Jakarta Diaries : 9 : Return

We went to Bandung on Saturday, and Sunday was reserved for shopping, packing, as I had a flight on Monday. I did some shopping of small souvenirs, gifts for relatives, and friends, as this was my first trip abroad.

In India, although picture is changing pretty fast, but a trip abroad is still a special thing. My father went on a business trip to Japan, a few years ago, and it was big news. Some relatives who came to know about later, were furious on us asking why didn't you tell us before? 

Since I belong to IT industry, it was obvious that I would go on site some day or the other. But as they say in industry, first on site is always special. And I can say yes it is. I really enjoyed my time here. People in my office, who are used to travelling, now, could tell from my excitement that this was my first trip.

Work wise, I learnt a lot. I saw many new places and enjoyed it. Since I had to leave alone for one month, I had to cook for myself, and that enhanced my cooking ability.

Technology has made a lot of things very easy. Google alone has provided most of the useful applications. Google maps to navigate through places across the world. Google translate to communicate in many languages. You can download a specific language pack required, and run it offline. I don't know about the grammatical accuracy, but it came in handy while communicating and negotiating with the taxi drivers.

The basic Google functionality, to search about anything has revolutionized the world. I wonder how people have traveled and explored the world without these applications. I salute to both kind of people, those created these technologies, and those who survived without these.

Watching a lot of movies also helps in a way. You see scenes on airports, immigration checks, days in a foreign country, that there is readily developed sense of familiarity with all these things which otherwise scares people.

I returned via Kuala Lumpur again. My second flight from Kuala Lumpur to Mumbai was delayed by an hour. It was really boring hour in the waiting lounge. After taking off, the weather troubled us a lot. The thoughts about the missing Malaysian Airlines plane MH 370 were playing in everyone's mind.

As we were behind scheduled time, we had to circle around in Mumbai for some time, and I kept guessing the places visible from my window. After spending enough time in air, my flight finally landed in Mumbai, and I returned to my India. :) 

Jakarta Diaries : 8 : Bandung Volcano And Craters

My trip to Indonesia was almost over. I had a flight on Monday, and a last weekend to enjoy. We made a plan to visit the volcano site and craters in Bandung, a place around 140 kms from Jakarta.

For the first time, I did not have issue to find company to go on a trip. Two new people Ashish and Ankita joined our team in office, and they were happy to come along. So totally 4 of us, Ashish, Ankita, Meenakshi and me went for this memorable trip.

We enjoyed the journey as well as the places we visited. This time our driver was Gebe, another pleasant and funny Indonesian man. Initially he played some Indonesian songs, later we took out our mobiles and started playing Indian songs. Gebe, requested us to play his favorite Indian song, none other than Kuch Kuch Hota Hai.

Luckily, one of us had that in mobile, and we were able to fulfill his request. He was delighted, and expressed his pleasure with singing few lines from that song. He made few other requests too, but we could not make out which songs he was referring too.

Once the Indian songs started playing, it did not take us long to start singing ourselves. And we started the all time favorite pastime of Indians in trips.. The Antakshari. Because of this it did not feel like travelling in Indonesia. It was just like home. For the first time, the journey was as enjoyable as much as the destinations.

We were alternating between singing songs and playing them on mobiles. Gebe was enjoying too. He used to catch the repeated lines in songs, and sing it. It was fun. :)

But we were lost in the Indian music, and Indonesian roads. There was confusion between the place we asked to go, and the place he knew. We took a few wrong turns, spent around half an hour in this, and then we came to know that we both were referring to same place. :D Communication problems I tell you.

Finally we reached the first spot, a view of the volcanic mountains and lake from a distant hill. It was unique. Mountains created of a very different kind of stones and rocks, smoke coming out from many places, a lake with water or some other liquid of really strange color, and an odor like in chemical laboratory. 

It was not like the live volcano we see in movies. Obviously it is not safe and people will not be allowed to enter such live volcano. The volcano here erupted around 30 years ago.

