Getting there is half the fun

Indonesia Part Deux

After writing that drunken sounding post from the internet cafe Matthieu walked in and the 3 of us arranged to meet for beers a little later. I went back to the guesthouse and then ran into the 2 Swiss girls and some of the local Indonesians at another cafe. I said goodbye to Pujo as he was heading to Jakarta tonight and then me, Eve and Anita went to the bar with Peter and Matt. It was supposed to be an early night for me but as everyone was splitting up we stayed late and drank way too much. I ended up going to bed at 2:30am.

Tuesday:
At 4:30am there was a knock on my door. The driver was there to take me to the temples. Only 2 hours of sleep and still a little tipsy. Shit! I have now only had one full night of sleep in 4 nights! I shared a van with 2 Korean guys who live in Indonesia, plus a French couple who didn't speak much English. We arrived at Borobudur temple at 6am, just after the sunrise so see the massive stupa emerge from the mist. I shared a tourguide with some British and Dutch guys, learning about the temple and also some basic buddist trivia. Soon it was time for breakfast and then back into the van for the 2 hour drive to the other Temple complex. Along the way we stopped at a few other temple sites and also at a real store so I could buy some batteries. I had already gone through 4 pairs just this morning. The "Daracell" ones you buy from the vendors are already dead and I think the record I had for a pair was just 4 pictures before they completely died! Finally we got to Prambanan Hindu Temple complex and I walked around alone just admiring its construction and tranquility. I got talking to a vendor guy and after realizing I was not going to buy anything from him the conversation got a little more friendly. He was heading home so he gave me a lift on his motorcycle to a far off temple that is mostly in ruins. It was really cool because I was the only person there. I felt like an explorer 300 years ago as I walked though the piles of ruins to the one large intact temple. Without a ride back I had to walk the kilometer or so through goat fields. The rest of the day wasn't too exciting. I just walked around Yogya talking to the friendly locals. It was fun to toy with the talkative batik conartists who would be your bestfriend until you told them you were not interested. Well with time to spare I pretended I was interested and just generally wasted their time as much as I could. You could see that some of them were getting frustrated! I had a quiet night to catch up on sleep.

Wednesday:
I signed up with a travel office in Yogya for a trip to Pangandaran. It was supposed to be a van to Cilacap and then a boat to Pangandaran, but this was not to be... I was up at 7am to catch a van to Pangandaran, sitting on the curb waiting. The van didn't show up until 8:30 and then we drove around the city picking up boxes and also an Indonesian Lady. The drive to Cilacap was ordinary enough, except that this guy was the craziest driver ever. We must have made record time and also must have made the record for the most close calls in an hour. It was insane! We pulled into the bus station in the small city of Cilacap and the driver hops out, grabs me and my bag and motions for me to get into something that resembled a bus. He didn't speak any English so I tried to ask where the bus goes in my crappy Indonesian. He just kept saying "yes, Pangandaran" over and over. So I guess I didn't have any other choice. The bus I was dumped onto was a poor excuse for a bus. It was basically a metal box with some seats, and I'm not exaggerating here! The ride was really interesting though, I felt like I got to see some of the "real Indonesia". We drove down the tiniest roads through small towns and villages picking up passengers at random. A lot of the trip was on one lane dirt roads lined with banana trees and bamboo roof huts. In the mid-afternoon I guess school must have ended and the bus filled completely with Islamic school girls. They were all really timid and would dare each other to say hi to me and then all giggle and hide their faces. At one point the bus got so packed I had an old man practically sitting on my lap and there were school boys hanging out of the doors on the side of the bus. Real Indonesia Indeed. Shedding most of the passengers I got talking to a friendly guy about my age. Then the bus started to climb up and over a small pass before dropping into Pangandaran. There I paid a guy in a becak (bicycle taxi) to take me to a guesthouse and then took a walk down the beach where I met up with Matthieu from Yogya and Elsa, another French girl. We went for a swim in the sunset in the huge waves. The undertow seemed overly strong and seemed to go out at a weird angle. So it wasn't a surprise that after a few minutes we had some locals on the shore yelling at us to get our asses back on dry land. Apparently the area we were in is not safe for swimming at all. We met up with another French couple (yes there are Frenchies everywhere here!) and the 5 of us took a becak to the fish market. That place is awesome. They have fresh fish, prawns, shrimp, lobster-looking things, clams, etc. that you can choose what you want and they gut, clean and cook it right there. Had a really good dinner for only $2.5US!! After dinner me and the 4 French guys headed out to a bar until the wee hours of the morning, not much to say about that, you can pretty much guess.

Thursday:
Today we signed up for a tour of the Green Canyon. Just when I though the trip couldn't get any better it did! Matthieu, Elsa, me and a British couple Matt met hired a van and driver for the day. First we stopped at a small village where we say "real village life". We saw how they climb the palm trees and harvest the nectar to make sugars and tea, and also a puppet making shop. Then it was back on the potholed village road until we got to the entrance to the Green Canyon where we got 2 guys in a boat to take us up river. We took a small wooden boat up the dark green river, lined with dense jungle broken by the odd palm grove and hut. The river walls slowly began to rise as we carved out way deep into the rock as far as we could go in the boat. From the rocks blocking the boat's passage we would swim up river with one of the guides and only one lifejacket. The canyon walls seemed to rise endlessly overhead, draped by hanging vines, stalactite-looking formations and dripping water. As we swam up stream clinging to the canyon walls the river started to get stronger and stronger until it was impossible to swim. Yet we still pulled ourselves along the canyon walls until we got to impassable rocks and rapids. Climbing onto the rocks we then jumped into the white water and let the river carry us down stream, banging our legs on the odd submerged rock!! It was tons of fun!

