Anyer, Indonesia
6° 3' S 105° 52' E
Jul 10, 2004 11:38
Distance 106km

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BMW Backpacking

Text written in: English

Gerald, our driver Budi and I decided to leave the big smoke for the day and head for the coast in the BMW - woohoo! backpacking! - perchance to gaze upon Krakatoa, the volcano just off the coast which erupted, raising a 140 foot (50m) high tsunami and devastating pretty much everything in its path.

That was a long time ago. People have since rebuilt and forgotten that there is an active volcano still waiting to repeat the devastation of long ago and go about their business, grilling chicken, selling bananas, and providing a weekend get-away for busloads of Javanese who fill up the hotels very quickly, as we found out.

Fortunately, we found a place, which for US$20 a night offered pretty poor value given how crappy it was, but was still better than sleeping in the car.

One of the things which struck me immediately was that being a Westerner (Bule) in these parts was even more exotic than in Jakarta. In Jakarta, you can easily catch the odd person looking for a second or two longer as you wander about doing your business, but in Anyer and the nearby Marbella you're definitely a novelty. It was clear as we tucked into dinner that we were providing the entertainment for the umpteen waitresses milling about near the till and the kitchen.

The sheer number of people hired to do a job is itself pretty amazing. I wandered into a chemist the other day and was asked by at least one person in every aisle (the aisles being about 4 or 5 metres long) if I needed any help. Each could patently see that I had already been asked about 10 seconds ago, and each had an eager apprentice hiding just behind their shoulder as a backup. Presumably in case the first died of a heart attack lest you have to find your way through a whole aisle on your own.



If you find yourself in Anyer, try heading to the Fish Restaurant in Patra Jasa. It sits atop a big rock, looking out over the ocean to Krakatoa, and the fish is pretty good.


Energy levels were low from the night before, so after a few beers it was time to hit the sack and sweat the alcohol back out.

The next day energy levels must have still been low cos the main achievement was getting a slight sunburn and spending about 30 minutes having locals take turns taking their photo with us. It all started with a shy enquiry "excuse me, can we have just one photo?", asked by some girl with maybe three guys next to her. A few seconds later, about 30 other people were all crowding in and the person taking the shot had about 5 cameras hanging off his arm to keep the momentum going for the rest of the afternoon.

In other news: Jakarta was smoggy.

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Photos / videos of "BMW Backpacking":

Gerald decides to get merry in the car, nice shirt poggy! :op just some passing stuff as it got dark Prawns, Lobster Prawn postmortem. All you European, please pay special attention. This is a prawn, what you serve are shrimps The spicy stuff, we had to ask for it but it's damn tasty Fried rice (Nasi Goreng) Mushrooms and stuff in a kind of chinese sauce Nice shirt poggy! I didn't count on anyone documenting my affair with this cushion Just to show what a dive it was, but also a glimpse of outside jungly stuff - quite nice If you suck your stomach is hard enough, it will actually bulge out your shoulders Budi inspects some squid for sale coconuts for 5000Rp (US$0.50), ask for the beach, not the best in the world but hey fishing boat The locals decided the Circus must be in town and took about two dozen turns having photos taken with us Local fishing boys of Anyer Our driver Budi - backpacking was never so easy Visiting Javanese buried in sand Deep bassy grooves eminating in the background from here... definitely added to the tropical chilled atmosphere Hauling a boat onto shore Hauling a boat onto shore Hauling a boat onto shore Hauling a boat onto shore Coming back into Jakarta - it was raining and the air was still smoggy view from the hotel - hardly tropical paradise fishing boats and kids playing The map Roger drew us, Jakarta is in the top right, there is a channel in the middle and Anyer is at the bottom, near Marbella
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