Time Out Jakarta

Life in Jakarta is in the middle of everything and far away from far away. Sometimes When the tingling feeling of pollution or the hours spent in traffic jams seems to be getting to you it's time for a time out. Getting far away needn't be too hard or too far away. Weekend trips offers a range of destinations even if one is not taking a flight to get there. A popular destinations of the Jakartonése is the mountain resort of Bandung with it's cooler climate. Me, originally from a small cold village of Sweden (Stockholm), beaches and warm waters are much more enticing.

A few hours of driving is what it takes to reach the south coast of west Java where the surf destination of Cimaja offers what Jakarta does not. A slow pace of life, clean (or cleaner) beaches and unstressed locals.

The best way of getting there is by car but there are also buses that make the trip for those who want to save the coin for other pleasures. Traveling as a group makes the trip very affordable even for the most stingy backpacker. I think Gas, Housing and Surfboards hit me with a total damage of less than 150.000 Rp which is comparable with 112 SEK, 17.5 USD or 12.2 EUR. I easily spent more money on food and drinks during these days than that.

For housing we rented the upper floor of a villa which we shared for two nights. Despite no AC or mosquito nets I can't remember getting bitten even once. This is without using any mosquito repellent.

For your basic needs there are always alfamarts and indomarts not too far aways but I would recommend some of the many restaurants offering Ikan Bakar or BBQ fish. The fish is usually caught not too far off shore and is usually fresh. There are also a variet of shell fish available like lobster or why not try some barbequed squid.

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Sexual Quantum Leep

The mating and grooming habits of the Indonesians or specially the Jakartoon is something that needs a peek at. First of all one should be aware of that the heavily religious nature of the country tends to foster prudish notions. So a conception of sex before marriage being inferior to sex after marriage is the status quo, on the surface. In reality many young couples engage in sexual activities.

For me it's more the way there and what other implications this brings that's interesting. As the image, surface or face is what counts it is ofc seen as very obscene and maybe too exciting with public displays of affection (PDA). But there are modern and cool people that may hold hands while walking and things like that. For making out, you can forget it. This is way beyond the J-towners borders. You will however see foreigners doing this with small or no attempts of prevention by the locals. This lack of displays of affection has even seemed to enter the private domain. What I mean with this is that few attempts to engage in physical interaction will occur before there is a clear indication the coupleing. This gives rise to an interesting process of sexual exploration. Which I call the Sexual Quantum Leep effect. Here is small summary of what might happen during courting.

1. you get her number from a friend
2. you text, cause it might be so scary for her if you call out of the blue...
3. you call
4. you go for dinner, coffee or something like that
5. you repeat this and also engage in lots of BBM activeties (black berry messenger. Yes, I too was hoping for a more exciting explination to this ebriviation)
6. maybe you get introduced to your respective friends
7. Eventually BAM! you are a couple
8. Now it might be considered ok to do the down and dirty, if he or she is open to that at all.
9. Sexual Quantum Leep --- Sex, touching and kissing follows.

Now it might be me, the traveller from a coulture far, far away that got some of this wrong or right and I'm just unused to the schematics of it all. But for you, my compañeros in exploration to understand my notion of this casm I'll copare to the process I'm used to.

RELATIONSHIP PROGRESS	SAMPLE PHYSICAL PROGRESS	JAK BBM PROGRESS	JAK PHYSICAL PROGRESS
Live Conversation 1	Non sexual physical contact	Moderate	N/A
Live Interaction 2,	Kissing, Making out	High	N/A
Continued Live interactin	Sex	Very High	N/A
Coupeling or non-coupleing relations	Sexual Exploration	Extreamly High	Sex

The Americans use a baseball analogy to help quantify the sexual progress in a given senario. to help us define this sexual progress leep I will also use numerics. from 1-4. Since the relationship building progress seem to share sertain characteristics these will be used as a base measurement.

As you can see the rate of sexual advances is significantly higher for the Jatowneese than the sample population of my experience. This means that when it comes to that last step it's a all or nothing situation where there is little previous experience to build on. One can easily make comparisons to a vast amount activities like flying an airplane with no previous training in a simulator and such but I will refrain from that. Instead I'd like to highlight some side effects of this environment which might me interesting.
So stay tuned for a second report of social interaction and grooming in Jakarta.

