Travel report: Indonesia

Country ranking by area: #15
Country ranking by population: #4

Date of visit: November 2013

Sorry for the bad photo and video quality in this article. My dropbox says that I only took about 25 pictures with my Iphone 4 in Indonesia.

Indonesia was the 23rd country I’ve travelled to. Interestingly, it was already my sixth Southeast Asian country after travelling to Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Laos and Cambodia the years before. As you can see, my first travels usually took me to the Far East. It was the most intriguing part of the world to me back then.

How we dodged one of the worst typhoons ever

I remember the time when Matt and I were discussing the travel destinations for a two week trip in November 2013. We talked about several options and we eventually had the choice between two remaining destinations: Indonesia or the Philippines. Indonesia was Matt’s preference, while I preferred the Philippines. We finally chose Indonesia. I think the main reason was that the Philippines could have been a bit boring for two young guys, and I still believe that the Philippines are probably best for couples who have just met each other.

Two weeks before we travelled to Indonesia, Typhoon Haiyan devastated half of the Philippines. It was one of the strongest typhoons ever recorded, and I remember the images of completely destroyed cities in the Philippines. It looked terrible. Thousands of people died, thousands lost everything they had. I don’t even want to imagine that we could have been there if we hadn’t chosen Indonesia as our destination.

The first three nights in the tourist hell

Fortunately, we had more luck than the poor people in the Philippines, as Indonesia wasn’t affected by a tropical cyclone. November was a good time to visit the country. The main season was already over and it was the start of the rainy season, however, with only a few rainy days in November. It wasn’t the first trip to Indonesia for Matt by the way. He has been to Bali twice before and he is still a huge fan of the island. Bali wasn’t a place I had on top of my to do-list, and I cannot even say why. Anyway, I was open to it and the popular island became our starting point in Indonesia. However, I didn’t want to travel to Bali only but combine it with Lombok and the Gili Islands.

Back then, I also preferred to take more than two weeks off from work. Having two and a half weeks maybe or even three weeks vacation was perfect. The more the better. Nowadays, I don’t mind flying 10 hours twice in one week. As Indonesia is one of the remotest countries from Europe, I didn’t want to travel the whole way nonstop but with a layover somewhere. Therefore, I spent four more nights in Southeast Asia (three in Bangkok and one in Jakarta), while Matt only came to Bali, the Gilis and Lombok. He travelled the whole distance without a layover. He almost missed the last flight from Singapore to Denpasar, and his luggage didn’t arrive in Bali either.

We started our first week in Bali in Seminyak. Kuta-Seminyak-Legian is the most touristy corner in Bali. And the worst by far! It’s the Aussie Ballermann, the place where young travellers from the Western world (mostly Aussies) go wild. I think we chose this area because we wanted to party in the first three nights, but alas, it was far from what I expected. We have seen fights, we have seen cheap nightclubs and hordes of drunk tourists. Of course, places like that can be fun if you’re young. But seriously, Kuta has no class at all. I even have to say that this was one of the worst places I have ever seen. Worldwide.

We actually stayed in Seminyak, which was not as bad as Kuta. We always went out in Kuta though, as there were way more bars and nightclubs there. Kuta shows how mass tourism can go terribly wrong. You see tourists who don’t care about the local culture and behave like animals. It’s similar to Koh Phangan in Thailand but even worse.

I haven’t seen Kuta during daytime and I don’t think that I missed anything. Seminyak was okay during the day, although nothing very special. When we walked through the village, I was asking myself if that was the beautiful Bali everyone was talking about. It didn’t look spectacular and I have seen far better and more beautiful towns in Thailand two years before.

The beach in Seminyak was worse than the town though! It looked like a huge dump, and you could see the sewer flow into the ocean at some places. It looked disgusting. My start in Bali was rather disappointing therefore, and I think that the corner Kuta-Seminyak-Legian is one of the worst tourist hells in the world. Generally, the only nice beach I have seen in Bali was the one in Nusa Dua. We were passing by Nusa Dua after Seminyak and made a short jetski break.

Ubud: Eat, pray and a dance that never ends

Ubud is the trend destination for desperate white people, who want to “find themselves” thanks to the movie Eat, Pray, Love with Julia Roberts. But it’s also the place where the more civilized tourists meet. It’s the spiritual Bali and looks completely different than the touristy area around Kuta. Green rice-fields dominate the landscapes, and there is no beach, as Ubud is in the middle of the island.

