a day in jakarta

This won't be a long post.

I am now bloated since I've had six meals the whole day.

Why? Because I caught up with three different friends in three different malls. But if I only caught up with three friends in three different places shouldn't that make three meals only?

OK, here goes.

I woke up in the morning and had a bowl of chicken noodle for breakfast (yes, you can have chicken noodle for breakfast in Indonesia, same goes for nasi goreng or whatever food you think you can only have for lunch or dinner).

Then when I went to the first catch up, we went and ordered two kaya toasts, two soft boiled eggs and a cup of coffee, aah yes, coffee.

After the semi brunch, we actually went to another restaurant inside the same mall and I ordered pasta. This particular restaurant actually stated that customers could buy their menus (yes, you read that right) if you want. Apparently this is to deter people from actually stealing menus from the restaurant. Weird? I thought so too. Do people actually eat menus? I don't know.

3.30PM, I arrived at the next mall for the second catch up and ordered a dark waffle with ice cream. This was shared with a friend (so I could also share the sin of my gluttony).

Then by 6PM, I already sat down at a ramen restaurant in yet another mall and slurped dry a bowl of ramen. Had an overpriced bottle of Erdinger afterwards (double the price I used to pay dammit! Rip off!) but as my friend told me, twice the price thrice the fun right? Then I went home.

So finally at home, I also had a little bit of rice with rawon soup.

And as I said above, I am now bloated and my tummy is also somehow filled with lots of wind.

Note to self: This can never happen again, ever. And also, taxis are, at the moment, my best means of transportation in Jakarta. They're cheap, well air-conditioned and I can avoid looking for parking which can waste a lot of time, seriously. When it's not raining though, motorbikes are you best friends.

Alright, bedtime.

my strike continues

Well, well, well, apparently my-things-always-go-wrong-when-trying-to-fly-off-of-Melbourne stories reveals a new chapter tonight and this is how the story goes.

The night was breezy. I could still see the clouds floating beneath the starless night sky. I was in a taxi on my way to the airport. The driver was South Asian and the car smelled. It wasn't too bad that it was unbearable but it was enough to keep my snifflers alert all the time. I tried to occupy my mind with something, anything, and it worked, for a while, but then the frequent sound of the wiper wiping away all the water droplets falling on the windscreen brought me back to reality.

I hung on.

Just before we got on the freeway to the airport the driver told me that he's out of gas and needed to fuel up. I didn't mind since I've already checked in my flight online and just needed to grab my boarding pass and drop my luggage.

So he kept on driving and I minded my own business when I realised we were moving slower than we could have. The driver had turned on the hazard lights and we were moving slower and slower until he pulled over and stopped.

The taxi was out of gas, but the driver told me the petrol station wasn't far away. I was OK with that.

Then he started the engine again and accelerated slowly. We were gonna make it for sure. The petrol station was just two red lights away.

Then comes the uphill. It wasn't that steep that I never really paid attention to it myself when I'm driving but for a two ton steel box with a few drips of gas to burn, it was an uphill we could not climb. The engine died a second time.

He tried starting the car a few times and surprisingly managed to overcome the seemingly high obstacle until we reached the first red light. The engine died again.

I thought the driver turned the engine off on purpose to conserve gas but that wasn't the case. He tried starting the car again and again to no avail. I suggested turning off the aircon in hopes to be able to shed some of the gas necessity of working the car again. He did. It didn't help. And this makes me hate cars with gas (instead of petrol) more than before since I was pretty sure that there was no way you could tell if the tank is close to empty, or could this be just the driver's discretion?

Anyway he tried time after time after time. It just didn't want to start. The gas tank was empty. He apologised and I said it was alright. Nothing dramatic right? So we sat there in the middle of the road with the hazard lights on.

Luckily we were close to Crown Casino and the taxi driver managed to call another taxi passing by. I paid him what I owed and transferred to the other taxi. Poor guy.

After that it was smooth sailing, taxi didn't smell either.

The airport was packed, and I mean jam packed like if you put Disneyland ride queues side to side in a small space. Immigration was the same, like the ride queues without a fastpass. And somebody farted in the queue! @#$%#$%^$%^&*&^%!! Everbody seemed to be going to Bangkok. The Hangover part 2?

