Sem Break around Asia - Part 1: Hong Kong Jakarta Backpacker .... a word which is always a little dream of my little head budding explorer! Go
several weeks, a large bag on his back (and I'm proud of my big bag, because it shows my status as the populace backpacker ^ _ ^).
So one fine August morning By checking the website of Cebu Pacific (trip to the Philippines can not miss this site, a real Aladdin's cave), I came across a ticket Manila Jakarta for .... 40 euros! So there, no contest, the ticket is taken, and nobody talks about anymore! But what am I going to do there?
Firstly, I am not part alone, my two flatmates French m'ont accompagnée une partie du voyage, c'est à dire, de Jakarta, à Padangbai (Bali), d'où j'ai continué mon chemin, on my own !
Indonésie, Indonesia, cet archipel immense appelle au voyage, juste par son nom, mais, déjà, il faut faire des choix, où aller ? avec plus de 17 000 îles, 3 semaines sont loin d'être suffisantes pour tout explorer (surtout connaissant l'efficacité des transports en Asie).
Pour une première expérience en backpacker, on a donc choisi la solution de facilité, ne pas trop s'éloigner des sentiers battus par les milliers de touristes qui viennent ici chaque année.
Mon trajet a ressemblé this:
So, Day 1, arrived in Jakarta at midnight and a half after, not to change after a certain time of immigration, we are in the airport, first bus leaving at 5am, it leaves us a few hours trying to sleep (on wooden benches) and enjoy the first chocolate bread for 5 months (I did not think it could miss as much).
Around 5:30, we're finally gone! Jakarta: a big city, nay, a great city, a megalopolis, boomtown, a bis Manila, with motorcycles and more! In fact, addiction to the Indonesian motorbike is far from being a legend, and these two wheels, driven by 9 to 99 years (no joke), are much more dangerous than tricycles and jeepneys Philippines combined.
Unable to cross the roads, always so much noise and pollution, but we feel that this is not Manila.
architecture first, with tile roofs, not sheet metal, the small groups (to believe that their Asian market extends everywhere except the Philippines), and Indonesians , I've been slow to really meet.
This first day in Jakarta has still been full of discoveries, beginning with an old man, half Balinese, half Dutch, who lived in the same guesthouse as us, and that was, we did he said, his last trip to return home.
Robert (his name) talks about his country, Bali, with stars in his eyes, he speaks of these temples hidden in the mountains, mysterious beliefs, rites of this island if seen, and Yet not so well known! I am very impressed by this man who, after so many years, keeps coming back every year, "home" for a few months before returning to the Netherlands, he looks tired and sick, but happy.
Then, sightseeing, tiring day, between the National Monument (a huge tower at the foot of which are very kitsch sculptures and a museum on the history of the Indonesian nation), an unusual monument according to some, a symbol of power ... and the old city.
Jakarta has a Chinatown as I had rarely seen (with sellers of snake venom, frog and other bizarre ingredients), and an old port where we see hundreds of old wooden boats, magnificent old (how to float they still?), which are apparently transporting cement.
We visit the Great Mosque, a building very recent, which lacks a little charm.
Monas (National Monument of Indonesia)
The streets of Chinatown
The old boats .. really very beautiful, but very old!
Sailors ... who seemed quite happy to see us get on their boat ....
Mary Lou uh .... I'll be fine!
We also explore the commuter train in Jakarta, open doors, passengers on the roof sometimes, and frankly not very clear destination!
The next morning, very early, we took the train to cross Java to Yogyakarta. Trip from 9 am Class "biznis" (meaning, no air cond, overcrowded and with Ventilos that work only intermittently ...). But, as the Lonely (which have not been a very loyal companion for this trip), the train in Indonesia is a democratic experience! Thus, there is constant comings and goings of vendors (food, beverages, but also hats, wallets, and the funniest, the pshit pshitteurs! They spend with an aerosol deodorant for toilets, with a pshitt per passenger, and then returned to collect the money ...), the landscapes are beautiful, not very different from Philippine rice fields, except, again, the architecture of the houses.
On arrive enfin à Yogya, où l'on retrouve, un peu effarés, les motos, partout !!
Premières impressions : l'Indonésie est un pays immense, et sa capitale est tout aussi impressionnante, on sent cependant que le touriste est plus présent ici, qu'aux Philippines, plus sollicité aussi, plus de mendiants, ou de "guides" apparaissant de nulle part pour proposer (imposer) les services, et on applique à toute personne de couleur de peau blanche un 'tourist price' (enfin, il ne faut pas généraliser, it concerns only part of the population, but it is quite important).
Sessions 'pictures' are still there ("Mississippi, can I take a picture of you? Me too, me too ..."), even more insistent in the Philippines!
However, Indonesians whom I met in small eateries (we call them here warungs), or in the street are very nice and talkative!
Finally, Indonesia may well be the largest Muslim country in the world, we see very few women in burqas, the majority have only a veil, or nothing at all, sometimes even in the tank, apparently without offending anyone. .. to meditate !!
