Journey to Yogja…

So, Emma and I boarded the train from Jakarta to Yogjakarta (pronounced Jo-Jakarta), both relieved we were escaping the smog of the city.

Trains in Indonesia have three classes – Executive (Executif), Business (Bisnis) and Economy. We had variously been warned to be wary of travelling Business, and never to even vaguely consider travelling Economy, if we wanted to be savvy when it came to health and safety.

The train journey was to take eight hours (Malay/Indonesian time – it actually took nine hours in total). The train ticket cost about £16 if memory serves, and that was in Executive Class. We could have taken an aeroplane, but to do so would have meant that we missed out on the views of the countryside, as it passed us by.

Besides, air flights are pretty dull, let’s face it, especially when you start flying on a regular basis. Moreover, as much as Executive Class sounds very posh, in reality, you get air con, a TV, cracked windows, but most importantly, no hassle from other passengers. You also get Customer Service, with food and drinks brought to your chair.

We found our seats and settled in. Before we knew it, we were on the move! Jakarta is a sprawling metropolis, and it takes sometime to actually escape the city limits. Perhaps unsurprisingly, we witnessed the poverty of shanty towns and people washing in polluted rivers, before we finally glimpsed the green of the fields that surround the city.

Thereafter, we began to view rural life, and people making their livings from farming, and a variety of arable crops, villages, and ultimately paddy fields came to dominate the landscape around us. I’ll let Emma’s photographs do the talking in this regard:-

What I will add, as an observation, is that if there exists an environmental scourge in Indonesia, it is undoubtedly discarded plastic, usually in the form of plastic bags, which litter the landscape. Every time you visit a shop or supermarket, anything you purchase, however big or small, comes in a plastic bag.

Unlike in the west, there is money to be made from recycling in Indonesia, for Joe Bloggs on the street. A basic subsistence living can be scratched out recycling glass, aluminium, and plastic bottles. But plastic bags don’t seem to fit into the equation. Often they end up littering the streets, or in villages I observed which were tidy, plastic inevitably is burned in collective fire pits, which probably doesn’t do the environment much good either.

But it is the canals and rivers which take the brunt of the plastic bag plague. Indeed, from the train, Emma and I spotted dried out streams, which are doubtless flowing during rainy season, literally plastered in plastic. It was a sad sight to behold – their banks coloured the familiar blues, yellows and greens of a disposable commodity, doubtless abandoned as litter, many miles away in the major cities.

We came armed with a reusable bag, of the type commonly seen in Europe. I only hope that the Indonesians start to follow suit with bag recycling. It’s clearly an environmental nightmare. Indeed, I later learned that flooding in Jakarta, which claimed at least a hundred lives last year, was caused in part by the total blocking of the canal system, largely with non biodegradable plastics.

I’m no tree hugger, but common sense is common sense. Apparently the Jakarta authorities have started to dredge the canals in advance of the rainy season this month, but even they concede their efforts, whilst doubtless admirable, may not be enough to prevent further flooding.

Seems like a good time to start reusing bags when going to the supermarket people. To cite the late, great, Poly Styrene, “My mind is like a plastic bag…” Enough said on the subject…

Upon arriving to Yogjakarta, we consulted Lonely Planet, in the hope of locating a guesthouse. The first one recommended was full, and the next thing we knew, a guy accosted us, saying that we would be lucky to find anywhere, because the following day was… “A public holiday”. No matter, he said he knew a nice place, and ushered we followed him.

I was about as sceptical of this guy as I am that a politicians expenses claim is ever legitimate, but guess what? After a couple of false starts, he took us to a really nice guesthouse, Javanaise Homestay, run by a lovely family.

Oh, and guess what else? It transpired that the following day was a public holiday – in fact, the Sultan was getting married!

So, I stood corrected, and mumbled my thanks to the man in question. It just goes to show that there are some genuine people out there, and we were to have a fantastic time in Yogja over the following week!!

Emma and I take a three day boat cruise tomorrow. New post on what happened to us next will appear this Thursday or thereafter….

Trent */X