The second part of the flight, to Amsterdam, was more relaxed. Finally I had some luck with my seat neighbor. This time the guy was tall and slim and absolutely quiet – he either read a book or slept, and I must say I didn’t have any problems whatsoever. I declined [KLM's Pasta](/2006/06/27/jakarta-via-amsterdam-and-kuala-lumpur/) and I never got my tea with milk, but that was the worst that happened. Arrival in Amsterdam was again at an unholy hour. I had a Burger King breakfast and then spent a lot of time waiting.

I got home after an uneventful flight, but which had a nice view of Amsterdam after Takeoff. Landing in Frankfurt was on time and unspectacular. I decided to spend the money on a cab to get home – after so many hours, it seemed like a stupid idea to add another hour by going with the bus. One thing I noted was how empty the highways were. The last days of the worldcup, no doubt.

An uneventful trip back, all in all. I really enjoyed my time in Indonesia though. And I am sure I will return to East Asia sometime soon.

The money in this photo – roughly 2.3 million Indonesian Rupiah – is worth 200 Euros.

I have always argued that whatever the reason behind global warming, there is really one very good reason why we should stop polluting our planet. Coming to Jakarta, I can attest to this like never before: Clean air is a big part of the quality of life in any given location.

When I was younger, we sometimes had smog in Hamburg. Cars would be banned from the roads; key streets were blocked by the police. An eerie silence lay over the city, as public life grind to a halt. The situation is similar here, except that there’s no smog; pollution of the air is a fact of daily life. Driving downtown you will see that the distant high-rises are all obscured by a haze. This isn’t fog; it’s pollution. After seeing the traffic for a few days, it doesn’t surprise either. You can see the soot coming out of these cars.

Unlike Germany, Indonesia never implemented harsh laws governing the exhausts of cars. It probably can’t afford to, yet, either, and if there were such laws it seems unlikely that they’d be enforced. Some of the contraptions I’ve seen on the roads would doubtless not pass the regular technical checks every car in Germany has to pass.

165And so the pollution covers the high-rises, and ruins the lungs of the locals. Nobody who is working along the roads does so without at least a cloth before their faces. People cutting the grass, construction workers, policemen – everybody knows the problem, and it’s not being fixed.

I hope for the citizens of Jakarta that they’ll come up with a working solution to this problem (and other environmental nightmares, like the open-air sewers). I guess when life is a daily struggle for people you can’t expect them to care much for their environment. It’s really sad, though. And at least from the pollution standpoint I can’t wait to get back to Frankfurt – back to the clean air of a German metropolis with thousands of daily flights overhead. It still beats Jakarta – by a mile and a half.

When you arrive in Indonesia, Security is not something you notice immediately. The airport is just like any other, except maybe a little more old-fashioned and less orderly than I am used to. My hosts immediately warned me to guard my bags, as it was dark – and crowded. I am always a little paranoid about my things, but of course I heeded their advice.

171However, once I got to drive through the city (again courtesy of my hosts) I saw what they meant. A picture speaks more than a thousand words, after all. I already mentioned that some of the housing we passed by was little more than shacks patched together from bits of discarded materials. With poverty that rampart, one would also expect crime to be rather high. And what I saw of the more permanent houses seems to confirm this.

Many buildings have high fences, often with pointy ends on top, most of the time also topped with lines of barbed wire. Balconies are usually guarded against people climbing over from neighboring balconies – which is also not too uncommon in some neighborhoods in Germany. What is uncommon in Germany are fences on the roof, or balconies which are completely covered by an iron fence.

### Hotel and Mall Security ###

Hotels and shopping malls have their own additional security policies. This was implemented after the bombing attacks, and is supposed to stop any would-be terrorist in its track. As a car arrives, it is stopped by security guards. The trunk is opened, and guards look under the vehicle by means of a mirror. Sometimes the guards also hold what looks like a portable metal detector against any suspiciously-looking pieces of luggage. Drivers are also handed a slip of paper that must be returned when leaving; this seems to be happening also when you don’t have to pay for the privilege of parking.

Entering my hotel, I also have to let a guard check my luggage. Of course sometimes the security guard wasn’t around and people just walked in. And when his metal detector sensed something he simply felt my beg without opening it. I may not be an expert at preventing bob attacks, but I seriously doubt a bomb could be “felt”.

The car-checks similarly seem rather ineffective. If I really wanted to smuggle a bomb in, I could easily do so, simply by stowing it under a seat. I realize of course that – especially with the car-checks – a compromise has to be made between security and inconvenience to the passengers and drivers. And it does have the advantage of having security right on site. However it does feel very silly. It doesn’t really raise the bar for attacks, however – and it may provide a false sense of security to the people on location.

Here’s my schedule:

* Departure from Frankfurt: 23rd June, 3:45pm local
* Arrival in Amsterdam: 23rd June, 5:00pm local
* Dinner with Arjan
* Departure from Amsterdam: 23rd June, 9:00pm local
* Arrival in Jakarta: 24th June, 5pm local

Return trip:

* Departure from Jakarta: 7th July
* Arrival in Frankfurt: 8th July

I’ll see you all on the other side.

_Update, July 24th 2006: Hey, this post was still marked “Private”. Doh!_

Anyway, the morale of the story, to get back to the travel aspect: Don’t do drugs in a country that really doesn’t want you to. If you can’t live without drugs…. go to Afghanistan. Or stay home.