My apologies for the long delay since my last post.  I came down with a nasty cough which lead to me not sleeping for many nights and, turns out, blogging is really hard on little to no sleep.  Once I was out of the rhythm I found it really hard to get back into it. For that reason I’m skipping ahead a bit to talk about the last place we visited: Jakarta, Indonesia.

When we got to the end of our time in Laos Dan and I came to the realization that we didn’t actually know where to go next. We had planned this trip knowing we wanted to visit Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos. We had even bought a guidebook covering just those four countries. But now we had visited all four and we still had a little over a month left before we’d be going back to the States for a friend’s wedding. So where to now? We spent a few days mulling it over and decided that it would make the most since to keep moving south to Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.

With that decision made, next we needed to figure out what part of Indonesia to visit. The nation consists of over 17,000 thousand islands and we only had time to spend about two weeks there. We finally decided to work our way east across Java to end in Bali for some relaxation and beach time. Once we’d decided on Java and Bali it only seemed to make sense that we would start our Indonesia leg in the capital city of Jakarta on the west end of the island.

When we told the staff at our hostel in Singapore that we were heading to Jakarta next their first response was “Why? Jakarta is kind of boring.” Well Jakarta is a lot of things but after spending four days there ‘boring’ is not the word I would use to describe it.

Backpacking through Southeast Asia has become such a stereotypical thing for young people to do that someone coined the term ‘banana pancake trail’, less to denote a specific route that backpackers take but to describe the typical spots that almost all of us visit. Jakarta is firmly not on the banana pancake trail. It is not a city designed with tourists in mind and it is not an easy place to travel. Lonely Planet nailed it in their digital Jakarta guide when they warned that ‘to the uninitiated Jakarta can feel overwhelming and its gifts inaccessible’.

Jakarta is big. We had just come from Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore so we thought we were used to big cities but Jakarta is on another scale. We didn’t realize that Indonesia is actually the fourth most populated country and Jakarta is the SECOND most populated urban area in the world after Tokyo. Unlike Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore there is no cohesive, easy to use transit system. There are buses and trains but we never figured out how to navigate them. Apparently a lot of other people haven’t either or just choose not to because the traffic is epic and legendary.

On our first day there we didn’t even try to leave the neighborhood of our hostel. We found a cafe down the street where we could grab lunch and work on planning out the rest of our trip. However, even navigating this short distance was challenging. The sidewalks are uneven, crumbling and sometimes disappear all together. In a city with more cars and motorbikes zooming around than I’ve ever seen, there only seem to be a handful of traffic signals. This made for tougher street-crossings than we experienced anywhere else we’ve been. The trick seemed to be to wait for a gap in the cars and then just step out and let the motorbikes swerve around us.

The following two days we worked up the courage to be slightly more adventurous. On our second full day we called a Grab (Southeast Asia’s version of Uber) to take us to Merdeka Square, a huge public park containing the Monas National Monument and the National Museum. The main part of the museum was closed for renovations but we wandered around the wing that was open and learned a bit about Indonesian history and culture.

From there we worked our way into the square itself so we could snap some photos of the National Monument.

Then, because nothing in Jakarta is easy, we spent 45 minutes circumnavigating the square trying to figure out how to get out. For some reason the entire park, despite being free and open to the public, is fenced off and only a couple of gates are open at any given time.

On our final day in Jakarta we took another Grab ride to visit the Kota neighborhood. Known as the ‘old city’, this is where many of the buildings from the Dutch colonial period still stand. Our driver dropped us off at Fatahillah Square and it was like we had entered another world.

Gone were the modern skyscrapers, gritty shophouses and endless traffic. Instead we were standing in a cobblestone square, surrounded by pedestrianized streets and beautiful old buildings. The square was filled with Jakartans getting a break from the chaos of their city enjoying picnics, riding bikes and socializing.

Dan and I got to briefly feel like celebrities when we were each asked for an interview by separate groups of students who needed to practice English for a school project.

We visited the Jakarta History Museum, located in the beautiful old town hall and the slightly dusty Puppet Museum across the square before stopping for some cold drinks at a nearby cafe. It was a lovely and relaxing afternoon and I’m glad we got to see this other side of Jakarta.

I’m writing this from the train and, as we leave the city, I’m struggling to capture my overall impression of it. One thing I can say is that the people we interacted with were some of the nicest we’ve met on this trip. When we were walking around looking lost strangers came up to us to offer directions. When we couldn’t figure out how to purchase our train tickets a security guard at the station took care of us. Jakartans seem to have retained a neighborliness that defies the stereotypes about city dwellers being cold and detached. I can’t say that I liked Jakarta but I’m hesitant to pass any negative judgements after such a short time there. I can say that it is a fascinating place filled with contrasts and I’m glad we got to see it.