Prior to our Phils trip, Xenono and I made arrangements to meet up in AC to travel to Jakarta together. We originally planned on hitting Jakarta first as I knew it would take Herculean efforts to pry myself away from my AC honeykos. Hombre INSERT HK1 [IMAGE #693] and Honeyko#2 [IMAGE # 695]

But we ended up going to AC first, and then to Jakarta, to better mesh with the schedules of MX, Crazier, Socrates, WickedWilly and Sancho. As expected, damn was it difficult to pry myself away from AC, not only were the honeykos keeping me PLENTY happy, but I got hints of things in Indonesia that can ruin your day: Bird flu found in Jakarta, U.S. govt Travel Warnings, Rude Muslim terrorists, Language Barriers, the fear of the unknown….. I guess I was selectively picking out things to justify me staying in AC. But this sense of procrastination is what made me lose out on seeing Cambodia at the peak of the Svay Pak era and I was not gonna let this happen again.

I’m sure Xenono will cover this more in his TR, but a few days before we were to leave, the U.S. State Dept. issued a “Travel Warning” to all U.S. citizens discouraging all unnecessary travel to Indonesia. Hmmm…. I’ve seen travel warnings and advisories before for Colombia, but this particular warning was very specific ---they found 35 completed bombs near Jakarta as well as a video on how to lob grenades into taxis full of Westerners stuck in traffic. To top it off, something was supposed to go down against Westerners before the end of the year. Frankly, I got a bit psyched out. But after some investigation and calls to MX and others, we decided to bite the bullet and make the trip. My hand is still sore from always having a firm grip on the taxi door to make a quick exit though.

So we flew Singapore air (very nice planes) and ended up in Jakarta for 5 days to hookup with several CH mongers. Ironically, as is typical of the CH Hombre, none of the others we met seemed to have even given a second thought to the travel advisories.

Our hotel was the Sparks Hotel, which was recommended by MX and Soc. Great, funky little place in the middle of Kota (great location), everything was new. I got a great deal from KAHA travel at $26/night. The hotel had a good restaurant cafe, wi-fi in the common areas, a pool, massage service, disco on 1st floor, a business center, and the staff was generally nice. This is a fantastic hotel for the price and I didn't have any complaints except their standard rooms could've been a bit bigger. It's not located in the nicer, more modern part of Jakarta and you won't see too many Westerners (except fellow mongers) here, and most guests appeared to be Asian and Indo Business people. But it certainly served its purpose well and I wouldn't hesitate to stay here again.


(Message edited by merlin on November 30, 2005)

Well despite 2 ominous travel warnings, nothing happened during the holidays as they predicted. I did see more barriers at hotels, armed guards, and police around. Ironically, I had to stay at the OASIS AMIR this past trip which primarily caters to Indonesian and Middle Easterners. I was surprised that this hotel did not have the barriers, guards, etc. like you do at all the other hotels. Then I figured, this would be the last place they hit up with a bombing b/c of the clientele. Never felt safer during a travel warning.

One thing that surprised me while reading the Jakarta post is that street crime is something to be wary of in South Jakarta (nicer part of town).

http://www.thejakartapost.com/yesterdaydetail.asp
?fileid=20060103.@02

I personally never seen crime or felt unsafe at all, but I did see some spooky guys eyeing me on the elevator going up to Millenium disco. I think travelers should be aware that JKT is not like BKK in terms of crime.