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Jakarta Trip Report - Dec 2003 - Part 4


gobbledonk

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People

The majority of people in Jakarta are Javanese, alongside a large Chinese population and a melting pot of other races. One race which doesnt seem to exist in any numbers is the Caucasian, which surprised the hell out of me. Tourists aside, I can only conclude that Bule executives are driven into their offices each morning, work until whenever, and are then driven home. Perhaps they dart out at lunchtime, and occasionally have a drink with the locals from the office after work, but we remain sufficiently rare to be a novelty for many in Jakarta, and this is where I must raise a criticism of the Indonesians.

 

Imagine that you are an Asian man in a Western city. Everywhere you go, people stop and take a good, long look at you, whilst saying things like 'Look, an Asian !' and 'Whats the Asian doing ?'. Ludicrous, huh ? Not in Jakarta, my friends, esp if you are a local between 6 and 60 and remain endlessly fascinated by the Bule (lit 'pale', I think). I was irritated by the same village mentality in Southern China, but I was completely pissed off to find it alive and well in the capital of modern (?) Indonesia. At times, I had to resist blurting out 'Take a photo, c*nt, it'll last longer !'. For Christs sake, sports fans, they have television and Western movies playing in the cinemas - we cant be *that* fucking interesting, can we ?

 

To be fair, despite incredible security around the hotel and repeated news reports of impending doom in Indonesia, I didnt feel that I was in any danger during my time in Indonesia. The only incident was when two heroes walked behind my GIG and I mouthing off about 'USA ! USA !' and similar shit, but I think that their mother must have told them to be in the Kijang in 5 minutes, or she'd leave without em. Very cute in their gangsta rapper outfits - not sure how well the Posse would have handled the news that they had to split, but thats life for the mall gangbanger in West Jakarta ....

 

For all that, dont expect to be greeted by a sea of smiling faces in Jakarta. They have their own problems, as we all do, and living in a city of 11 million people (8 million officially, but thats right up there with the Bangkok estimate, IMO) wouldnt put a smile on my face either. I found the children more inclined to smile than the older generation, but it was very much an individual thing : your mileage may differ. For myself, my initial cheerful visage became progressively less so with each utterance of the word 'Bule' : by nightfall, I usually looked like a man on death row.

 

Luckily, my unsmiling nature didnt worry the majority of the ethnic Chinese I ran into. They were too busy swiping their credit cards. Adik, if you want to wipe this para I'll understand, but I believe that the pattern of violence against the Chinese will be repeated in the future - the gap between rich and poor is visibly shocking. When I see an almost exclusively Chinese clientele being served by Javanese (admittedly, in West Jakarta, a Chinese enclave); when I walk past rows of Javanese street vendors, beggars, working girls and bored youth and when I see the conditions in the Kampungs from the train to Bandung : all these things build an image of a society ripe for racial and religious violence. Sure, there are rich Javanese, but I doubt that the mob will give a shit - they have a ready-made scapegoat, and they knjow where to find them. Looking at the history of Indonesia in the basement of Suharto's Monument, its clear that armed struggle is nothing new to the Javanese : lets hope that they can somehow rise above it in the 21st century.

 

If I had to sum up my main criticism of Jakarta, it is no different to that which I would level upon many large cities : it is a victim of its own success. How many more people can the already *groaning* infrastructure handle ? How long are people prepared to sit in their vehicles each day, or jam themselves into the laughable public transport which the average Jakartan is forced to endure (I'm told that you can sit on the roof if the train is too crowded - great stuff...) ?

 

Again, the Chinese that I saw in southern China didnt seem to be as badly catered to as the citizens of Jakarta, although the road rules were remarkably similar. I had previously pegged Shenzhen as the most depressing place to commute to work - I've since changed that evaluation, and would gladly choose Shenzhen over Jakarta.

 

Conclusion

Would I recommend Jakarta as a travel destination ? Hmmm - maybe. If you are the sort of 'ideal traveller' I outlined in my intro, then go. If not, I'd think long and hard about other destinations within Indonesia before I'd visit Jakarta. It does have some advantages over Bangkok - the people are a little less mercenary - but I found it to be a disappointment compared to Thailand. Rose-coloured glasses, perhaps, but I still believe that the Thais cater more effectively to foreign tourists : just my two Rupiah worth.