Getting Around J-City

With it's tentacles streaching inward covering large part of the land the it streches so much further than the little city once considered a big city in a country made of old kingdoms. Jakarta's origin, It's old town still has a lingering colonial feeling about it despite the stampeedes of modern day Jakartans. It clearly cherishes it's history and in many a place there are clear affiliations with the golden age of the film industry. Cafes and restaurants are likely to have designs inspired by icons of fiction or reality like Bogart, Casablaca or maybe Marylyn Monroe. This is the Indonesia I think of from traveling around these volcanic lands as a kid. But Cities evolve and grow. They become something else with time. In my native Sweden there are songs about the concrete Jungle but in reality I'd more compare those environments to concrete tundras. Now Jakarta is a true concrete urban Jungle. Sprawling and bustling in so many ways. It's filled with the unexplored and the dangerous.
Photos by: http://www.flickr.com/people/jantomarzuki/

I'm not sure which of these dangers would be the worst. One comes with certain benefits. The city has protected itself from most of the sun's heat and radiation through a skin of smog and smoke effectively eliminating a lot of potential sun burns and cancers. With air so think with pollution I'd call it something else, has it's own influences on the people of Jakarta. While the well off little chieftains and their corporate minions erect protective shelters using air condition and air purification around their territories (Malls, Villas, Shops, small palaces and dorms). The low class people, as someone here called them just deal with it. Well that or die.

The other great danger and terror of the Jakartians is the macet. It's terrible creature that used to stalk the city mostly during dusk and dawn. As the urbanization grows it has fed the macet to disproportional extents. It now strikes ruthlessly from dawn till late evening while resting during the night. In all of the cities I've visited in all of the countries I've journeyed to, the macet, or "jam" here is the worst. Attempting to travel when it hits is completely futile as you will for certain be stuck for many a hour during these jams.

With a wide range of methods devised to get around this monster of a city only a few are recommended. Your average local way finder will prefer the Ojek or motorcycle taxi. It does have the ability so swiftly navigate even through the worst traffic macet with a skilled guide. This is not without danger though. When luck runs out and Ojek and any other vehicle decide to mate your unfortunate Jakartanese is definitively left in a bit of a pickle or maybe that is a word that might describe their future prospects after that. The other two ways I'd recommend are quite a bit safer. At least the drawbacks are less instead. Riding the bussway might soak you in the odeur of two or three busloads of sweaty J-towners cramped into one small buss from the last millenia. While some genetic advantages can help alleviate some of the discomforts it also has it's disadvantages. If you happen to be unnaturally tall, Say over 175cm. you can easily pop your head up and breathe the less hot air, say under 30 degrees Celsius. Blunt head trauma will follow if you are not careful though. There is always you standard upper class carriage which here is the taxi. It's safe and air-conditioned. Well safe in the context. Most cabs do not have seat belts but will survive small collisions and warm weather, all for a small extra fee. Here you just have to choose the right type of flock for you. The safest is the colored bird company. They come in two prominent colors blue and silver. While the blue bird is actually blue or at least grayish blue depending on how long it has prospered in the Jungle, the silver one is undoubtedly black. While these birds will carry you safely I prefer the white one. It's called an express and will cost you about half your gold compared to the other ones.

From lifeonthego

• Ojek 5min 10.000 RP 30 min 25.000 Rr
• Buss way 3.500 Rp
• Taxi 5 min 10.000 Rp 30 min 30.000 R

The Hood, The Turf.

I'm not sure about you but in a whole bunch of places people define them self by the location of where they matured or live. In Stockholm we have the snobby posh peeps of Östermalm or maybe Danderyd. In Oakland, CA the hood defined it's crews but here we have something else. Here we have the people of the malls.

Don't know if you've read my previous post of the prominents mall culture of Inonesia and Jakarta but lets just say it's a very dominating part of life for the middle class and well off in Indonesia. Instead of beloning to a crew or living in a selct neigbourhood one is often described why what mall one frequents and what mall one lives close to.

We have our Yupies and business peeps (pacific place), Our soccer moms (pasar raya), suburban shoppers (mall ambasadeur), OC brats, (taman angrek), chill outers (semangi), and many many more. As a funny note there is a kids attraction at PP named Yupi land. Quite fitting if I do say so myself. Having Pacific Place in my back yard forces me to endure the snobbiest of all malls in Indonesia. Seeing families with more nannies than kids here are not at all uncommon. Needless to say they have at lest one part of designer strollers for their kids. Kinds like home, in Stockholm I guess but with way less of a fasion sense.

Shake that Mony Maker

I'm sure some of you have heard the expression shake that money maker. Well them gold diggers come in all shapes and sizes. There are always plenty of articles online describing how there are plenty of girls in the developing world wanting to date those "rich" foreigners. Specially here in Jakarta I'm finding a whole bunch of articles about it and how to meet those hot local girls. Ha ha, you thought I was gonna write something about my experiences here didn't you. Well OK then. The night scene is in fact filled with plenty of women one might call gold diggers. Looking for a man to pay her bills or take her away to a richer place. I'm not going to claim that all women here are like that but a whole bunch of em are, at the clubs. I'm not even counting in the prostitutes now. Anyway that's not what surprised me. What surprised me was to what degree money makes the wheels turn here. I recently went to a salsa place here in J-town and learnt something else than salsa moves too. I learnt that almost all the men in the club where hired my women who want to dance. There is in fact such a shortage of dancing men here or at least that don't require to have their steps lubricated with cash that the whole Latin dance scene here runs on it. Where did the spirit of dance go? Well at least both men and women here shake their asses for them dolla dolla bill ya'll.

