Bekasi Nights

Still very much excited to take pictures, I decided to take a snap shot of part of the commercial area in Bekasi.  That is Bekasi Square in the picture.  It is the latest mall in town.  The building under construction is one the first apartments to rise in Bekasi.  The traffic at the bottom of the picture is the Bekasi Barat Toll Gate.

A town of surprises indeed.  With a population of more than 3 million, Bekasi is fast developing into a commercial hub.  It is a suburb of Jakarta and mainly an industrial area at the moment.  But with such a huge population and still growing, it wont be long now before it turns itself into a commercial hub.

Having stayed in the area for more than 20 years now, I am fortunate to see its growth from being a far flung area into a city.

Port of Sunda Kelapa

Out of curiosity and with nothing much to do, my friend and I wandered on a sight seeing tour to the Port of Sunda Kelapa in Jakarta.  The place is a historic place where the Dutch colonizers first docked in Indonesia.  The area is well maintained and in fact is being improved.  As you can see from the photo I took, all the ships are lined up and docked as was the practice during the old days.

Our intention was really to take pictures of the place owing to the fact that we just got ourselves our first DSLR cameras.  Amateur photographers.  There were already several people with cameras taking shots of the place when we got there.  As it turned out, the place is a favorite place for photography enthusiasts.  At first, we were quite shy about taking pictures because the others taking pictures seemed so professional with expensive equipment.  We eventually relaxed and enjoyed shooting after the first few shots.  I wanted to be there during the sunrise or sunset but we got there just a bit after noon.  The noontime sun was quite scorching but provided good lighting opportunities for photography.  And then, we got too hungry to wait for the sunset.  So we left before sunset.

Krakatau - West of Java

The year end holidays in December 2009 fell quite nicely on Fridays for three consecutive weeks.  Indeed an opportune time to get away from the daily routine of the year.  This year I hit a milestone in my stay here in Indonesia.  I crossed over to Sumatra by ferry in a car.  How about that.  To my pleasant surprise, Sumatra turned out to be very beautiful...well at least the part where I got to.  I got as far as Bandar Lampung.  I saw Pasir Puith on the way there too.  Plus, the road was also surprisingly well maintained and devoid of heavy traffic.

The white sandy beaches in Pasir Putih was nice but poorly maintained.  Well in fairness, it might have been because I went there right after the New Year celebrations.  It might explain the dirty condition it was in.  The beaches fronting Krakatau were cleaner but maybe only because they had fewer visitors there during the New Year.

The ferry ride was bearable.  I was lucky on the first crossing, getting myself a clean and spacious ferry.  I took a noon ferry which afforded me a nice view of the islands and sunny skies.  The ferry back home late in the afternoon wasn't as good.  I got on a cramped and poorly maintained ferry and waves were higher than the morning trip.

All in all I enjoyed the cross over.