The danger of toilets in Indonesia!

The following post is recommended for mature audiences +18.

Ok… I’m living in Indonesia now, trying to embrace everything, so I’ve gotten used to going to the toilet Indonesian style, using water instead of toilet paper… BUT, I went to Amplaz the day after I got back from Jakarta, wondered around, looking for some sheets n stuff for dad when he gets here.. anyway, after lunch I needed to use the bathroom. 

I went in, there was no toilet paper, quite normal… there’s a little tap on the side of the toilet, when you turn it it sprays water so you get clean that way… well… I turned the tap a little bit…. No water came out… “Oh shit, don't tell me this one is broken” I thought… so I turn it a bit more… I hear water coming out, but no pressure… turn it some more… water is finally coming out, but not enough pressure to actually clean.. so I give the handle three turns… finally there is some pressure..  what I didn’t realize, is there must have been other people using water as well, cleaning themselves or washing their hands….. well.. when they turned of their taps… you can guess what happened to mine…. Yep… all the pressure that they were taking went straight back to mine! the water was SOOO FREAKING strong! I couldn’t turn it off quick enough.. painful! It sprayed that hard that water actually went inside!!!  So I had to go to the toilet again, just to get it out.

I know this is gross.. haha.. dunno why im putting this online for everyone to see… well… maybe you can learn from this, so it doesn’t happen to you…

Jakarta

Well... I told Vando ages ago that I wanted to go to Jakarta, and he said his family lives there, and so when he goes home he would invite me and I could stay with him. Sounded like a good idea to me.. So mid semester break came and he and I both caught a bus from jogja to Jakarta. the bus ride was LONG... and FREEZING... they must have thought we were Eskimo's, so they turned the aircon on full ball just to keep everyone "comfortable".

Anyway, I'd had sakit perut for a few weeks by this stage, and it still hadn't subsided.. we got off the bus and found an angkot to get to Vando's house... but on the way, nature called... no toilet in sight... we started walking faster and faster.. i thought i wasn't going to make it.. we finally got there.. saying a quick hello to his mum before running up stairs to the toilet... luckily I didn't embarrass myself.

We decided it might be fun, when I meet his friends for the first time, just to pretend I cant speak Indonesian at all..  it usually went something like this... me speaking english... them looking confused, mumbling a few words, trying to put the english classes they take into practice... not making much sense.. Vando trying to speak english with me, getting frustrated, and then reverting back to Indonesian after a few mins.. always quite funny to see their reactions, especially one of them.. who was talking about me in Indonesian,  saying how he wanted to play a trick on me... then later realizing I'd understood everything he had just said fell silent.. hahaha. Its kind of interesting tho, people will say what they're really thinking, if they think you wont understand.

All of his friends are crazy! And so much fun to be around. The entire time I was there, I don't think I saw Sam without a smile on his face! We all went to movies together, visited monas (the national monument) went to a few different museums, ocean park (similar to waterbomb in Bali) dufan was great fun, it's a theme park in the north of Jakarta. Wanted to get to taman mini and taman safari, but neither of them ended up happening. After about 10 days we stayed at Vando’s relative’s place, it was heaps of fun, Nel took us to one of the biggest malls in Jakarta (and probably Indonesia) Taman Anggrek. The placve is massive, heaps of shops, cinemas, ice skating.. and FOOD! Haha, we played timezone before watching Meet Dave, great movie, starring Eddy Murphy, funny as!

Also went to some festival thing.. I forget what its called, but like everything in Indonesia there was a acronym for it… I’m thinking JRC, but that could be totally wrong (not that any of you would know tho :P )

Spent most of the time just hanging out with Vando’s friends Daniel, Sam and Deby…

ooohh… Vando wanted to go to a history exhibition in the Dutch Embassy, it wasn’t too bad, but it was TINY, so after 2 hours on the bus, we went to this exhibition and saw everything there in like 15 mins!!  “what are we gonna do now” we thought… so he sms-ed his cousin to meet at her school, but didn’t get a reply for ages, so we decided to go to PIM, finally on the bus, he gets a reply, but its too late, we’re already on our way, so we arrange to meet his friend at Versace. Turns out the guy on the bus lied, just so we would get on, so we swapped busses and were almost at Versace, but his friend suddenly changed the plan and wanted to meet at Gramedia, now… on the way to gramedia, I saw a girl, and was thinking… I think I know her!! Turns out it was Ajeng! My friend from Adelaide, she was just home on holidays! But, how weird, if the exhibition wasn’t so small, if his cousin had been faster in replying, if we had gotten on the right bus, or if his friend had of known where Versace was, we would never have ran into eachother!!!  CRAZY … not one in a million, but one in 20 million! Haha

