Day 41: Ashwin&Danny go to a rave

We were really sad to leave the tropical paradise that we have called home for the last 8 days and head to the capital city of Jakarta. When boarding our plane, we were squished into a bus and driven all of 30 meters to the waiting plane. Apparently walking that distance is too much to ask of the customers. Despite it being 90 degrees outside, they air-conditioned the plane to practically sub-zero temperatures, and our typical outfits of bro-shirts and shorts did not provide much insolation. Luckily the flight was only an hour and a half long. We decided to take the public bus from the airport to the city center. The nice (or not so nice) thing about these 3rd world countries is that they let you on the bus even if all of the seats are taken - the situation we encountered when we stepped on board and they closed the doors. For the hour long bus ride we sat on top of a pile of suitcases in the front of the bus (luckily the ride was accident free, otherwise we would have been catapulted through the largest windshield we have ever seen). The ride in the tuk-tuk from the bus stop to our hostel was not much better, as the back seat was barely big enough for the two of us, let alone us and our backpacks.

We attempted to meet up at a cafe with our friends that we had met in the Gili Islands, but the impossible to find Cafe 365 was closed and was oddly labeled Cafe 148. Even the friendly local who walked us to the place was surprised to find it closed. Unfortunately we had left their phone number in the hostel so we were unable to meet somewhere else. Instead, we went to the nearby McDonalds, which we have discovered to have the fastest wireless internet available (just buy a 50 cent McFlurry and they give you the password).

After killing some time on our iPhones and observing the surprisingly lively social scene of Indonesian teenagers at the McDonalds, we headed to a club called The Stadium, which is purported to have some of the craziest parties in Indonesia (some even claim all of Asia). We have never witnessed anything quite like this. It's a four story megaclub which can hold 5000 people and opens on Thursday night and doesn't close until Monday morning. We worked our way up each floor, constantly being asked "Do you need girls?" (not to worry, we always politely refused). The top floor consists of a giant 2000 person dance hall with a second story wrap around balcony, with pounding deep house beats and laser lights pulsating with the music. This place would never pass an American fire inspection, as almost everyone is smoking and the only ways out are a narrow staircase and a tiny elevator. From watching the people dancing it became clear that alcohol was not the drug of choice here. Parents, you'll be happy to know that alcohol was our drug of choice, but we only drank the one beer that was included with the cover charge. It was an interesting night of observation but after a few hours we had to leave because our eyes were stinging from the smoke filled room.