Halo, ini kunjungan pertama saya ke Indonesia

We got to Manila airport in plenty of time to get our boarding passes. We used Terminal 1 this time and it is so much better than Terminal 3. The staff seem much happier to be dealing with you and, overall, it is a more pleasant experience.

The check-in agent was looking through my passport and commented that I didn’t have enough space and that I needed at least 1 free page for the visa. He said he needed to consult with his manager about it. I tried explaining that Southeast Asian nations all say this and it is rarely the case that they use much space. He was adamant that I needed this.

I remembered that at the bottom of the visa, it said I was eligible to use the eGates. I showed him this and he was happy for me to proceed and he gave us our boarding passes.

We got through security and immigration pretty quick here. I was in the queue for immigration and a worker asked where my passport was from. I showed her and said the UK. She said I should try the eGates. They didn’t work, sadly. It either said it couldn’t read my passport or it recognised more than one person in the enclosure with me. Is it saying I’m fat? Who knows! The worker put me at the front of the immigration queue, so I didn’t have to wait right at the back. Result!

We found our gate and got some food and just sat there. Addy was loving looking out onto the apron and the runway. It was really cool to see how much he liked it.

Day 1
Today was a very early start for us. Our tour guide messaged us last night to say that we would be picked up at around 06:35 (the email said 07:50).

We went and had breakfast and then went to wait in the lobby. The guide was already there and we were just waiting for the car. I asked him how big the group was and he said it was just 5 of us. A nice small group – which worked out well since the car could only had 5 others aside from the driver and passenger!

We picked everyone up and then we set off. It was quite awkward at first as most of us didn’t know the others. The drive was quiet for a while. The guide didn’t really have much to say. There was a Canadian gal in with us and she started the conversation off by asking us where we were from. It got better after that.

Our itinerary was as follows:

White Crater Lake (a volcano)

Rancabali Tea Plantation

Rengganis (Suspension Bridge & Zip Line)

There really isn’t much to tell about each of the places, as we weren’t told anything by the guide.

We finally got to White Crater Lake and we had to pay Rp90,000.00 per person for the shuttle ride up to the lake. The 2 Serbians with us were not happy with this. The email confirmation from the tour company said all fees were included and we only found out last night that this fee wasn’t included. If you didn’t pay for it, then you didn’t get to see the lake, which I think is wrong.

We took our lives into our own hands and took the shuttle van up. There was a bit of commotion to start with because they wanted to split the group and then they wanted to put more people into the van than could fit. In the end, we went up as a group.

We were told at the lake that we had 15-20 minutes there. This wasn’t because of time constraints but because of how bad the sulphur smell was for you. My throat was hurting after 15 minutes of being there. A lady said to me “Mr, picture”. I thought she was asking me to take a picture of her. I was wrong. She and others wanted a picture with me. Such a local celebrity, it seems!

We then headed back down in the shuttle van (see how crazy it was from the video below)

Load more

Once we were at the bottom, we got back in the cramped car and headed to where the tea plantation was. We ended up driving for around 20 minutes in the wrong direction!

The guide finally found the way and we got there and stopped for some pictures. We thought it was going to be some sort of mini workshop – WRONG. It was just pictures. It was still cool to see, though – I didn’t know how they were grown and this gave me an insight.

We left here and made our way to the final stop. We were looking forward to the suspension bridge and the zip line. We didn’t care about the hot spring. That’s not our thing.

The suspension bridge here at Rengganis is the longest in Southeast Asia. It is 500m long and it’s quite shaky. I was so proud of Addy, though. He conquered his fear yet again by walking across the bridge TWICE. He was even walking as I was jumping (which I later found out is not allowed) on it and also shaking it from side-to-side. A couple of other tourists weren’t happy with me, though and asked me to stop – which I did.

From the bridge, we made our way to the hot spring and just sat there for about 40 minutes, whilst the Canadian gal went in and had a mud bath too.

Once we were done here, the 2 Serbians walked back up to the bridge and the rest of us took the zip line. It isn’t a zip line that you might think. It’s a set of chairs on a wire. They have 2 sets that alternate back and forth.

We had to wait for our turn. It was only about 7 minutes that we had to wait. It was fun to see it in action, though.

Our turn came and we got on. As we got on, the rain started. Fun. I thought we would just wait it out, but that wasn’t the case. I was not prepared for them pulling the line back and it shocked me. They then sent us on our way. We got soaked and it was only a 90-second ride.

Load more

We got off and waited under cover for the rain to stop. Thankfully, it only took about 10 minutes. We made our way back across the bridge and then to a place to taste tea.

We left here and then went to get lunch. I wanted a grilled chicken sandwich, but they didn’t have any. Addy wanted grilled chicken with rice and they had that. Make it make sense!

We left here and then headed back to Jakarta. It was a long car ride and I was glad we stopped as I needed to stretch my legs and straighten my back.

We got back to the hotel and I got a message saying our city tour tomorrow would start at 08:50. At least we get a lie-in.

