Best of North Sulawesi

I found my Sulawesi gem as my last few days and my last destination in Sulawesi. Tankoko Reserve hit me with a mellow atmosphere and lots of wildlife to see. It's easy to get to and there are several trips available there from most dive resorts and travel agents. However the local transportation there is a bit trickier, but a lot cheaper. Besides a couple of hours of "rough" travel only makes it more genuine. Just ask the microlet drivers how to get there and they will help you catch the connecting microlett, buss or back of a tiny truck. One can easily get there from Manado, Tandano and Bitung.

My favorite part was walking around in the Jungle and seeing all the cool animals. The best part might have been the lack of mosquitoes. I don't think I encountered a single one. Which was a releif since I had no malaria meds. From what I heard the risk was non existent to low locally but looking at the maps from home most of Sulawesi lit up as a malaria zone. It seems as this is no longer the case however.

Some of the awesome animals we encountered where giant tarantulas at night, über cute primates known as Tarsiers, Makaks, exotic birds and Dolphins.
My only regret is that I did not have time to do any muck diving close by but that's ok. I'll soon be diving in some new cool places.

After some checking around we stayed at a home stay for 200.000 IDR per night. This included 2 meals a day for 2 people. In other words quite cheap. Fresh fish was on the menu just about every day. Breakfast could be a bit small for people like me who are used to a proper meal for breakfast but one can always request some Nasi Goreng instead which was much to my pleasing.

In this place I met an Indonesian - German family which was quite interesting. Although their kids where about 10 years younger than me, I kept thinking that it could have been my life would we have not returned from Indonesia after moving there as a child. This could have been a defining moment in my life and I become a tad bit happier every time I think about it. I'm very happy I got to have the background that I finally got. But more about that another day.

If you are ever in North Sulawesi, pop by Tankoko for a few days of relaxing and enjoying nature.

Sulawesi Higlands

In the center of the Sulawesi Highlands is a city called Tomohan. It's not the biggest city but it's one of the most well knows for travelers in the area. Due to it's shape it seems a lot bigger than what it actually is as it's cramped between the volcanic mountains around it.

I spent a few days here and the area has enough things to do for half a week to a week or so. More if you want to climb all the hills around. A few interesting things include doing to the market where they happens to deal in the more unusual food stuffs. Dog and rats being on the menu feels quite weird but it's forth taking a look.

I enjoyed getting around with the local transportation such as microlets, local buses and hitchhiking on the back of trucks. In general one of the good things about the area is that cold beer is quite readily available. A nice change from many other non tourist destinations in Indonesia.

A Paradise Polluted

Outside the coast of northern Sulawesi lies Bunaken, a small island with the potential of some of the greatest diving in the world. It once ranked in the top five dive spots in the world but had lost rankings in recent years.

As a diver I went in search of new wonders and to marvel while doing my flights through alien territory. The underwater world is truly an amazing one, with creatures one would think lived in the world of fiction.  The waters of Bunaken have a diverse marine life and focuses mainly on the smaller life forms. There are a few turtles guaranteed to be seen but sharks and bigger wildlife is not as common.

It all started out with a very promising afternoon wall dive. The reef where I dived was in relative good shape and there was plenty to see. Then the local influence started floating by in the form of plastic and garbage. As the growing city of Manado is quite close by and up current of this “could be island paradise”, a lot of things tend to float by. Not uncommon are, plastic bags, dead animals, diapers or other random junk. It’s worst for the snorkelers on the south and east side who must experience all the floaters but it’s horrible for me as a diver as well.

After a few dives I had enough and could no longer stand the pollution of humanity and left the island after far fewer dives than I had initially hoped.

Without this pollution I’d easily rank Bunaken among the top 10-15 dive sports. It the reef was in perfect condition it would be even better but there is some damage due to earlier dynamite and cyanide fishing.

For those who do not want to dive there are a few other activities on the island. The beaches are not that good and quite polluted both from the wash up of Manado and the locals habit of throwing garbage about. The snorkeling is good if one can disregard the foulness floating around. There is a dolphin tour for about 80.000 IDR which is worthwhile and quite cheap for this type of thing around south East Asia.

It’s good to know that all the places to stay charge per person and not per room. All meals of the day are also included in this price. The cheaper alternative is to stay in a homestay in the little village on the south end of the island. The less cheap alternative is to stay at one of the many resorts with ad hoc dive centers or dive centers with ad hoc resorts. I stayed at Raja Laut (meaning Ocean King) and enjoyed it.

The price was 250.000 IDR per person and both food and accommodation was very nice. The diving part of our resort/dive center as also good but I think they value what you can see higher than what you don’t want to see. I although the corals might be more damaged on the North West part of the island I’d easily trade it for less garbage any time. Most of the prices for the resorts are in Euros and the local exchange rate is quite bad. So it’s much better to bring your own cash that you conveniently exchanged in your home country. There are also no ATMs on the island so bring plenty of cash. Although I felt quite safe ant not too worried about my gear in our bungalow it was still nice to be able to put out valuables in the dive centers safe.