You can go hiking on those mountains too. We climbed a bit, but didn't go far as we didn't have that much time.

The next spot was where you can actually walk through the mountains, spend some time around in hot water springs. To go to that site you have to walk for 20-30 minutes through beautiful forests. A local guide is compulsory here. We hired one, but rather than sharing information, he was more interested in exhibiting his knowledge of Hindi and learning some more from us.

On the way we saw many tall trees, one of which was more than 300 years old, the guide told us. The walk was really enjoyable and reminded me of the monsoon treks we do in India on many forts around.

Here, there are many hot water ponds, of varying temperature. Some are very hot, where you can boil eggs. The local people sell eggs here, obviously pretty costly than what you would pay in normal place. We too, bought few eggs and enjoyed boiled eggs from volcano.

In some ponds, you can dip your feet and relax for some time. According to guides, the sand here contains sulfur and is good for skin. Some people also provide massage with that solution. It is also available in bottle packs for sale. Ladies in my group were in two minds whether to apply on their face or not. They might have noticed the look on our faces, and decided to buy the bottle and try it at home.

We bought some wooden artwork in the stall nearby, and left for Jakarta. We had our lunch on the way. We were stuck in traffic, and it was pretty dark when we reached our hotel. Although the volcano wasn't as expected, the site was still a unique place, and the journey was definitely enjoyable. :)

Jakarta Diaries : 7 : Taman Safari

Till now, I had spent 2 good weeks in Indonesia. Half of my trip was over. And also the major part of work was over. I was having a relaxed time in office, and it was time to have even more fun outside. The next spot in the wishlist was Taman Safari. It was a highly recommended spot from everyone in my office. And after visiting I saw why, and now even I would recommend this to everyone visiting Indonesia.

After Taman Mini Indonesia, Taman Safari (Taman means park), is another marvelous example of a planned mega theme park. This park is based on a large area around 400 acres. It has two main parts, the safari, and the other is the amusement park containing a baby zoo, animal shows, and few rides.

Like last time, I was prepared to go alone to Taman Safari also. But a colleague introduced me to Meenakshi. She was also new here, and looking for company to go to Taman Safari. She had one more friend Deepa, working for another client of my company. We three decided to go together. We hired on taxi for Sunday. 

Our driver Suja, was a pleasant and decent man. He came 10 minutes late than decided time, and apologized at lease thrice for this. We left for the park pretty early in the morning, as we were advised to avoid the traffic. 

The driver took us through a short cut he knew, and the hilly village we crossed, reminded me of Darjiling, which I visited few years ago. Similar narrow roads, tea gardens, scenery revived my memories of the beautiful Darjiling-Sikkim trip I had with my family.

We reached Taman Safari and paid for the entry ticket. And the first part of the park, the safari started. The safari means a ride through a large forest area, where variety of animals walks free in their designated area. You are not allowed to leave your vehicle, but you can drive slowly to observe the animals.

On the way to Taman Safari, we saw many stalls selling fresh carrots. We did not buy, but after the safari started, we realized its purpose. Those carrots were to feed the animals in Safari. Many animals like zebras, camels, monkeys, come near the passing vehicles in hope of those carrots.

The Safari was just amazing. I saw many animals like giraffes, zebras, hippo for the first time, and that too walking free. I have seen lions and tigers in India before, but not like this. They are mostly locked inside the cage, and you are allowed to see them from the other side. 

This was the golden chance to use my camera, and I did it. I was really very happy to click pictures of such wild animals from so close. I was very very happy that day. According to me, this was the best day of my trip to Indonesia. I wasn't stopping clicking for a moment. I took hundreds of pictures.

Now, this is not the real wild life photography. These animals although not caged, are controlled in some manner. But this arrangement was the best possible solution between the typical zoo, and the real wild life.