The best thing about Bali are the hotels in my opinion. There is no place in the world where you can book luxury hotels for the price you pay in Bali. In Ubud, we rented a 500m2 villa just for the two of us. I remember how my boss at that time called me decadent because of that. And it was. We paid 300 Dollars per night for the spacious and luxurious villa. I don’t think that I have slept ever again in a place like that.

Ubud was better than the area around Kuta, Seminyak and Legian, although it rained on all three days we were there. The town was pretty nice though and the landscapes amazing. As we had our luxury hotel, we also wanted to enjoy it a bit and weren’t as active in Ubud. However, Ubud is also a good base for tours. We joined a tour one day that took us to the coffee plantage, on which they make coffee from cat excrement, and visited a monkey forest. The Balinese don’t drink the cat poop coffee by the way, it’s just for us tourists.

My mother told me that I absolutely had to visit a traditional Balinese dance, although she has never been to Bali (but her sister has). Therefore, we paid 5 Dollars to visit such a show. I am not making this up, but the show was 90 minutes more or less the same thing and it didn’t want to end anymore. I saved a few seconds in my online storage:

After 15 minutes, we were thinking about leaving. I think most of the tourists did. They just didn’t want to be first people to stand up and leave. We had the same problem. That’s why we waited until the show was over. When I told my mother that the show was incredibly boring she called me ignorant and explained that “every of these movements has a certain meaning”. And what did my aunt say who has actually been there? “Terrible! That dance didn’t end anymore!”

I remember that we were sitting in the garden of our villa in the last evening, when I suddenly saw something. “THERE IS A SNAKE IN OUR GARDEN!!” She was hiding in our roof and you could only see her head. Bali is full of dangerous snakes and that was a terrible situation for me.  I hate snakes. The snake didn’t move but she was looking at us. Her head was as big as a golf ball. Matt and I stayed a few metres away and wanted to call the hotel staff. Suddenly, the snake moved… now we saw the rest of her body…

…and it turned out that it was just a gigantic gecko.

Off to the Gili Islands

We left Bali after one week towards Gili Trawangan. The Gili Islands are a group of islands next to Lombok, and it takes a bit more than four hours to reach them from Bali. Gili Trawangan is the largest of these islands and Lonely Planet calls it the “Ibiza of Southeast Asia”. This couldn’t be a more inaccurate comparison, but okay…

Travelling from Bali to the Gilis was not difficult and I recorded a quite typical scene that you can see in many Southeast Asian countries. A vendor offers Matt the new collection of Ray Ban sunglasses:

Gili Trawangan is still a small island. It takes two or three hours to walk round the whole island. Gili Trawangan was actually the nicest place I’ve seen in Indonesia. It’s a great destination to relax a few days. Although it’s not an ideal destination to swim, the beaches are stunning and the ocean crystal-clear. You can go into the water, but you won’t be able to stand anymore after three metres. Moreover, the currents around the Gilis are quite strong. Overconfident people have died by trying to swim from one island to the other. It doesn’t look as if the islands are far from each other, but the sea is rough and only the most experienced swimmers can do it.

The Gilis belong to Lombok and the locals are Muslims. Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world by population. Bali is one of the few islands where the majority of the people are Hindu. However, Indonesia is a more or less a modest religious country. Islam isn’t practiced as strict as in some Middle East or African countries. Nevertheless, there are certain areas with Sharia law in Indonesia such as the province of Aceh. That makes it somewhat funny that you get asked every two minutes if you want to buy weed when in Gili Trawangan.

Our main activities in Gili Trawangan were going out and waiting an hour for food. Seriously, it always took an eternity until they served food in restaurants. In times of writing, I have been to eleven African countries and I must say that the service was better on the Black Continent where everything goes a bit slower.

Going out was our second activity since we were in Ibiza of Southeast Asia. 🙂 Nightlife wasn’t great but okay in Gili Trawangan. There is usually one bar with a party going on every night, but it’s not worth going to the Gilis because of the nightlife. We haven’t been there during peak season but still…

Lombok, three days of nothing

Going from Gili Trawangan to Lombok was one of the worst boat trips in my life, although it didn’t take longer than 30 minutes. Usually, the boat leaves early in the morning, but as Matt and I did want to go out one last time, we asked if there was another boat a bit later. And there was one. What we didn’t know was that we would be the only tourists on the boat…

The wooden boat was in terrible condition and more than 30 people were in it. The waves got higher after a few minutes until I didn’t feel comfortable anymore. I spotted only one life jacket on the boat, while the waves got stronger and stronger. The boat went up and down, water came inside, and I was already figuring out in which direction I would swim if the unthinkable happens. Anyway, I already mentioned that swimming between the Gilis is for pros only and I’m not an excellent swimmer. I don’t think that I would have made it. The locals seemed calm though. They have seen it before I guess, but I was very nervous. After 30 minutes, the horror was over as we arrived in Lombok.

