This has been a different trip. For one, it was ill planned. We had another life changing event (we're moving again, and although it was kind of in the works it popped up suddenly) and I looked at frequent flyer dates and thought it would be a fine idea to go to Indonesia for a month, with a departure date four days away. Ill planned. Didn't check when Ramadan started (May 26th, I leave on the 27th). Didn't check when rainy season was (I came in at the tail end, still low season). I lucked out, again. I wanted to spend some time in Jepara, Central Java. My flight took me from DC to Zurich, Zurich to Bangkok and Bangkok to Jakarta, total flying time 23 hours, 31 hours total. The return flight would be just as hellish - Bali to Jakarta, Jakarta to Seoul, Seoul to Beijing and Beijing to DC, 40 hours + of travel time.
I contacted on old colleague from a course we took in Hawaii who is Indonesian and lives in Jakarta - it was great to see him again, he picked me up from my hotel and took me to a water/seaside resort where we had a fantastic lunch. I love logistics, and asked him about the shared motorcycle services. They were branded, Uber, Go Jek and Grab. The drivers wear jackets with the company logo and the passengers wear branded helmets. There's a couple of Go Jek motorcycles in Semarang. I asked Rujilanto how it worked, and it's essentially a copy of Uber or Lyft, but for motorcycles that have the ability to weave in and out of traffic that routinely chokes Jakarta to a standstill. Rulijanto commented that it was actually illegal to use motorcycles as public transportation and I asked him if someone was getting paid off or was the public transportation so bad that the government just looked the other way because they clearly weren't trying to hide anything. He looked ahead and said quietly, "I'm the Chief of Customs." The answer was clear, that wasn't his area of responsibility.
To get to Jepara, you have to go through Semarang, and I decided to take the train there rather than fly because I had the time and I like trains. Booking was straightforward, all online and all in Indonesian. I speak enough Indonesian to get through that and what stumped me, Google translate took care of like a champ. You can travel ekonomi, bisinis or exkseutif class, and no, the rest of Indonesian doesn't have nearly as many cognates. I took the exkseutif class, which set me back $23 for an extremely punctual and comfortable 6 hour trip. I decided to lay up in Semarang for a day rather than push through to Jepara for the same reason I travelled exkseutif class - why inflict any unnecessary pain on myself? Although I have the emotional maturity of a 10 year old, my body frequently reminds me that I'm 57. I also wanted to visit Lewang Sewu, the historic headquarters of the Dutch East Indies Railway Company. I love history and this building was pretty cool - totally worth the 74 cents admission cost. Although Semarang is a city of more than 2 million souls, it's not exactly on the tourist path, and once I broke the ice with my Indonesian pleasantries, it seemed as if everyone wanted a photo of the nice foreign devil.
I had to figure out how to get to Jepara, and the Google machine told me I had a few choices:
- Take the local bus.
- Charter a car.
- Take a scheduled mini bus.
Number one was out, I did that kind of shit when I was in my 20's. Number 2 was a bit more than I wanted to pay, so I shelled out $3.74 for the scheduled mini bus, got in the front seat so I could direct the ac at my sweaty white face and enjoyed the ride. There were only three passengers and the conversation was all in Indonesian. When they asked where I was from, I told them and the young kid immediately gave me a thumbs up and said, "Donald Trump!" Turned out to be a conversation killer for me.
So Jepara - why Jepara, a gritty industrial city in Central Java? We're having a house built in Huntsville, Alabama and all the furniture we have in the world came from IKEA to furnish our 699 square foot apartment in Arlington, VA. IKEA furniture is functional, but more suited for college students or folks in their 20's. We're going to need to have someplace to sleep, someplace to sit and well, you get the idea. If you've been to Bali, you've seen beautiful teak and mahogany furniture lining the road from Kuta to Ubud, but it's most likely made in Jepara, the center of the universe for handmade, solid wood carved furniture. There's a fantastic supply chain with wood grown mostly in Java, and the trade that everyone seems to be born into in Jepara is carpentry. Semarang is a deep water international port and a mere two hours from Jepara. If you want, you can sit at home in your underwear and order a container of teak furniture to your liking, custom made in Jepara and have it delivered to your front door wherever you are in the world. Or, you could do something impulsive and get on a plane and wend your way down here for no other reason than it's interesting. I did some half hearted research, and there's a lot of information out there and a gazillion websites. I could either poke around myself or hire an agent and pay them a commission. The standard commission, by the by, is $100/day when being ferried around to various companies and then 10% of the sale, minimum price of $10,000. The smart thing to do is hire the local agent, who knows the best companies, speaks the language, helps with shipping and is your agent on the ground after you go back to wherever the hell you came from, right? Yeah, I didn't do that. I e-mailed the owner of one of the better sites, told him what I was looking for and he said he could do it. I specifically mentioned moisture content and told him I'd be bringing a moisture tester with me - there have been quality problems with the proliferation of furniture companies in Jepara and using wood that has been not kiln dried or dried very much at all. As it dries back in Europe or the U.S., it warps and cracks. I visited one of his factories and asked to test the wood, he didn't blink. So far, so good. Abdul Salam and I got along famously, my order is in, and it will be a few months before someone drives up to our house, and drops it off in our driveway.
I decided to post up in Bali for a while because the business part of the trip is pretty much done and Bali has been one of my go to happy places since 1991. I took the mini bus to Semarang and thought I gave myself enough time - 2 hour trip, I had 2.15 hours wiggle room. The driver started a little late, there was traffic and the usual weaving in and out between the trucks and motorcycles and then we stopped dead in traffic. It's okay, plenty of time, I can still get there an hour before the flight, I thought. We started up again and then hit some flooded roads. Didn't move. The time, well, that kept on moving forward. I looked at my phone, used Google Maps to let me know how little time I had to get to the airport, figured all the contingencies on where to stay in Semarang, how to get the ticket extended - there was nothing I could do. I got to the airport at 2:00 pm for a 2:15 flight. And the plane was delayed, I waltzed right in, got on the plane and had a nice chuckle to myself about that adventure.
The cycling in Bali was around local villages on rented steeds, weaving in and out of traffic, exploring back roads and stumbling on interesting and sometimes, just rather mundane Balinese lifetime activities - fun stuff. After a delightful three weeks in Bali, it was fitting to watch Eat Pray Love on the last leg of a 5 movie flight on the way home. I found out my bike was stolen while I was in Bali, so I'm bicycle shopping so I can keep myself amused on a bicycle the last few months in DC - one of the best places in the world to explore on a bicycle.