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Artie,

 

Nice series of reports. Good to see you took the recommendations on the board (IMHO the Jakarta thread is the best source of info on the web). But of course people have different tastes, and you have the wherewithall to post your own opinions, again, kudos. Of course Jakarta is not Indonesia, but then again what is? Its appeal to me is that it is the melting pot of the archipeligo, one can hear all sorts of languages and see all sorts of people, from Chinese, to pious Achenese to fuzzy haired Papuans, and oh those Ambonese girls! I'm glad you enjoyed Bandung, I'm not sure if it was Carlton who said it was his favourite city, but it sure is mine. The aesthetics of that town are amazing, art deco meets Sundanese rural idyll meets Dutch colonial granduer. I shed a tear everytime I think of the tree lined avenues of Dago and the little girl I knew there. As for Jaksa, well, I didnt think you would like it, and I may be the only defender of the place on the entire board. I guess it was more the people I met there, and the chance I had to watch them go about their daily lives. That for me is the essence of travel, the people rather than the place per-se. And that is why I love Jakarta, big, bad, smelly and dangerous, but a riot of a good time. I think in all you are happy you visited there, am I wrong or not?

 

Cheers

 

PS

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Can't say it made me want to hop on the next Garuda flight outta here, unless it was to Bali, but good to see a balanced, honest opinion of a place.

 

Hi Red,

 

The last thing that I would wish to do is deter people who want to visit Jakarta from doing so - as Adik, PS, Carlton and other have noted, it does have its pluses. By the same token, its very easy to gloss over the negatives in a trip report, and I wanted to air my grievances, as subjective as they undoubtedly are. Some members may well be thinking that I am a hard prick to please, and thats true, but I dont believe that I am the only Western tourist who is lacking in the qualities I laid out for the 'perfect' traveller. This is why places like Pattaya have made the effort to make their little corner of Asia more attractive to Westerners, without becoming another Orchard Road.

 

Ultimately, the people of Jakarta couldnt give a rats about my opinion - they are too busy living their lives in an overcrowded pressure cooker, and I envy them their fortitude. Like Shanghai, Bangkok and several cities in India, this is a city with interesting times ahead : my hope is that Indonesia can find a way to stem the influx of people from outside Jakarta, and do something to relieve the plight of its poorest citizens. Oh, and World Peace (cmon, you cynics, get behind me on this one !).

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I think in all you are happy you visited there, am I wrong or not?

 

Hi PS,

 

Thanks for the feedback - I thought that my outspoken views would provoke a few flames, but so far it hasnt. As for my 'happiness', I am happy that I met my IG, and we are making plans for her to spend a couple of weeks in Oz (I want her to see that I do *not* live like a king .... should be a rude shock :) ). I am also happy to be able to tick 'Jakarta' off my list of places to visit, but I cant see myself returning in a hurry. If I were to do so, it would only be after spending 6 months or so being tutored by a native speaker, and thats the kind effort that I would have previously only associated with a return to China (where, incidentally, I find the Chinese women to be more attractive than the Chinese women I encountered in Indonesia). Something about those Zhuang women from Guanxi - now where the hell did I put that Mandarin phrasebook ? ::

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Remembered when I was visiting Surabaya Zoo, A indonesian family wanted me to be incl in their family photo.

Nice report there but Im dreaming up ways currently how I can get back to Jakarta.

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but Im dreaming up ways currently how I can get back to Jakarta.

 

Hi Asiahand,

 

As I said before, the last thing I want to do is discourage people from visiting Jakarta - I just wanted to point out that my own experience told me that its not a place I 'd be looking to revisit anytime soon. For someone who is quick to pick up Bahasa, and can ignore things like traffic and crowds, I expect that it would be a much better experience. I had to choose between Jakarta and Auckland, and I chose Jakarta because I thought Auckland would be too boring : I've since come to re-assess many of the things which I previously considered 'boring'. That said, the chaos which is Asia definitely gets into one's blood, and I find myself missing it already ::

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Thanks for the great trip report.

 

Like you I had been attracted to Jakarta as a holiday destination by the "Is Jakarta worth a visit?" thread, so it was great to hear of the experiences of a first-time visitor. If you ever get to Sydney send me a PM and I will buy you a beer or three in exchange for some Jakarta stories!

 

DocM.

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No problem, Doc. As I mentioned in Part 1, I dont have a lot of nitelife-related stuff to pass on, but I'm happy to answer any other questions, and the longtime contributors such as Adikgede and Prosal have an incredible depth of knowledge that my short stay couldnt hope to give me. They also have a much more balanced view of the place, having had the opportunity to get over the initial shock of finding oneself in such a monster city. If I can leave you with one tip, its that you follow my advice re learning Bahasa. Finding a native speaker shouldnt be too difficult in a town like Sydney ::

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