Turns out Ajeng’s aunt owns a school, and I was invited to teach there for a day! So I rock up, do a lil talk show type thing, then play a few games with the kids in English. Some of them were quite fluent, there were a few who had already lived in America and Australia tho. (btw internet just dropped out, looks like I wont be posting this for a while…) the school was a lot of fun! I think I will look into doing some English lessons at some schools in Jogja! This was the last day in Jakarta, we bought our bus tickets home, opting for VIP to save Rp20.000.

On the way home, Vando and I got a little lost, trying to catch up with the others we were going fairly fast through the gangs n side streets, it was night, Vando didn’t see an unmarked speedbump! .. we absolutely flew! Haha.. my whole body lifted off the motorbike and I landed in the front, when Vando landed he was sitting in my lap, still driving down the street!! Haha.. he had to stand up, so I could move to the back of the bike again, I was in stitches, couldn’t stop laughing.

The next day we left at 1pm, turns out that Rp.20.000 was well worth it… in VIP there is NO leg room! Much more space in executive! … tho the bus was relatively empty, so I just moved to a different seat. Arrived back in Jogja at about 4am...

Thanks everyone for making Jakarta so much fun!! Look forward to seeing you in Jogja!!! If not.. hopefully I can get back there sometime before I head home.

I did it again.....

Here it is.. Months down the track from my last blog... and what do i have to say for myself?? ... well... I actually have been writing.... just not that much, and haven't uploaded it yet.. its still on my laptop, which is in Jogja... Right now I'm in a warnet (warung internet = net cafe) not far from Vando's house in Jakarta... well now that I'm here I guess I'll dribble a little bit about what's been going on...

I have no idea what I've written about back in jogja.. so yeah.. this is all a little screwed up..

ok... I finished uni for this semester and am on holidays. For ages I said to Vando that I wanted to go to Jakarta at some stage n he said he was going home for holidays, so seemed like a good time to go.. been here for a couple of weeks, and despite what people say about Jakarta, its actually not that bad.. Ok the traffic is a bit of a test on your patience at times, but with a population of over 20Million what do you expect?? I've met a few of Vando's friends, which has been great. we often jalan2 bareng, watching movies, playing pool, went to ocean park, a bit like waterbomb in Bali.. heaps of fun Rp60.000 entry, not too bad.. like I said, I've only been here about two weeks, but it already feels like they're my close friends, I'm gonna miss them all when I go back to Jogja. Sam, Daniel, Deby, they're all a lil crazy! but heaps of fun.. and Karnel, in northern Jakarta, stayed at his place for the past week (just got back to Vando's today) again, just having fun, roaming around Jakarta. went to the national monument, dufan (a kind of theme park), Taman Anggrek the largest shopping centre in Jakarta... I'm sure you'd love it there mum :P especially trying to find a park in the place! haha.. its got about 6 floors, (marion probably makes up one floor... or less... just to put a scale on it) you can really get lost in that place.. was heaps of fun tho, can easily spend all day in there, we just played timezone and watched a movie, meet dave.. funny as.. must see!

oop... Vando is finished... I guess we'll be going soon... sorry this blog is so all over the place.. My time in jakarta is so much better than this blog makes it seem...

Thanks to everyone for making everything so enjoyable! gonna miss you all!!! Kapan-kapan maen ke Jogja!!! Dan kalo bisa Australi juga... santai aja, nginep di tempatku.. gratis kok.. (biasanya Rp50.000...per malam... tapi buat kalian ... freeeeee :P)


If I can be bothered I'll have to come back and fix this up.. but well.. in the mean time i guess here is a temporary update.... or not so temporary... we'll see.