I woke up late at about 9 AM. I slept for too long. I think it was more than 10 hours since I went to bed at around 9 PM. I took a quick shower in a pretty dirty shower room. I realized that not wearing glasses helped me not care about the dirtiness because I cannot see it without them.
After I checked out, I left the hostel after getting my deposit back. Since I had a voucher for free coffee at a restaurant on the same street, I went there and asked for a coffee. There was a woman working there, and she started preparing it. The restaurant was empty, which surprised me because I thought there would be a lot of guests using the same voucher.
After tasting the coffee, I understood why it was empty. I think the coffee was instant coffee. I heard the sound of a microwave coming from the kitchen, so she might have simply warmed up some premade coffee. Whatever it was, the coffee was not good. I did not finish it and decided to leave.
At the entrance, there was a guy who looked to be in his 40s or 50s sipping coffee that he had bought from somewhere else. He had a very thick book, a small piece of paper, and his MacBook Pro. I was wondering what he was doing, so I asked him.
His name is Josh, and he is from the US. He is a boat designer traveling around Indonesia and other countries to see different boats around the world. The thick book, which I thought was a dictionary, turned out to be a Bible. He told me that he reads a chapter or section every day and takes notes on a small piece of paper, which was so wet that what he had written was unreadable.
I asked him what he would recommend for my first day in Jakarta since he had already stayed in Indonesia for a couple of months. Unexpectedly, he recommended a random street that he showed me on the map on his laptop. He told me that I would be able to see how most people in Jakarta live. He had walked there before and liked what he saw. He also told me that he enjoys walking.
I was glad that he did not recommend any touristy places. I thought it would be interesting for my first day exploring this country. I am free to do anything until June 27th, Saturday, when I am planning to watch a Judo match and start practicing Judo.
After talking about his recommendations in Jakarta, he started talking about his passion for boats. He is planning to go to a city in eastern Indonesia to see a boat project. He also told me that he might go to the coast of Australia. He did not have any solid plans and said, “We’ll see what happens,” which I had heard many times from a guy from the US named Matthew, whom I met in Angoulême, France. That is a backpacker’s mentality, I guess—having no plans.
Josh found a random boat in Jakarta that had some Japanese kanji written on it. He asked me to help him figure out what it said. Unfortunately, the image was blurry and the kanji were uncommon, so I could not read them.
I think we talked for about 30 minutes before saying goodbye. We might meet again since we were staying at the same hostel.
After leaving the hostel, I headed to a coffee shop that I later found out was actually a tea shop. Although the ambience was amazing and western music was playing, there was nobody inside. I ordered a Jamu Tea, a traditional Indonesian herbal tea. It came with a small glass and a large glass filled with tea.
I am not a big tea fan in the first place, and I did not really like the taste. I could not finish it. While sipping the tea, I updated my blog. After staying there for a couple of hours, I left. During that time, I saw only a few customers, which seemed to leave the two young employees bored.
Since I wanted to eat something in Chinatown, which I had visited the day before, I went there again and ended up entering a random restaurant where many elderly people were enjoying karaoke and singing Chinese songs. It was so loud that it was difficult to place my order.
The food, however, was not Chinese but Indonesian. I ordered a bowl of noodles and fried chicken, which were disappointing in both portion size and taste. While I was eating, I received a message from the hostel saying that I had taken someone else’s sandals.
I checked, and they were not mine. While I had been walking earlier, they had felt a little strange, but I thought my sandals were simply getting old, so I did not pay much attention. According to the message, the guest whose sandals I had taken was pretty upset, so the hostel asked me to come back as soon as possible and apologize.
I finished my meal as quickly as possible, paid 55,000 IDR (about $3), which I do not think was worth it, and left.
When I got back to the hostel, the guy was standing in the kitchen doing something. He looked Asian, probably Chinese. I approached him and said, “I’m sorry, I took your sandals.”
Surprisingly, he did not seem as upset as I had expected. He took back his sandals, and I found mine in front of the room where I had stayed. The problem was solved.
At that point, I extended my stay by one more night, checked in again, and asked about the laundry service that Josh had recommended. It cost 55,000 IDR for express service, meaning I could get my clothes back the same day.
Without the clothes, my backpack felt noticeably lighter.
I left the hostel and headed to the street that Josh had recommended. Walking in my own sandals again felt much better.
As Josh had said, the area looked very different. The houses looked old, and prices at local shops were extremely low. For example, one laundry shop advertised a price of only 3,000 IDR (about 20 cents) per kilogram. I had just paid more than ten times that amount for the hostel laundry service.
I also bought a random smoothie that cost only 5,000 IDR (about 30 cents), and it tasted pretty good. I was a little concerned because flies were flying around the shop, but it turned out to be fine.
Along the way, I met local people and was reminded of how kind Indonesians are. At one point, I got lost, and some people helped me without me even asking.
Also, one of the guys directing traffic on the road—a job I saw quite often—randomly asked me where I was from and where I was going.
Based on my travel experiences in Southeast Asia, being asked those questions is often the beginning of someone asking for money or trying to sell something. But it was different here. He was simply curious and wanted to help me get where I was going.
After about an hour and a half of walking, I reached my destination, Emporium Pluit Mall. The cool air conditioning immediately cooled me down.
I could not believe that both the street I had just walked through and this fancy modern shopping mall existed right across from each other.
I entered Starbucks to dry my sweaty T-shirt and take a break. The people I saw at Starbucks and the people I had met on the street looked so different that I could hardly believe they lived in the same country.
Since I had a lot of YouTube editing to catch up on, I spent quite a while editing videos.
Although I was craving sushi when I saw Sushiro, a Japanese conveyor-belt sushi chain, I decided to walk to Pluit Village for dinner instead.
However, Pluit Village was pretty boring. It felt just like another shopping mall, so I left without eating and returned to the hostel by Grab motorbike.
I ended up having dinner at food stalls near the hostel. I bought some spicy meatballs and nasi goreng from different stalls. The total cost was only 30,000 IDR (about $1.70).
I ate them at a table set up behind the stalls. I was very satisfied with the portion sizes, taste, and hospitality.
So far, I have not experienced anyone trying to overcharge or scam me in Indonesia, at least as far as I know.
After just one full day in Indonesia, I had already started to like this country because of its people.
When I returned to the hostel, my laundry had come back neatly folded and organized in a small transparent bag.
I thought the girl working at the front desk was cute, so I told her, “You are beautiful.”
She looked a little embarrassed and replied, “Thank you.”
I went back to the same room and bed. I was a little annoyed by some of the guests, including the Chinese guy whose sandals I had accidentally taken earlier, because they were talking loudly right outside the room.
Still, I understand that hostels can be places where backpackers ease their loneliness by connecting with fellow travelers.
I ended up going to bed a bit late.
