Boy,
do they love their strawberry soda in SE Asia (esp. Indonesia) – you can’t find
orange soda, but everyone has got Fanta (or at the very least, Mirinda)
strawberry soda!
Traffic
was just as bad in Yogyakarta as Jakarta.
Honestly, you can’t brag about being the 3rd largest
democracy, 4th most populated country in the world, if you can’t do
a better job of un-snarling your traffic.
I know there are similar problems in some cities in the states, but
honestly, the difference is still remarkable.
And it’s exacerbated by the sheer ignorance and pig-headedness of
drivers here who clearly think lane markings are a very vague suggestion and
honk and cram their way back and forth between/in the middle/around lanes to
try and gain an inch or two. News flash:
that kind of incessant maneuvering makes traffic WORSE and makes it go
SLOWER. I noticed similar stupidity in
Thailand and China. I actually started
to wonder if it’s a matter of education levels.
School doesn’t just teach you “stuff” – it teaches you to THINK: math teaches
you to think logically, History & English to think critically and
analytically, Arts & Music to think creatively and empathetically. If you have vast swaths of a population that
just haven’t learned to “think” (and then the ones who do get an education move, creating 'brain drains'), it’s no wonder when infrastructure makes no
sense or is crap, that driving sucks, etc. Think about the cleanest, richest, most
smoothly operating and humane societies in the world – they’re also the most
educated. Race/ethnicity has nothing to
do with it (IMHO), and as education “regresses” in the U.S. you see how the
country itself is devolving at the same time.
On
the whole, Yogyakarta was okay. Again,
no transit system, but the city's not that big (just over half a million), and really
the main thing to see are the temples: particularly Borobudur. But I did also get to Candi Prambanan (Candi
means Temple), which was a convenient 30 minute walk down the road from my
hotel – with a quick stop on the way (actually almost right across the street)
to Candi Kalasan – very small and kind of odd to just see it right there, right
off the street, tucked between housing.
Prambanan is a Hindu temple from the 9th century and the only
“downside” to it was the meandering way you had to enter – again, where is the
thought process that goes into this stuff?
As
for Borodubur – Mr. Toad had nothing on my experience seeing that! First off, when I asked about a tour to see
it at the hotel, I was told it would be 300,000 Rupiah (about $27) bucks, so I
asked to book it for Saturday. Then I
was told, “Oh, oops, because it’s a holiday and the traffic is really bad, it
will be 400,000” so whatever I said that’d be fine and booked it for 9am.
Turns
out I was the only one going but the “guide” picked me up promptly at 9am and
we were off (you’ll see soon why I put “guide” in quotes). After traveling the main road for awhile, the
driver then took a side road. Then
another. And another. Clearly he was doing this to avoid the
horrific traffic headed to Borodubur on the main road. But at some point, as we were bouncing and
jarring our way down increasingly narrow and crater-infested “roads,” he got
lost. Luckily, it turns out he had not
gone TOO far out of the way before doubling back, but with all his meandering
around I had to wonder if he really was saving any time – particularly
considering how slowly he had to navigate some of the
narrow/bumpy/cavern-filled roads. It
ended up taking 2 hours to go about 30 miles.
Seriously. And this was supposedly
the quicker way.
When
we were approaching the entrance to the temple, he turns to me and says,
“Sorry, no free parking.” I just looked
at him blankly, he went a little farther, and as he got to the parking entrance,
he turned again and said, “Sorry, 5000 Rupiah to park.” I said, “Um, this is a tour, right? Why would
I pay for the parking?” I don’t think he
understood, and so he just paid. Then,
after parking, we headed to the ticket booth where he then clearly expected me
to pay for my ticket. By this time I was
torn between laughing and thinking, “WTF kind of ghetto ‘tour’ company did I
end up with?” So I said, “Okay, I don’t understand. When I booked this at the
hotel, I was told it was a tour to see Borodubur and they told me I could pay
for said tour with my credit card at the end.”
Bless his heart, HE was confused, too, and clearly still expected me to
pay, so I brought out my Visa and the ticket taker said, “Sorry, cash
only.” Yes, cash only at a UNESCO World
Heritage Site, when Prambanan, much lesser known, and nearby, and costing about
the same (200,000 Rupiah) takes credit cards.
I only had about 150,000 Rupiah on me at this point so the driver called
his boss, whose English was a little better, I explained the situation, said I
could get money if there was a BCA ATM nearby (the only one in Indonesia that
takes my Chinese ATM – though, granted, I had not had much trouble finding BCA
ATMs in Jakarta), but of course we couldn’t find one after wandering around in
the 90+ degree heat and ridiculous humidity, so back on the phone with the boss
who said he could arrange to have someone pay for me if I added it to my credit
card when I got back. So then we trucked
around to some vendor booth near the exit where the driver got money, trucked
back to the entrance to get my ticket, and then he ushered me to the entrance
to the temple grounds and said, “See you at exit in one hour.” So no guide.
In actuality, the “tour” then was really only “transportation.” Actually, as he was leaving me at the
entrance, there were tour guides offering their service, but I wasn’t going to
keep adding on to the already increasing cost of my “tour.”
