Except it is not really my first week. I am a frequent traveler and the times I have entered Indonesia cannot even be counted on two hands. It is however my first week with the intention of living here on a semi-permanent base. First order of business is getting a proper visa for a long stay in Indonesia. As it turns out this is taking a lot more paperwork and effort than I had initially thought. As a result, I am still ‘stuck’ in Jakarta. Jakarta is not a bad place to be, but not exactly my favorite either. It is a very crowded and noisy place, not exactly my kind of scene. But first things first and I need to get the visa sorted, I expect to be here another week. I might not even make it to Bali this time, as I already have a business trip lined up in two weeks. On the upside, Ayu needs to be in Jakarta for business as well and it gives us a great opportunity to spend some time together.

I flew with Saudia airlines from Amsterdam to Jakarta. It was a decent flight for a decent price. It was actually the cheapest flight I could find for the dates I was looking for. I had a return flight for 750 euros and a flight time of 20 hours… you can’t find them much cheaper these days (post-Covid). The times where you can find a flight for 500 euros seem to be gone (pre-Covid). The second leg of the flight was nine hours, and out of all seats, my seat seemed to have a broken entertainment screen. Ahh well… it was midnight anyway, probably better to get some sleep.

On the second day in Jakarta, after running around town for all the paper work (both for Ayu and me), we thought it would be a good idea to get a nice and relaxing massage. I found a nice place with good reviews near my hotel. We booked and paid only to find out it was not quite what we expected. You’d expect a nice private room where you take of most of your clothes, lie down on the massage table and delicate female hands will softly massage the stress out of your tense muscles. We had all of the opposite; for one hour we were sitting in a big chair in a dark common area with all of our clothes on. A big guy first started massaging my feet and next were my arms. It was far from a relaxing massage. After a while, he put the backrest of the chair down and asked me to lie face down. It was like he used all of his 100kg body weight to push the air out of the lungs, I was happy when it was over. The pressure on the head was quite nice, except he was wearing surgical gloves, this felt a bit weird. Like I said it was not a very nice massage, and they will definitely not see us again.

Some other exciting news that happened on the same day; I bough my first Bitcoin… Yayy! I bought a whole 0.013 piece of Bitcoin… what a wealth!

The next day we had another day of running around town for more paperwork and talking to people (online), I’ll spare the details. Ayu and I decided to take a proper massage this day. We both went back to our roots: Jamu Spa. This is a high-quality spa with excellent massages and other treatments. Google tells me I have been year six years ago and I can remember.

Even though Ayu and I arrived late, we were greeted with a warm smile and the Balinese hospitality that I am used to. We had a wonderful and very relaxing massage and halfway through the treatment I almost fell asleep. This is the kind of massage that you ought to have when you want to relax. It was quiet, peaceful and tranquil. Jamu spa has its origin in Bali and this is where Ayu and I met back in 2015. It is my most favorite romantic story. I was a massage student at the Jamu spa school and she was managing the school. For me it was love at first sight. For her it was not, but I had to grow on her. It would make a great Hollywood movie! Therefor I have very fond memories every time I set foot in a Jamu spa establishment, going back to the roots of our relationship.

Processing the visa takes a lot of time and in the meantime, I go from mall to mall. Because apparently that is what everybody does in Jakarta. Jakarta is a city of one mall after the other, at least they have great coffee and good food so I am happy. With all this free time on my hand I also go to the gym every other day… gotta work on that summer body for the beaches in Bali!

When the weekend comes, it’s time to visit some Dutch history in Jakarta. The Dutch have colonized Indonesia for 400 years and they left a substantial mark. I am not going to give a history lesson here but I do enjoy visiting the old town of Jakarta whenever I am here. Walking around in the old town and seeing old Dutch colonial buildings with Dutch names on it feels funny but weirdly also a little bit like home. It’s not my first time to visit and I doubt this will be the last. I did not visit any museums this time but I did learn something new. It’s actually a bit of a horrific story so I will not go into much detail here. Arlina, my Indonesian friend, told me that in times of war the rivers ran red from all the fighting and bloodshed. The river was used to dump the bodies in. Thankfully we live in more peaceful times these days (in most parts of the world at least).  

We walked to one of my favorite café’s; Batavia Café. A building constructed in 1805, which had multiple purposes during its long history but now serves as a restaurant and café. As you can see on the photos it’s very old-style Dutch (colonial and they used a lot of Teak wood). We come here for a cup of coffee and lunch.

The next day, Arlina and I escape the city and we take the train south. We went to Bogor-city to visit the large botanical gardens. Unfortunately, it had been raining all day, but this didn’t stop us from walking around. The gardens are well-maintained and very beautiful. It’s lush green with lots of different kinds of trees, bamboo species, flowers and much more. And what do you know… the Dutch have been here as well. These gardens have a long history and were constructed somewhere around the 15^th century to protect seeds of rare trees. During a part of the history the gardens have been under curation of the Dutch. There is even a small Dutch cemetery. Nowadays it is off course operated by the Indonesians. It’s a great place to be when you want to escape the hustle and bustle of the city and be in the nature.

Fun fact: the Indonesian president resides at this park in a large palace. Which is off-limits for visitors of course, but the palace can be seen from a distance.

Next stop is Bali, so stay tuned.   

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