Jakarta, one of the biggest, busiest cities in SE Asia and, if the traffic from the airport is anything to go by, one of the most congested!
The pilot told us the visibility was 7 kms as we came into land. I hadn't realised that this was down to pollution. With so many mopeds spewing exhaust fumes it's not surprising to see it so evident. As a moped is not about speed, why they don't make them electric is beyond me?It would have a profound effect on pollution from Thailand to China, and quite a few countries in between!
We are staying at the Pullman Hotel in Central Park, a massive retail, residential and office development. The hotel is aching design, modern art everywhere, female DJ playing the beats in the lobby bar, and you want for nothing in your room, especially if you need dumb bells and a yoga mat! In fact, the shower head is larger than some of the showers we've been in! All of this for around £70, incredible really.
There's not a great deal to do in Jakarta, the traffic renders each journey an experiment in patience. We took in the national monument with a history museum below it, the cathedral and the national history museum, all done in high humidity . We decided to give ourselves two hours to get to the airport and then it only took 45 minutes! So, once more with feeling, spinning out the waiting hours as we flew, once more, to KL, had the obligatory "Briyani Set", a delicious vegetarian selection of dahls, curries and rice, again for the third time, put the big bags in left luggage and popped off with overnight bags to Korea for the weekend, except its 7 hours away! This is the third destination that I've really wanted to visit, after Manila and Jakarta. It's the only stop that's not either hot or humid, or both. Temperatures are at freezing point which challenges the wardrobe! Angelka has brought a puffer jacket/anorak which, regretfully, takes her bag weight over 20 kgs. So as not to pay excess baggage, she's carrying this somewhat incongruous item of clothing onto all the other flights which in itself is enough to make you glow. Imagine my sympathy when I saw today's temperature was 10C with sunshine, duck!!