The 5000 Project

Singapore was done in just a night – I didn’t have the funds to stay any longer – and the streets were far too clean for my liking.

I took a 30min bus to johor bahru, the border city after Singapore, and got the Malaysia stamp in the passport – I was meant to meet with a Couchsurfer but he never replied with his address, so I googled for backpackers and the closest one ended up being a 1hr local bus + 30min taxi. I was left in a storage shed area miles away from anything – the Backpacker sign on this storage unit was mainly in Chinese characters but I managed to call one of the Ph  numbers from it, after no response from pressing the security door buzzer for 10min.

The voice on the end sounded hyperactive and stuttery – he said he was 45min away and that I should check out the mall which is directly behind the storage block. The mall, like other malls in johor bahru (including a massive Riverside complex which was bordered off and unmaintained, viewing from the bus), was half abandoned – giant malls in ghosttown suburbs – I got the feeling this city was trying to be like Singapore far too quickly, without enough wealthy locals to support the hastily constructed capitalist infrastructure.

I returned to the storage unit and a car arrived – a highly essentric Chinese man stepped out, his name is Alex and he is the manager for 3 Backpackers in JB – the business has been struggling as most people get busses from Singapore to other more interesting places in Malaysia. He offered me to stay at his place for the same price as a dorm bed, after arriving at the house and fixing his virus infested computer, I got the spare room for half price. I further fixed his hosting/domain which he had been paying for but it hadn’t been functional for about 6 months. For this I got the second night free plus he paid for all my meals (awesome food at a Chinese market).

The hostel owner insisted that 4 photos are taken as I'm leaving, with different positions and angles. I promised that I will email them to him when I can, so that he can promote his business more

He suggested I head to tioman island and he was convinced that the cost of living on the island is cheap. The next day I took a local bus to mersing and a ferry to tioman, fearing that the longer I stayed with Alex the more computer work I will be asked to do; redesigning his website was the inevitable and unfortunate next step for him, a path I was not willing to pursue.

Next, tioman! Lot of blogging to catch up on (about to hike into the jungles of taman nagara, won’t be on the net for a few more days)

After indianajonesing the arrival in singapore, which involved scraping in to Batam before the public holidays and entering Singapore a day before the visa expires, I was unfortunately forced into having to pay for accommodation in expensive singapore :( as it seemed surprisingly difficult trying to find a couchsurfer who was available to lend me their couch (which is quite understandable).

Cheapest dorm accom I could find was $15AUD a night, I decided to just stay one night. Later I found out that its actually free to camp on any singapore beach, I would have assumed being singapore that this would be highly illegal – if I had a suitable pack and sleeping bag, and if I didnt just book a night in a dorm, I would have attempted this feat.

During the one night in singapore, I met with friends of a contact I met in Batam, at an english pub in little india. Although the hours were small in numbers, I gained quite a bit of interesting information about singapore which I would never have gained simply hanging out in a backpackers with fellow travelers:

– Indonesian cigarettes are illegal because singapore doesn’t gain any TAX from the product if shipped over, I managed to smuggle in a small pack of gudang gurans though; theyre only interested in multiple packs
– Superannuation has to be paid even if you’re not working, which forces people to work *forever as a slave for the corporate world (*ok, almost forever)
– Singaporeans use a mix of english, malay and chinese called singlish; the use of Chinese is specifically for swear words; just like in firefly ;D
– You can only purchase property if you’re married, I assume this is to ensure all housing is occupied, as the country is tiny
– I met a policeman who is a music festival hipster and works in the most dangerous part of Singapore where the Vietnamese gangs run wild, he gets beaten up occasionally, then the police crackdown in a vengeance movement; apparently this is a fairly routine cycle. I guess the more pain that is inflicted on him, the safer the streets are.
– The Police are remarkably uncorrupted, if a policeman is in debt he will be fired from the police force, which is great in preventing corruption temptation; but could lead the ex cop to join the underground crime world in a desperate attempt to, live.

