Last weekend Fanny and 7 other friends all went together to Pelabuan Ratu and rented a beautiful house right on the beach. It is a nice small town located 4hours away from Jakarta, on the western coast of Java. The main activity in Pelabuan Ratu is surfing. I tried surfing 5 years ago with my friend Brian in California. Aside from the Indonesian warm water, the outcome of my second surfing experience was the same: unsuccessful multiple trials and an enormous bruise on my oh so white leg. I had fun anyways and really enjoyed my time away from the city.
During our weekend I met an American person, the second one only since I got here. I chatted a bit with him and told him how surprised I was not to see more Americans around Jakarta. He then told me that the American government highly discourages its citizen to travel to Indonesia for security reasons. So I went on the the U.S department of state website and found the evidence: "Crime can be a problem in some major metropolitan areas in Indonesia. ", "U.S. citizens should be aware that a real or even perceived offense may generate a violent response from local people.", "Extremists may target both official and private interests, including hotels, clubs, and shopping areas. ", "November 2009, unknown assailants shot at foreigners in Banda Aceh".... and BLA BLA BLA.http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_2052.html#safety
So far what I've seen of this country is the EXTREME OPPOSITE of how this website portraits Indonesia and its population. I've never met such loyal, straight, honest and generous people in my whole life... can't always judge a book by its cover... especially when the cover is made my the U.S government, can you?
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