Anything can be better than the boat can't it? Even a city that has nothing other than office blocks? We will see...
We had 1 day to see the whole of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta. Looking at tourist info leaflets we were beginning to lose hope as it looked like there would actually be nothing.
But then we found it. What the world has been searching for for so long, a combination of Disneyland and traditional Indonesian culture: "Mini Indonesia"!
After a taxi ride to the outskirts of town, we went in. The first thing that caught our eye was the cable car. Bearing in mind this park is actually fairly huge, we decided to use a new mode of transport and get a return ticket. So we hopped into a little glass sweat box and started creaking and cranking our way up. Our view was of a slightly tatty and shabby looking set of buildings, a dilapidate water park next door and essentially a pond.
Several sweaty minutes later we arrived at the other end of the cable car but the attendants refused to let us out! And as the door was locked from the outside, there wasn't much we could do about it. So now, as prisoners held against our wishes in a cable car, we headed back to the original place. There they did let us out and when we asked why they hadn't let us out at the other end, they replied because we had bought a return ticket. Frustrating! Especially as we now had to walk all the way back to where we had just been! Until we saw them, our next mode of transport: a tandem bike!
So we hired it and set off on our merry way! In answer to everyone's question, it is impossible to do a wheelie on a tandem. Highlights from the day (other than the cable car) was a trip to the science museum where we fired rockets and exploded things and the reptile place where we were chased by a crocodile when the keeper let it out for us (honestly, no exaggeration!) and got to stroke a komodo dragon!
It didn't really feel very Indonesian other than the blatant disregard for health and safety!
Heading into the city of Jakarta in the afternoon proved difficult as firstly there was a huge thunderstorm & the heavens just opened & the King of Indonesia or 'Sultan' had arrived so the riot police were out & we sat in a traffic jam for over 2 hours. Needless to say we didn't make it into the centre or colonial district, but we did find a Hard Rock Cafe & had a scrummy meal followed by Apple pie, we haven't had one of those in a long time, yummy!
After our delicious meal, we went into the adjoining shopping centre. Turns out that there is a fair bit of cash floating around Jakarta. We saw Bentley, Jaguar, Lamborghini, Range Rover, McLaren and Porsche showrooms and some very posh shops! All very exciting, especially the 2 new McLarens that were valued at £1million each!
So our one day in a place with nothing to do wasn't so bad really. And yes, it truly was significantly better than the boat!
But for now, we are off on a train ride half way across Java, to Yogyakarta where hopefully there might be some more real Indonesia to see!
We had 1 day to see the whole of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta. Looking at tourist info leaflets we were beginning to lose hope as it looked like there would actually be nothing.
But then we found it. What the world has been searching for for so long, a combination of Disneyland and traditional Indonesian culture: "Mini Indonesia"!
After a taxi ride to the outskirts of town, we went in. The first thing that caught our eye was the cable car. Bearing in mind this park is actually fairly huge, we decided to use a new mode of transport and get a return ticket. So we hopped into a little glass sweat box and started creaking and cranking our way up. Our view was of a slightly tatty and shabby looking set of buildings, a dilapidate water park next door and essentially a pond.
Several sweaty minutes later we arrived at the other end of the cable car but the attendants refused to let us out! And as the door was locked from the outside, there wasn't much we could do about it. So now, as prisoners held against our wishes in a cable car, we headed back to the original place. There they did let us out and when we asked why they hadn't let us out at the other end, they replied because we had bought a return ticket. Frustrating! Especially as we now had to walk all the way back to where we had just been! Until we saw them, our next mode of transport: a tandem bike!
So we hired it and set off on our merry way! In answer to everyone's question, it is impossible to do a wheelie on a tandem. Highlights from the day (other than the cable car) was a trip to the science museum where we fired rockets and exploded things and the reptile place where we were chased by a crocodile when the keeper let it out for us (honestly, no exaggeration!) and got to stroke a komodo dragon!
It didn't really feel very Indonesian other than the blatant disregard for health and safety!
Heading into the city of Jakarta in the afternoon proved difficult as firstly there was a huge thunderstorm & the heavens just opened & the King of Indonesia or 'Sultan' had arrived so the riot police were out & we sat in a traffic jam for over 2 hours. Needless to say we didn't make it into the centre or colonial district, but we did find a Hard Rock Cafe & had a scrummy meal followed by Apple pie, we haven't had one of those in a long time, yummy!
So our one day in a place with nothing to do wasn't so bad really. And yes, it truly was significantly better than the boat!
But for now, we are off on a train ride half way across Java, to Yogyakarta where hopefully there might be some more real Indonesia to see!
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