In a real forest, to catch a sight of any wild animal is completely on your luck that day. Photographers say that you might not get a chance to see any tiger/lion even after 2-3 safaris sometimes. And in a conventional zoo, the animals look really bored in the cage. Here, there is certainty of seeing those animals which are free, and yet controlled, but in a near to natural habitat.

I was impressed with the Safari, and wished that we must have such place in India. This was my first time to click animals this way, and waiting for an opportunity to go for real wild life photography as well. Click here to have a look on the pictures from Safari.

The safari ended after around 2 hrs. And we reached the amusement park inside. This was like any other amusement park having few rides, 4D movie theater, food stalls and performances. The special thing about the park was the penguins, and the Komodo Dragon (which did not look like the dragon we see in movies). 

A baby zoo was also there having many civilized pet animals, like tiger, lion, snakes, monkey. For a small fees, you can click a picture with those animals too. I clicked a picture with a lion, and even though he was chained and trainer was around, it was scary. :D

Click here for the pictures of the Fun Park and Baby Zoo.

The park had many performances and shows. We watched sea lion show, dolphin show, cowboy show, bike stunts, and in the end tiger show. Here are the pictures of tiger show.

The Safari really made my day. I was very happy to visit this place. If you ever visit Jakarta, and have enough time, do not miss this place. :)

Jakarta Diaries : 6 : Ancol Dolphin and Sea Lion Shows

When I returned from the Thousand Islands to the dock in Jakarta, I still had an evening to spend. The dock is in the Ancol area, and there is one amusement park very close to the dock. I decided to go there.

Though the park is mainly designed for children and rides were tiny, I was more interested in various animal shows in park. When I reached there, only few shows were left till the closing time. The first one was the sea lion show.

I saw sea lions for the first time, and I was wondering why do they call him a sea lion? The animal resembled more with a dog. Sea dog was more suitable name according to me.

In India, due to restrictions circuses have stopped using animals for the shows. So, the last animal show I watched was long ago in my childhood.

The show had 3 sea lions, and one trainer for each of them. They did many acts like playing with a ball, catching a ball, holding it on the nose, a high jump. The trainers had to keep feeding them continuously to keep them engaged and motivated in the show.

Later one of the sea lion also danced with its trainer like a couple. They kissed too. :D To stay in show biz, those people need to do many bizarre things.

The sea lions were taught a lot of human gestures like to clap, salute, waving hands and some maths too. The trainer asked audience to tell him any two numbers, people were shouting different numbers, but he took the two numbers he wanted to. :D His trade secret. ;) He wrote 2X4 on a slate and read it to his sea lion. Answering him the sea lion ringed the bell in front of him 8 times.

Click here for all the pictures from the Sea Lion Show.

Immediately after Sea Lion Show, I went for a dolphin show. I found it more entertaining than the previous one. The arrangement for this show was nice. A big swimming pool, a platform for the trainers to stand, and a large screen.

Before the show, they started playing live streaming of the audience, like they do in cricket matches. So a person sitting in audience would appear on the screen, and others would clap, cheer and laugh, and that person's reaction to that would be even more fun. I also appeared on screen once. :D

The show started with a video about dolphins, giving a message to save dolphins. And the real dolphins appeared in sync with the dolphins in the video. It was an amazing timing. It surprised and thrilled everyone in the audience.

Then the dolphins also performed various acts like jumping through the ring, playing with a ball, swimming with the trainer, etc. Watching that trainer swimming so effortlessly with the dolphins, I was also feeling like playing with those dolphins. Dolphins are intelligent and human friendly. Few days later I came to know that in some parks, they have the facility for visitors to spend time with the dolphins. I would definitely try that if I get a chance.

Click here for all the pictures from the Dolphin Show.

The only show left after the dolphin show was a 4D movie. It was a waste of time. First of all the movie was a typical cowboy story in the local language, and the 4D effects, i.e. chair movements were not at all making sense with the scenes going on. The movements were arranged just for the sake of making it 4D.

