Coming from Singapore, felt that Batam is not clean.

Took a cab to the airport (65,000 Ruppiah) after lunch. There is an airport tax of 30,000 Ruppiah for domestic flights at the airport. Got on the 2.50pm flight with Kartika Airline (303,000 Ruppiah). There are many low cost airlines in Indonesia so it’s affordable to fly.

and arrived at Jakarta airport at 4pm.

The city is around 30km away from the airport so got on the shuttle bus (20,000 Ruppiah) to Gambir train station in the city center.

Jakarta

is also called the big durian and is a city with 10 million people. The city is located at the western part of Java. Java is just half the size of Britain but it has 120 million people here and is considered as the heart of Indonesia. The city is around 660 sq km and is 25 km from the north to the south.

Java Man, an earliest form of human lives here 1.7 million years ago. Even though Indonesia has the biggest Muslim population in the world, but Islam was just introduced during the 15th-16th century. Before that, Hindu and Buddhism are the major religion here. Borobudur, one of the biggest Buddhist temple was built around 750-850AD in central Java. Almost 88% of the population today is Muslim but it doesn’t seem like a religious country. By just looking around it seems there wearing head scarf is the exception rather the norm for the ladies, probably it’s better to stay that there are more non head scarf wearing ladies than those that who are wearing head scarf.

Took an Ojek, motorbike taxi (10,000 Ruppiah) to Jalan Jaksa

which is a place for backpackers. When I tried to look around the hostel, I noticed the Ojek rider tried to open my bag. Always have to be aware of people around.

Stayed at Hostel Kresna (70,000 Ruppiah) since that’s one of the cheapest option among the few places I asked.

Nasi Goreng Gila and Avocado Juice (20,000 Ruppiah)

Comments are closed.