Yesterday was my last day in Jarkata. Thanks to patronizing the roof top bar, I woke up on the late side, (probably close to 8:00-(my late is still earlier then many other's people's early's, particularly in hostels).
I went downstairs to work on the computer. Between writing the blog, checking email, Facebook, etc-I easily spend a few hours on the computer every morning. Around 11:00 am, the guy who gave me a ride on the motorbike came downstairs, along with a few others I have been hanging around with, and we decided to go for lunch. (I can always eat lunch). We went half a block down to a traditional Indonesian vegetarian restaurant. The people I went with said it was clean-but clean is relative, especially compared the traditional Western standards. The food was good, although lots of flys we're around. One person I went with was a guy from Singapore, who was interviewing people in Jarkata for a project. The other was an Indonesian girl from the north who stays at the hostel a lot, because she likes to spend time in town I guess.
I learned about the language-how to say thank you to both men and women. The guy from Singapore also spoke Chinese, so I learned that there are many different ways to address people.
After returning from lunch around 1:00 pm-I had some time before the bus from the airport to pick me up (at 4). So I sat around the hostel and rested for a while. The hostel in Jarkata is too easy to sit around, as it is one of the best equipped hostels I have seen. In addition to the aforementioned roof top bar, the hostel has a movie room, where one can watch many on demand tv shows and movies. Outside the movie room there was a TV with HBO, and plenty of couches/sofas to sit around and relax on. There was free breakfast and inexpensive lunch. And the entire hostel had bamboo plants and decor and incense burning.
At 1:45 or so, I went to a antique market about a 15-20 minute walk away from the hostel. There we'e a lot of different booths selling many wooded items, like sculptured masks. I walked back through the heat and relaxed back at the hostel.
At 4:00 pm, myself and three others took the taxi to the airport (which was more expensive then we we're told-the driver put the meter on-which was good for him because there was a lot of traffic.) We got to the airport about 2 hours early and had a drink at Starbucks.
The plane left a little late, about 8:00, on an airline called Garuda Indonesia, the main airplane took me to Jogkakarta, the next destination. The flight was only $46. (vs $30.00 for the train-about 8 hours vs 1 hour for the flight). The airline was different then US carriers-we we're served a snack box, with a pastry and 2 cookies.
The hostel sent for a pickup from the airport. and I took the hour drive from the airport, and we went to the hostel.
