Day 53-54, February 25 & 26, 2025 - Tuesday & Wednesday - Jakarta, Indonesia

Jakarta is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Southeast Asia. Established in the fourth century as Sunda Kelapa, the city became an important trading port for the Sunda Kingdom. At one time, it was the de facto capital of the Dutch East Indies, when it was known as Batavia.

Jakarta is the second largest city in the world (metro population 35,000,000) and the most polluted (according to our guide).

We were scheduled to arrive at noon, but during an early lunch the captain announced that we would be delayed up to two hours because our dock was not prepared.  This created a problem for us.  Prior to the cruise we book the included tour for a 1:30 departure and the tour was 3 1/2 hours long.  After the cruise started, they modified the tour to add the National Museum (which we were visiting on another tour the second day) and increased the tour time to 5 1/2 hours.  Now with the delayed docking, this would make us about 9:00 PM returning to the ship and we have a 7:30 AM tour for 8 1/2 hours on Wednesday.  We decided to cancel the tour on Tuesday.

There were dozens and dozens of container ships outside the harbor waiting to enter as we arrived.

The pilot boat only took about 30 seconds from pulling up to the ship until the pilot was aboard.  I imagine they get plenty of practice in this port.

It is fascinating to me that the professional sailors on the work ships love to take photos of the cruise ships.  You would think they see enough of them!

As we pulled up to the pier, we were greeted by local musicians and dancers.

Mid-afternoon, Kay and I decided to go to the Explorers lounge to on deck 7 to read and for me to get some photos.  We were greeted by the bar-man by "welcome to your private bar", and it almost was.  For the first hour there were only about a half dozen people in the entire space.

I did get some good photos though. All of these were taken from deck 7 forward.  As you can see, we were in the center of this busy commercial port.   Jakarta port is tremendous in size.  As we entered and exited by coach, it took about 15 minutes.

While enjoying the view and our drinks, we got a pleasant surprise.  Danu, one of our dining room attendants, came in with his family.  He lives in Jakarta and was given permission to bring his family aboard, and then he was going to be able to spend the night at home.  Danu was one happy man.

Danu, his wife, three daughters and son & Kay.  It has to be difficult for both the worker and their family to be away from home for 6 to 9 months at a time.

On our second day, Wednesday, we had a full day tour which began at 7:30.  This is our guide for the day, Nanang.  He is a native of Jakarta and lives about 40 km outside of the city.

  

After a 1 1/2 hour drive, to travel about 20 miles, we arrived at the Indonesia in Miniature Park.  It wasn't what I was expecting.  I thought we would be seeing a large model of Indonesia's different providences.  Instead it was 360 acres of buildings representing the many various cultures of the country.  It also contained numerous museums, an aerial tram and even a planetarium.  

Personally, I enjoy watching the people in there ordinary activities.

I loved the rakes all the gardeners used, they seemed to be very effective.

How do you like this debris scoop made from a cut plastic fuel can?

There were school children everywhere, from the very young through secondary school students.  They were polite and interested in us.

As we made the 1 hour drive to our lunch at the Indonesian International Hotel, we saw what seemed to be hundreds of these motor-bikes with the drivers wearing green jackets.  Our guide explained that these were bikes for hire, like a taxi.

Here you can see this business woman availing herself of a ride.

The Hotel was dated on the exterior, but quite modern and elegant on the inside.  I understand that at one time it was the best hotel in the city.  The buffet they provided was impressive with dozens of dishes, various breads and again dozens of desserts.   Unfortunately, I found the food to be sub-par to the meals we have had at much less impressive locations in Indonesia.

Here is our guide again, notice his little finger on the left hand.  I caught this photo while he was doing an explanation.  I had noticed the long nail on his pinky, but thought it might be inappropriate to ask about it.  Instead, I did what any reasonable person would do, I Googled it.  As it happens, some Indonesians wear this long nail as a status symbol.  If you can maintain a long nail, it signifies you do not do manual labor.

The National Museum of Indonesia

By comparison to our standards of museums, it was pretty non-impressive, but they were proud of their displays.  It had only recently been reopened after a fire in October of 2023.

As at the park, there were many, many school kids on field trips.

After leaving the museum, we then traveled for another 45 minutes back toward our pier and stopped at the Old Harbor.  For me, this was the best part of our excursion.  It was like stepping back in time 75 years.  In fact, when I first saw the ships, I thought it was a ship graveyard, but no, these were working ships.

