First Day in Indonesia

My very first impression of Indonesia was that I didn't like it. First off, we had to pay $25 for a visa.  That was unexpected, but not surpirsing.  Apparently, this was put into effect in January of this year.  They finally used a new page on Josie's passport and not just cram every stamp onto the little space left on the first two pages.

I got a real intresting comment from the guy at customs.  He talked to me a bit about where I was going, suggested a few places, then when he handed back my passport, he told me to tell everone that I was Japanese ... I haven't really figured it out yet, but I think Americans aren't very popular here.  Maybe because Indonesian is much more Muslim? I don't know, but I hope I don't find out.  

After we got our bags, we went to go change some cash ... that's when the hawking started.  There were about 5 or 6 currency exchange booths all in a row all giving different rates and they were yelling at us like Shoutarou and his classmates were doing for their English class open house when they did carnival games.  "C'MON!  C'MON!". It was horribly overwhelming.  We eventually found the best deal and I exchanged my セイロガン - smelling $100 for 905,000 Rupiah, which apparently wasn't bad for the airport.  I also had some ringgits leftover from Malaysia, so I exchanged that too.  

Then it was the taxis ... before we got out of the airport, there was a barrage of taxi drivers and companies brutally trying to get us to pay fir a ride.  I was getting so irritated with how in-your-face they were about it, I'd just yell "bus" back at them.  A few of them yelled back, "no more bus."  Bullshit!

The bus ticket counter was right outside the exit and we got a ticket for about $2.   
After we got into the city, it was a still a bunch of taxi drivers and bajaj (rickshaw) drivers almost all the way to the hotel.