My Indonesian Roadtrip - Part 1

My hubby and his MD were conducting several training sessions in Central Java. To my knowledge, they were driving through a few towns and conducting those sessions and we would continue on until our last stop, where we would fly back to jakarta.

Little did i know that it was a LONG trip. In my mind, it was like: drive for 2 or 3 hours to the first town, stop for training, stay a night and continue on the next day. Was i mistaken!

We started our trip from the office in Jakarta at 0730. Fought through the jam and finally got on the highway. Relatively easy traffic on the highway, so we stopped at one of the rest stops for breakfast.

After breakfast, we continued on our journey. That's when it got "interesting". Leaving the highway for tiny two-laned village roads, traffic was heavy with lorries, trucks and motorcycles, but with two-lanes, it was still possible to get by the heavy vehicles easily.

Being 5 months pregnant meant that the toilet was my best friend. Travelling through tiny villages and not on the highway with nice rest stops every few kilometers was more than unnerving. But my loving hubby was very considerate, asking me every now and then if i needed to use the washroom.

My washroom experience

Stop 1 was at a Pertamina petrol station (it's their local petrol company, like our petronas). Not too bad. Of course not 5-star hotel standard but wasn't as stinky and dirty as i expected. Mildly pleased!

Stop 2 was at another petrol station but this one was a tiny one. Wasn't even Pertamina. Walked in, there were several stalls. Looked in, there were plenty of flies swarming around the toilet. SWARMING! That's how many there were. So many that they could be considered a swarm! At least fifty I estimated.

Having no choice (and not wanting to be a spoiled brat and requesting another stop at a better petrol station), I closed the door behind me while trying to device a plan to prevent the flies from landing on important parts of my body that would soon be exposed!

My ingenious plan (though not so, after going through with it) was to flap my hands continuosly around my "important body parts" as i squatted and tried my best to pee. The toilet wasn't very wide: just enough for one to squat.

Imagine a 5 month pregnant woman (whose waist is now 33 inches in size). Well, 5 month pregnant woman can be interchanged easily with the phrases humpty dumpty, giant ball or clumsy fat lady! So anyway, imagine me trying to squat (difficult enough), then trying to maintain my balance while flapping my hands around wildly and trying to keep a calm mind so that i would be able to pee.

Lost my balance more than a few times, with one of them with my naked butt hitting the wall behind me. While imagining the horror of the amount of bacteria that were now on my butt from touching the spot where swarms of flies were gathered, I temporarily lost my concentration and nearly fell face down into the little puddle of water in front of me (which I can only imagine is a mixture of pee, dirty Indonesian tap water and many other horrible things). Thankfully, i regained my concentration soon enough and didn't fall.

Trying my best to expel as much urine as i could and as fast as i could in such a stressful situation, i got out there as soon as i could, with this horrible feeling that I'd trapped a fly in my panties right where my "important body part" was. In fact, i could still feel it flying around in my panties 10 minutes away from the petrol station!

After that last stop, i decided that it would be in my best interest to hold it in as best as i could before resorting to anymore toilet stops as the villages we were passing by were getting smaller and smaller.

We stopped at a small restaurant for lunch. Walking in i saw that it was "chap fan" style (mixed rice, where there were plenty of dishes for you to choose from to go with your rice). It was in a glass cabinet together with my good friends, the flies. Having no choice, i selected my dishes while praying that I didn't get a nice bout of diarrhea that my husband is so prone to.

After my lunch, made a visit to the washroom again. My review: after stop number 2, any washroom is acceptable. I spent an extra long amount of time in the toilet, trying to empty my bladder as best I could.

Back on the road, it had turned to single lanes! Not only single lanes, but windy, narrow lanes. Imagine the lanes in the housing area in usj, it's half that! We were running late and our driver (who shall henceforth be known as speed demon Denny) was trying his level best to get us there on time.

Fate wasn't on his side as he was faced with heavy traffic on both our lane and the oncoming traffic lane. Weaving in and out of oncoming traffic, i tried not to look so that i wouldn't get a panic attack. Instead, i turned my gaze to the scenery on my left and right.

Scenery was nice. Plenty of green paddy fields on my left and right. After the millionth paddy field, it seemed to have a lulling effect on me and i drifted off to sleep.

I awoke to Speed Demon Denny still weaving in and out of oncoming traffic. We still weren't there yet! Non one knew how long it was going to take, not even my hubby's MD nor Speed Demon Denny. Apparently, they weren't sure of the way.

Anyway, long story short, we finally arrived at our intended destination at 1615. That would make it 8 hours and 45 minutes. Well, in all fairness, we did stop for breakfast and lunch. So let's deduct, say, an hour and a hlaf, so that makes our trip from Jakarta to the tiny town of Purwokerto around 7 hours and 15 minutes!