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If you're going to Indonesia, only use Bluebird taxis in Jakarta. Their selling point is that they're safe, reliable and always charge by the meter, and their owner actually gives a poo poo about that reputation. They're just like proper cabs in first world countries! Don't stay in famous prestige western chains in Jakarta like the Marriot or the Hyatt. Either go local or go downmarket global (eg Ibis). The reason is that on the very rare occasion when terrorism hits the capital, it's nearly always one of these chains or an embassy. You're still far more likely to die crossing the horrifically bad roads, but terrorism is considered scarier than buses by some people and you might be one of those people. In Yogyakarta, don't stay in Sosro unless you want party times with fellow backpackers (ie you may actually want to stay in Sosro if that appeals). Cabs to the city cost very little (a couple of dollars) and the Hyatt or the Jogja Plaza out near the university are really nice. The pubs and clubs are constantly changing, but the one at the Sheraton was great a few years back. Regardless of where you choose to go out at night, the locals are really friendly, so you won't find it hard to get recommendations on where to go next. I used to live there and haven't been back in a few years, but be careful of anyone offering drugs - there's a lot of undercover cops, and not many will take kindly to the traditional Indonesian bribe. Most places in non-Bali Indonesia, you can eat from street stalls in complete safety. Obviously watch them cook it for someone else to get a sense of how filthy the conditions are, but as most food is fried, boiled or stirfried its usually very safe, very cheap, very quick and very tasty. The street stalls in residential areas are best, the ones in tourist areas less so (mainly because residential associations will have dodgy operators beaten and driven away).
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Mar 7, 2010 08:43
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 14:03 |
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i see things posted:On the otherhand, my girlfriend's nephew is thinking of joining the red-shirt rally because apparently they are paying 500 baht for joining the protest. How they pay out - I have no idea. It's probably a bunch of bullshit. If it's like an Indonesian protest they'll pay when he gets on the bus to go.
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Mar 11, 2010 16:19
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Sheep-Goats posted:Try Micronesia or some place in Indonesia, or maybe even Western Africa. Drawbacks to those may include the expense or fact that the nearest village may be grumpy Muslims instead of cheerful Thais or relative inaccessibility. Re: rural Indonesia is full of grumpy Muslims - not really. The further you go, the more bizarre you become, but I went all sorts of places I didn't expect to be welcome and everyone was really nice even if they did want to touch me. For example, I went to the home village for a religious school that trained some of the Bali bombers and had a great time. I also visited the school and it was no worse than the Catholic school I went to back home, only slightly more politically minded. Basically though, if you go to some village where white people are only seen on TV, you're not going to be in an area where religious grumpiness is common. Fundamentalism is an urban thing in Indonesia. In the sticks people are too poor to afford a religious education and have to get by without it, so the more rural and isolated you go, the less politically religious things get, until you start to hit animism and suchlike. I'd recommend Flores in Indonesia for something closer to untouched. There are some amazing things to see there and the whole island is Catholic, so you can even go to Mass if that floats your boat/you share Sheep-Goats' concern about scary eastern religions.
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Mar 17, 2010 02:23
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Sheep-Goats posted:I actually had Indonesian housemates for quite a while here in NYC and they're great people. I also had a girlfriend in college who taught English there when she was 19 or something and got stared at in a pretty aggressive way one time and followed home (bare shoulders) and hassled about the fare for the ferry (she'd only kept enough to pay the actual price, not the foreigner-inflated price). I was just trying to be colorful I guess. That's cool, I wasn't sure if you were trying to dogwhistle a Muslim=terrorist viewpoint or not. There's certainly some issues with crazy stalkers in Indonesia, thanks to some oldschool ideas about appropriate dating techniques. This stands for girls and guys, but girls tend to get the worst of it. It's not usually an issue for tourists though, because the tolerance threshold isn't usually broken for a few weeks at least. One thing I should have said is that if you don't speak the language, don't go travelling in rural Indonesia on your own. Possibly no one will speak good English and you'll find it hard to find someone who can speak bad English. But basic formal Indonesian isn't hard for English speakers to learn and most locals under 60 or so will have learned it at school and from TV, so you shouldn't have much trouble there if you put the effort in beforehand. You could also hire an interpreter I guess, but I've never tried that. In Indonesia, you can hire someone to do practically anything, and it's rarely expensive.
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Mar 17, 2010 03:41
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What right do greasy foreigners have to see the royal palace? They must be sent to jewellery and clothing stores immediately! (It's probably an official scam)
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Mar 23, 2010 23:26
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 14:03 |
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Haggins posted:I'm more than likely getting laid off in the fall, two weeks after the final space shuttle mission. Depending on what you have to do with the space shuttle, going to North Korea might be a really, really bad idea. Have you thought this through?
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Apr 10, 2010 23:23
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