Photo by: http://www.flickr.com/people/chifeng/

Global Ashes

One of the greatest natural disasters mankind has experienced proclaimed itself with the loudest sound ever heard. It was reported up to 4,800 km away. 1883 was the year that the Volcano Krakatau exploded spewing ashes so high up as to make them rain down on the other side of the world.
Naturally I couldn't decline the opportunity to climb the remnants of the original volcano, anak Krakatau (child Krakatau).
The island is located in the Sundanese strait between Java and Sumatra. Getting there is not very easy being a foreigner. Luckily we got access to the island thanks to hiering a boat for two days. The trip also included a few other nearby islands and I'd definitely recommend going here.

From lifeonthego

Our trip started out in Jakarta. Making our way by buss to the Sundanese strait where we took the regular ferry over. The ferry is very local and thus also cheap. I think the whole three day experience cost less than 500 Rp including everything. From Sumatra we used the two smaller boats to travel around the islands finally staying at polau Sebesi.
Some of us stayed at rented rooms while I my room mates stayed at a locals house. Sleeping there was a adventure in itself for my part. Having forgotten, that I had actually brought mosquito repellent I had to endure the hundreds of little bloodsuckers having their way with me all night. Needles to say I didn't get much sleep on this trip.
My counter strategy contained a lot of sleeping at all opportunities that where given while on deck.

From lifeonthego

Climbing Krakatau in the heat showed me one thing and reminded me of another. First that I'm very, very out of shape and I really need to do something about that. Secondly that volcanoes really smell of sulfur. It's quite interesting how the smoking sulfur spots on the volcano resembles ice. It really made me want to snowboard actually.

I hastily put a small video together for you guys. Oh I'm currently using Windows Movie Maker and it's quite infuriating. I wish I had access to a better editor but this is what I have for free. If you have any other suggestions on good software let me know. I used Adobe Premiere before and I was a great program but is there anything good for a windows laptop?

Anyway here it is.

I was invited to a trip with friends and couch surfers and this is some of the footage from it.

The Visa Experience

Carrying a Swedish passport I'm used to having an easy time through customs and immigration, in most countries. As one of the most financially stable countries out there the western world usually have no problems excepting us and being a socialist nation helps when dealing with the previous communist nations. One country that one think would encourage Swedish and other tourist to spend money in their developing country is Indonesia.
Indonesia is a vast archipelago and possibly the absolute destination of divers and nature enthusiast. More beaches and better water than one can imagine it's heavily under touristed except for the obvious destination of Bali.
One way of extending the 30 day visa of arrival, 25$ visa with another 30 days is to extend it at the immigrations office.

An important note is that you don't have to wait with extending it as it adds 30 days from the expiration date of your current visa and not from the date you apply. I was uncertain about this and ended up waiting until way to late for it to be comfortable. Specially since the government suddenly declared my intended day of application a national bridge holiday (a non-holiday made holiday because of it being preceded and succeeded by holidays)

It's definitely the cheapest way to get it done and this was my experience.

1. get to the immigrations office
2. the reception
3. go 2 floors up to the 4th floor
4. figure out where to go (no english signs)
5. buy a folder of papers 5k rp
6. get a photocopy of your passport 1k rp
7. get your picture taken 10k
8. fill in the forms and have your sponsor do the same
9. got counter 1
10. wait
11. go to counter 2
12. wait
13. go to counter 3
14. wait
15. go back to counter 1
16. wait
17. go downstairs and wait at the casheers, pay
18. go back up to counter 1 and turn in your papers
19. wait
20. go back to counter 1 and get your stuff
21. go to counter 0 and get a photocopy of your passport again, now with the visa extension
22. go back to counter 1
23. wait
24. counter 1 and retrieve your visa extension
25. Yay, all done!
26. go celebrate or go home

This all seems to be simple enough... It takes one full working day with travel time to and from the office. Peering into the counters and the offices behind them reviled a vast landscape of minions processing passports. I'm quite sure there must have been about 5 people working for every 1 person on business at the office.

I've made a simple visualization of the process so that you might get a better understanding of it.

Oh and this is my very first attempt to play around with 2d animation software so please forgive the simple work. Oh and I would appreciate any tips of free 2d animation tools and tutorials for future attempts.

Having to extend an Indonesian Visa on arrival I figured I'd give you some insight on the process.