Arriving in Indonesia
On Friday evening we departed Singapore and headed out to the airport wherr we spent the night before out flight to Jakarta, Indonesia in the morning. As you do we tucked ourselves in a corner at the airport to play some cards. A man walks past, stops, stares amd says "Ah, 21?" before sitting down next to us. His name was Dave, he is 35 years old amd has two failed marriages begind him, one of the former wives is now happily re-married and lives in New York. Dave now has a 45 year old girl friend that was asleep in a different part of the airport. He is of Indian ascent but born and raised in Singapore and was one his way to Japan. He had between 4-5 beers (he was not sure himself). In conclusion, yes, we got to know him. The conversation flowed fairly well;
"Where are you from?"
"Norway"
"Sweden"
"I have been to Finland"
Therese and I look at each other in confusing before laughing and continuing:
"You know that's a different country right?"
"Yeah, I know but I have been to Lapland and Finland, so I have been to two places"
"Ehm, Lapland is in Finland...."
"Yeah, well, I went to see the fat Santa Clause."
After a cold nights sleep in the airport we finally arrived in Jakarta. Groggy from just waking up after very limited amount of sleep in some awkward and uncomfortable places. Before arriving we had done a bit of a research on the VISA application on arrival in Indonesia. A lot of online comments say that they don't check for your return or onwards ticket however, they did for us so if you are planning to come here I would recommend to have your departure ticket sorted.
Anyhow, as we arrived we got out of the airport to find a bus towards Pangandaran. There is only one direct bus to Pangandaran a day and we missed it with about 2 hours. So instead the man at the information desk wrote down, on a tiny piece of paper, how to get there. As we approached the bus station we were greated by 5 men shouting something excitingly. I replied with a hesitant "yes?" which was greated with a cheer by two of the men as if they had won the lottery. Of course, having us on their coach is pretty much as winning the lottery ;)
Our first section of the journey was a 3 hour bus ride on a very nice air con bus which took us to Bandung, a city with 7 million inhabitants and a shock in terms of infrastructure, especially coming from Singapore. We paid 115000Rp (70SEK/€7) per person for the first bus ride.
We were then directed to a taxi all whilst clinging on to our little note from the man at the information desk. It took us half an hour to cross the town for the price of 93000Rp (56SEK/€6). It all went so smoothly that Therese asked me at one point if I had given them the correct name of the town wherr we were going. Because we only had half an hour wait at the next bus stop that would take us on the final part of our journey. We stooked up on the only available food they had: cheetos as our lunch, peed in a hole in the ground which was flushed by pouring water down it - no toilet paper or sink! But most importantly this is where we met Dedy who fell in love with Therese, told her he loved her and that he wanted to follow us on our journey. Obviously we said no but he bought us some ice tea and as the bus arrived he picked up both of our bags and carried them in to the bus for us, knocking in to everyone that was already sitting down! He cried as he had to say goodbye to Therese who had become the love of his life in an instant.
And so we were off on the longest part of our journey to Pangandaran, travelling through the country on what to us looked like a tiny road but for them was a major road linking together, we paid 65000Rp (40SEK/€4) per person.
At the first toilet stop we met Tiger who offered to sell us a box of donuts, we said no. So of course he instead offered us three boxes! The last bus ride was meant to ttake 6 hours but instead took nine hours due to some serious traffic jam. As we arrived we got a lift to the hotel on the back of a vespa with all our bags!
So if you are heading to Pangandaran from Jakarta and bump in to either Dedy or Tiger please send them our regards!
"Where are you from?"
"Norway"
"Sweden"
"I have been to Finland"
Therese and I look at each other in confusing before laughing and continuing:
"You know that's a different country right?"
"Yeah, I know but I have been to Lapland and Finland, so I have been to two places"
"Ehm, Lapland is in Finland...."
"Yeah, well, I went to see the fat Santa Clause."
After a cold nights sleep in the airport we finally arrived in Jakarta. Groggy from just waking up after very limited amount of sleep in some awkward and uncomfortable places. Before arriving we had done a bit of a research on the VISA application on arrival in Indonesia. A lot of online comments say that they don't check for your return or onwards ticket however, they did for us so if you are planning to come here I would recommend to have your departure ticket sorted.
Anyhow, as we arrived we got out of the airport to find a bus towards Pangandaran. There is only one direct bus to Pangandaran a day and we missed it with about 2 hours. So instead the man at the information desk wrote down, on a tiny piece of paper, how to get there. As we approached the bus station we were greated by 5 men shouting something excitingly. I replied with a hesitant "yes?" which was greated with a cheer by two of the men as if they had won the lottery. Of course, having us on their coach is pretty much as winning the lottery ;)
Our first section of the journey was a 3 hour bus ride on a very nice air con bus which took us to Bandung, a city with 7 million inhabitants and a shock in terms of infrastructure, especially coming from Singapore. We paid 115000Rp (70SEK/€7) per person for the first bus ride.
We were then directed to a taxi all whilst clinging on to our little note from the man at the information desk. It took us half an hour to cross the town for the price of 93000Rp (56SEK/€6). It all went so smoothly that Therese asked me at one point if I had given them the correct name of the town wherr we were going. Because we only had half an hour wait at the next bus stop that would take us on the final part of our journey. We stooked up on the only available food they had: cheetos as our lunch, peed in a hole in the ground which was flushed by pouring water down it - no toilet paper or sink! But most importantly this is where we met Dedy who fell in love with Therese, told her he loved her and that he wanted to follow us on our journey. Obviously we said no but he bought us some ice tea and as the bus arrived he picked up both of our bags and carried them in to the bus for us, knocking in to everyone that was already sitting down! He cried as he had to say goodbye to Therese who had become the love of his life in an instant.
 |
| Dedy and Therese made sweet music together before he asked her why she does not love her and she broke his heart with a "because you are too short". |
And so we were off on the longest part of our journey to Pangandaran, travelling through the country on what to us looked like a tiny road but for them was a major road linking together, we paid 65000Rp (40SEK/€4) per person.
At the first toilet stop we met Tiger who offered to sell us a box of donuts, we said no. So of course he instead offered us three boxes! The last bus ride was meant to ttake 6 hours but instead took nine hours due to some serious traffic jam. As we arrived we got a lift to the hotel on the back of a vespa with all our bags!
So if you are heading to Pangandaran from Jakarta and bump in to either Dedy or Tiger please send them our regards!
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