Funny, the queue for my flight dispersed straight away the moment they announced they were boarding by row numbers. All the while I was watching from the sidelines. Huge hand carries anyone?

And so I'm signing off now, my flight's ready to depart and the next place I want to head off to is dreamland. Not the beach in Bali, but you know, sleep.

Europe trip - Jun 2011

Europe trip was awesome bla bla bla don't feel like writing about it even after settling down and about to fly on another mini holiday.

Maybe some other time when I really feel like it.

Alright I'll do it now, might as well right?

London felt a lot like Melbourne, or should that be the other way around, whatever, but I didn't feel like I left Melbourne at all. Still curious with Pret though. Oh, when we first arrived at Goodge St station, people were queuing for the two elevators. We couldn't be bothered and took the circular stairs. Boy was that a hasty and wrong decision (but can you blame us for being tired from the fourteen hour flight and just wanted to check-in to the hotel?). The stairway was over two hundred steps. Congrats and welcome to London.

Paris, first of the three attempted theft/scams, right after we got off the Eurostar and got on the train at Gare du Nord. Responsible parties: a group of three young girls. Uncool. Relaxing on the stairs in front of the Sacre Coeur with buskers entertaining us though, was cool. Eiffel tower, so so, but when we did the Paris by night tour, that's when the madame really shone. She was colourful, the lights, the sky, the bridges, the river, the everything.

Amsterdam, in my opinion, was the best city I visited on this trip. The canals, the bikes, the bike lanes, Indonesian food, Suriname fried rice (best meal I had on the trip), the red light district, everybody spoke English, windmills, boat hotels and a real plus for not having the annoying company of thiefs or scammers. Beautiful.

Venice, I thought was ok at first, you know, the gondolas (for €100 per ride, oh c'mon), the canals, the Grand Canal, Rialto Bridge, St Marco, everything was right until the next day when I woke up with my body full of bug bites. I will never go back to Venice again, this I swear. PS: this oath is only valid until I feel like going to Venice again or someone would somehow pay for my trip to Venice then all is forgiven.

Florence was a nice city, I think, we didn't spend much time in Florence since we went straight to Pisa (trust me there's nothing in Pisa except if you like seeing people posing like they're trying to support the weight of the leaning tower, talk about your big time waster) after checking in then straight to Cinque Terre. Supposedly beautiful but we couldn't get to the really nice parts because they were closed. Aaah the beauty of travel. The Vespa Tour was definitely a breather. The countryside of Tuscany (we went to Chianti) was beautiful and my feet got a well-deserved rest from all the walking for the past ten days.

Rome, the second of the three attempted theft/scams, again right after we got to Termini station from Florence and got on to the train going to our rented apartment. Responsible parties: a group of three gypsy mums. Merda. Spaghetti was the size of hokkien noodles and pizzas were beautiful, thin based, just the way I like it. Coffee was molto delizioso.

Madrid. I had very little recollection of Madrid. The ones I remember were Zara, trying to buy a new electric adapter, a flamenco show, Zara aaaaaaand...Zara again.

Valencia, the last attempted scam. I was by myself and it wasn't until the scammer asked me to input my credit card pin into his phone that I realised they had scammed me. And it actually almost worked if I did input it in. The City of Arts and Science made it all go away though. I loved spending time in the Oceanographic. I felt so calm in there.

Barcelona, the last city on the trip. Gaudi, Gaudi and Gaudi. La Sagrada Familia, Casa Mila and Casa Batllo. The international airport needs a redesign though. Who on earth decided to put the stores before the immigration and not after? Who? Who? Spent the last hour and a half in the airport waiting in McDonald's because we couldn't walk around into the stores anymore. Muchas gracias flawed airport design! Mierda!

So that was it. Inspiring? Definitely, especially the Eurorail train rides, definitely the way to travel Europe if you have the time. Tiring? You betcha, after all, a lot of the time we had to carry our backpacks and we had to be alert the whole time and that by itself made the trip far less enjoyable. I didn't whip out my camera as much as I would like to and it's not Southeast Asia, this continent runs on Euros baby, and that was harsh on the bank account.

Until next time…I hope. Oh and pics are, as usual, up on my Flickr

Europe trip preparation

Getting the visas
Notice that I needed not only one visa but two. Allow me to elaborate on this seemingly simple matter.

