So we had a mid-afternoon flight from Singapore to Jakarta and spent the morning doing some more wanderings around Singapore trying not to spend any money...didnt work out so well since I ended up buying some new sandals. Took the train to the airport and ran into a Swiss couple who were also headed to Jakarta...great to see married couples with backpacks on the same type of adventure. Flight was easy, a short 1.5 hours and then we arrived into Jakarta. On the plane we ended up sitting next to a girl, Pax, from Jakarta who is living/working in Singapore and coming back home for a 2 week holiday. She was really helpful and even took us to the area we were staying at in her hired car and helped me buy my SIM card. She also made a list of things/places we must see/do in Jakarta...hopefully all Indonesians are this friendly. We got in and found a place to stay, got some dinner and then time for some beers. We started at Absolute Cafe and played pool upstairs against some locals (I won 4 straight games...not sure how!) and ran into some other travelers, a couple of Dutch guys and a French guy. They were headed to Stadium which is exactly where I wanted to go...
So lets talk about Stadium....Jakarta's nightlife scene is infamous around SE Asia and perhaps one of the best in the world...Stadium is a massive trance club that holds 4,000+ people that opens on Thursday night and doesn't close their doors until Monday morning...Met some people who seemed like they had been lost in there for a couple of days at least without seeing any sunlight just partying their weekends away...total madness! We got in and got some beers and quickly realized that alcohol is not the drug of choice...all of the partygoers had their bottles of water. Since Jakarta is the Muslim side of India I got the vibe that the wealthy young locals who frequented this place were more into ecstasy than they were beer...stayed there for a few hours, but since we got a late start it was already 5am and time for bed...what a long night!
Day 2 in Jakarta was similar to Day 2 in Singapore...got to sleep soo late and headache when I woke up so spent most of the day around Jalang Jaksa...the backpacker area of Jakarta. When we did get the motivation to wander the city, it started pouring down (damn rainy season!) so that put a halt on those plans. Went to the train station to figure out how to explore the rest of Java and it seemed like the travel times to get anywhere were ridiculous and since my brother only has a couple of weeks we decided better just fly to Bali. Found an Air Asia flight leaving tomorrow evening for $40USD so the decision was made. That night I met up with Chetan, family friend from Fayetteville who works for Glaxo who was in town for work. We had some dinner and got a couple of beers before calling it an early night...good to see familiar faces sometimes!
Day 188: Early rise this morning since I had to see some parts of this city other than Stadium. Spent some time on the net after breakfast trying to sort out accomodation in Bali...no luck and then jumped in a cab to the old Dutch districts of Jakarta...lots of Dutch architecture and a new side of the city that I didn't expect. Still a very polluted, dirty and did I mention HOT city...sun blazing down and as soon as you step out of the air-con cab you start sweating. Anyways, south of this area we wandered through Chinatown and got some food before heading back to pick up our bags from the guesthouse...headed to the airport for our flight...next stop - Bali!!! This really might be the end of the road for me...
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