Jakarta Accomadation

[all4one]

Guys,

 

Looking for somewhere clean, will be staying a couple of weeks with the missus...Not looking for 5* but then not looking for real flea pits either...I guess $15 - $35, stayed at Yannnies once which was ok but a bit too far out..Any deals on cos' of the torubles recently ?

[adikgede]

Have you looked in this thread yet?

[Guest]

I stayed at le margot in jalan jaksa on my last stay, which was not too bad for the price (140 000 idr) if I remember. Although basic with small rooms, the staff are friendly and the guest policy is good. Cable tv, aircon and hot water all included. Only thing is that some girls despise jaksa and wont come back with you. However, there is a nice selection of girls there, although nothing like the array at bigger clubs. Some hate it, I personally love it.

 

Cheers

 

PS

[carlton68]

Jaga,

 

he's going with the missus and you send him to Le Margot.

Tssstsstsss

 

While I stayed at the Margot myself more than once without much problems I won't recommend it. If you stay some time then Hotel Cikini or Hotel Marcopolo come into my mind. Both with pools, in Marcopolo I stayed some nights. Walk up rate was 260.000 Rp as I remember, deals for longer stays should be possible. But as Adik said, look at the many pages in the Jakarta thread, wide range of hotels all over the town.

[gobbledonk]

Hi All41,

 

Adik has previously made mention of the fact that hotel prices rise steeply around the Xmas / New Year period, as rooms are in greater demand, so I wouldnt waste any time booking something. I'll think about you from my *luxurious* 4-Star pad just up the road from Jaksa. ::

 

All levity aside, they are just hotel rooms, and I cant think of a single one that I wasnt happy to leave. Enjoy your holiday.

[Guest]

Carlton,

 

I should stop posting first thing in the morning when my eyes are still heavy with sleep, didnt read the bit about the missus. All I will say in my defense is that I spent the better part of my twenties backpacking around Asia, Europe and America, so by comparison, something like the Margot seems luxurious to me, hahahahah. Hope all is well for you and the family.

 

Cheers

 

Jaga

[gobbledonk]

Hi PS,

 

Perhaps *you* can explain the sheer hatred expressed in many posts toward backpackers ? OK, so they are cheapskates and some of them are grotty little thieves, but the crowd that we get here in Oz seem like a decent bunch, even allowing for the bottom-dwellers (and they exist in any given population). Other than the odd hairy-legged gal, I dont find anything particularly upsetting about them, and I'm sure that my fellow Aussies in places like London are far more offensive in public places.

 

Is it simply that Asia is a magnet for the cheapest of tourists, whether they have a backpack or not ?

[Guest]

I have tried on several occaisions to go into bat for the independent travellers on this forum. AFAIAK people in glass houses shouldnt throw stones; to wit, guys such as ourselves who indulge in paid pleasure in Asia are jst as widely reviled in certain quarters and there are popular myths about them that need dispelling. I also view Sukhumvit as the other side of the coin to KS road. Its a foreign ghetto, with one being for runaways in their early 20s and another for middle aged guys who are essentially doing the same thing. Furthermore, I`ll stick my head out and hazzard a guess that many people fear what is different. These kids may look like freaks, but they are just regular kids really. I think back to what I was like at their age, and realise I was just as silly and idealistic. I meet just as many sex tourists on Suk who are a pain in the ass as I do idiots on KS road, so I guess the moral of the story is don't be quick to judge and live and let live.

 

Cheers

 

PS

[adikgede]

The scruffy hedonists don't bother me that much as long as they aren't wearing peculi after shave. In fact I would rather hang out with them than some depressed overweight balding roughneck in a bar in Batam.

 

Equally offensive are they, the very polished ex pats who exude a "U" upbringing but insist on pawing decent women in search of the one that will not be offended. A friend of mine was doing an article for the first Indonesian edition of FHM and she spent a couple of weeks going to Retro, Embassy Tiga-puluh and the like. Her scorn for clingy western men was only outdone by her scorn for clingy Indonesian Ayam. Something I attribute to her sheltered upbringing in Renon. Otherwise spot on.

 

Indonesia is very much a place of appearances, and Indonesians assume that someone who appears unkempt is not taking four or five baths a day. To be fair my wife rightly or wrongly assumes that all people in western countries, not just backpackers, make their way through the day with excrement smeared across their backsides punctuated by bits of toilet paper.

 

Last year I was invited to this x-mas party that was held by this filthy rich lawyer named $CREAP. I wasn't so keen on going but he always gives me ties and perfume, while my father in law is getting shoes and suits. Nonetheless its entertaining, last year I counted at least three people who should be brought up on charges of Crimes-Against Humanity. And based on dress alone most of the middle aged women there have already been tried and convicted. So Im getting in the car and the person who is taking me, someone who aspires to greatness (or wealth), says "you are to go back and put some shoes on." Mind you I was wearing a fifty dollar pair of sandals and with some black silk socks that om $CREAP gave me when he came back from the island of Marmar.

 

Well no one told Mr. $CREAP that while marble comes from the Island of Marmar, Liberace has his museum in Las Vegas. It should be in Indonesia because I swear that every time I go to the birthday or wedding of a self-important sixty year old, "he came to our wedding You Have To Go!," I could swear that Liberace is at the organ when they launch in to that old favorite "I did it My Way" Back to the subject, and we will come back, sure enough straight from the Island of Marmar there is the Venus di Milo in the middle of the swimming pool. Oddly there is a vase attached to her side, still no arms, with water pouring out. As it turns out the trip to Marmar was to take photos, the actual work is solidified lava smeared with plaster performed by a "craftsman" in central Java. Im waiting for om $CREAP to discover Jeff Koons.

 

Anyway back to the point, or the subject at least. There in the middle of the party is the son of om $CREAP looking fashionably disheveled and fastidious at the same time. In tow a friend that he picked up at Jl Jaksa. For a brief moment I was relieved to escape one ghetto for another. So PS nothing to be ashamed of the other demographics are every bit if not more repulsive. To think I almost spent $30 taking the wife and kids to Barbie in the Nutcracker followed by KFC.

 

[Guest]

Adik,

 

Never ashamed, actually, I am quite happy I got to see so much of the world that way. Friends and relatives always tell me how lucky I am to travel, but I did it on the cheap, not the $10 000 package tours they prefer. They do it theirs, I do it mine. Independent travel also gave me the chance to sort myself out after the death of my younger brother, a week before I turned 18. After that my life took a downward spiral of petty crime, drug use and meaningless jobs. I found out more about myself in places like Bangladesh and Indonesia than I ever would have festering in Brisbane. Anyhow, I look back on it as the best years of my life. I met alot of really interesting people (and several wankers as well) many of whom are friends still to this day. I also met my ex whom I shared 6 years with, some bad, but mostly good. Each to their own really, but I was lucky to have the experience to do it when I did, and I wouldnt change it for the world.

 

Cheers

 

PS