Padang Padang (Day 2)

Today was my journal and blog catch up day. We didn’t really get up until about 9:00 and went for breakfast a couple doors down. It was pancakes and fruit for breaky and it was very tasty. The pancakes were more like crepes: Mel had them with chunks of banana cooked in them and then peanut butter on top, and I had pineapple in mine with chocolate on top. I think we will probably go there tomorrow for breakfast as well. We then came back to the room and got some Internet time in before hailing a driver and heading to a grocery store to get some supplies. The drive there and back cost us Rp. 120,000 and the driver waited for us while we shopped. We got some fruit, cookies, water, a knife, mosquito repellent, and some Strepsils (which taste like Halls and I hate Halls) because my throat has been bothering me a little bit. The driver’s name is Are (Ah-Ree) and we arranged with him to take us on a tour of the island tomorrow for Rp. 500,000. After relaxing in the room for a little bit we decided to head down to the beach and get some sun. It was so hot out! At the beach we rented an umbrella and with the slight breeze off the water it became the perfect temperature in the shade. Mel did a bit of tanning outside of the umbrella’s shade but I think I will burn if I try so I’m going to avoid tanning. I have already gained quite a few freckles since being here; well my already there freckles are getting darker. The tide was starting to come in when we got there and at one point when we went swimming a larger wave soaked our towels. Thankfully my backpack seems to be waterproof because nothing in there got wet. We got back to the Inn and there was someone in our room trying to fix the TV, unfortunately they were unsuccessful. Not too long after Rhys, Mel’s friend from Australia showed up and chatted for a while. We’re going to go to a restaurant called the Shark Fin with him tonight for dinner.

Well for now that is as caught up as I can get. Other than telling you that we currently have a guy who is not a mechanic but is trying to fix the light bulb above my bed, we’ll see how he does.


We went for dinner with Rhys and his sister Savanah but instead of going to the Shark Fin in Uluwatu, we stopped at a place called YeYe's. The restaurant had a open concept with the building part having no walls but a roof and then there was a patio that you could sit at as well. We sat on the patio to start but it started to sprinkle and the waiters asked us to move inside. They can tell when its about to pour down rain and this was one of those times. Dinner went really well, Rhys and Savanah were a lot of fun, and the prices were decent.

Bali

Melanie had booked us a room at the Home @ 36 Hotel in Kuta for our first night on Bali since we wouldn’t arrive there until 11:30 at night. So far every new place we get to we arrive at nighttime. Technically we arrived around 4:00 in Yogyakarta but by the time we actually got to where we wanted to be it was dark out. Getting a taxi proved to be much more expensive here on Bali than it was on Java. Melanie had read that the taxis were cheaper if you left the airport than if you were to get one inside it so we decided to walk a bit before hailing one. Well we walked most of the way out and decided to just grab a cab to get to the hotel, the driver wanted Rp. 200,000 but we knew the hotel wasn’t that far so we haggled him down. It was more of a car service than a taxi and you bargained the price before the ride. So we got him down to Rp. 60,000 and we probably could have gone lower but it was a lesson for us. The drive was 10-15 minutes long and would have cost us under Rp. 20,000 on Java.  

The room was nice, a little dirty here and there but nothing major. It didn’t feel unclean it was just if you were really looking you could see some stuff. The shower was definitely the best part! I would describe it as space age for Indo; it had wall jets, FM radio, a built-in fan, a mirror, and lots of shelves and a place to sit. Oh and it had water pressure, I really miss water pressure, and super hot water which was really nice as well. The only set back of it was that the doors were difficult to close and they didn’t stay closed so I had to keep adjusting it. Also, the drain was closed when I got in so the water level kept rising and I didn’t notice until the bathroom started flooding. But honestly, who make a shower where you can plug the drain? Its not like I could have a bath in there. I got to watch “2 Broke Girls”, which was really nice because I love that show. 

When we went downstairs for breakfast we discovered that it was a resort we were staying in, not a hotel. The breakfast area was outside on a large terrace and there was a restaurant as well. Going down the steps, there was a pool on both sides and a great view of Kuta Beach.

We once again packed up and checked out, hoping in a taxi to Padang Padang. A little surfing town about 45 minutes south of Kuta. We hadn’t booked a room there yet but we asked the driver to take us to the Padang Padang Inn and luckily they had space available for us. The Inn had a choice of four different kinds of rooms: 1) Bamboo rooms, you couldn’t get much more basic than these; 2) concrete rooms without air conditioning, but they did have en-suite bathrooms; 3) concrete rooms with air-conditioning, these were also bigger and we’re staying in this type of room; 4) an even larger concrete room with air-conditioning.  We chose the third room type because it was the cheapest with air-conditioning and I’m really happy with our choice. It’s really hot here.

