Quickly escaping from Jakarta

This morning after a surprisingly good night’s sleep, but covered in mozzie bites, we woke up at 6am and decided to make a run for it and leave Jakarta. Although we went to the train station last night and tried to book tickets to go to Yogyakarta, we decided to not take ‘Full’ for an answer! So we jumped in a tuk tuk to the station and Chris managed to blag his way onto a luxury train. Prices weren’t cheap at all, but as soon as we got onto the train, the money was instantly justified, as it was so comfy, clean, and spacious with air con and unbelievably plug sockets! Perfect!

The lovely comfy train

Leaving Jakarta

An over-flowing bin just outside of Jakarta

The scenery along the way was great as well. There were just miles and miles of rice terraces and cute little villages to look out at.

On the way

Rice paddies with a huge mountain or volano in the background

However, just over half way the power was cut off, thus no electricity and worse, no more air-con! My God, it was simply like being in a sauna, it just got hotter and hotter, and as it was an air-conditioned train, none of the windows would open, so no breeze so we were left to bake for the next 3 hours! I felt so sorry for a local family trying their best with 3 young children to keep cool, using everything they could to fan them down even though sweat was literally pouring down them!

Rice paddies

farmland

So, we were relieved when we finally arrived! Finding accommodation wasn’t as easy as we thought, as most of the nice ones were full already. But after about walking in and out of 10 of them, we found a nice little place for good value but unfortunately, we forgot to check the bed! As soon as we sat down on the bottom right corner, Chris almost fell through! So we lifted up the mattress and found a huge chunk of wood missing! It was very funny though, but it didn’t matter as long as we avoided that area of the bed! In the evening after having one of the most refreshing showers, we went out for something to eat and got chatting to a friendly English couple, Nadia and Sam who gave us loads of great tips on what to do in Indonesia until late at night.

written by

chrischarly on June 2, 2011 from Jakarta, Indonesia

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

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