Getting Around...the Night Safari

13 May 2014

                The first week in Jakarta was pretty relaxed.  I got to meet some of the new folks working in ODC (the shop where I was attached to last time I was here), and one of the guys was my pseudo-sponsor when I was reporting to DLI.  We lost contact because all of the correspondence was on govt email, but now he is stationed here in Jakarta.  I got introduced to several projects that they are working on, one of which is a large exercise for the Indonesian Army and US Army.  This portion of the immersion is always interesting, because there is no structured schedule like the language classes.  I will probably take some time to see more of Jakarta while at the same time helping out where I can.

                During the weekend I decided that I wanted to hit Taman Safari again, but this time stay for the night safari.  This meant I needed to stay the night, so I decided to book a guest house sponsored by the State Dept, which was a little more expensive than your average hotel, but I heard great things about it.  The pictures looked very nice anyway.

No one likes a monkey that begs

                So, the weekend trip will be known as the trip where I almost took every Indonesian mode of transportation.  I could have easily just rented a car and a driver, but that would have been too EASY.  Plus, I wanted to give the ‘ol motorcycle rental a second try.   Since I did not want to drive a motorcycle in Jakarta traffic, I decided to take the train (mode of trans #1) until Bogor (the southern tip of Jakarta), and when I got there, I found that there was not a motorcycle rental place.  I instead took a taxi (mode of trans #2) to Taman Safari.  On the way, we were stopped at a police checkpoint…where they were checking to make sure people were wearing seatbelts, or as I like to call it, trying to get money from people in anyway possible.  The cab in front of me had two Middle East guys and they were arguing with the cops.  The one cop escorted them out of the car, and led them back to my cab, where he showed them…”Look! This is good! (pointing to me wearing a seatbelt); he knows! He is good!”  Apparently the two guys were not wearing their seatbelts.  I showed the cop my ID and passport and was free to go.  After about an hour or so, we made it to Taman Safari.  I decided to try out the safari again, but this time in a public safari bus; I have to say, a private vehicle is way better!

                After lunch at a faux Rainforest Café, I decided to head over to the Baby Zoo to see the baby animals.  I was able to hold a baby orangutan, a baby lion, and a baby leopard.  The baby orangutan was the best; he kept trying to steal my hat, and in the end he reached up, grabbed my neck and gave me a kiss.  Afterwards, I went to watch a couple of shows to include a various animals show, a circus, and a dolphin show.  I found my experience so much better this time, because there was a lot more time to relax and enjoy Taman Safari.

                I went ahead and stayed for the “Safari Malam” (night safari), which was a separate admission price, but both came out to about $25 USD, which is well worth it.  The night safari was cool, but I was pretty tired, so I ate dinner, went on the safari (in the dark), and decided to head to the guest house.  Everyone had told me that the guesthouse was pretty close to Taman Safari, and boy are they wrong!  I had no transportation and it was close to 8pm, so I was forced to ride (mode of trans #3), the ojek, or motorcycle taxi.  I rode on the back of a motorcycle up the mountain, through various switchbacks, which took about 1 ½ hrs.  I was pretty sore sitting on the back of a motorcycle for that long, but it was nice to get to the guest house.

                Aww, the guest house, how wrong I was to book this place.  Ok, it was nice, but for what I paid, I could have gotten a really NICE hotel, and furthermore, a hotel close to Taman Safari.  This place had no internet, very little amenities, and a freakin annoying cat that meowed ALL NIGHT LONG.  If I wouldn’t have been so tired, I would have searched for it and punt kicked it off the side of the mountain…it was that annoying!  I will probably never stay there again, and I am still upset with the bad judgment call.

                The next morning I left pretty early because I was still pissed off that I did not get any sleep.  The security guard secured me (mode of trans #4) an ANGKOT (small public trans van) that would take me to Bogor.  The fare was less than a $1, which is way cheaper than what I was paying for the other modes of trans.  I decided to pay the fare of everyone in the van (maybe 10 people), because I figured it is more beneficial to have 10 friends than just 1.  They were very grateful, and I at least was able to put a smile on 10 people’s faces…hey, it was my good deed for the day!  In Bogor, I walked to the train station and rode the train back to Jakarta…what a crazy trip, but an awesome experience!