I wasn’t feeling well so I decided to stay in the room while Melanie went to the beach. I did, however, walk to the beach with her so I would know where to go if I started to feel better before she got back. It’s about a five-minute walk down the road and a lot of stairs to get there. The beach access is amazing, the stairs are built in the fashion of an old temple (it may very well have been one back when it was built) and they actually lead down this little crevice in the cliff. It’s a tight walk and a one-way road when going down those steps but it’s pretty neat. Anyway, once we got to the beach I turned around and walked all the way back up, which, when your not feeling well is horrible! By the time I got all the way back up I was about to pass out. Sweat was little running down my face and I was feeling a little dizzy. Luckily about half way up the little hill back to the Inn there was a store and I had brought money with me so I bought some water there and sat down for minute. I also stopped at the Internet shop and purchased three hours of usage for Rp. 36,000. When I got back to the room I was shaking I was so sick and exhausted. I laid down on the bed with every intention of watching one of my shows when I discovered the Wi-Fi did not reach out room. There was however, an Inn next door who’s Wi-Fi my computer did pick up. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to crack their password and still have not figured it out. So instead I turned on a movie and used my computer as a hot pack. When Mel got back we went for an early supper at a little Mexican restaurant next to the Inn. It wasn’t bad, more of an Indonesian Mexican than actual Mexican, even though a Mexican man owns it. Mel had decided to go for a walk with the computer and find out where the Internet access started and learned that it starts at the stairs about ten steps from our door. That really sucked in my opinion; I didn’t purchase Internet so that I could use it on the stairs outside our room. I wanted to be able to Skype and watch TV. LOL. I know that seems silly but sometimes all you want to do is sit in the cool room and have something to do and our TV in our room is not working. We made one more trip to the beach and swam until for about ten minutes before the lifeguard blew his whistle and had everyone come in (you can’t swim here after dark). After that we just came back to the room and read until we got tired and went to sleep.

Leaving Yogyakarta

In the morning we started to have second thoughts about staying at Fuji Villas and thought about catching the shuttle into town at 9:00 and seeing what other accommodation there was. After breakfast we asked one of the ladies about the shuttle and she told us it was full but we could go at 12:00. There were no other guests at the hostel so I can only assume it is a shuttle for the area. Around 10:00 the lady came and informed us that the shuttle driver had been in an accident, guess it was a good thing we didn't catch that shuttle to town, but they could take us into town on the motorbikes if we wanted. We did not want to go on motorbikes and asked her to call us a taxi. We decided at this point that we would just check out and have the taxi take us to another hotel in town. In the time between making this decision and the taxi arriving we changed our minds yet again and decided to leave Yogyakarta altogether and hop on a plane to Bali. We would come back later and go to Borobudur, Prambanan, and Mt. Bromo.

The taxi ride back into town was definitely the scariest so far, and it wasn’t even a taxi, it was actually a private car. At one point the driver decided to pass a truck and another truck came around the corner in the opposite direction, it was a close call. At the airport we went to the Lion Air booth and got a slip of paper from them with the flight info on it but we didn’t pay here, we had to pay inside. We then had to go through the first security check to the Lion Air check-in and stood in line for about 15 minutes. When we got up to the desk the lady informed us that this wasn’t where we paid for a ticket, she pointed over to the left where there was a small hallway and told us to go there. Down this little hallway was another little hallway and this one had a few different doors with windows and the airline logo on them.  This is where we got our proper tickets and paid for them and it was just the back of the place we got the first piece of paper. When we got back to the check-in the lady told us that because the flight wasn’t until 9:00 we couldn’t check in until 6:00, it was about 1:00 at this point. So we had to find something to do for five hours. I had seen a little café outside the security and suggested we go there and get a coffee. Rain was pouring down when we got out there and we found a café called Horizons and decided to sit outside on the patio. We spent the next five hours eating, playing cards, and writing in our journals. During that time the rain came in spouts, as it does in tropical climates, and I saw my first rat ever, it was huge. We spent about Rp. 300,000 at this café during the five hours, which isn’t bad considering we had lunch, dinner, ice cream, and drinks. Around 6:00 we went and checked-in for our flight and made our way to the waiting area. Mel and I both bought postcards to send home and Mel got a photo of this really cool statue. It reminded me of the grim reaper, but a female version, and it was made completely out of nails. We met an older couple from Ontario, who are currently living in Chiang Mai, Thailand and she is the vice principal of the international school. I mentioned to her that I may be up in Chiang Mai in April and she told me to come and see her at the international school if I made it there. 