The park closed after this, and I watched a laser show after that in the neighboring theater. It wasn't that great. The only innovative and new thing I saw was the images created in the water fountain with lasers. But apart from that the play was boring.

A trip to beautiful island, few entertaining shows, I had enough for the day. I had dinner in Indian Restaurant on the way. I was very tired when I reached my hotel room. I slept immediately to have enough rest before the Monday Morning Blues ahead.

Jakarta Diaries : 5 : Thousand Islands

After a wonderful day at Taman Mini last week, my expectations about the next weekend were high, but soon I faced the same problem again. I wasn't getting anyone to accompany. Last week, luckily I met Rahul in hotel lift and we planned a visit to Taman Mini. This week, it didn't happen. Rahul and many in my team returned to India this week.

I decided to go alone. I remember the "Ekla chalo re" song by Rabindranath Tagore. Having someone to accompany is a nice thing, but if you don't get anybody, why should stop doing things you want to, or cancel the plans? You can give yourself the best company. I love watching movies, visiting places, photography... So sometimes I make my mind to do what I love alone if required.

The second issue was the place. I had the wishlist of places in Jakarta prepared based on internet information, feedback from people who actually visited those. Thousand Islands was on that list. One colleague told me that scuba diving activity is available on some of the islands, and that made my choice clear for that weekend.

As I have mentioned long ago in my old post, Scuba diving, sky diving are in the list of things to do before I die, since I watched Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. :D

There are thousands of islands of different sizes and shapes around Jakarta. That is why this area is called Thousand Islands. Some islands are so small that nobody lives there. Some islands are big enough to accommodate a small village, while some beautiful islands are converted into resorts, and being promoted as tourist attractions. 

The islands nearer to the Jakarta City are affected due to pollution. But those which are farther are famous for the crystal clear water, beautiful coral, and diving sites. I chose to go to Sepa Island since scuba diving was available there. 

My friends went there, but they couldn't do scuba diving, since all the diving kits were rented out by a professional group of divers. He told me to try my luck with that, but also said that the island is really beautiful, and worth visiting.

On Sunday morning I left for the dock, where you can get a boat for the island. And again one issue popped up. I was alone to go to Sepa Island that day, and if I had to go, I had to pay for the entire boat, instead of sharing basis. That was way too expensive. After the lady came to know about my wish for scuba diving, she recommended me to go to Putri Island. She told me all islands are almost same. You'll get everything here also. I had no choice, I accepted to go to Putri Island, and boarded the boat.

It took us around 1.5-2 hours to reach the island. On the way, we really saw hundreds of islands, wonderful shade of blue in the water, and many other boats.

After reaching the island, I realized that all the descriptions I heard about the place were true. The water around the island was so clean, that you could clearly see the plants, fishes, sand everything under the water from above.

The island was converted into a lovely resort. Many types of cottages, a small swimming pool (on an island surrounded by so much water :D), restaurant, club house provide nice facilities for a picnic. Many groups were enjoying their stay on the island, singing local songs, playing games.

I completed a walk around the island in just 20-25 minutes. Then I went to the scuba diving counter, but unfortunately unlike Sepa where trainer is available for scuba diving enthusiasts, Putri Island permits diving only for license holders. I had to do snorkeling, which I have done before in India. 

Anyway, it is also enjoyable, I felt little bad just because I was so excited about scuba diving and I couldn't do it. For those who don't know about both, scuba diving is going deep into sea and observing the sea life, coral, fishes, crabs, etc. Snorkeling is doing same, but just from the surface, not going deep.

The positive point about the facility was there was no time limit for this. I got one wet suit on a rent, and was pleased with the way I looked fit and awesome in that suit. ;) I also enjoyed snorkeling with no hurry. The view under the water is magnificent. Different species of fishes, plants, and the colorful life in the sea makes you realize that you know nothing about the complexity of nature. God has created such a complex and wonderful world that despite human attempts to discover everything we will still have a lot to know.

