Indonesia will please ya

Dates of travel: 11 January 2015 - 18 January 2015

First of all... I apologise for that title. That was the best I could come up with at 7:30am. :)

Secondly, I have opted to do away with trying to blog about all my travels in order from the start. I will catch up on them all eventually, but for now, I will blog about where I am at the time so that everything is fresh.

Now... Indonesia! I have been here a few times in the past, but never had much of a chance to look around. It's one of those places where it seems if you aren't in a major population centre, you are in the middle of nowhere. But I suppose a lot of tropical Asia tends to be like that!

On this particular trip, I am here in the middle of rainy season which simply means it's sunny and humid one minute and then, out of nowhere, it's like you are standing under a waterfall. Anyone familiar with the equatorial region would know that it's not a cold rain (like it is further south or north). To be honest, it's kind of refreshing. But at the end of the day, being soaked through to the skin is still as uncomfortable!

Most of the work my company has in Indonesia is on the island of Kalimantan. For those of you playing at home, that's the one I have highlighted below (with my awesome MS Paint skills).

While I am talking about work, let's get it all out of the way: here's a photo from while I was busy earning a living (see, I'm not just a tourist!). Indonesia has a vibrant coal industry. This is one of the main coal pits for my customer in the town of Asam-Asam on Kalimantan.

Alright, now we can move on to the important bits! During one of the working days, my customer took me to a famous seafood restaurant in the area. I think it was in the town of Satui, or somewhere near there. We've been there on previous work visits. They do various types of seafood in various different ways. The dishes are brought to the table in a share-plate fashion (i.e. this is not really an "eating alone" kind of place). We had some grilled fish and two different types of crab (only one shown here). Spicy and delicious! But I tell you what... I have never really eaten crab before (too expensive in Aus, usually)... it is a pain in the ass to eat when you have to get the shell off by hand. None of those nut-cracker-style devices here, just elbow grease!

One thing I must note is that I have never really been into seafood that much. I think it's mostly because seafood dishes of a reasonable price in the west just tend to be battered and deep-fried; forgive me, I might be wrong, or just dining in the wrong places! You have to smother the dishes in garlic butter or something to get any real flavour out of them. However, Asia is a completely different ball game - they know how to cook prepare seafood!

As we transition into the next part, please enjoy this pretty sunset, taken from my customer's campsite in Asam-Asam. I would have liked to have been closer and perhaps taking this with my D-SLR (though I am still very much a beginner with that). But this was just a quick snap on my phone. Still not bad!

If I had to say Asia was good for only one thing (which it isn't), it would have to be the cheap/street food culture. This is particular relevant when it comes to small mining towns, which I, of course, frequent. This dish is an Indonesian style curry, of sorts. It's called "Ayam Lodo", which literally means "Chicken Spicy"; Ayam meaning 'chicken' and Lodo meaning 'spicy' in the Javanese language. Personally, I like a good medium level of chilli; not too hot, not too mild. This dish was just perfect for me. It had a very nice kick to it and I would strongly recommend it to anyone who has similar tastes to me!

Those with a sweeter tooth might instead prefer something like this little treat to the right. This is a very simple "green bean soup". I don't know what goes into preparing it, but I think it is just mung beans. Served cold or hot, depending on the time of year, this isn't exactly a main dish, but tasty nonetheless! This is not exclusive to Indonesia, either. It's very common to find beans in desserts throughout Asia, which is usually opposite to western cuisine, where they tend to be used more as savory.

A couple more pics of food eaten while at the customer's Asam-Asam campsite... first we have some Indonesian style noodles. These are actually the instant noodle version; I have had the real style on a previous trip (photo to come in a later blog because I don't have it with me now), but these were still tasty.

The second picture here is an example of the Indonesian style breakfast that was served up. Not every day was like this, but whatever was served, it always includes rice. Breakfast, lunch or dinner - I hope you like rice! On this occasion, it was fried rice (the infamous "Nasi Goreng") accompanied by some fish ("ikan") fingers and an omelet. Not a bad way to start the day, at all!

On Friday 16th January, we were all done with the job and made tracks from Asam-Asam back to Banjarmasin, from where we would be flying back to Jakarta. 
Arriving perfectly around lunch time, my customer and I sat down for a bite. My lunch is shown here, entitled "Nasi Ayam Kremes", which is simply "Rice, Chicken and ..." whatever kremes is! My customer didn't know how to explain it, but told me it is the crispy brown stuff that is under the chicken (in the right of the picture). I also don't know how to explain it. It is kind of like breadcrumbs, deep-fried... crispy and rather oily! Anyway... whatever it is, the whole dish was tasty, and I washed it down with a nice iced cappuccino (which was possibly so nice because it was full of sugar).

I arrived back to Jakarta at 4pm and made my way to what would be my hotel for the next 2 nights: Le Meridien, located pretty much in central Jakarta. A very nice hotel, from the outset, designed with a Hindu flavour, harking back to the origins of Jakarta, which was apparently originally a Hindu settlement.

I had a "corner room" according to my reservation, which was very comfortable and nicely set out. I am a man of simple pleasures, at the end of the day. A comfortable bed and a bit of room to move and I will be a happy hotel guest! In my travels, I have stayed in some accommodation at both ends of the spectrum; this room, for me, sits nicely towards the top. However, it's not super cheap, so if you are looking for a recommendation and are on a backpacker's budget, I'd suggest maybe looking somewhere else!

