Woolly Bulleh

Monday night I finally boarded that train to Bandung, provincial capital of West Java, fourth biggest city in Indonesia, yadda yadda yadda. It was a pretty forgettable trip, although I didn't sleep at all before we rolled into Bandung train station at 5.07 in the morning. It was dark, but fortunately all of the restaurants on the street adjacent to the station were already open - their families sitting around in pyjamas, lazily mopping the floors, weaving meat onto sate skewers, preparing for the day. I bought coffee and waited out the twilight before setting out in search of a hotel. The first two I tried were full, which had me worried that I had come to town during some big festival or convention, but there was room at King Garden - a pseudo-ritzy hotel slash ballroom facility that caters for the tasteless Chinese tourist or businessman. I slept until the afternoon and then made my way out to find the city's alun-alun, which - as far as I could tell - had been fenced off and was awaiting its development into an office building. The whole place looks as if it were built to be a better city - the streets are well-paved (a rare sight in Java), and the older buildings are all gigantic and sprawling, with fine architectural detail. But there are homeless people everywhere. Not even just homeless, but limbless and crawling down the street, shaking plastic cups for change. Until now I have abided by my policy of not giving to beggars, but last night, sitting in front of the London Cafe, over my second cup of house-blend, a little girl (maybe five years old) comes to ask for money, checks my plate and the table for any remnants of food, and then sits down on the stair at my feet. She was covered in red spots and wrapped in rags (and Bandung is a relatively cold place). Most of the time it's easy enough to turn a blind eye to the poverty in Indonesia, but this girl was seriously affecting the enjoyment of my coffee. I gave her one thousand rupiah and she left, delighted. Yesterday also I caught a taxi uptown to Jalan Cihempalas, or "Jeans Street". Lonely Planet describes a street full of "squat tailor shops" beneath towering plaster statues of Hollywood action characters, the latter of which piqued my interest. I did see a couple of sewing machines, but mainly these places sold locally mass-produced brand-name clothes made for Western markets. So it was exactly like the Direct Factory Outlets that we have back home. I was not disappointed by the statues however. There were more than I could have dreamed. Multiple Supermans, as well as every action hero I could have named. Sadly, my camera battery died just as I was about to take a photo of Super Rambo Jeans and its 10-foot Rambo. I bought a couple of three-dollar t-shirts and went by taxi to the botanical garden, which was less of a garden than a concrete park, with some sludgy water features and plenty of mysterious loiterers. Dinner was at a local place, where I ordered the Nasi Tim Ayam. I found the nasi and the ayam, but could not figure out what the Tim was - unless it was eggplant (yuck). This morning I woke up early to catch the expensive shuttle-bus to Bogor. After waiting for an hour... I'm told the bus isn't coming, so I caught the first train to Jakarta instead. There wouldn't have been much to see in Bogor anyway - just another great big botanical garden that was bound to disappoint. Coming into Jakarta, I was struck by all of the shiny skyscrapers, the expensive cars, the beautiful people, and the cleanliness. This is a modern city, and it seems that much of Indonesia's resources are funnelled here. Certainly Sukarno's Final Erection (the national monument - Monas) was a fine product of resource funnelling. Its gold-leafed tip reminds me of the tiny male chastity-guard that I saw in the second royal house of Solo. Tonight being my last night in Indonesia, I am yet to plan something suitably exciting, but there's plenty to do in Jakarta. Tomorrow I go to the top of the erection and check out the old town of Batavia before heading to the airport. Good fun.