 72 stupas and over 100 buddha figures. It overlooks the surrounding jungle and is well kept, not to say too well looked after. The monument is quite ironic that the biggest Buddhist monument in the world is located in a Muslim country. Each level has relief which depict the life of Buddha. We were very persuasively asked by local students to be pictured with them. Well, not only once but in the end about 12 times and it took over five minutes. In exchange we got some tasty crackers.

August 23 - Jogjakarta & Prambanan - 13.

In the morning we visited the water castle, which was built in the 18th century by the Portuguese and was used by the sultan and his harem to bath. Right behind it is the colourful and busy bird-market. The vendors sell race-pigeons with whistles, so that they return to their owners. There are also rabbits for eating, geckos to catch mosquitoes, snakes up to size of pythons, coloured chicken for kids, singing canaries, mice and puppies for pets to buy. I met a local guy who sells canaries and he showed me around including the underground mosque built by the Portuguese. Later he brought me to his home where he introduced me to his Batik workshop and his brother artists. They showed me the process of making Batik. He finally talked me into buying four Batik paintings for a reasonable price (I know because tourists from the expensive Aman hotel in Borobudur paid about double the price). I prefer buying art directly from the artist so I can see how they work and take some pictures. Later he walked me around his village and showed me his art students and how the locals prepare their homemade kites for the annual national kite competition to be held soon. Being of the same age as me and married with two children, his talk soon drifted towards girls and I saw again the familiar Asian pattern I am familiar from Cambodia and Thailand: Having many sex partners is an important symbol of Asian men’s virility and is shared quite openly among men. Virility is omnipotent. So I learned that also European women find their delights in Indonesian love-making skills.

In the afternoon we visited the 9th century Hindu temple of Prambanan. He had three very lovely young guide trainees who showed us around. They were absolutely adorable and we had an excellent time. The most impressive thing about the temple was the very well proportioned Ganesh figure in the Shiva temple.

Wall’s, the Unilever ice-cream branch in Indonesia, is well present and I already tried the local Cornello (no, not Cornetto). It was nice.

August 24 - Jogja to Mount Bromo - 14.

In the early morning we took the train from Jogja to Surubaya and from there to Probolinggo. The train ride was quite comfortable including soft pillows to rent. We were spoiled by the one-board catering and Indonesians are very helpful. The train left and arrived on time and was clean. And the good thing is that you definitely do not have to starve on Indonesian trains! Food vendors at every station.

Interested about prices in Indonesia? Here a few examples: A teacher can expect to earn up to 300$ a month, a administrator around 150$. A taxi ride in town is around 1$, a meal between 50cents and 2$. For a train ticket you pay depending on the distance 2 to 5$. Accommodation starts at around 5$ for no air-con and public bath up to 15$ for private bath, air-con, twin beds and swimming pool. So we mostly stay under 25$ a day. A new Suzuki van starts to sell from 8’000$. Life is cheap and easy.

August 25 - Gudung Bromo to Kuta - 15.

We got up at 4am and got driven up to Penjang Peak in a Toyota Landcruiser to see sunrise over Teggen Gudung National Park with its three volcanoes. We were belohnt by a wonderful sunrise, but better you check out the pictures.

At 9am we got driven down to Probolinggo and this is when we realized that were sold transport by public buses as private buses at a higher price. Well, this is Asia and you get ripped off every now and then. At 11am we boarded an air-conditioned bus to Bali, a nine hour hell ride over twisty and bendy roads. The driver passed all sorts of vehicles in the most heart-stopping way. So let me shortly summarize the driving rules in Indonesia, as in most Asian countries:

The rules are unwritten and not enforced by the police

Darwinism rules: The bigger wins and you can support your visual appearance with boat fog horns

Never abruptly change speed or direction

All drivers never have received a proper driving training (or even received a license)

Every one accepts those rules, regardless if bicycle or truck

On the ferry from Ketapang to Bali we left the bus for one hour. Enough time for thieves to search all our bags and steal cameras, telephones and money. Luckily neither Alex nor Goga nor I had any valuables in our bags we left in the bus.

So we arrived late but alive in Denpasar and moved on to Kuta. This is the beach town where the bombing took place in 2002.

August 26 - Kuta, Bali - 16.

Kuta is the tourist Mecca of Bali and the place where the Bali bombing took place. Tourism is slowly picking up and Hard Rock Café, Starbucks and Quiksilver are attracting clients again.

The beach is cluttered with surfers with six packs and wavy hair. Most of them come from Australia and so most Balinese salute customers with ‘hello mate’. It is quite a change to come from tourist scarce areas and dip into the bustling tourist life of Kuta. But Kuta somehow has been able to keep its charms with temples and traditional houses everywhere.

August 27 - Aloha in Kuta - 17.

A lady from Malaysia I met took a surfing lesson “learn how to surf in one lesson” yesterday and she enjoyed it. So I thought: why not try it myself? So I did and I can now proudly say: I am a surfer and I can surf. The very first time I hoped on the board I stood up and surfed. I really got the knack of it and the rest is in the pictures! Hang loose!

August 28 - Kuta at its best - 18.

Kuta-Legian is the party and shopping town for tourists and backpackers on Bali. It is packed with shops, restaurants, ATMs and souvenir vendors. One of the annoying things are hawkers selling massage, drinks, crossbows and CD in every imaginable location. One common feature of all vendors, shops and mini markets are that they normally do not have any change. It is hard to break down just 5$. The other annoying thing is that every so tiny road or alley is frequented by scooters nervously honking. So one has all the time be aware of the traffic. But then again, the surfing is great!