The view of Jakarta from my hotel room.

Le Meridien offers a handful of cafes/restaurants/bars, depending on what sort of mood you are in. On this particular night, I opted for their Japanese restaurant: Ryoutei Aoi. I browsed the menu outside the main entrance, and, to be fair, initially bawked a bit at some of the prices. However, that was because I was looking at wagyu and other specialty dishes. As I progressed through, prices came down to a more average-person's bracket! 

I sat down to a very comfortable atmosphere, with some soothing traditional Japanese music playing softly in the background. I was the only one there, which probably helped with the ambiance! The waitress alerted me to a special that was running for January and February. I'm not exactly sure what everything was, or the significance of it being a New Year special, but it looked to be a good array of food, so I went with that.

Safe to say I made the right choice!

The beef, which I think they said was wagyu, but I might be wrong, was cooked beautifully and was very succulent. Accompanied by some grilled fish, tempura vegetables and soup, this meal really hit the spot! Then, to top it off, some lovely fresh fruit for dessert. All up, a fantastic dinner with lovely service, atmosphere and all at a very reasonable price. If you are in this part of the world, I highly recommend stopping in here for a meal.

I had one full day off in Jakarta before heading off to the next stop. My customer had informed me that Jakarta isn't really a tourist city, but really just more of a place of big business. I tossed up the idea of just chilling at my hotel by the pool, maybe getting a massage or something. But then, I ended up getting in touch with a colleague who was also in Jakarta. We arranged to meet at the National Monument, also known as "Monas", which is simply a mash-up of MOnumen NASional. It was about 5km up the main road from my hotel to get there, so I set about being healthy and walked there on early Saturday afternoon.  
There really wasn't a whole lot to see: Jakarta really just is a densely populated CBD. But amongst the smog and endless traffic, I did manage to come across a few breaks in the monotony. Above, the flowers growing along the railing on the bus terminal overpass. And to the left, some ornately decorated horse-drawn carriages offering rides around the area.


I wish I could tell you something about the significance or meaning of the monument, but I don't have any information. I didn't spy any plaques around the places (but also wasn't looking too hard).

For the princely sum of IDR 5000 (about AUD 0.50), you can get inside the fence and check out the museum that is in the basement of the monument. By the means of about 30 dioramas, it tells the history of settlement in Indonesia by the various tribes, the fighting between them and the oppression by and fighting against the Dutch settlers.

For an extra IDR 10000 (total price is now up to AUD 1.50!) you can get access to the viewing deck at the top of the monument. This can result in a long line to get in the elevator, mostly because people go around the rules and get on at level 2 by bribing a local worker... just like we did. It was a question of waiting for an hour in the line or take the offer of this guy to get us to the top for the price of "a pitcher of beer" each. He got us to the top and we had a good look around. To the right is the view of Jakarta to the north of the monument, including the impressive Masjid Istiqlal mosque in the right of the picture.

After we were done at the monument (and after waiting for the pouring rain the ease), we decided on a late lunch near my colleague's hotel. The restaurant was called "Ikan Bakar Cianjur". It's a chain of (mostly) seafood places. As is usually the case in Indonesian style cuisine, we ordered a couple of dishes to share between us. The top right fish is called "Gurame Goreng" which is a type of carp, deep-fried. 

We coupled this with some "Tumis Kangkung", to the left. This is a very common vegetable in Asian cuisine. It's essentially a water spinach. Usually sauteed in a bit of water with some garlic, it's very tasty (for something that looks like a weed).




Finally, we also had some "Nila Pesmol", seen to the right here. This is a different kind of fish, smothered in a yellow sauce typical of one of the local tribes, known as the Sudanese (no relation to the people of Sudan).

And, of course, rice! But I didn't take a photo of that.

After a good feed, I headed back to my hotel; a good 30 minute taxi ride (one 5km walk in a day is enough, thanks!) brought up the massive fare of... IDR 50,000. In Australia, a 30 minute taxi ride would cost close to $50,000! But in Indonesia, it's only about $5. Good work, Indonesia!!

A big day of touristing and exercise had left me rather tired. I spent the evening chilling in my room until I started to feel slightly hungry around 7:30pm. I was going to ignore it, but then thought I should take advantage of this nice hotel while I have it! My first choice was the Lebanese restaurant within the hotel. However, they were only serving a buffet that night and I wasn't hungry enough for that. I then wandered into the Music Lounge and Bar, but that was completely empty; the guy there seemed shocked to see someone, and informed me they were going to have some "light music from 10:30". I opted then to go to the coffee shop that is just adjacent to the foyer. Clearly, this hotel is not short of options!

This turned out to be a perfect choice for my mood. A very chilled setting with Bintang on tap, a menu including some light tapas and a lounge band performing soft acoustic music. I relaxed and enjoyed the mood for about an hour, and slowly munched on some spring rolls and salt and pepper squid.

It was a perfect way to end my relaxing two nights in Jakarta.

On Sunday 18th January (as I sit here and write this), it is time to get back to reality: today I fly to the Philippines for the next job.

I guess I better pack my suitcase!