My new friends gave me a towel, so as a hitchhiker I can feel very safe and secure now :D

I hopped on a bus to Johor Bahru the next day, which took about 30min and two border stops. I was going to stay at a couchsurfer’s place, but he never responded after the initial request acceptance. So I got some last minute accom which will be mentioned in my next post…

I stayed one night in Jambi, as I was in a bit of a rush.
– While I was there I found out that there is an archeological dig site not far from Jambi that is bigger than borobodur and could well be the next wonder of the world; with time restrictions, I didn’t get a chance to check it out :(
– As per usual, the local indonesians don’t drink alcohol, but the guys I met in Jambi like to sing and dance every night, I struggled to get into it without the aide of the liquid bread. The more I travel indonesia the more I am reminded how useless beer really is, it makes us socially weaker and gives us a necessity to force our bodies to relax instead of training our minds to just let go naturally.

Other than this, jambi is a nice clean city and I had a reasonably uneventful time.

So… batam!
In batam, I got drunk.

Batam is a mix between singapore and indonesia, which makes sense considering its location. The streets are clean and the commerce is a-plenty, large malls and fancy hotels span the city centre; however everything is still pretty cheap. [To Note: Singaporeans that I met in singapore made me think that I was just in a nice area of batam, the other half of the island could well be full of retired Singaporeans and prostitutes]

After getting reasonably drunk with a guy who works for UNESCO, I found out that batam is actually an unclaimed country; when the dutch left, the kings from the surrounding islands decided to burn batam to the ground so that noone could take it. Today Batam is run by two governments, the autonomous region government, and indonesia; but less indonesia than you’d think. You still need to consult the island eldars before buying property and other misc governmental activities, I was told that batam could quite easily become it’s own country due to the lack of some kind of international contract binding it to a country. I was drunk and I’m not quite sure how much I could trust this guy, so there is a chance it’s all bullshit.

After speaking with another guy in batam and after hearing the same thing from a few indonesians, it would seem that a lot of people preferred the good ol days of communist rule, if people were bad they would just vanish, everyone would live in fear and at the same time feel nice and secure. What they did not know didn’t matter, obliviously they were happy. Now with the introduction of democracy there is far too much transparency, the people know how corrupt the government is and the bad people tend to just linger waiting for the courts to sort it out. Harsh times aye, with this unbiased justice system :P

Singapore post to follow very shortly…

Righto, so, on friday I headed to the harbour to book my ticket to batam after hearing word that it is still operational. Turns out word was wrong. Thankfully I got couchsurfer responses for jambi and batam, also found out that there is a boat from Tungkal (harbour city near jambi) to Batam, but it runs every odd day (as in 3rd,5th,7th). My planned arrival date for Tungkal is the 15th, so it works nicely, the following 3 days are public holidays, visa expires on the 17th. I was cutting it very fine. Noone takes the ferry anymore as its cheap and quick to fly.

the frequently updated 'how to get to batam by boat' map

Before heading to Jambi I visited an old colonial house owned by the assistant to one of the indonesian ministers a few governments ago, a new couchsurfer is the owner’s niece, so this was a very rare opportunity – the house was better than the palembang museum, had damage from when the dutch attacked the building, upon their return to indonesia.

I was randomly invited to the palembang beauty pagent – which, before you ask, was not a whole bunch of anonymous girls in burkas (also, burkas are not actually a muslim clothing item, isnt mentioned in the koran; it is worn only by small sects originating from the middle east).

Facts learnt from people in palembang:

– Everyone tells me sumatra island is more dangerous than java island, I found out later that during the communist days of indonesia javanese people were relocated to all over indo in order to civilize the old tribes, quite often I am introduced to new cultures in sumatra that are actually java traditions. I think maybe this is why javanese people in sumatra think its more dangerous, because its not their original homeland.
In saying this; I was told that the local buses in palembang sometimes have 2 or 3 organized criminals that pickpocket and gently jab a subtle knife into your side and politely ask for your wallet if you happen to sit next to them.
– I met a russian who told me that north west china and kazakstan is actually pretty safe. although he also told me the small area of russia I plan on crossing through is rather unsafe, thinking it might be a good idea to go around it, the train system covers a larger network of areas than what I initially assumed. He gave me his details incase I need a letter from a local for the visa :D *score*
– Before climbing most mountains in indonesia, permission needs to be granted by the spirit of the mountain, an appointed official will do the asking :|
– Abortions are illegal in indonesia, as such dodgy backyard jobs are gaining in popularity, to resolve this problem the government decided to ban pornography. (?)