Click here to see the photos I clicked in this trip. The disadvantage of going alone on a trip is there is nobody to take your photo. I requested one guy to take my pictures, but he really did a bad job. All the photos were blurred and out of focus. :(. The only photo I have of mine is the one when I clicked myself in the window of some cottage. :D

I had my meal and returned in the same boat to Jakarta. If I could bring someone with me, it would have been nice. But I alone enjoyed nonetheless. :)

Jakarta Diaries : 4 : Taman Mini Indonesia

On my first Sunday in Jakarta, I went to visit a incredible place called Taman Mini Indonesia Indah. Taman means a park, so like the name gives you an idea about the place, this is miniature of Indonesia. Think of it, a miniature of entire country. 

This is a very well planned mega theme park occupying nearly 250 acres of land. The huge area includes a lot of museums, monuments, theaters, religious places, sculptures, and much more. And all of this together summarizes the culture, history and lifestyle of Indonesia.

As I told you in previous post, I met Rahul in the hotel lift, and we made a plan to visit Taman Mini (as this place is popularly called). So we hired a taxi in morning, it took us around 40-45 minutes to reach Taman Mini. We reached there, and the hugeness of these premises stunned us. 

The entrance has a miniature of the Monas (the monument of Indonesia, like Kutub Minar, or Statue of Liberty). We saw large groups of locals, many families coming there for a picnic. We were looking for information desk, but unfortunately nobody was there, and random people we met, didn't know much of English. We were not sure which places were most interesting, which ones were to be kept on lesser priority. 

We spotted a terminal for the mono rail, and we decided to have an overview of the entire campus. Rope way is another option for the same, but it seemed to be slower. We boarded on the train, and in around 20 minutes, the train completed the circular journey through entire park. It was just brilliant example of planning, architecture and creativity. We spotted few places that we would like to visit, and rented a bike once we were back on the starting point. We got a moped bike for 4 hours. 

The park is so huge, that it would take atleast 2-3 days to visit each and every attraction. You have to be selective if you want to spend just a day or less. 

We started riding through the park, and stopped to visit any attraction that seemed to be interesting. On the way, we saw many buildings reflecting the Indonesian style of architecture. I was glad we visited the bird sanctuary there. 

The bird sanctuary was a large area dedicated for birds, enclosed with nets. And inside, you get to see so many birds, of different kinds. Some walk free in the area, while some are caged. There are also few spots, where trainer and few trained birds allow you to take a picture with the bird for some fees.

My wife recently gifted me with a DSLR camera, and I enjoyed clicking those beautiful birds. Click here to view the google plus album of those pictures.

Next attraction we visited was a collection of sculptures of animals in marble. The sculptures were really beautiful, and very close to reality. I have named the album of these pics as Taman Rock Zoo. :D

I also did some shopping of wooden toys for kids in my family, some souvenirs. I heard that Taman Mini is the best place to find variety of souvenirs at cheaper prices than anywhere in Jakarta.

We also visited one Transport Museum, Museum Transportasi in the local language. It had a collection of vintage vehicles, ranging from old cars to buses, from rail engines to helicopters and aircraft. Here is the link to album of Museum Transportasi. 

The last major attraction we managed to visit was the aquarium. It was like any other aquarium, having variety of fishes, and sea animals. The only new species I saw there was the white turtle, and a very tiny breed of turtles, which were up for sell in small containers. Click here for the album of this Dunia Aquarium.



Apart from these, we saw many such buildings/ attractions/ religious places in the ride. These are the pictures taken randomly around the entire Taman Mini. 

It was a very hot n sunny day, we were sweating a lot. We didn't have the stamina to stay any longer. But whatever we visited, and saw was worth the time. 

