(update - Actually now in Bandung... trouble emailing in Bogor)
I'm now in Bogor which is just an hour and a bit south of Jakarta. I'm going against the travel advisory's notes once more as I find myself in a bastion of western influence... A shopping mall. Not only that but it's the brand new one with a KFC and A&W prominently placed at the front of the shiny new building. They are checking vehicles and the occasional person for explosives if that makes one feel better ;) They're missing the metal detector gateways that the fancy malls in Jakarta had though. Still not as thorough as I remember them being in Is r ael.
I arrived in Jakarta two nights ago. In the airport in KL I got talking to a high school student who spoke excellent english... turns out he goes to high school in Boston. He was in Aceh in north Sumatra (An island of Indonesia) visiting his mom who he later mentioned was a advisor to the new government in the region. They've gotton special status within Indonesia and this new regional government is a bit special.. It ends years of terrorism. His mom was one of the dissidents and it came out later that they had a good chuckle with a close family friend who had just been elected intelligence chief for the new government... A role he had held with the rebels.. So now the people in charge of his safety are the same ones who were hunting him just a short time ago. International observers are in Aceh now in force so he figures it's one of the safest places to be these days...
Some other interesting characters that came through KL while I was there:
My friend Thomas who overstayed his visit to Thailand by 8 years and has been stuck in KL the past year trying to get papers from his native Czech Republic.
Young woman from Edmonton heading to Bali
A guy from Edmonton.. All of a sudden lots of us!
A prof from Iran... from his comments and another Iranian it seems 90% of Iranians don't support their government!
Oh.. and last but least, some white trailer trash guy with fake breasts... ugh.. scary... ( of course.. this kind of stuff is a bit more common in Thailand.. )
First two from Jakarta. Last picture is from Bogor.
JJ
No comments:
Post a Comment