After a few days of relaxing, I hopped on a minivan to jambi, which I will blog about soon…ish

Original plan was to head to lampung to take small steps towards batam and singapore, but my jakarta friend (the one with the printing business) convinced me to go with him and his family to visit relatives in a rubber plantation village deep in the thick jungles 4hrs drive from Palembang. Well, due to the language barrier I thought we were just going to palembang, 5th yr in a row winner of the cleanest city in indonesia award, was not expecting a trip to an isolated village that has no phone signal and day long frequent power outages.

After a 25hr bus ride from jakarta, then a 4hr car ride – the jungle terrain started to get thick and the roads were almost undrivable; suddenly I was ambushed by islamic extremists and taken hosta…. actually no, this didnt happen; much of the complete opposite occurred:
– I stayed with a very loving family, the mamma adopted me as one of her own and didn’t want me to leave, she wanted me to abandon my australian family (bit of competition there, mum)
– I went to the second wedding in indonesia, huge wedding with ~200 people. After a brief chat with some guy who knew a bit of english, he later spoke at the wedding and suddenly changed from speaking indonesian to english, welcomed me to the village and said: “Don’t worry, we’re not terrorists, just people trying to be good Muslims”. After the ceremony I had about 20 photos with me and some random village people, I found out later that no westerner has ever been to this village. I felt like a celebrity.
– Upon wandering around on the outskirts of the village, I took photos of someone opening a coconut with a metal rod in the ground and a machete; they then explained (with the help of zain translating) that this family Organizes the traditional dance festival which occurs once a year, they found a DVD of a recording of it and played it for me on their TV; it involved a bunch of guys on cardboard horses dancing in slow movements, the second part of the ceremony involved the village tough guy putting on a 110kg head costume and attempting to dance around like an animal. after 20min or so he would take off the weights and go crazy doing flips and shit, I was told that sometimes the dancer would go into a frenzy and act like a wild animal; later he would forget the event occurring – the locals say this is magic. I’m pretty sure its the head trauma from the weights, but hey, I could be wrong. After they DVD they presented us with a feast of different foods, zain had no idea who these people were, nor did I.

I found out recently that there is an islamic guideline that goes something like: “Treat a stranger like your brother” which explains exactly how I have been treated during this last month. I also found out that the guideline goes further, states that the stranger should stay for 3 nights…. happens to be that every local that I have stayed with always seems to have an excuse why I cant leave after the first or second night; either they show me too many sights, then its too late to get a ticket out, or they tempt me with going on a trip later in the week with them.

As it happens, I am currently in Palembang city with only 5 days left on the visa and a network of buses and boats to cross in order to get to batam then singapore – planned it out and I should make it two day before the visa expires. Word on the street is that there is a speed boat that can take me there directly from a harbour town nearby, however it only leaves on saturdays and rumour has it that it may not be operating anymore due to the introduction of flights to batam. Going to stick around for a couple of days to wait for couchsurfer request responses anyway, see how it goes.

Glad to finally have decent net to upload photos, got a bunch on facebook right now. Memory card reader is playing up though for the more recent ones, and panoramic vids. Next post will probably be in the comfort of singapore.

Jakarta is a city of mass low economic areas providing for an extreme upper crust, most probably many cities fit the same structure, but from my extreme perspective influences during my stay I could see it very plainly – in a totally biased way, due to staying 3 nights in extreme upper class and 3 nights in relativity lower class, I had no real experience of the middle.

