8 hours Bali
(No worries, that’s just a stop over)
We arrived in Bali at 10pm. Unfortunately, the pick up service did not turn up. It was included in the price of the hotel, but I did not specify it in my hotel request. However, we were standing at the airport and got different offers from Taxidrivers who tried to rip us off. In the end we made a deal and a guy took us to the hotel at approxamately 4 Euro. The guy was small and tiny. The car was huge and old. While we were driving there came a strange noice from the left back wheel. To be honest, we thought this car will fall into bits before we will ever reach the hotel. But we kept the fingers crossed and made it.
Once arrived at the hotel we checked in and went to the hotel bar to have some drinks. Carsten (wise man) decided to go to sleep. Edi and I preferred to stay until the bar closed down and than we tried out the bar next door. Afterwards we went swimming in the hotel pool. Just when we left the pool we saw the sign saying that swimming is prohibited between 9pm and 7am. Too late..
The alarm clock kicked us out of bed at 4am the next morning. That was awful. We took a taxi straight to the airport and took the plane to Jakarta. Carsten’s family (his uncle, aunt, cousins) lives there. His cousin Sonny picked us up from the airport and gave us a lift to the appartment where we can stay for a week now. At this point we just would like to say thank you to uncle Bob and auntie Lianny!!
Carsten’s family
We didn’t really do anything on our first day in Jakarta. As soon as we arrived at the appartment we went to sleep. Actually, Carsten spent 1 or 2 hours with his relatives and went to sleep afterwards. We woke up in the afternoon. Carsten had already arranged a meeting with his family in the evening. He invited them for dinner at a restaurant, as it was his birthday one day before - sorry, I didn’t mention it so far. His cousin Sonny came to pick us up.
To get to the restaurant we had to pass a huge shopping Mall. This place was very crowded. At the restaurant we met uncle Bob, auntie Lianny, another cousin Mario and the granddad. Carsten and his uncle chose various dishes which we all shared between us. We enjoyed ourselves just trying all different types of food which were so delicious!
After the meal we bought some pre-paid cards for our mobile phones. Just to have the possibility to communicate - in case we get lost! One card costs approximately 2 Euro, it’s a bargain.
Mangga Dua
The plan for this Sunday was to go to Mangga Dua with Mario and Sonny. Mangga Dua is a big shopping Mall where local people do their shoppings and where you can get many things at cheap prices. The reason for our visit of this shopping centre was that you can get cheap DVDs (movies, games, software etc.) there. So maybe the guys are going to write something else about there shopping experience. I went my own way.
I passed a bridge which was packed with stands where you could buy cheap clothes. And on the other side there was another shopping mal with clothes, jewellery, household things and other stuff. It was interesting to see that place so crowded on a Sunday at lunch time. Another good thing - I was taller than anyone else and had a good overview. But all I bought was an elastic hair band, as I have lost mine on our first flight from Frankfurt to Singapore. Than I spoilt myself a fresh guava juice and went outside. Because another horrible thing of these shopping miles is their air conditioner, it’s so cold everywhere. So I walked around this shopping mal, watched people and enjoyed the sunshine.
Ancol
Ancol is a leisure park in Jakarta. There are many tourist attractions like a waterworld, arts and crafts shops, a fair etc. We went there to have a look around the arts and crafts shops. There were lots of wood carvings and these carvers did really good jobs. There were huge wooden birds with so many details. We could watch some the carvers working on some pieces. The funny thing - they were listening to Guns’n'Roses, the real indonesian folk musik. Moreover there were places were they sold paintings, sculptures and other art work for example witches made of ropes.
Between all these arts shops was a stage where a young woman was singing. We were not really sure if that was bad singing or good Karaoke…
The rest of the day we spent how you should spent a Sunday - relaxed. We had a rest, some nice food in another restaurant - actually this was in another shopping mal where Edi and Carsten each bought a pair of trainers - and back home we went upstairs onto the roof of the building for a photo session and afterwards we watched a movie.
The traffic in Jakarta
I have to add this little paragraph about the traffic which is just crazy. I am sure there are no rules. The three- or four-lane streets are full of cars and mopeds and motorbikes. Everybody is changing the lanes without using the indicator. You can hear horns all the time. This seems to be the only way of communication between the drivers. The moped drivers are mad, especially when they are driving in groups. They pass cars on the left and right at the same time and open additional lanes. The whole traffic is absolutely chaotic. But somehow it’s fluent and we haven’t seen any accidents so far.
