This visit begins with a few days at a conference, hence the lack of updates so far. It’s in Greater Jakarta rather than the city itself, and exploration has been limited simply by the impossibility of getting into the city from where I am. 

Traffic issues are notorious in Jakarta where a journey of a dozen kilometres is likely to take at least an hour and possibly longer. It isn’t helped by a system of road tolls on the motorways that in some instances can be only a few hundred yards apart. Chaos ensues. 

Tomorrow is when the journey proper begins and that’s when the posts will start to come and it gets more interesting. But arrival in Jakarta did have one item of note, and something frequent travellers will note with interest: immigration is painless. In fact easier than going through at home. Quite startling in fact, I was asked how long I was staying (no queue) the passport was stamped and it was done. 

In this day and age that simple pleasure is really quite something.