When taking the train to Jakarta from the east you are greeted with the sight of suburbs literally living on garbage. The reason for this is that dumping waste costs money, only the wealthy can afford the privilege of not living in their own plastic shit (not including molded to materialistic ornaments, shit). Some areas of south east Asia are similar, but not to this extent, I have been told Indonesia is closer to India in regards to overpopulation and waste. In saying this, there is a paid recycling system for water bottles, at least.

The struggling lower are non-alcohol non-pork Islamic living under the Islamic/nationals coalition party in power. They are the drivers, maids, gardeners and security guards for the cocktail swigging, upper.

Jakarta seems to be the only exception to the no alcohol no pork rule compared with the rest of Indonesia – I can only assume this is due to money, many cops and government officials can be bought, according to what I have been told by many different people. Any foreigner can own property or business through a number of well known loopholes. Any traffic violation can be waived with a few blue 50,000rp notes. In fact there is pretty much a loophole for every single law in Indonesia, especially where money to grease the wheels runs so freely in Jakarta. Corruption is such a huge issue that every day there is a well sized protest against it in the main city square (or, round-about). Well, at least there is good healthy freedom of expression.

My relatively poor friend that I stayed with used to have a thriving printing business, sometimes he would even get orders for books that would be sold in the US, however suddenly there was an influx of competition introducing the latest printing technology backed by foreign investments; this, partnered with the financial crisis, forced him to sell his house and car and live in a small house in the ghettos that leaks when it rains and brown outs whenever a plug is swapped.

The progression of this ‘developing’ country all seems to point to the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer in a large and hasty way. The gap is immense and quite visible. This could possibly breed more anger, frustration and jealousy amongst the lower class as they try to climb the impossible ladder; like an Escher drawing.

The traffic in Jakarta is insanely bad, every second day seems to be a 45-60min late-for-work day, legitimately with traffic to blame.

To have any kind of semi-accurate prediction for arriving to work on-time you should take the three tier public transport system:
– First, take a transjakarta bus from a inner city suburb (these buses have their own lanes and the stops are enclosed booths, its like a metro train system except its a collection of buses)
– Once the buslanes end, which is fairly soon, take an Angkot (short for ANGutan KOTa, which means City Transport) or Mikrolet which is a small blue minivan customized to fit ~9-10 Indonesian sized people, each collection of angkot has a number representing an outer suburb area, pretty much small buses.
– Once you run out of angkot, hail a motorbike for the last leg
– hurrah! you survived a 2hr trip home from the city (squished like a sardine for most of it) which could have taken longer if you drove yourself with the lack of skill to drive through the congested roads of chaotic and dangerous drivers, hey why not exploit this ridiculously cheap country and get yourself a personal driver for as little as $100/month!

*Note* Thanks to my jakarta contact for fact checking and minor edits, post delay due to this; and the fact that I have been out of internet range for the last few days

I lie on a thin narrow foam mattress legs hanging out the side, right angles to the mattress ,with only the top half of my body actually on the mattress – this is to allow room for another person or two – there are three people in this tiny cubicle of a room appartment – they are all staying up to watch the soccer match which starts in an hour.

The room has a coat of the humidity and smog grime that you would normally see outside – I’m not actually sure what colour the mattress sheet used to be.

I lie here knackered from an exhausting day – inhaling second hand smoke from 3 smokers, I think back to the morning…

Alarm goes off, I wake up well rested, I get myself out of the luxurious queen sized bed which the maids seem to magically make every day, I turn off the aircon and head down stairs after a nice western shower in personal bathroom. Later we hopped into the back of the SUV, waved goodbye to the security guard and the driver took the strain of having to drive through insanely congested peak hr Jakarta traffic.

This is my friend’s dad’s place – it’s a mansion – I was not expecting this when I first arrived in Jakarta. The friend in question is an old poker buddy from perth, he moved to Jakarta a few years back and now stays with his father. His father owns a mining engineering company.

Current location is the guy I met in malang’s place. He owns a printing press business not far from here.

*note* this is my first go of typing a blog post with just a phone