The bus from Pangandaran to Jakarta took forever. It didn't even go into the city centre but dropped us off about 18km outside. We had to "negotiate" a taxi to the hotel. As usual, the gaggle of taxi drivers wanted us to do what they wanted rather than what we wanted, i.e. get into the cab they choose, to the hotel they want you to go to (so they can pocket the commission), with the meter off (so they can charge you what they like). It took a good half hour before we got our way.
That wasn't the only fun we had with transport in Jakarta. The next day we wanted to go to the nearby town of Bogor to see their "world famous" botanical gardens. We went by train and it took 8 hours in total with only 2 hours there. We could have walked there in less time than the train took. There was absolutely no departure information provided at all, in any language. The gardens themselves were pretty good, particularly considering the dirty city around them. The Orchid house was especially attractive.
On the Tuesday we sweated our way around Jakarta itself, starting off in the old colonial quarter. It wasn't really worth a visit as all the old Dutch buildings were literally crumbling away before our eyes and the canals had become nothing more than an extension of the sewer and dumping ground for anything people wanted to dispose of (although not, strangely, shopping trolleys).
We also visited the National Monument. A massive phallus in the centre of a park - a sort of Nelson's column with a gold flame on top. You could go up to the top, provided you were prepared to put up with the hundreds of school kids and the national anthem being played on loop at full blast for your entire visit. The views were good.
More rule of budget travel:
(4) Always ask for a discount. Can't do any harm, can it?
(5) Always check if tax / service are included. Those cunning blighters at hotel reception frequently 'forget' to mention it.
We flew to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam on Wednesday. It's a compact sort of place and the hotel is somewhat claustrophobic.
The heat in the middle of the day is pretty bad, particularly when the sun is out. Then it tends to bucket it down in the afternoon and become very humid. The best place to hide from the elements are in the little ATM rooms. They have the best aircon in the city.
The pestering has reached new heights in Vietnam. It's not just the sheer number of hawkers and beggars, but the the lengths they go to to get your attention. I particularly hate the way they grab your arm as you walk by. They even walk into restaurants when your eating and poke you in the side to get your attention. This must be what it's like to be a parent. Maybe I won't get those cats after all.
On Thursday we wandered around the city to various museums and stuff, including the old presidential palace, the museum of American and Chinese War Crimes (which says all you need to know about the exhibits) and a KFC. On Friday we took a tour (for £4!). First on the itinerary (after the obligatory shop, naturally) was the Cao Dai Temple. It's the headquarter of a local religious sect who, literally, believe everything. They've fused Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Spiritualism, Christianity and Islam. They were a very welcoming bunch of people who were quite clearly hedging their bets on the afterlife. The temple was an extremely ornate and very colourful building worth the trip alone.
Next up were the Cu Chi tunnels which turned out to be a tour of the history of the Vietnam war. They let us crawl though one of the tunnels dug to hide the Viet Cong from US bombing. It was horribly claustrophobic (even more so than the hotel room), even though they had doubled the height of it to allow "larger" westerners to fit in. There was a demonstration of all the nasty traps the locals devised to take out the Americans and blokes with an inferiority complex could shoot an AK47 assault riffle (for a dollar a bullet) and restore their self esteem.
We're having a easy day today before getting the bus to Hoi An.
Rich
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