Yogyakarta

6:15am alarm goes off, wake up, shower, eat breakfast, and its off to the train station we go.

Tickets already in hand, we bypassed the lines and went straight to the boarding area. We arrived at our platform about 20 minutes early and in that time we asked three people which platform the train would come to, walked down to the wrong end of the platform and was led back to where we started, and were given the wrong platform number entirely. Luckily one man seemed to know that we had no clue what was going on and was able to take us to the right spot.

The train ride was long and uneventful. I spent the time watching two movies, sleeping, and looking out at the passing scenery. Unfortunately, my camera is not the best so the most of the photos didn’t turn out that well. Melanie went to the washroom at one point and came back to inform me that it was a hole in the train and you could see the tracks through it.

Our tickets read that we would arrive in Yogyakarta around 3:30pm, they were wrong. The train didn’t pull into the station until just after 4:00pm. We walked out of the train station and onto Yogyakarta’s main street, Malioboro. We had planned on catching a taxi to the Hotel To Tugu, where we would meet the shuttle to the hotel we were actually staying at but there did not appear to be many taxis around, so we decided to walk down the road further until we came across one. We started off walking with some school kids who were practicing their English on us and eventually we came across a Tourist Services tent and started asking about how to find this hotel. Turns out that Hotel To Tugu no longer exists. We tried to explain that we had booked a room at the Yogyakarta Hostel and that the shuttle went to Hotel To Tugu at 5:00pm to take people out there. I think they all thought we had been swindled and had booked a room at the non-existent Hotel To Tugu. There was a man there who spoke fairly good English and he told us he would take us to someone who spoke English very well and was actually an art teacher who had worked in Ontario for a time. We followed him a little ways down Malioboro to a side street and down a little further to a batik art shop.

Now before we left home we were told by multiple people to trust out instincts and at this point mine weren't screaming "Danger Will Robinson", and it didn't appear Mel's were either.

He took us inside to a room that had a bench, table, and batik art all over the walls and told us to wait while he called his “master”. Another man brought us some Jasmine tea while we waited, I sipped it slowly just in case this was some kind of setup and it was spiked. A few minutes later the “master” showed up. His name was Haru and he told us that he was an art teacher who also ran the exhibition we were currently sitting in. We explained to him what we were looking for and he said he would help us but first he wanted to show us proper batik. He went on to explain to us the difference between real batik and stamped batik and offered us a special price. We were in the shop for probably over an hour most of that time with his trying to sell us something, even though he said he did not want to pressure us to buy. I told him that we were tired and wanted to go to our hotel but maybe we would come back the next day to take a look and see if we wanted something. He said that this was the last day the exhibition would be in Yogyakarta and that it was moving to Sumatra so if we wanted to buy it would have to be now. Unfortunately for him last chance sales don't appeal to me or Mel. The plus side to this detour was that we learned about proper batik and how to tell a fake, so thats a bonus.

The "help" he gave us was directions to the KFC that we passed on the way in to get wifi. Mel was able to get on the internet and get the proper address for out hostel and directions on how to get there. After walking back to where we started, the train station, we were able to get a taxi. The ride took us 30-45 minutes and it was a windy road, which did not help my nausea. The driver stopped a couple of times for directions but we arrived at the hostel, actually called Fuji Villas, safe and sound but tired.

The room had a queen bed with a canopy, en-suite bathroom, TV and DVD selection, and smelt like teak and mothballs. Unfortunately we didn’t get any photos of the Fuji Villas but you can look it up online to get the idea. I had another small bout of homesickness before falling asleep. I think the stress from the day, feeling sick constantly, and just having time to think, attributed to it.

Beginning of a New Year

Breakfast was fruit and toast served with jam, butter, and chocolate sprinkles. I didn’t try the chocolate sprinkles but based on some breakfasts we have had since then it is a regular thing here. Our plan for the day had been to go and find a grocery store of some kind to get food for the train. Ling informed us that because it was New Years everything would be closed. There was an outlet mall in the city that was supposed to be open according to Ling but when we got there we discovered that it wasn't, so we went back to the Grand Indonesian instead. We sat down in Starbucks and had frappucinos and a bite to eat and then headed back to the hostel. We didn’t really know what to do in Jakarta, everything I have read said enjoy the shopping and then leave, and we weren’t really there to shop so it was a good thing we were leaving the next day. The rest of New Years Day was spent watching movies with the others and sleeping. We went for one last meal at the little place across the road and than off to bed because we had to get up early to catch our train. 