The Final Days in Jogja...

5 May 14

Me and some of the teachers 

This was my final week in Yogyakarta, and it was truly an awesome experience studying bahasa here.  The Javanese culture is the backbone for Indonesian culture and it is so interwoven in all aspects Indonesia.  My final days of Wisma Bahasa were spent talking about military and political topics.  I was also assigned to give a 30 min presentation as a final "test" for the course.  I talked about the importance of airpower in military operations, and compared the capabilities between the USAF and the Indonesian Air Force.  It was very interesting doing that little bit of research, and it allowed me to realize that I don't know a lot about the Indonesian Air Force.  Hopefully while I am attached to the embassy, I can get more engaged with Indonesian Air Force operations.

To reward myself for the "hard work" and dedication towards advancing my language skills, I decided to plan a trip up to the famous Buddhist temple, Borobudur.  Borobudur is about an hour away by car, my friend from class and I saw that renting a car and driver was a little expensive.  In the end we decided to rent motor scooters and we would leave after class on Friday.  We got to the motor scooter place at around 4pm, and it started to downpour.  So a couple of things are going through my mind: A) I haven't ridden a motor cycle since I was like 15; B) I am not exactly sure where this place is, much more the possibility of finding it in the rain; C) how are we going to stay together, and not get lost, especially when the sun goes down and amongst the Indonesian traffic?  One other factor came into play: my friend had misplaced his bank card, so he now he had a limited amount of cash.  Luckily with the rain storm, it gave him some time to figure out a way to still do it.  He managed to borrow some money from one of his homestay mates and were off!

We made it about half a mile before we got spilt up in the Yogyakarta traffic.  The exit that would take us to the highway was closed, so I took a back road, and I was not able get in contact with my friend, so I had no idea where he was.  Luckily, he was able to find the main road, and I just continued on the back road, using the Iphone GPS as my guide.  Once I got onto the main road, it started pouring again, so there were a lot of starts and stops.  I will say that it still was quite an adventure and I am glad that we took the scooters.

I got to Borobudur around 7:45pm, and my friend got there a little later.  The Hotel Saraswasti was out of this world.  It really enhanced the Borobudur experience, and all in all it was nice just to have a place to rest and get dry again.  We got up at around 4am to go see the sunrise at the Borobudur temple.  When we got to the temple you could tell it was going to be a foggy morning.  Once the sun did show itself though, it was truly majestic, and well worth the time, money, and journey.  After the sunrise, we went back to the hotel to eat breakfast, and then decided to go back to get some daytime pictures, and see more of the temple.  

Part of our temple experience was being in probably over 100 junior high/high school students' pictures, being interviewed by most of them, and meeting a lot of new people.  I actually was asked by one high school girl to sing the National Anthem.  I decided to do it, but very quietly; I didn't want to draw attention to myself or others.  My friend is from Australia, so he thought this was hilarious.

The ride back was sunny and pretty smooth.  Driving through the Central Java and Yogyakarta countryside was really icing on the cake...such a beautiful country!!  We got back to Jogja at around 12ish.  I went home and started packing my bags for Jakarta.  In the evening, I went over to the Hyatt and attended the Night Market, a traditional Javanese cuisine buffet along with a traditional Remayana dance/show.  The Remayana show was very similar to the Kecak dance I had seen in Bali...stories were almost the same.  Following this, I met some friends at the karaoke place, and we hung out for a couple of hours.

I met some really cool people in Yogyakarta, and I will miss my time there.  Since the contractor can't book me on an Indonesian airline, I have to take SILKAIR all the way up to Singapore and then slingshot down to Jakarta on Singapore Air.  Needless to say, it took most of the day to get to Jakarta, but I have been able to settle in nicely at the Pesona.  I am once again staying in the lap of luxury down here in South Jakarta.

Me with Pak and Ibu Sunarto