Jakarta Diaries : 3 : Getting Used To

I joined our office in Jakarta, and started working. I will not bother you with the details of work, simply because, the technical terms would not matter to you, or interest you. And with some differences, work is more or less same across all the IT companies. I’ll tell you about people, places around Jakarta.

My company has few clients in Indonesia, and hence they have opened an office there. This office has a mix of local Indonesians, some relocated Indians, and some people like me for a short duration. The client also has office in the same building. Now one strange thing about the buildings here is the floor numbers. People here are superstitious about numbers. They don’t have floor number 13 in building. After 12^th floor, you reach directly to 14^th floor. :D And in my office building 4^th floor was written as 3A.

Like I said in the previous post, Indonesians are a pleasant lot. They keep chatting and laughing dramatically loud, in a day you are bound to hear all these and some funny noises you cannot make out what they express with that. Most of people I came across were friendly, from my colleagues to taxi drivers, from receptionists to bank security guards, were friendly, respectful and happy to help. Yes there were few exceptions, but rare. And not just because we appear foreigners, I observed that they behaved that way with each other’s also.

People are crazy about Football, and so were my Indian colleagues, so I heard a lot of excited and heated discussions about the game. FIFA was approaching so each one was getting vocal about the team he supports, and discussions used to heat up. Many of them placed bets also on who would reach finals, who would win the world cup. On my last day of the office, we had a futsal game as project event, a small version of football in every aspect, smaller indoor stadium, and shorter time. We had fun there. Being an IT professional, everyone was satisfied by merely being able to run and play for that long.

There is a Friday Street Market near my office, like Indian weekly bazaars in many cities and villages, this is only on Friday. My colleague Bibhu, took me there, and the craziness about football reflected here as well, as the two of the biggest crowd attracting stalls were having football jerseys and accessories. Apart from that there were variety of stalls having tools, kids cloths, electronics, dvds etc.

On my first day in office, around tea time, I was working on my laptop and suddenly people started running, and made a big noise, and gathered around a desk in corner. I was surprised by that noise first, but saw everyone was laughing, and those who were sitting also were making running noise with their feet on the floor. When the crowd around that desk scattered I noticed everybody had some fruits or chocolate in their hands, and then I understood it was all for the evening snacks. Twice a day, some chocolate or some snacks is served on the floor along with some fruits. And these people turned this into a game; the first to reach gets the fruits, none for the last.

When there is little or no work, or in break time they even play computer games like counter strike in office. Once for some reason I went to the client’s office to meet some person there, and they were playing a game on their workstation with the gaming console. Well, this is common in many cool companies, but in India many companies ban social media, and don’t even have card games in the work station. I wished we had such freedom in our office too, but I doubt if we’d work at all if this was allowed.

I learnt some bits of local language i.e. Bahasa. (similar to Sanskrit word Bhasha for language). Thank you is “terima kasih”. Milk is called as Susu (urine in Hindi :D). Indonesians address each other as Mas or Pak to show respect, like Mr., or Sir, and they use it often in mails or in conversations.

As the first weekend was getting closer, I was eager to visit places around Jakarta. But the problem was I had no company. I was the last to go to Jakarta from my office, so everybody else had already visited most of the places there. For some of them, it was their second or nth trip to Jakarta. I was not able to decide on the place to go first.

We had to stay late in office on Friday, so I was sleeping till late on Saturday. Half of the day was wasted due to sleep and rains. In the evening, I had no company so I took my camera and went out to have a walk around in Kuningan, the area where I was living.

Click here for the pictures I clicked during my walk around.

