Indonesia 2000, Part 1

Well, the computers in the internet shop in Denpasar were plying up (lost three days worth of
typing!) so I've moved to the infamous Kuta resort in South Bali. It's more expensive here but at
least it works!

Anyway, here are the first two days of Indonesia...


TUESDAY JUNE 13 

It was time for another country. It was time for Indonesia. Took the 9:30am ferry to the Island of
Batam, arriving at 9:30am local time. The difference between the countries was immediately
noticeable, particularly by the presence of touts. 

We'd missed the express/direct boat to Pekanbaru so had to take two boats there. At 11am got on a
fast boat to Selat Panjang. Arrived there at about 4pm to be greeted by a mob of rickshaw drivers
wanting to take us to the nearest masjid. We thought we'd returned to India! Eventually, took one
for free!

After Zuhr and Asr went for a bite to eat. But only had enough money for plain rice! The
combination of rice, tomato and chili sauces can be pretty tasty when you're hungry! No money for
the port tax so they let us off. Got on the slow boat to Pekanbaru at about 5pm. Had a berth each
so managed to get quite a good night's sleep. (It was only the second time that I'd spent a night
on a boat.). 

On the boat we first experienced the most annoying aspect of Indonesia - smoking. I've hardly met
an Indonesian guy who doesn't smoke. It seems that smoking here, for guys, is just regular part of
growing up. Just las there comes a point when one stops wearing short pants, in Indonesia there
comes a point when one automatically takes up smoking. I love Indonesia. It is the best (that is,
the people are the friendliest and the country is the most beautiful) country that I have ever
been to. But the smoking really bothers me!


WEDNESDAY JUNE 14

Arrived in Pekanbaru at about 7am. Shared a taxi (though I'm sure we paid over the odds) to the
centre of town. 

Pekanbaru is the third biggest city in Sumatera and Indonesia's oil capital. Due to the oil, it is
meant to be quite wealthy, but you wouldn't think so from the look of it, particularly the
dangerously positioned open sewers on the sidewalks. It was polluted, humid and very busy. I
didn't much like it - not the best of introductions to Indonesia.

As there wasn't much to do, after booking our tickets to Bukittinggi and breakfast we headed for
an email place. Zuhr, and a walk about town, which included attempts at buying a sun-hat for
Mustafa, followed the emailing.  For lunch we went to Canadian 2-for-1 Pizza. The pizzas were very
good - to Pizza Hut standard anyway.  We got two large for the price of one, which were a bit too
much for two people - ideal for three. Where are you, Faizal?

We split after lunch. I went to do some more emailing while Mustafa tried to go to an oil field
but nearly got robbed en route!

Got an unbelievable number of stairs on the way back to take the bus. Nowhere did I get that many
looks! Anyway, the 9pm bus eventually left at 10:30pm. 

Previously, I've written about the pitfalls of buying bus tickets from agents rather than directly
from bus stations. Unfortunately, we didn't learn our lesson from the Bangkok-Phucket experience
and the ticket to Bukittinggi was bought from an agent. It didn't matter much that the bus was
delayed but it was very uncomfortable to say the least, which would've been ok had we not expected
better. Well, at least we were on a local bus this time. Travelling with local people always feels
much better than with other travelers.