New Year's Eve

Some things I forgot to mention in the last post:
- Surprisingly they don't sell Sanucks in Indonesia. Thats what we had gone to the Grand Indonesian to look for.
- I had my first bout of homesickness before we went shopping.
- I felt sick when we got back from the mall and decided to have a nap.
My order of events wasn't 100% accurate in the last post but just ignore that.

After a rejuvenating nap, Mel woke me up around 7:00PM and we went downstairs for dinner and a show. Dinner was sandwiches: ham, corned beef, chicken, and egg salad; and beef stew. Wati, Dave’s wife, dished us all a bowl, me a smaller portion than the rest because I was still feeling nauseous, and we sat down in the cinema room to watch “Warrior”. I didn’t eat any of the sandwiches or much of the stew either, just broth mostly, but it was really good. Dave is from Ireland and the stew recipe was his mom's, that lady knows how to make stew!

Fireworks started filling the sky around 10:00pm and lasted until after 12:00am. It was amazing! It seemed like everyone in Jakarta was lighting off fireworks, especially along the harbour. We had some fireworks of our own as well, and the first one they tried lighting off exploded. Dave planted the firework in a flowerpot and Nile lit it. It started off ok, until fire started shooting out the end and I thought the plant was going to catch on fire, and then it exploded. Luckily I was able to get the whole thing on video. After that the guys figured out they had to let the stick go with the firework and the rest exploded in the air like they were supposed to. Just before midnight Ling and Wati started handing out horns in the shape of trumpets and dragons. 

We had about four different watches going so we didn’t really know which one was right so we just sort of started making noise with the first one and continued until the last watch said midnight. Not long after that Mel and I went to bed. Fredrick and Fabian came stumbling in probably around 4:30 or 5:00. Joe said that she went to bed around 3:30 and the party was still going on so I’m sort of guessing at the times. 

Jakarta

After arriving at 12:30am local time and waiting anxiously to see if our bags arrived with us, we made it to the Aston Cengkareng City Hotel for a much needed sleep. We booked a private car through the hotel for about $17 CAD, which was probably best given the time of day we arrived and us not knowing much about where we were.

We couldn't see much on the drive to the hotel and what we did see looked quite shady, I'll admit I started to have some doubts. At one point we drove down a boulevard and there were about 10 different groups of young men hanging out with their motorcycles, intimidating in the dark.

Breakfast was a selection of American and Indonesian cuisine. There were hash browns (like McDonalds), omelettes, fruit, and yogurt; but there was also some Indonesian dishes: noodles (which I loved), a dish that was similar to chow mein, beef (soooo goood), rice, and a few others.
After a photo op in front of the hotel, we left for the city center.

Melanie had been looking up other places to stay, and found the Six Degrees Hostel. It took about 30 minutes and Rp. 65,000 to get to Six Degrees by taxi. Neither we nor our driver 100% sure where we were going but he knew the general area and after that it was like playing I spy. We pull up to this complex that has a Texas Chicken, ACA Asuransi, and a travel agent and wedged in between is this blue wall with an orange door and a small sign that says "Six Degrees".

We were informed upon arrival that they did not have any rooms available but would the next day. Thankfully though, the owner was able to work things out.

Ling pointed us across the road to a little restaurant shack for lunch and said the food was good and cheap. She was right! After our adventure of crossing the road we sat down in this little restaurant and a boy brought us some menus. Neither of us had any clue as to what the menu said but were able to figure out drinks due to the repetition of the word "juice" but other than that we were lost. I had "juice strawbery" (Rp. 8,000) and Mel had "juice manngo" (Rp. 9,000). We discovered that they were blended juice drinks and wow they were good. With everything being in Indonesian and us not knowing the language, we figured "Nasi Goreng Vega Tarian" was a safe bet (Rp. 13,000). Turned out we were right, it was vegetarian fried rice and it was wonderful! I am not a rice eater, I never have been, but man was that dish delicious. And it cost us all of $5 CAD after tip.

Six Degrees hostel is amazing! The owners are wonderful and they just opened this place about seven weeks ago. They decided to open a hostel and eight months later there were. Check them out on Google to get a good look at the place. I highly suggest it for anyone looking for somewhere to stay in Jakarta.

We ended up in a room with two bunk beds, sharing with Fabian (from Germany) and Fredrick (From Holland). The beds were very comfortable, even more so than the Aston Hotel and considering the price difference you would think the opposite. Having water pressure in the shower was a relief, you don't realize what a difference it makes until you experience a shower without it.
Mel and I made a trip to the Grand Indonesian to kill some time in the afternoon. The Grand Indonesian is the largest mall in the country and thats fitting I suppose since Jakarta is the country's capital.

Thats all for now. They are watching "Paul" in the cinema and I don't want to miss out :D