February 12

February 12
 Jakarta
This day we set aside for an exploration of Jakarta, the Capitol city of Indonesia.
We woke and had a couple of kopie tubruk here at the pension and took the train to Jakarta. The train was ready to board and on the first track of the station, which we were very happy with, because, at times, you need to crawl thru the, opposing open doors, of trains that are parked next to each other, to get to the train that you need. There are no little step stools to aid an older person to climb into and out of wagons.So, it was interesting to see us crawl into the train and lowering ourselves on the other side, only to repeat this process until we made it through 4 trains, to get to the one we needed.

Station street

The,more than 1.5 hour, train ride would cost us about 50 cents.

The trains here have bench seats along the "walls" of the wagons and the rest is standing room. We were lucky to find a seat, because by the next station the train was full. People hanging outside, on the roof, etc… I would guess that are about 30 stops between Bogor and Jakarta. Each station warrants a 45 second stop and then the train departs...no waiting, no safety either. Little children hang out the windows and brave youngsters ride free on top of the train, as they jump on just outside the stations. Many people hang outside; they never close the doors, as the train speeds down the track doing at least 80 to 100 km an hour.
The train ride is an adventure.... Strolling  minstrels, vendors of all kinds, beggars carrying babies, all pushing and shoving to make a living.

We arrived at “Jakarta Kota” rail station, which was as far as it would go, and waked over the world famous Batavia Bar, playground of such personalities as Bogart, Bergman, Orson Welles, Micky Jagger and The stones, just to name a few. This colonial building dates back to the glory days of Indonesia, abut is now but a shadow of it's former self.
Once inside, I found myself transformed to times past, tempu duluh, and could I easily imagine the orchestra playing, the waiters dressed in white, scurrying about, serving cocktails and hors d'oeuvre, scents of spicy snacks filling the room and men in their smoking jackets and their ladies in their finest dresses.....

Menno at the harbor

Menno had a beer and I could not help but have a bloody mary.... About 5 dollars.....a bloody fortune, considering that the same drinks at the bar down the street would babe cost us $2.50, I suppose that that is the price we paid for nostalgia.
We bid goodbye to the "Batavia" and made our way down to the harbor Sundah Telapa, this is a harbor for the large wooden ocean going vessels, that are not allowed in the main harbor of Tanjong Priok. We looked at these extremely seaworthy ships that are, to this day, still built in the traditional style, not using a single nail or screw.
We fought off a guide that insisted that we needed him, by offering him only 20% off his lowest offer. We diced to go it alone....we walked in and out of kampongs that surround the harbor and we visited the fish marked that had just closed. The hall was dark, clean and wet and free of fish odors, and fishes were already dispersed to the little stalls that were selling them at the edge of the kampong in little warung ikan,…. one of the fishmongers, and a lady, not within her own weigh limits, smilingly told us that we could stand  to lose some weight and to do some strenuous exercise,...her  way of making friendly conversation. On the way back we jogged by her stall, waving, sweating and panting frantically, to the great delight of the rest of the mongers in that row… 

Can you take my photo please????

It was lunch time and Menno took me to a harbor restaurant that served Padang style food. This type of cuisine consists of luke-warm white rice, with a selection of spicy dishes that you can choose....pay for what you order. We had very tasty chicken (tough bird), some rendang of beef and some friend spicy fish ....after all we were at the harbor. Total bill about $3.-- iced tea included.

Makanan Padang

Where did Glodok go????
Full and satisfied we took a 3 wheeled “taxi” to Glodok, the China town, where I remember my father introducing me to frog's legs, by convincing me that they were the legs of small chickens. (actually, the idea of frog's legs and Indonesian chicken legs being about the same size, is less far-fetched than reality is).
I was surprised to see that the Glodok, as I remembered it was long gone....The passar Glodok, the big Chinese market was burned to the ground in 1996, due to the economic crisis in Indonesia, in which the Indonesian population, laid the blame on the Chinese. Terrible atrocities were committed and many Chinese died during this rage, not unlike the fate suffered by Jews in the second world war. Glodok, as I knew it was burned to the ground….
Few Chinese businesses survived but to this day, the former Chinese eateries have not ever made it "back" to what it once was.
According to our taxi driver, the rest of Indonesia's economic spine is somewhat still,  in Chinese hands, who control whatever money moves from hand to hand, much to the chagrin of the average Indonesian.

Tiny 3 wheeled "taxi"

We could not find Crismon
Disappointed, we set out to find an interesting group of eateries that we read about in the "Trotter Guide"
This "Crismon" group of eateries was established in the midst of sky-scrapers, on a large parking area, by executives, accountants, managers, that had lost their jobs during one of the many economic crises, and had each opened an eatery (warung) to survive. The "T guide' told us that this "Crismon" became a very popular place to eat for the, still employed, local suit-and-tie executives, so much so,  that many other eateries opened up around them, now totaling well over 50 on that parking lot......

(Crismon is an abbreviation of Crisis Money)

After many hours of walking, circling the football stadium several times, we were not able to find it......too bad, we were so looking forward to it.
Instead we found a small group of warung where we had a tasty soto Madura, much like the soto ajam we had before, but with a different spice twist.

Rendang.. Fish.. Rice...Sayur

We made it back to the station, where we bought an express ticket back to Bogor. Interestingly,  the ticket sales people do not inform you that the express train has long left and that the only way back is to go the slower train....but that you could use the express ticket for the slower train too. You could say, that we should have consulted the Arrivals and Departures Information Bord, well.... we did, but also noticed that the information had not been updated since pre-colonial times.....
This time, Menno and I stood the entire time, crushed by hundreds of people that were all going home to Bogor, it was the ride from hell... We arrived and had to do the climb-in-and-out of 3 sets of trains to get to the rear entrance of the station, where our pension is located.

White orchids outside our room

I cannot remember a more welcome shower, because we were exhausted. A nice cold Bintang beer later we found ourselves hungry and made our way down to the sate-stand on the corner and leered each a portion of sate kambing....sate made with goat meat. It was quite delicious, but I observed that the concept of cross-contamination, or actually safe food handling, in it's entirety,  is a foreign concept, here in Indonesia.

Lovely to see first thing in the day...

Tomorrow at 9am, we will leave for Bandung.....a new adventure...a new chapter...





Glossary

Beef Rendang is a Padang dish of beef slowly braised in coconut milk and a lot of spices,  it can be hot.
Trotter Guide is a less than complete travelers guide....
Pasar is a market