Today has been a good day and we both made a new friend in the Canadian gal.
Day 2
Today was our second and final full day here in Jakarta. We had booked a tour around the city for today. It was a full-day tour and would take around 8 hours.

We were having breakfast and the hotel staff came over to us to tell us there was someone in the lobby for us. I had messaged who I thought was the guide to let them know I was in the lobby – it turns out I messaged the company instead. We apologised for our lateness and we went on our way.

It was a small group today, too. There were only 7 of us. We picked the others up from 2 different hotels.

Our itinerary was as follows:

National Monument

Istiqlal Mosque

Jakarta Cathedral

Chinatown

Old Town

We got to the national monument and our guide told us this was built for the independence of Indonesia. It was built in 1961, along with the Istiqlal mosque and the cathedral.

We had a walk to the monument and went down into the museum. I am not a fan of museums (as may be evident from earlier posts from my travels), so I wasn’t overjoyed at being here. Addy asked if I was ok and said he was worried about me. I told him not to be and I was fine.

In the museum, there are 51 dioramas depicting the country from its start and its colonisation through to independence. I walked off and read the ones that were of interest to me. I didn’t want to stand there whilst the guide talked about each one.

The dioramas that interested me were from the Second World War and their route to independence. It talked about the Japanese invasion, the Allied forces, the youth movement that had been set up to overcome colonisation and the formation of independence and the country’s charter.

We left here and then headed to get a golf cart to the area where our driver was parked. As we were walking, a school group came running towards us and asked for pictures with me. I obliged and they loved it. I was a celebrity again here in Indonesia.

We got to where our van was and the rain had started. It was as heavy as it was yesterday in Bandung.

We got in the van and headed to the mosque. The rain was still heavy and we were wondering how we were going to do the visit. The driver parked in the underground car park and by the time we went outside the rain had stopped.

At the Istiqlal mosque, you can only see inside if you have a tour guide from the mosque with you. They do timed tours and we were in time for the 11:30 tour. The guide was insistent on me wearing a long gown even though my knees were covered. I was not impressed and it was super hot in it.

We went inside the mosque and the tour guide was telling us some stuff about it but I couldn’t really hear him because the call to prayer started when we were in there and lasted the whole time we were inside.

I asked our tour guide about the mosque and she said it is the largest in Southeast Asia and, at full capacity, can hold 200,000 worshippers. She said it gets full only twice a year: the end of Ramadan is one (I forget what the other is).

As this mosque is in Indonesia, it faces west towards Mecca.

We left here and walked across the road to the cathedral. We spent about 10 minutes in here. You couldn’t walk around this cathedral, though. It was disappointing as I wanted to see what the organ looked like. I like to see church/cathedral organs from wherever I travel.

We went back to the minibus and made our way to Chinatown. The guide did say that the streets were narrow, so we had to walk single file.

Before we did that, we went to the Chinese temple there. It started to rain really badly when we were inside, too. We went upstairs to see the different statues of the deities they had and some of them had offerings laid before them.

We made our way, in the rain, down the narrow street past the market stalls and went to meet our driver to take us to the old town.

The guide said the old town was still reminiscent of the Dutch colonial era and some of the buildings were still in the Dutch style. I couldn’t really see it, though. We then made our way to the puppet shop and had an informative speech about how the puppets are made and how the masks are made.

The guy telling us said the puppets are always made by hand from dried-out cow hides. The masks are made from Balsa wood. It was really cool to see them and he showed us some of the puppets and masks they made.

We left here and went to have lunch. The rest of the group decided on a place that sold mainly beef. We skipped it because Addy isn’t a fan of beef. We decided we would go to Cafe Batavia. We went upstairs and had a look at the menu. We decided against it because it was so expensive. A burger was Rp190,000.00. We got up and left and went to the A&W that was around the corner.

We both felt more comfortable here. We just chilled and we met the group again around 15:45. We walked across the main square to get to the minibus. As we were waiting to cross, a cat ran out and got clipped by a motorbike. Thankfully, it was fine and ran across and away to who knows where.

We went to the old harbour and had a look there. There wasn’t really much to see here, though.

We got back on the minibus and we were taken to our hotels. I was telling the guide that on my hunt for coins, the Indomaret convenience store gave me a Rp5,000.00 roll of Rp200.00 coins. I wanted a mix of Rp100.00 and Rp200.00 coins. I am still on the hunt for the Rp100.00 coins. Maybe at the airport tomorrow.

We got back to the hotel and started our packing and completed our Philippine arrival cards. We have to be up at 04:15 tomorrow, ready for our Grab to the airport at 05:00. Our flight is at 08:35. Way too early, but we had to do that since I leave super early on Monday morning for home.

Addy got word of a 5.2 magnitude earthquake back in Kidapawan.

It has been a great trip to Indonesia. I enjoyed seeing Bandung and I have enjoyed Jakarta. We both definitely want to come back to Indonesia!