The night before while we were looking for hostels, Sean and I spotted a pancake house that we wanted to try for breakfast the next day so we all met there on Thursday morning. The pancakes were awesome! (mostly due to the fact that they serve them with scoops of ice cream on top). ($10 room, $11 pancakes and coffee)
High from sugar, we decided to walk to President Obama’s school which was a little bit to the south of where we were. Even though it was in the morning the heat and humidity were already intense so we had to stop on the way for some slurpees. People were very friendly about giving us directions and everyone knew where Obama had gone to school. Indonesians are very proud that the American president spent a few years in Jakarta and like to mention some of his favorite dishes (fried rice and meatball soup). ($3 slurpees)
The other sights that we wanted to see were in the old town square called Kota so we hopped on a train and headed over. Unlike Malaysia, the train system in Indonesia was very confusing and to be honest I’m surprised we made it to our destination without getting lost. We did, however, get lost immediately after leaving the terminal and eventually righted ourselves after running into a Canadian with his nose in a Lonely Planet looking for the same thing we were. ($1 train)
Eventually we found the city square and were rewarded with views of the National History Museum, bikes to rent (which were covered in hats for reasons unknown) and one of the older buildings called Café Batavia. We decided to go to the museum because we wanted to see a certain cannon in the shape of a fist. According to legend, women should sit on the cannon if they have trouble bearing children. I took a seat just in case. ($1 museum)
After the museum we had refreshments in the Café Batavia which was beautiful and was playing jazzy music from the 1920s. Then we walked along the stinky canal to see the oldest remaining drawbridge from the Dutch. We walked to the working port as well and got a glimpse of loads of ships before it started pouring rain and we got a tuk-tuk back to the station. ($5 drinks, $2 tuk-tuk)
Unfortunately, our train broke down on the way to the station so we decided to see a the last remaining Dutch church (Portuguese slaves were given their freedom if they converted) before we took a taxi back to our hostel. We had a cheap dinner followed by local beers and pancakes for dessert. Sadly, I had to upgrade hostels because my cheapie was so bedbug-infested that I woke up looking like I had contracted leprosy overnight. Also, mice had invaded my backpack and swatting mosquitoes while showering drove me a little nuts. Sometimes backpacking on a budget seems worse than camping. ($3 taxi, $5 dinner, $14 beers and pancakes, $26 bug-free room with hot water and a tv – luxury!) Total for two people = $81
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