Borobudur,
as the largest Buddhist temple in the world, is naturally the most visited
attraction in Indonesia. And, as it was
just after Ramadan, when Muslims could travel again, it was even more
jam-packed than usual. Combine this with
the afore-mentioned double 90 heat/humidity, and I thought I was going to
die. I actually busted out my little
silver umbrella like so many other visitors and used it to try and block some
of the merciless sun/heat. Needless to
say, the temple isn’t quite so “enjoyable” when you’re moving along with a mob
of people. It was also disappointing to
find that they had no “lookout” or anything to get a nice view of the temple as
a whole – which is what really makes it look impressive. I had to search on Google for a “bird’s eye
view” to add to my own pics. But, at the
end of the day, I’m glad I saw it. It’s
pretty cool, definitely huge, and now I can say I’ve been to the 2nd
and 3rd largest temples in the entire world (Karnak in Egypt is 2nd)
– but, based on the mass of humanity, and the stories I’ve heard of just as bad
if not worse masses of humanity at #1, I don’t think I’ll be going to see
Angkor Wat anytime soon. L
And
then, of course, when I came out to the exit after an hour, the driver was
nowhere to be seen. I waited 10 mins.
then 20, and started to panic. I was 2
hours from my hotel, with no phone, no numbers to call anyone anyway, and a
flight that evening to Bali. I waited
another 10 minutes then tried to find my way to where we’d parked – hoping I
could remember which gray van was the one we came in, when the driver popped
up, all smiles, and asked if I was ready to go.
I definitely was.
I
ended my time in Indonesia with a few days in Bali. And, as mentioned on Facebook, Bali is to the
rest of Indonesia as Hong Kong is to China.
Much cleaner, nicer, funner, prettier, etc. But, on the flip side, it’s not like it’s that
much more special (in fact, it’s not) than Hawai’i. I guess living for three years in “paradise”
makes it not really that necessary to see other ones.
I
DID really like the hotel I was in, though – particularly the infinity
pool. I spent more time in that than on
the beach, as it was cool to hang out at the edge of it, looking down on the
strip and waiting for one of the passersby to happen to look up, figure out
what it was and gawk/point. J
Bali
was also more annoying than Hawai’i due to the ubiquitous “Massage?” queries. I’d
really be curious to know how many times I heard that one word question during
the two days I spent roaming around Kuta.
Worse, some of them actually touch you/semi-grab your shoulder or arm as
they make their “pitch.” I’m not one of
those people who really dislikes being touched, but I definitely do not “appreciate”
being touched by strangers trying to get me to buy something I have no interest
in. But, at the end of the day, I’m glad
I ended my Indonesian adventure with Bali.
But
OF COURSE I could not escape Indonesia w/o more drama. I had been “disappointed” to find that after
you check in for your flight, you are then hit up by the airport for an “airport
fee” before you go through security.
Yes, they add fees on to flights in the U.S., but it’s all on the
ticket, you can charge it, etc. I had to
pay 40,000 Rupiah to go from Jakarta to Yogyakarta, 35,000 from Yogyakarta to
Bali, and then 30,000 from Bali back to Jakarta. To be safe, I kept aside 60,000 to leave
Jakarta for Hong Kong, and then managed to spend the rest of my FRupiah so I
wouldn’t leave with any. But OF COURSE,
they wanted 150,000(!) Rupiah to leave Jakarta.
I explained I didn’t have that much, and asked to charge it. No dice.
I had not seen an ATMs in the departure terminal that took my Union Pay
ATM card. I asked them what I could
do. They were totally unsympathetic, blamed
the “airport administration” and insisted that even tho I’d already bought/paid
for a ticket, checked my baggage, had no more time left on my Indonesian Visa,
etc., that I wouldn’t be given a boarding pass until I coughed up the 150K in
local currency. All I can say is: How.
Fucking. Ghetto. I had to truck to
another terminal, arrivals section, to get the cash. At this point, I could not WAIT to leave
Indonesia.
And
this isn’t even mentioning when my flight from Jakarta to Yogyakarta disappeared
from the departure screen and I had no idea (along with the rest of the
passengers) what was going on. Or how in Yogyakarta they had a SHITLOAD of Jakarta
flights backed up, blocking everything else with WAY too many people crammed
into a too-small waiting area. Again,
stop bragging about this being the 4th largest country in the world!
At
the end of the day, needless to say, I really can NOT recommend Indonesia –
it’s kind of dirty, MORE than dirty in many places, the infrastructure is for
shit, their tourism industry is woefully spotty and inefficient, and they have
some “rules” and weirdnesses that make even CHINA seem relatively sane by
comparison. At most, if you really want
to X it off your bucket list, I would suggest flying into Yogyakarta and seeing
Borobudur just to say you did – and maybe checking out Prambanan, as well,
while you’re there. Kind of a drag to have ended what was otherwise a fabulous
3-month globe-trotting adventure!
Final
question from my year in China and sojourn through SE Asia: why do Asians hate
carpet?
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