Indonesia

Jakarta

Upon our arrival in Jakarta we were met at the airport by our local guide and driver and quickly had our first experience with Indonesian traffic. It seems with the advent of budget airlines many Indonesians now take to the air where they once used trains. There is not much of a highway network on the island of Java and most major roads don't stretch much beyond the capital's outskirts. This makes traveling even short distances a major undertaking. In Indonesia they drive on the left hand side of the road ... that is when they are not driving on the right or center for that matter. In fact an Indonesian driver will use all portions of the roadway including both shoulders if that will give him the slightest advantage over his fellow travelers. He thinks nothing of driving towards oncoming traffic and only returning to the proper lane at the last possible moment.

In town it’s every man, woman and child for themselves. In fact this has offered an opportunity for those brave enough to challenge oncoming traffic by becoming ad hoc traffic marshals. All it takes is a whistle and a faith in God. By assisting a given automobile in negotiating a traffic jam said marshal will earn themselves a tidy 1000 Rupiah tip, or about 11 cents. Every parking spot seemed to have a designated attendant who would risk life and limb to ensure that you were able to back out of your space and merge with upcoming traffic. In this writer’s opinion a much more worthwhile pursuit than our own squeegee bandits who prey on the unwary at every stop light.

We asked for a short tour of the city before being dropped off at our hotel, Kartika Candra and were brought to what we were told was the older part of town. Jakarta or Batavia as it was once know is said to be 500 years old does but perhaps owing to the tropical nature of its history does not have many remnants that appear to pre-date the 19^th century. We were shown a number of Dutch colonial buildings but then the Dutch were never famous for their architecture. An old harbor bore a number of interesting ships that haul building materials for the local trade, the ships riding very high in the water when not fully loaded, this loading being done without the use of any cranes that we could see. Across the harbor was a shanty town where many of the crewmen lived.

For supper we were brought to a local restaurant where plate after plate was placed on our table as soon as we sat down. Our introduction to the Indonesian Ricetafel was quite unexpected as we were given no warning by our guide. In the United States as in Europe when I have gone to an Indonesian restaurant I specifically had to order this set meal. The manner in which it was presented by this restaurant and being told that we would only be charged for what we ate gave one the feeling that you were eating someone else’s rejects. We decided to eat at one of the street stalls. I had goat. Eventually we would make it to our hotel, the Kartika Candra where we would stay for only one night before venturing out the next day. After breakfast we drove to Bogor to escape the steamy atmosphere and frantic pace of Jakarta with a visit to the tranquil Botanical Gardens at the Old Dutch hilltop retreat. The drive over Puncak Pass (1600 m) to Bandung is one of Indonesia's most spectacular road trips. Orderly rows of tea carpet the landscape and rich garden terraced paddies re-shape entire hills, while tall stands of bamboo complete the spectacular mosaic. In Bandung we would stay at the Savoy Homann Hotel.

Pangandaran National Park

Following the stopover in Bandung we made our way to Pangandaran, a narrow isthmus that at one time was said to have some of the best beaches on the south coast of Java or at least before the Tsunami hit. The area has still not recovered from the destination and unfortunately tourists have been slow to return. While most of the debris has been cleared away we still saw many foundations where buildings once stood.

We traveled through fantastic scenery and reached the Sunrise Beach Hotel in the late afternoon, just in time for a swim except we didn't swim but watched some fishermen haul in their large net. After struggling In the morning we left the hotel for a day excursion and visited the Pangandaran National Park, home of hundreds of “Long-tail Macaque”, wild buffalo, barking deer and other species of animals. The deer did not feel like barking that day, preferring to doze in the sun and the wild buffalo were a little too wild. The monkeys however were a little more accommodating. Hundreds of monkeys were all about. In fact we were told that they were expecting us to bring their daily nourishment. Of course we were warned to protect our sunglasses as well as are cameras but alas I didn't see any sunglass wearing monkey taking pictures while I was there.

Our country-side excursion allowed us to see the local people doing their daily activities and we visited various home industries where people made cooking oil, brown sugar, shrimp and rice cracker. the brown sugar was made from coconuts and since they were all around us and all you had to do was climb a tree and only the most lazy person had any excuse to not be gainfully employed. The brown sugar was especially sweet.

Later we embarked on a boat trip and visited the “Green Canyon” one of the most famous tourist attractions in Pangandaran. The canyon they say is newly discovered but if you asked me "newly exploited" would be a more accurate term, still in a land of lush greenery this canyon stood out in its lushness. In fact there seemed to be a permanent rainfall as well as rainbow within its natural cavern.