Forty-Eight Twenty-One and Eight-Six Cents

Quickly then…I got off the bus from Lily’s place, checked into my dorm-room, tried without success to reserve a hostel in Jakarta via Skype, met some travelers, secured a recommendation for a likely punk-rock venue, failed to generate interest among potential companions in the face of the eminent World Cup matches, took two subway trains and a 15 minute walk to get to the overpriced club, drank an overpriced beer, watched a Chinese version of Wilco play a pretty decent set that contained none of the insane, hard-core energy I’d hoped for, caught the subway halfway back to the guesthouse before the trains stopped running, joined a couple of possibly-intoxicated Chinese youths in a somewhat foolish scamper across 10 high-speed lanes of traffic, each of us laughing with relief when we reached safety on the other side, found a taxi, found my hostel, found late-night chicken skewers, and climbed into my bunk. 

The next morning I woke up, took two subway trains to the airport, checked in without incident, took off and transferred in Guangzhou without incident, landed in Jakarta at 10pm, spent a few nerve wracking moments realizing I was two dollars short of the visa fee and that they don’t take credit cards and my ATM card could very well be blocked, before (CHING!) the machine made me a Rupiah millionaire, ignored the taxi touts, found the right bus was still running, met a friendly Indonesian girl who got off at the same stop and asked me to join her for a short taxi ride to the main guesthouse street, thought I might be getting hustled until we exchanged emails and she insisted on paying for the taxi, found the first 10 hostels full and the first 3 hotels far too expensive, checked in at 1am, sweating and jittery, to an 8 USD per night, mosquito-swarmed shithole called Rick’s, dropped my pack off, found a convenience store, grabbed a beer and a bottle of water, and headed back to the room to sit in front of the fan and read Narcissus and Goldmund and swat mosquitoes and wait for a fitful sleep to find me.