The decision was a no-brainer – we wanted to arrive in Jakarta in the morning – the earlier the better. We’d heard nightmarish stories of the lodgings there, so we prepared to arrive early and perhaps pay a little more for some added comfort. Well…… we arrived early anyway. The overnight bus cost 17,500rp per person and it was a pretty nice bus, although we soon discovered it was invested with small cockroaches. We arrived at some horrid, nameless bus station way outside the Jakarta city centre at 4:30 in the morning and were shocked to see vendors up and running, hundreds of buses zooming through the station and even a traffic jam on the main street… at 4:30am!!! We were relieved when a local couple on our bus offered to help us get into the city and eventually we made it to a main corner near Jalan Jakkhs – the main backpacker’s area. As tired as I was, a huge smile appeared on my face when I noticed we had gotten off the bus opposite a huge McDonald’s!
Our search for a place to stay on Jalan Jakhs confirmed that we didn’t want to stay in Jakarta very long. After trying a few places (20?) we settled on “Nicks” which had glowing reviews in Lonely Planet for its cleanliness, even going so far as calling it the backpackers “Hilton”. All I could say is “bull-shit”. We were surprised to make it through the night in the glass enclosed steamy-hot cubicle without spotting a cockroach. To top it off, the staff were completely unfriendly and the 30,000rp room fee didn’t include breakfast.
Fortunately right across the street was Pt. Saksa Holiday Enterprise; a travel agency where a helpful guy name Bonardo helped us get a $100US flight to Kuala Lumpur the next day on Merpati Air.
The City center of Jakarta was nice enough, with its wide avenues, huge modern buildings and monuments and fountains strewn about the streets. But there was the ever-present garbage all over minor streets, and the people didn’t project the friendliness that we were accustomed to elsewhere in Indonesia – bright lights, big city-effect I guess.
After sending our emails and picking up some mail at the General Post Office, we were ready to close the book on Indonesia. We caught the 4,000rp airport bus from Gambir Train Station for the one hour journey to Terminal 2. The airport was great – just six years old and stocked with cheap fast food restaurants and every kind of store imaginable. Our time in Indonesia, the first country on our journey, went by quickly. Overall we had a great time and it was certainly cheap: not including scuba diving, the totals for the two of us were…..
6/29 – 7/21 (22 nights)
Average Daily Costs
Travel – 18,000rp ($7.50)
Accommodation – 18,600rp ($7.75)
Food – 32,000rp ($13.00)
Miscellaneous – 12,000rp ($5.00)
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