The itinerary is London (2), Paris (3), Amsterdam (4), Venice (1), Florence (2), Rome (3), Madrid (3) and Barcelona (2). Note that the numbers in brackets indicate the days I'll be spending there. Then I'm stopping over at KL for two nights and Singapore for three nights.

All the flights, trains and hotels were already booked by the end of Feb so all the documents I need for my visa applications are mostly ready and here is where the drama begins.

I filled in the online UK visa application, made an appointment for my biometric data to be taken and sent my application in the mail early March. I got my passport back by Monday the following week. How fast was that. Then I flicked quickly to see the visa sticker they stuck on my passport.

They had my name wrong.

Even on my visa application I already typed that my full name is on page five of my passport, they still had my name wrong.

Oh boy.

So I gave them a call (at a premium rate of $3.50 a minute mind you) and asked them what they could do about it. They told me they'd get back to me as soon as possible to fix the matter and this is where things started to get really draggy.

I had to wait three working days for them to text me saying "give us a call" so I gave them a call only to have to tell them again the problem I had which I already told them at the first place. The only response I got this time was that they were going to tell me what to do in the next couple of days. OK, so I waited a couple more days and they asked me to call them again. This time they told me to send my passport page which contained my full name and to wait for them to contact me again. So, after a couple more days they finally told me to send my passport back to them and so I did. I waited for maybe almost two weeks for my passport to come back to me and it had to be Easter by that time as well. I felt mentally tired just waiting for my passport.

So it finally arrived and I quickly checked my name on the visa sticker again.

It was correct. Cool.

So for my next visa application, which is for the Schengen zone, I had to apply for it in the embassy of which country I will be spending the most time in, so in my case it was Italy and I had to book an appointment online just to lodge my visa application (which I think is just ridiculous, but hey, to each his own right?). I didn't have any appointments set up since the earliest appointment I could get was for mid-Jun and my flight would be by the end of May. Impossible right?

So my friend told me to try and apply the Schengen visa at the Spanish Consulate General. I did try it but they said I had to apply for it at Italy's unless I change my travel plans and spend more time in Spain.

Fair enough.

So I went to the Italian Consulate General only to be disappointed as I thought they weren't really helpful at all. They asked whether I had an appointment or not, I did not. They said go and make an appointment so I explained about my flight and the appointment availability. Then they told me to send them an email or give them a call (I was already there!!! Why!!!) to which I replied that I sent an email the previous week to which nobody replied and I called as well but I couldn't get through to anyone since I only heard recorded messages and the call was disconnected after the recorded message was finished. So they told me to send them another email telling them it was urgent. By this time my patience were running really low and I told them again about my flight arrangements. Besides I was already there, why couldn't they just help me out a bit anyway only to be replied that if I had no appointments they wouldn't accept my visa application.

*swear word here*

So I left. I went back to the city and changed a bit of my travel plans in an internet cafe then submitted my visa application to the Spanish Consulate General. They accepted. I was told to give them a call in two weeks and if within those two weeks they needed more documentations from me, they would give me a call. They did not.

I have both visas now but it was just mentally really tiring for me. I think at some point I had a thought of cancelling the trip or just to go somewhere else where applying for a visa wasn't such a pain in my ass (hint: maybe back to Japan even with the radiation and all that).

So at the moment I have all my documents ready to go and I'll be flying in a week!!! My excitement had slowly started coming back.

I wish I could hold a dual citizenship, be an Aussie citizen but still retain my Indonesian citizenship as well. That would certainly make travel life a lot more easier.

Packing
Aaaaaah, the hardest part of the trip. What to pack. This will be my first time backpacking and if that wasn't a challenge enough for me, I'd still have to bring along my camera and laptop. And up to this point all I have packed is nothing. Seriously, nothing. I'd have to start packing little by little starting tomorrow and when I say little by little I mean literally small amounts of top and pants. I do not want to break my back just yet.

More updates soon.

Europe trip ticket

HAS BEEN BOOKED!!!

It's only the airplane ticket for now but it's a start nevertheless.

Excited!!

Will keep you posted when the accommodations and visa have been booked as well.

Ciao amigos