Indonesia

The day after we came back from Thailand, we headed out again to Jakarta. We had kept in touch with John during the time we were in Phuket, so we knew Andrew's team was doing ok. We knew they had won a couple, lost a couple, pitched well and the hotel was within walking distance of the fields. We also knew that John was mostly kind of overwhelmed by Jakarta in general.

We arrived at the airport and worked our way through immigration. There were three lines. One to pay the cost of the visa, one to receive the visa, and one to get all the stuff in our passports stamped. This took awhile. We had our US money, but we had to go to the bathroom, we got turned around and by the time we got through all those lines, the luggage carousel was down to just a few bags. None of them ours. Finding someone who speaks English in Indonesia is a bit of a challenge, even in an airport. I showed my airline information to a security guy, who lazily motioned down the terminal to another baggage claim area. We headed down there. Nothing was moving. We found our way to a sky hop who spoke English and explained our dilemma. He was so nice! He showed us back to where we came from, found our luggage for us and stacked it on a trolley. Then he took off.

Jenn and I exchanged frantic looks, and headed off after him. We had been given very strict instructions to use one of two cab services to get us to the hotel. We knew the cab ride could be up to an hour, and that Jakarta ain't Disneyland. We followed this guy past the cab stand and out onto the white curb. His brother or uncle or cousin's ex-con friend or whatever pulled up, and started putting our stuff in the back of his car. He asked us where we were going, told us he knew the place and told us we could pay him about a gazillion Indonesian Rupia to take us there. "Two pinks, three purples and a blue." Whatever, we weren't going anyplace with this guy. I admit I imagined our luggage headed down some freeway in Jakarta...but, we stole our stuff right back and headed back inside where we hired a cab from the agency we had been told to hire.

Jakarta is just about the most chaotic city I have ever seen. The traffic is horrific. Line markers on the road seem to be considered a quaint little notion that people ignore willy-nilly. Emergency vehicles are completely disregarded...our cab pulled out in front of an ambulance, but my guess is he figured if they were going to the hospital the guy inside was probably doomed anyway. The smog is so thick you can cut it with a knife. You can't drink the water, find a clean bathroom or eat half the food. It is a Shit Show.

We had fun anyway, though. We watched some pretty good baseball, hung out with friends on the sidelines and swam in the pool. One day we took a cab to a port city, where John learned that cabbies do not like to be told which route to take, and they are adept at communicating that in spite of an insurmountable language barrier. We had a little dinner celebration at the Marriott - you know, the one that has been bombed twice. We went through our share of metal detectors.

We had a great day at the port off the coast where we met some locals who work every day loading bags of fertilizer, cement and building supplies to take to Borneo and Sumatra. Their families live on the boats when they are in port, and then in the town when they are out at sea, since the trip is so dangerous. The boats looked like they could sink at any moment, but they are wedged into the port so tightly my guess is everyone but the very young and very old would probably have a chance to scramble off if the need arose. We rode from the end of the port into the 'seaport village' on a fishing boat that we pretty much took our life into our hands boarding, where we saw living conditions that made us all stop and count our blessings. The people were joyful and happy in spite of that - proud of their families and their children and it was a bit humbling...All in all a worthwhile trip.

However. I have seen, and conquered, and I ain't going back. I do love Indonesian batik and woodcarvings, but I will buy those in Bali.