The cheapest alternative for diving and also maybe staying is Daniels. I think the dives where 25€ at Daniels as well. At Raja Laut they were 30 € is you do 3 or more dives. For one dive I think it was 35 €.

On the unfortunate side of things I lost one of my go pro cameras with its new underwater housing and head mount. It will be interesting to see how to handle my insurance. And if I need to make some sort of report. After all I lost it in the ocean, do I still need to make a police report?

All in all, go dive Bunaken and see for yourself, if you are in the area. If not, go somewhere else. There are plenty of great dive sites in South East Asia to the west, north and east of Northern Sulawesi.

Highlife: The power of brands

As I walk by Hard Rock Cafe and Hotel in Kuta Bali and see the masses flock outside I'm reminded again of the strong brand focus Asia has. I mean if you want to be somebody you need to look like somebody and to look like somebody you need to wear a brand. Why? well obviously the only way to be some one is to be wear what people things some one should wear.
In the ghetto west and later in street sub cultures like hip hop and such sneakers and shoes became the status symbol. For the rich maybe cars or yachts. Here it's definitively all about clothing and bags but the brand focus and the desire to consume all the is something is just so extremely powerful here. It's ofc better to wear a Burberry jacket in 30+ degrees heat and feed your kids nasi lemak and water every day as you ride around on your bad ass scooter. And then defining a bad ass scooter as one with a few LEDs on. Where did that desire to be unique go? and Why is it better to life in a dump and pay up your butt for a brand on top of the same cotton shirt as your neighbor wears. Yeah the poor one that put his kids to school...

Same same but different

Walking up and down the allies of Kuta in Bali is like walking up and down the posh streets of Sweden, in a way.  At lest in the way of everything being the same. Same same but different as they say in this region. A friend of mine a young britt once found it to be such an amusing and endearing saying when his Thai "girlfriend" said it. He quickly realized that it was not something unique but something wide spread in the region. And it's all very true. Every shop, every business is same same, and not so different.
I recently had a conversation with Mark, the traveling film maker. As he was asked to do a piece on this guy who wanted to start a business in Ubud the natural question was what see him apart from everyone else. Why was his business special. There was no clear answer..

And this is the spirit of this same same mentality. There is nothing wrong about copying a successful concept but then again it won't be "successful" if you can't offer anything unique. Well unless you are the low cost (read lowest cost) provider. Every day I see so many things that could be improved, so many business ideas that will never see the day of light because of more same same businesses and Ideas here.

Then again. Checking out the concept of the tweet sized travel video I'd love to do a version of my own. With a twist ofc, but still. Maybe I'm just another same same...

The Jackson syndrome

It's a well known fact that some black artist are obsessed with becoming as white as possible. As crazy as this might sound it's not something new or rare. It's something widespread and commonly sought after, in Asia. In fact one could intemperate Mr.Jacksons pioneering efforts as a attempt to unite cultures and extend a reaching hand to east and south east Asia. Here in the lands where all women and children strive to become whiter, it's easy to see how that might be a factor bringing people closer together. Now another attempt is made to exploit this well knows pioneering ability of black american soul artist to become white...?
Why not use the NIVEA whitening lotion and You could become as White as RIHANNA!

Well someone made a bobo. That or I've completely missed the up to date announcements of popular american culture. This being a completly plausible explenation to my ignorance.

But when is enough enough. On plenty an occasion I've spotted Asians usually Korean or Chinese so white that I'd think I was seeing ghosts if it wasn't for the fact that I'm not a superstitious fool or that they usually wear Louis Vuitton or Gucci.

Cultural Overload

Spending some time in magical and mystical Ubud one might say that one really felt the mystical energy vortex that is supposed to be there. That the energies inspired and replenished. For me, this was not the case. Although I did enjoy my time in Ubud, it was riddled with a bounty supply of visits to the bathroom.

It's during these time when the doctor procures you a diets of overcooked rice that one says; enough. Enough, of everything that is supposed to be culturally enlightening.

I've been stuffing my face with western food, bad movies, ice cream and chocolate for the last few days after this. The binge is however over and I've returned to a more balanced diet of all kinds of stuff. I've come to the conclusion that the idea of only indulging in local food soon becomes too much. After all I spend less time at "home" than away. I now dream the sweet, sweet dreams of mackerel on crisp bread, herring and "kaviar" (swedish food).