Lombok is the neighbouring island of Bali, but flora and fauna is completely different. It’s about the same size of Bali and there are many things to see and do. Unfortunately, I have seen almost none of it. I felt a bit sick and as we were staying in a five star resort, I barely left the hotel. This is a bit a shame, given the fact that the nature must be beautiful in Lombok.

We stayed in Senggigi, one of the more touristy areas in Lombok. It was actually cool to chill three days without doing anything. I believe that these three days were my last real holidays, as travelling always has been quite action-packed in the previous years. We left Lombok back to Bali after three days. This time we took a flight, which lasted only 20 minutes. I guess this was the shortest flight I had in my entire life.

Why I have mixed feelings about Bali

We spent our last night in Bali in Sanur. Sanur is located in the South of Bali. It’s just a small strip of shops and a beach, an unspectacular place.

Spectacular was only the story I read when I was back home again. A 5m long python strangled a grown security guard in Sanur. The security guard saw the snake on the street, caught it and idiotically put it around his neck to carry it away. The snake used this opportunity for its revenge. When I googled the location of the incident, I found out that it happened only a 5 minute walk from our hotel. To be honest, I’m not sure whether I would have gone to Sanur if this had happened before our trip. Obviously, things like that can happen everywhere in Bali.

Generally, I am not a fan of Bali. It’s THE trend destination everyone has to visit, although there are better options in Southeast Asia. I’m not even sure why everyone wants to visit Bali. It’s a very remote island and it takes an eternity to get there. Does Bali have the best beaches in the world? No. Does Bali have the most beautiful nature in the world? Some areas of Bali are certainly beautiful, but you can find similar landscapes in other Asian countries. Is it because Bali is the cheapest place in the world? Bali is cheap but not cheaper than countries like Laos and Cambodia.

In my humble opinion, Bali is an overrun place by the worst breed of tourists in the world. It’s also a gigantic dumpster in certain areas. That doesn’t mean that there is nothing good about the island. It’s just that Bali is far from being a paradise. I believe Bali is the best place in the world to get a room in a luxury hotel for a bargain. The food is great too and the people are very nice. But you can say the same things about countries like Thailand or Malaysia.

I believe another important factor is the question whether you have been to other Southeast Asian countries before or not. For me, Indonesia was the sixth Southeast Asian country and the eight country from the Far East. That means that I have seen similar places before and wasn’t so impressed anymore. However, it’s possible that I would see it completely different if Bali was the first place I have seen in this corner of the world.

Generally, I believe that everyone has to see Bali at least once. It’s probably better to visit this island before other countries in SEA. Nevertheless, I also ask myself about this kind of copycat-tourism. Why does everyone follow the same route their best friend, colleague or neighbour has travelled before? Why not being a real explorer and go to countries or places not everyone has already been to? The funniest thing is that Bali is in my opinion one of the best places for travelling in your comfort zone. It’s so touristy that the 3 hour ride in the minivan might be an annoying experience, but Bali has nothing to do with “being on an adventure” what people claim on Social Media.

The worst city in the world

I left Sanur the day after for my last destination in Indonesia: Jakarta. There are numerous “worst cities in the world”-lists online, but Jakarta is part on all of them. The capital city of Indonesia is one of the largest cities in the world. 10 million people live in the city and the count increases to almost 30 million if you add the people who live in the metropolitan area. I was curious, as I have never been to a “terrible” city before. I wanted to see it myself.

My plane landed in the afternoon and would depart again after 24 hours. A colleague advised me not to book a cheap hotel in Jakarta. Although the city is more or less safe, incidents happen from time to time and there are certainly some no go areas in the slums. I arrived at my hotel after a 45 minute drive from my hotel.

