The Journey's Start Part 2: Concrete forests and urban jungles

Crazy guys pushing their food carts
through the mid-day traffic!

Jakarta. Sweaty, busy, smoggy, surprising, green, friendly Jakarta. A city of two halves, on one  side the crazy endless bustle of cars, buses, mopeds, motorbikes, and endless other forms of transport, bajaj's (tuk tuks), bicycles, delman (horse-drawn carriages) and people pushing, pulling and towing carts selling an endless variety of street food and wares that one first thinks of when picturing South-East Asia. The other half is the modern commercialised side increasingly becoming the face of modern Asia; glass skyscrapers cavernous malls and countless Western brands, company's, restaurants and innumerable Starbucks. 

So many people ride mopeds in Jakarta and the way
 they ride them is more than a little scary!

What has struck me most since arriving here (other than the fearlessness of pedestrians) is how incredibly friendly and helpful the people of this city have been. From the moment I stepped off the plane stumbling around trying to find the right place to go in immigration to the many taxi drivers, staff at the various government agencies and our fabulous hotel staff (Hotel Acacia get's a huge thumbs up in my book!) everyone has stopped and taken time to help us and are always so friendly it's refreshing from what other capital cities are like. 



Though I'd been warned many times before coming about the permit procedure and need to jump through flaming hoops of my experience so far all I can say is it has been painless, simple and efficient (as long as you follow the instructions and procedure to the letter!). What has made it so much easier is the helpful and friendliness of the locals, from RISTEK to the National Police (MABES POLRI) the staff and guards have all helped me to find where to go and what to fill in, and for finding them having the address and a map on a smart phone REALLY helps the taxi drivers. The only thing to complain about is the time it takes as I'm currently waiting for my Research Notification Letter (Surat Pembritahuan Penelitian) from the Ministry of Home Affairs (KEMDAGRI) which takes a week, but I'm not complaining as this is going to give me time to go visit Yogyakarta and see the temples of Borobudur and Prambanan (silver linings hey). The procedure is a bit ridiculous and time consuming but I'll write about that in a later post. 

Some of the skyscrapers and greenery along the road from our hotel to the MABES POLRI the National Police

The city has surprised me though as when I've asked friends about Jakarta and read about it no one ever has much good to say about it other than how busy its roads are and the pollution both of which I can attest to, what has surprised me is how much greenery there is in this city with some areas looking more like mini jungles in the heart of the city. The other surprising thing is the scale and grandeur of some of the buildings, the city centre is dominated by skyscrapers and the scale of some of the malls the Grand Indonesia is at least 7 floors and split into East and West halves and only across the road is the Plaza Indonesia both home to countless designer wares; Emporio Armani, Christian Louboutin and Tiffany Co. as well as more affordable high street brands such as H&M and Marks and Spencer. 

So much greenery in Jakarta it can almost make you forget your in a city of  10 million people!

The malls choice of shops are only eclipsed by their huge choice of restaurants and fast food places including many familiar names, like Pizza Hut, Burger King and far too many Starbucks' (at least 5 in the two shopping centres!) as well as less familiar one like Cafe Djournal (amazing tea and cakes!), Crystal Jade My Bread and Bread Talk who are both opposite each other and make the most amazing looking and smelling cakes and bread and Kopi Luwak a coffee shop specialising in the worlds most expensive coffee made from civet droppings (though this is not wild sourced and is from a terrible industry with poor animal welfare, avoid at all costs!).

Kopi Luwak selling the civet poo coffee, as much as it's tempting for
 novelty please avoid giving money to this business

Bread Talk (top) and Crystal Jade My Bread face each other in the Grand Indonesia Mall and
when you go down to the lower ground floor where these two are based it smells heavenly!

This side of the city is so different to what you see when you head to the less wealthy areas and the areas more familiar to backpackers near Jalan Jaksa. This is nearer to the true Indonesia filled with independent shops specialised to certain things like the visa photo printers and photocopiers I used to get my red background photos done and cost about £1 to get 4 copies of my passport and 6 photos done, so amazingly cheap! This is also where I finally had my first taste of some proper Indonesian food at Melly's Garden Bar and Restaurant which is well known backpacker circles. This was mostly just finger food so fired enochi mushrooms and tempe goreng (fried thinly sliced soybean curd), but was good as a start. 

I can't wait to fly out to Yogyakarta tomorrow and experience the real side of Java and some true Javan cuisine.