I did miss most of the kings cremation as a result. Apparently this is an event that people gather for, from near and far. I did catch two glimpses of it over the heads of the crowd which is satisfactory to me at this time. Yeah not the big cultural consumer right now. I just hope this is not the start of a transformation into a Aussie Balinese... The Horror

Bad Luck Batch

Things seem to come in batches. Weather it's fixes and updates for games, cheeses, or paintings. My batch of deliveries was in terms of bad luck. For those of you who has been wondering why my stream of writings seemed to have dried up (possibly only my mom) here is the explanation. After Jungle trecking in Sumatra and thanks to the impecable cleanliness of the pople I cough Typhoid and other viruses and bacterial infections. Adimebly some might have cought on later in Bali while trying to recover. Pile two small motorcycle accidents on top of that and there we go. But at least I've had Typhoid before so I knew what to expect. And not all of the other shit is incurable.
Almost all better now though and ready to write more about my love hate relationship of Bali, Australia. Which is now disputable. it might now be partly under french control, "ils sont partou!"

A river in Bali where the locals swim, fish, poop and get funked. The ability to do this comes from  training numerous times in the gutters and eating the clinically clean food served in street corners. A westerner like me would get massively sick by following their example. believe me I've tried, and failed. And since I believe in statistical backing I've done it more than once. Failed that it.

Rama, damn at Pulau Weh

I came to Pulau Weh for one reason and one reason only, To dive. Turns our that it's also the only reason one would want to go here for, at least during Ramadan. I find this religious anomaly quite annoying here. Oh fill where is your sense of tolerance and cultural acceptance? Well I have plenty of that. I just believe that they are crazy, and not just for believing in make belief stories and such. As one secludes oneself in thought and resists temptation during the Islamic lent, the goal for me is to prove ones resolve and come closer to whatever idea one have chosen. For me removing all temptation is not the same as showing resolve. In fact it's the opposite. Its proving and showcasing ones weakness in resisting temptation. If one had real resolve life would go on as usual. Except that one would would restrain from the actions preventing one from though of a deity. So the less problem one would have in connecting to the unproven powers the less it would effect normal life.

This would lead to shops and such being open. Food served to those who wants it and no judgement being made. For making judgement on others would definitively restrain one from the self connecting to the object of prayers.

Anyway I's just me wanting to have food, drinks and thing readily available during normal hours. I would't care too much if it wasen't recommended and imposed on people by the local government and the Imams.

If you go during Ramadan, dive. Dive like crazy cause it's the only thing to do. It's also one of the greatest places to dive in the world.

Diving is a tad expensive though and single dives start around 25 EUR but discounts are give for more dives. I tried out Rubiah divers and Lumba lumba divers during my time here and I prefer to dive with Lumba lumb. The diving and guiding skills are good at both places but it's the atmosphere at Lumba lumba I like more. The availability of food, drinks and beer makes it the obvious chose for me.

Getting to Iboih from the Banda Aceh terminal will cost a bit with a taxi but is the only way to get there. The price varies a bit abut it's a bout 150.000 for a car, which is split-able. Some tourists will stay at "sumor tiga" but all the divers stay at Iboih which I recommend.

Prices for food and things are remarkably more expensive than other places in Indonesia and also compared to Malaysia. 35K for a chicken curry is what you will have to pay in the touristy areas and it's not much cheaper in the city of Sabang. What is really expensive are drinks, specially when it comes to drink other than water. If you can, do your shopping in town and stock up.

Binge with a capital M

Those of you being families with Indonesia will know that there are some difficulties going to the movies there currently. When I first arrived I was way excited to go to the movies properly. The island in Thailand where I had spent my previous two months was too small to host a movie theater so I was looking forward to the big screen in Jakarta.  I was up for a surprise though. No big time movies where available. Apparently Hollywood had decided to not ship movies any more. But why!?
Turns out that the Indonesian government, always in need or tax money or bribe money decided to put some extra taxes in for the foreign movies. They claimed it was money that was going to support the domestic movie industry. Which by the way is in horrible condition. Movies made 15 years ago are way better than the crappy horror comedy (comedy part non intentional) movies that air today. They are so bad that parts of Indonesia ban then when they showcase their area in them. It seemed to be much confusion about what taxes or fees had in fact been put on these importers of movies. Eventually people seemed to conclude that if was a extra tax put on all distribution, which makes up of a very large part of movie costs in Indonesia.
I guess that's one way to really encourage pirating DVDs and downloading. I mean if it's the only way to watch movies that's what people will do. Good job Indo government.
Anyway getting out of J-town and flying to Kuala Lumpur, with a brief stop over in Bali, I'm again in a nation which likes movies. And not only are they available here, they are cheap too. There are also a range of different classes of movie theaters. The most interesting one being "gold class". Gold class is a theater class with really big and comfy sofas that serves food and drinks during the cinematic experience. of course the air con is way cold and thus you have blankets to boot.
So far I've seen Transformers 3D, the Green Lantern and X-men. Will definitively have a look at what else is available over here. Movie Binge here we go!