Sunda Kelapa
Monday 27 June. Carsten’s auntie Mercia picked us up from the appartment. First we went to the old part of Jakarta which is called Sunda Kelapa. We went to a museum. Normally it was closed, but somehow we could get in anyway and a friendly man made a guided tour with us. The language he spoke was English, but so fast and with such a strong accent that it was difficult to catch what he said. The museum was inside an old ware house and built by the Dutch when the occupied the town. In these ware houses they stored herbes like cinnamon, cloves, pepper and nutmeg which they exported to Europe. Now it is a museum with old documents and models of ships and the town. The guy told us some interesting things about Jakarta and showed us around. He also mentioned that he made a guided tour for Helmut Kohl a couple of years ago. He seemed to be quite proud of it.
The harbour
The museum guide also advised us to visit the harbour. And he accomponied us - maybe he did not have anything else to do. And thanks to him our short trip to the harbour turned out as a special adventure. There were lots of workers who were loading the ship with wood. The ship looked quite old and not very trustworthy to drive them on a open sea. Suddenly a guy came and tried to stop our car. But than the museum guide was waving through the window and we were allowed to pass. We stopped in front of a ship. We had to cross a beam to reach the ship. Edi just followed the guide. I was scared and the guide came back to help me to cross the beam. Carsten and his auntie preferred to stay on the land side. We had a look around the ship, took some pictures with the workers on the ship. We were amazed to be in that place which was such a different world for us. But people in the harbour seemed to be amazed to see us there as well.
Townhall
After that the museum guide suggested to go and visit the town hall. So we went to a big place which looked like a market place and was surrounded by some museums and the town hall. In front of the town hall there was a whole in the ground half-full with water and covered with iron bars which used to be a jail. People were kept there in the water before there execution. Than we entered through a big wooden gate into the big back yard which was nice and green and some hens, cocks, ducks and geese were running around. We went a few steps downstairs and saw another whole which used to be a jail.
To be honest, apart from the jails, a nice back yard and white houses with big wooden doors we haven’t seen much of the townhall. But the trip was still worth it! After that the museum guide went back to the museum and we set off to a chinese temple.
Chinese Temple
My first impression of the chinese temple: many colours and a smell of joss sticks. Different chinese colourful figures were placed in big glass cabinets. People were praying in front of these figures with a hand full of joss sticks in there hands. Before they went to the next figure they put one joss stick into a receptacle which was provided in front of the figures. At the end of the temple was a buddhistic prayer room. We had to take our shoes off before we entered. It was a dark silent room also with lots of buddhistic figures on an altar in front of the room.
After leaving this temple we went next door to see a Hindu temple. This place seemed to be even more colourful - maybe because it was more open. The chinese temple was inside a building without windows. The hindu temple existed only of a columns with a roof. Here as well people were praying with these joss sticks. Obviously there are no certain hours to come here to pray. People coming during the day at any time. I am not really into religions so I cannot explain it better for you.
Fish market
Later Carsten’s auntie Mercia invited us for lunch to a restaurant called Singapore. I tried frog for the first time. Actually it tasted like crocodile. 
The first time I had crocodile I said it tastes like a mixture between chicken and fish. And frog is tastes very similar, I think.
After the meal we wanted to go to the fish market. This was another interesting experience. It was a huge place full of stands (stakes with bamboo roofs). People were sitting or lying on boxes or tables and selling fish or other goods. Other people were carrying things around. The whole place was dirty and musty. When the driver opened the window for a second it just smelled awful. This place must have been full of diseases and people living there must be even more resistant to any diseases. Because of the smell and the insecure look of this place we just passed by driving and did not get off the car. It was a strange feeling to drive through this area in a car with air conditioning and jazz music and see this other world outside which was so closed and so different.
And another shopping mal
After 10 minutes drive we reached another shopping mal which just looked like the western world again. These big differences between rich and poor are incredible. One city and so many different faces.
In this shopping mal we were just walking around. We had some drinks which Carsten’s auntie recommended. There were some strange dark round things inside which had a consistency like jelly bears and tasted sweet. We had no idea what it was so we had different ideas which I don’t want to explain at this point..
Later I tried some of these massage-armchairs. It’s a crazy feeling when the whole chair suddenly starts moving and punching into your back. If you get a chance - try it! In another part of the mal were lots of massage-centres where you could get a food massage. We haven’t tried it so far, but I am sure I will!!
The rest of this exciting day I spent writing..