I returned, and met one guy from office in the hotel lift. We didn’t know each other by name, but recognized each other. Just to take a chance I asked him if he was interested in visiting some place tomorrow. He said yes, and I got company for Sunday. We exchanged names, and phone numbers quickly as we had reached my floor, and I came to my room with a plan for tomorrow. J

Jakarta Diaries : 2 : First Impression

I took off from Mumbai to Jakarta, in a Malaysian Airlines flight. With the recent incident of MH 370 flight of this airline, the name scares a lot of people. Many warned me casually. I was concerned too. But then, such incidents keep happening, but you can not stop doing things because of it. CST was attacked in Mumbai, but people can't stop going there, JM/FC road was attacked in Pune, and still it is crowded and popular shopping destination. And MH 370 is still a mystery. Luckily, my onward journey was safe and pleasant. 

My first flight was from Mumbai to Kuala Lumpur in midnight. I slept for sometime, watched LOTR for some time, nothing to watch outside the window. But to my delight, I was awake at the time of sun rise, and it was fantastic. Watching sun rise from such a height is a memorable experience for lifetime. 

The second flight was from KL to Jakarta early in the morning. This was a shorter one, and I was awake throughout, observing the scenic landscapes from my window. At one point, the flight was tilted, we were over sea, and there was only water in sight. The line of horizon was almost invisible, it seemed like the blue sky and sea had merged into each other. Only one boat, it could be a big ship also, was visible over a distance. I will never forget that beautiful scene.

I landed in Jakarta, and went through the immigration and customs check. The immigration guy took little longer to process my case than other passengers. May be, every passenger feels the same. I changed the USD into Indonesian Rupiah, and came outside. I hired one cab to go to hotel. The cabbie was a very pleasant and talkative person. I had the same experience almost everywhere, Indonesians in general are pleasant, smiling and friendly people.

I read somewhere that, Indonesia had mostly Hindu people in history, a lot of centuries ago. Later, a lot of population converted to Islam over time, but there are still some Hindus in places like Bali Islands. The influence of Sanskrit, and Hindu culture is still visible in their language, and gestures. To greet, Indonesians also fold their hands like Indians do Namaste. The words like putra and putri for son and daughter respectively are exactly like Sanskrit.

The driver's name was Gunwaan, again a Sanskrit name. He started talking and immediately guessed that I am from India, and then started sharing his knowledge about India. Ofcourse it was related to films and television only. :D He said, mabarat, meaning Mahabharata, he started naming all the characters, bima, arjun, udishtir. Very few Indian channels air in Indonesia, and Mahabharat airs on one of them. So it seemed popular there, since traditional Indonesian drama and plays also have stories of Ramayana, Mahabharata. After that, he started with bollywood, sharuk kan, meaning Shahrukh Khan. SRK is very popular in Indonesia, and his Kuch Kuch Hota Hai has a cult following. They say it like Kuchi Kuchi Hota Hai.

Later when I started roaming in Indonesian markets, I could hear SRK songs playing in shops, at least twice or thrice. I also noticed pirated DVDs of Mahabharata tele-series, and many Indian movies in DVD shops. 

The Soekarno Hatta Airport is in outskirts of Jakarta. Once we left the airport premises, we were stuck in traffic. The driver told me that its like that most of the time, and advised me that when returning to airport, leave at least 2 hours before from the hotel, which I followed a month later. My hotel Somerset Grand Citra, was around 35-40 kms from airport, and it took us 2 hrs to reach through that traffic. 

While talking to driver, I was observing the roads, bridges, buildings, etc. on the way. The infrastructure in Jakarta is awesome, huge bridges, 4 lane roads, giant towers, marvelous pieces of architecture. But despite all this, we were stuck in traffic. 

From what I learnt from that driver, reading articles about Jakarta is, Jakarta is both Mumbai and Delhi of Indonesia, i.e. formal capital, industrial capital, and financial capital. So the population is dense and concentrated in Jakarta region, so even though they have developed all this infra, it is still insufficient for the population that keeps increasing in Jakarta (just like Mumbai), and that is the reason of this traffic.

I saw many malls on highway, all the big brands, retail chains, food chains made their presence felt in Jakarta. And when the driver took a short cut through small lanes, I noticed small food joints, tea stalls just like on Indian streets. And one more common thing was, many office going people were having a tea break on those stalls with a cigarette. 

