Up early to escape the damp room, said goodbye to Neil and Sarah. who were going to Bandung and looked for some transport to the station. 2 becaks turned up so we loaded them up with Beth, Oz and the bags and I decided to run. The station was further than we thought but it was downhill and I had no trouble keeping up with the becaks. We caught a commuter train to Jakarta which was similar to the third class train we caught to Bandung, but considerably fuller.
After a couple of hours we arrived and tentatively stepped out into the station. The expected onslaught of hawkers, beggars and what-have-you never materialised. We caught a taxi to the cheap accommodation area. The losmen were all pretty grotty and nearly all full. We found a room in the Borneo hostel that we could bear for a night and ventured into Jakarta.
It was initially clean, nice and very green. The area around the National Monument was all parkland. After that we tried to walk to Kota, the old Dutch area but after discovering the dirt, pollution, traffic, heat and a cinema, we gave up. We spent the rest of the evening with Frankie and Johnny, Dairy Queen and Indonesia's most expensive meal in Pizza Hut.
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2012
Jakarta? Alaska.
Me running alongside two becaks full of people and rucksacks must have been like a comedy movie scene. Wouldn't happen nowadays - we'd get a top-end taxi or limo I'm sure.
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