Fast and Sandy

Bali is a place where you live the dream or maybe it just seems so as you are covered in purple haze. It's a place in Australia where people form all over the world go to forget, to adventure and live. Great surf and good weather is what drew this particular traveler here. I was well prepaired with flip flops and board shorts as I took on the challange of Bali.

Managing to surf for two days, Sleep (passing out totally counts) in five different places in three nights, riding around lost on my motorbike a whole night, clubbing, eating lots of good food, befriending the local surfers, a Czech surf community, chilling with Russians, do some shopping and even get some pictures of it I have to say I got the most out of my stay.

I'd like to give some estimations of what tings might cost you. These are not the prices I paid  but I think they are what you can use as an estimate

• Motorbike 50K Rp a day
• Housing 50-150k Rp a day
• Food and drinks (non alcoholic) 60K rp a day (3 Indonesian meals) 150K Rp for western food
• Surboards 40K an hour
• Taxi from the Airport 50K
• Taxi to the airport, meter + 5K
• Fake brand sunglasses 25K

Let me know if there are any other prices you might want

Have fun in Bali guys

Patches In a sea of blight

I've many times been told of the Scandinavian design wonder. The furniture, the product design and how famous we are for it. Myself, I did study product design engineering as well as some at art school back in Stockholm. It's quite  strange to say this, since I never really use any of those skills. They have been rusting for so long I'm not sure if the're still there. Well the computer aided part is. I dunno about the rest.
Anyway. So far I only heard about the nice traditional craftsmanship and artwork in Indonesia, the origin of Batik. But what I find more interesting are the little patches, containing explosions of design passion in a vast landscape of gray blight, that is Jakarta.

These patches of insight in a sea of blight are usually cafes or restaurants that someone put in more than a tad of effort in designing and decorating with artwork. I came to this realization after hanging out in a photo and printing area which was as dull as dishwater. Finding a cafe on the third floor that radiated with color and coziness made me realize that in Jakarta where restaurants, clubs and cafes pop up like weed and die out just as fast is a extremely interesting place for one who likes experiments in design and interior decorating. I think one could spend a lifetime here always finding new interesting places.

If you don't have too much time to spend wandering the odd streets in J-town you can actually get a quick look at some of the nice designs at the Malls otherwise not so appreciated by me. Well, except for the food which also comes in a nice variety.
A better way is to ask a local. But you need to ask someone of the middle class or up. Your general street thug won't give much insight here, sadly. You will however maybe get to chill out at the warkop (from Warung Kopi). A bicycle coffee stall containing a big thermos of coffee, in it's simplest version. Not a bad way to go all in all. The best way is to find some gay people. They will know what's up in this area.

Death to all the Humans; the BBM aproach.

Love it or hate it. It's definetly conquered Indonesia just as many others before it. The Dutch wanted the spices, The Japanese wanted an empire, the Arabs wanted their minds and BBM wants their souls. In no other culture have I seen such a profound glitch in human relations as caused by BBM. It's like nothing I've ever seen before. It leaves men, women and sometimes even children apathetic to the realities around them. The semi glazed over eyes as they make a stint of an effort trying to break the BBM trance state as one tries to contact them while BBMing.

For those of you who does not know what BBM is. It is the Black Berry Messenger, and application that enables cheap text messages to me fired upon the people unfortunate enough to have started to create relations with you or sometimes also the ones that have strategically tried not to.

Their slogan goes it's like they're right next to you. The reality goes, it's like they're not right next to you.

Ok now you're thinking how bad can it get. Well I'll take an example of the BBM influence on dating. If on a date you or I might be familiar with it's maybe one with not too many phone calls or maybe even a turned of  phone.. I'll try to Illustrate the acceptance these disconnections with reality have approached. I've chosen to use and form of human interaction which normally requires some larger part of ones consciousness to engage in the activity to better demonstrate the state of human to human interaction degradations without and interface to translate. The situation is a Date.

The different curves display examples of BBM activity in percentage of total attention to the BBM machine. Each color ha a label showing how well you are doing during the date with that type of BBM disruption pattern.

Above you can see the activity over time for three separate timeline and below is a better experimentation for total activity over time and how it's distributed. The area covered by the curve would be the time times activity. 

This example is just to show you to what devastation this technological virus has struck Indonesia. But why is it hitting Indonesia so hard while it's not at all as prominent in other cultures? America had it first.. There only the business people have it. In a world otherwise ruled by the all mighty Apple in the sky, using design and interaction design to brainwash this is and interesting phenomenon. Regardless this seemingly very high tolerance for being disconnected from reality or maybe need to be connected digitally might make other extreme techosocial experimentation "fun" in Indonesia.

Either way it seems as this necessity and dependency on their BBM enabling devices are in fact making, well not Androids but maybe the worlds first real Cyborgs. Part man, part machine they need both parts to survive..

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.