Have a look on these few pictures I took on the way to Hotel.

I reached hotel around lunch time, and checked into my room. It was a spacious 1BHK serviced apartment actually. A well equipped kitchen was all I needed to survive, since an Indian like me cant stay away from Indian food for long. And in foreign land, you have to cook if you want your kind of food. I was happy to see the apartment. The journey was over. My office was waiting for me.

Jakarta Diaries : 1 : Packing And Preparations

Thanks to my current employer, Amdocs, I got an opportunity for my first international trip. For some project activities, I was asked on a short notice to go to Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia for less than or up to one month. I said yes, without a blink, and the process started.

Like my previous history with the on site opportunities, this trip was almost cancelled, but then confirmed on last minute. Earlier in my previous company, I was set to go to China for one year, my work permit also arrived, but the client dropped the requirement, and trip got cancelled. And there were few instances in both companies I worked with, where there was an opportunity, but it did not work out, because of some visa eligibility requirements, company policies, too many reasons to name a few.

The china thing seemed to be so certain, the news was spread in all my family, close and distant relatives and friends. When the trip was cancelled, it was quite an embarrassment. So when I was likely to go this time, I used the term "most likely", till the day I was scheduled to go. Even on that day, I was mentally prepared to receive a call from my manager informing me that the trip is cancelled, and I am supposed to come to office as usual.

A colleague who was already on site, helped me a lot with the preparations. I did a lot of shopping for food items and stuff required for one month stay. The luggage weight allowed per peson is 30 kg, and beyond that they charge for each block of 5kg, varying with airlines. So the challenge was to try to adjust the stuff between the limit. I packed only the items I bought in one bag and weighed it on our bathroom scale. It weighed 25kg when kept horizontally, and around 22kg when kept vertical. Obviously it was not reliable.

I hadn't pack my clothes yet, camera, and a lot of things. In addition to this, both my mom, and my mother in law, sent their love. In India, love means food. :D Both of them prepared some durable snacks, and sent it from Aurangabad to Pune for me to take along. It reached my wife first, and she called me to tell that its easily around 8kgs. I told her I am only taking food to Indonesia, no clothes or any other thing. :D

We had to do something about increasing luggage and we did. We unpacked everything, and packed again. We left some of the stuff we packed earlier to make space for the love delivered from Aurangabad. :D We reduced the quantities of many things by considerable amount. Initially we had packed my clothes in a different bag, but when we realized that the bag itself weighs 3Kg, we merged everything into the bigger one tightly. 

Apart from that big aristocrat bag, and my laptop bag, we were still left with few miscellaneous things. We packed it into my office sack, and we were done. We bought one spring balance weighing scale, with maximum capacity of 50 kg, for weighing these, and in a hope that we'll get to go on such trips again in future. :)

Although the scale was capable of measuring weights upto 50kg, it's really difficult to lift a bag and hold it with that small and metallic grip of the scale. I lifted it and held it as long as possible, and the scale measured around 28 kg. The other office sack which I intended to check in was around 2-3 kg. 

I was in no mood to repack now, and so I made up my mind to pay baggage charge if necessary. My cab arrived on time, and I left for Mumbai. Generally, Pune-Mumbai travel takes 3-3.5 hours, but you never know, if some large container meets tragic accident on express highway, and blocks the road for hours, or you reach Panvel fast enough, but later it may take more time to reach airport. So to be on safe side, I left pretty early from Pune, and reached well before the check in time.

I would've got bored till boarding the flight, if my friend had not come to see me on airport. We spent a lot of time chatting and then she left. The recently started terminal 2 on Mumbai Airport, is really mind blowing. Everything is grand, luminous, and wonderful. For a moment, you might forget you are standing in Mumbai. :D

After waiting for more than half an hour in check in queue, I finally boarded my first international flight, and took off for Jakarta. :)