A long, long day - Blogabond

Well today was certainly a long day! We woke up bright and early after a rubbish sleep due to our neighbour watching loud films on his laptop until 2am! It took ages to work out where the noise was coming from, as we didn’t know there was anyone staying there! So I went walking around the whole hotel checking that no T.Vs were left on and getting the manager to check. We just couldn’t work it out, as there were thick concrete walls into the other room next to us, which we thought were the only other people staying on our floor. Very irritating! In the end, I worked out that part of the wall was just thick cardboard basically, so hammered on there for ages, but it didn’t help until I banged on his door continuously until he shut up! I then found out that it was a staff member who was being so noisy, so I was even more wound up! So after 3 hours sleep, I wasn’t really prepared for the day ahead.

The pilot of our plane reading his newspaper

We took a taxi to the airport as there were no buses running that early and the flight left for Johor Bharu at 9:30am. Easy. We then took a bus to the main bus stand before getting on another through into Singapore airport. Then, from there we had to just and wait for our flight. As we were 4 hours early we couldn’t drop our bags off which was a pain but as there is very little to do in the budget terminal, it wasn’t a big deal. There were huge storms in Singapore as soon as we arrived so we were praying our flight wouldn’t be cancelled, which luckily it wasn’t, just delayed by 30mins.

Chris very excited about going on a plane in Singapore

When we got onto the plane, we somehow managed to get the extra legroom seats, which was great as we didn’t even pay for them, or even ask. Maybe the lady took pity on us at the counter. Once we arrived in Jakarta is was manically busy, but there was a great bus system operating just outside the airport so caught a bus really easily into Jln Jaksa, which is the main backpackers street, right next to the train station. The bus took about an hour and just looking out the window we were amazed at just how busy as well as huge Jakarta is! Phenomenal is the only word to describe this place! Java is apparently the most populated island in the world for its size, amazingly beating India, which we didn’t think possible, so as soon as we arrived we tried to plan our escape route, by walking to the train station and trying to get any train out of there as quick as possible, not caring about the destination.

Our mosquito-ridden room

This however wasn’t possible as we just missed the last train as it was already 9pm. We then tried to book tickets to leave for Yogyakarta in the morning but they were unfortunately fully booked! So it seemed that we would be stuck here. So we then went on a mammoth walk (well so it felt) to Jln Jaksa not realising just how far it is and tried to find decent accommodation. After over an hour of searching in complete shit holes (and there is no other way to describe the places here) with having people constantly coming up to us trying to sell us things and places to stay when all we wanted was to be left alone, we eventually found somewhere with friendly people and gave up and stayed there.

This photo doesn't really capture the filth

Chris swears that it was by far the worst place we’ve yet to stay in and absolutely hated it, and maybe he was right but I think some places in India were worse though, but then again I may have been a tad bit optimistic. We then didn’t want to face the people, the hassle, and the streets there so although we were hungry we stayed in too scared to leave again.

written by

chrischarly on June 1, 2011 from Changi Airport, Singapore

from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia

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