It was already in the late afternoon, and I wanted to explore the district where my hotel was. Once you set foot on the streets of Jakarta, you find out that this city is anything but pedestrian-friendly. The sidewalks are full of trash, dumpsters and food stalls. It’s a bit similar to Bangkok but ten times worse. The smell of petrol, food and the sewer was another thing that reminded me of the Thai capital. At least, you can walk through Bangkok without a problem. Another similar city would be Delhi, but in all fairness I have to admit that you can do amazing things in India’s metropolis, which you cannot in Jakarta.

Did I just mention the “sewer” smell? Well, Jakarta has a sewer that flows through the city, and it’s the city’s major source of water, believe it or not. Hundreds of factories pour their wastes into the Citarum River, which makes it one of the most polluted rivers in the world. Apparently, that doesn’t stop the locals from drinking the water and doing the laundry in it.

I took a taxi to a restaurant. Fortunately, the traffic jam wasn’t as bad as I’ve expected. I read that it can take four to five hours for 5-6km in the city sometimes, when the roads are completely blocked. It was still stressful. As you can imagine, the people in Indonesia drive like maniacs and we almost had an accident. I haven’t seen any kind of public transport and I am sure that you wouldn’t want to use it if there was one. Another thing I’ve noticed was that there weren’t any green spaces in the city, at least I haven’t seen any. Just a few trees, but Jakarta was still one of the least green cities I have ever been to.

After having dinner I was checking out my options for the night, and here comes the best part of Jakarta: it’s a great city for nightlife. Numerous bars and nightclubs make Jakarta a haven for nightowls. Plus you don’t have the terrible traffic anymore and can easily take a taxi from A to B without being stuck in traffic jam. I remember that I was sitting in the restaurant and texting my friend Laurent, who spent his birthday in the capital of Indonesia just a few weeks before. He recommended a club named Stadium.

I did a little research and found many reviews on TripAdvisor that advised other travellers not to go there. Some of the guests woke up in a hotel room they didn’t book two days later after being drugged in the club. Needless to say that all their belongings were gone. Apparently, the club is managed by the military and a police-free zone therefore. Drugs are sold by the waiters, and this in one of the strictest countries when it comes to drug laws. It’s also the place where all the mafia people from Jakarta meet. Laurent said I should go anyway, and so did I.

The nightclub was massive, more than 5.000 people fit into it. And yes, there were a lot of shady people in there, but the good thing was that 95% of the people were from Indonesia. Jakarta is obviously not a tourist magnet. Loud techno music made the people go wild… it was actually a great place to finish my trip to Indonesia. Back home, I read more terrible stories about the Stadium club. When a policeman died in there due to an overdose, authorities shut down the club for good. The final police raid didn’t only find a huge amount of drugs backstage but also firearms. Stadium is probably the most notorious nightclub of all time. Rest in piece.

I left Jakarta the next afternoon. Although I haven’t seen a lot of Jakarta, I called Indonesia’s capital the worst city in the world for many years, until I found an even worse city in January 2018. Anyway, it was my last day in Indonesia before I headed back to Bangkok.

My travel experience in Indonesia

Which memories will stand out after two weeks in Indonesia? I’ve seen the good, the bad and the ugly. Gili Trawangan was a fantastic island and the best place I have seen in Indonesia. Ubud was fine and I wish that I would have seen more of Lombok. Sanur und Seminyak were okay but forgettable, while Kuta is definitely a terrible place. Another terrible place was Jakarta, but in contrast to Kuta it was at least interesting and a unique place. In summary, I have seen more bad places than good ones.

That sounds like I’m done with Indonesia, doesn’t it? The question if I will ever revisit Indonesia is a yes though. Simply because I need to, unless I want to skip the tiny country of Timor-Leste, which can only be reached via Bali. However, I think that there are more interesting places to explore in Indonesia and also in Bali. There must be obviously. Indonesia is one of the largest countries in the world by area and population. And sometimes I see pictures of Indonesian places online, which look tempting and more beautiful than Bali (with less tourists of course).

Anyway, Indonesia was most probably my least favourite long trip so far. Given the fact that travelling to this country takes so much time, I rather suggest people to visit other countries in Southeast Asia. I don’t want to say that travelling to Indonesia (or let’s be preciser: to Bali, as 90% of the people don’t see anything else in Indonesia) is a bad thing. I just think that you can have the same amount of fun in other Southeast Asian countries that can be reached without travelling one full day to get there.

Find the travel reports of the other countries I’ve visited here!