Jakarta basically shuts down for the week of Idul Fitri (and often for the following week too!). This included Eamon's preschool and the university Kieran is at, so we decided it was a good chance to take a break from hotel and city life and head somewhere more relaxed, and hopefully, more Indonesian!
The problem with travelling at Idul Fitri is that everyone does it, so roads become clogged, flights are fully booked and stories of hours long traffic jams abound. Last year, Yanti, our pembantu, went home to Surabaya - a 12hr bus trip that took 16hrs (this year, it took 24hrs!!) due to traffic, and stories of 5hr trips to the airport are not uncommon. It seemed prudent to take precautions and leave early. Kieran managed to find flights to Lombok, an island to the east of Java, and close to Bali for the Saturday night before Idul Fitri. We decided to give ourselves plenty of time to get to the airport and left the hotel at 4pm for a 7pm flight. Unexpectedly, instead of hitting traffic, we had a clear run to the airport, arriving by 4:30pm to find minimum crowds and that our flight was actually 8pm! Oh well!
The Jakarta domestic airport has little to recommend it. There are the basic facilities and a few shops, but not much else. Several "lounges" are available to those willing to pay for a place to sit, free softdrinks and small buffet of questionable food. We coughed up, enjoyed the seating and a couple of Sprites and stuck to our pre-packed sandwiches! The flight out was full, late, and low on air conditioning, but otherwise fine. Rory complained vigourously about being constrained (as is his wont) and Eamon happily drew pictures or played with the iPad for the 2hrs.
On arrival at the Lombok airport, conveniently situated in the middle of nowhere, we found our pre-arranged pickup was conspicuously absent (although the hotel did offer to send him immediately if we were willing to wait the hour for him to get there) and so we piled into an outrageously priced taxi and headed for Sengigi Beach. The roads in Lombok were surprisingly good, making for reasonably fast driving, however the celebrations for Idul Fitri (announced while we were in the airport in Jakarta as being the next day) led to many revellers and impromptu celebrations. The worst of which were a group of (probably drunk) young men in the middle of the road who proceeded to hit our taxi as we slowed for them. As some also picked up large rocks, Kieran politely suggested to the driver that maybe he could check for damage later and get the hell out of there! Luckily the boys were both asleep and oblivious to our less than encouraging welcome to Lombok!
Sengigi Beach was lovely. Our hotel was a few kilometres out of town meaning we were a little isolated from restaurants or supplies, but the lovely view over waving coconut palms, black sand beach and volcanic cones on Bali made up for it. Although older and slightly run down, the Bintang Sengigi was clean, peaceful and a great place to unwind and enjoy unpolluted air. The kids pool was a hit with Eamon who loved "practising his swimming" and the beach proved irresistible to Rory who thought sliding straight down the steepish beach into the water the best thing ever!
Getting into Sengigi for a look around was very easy using the bemo (small converted vans with wooden benches in the back and usually minimal dashboard or panels). A slower option is the cidomo, horse driven carts which are also popular, although sadly, not so much around our hotel. Once in town, there were plenty of restaurants, and we enjoyed some quite exceptional food, including local specialties of ayam taliwang (spicy chicken - very good!!) and some very fresh seafood (in contrast, we also had Australian steaks and NZ lamb chops one night for roughly $9!)
Although chilling out by the pool and playing at the beach were the main reasons for going, we were keen to do a little exploring, so hired a car for a day and headed north along the coast and then inland to check out the Monkey Forest which did, indeed, have monkeys hanging out by the side of the road, happily taking food from the hands of less wary travellers than us! (the realisation that rabies, if contracted, is 100% fatal without prompt treatment, even for those vaccinated has been enough for me to declare all animals untouchable, no matter how seemingly cute - which, in fact the monkeys were, except for the baring of extremely sharp-looking teeth!). Continuing on, we found a likely looking lunch spot in a restaurant above the road with lovely views back to the coast and the Gili Islands. Unfortunately the food was rather less promising than advertised (call me a wuss, but I'm deeply suspicious of chicken satay that arrives cold, in a place with no electricity) so we fed the kids up on biscuits and carried on.
Our next destination was a Buddhist temple with "holy eels" - sounds interesting and attractive to small boys! The temple is at a small place called Suranadi which basically consists of the temple, a rather run-down hotel with extremely cold pools and a few warungs or small shops. The temple was very popular, despite no longer having eels in residence (apparently you used to feed them boiled eggs, but this is no longer allowed so the eels have gone elsewhere) and was quite lovely with spring-fed pools and channels. The real bonus to Suranadi was a paved path through rice padis which allowed Eamon a good view of rice being planted, growing and being harvested. Our day out ended with a stop for some oleh-oleh (gifts) for Kieran to take to university (and some yummy carrot stick chip things) before heading back to the hotel.
Unfortunately, both kids came down sick that night so we decided to cut our losses and head home a day early. Despite only seeing a very small part of Lombok, we were very happy to enjoy some time in rural Indonesia away from the bustle and pollution of Jakarta. Hopefully we can come back again in the next few years!
In North Jakarta, near the old town, Pasar Pagi Lama is a collection of buildings and stalls built under a flyover. For directions I had the name and a text message "from where you'll get dropped off, walk a couple of hundred meters and there's heaps of stores in the centre - I go through those and to the stores on the other side of the street", rather vague fare, but with trusty driver at the wheel, we were soon in the thick of a maze of stalls and small shops selling a mass of bags, lunch boxes, stickers, pens, soft toys and anything else you might think to stick an angry birds or Ben 10 logo on. The eclectic mix also includes vendors selling balloons, decorations, fake Christmas trees, buckles and clips, light bulbs, cheap kids toys, stationary, wall decor, badminton rackets and other sporting goods (they string the rackets while waiting for customers) and fireworks.
A colourful, crowded and chaotic place, the market is best arrived at early, sans kids, as it gets hot quickly and becomes somewhat un-navigable by car by midday. We arrived around 9:30am and delved straight into the mix, coming up for air a couple of hours later when the crowds started to really slow progress. Surprisingly it was less intimidating than I expected, even as the only white person in sight, although I did keep one hand on my wallet, just in case. Suited to the impulse buyer, something I am, regrettably, not, I relished the sights more than the shopping, enjoying the craziness of being able to buy a disney backpack, umbrella, Christmas decorations and new tennis racket all within 10m and for probably less than $20! It is definitely a good place for buying more than you ever needed of stuff you'll likely never use. Being a wholesale market, purchases are best made in bulk - the price per unit for six or a dozen items often being significantly cheaper than for a single, in some cases ridiculously so, as in my purchase of some wall decor stickers - 1 sheet for Rp 10,000 (roughly AUD $1) or 6 sheets for Rp 18,000 (AUD $1.80)*. I'm still sure there's something seriously wrong with that sort of maths!
