Jakarta — A Jetlaggy Start

Jakarta was somewhat of a blur, smeared by the jet lag and the cultural shock. As we left the airport behind us, we became immersed in the hustle and bustle of a big city. Despite the business of the people in the street, no one tried to intercept us to sell anything or get our attention. I felt immediately at ease.

After a good hour in different transports we walked half an hour to our hostel. The roads had little to no sidewalks, and small stalls sprinkled sparsely through the streets sold nice smelling but strange looking foods. Motorbikes went randomly back and forth on the wrong side of the street, flashing us randomly with their headlights as the night set in.

During our stay we enjoyed randomly walking through the streets of Jakarta. Going to markets, exploring temples, checking out the colonial era architecture and learning some history with the many dioramas at the base of the National Monument.

It was close to the National Monument that I felt the first true cultural shock, when we passed by a group of girls that were very obviously observing us and we exchanged a few circumstantial words with one of them that sent the whole group giggling. Being a curiosity to the locals was something we became accustomed to on the island of Java. This attention was always very friendly and never overstepped our personal boundaries. It was a pleasure to take a minute to chat with random onlookers and maybe take a picture or two. I never felt so much like a celebrity!

Everywhere we went we made an effort to mingle with the locals. The hostel staff recommended us a restaurant, or better said a "warung", 5 minutes down the street, where we sat amongst the Indonesian. We would pick our dinner from the large array of delicacies on display and pay at the end, usually having no idea how the prices worked. We were not too worried though since the price per meal never exceeded 2 euros with everything included and the food was delicious if a tad too spicy for Vasco at times.

We also made our first hostel friend — Antonia — a British girl on her way to Yogyakarta where she intended to stay for several months. She recommended the hostel yezyezyez. More on that later.

After two nights the jet lag wasn't as bad. We said goodby to Antonia and Jakarta and took the train to Bandung.Read more