I watched this process for a while.  These men were unloading a load of kaolin by hand.  

No face masks for these guys.

I don't think I mentioned that we had two police escorts on motorcycles for the day.  They were not for protection, but to just get us thru the city.  As I said earlier, it took about 1 1/2 hours to go 20 miles.  We were told that without the escort, we might never get back!  And I believe it.

Thursday we spend one day sailing the Java Sea and will arrive in Singapore early on Friday.  I am looking forward to Singapore, it is my favorite large city.  Singapore is clean and safe with a lot of green space for a city so densely populated.

Day 51-52, February 23 & 24, Sunday & Monday - Java Sea & Semarang, Indonesia

I have no photos or really anything to report for Sunday, the 23rd.  It was a quiet sea-day and the weather was a continuation of the cloudy, misty weather we have been experiencing.  There was no heavy rain like we experienced in Bali, but there were numerous showers

Monday morning looks more promising.  The sun rises around 5:00 AM but the clouds didn't look too threatening.  

We have a long 8.5 hour tour today to the Gedong Songo Temple.  It is a group of Hindu temples located near Bandungan, Semarang Regency, in north Central Java, Indonesia.  The temple was built on a hill near Mount Ungarant is variously dated between the 8th and 9th-century.  The site was rediscovered by colonial era Dutch archaeologists during the 19th century. All temples then were badly damaged and ruins scattered around the hill. The Gedong Songo complex has been considerably restored in recent decades.

An Indonesia's family's normal mode of transportation.

We passed a school, it appears they were on a break, enjoying refreshments.

After a bus change and a steep walk, we arrived at the horse corral where we got our mount.

Kay riding ahead of me.

Here we are about half way to the top.  Another rider and horse tender had passed me.  They seemed to move at their own individual pace.  You can see Kay just ahead.  Just a few dozen yards farther, as we began another fairly steep ascent, Kay's horse stumbled.  It tried to remain errect, but went down on both front knees.  When Kay realized the horse was going to go completely down, she managed to bail our without injury.  It certainly gave us a scare.  The guide wanted her to get back on the horse, but she refused.  Another guide gave her his horse instead.

Kay finally making it to the top with her new horse and new guide.

While waiting for Kay to arrive, I spoke with the lady directly behind her when she fell.  She said the horse had stumbled a couple of times and she thought it's left front leg was lame.  The poor animal had no business making that difficult climb.

The view was nice at 4500 feet, but would have been better if it were clear.

]

 This lady broke my heart.  She was carrying a case of water and drinks in a makeshift carrier on her back along with bags of snacks for sale.  She was unobtrusive, unlike many of the peddlers.  She did not approach anyone, just walked around so people would know she was available.  I didn't need anything but I gave her a couple of dollars.  You should have seen her face light-up.  As we were leaving the area, she shyly gave me a wave.  We often forget just how blessed we are and it takes a trip like this to remind us.

Kay looking off into the distance.  As you can guess it started to rain, fortunately it was never as hard as in Semarang. 

You can see the smoke.  We thought something was burning and someone asked our guide about it.  He said, "oh, that's just the volcano.  Don't worry, there only a couple of active vents".

As we drew closer, there was no doubt to it's origin, due to the sulfurous odor.

On our trip down the mountain we encountered several groups of school children, I assume they were on a field trip.  They were as anxious to take our photos as we were theirs.  On Carl and Janet's excursion (Carl again was not able to do the horses due to his back), their guide told them that many of the people in the interior of Indonesia had never seen a white person, thus the interest.

Another of the many temples in the wide spread complex.

I finally got a photo of my horse guide.  He seemed to know only two words of English "Ready?" and "OK".  He was young but very contentious.  I have no idea what his name was.

After getting back to the mini-buses, we drove about 5 miles to "The Susan Spa and Resort" for lunch.  This was a very nice resort and the lunch was delicious.  Several in our group, including us, had eaten last evening at the Chef's Table on the ship.  As mentioned before, the fixed menu changes every 3 days.  The theme was Indonesian.  We all agreed that the meals at The Susan was far better than the exclusive dinner onboard, excluding the wine parings, of course :).

The Susan Spa and Resort

We were glad to get back to port, get hot showers and have dinner.  We have a half day at sea tomorrow and are scheduled to arrive in Jakarta at Noon.  We have an included 5 1/2 hour excursion which doesn't leave until 1:30.  We will be late for dinner!