Thanks guys – seems we were a bit too early for you …

It is 150km from Bandung to Jakarta. Everyone, including Andy in Jogja, warned us about the traffic in Jakarta. Or maybe rather the traffic to Jakarta. So we had two options starting this morning: Make it onto the fast roads or crawl along to Bogor and then take a train into the city center.

The sticker shop (mangele.com) was still closed so we took a photo in front of the shop instead of showing the owner our bike. And off we went.

Getting onto the “fast roads” worked very well…to my surprise. We did about 50km before we were stopped by a maintenance crew. They were very worried about us but making us follow their car on the shoulder of the road was actually dangerous. They despaired a bit when they realized that the next exit would be twenty to fifty kilometres further down the road. So they waved us onto a resting area where they had a brief chat with a police guy who seemed totally unconcerned. After another 5km of following them, they gave up and waved us back onto the actual road.

big and small, at the mall

Thus, we made the 150km in about 1 ½ hours which is record time and speed for Indonesia. 2km before our exit in the center of Jakarta, we got stopped again, this time by a police car. The policeman was very friendly and took many photos (including selfies) with us before escorting us off to our exit. From there it was only a short hop to the Kuningan City Mall where vfs global has its office. Jakarta turned out to be entirely different from what I expected. The inner city looks like any big western city as well with glass towers and massive high rises. The traffic is dense but not worse than in a crowded German city. The red traffic lights were probably the most annoying thing because we had to stop in the sun and were fried but everyone stuck to the road rules more or less.

Kuningan City Mall even had a security check before you could enter, probably because it was stuffed with fancy boutique shops such as Armani, Boss and the like. After finding a parking spot dedicated for motorcycles over 500cc (wtf? That’s very specific), we made our way in and across to get to the lifts. In the far end corner was a motorcycle shop with a Harley Davidson on display. Just saying.

The place to pick up our passports

Up on the third floor, we walked into the vfs office just to be promptly sent out again to store all of our stuff. I guess jackets and helmets and a tank bag are not essential for picking up your passport. After that, it was a breeze: Walk in, get a number, be the only person who wants to speak with the New Zealand representative, say “we want to pick up our passport”, get a knowing look from the lady and two envelops with our passports. A quick check to see it is A. the correct visa and B. all your data is correct and off we went.

With that success, we went to explore the mall and get something to eat. The upper level was a food court where all kinds of food were sold so I had a “home-y” food day. I ordered mashed potatoes and had an éclair filled with chocolate cream for dessert. Yum, yum yum.

Flo and I needed the time while eating to come up with a new plan. Our plan had finished with “pick up our passports” and now it was 1pm, we were in Jakarta and had nothing more to do. Quickly it became clear that we wanted to make use of our good fortune, stay in the city and see a bit of it. Found a very nice looking backpacker hostel online which we booked even if it was slightly out of our price range because in the good old hostel tradition, it had a social area with a pool table. We could do with a bit of socializing today.

Six degrees, the hostel, was all that we wanted. Checked in at 14.05pm and went out pretty much immediately afterwards. Well, not quite true, I had a quick cuddle with Nemo, the hostel cat. Probably the biggest and fluffiest cat I have met in Indonesia so far.