After the Green Canyon was over we got our drivers to take us to a small beach town not too far away (Batukaras). Here we had lunch and then rented surfboards in the late afternoon!! It was my first time surfing so I didn't really get up much though. We had a short 45 minutes of "surfing" when some guy ran straight into Elsa's stomach with his board. Soon she felt really sick and turned a grayish green colour and almost passed out. Luckily one of the only other tourists there happened to be a French doctor and said we should get her to a hospital as quick as we can. Well there were no hospitals near by, nor any cities at all. So we spent an hour speeding down potholed country roads honking at the motorbikes to get the hell out of the way until we came to another small village where we found a doctor's office, if you can call it that. The place we went to was a super small clinic. It reminded me of the ones you see on TV when they ask for donations to build a small one doctor clinic in a small village in a poor third world country such as Indonesia. But luckily after a quick check over Elsa turned out to be alright! No serious injuries but would have to take it easy for the next few days, so that meant no renting motor bikes tomorrow. Driving back to Pangandaran everyone went to their respective guesthouses while me and Matt went to the fish market to buy some fish, vegetables and beer. Then we all met up later at Matt's guesthouse and cooked the fish, ate a wonderful dinner with a bunch of other people too, and drank beer until the wee hours of the morning! Another wicked day!

Friday:
Not a whole lot to say after a busy week, but a great day indeed. We went down the beach to the "safe" area and rented surfboards for the day for only $10US. I would say that today is my first real time surfing and man is it ever fun. I got some tips from some local guys but couldn't get up much at first. We took a break for lunch when the tide was out. We had the best lunch ever!! Sitting under some palm trees with the local guys we met we made a bbq out of coconut shells and then roasted some tuna and cooked some rice! Oh it was so good! We just lazed around all afternoon soaking in the sun and listening to the waves. I went for a walk down the beach to where the jungle starts and saw lots of monkeys playing around but left when they started hissing. Then as the sun was starting to set Matt and I went for one last surf in the golden rays. We were getting much better, getting up on most waves and sometimes riding them side-by-side, and sometimes crashing into one another. The waves started to get really strong as the tide came back in, sometimes twisting you around underwater and slamming you into the ground. I got quite a few cuts, especially on my knees and one really nasty one on the side of my foot. But it was great fun nevertheless. In the evening we had a bonfire on the beach with the local guys we met, plus some other travelers that were passing by. It was another wicked night of sitting in the soft sand with a roaring fire and tons of beer, good music and stories!

Saturday:
Today was not a super interesting day to say the least. It's funny how you seem to pick up travelers as you go. Matthieu, Elsa and I went to the bus station, said goodbye to Udi and hopped on a local bus for the 8 hour ride to Jakarta. The trip was uneventful but we passed through some nice mountain scenery and rice terraces. I had no idea how beautiful this part of Java was! Back in the hell hole that is Jakarta we got accosted by touts while trying to find a bus into the city. Good thing Elsa can speak Indonensian! Checking into our guesthouse Matt and I went for dinner at a small roadside stand where we met some crazy old American guy who had all sorts of over the top made up stories. We also drank a beer with 3 Swiss guys/girls before taking a taxi across town to the most famous bar/restaurant in Jakarta, Batavia. As we got out of the taxi we were received by men in suits and fancy cow print tuxedo vests. They gave us a few bad looks but for whatever reason let us into the establishment. I couldn't believe they let us in at all given the way we were dressed. We were both in dirty clothes, shorts and flip-flops, plus my foot was all bandaged up. The prices were about 4 times regular so we each only ordered a beer and filled up on their free peanuts before getting the hell out of that place.

Sunday:
Tired from a crazy week of traveling we had a slow day in Jakarta. Matt and I went to the old harbour to see all of the old cargo ships that they still surprisingly use. We got a boat ride through the back waters of the port, past dirt poor neighbourhoods along the incredibly dirty water. The water ways and rivers here are so damn polluted. Most of the rivers through the city are literally black as oil, and you see people living and even bathing in it. Just below a group of houses(shacks) where the garbage collects I saw a dead dog floating in the water! Anyways, after touring around the city we took a tuk-tuk over to some national monument where we met elsa. We were out of time so we took another tuk-tuk back to the backpacker district to get out bags. I went for one last walk around the streets alone, which turned out to be quite amusing because it was late afternoon and the ladys of the night were starting to appear. As I would walk by they would yell the usual "Hello, where you are from? Come here, I like you!". It was always fun to play along for a minute and then walk away with a stupid excuse and a grin. The 3 of us took a taxi to the airport. We said goodbye to Elsa as she flew back to France, and then me and Matt boarded our plane to Singapore, ending a great trip!

Posted by Evan at 12:48 AM