Jakarta - One great big village.

So often our preconceptions of a place (or an adventure!) are based on the fears expressed by those around us and are usually brewed in a sticky cauldron of gossip rather than fresh truth, straight from the tree. And so it was that I was expecting Jakarta to be a cesspit of all the worst that 10 million people could brew up, tangled in a labyrinth of red tape under a blanket of smog thick enough to choke all its inhabitants into a daze of cancerous delirium.

In contrast to my fantasy, Jakarta is an exciting and energetic city where all parts - people, buildings, food, smells, smog, ancient and ultra chic, are tossed together like an enormous nasi goreng into one giant 'kampung' (village). Stuffed directly between two mammoth and reflectively shiny shopping malls is a tiny street packed with locals (and Lain and I), all eating wonderfully tasty food - spicy, sweet, fried and unfathomable - at a microscopic fraction of the cost of the overinflated coffees, doughnuts, hamburgers and brand-name french fries inside the air conditioned monsters.

We may have found scissors sharp enough to cut through the red tape that drew us to Jakarta in the first place. We've rabbited our way through embassies, queued all the way to numerous counters, had meetings with officials and photocopied, printed and stamped all manner of papers. Our kayaks are due to arrive in Surabaya on July 3 and if all goes well we might actually be able to start paddling within a day or two of their scheduled arrival. I don't write with total certainty though, as we are yet to receive final approval from two different government departments - fingers crossed.

While we wait though, Lain and I have taken the time to explore this grand city. We've ticked a few tourist boxes - the National Monument, the Old Harbour (Sunda Kelapa), the Old Town. We eaten from so many wonderful street stalls, accidentally discovering the best place in town to sample goat satays among other new and exciting flavours, dishes and delights. We have had our hotel room converted, until 4am, into a massive resonating chamber for the karaoke bar at the end of the hall (we tactfully found a new hotel the next day).

Jakarta is also home to a new breed of Indonesians - the ultra class. Dripping in designer clothes as they step from their dark tinted, chauffeur driven, black Mercedes Benz directly into the Louis Vuitton lounge, they float over the poverty and hardship of so many to enjoy the thick layer of wealth like the cream on a milk bottle, of this great country's fortune. Here in Jakarta this wealth is clear, and the numerous, polished and shiny shopping centres are eagerly converting these (mostly) devout Muslems into credit-card capitalists.

The volcanic island of Java has delivered us a couple of jewels, dug from the mine of Lain's youth. Seventeen years ago, on a short high school exchange trip to Indonesia, Lain made a couple of friends she has never forgotten, and who have never forgotten her. Now, all these years later we have had the great fortune to reconnect with these old friends Esthie (in Solo) and Suryo (Jakarta's cool cat) and their families. To say that these friends have enriched our experience in this country is a huge understatement - we have had an insight into Javanese (in Indonesian) culture that cannot be bought, especially in the Louis Vuitton lounge!

Time moves quickly and another day or so will see us move on from this crucible city, this giant kampung. Even if we didn't have to return here every 60 days or so to fly out of the country and renew our visa then I would say with confidence that we will return to Jakarta. Of all the cities we have visited in the world, this one has the right mixture of craziness, colour, energy and flavours to keep us interested for a long time.

Photo: Lain tucking into another bowl of spicy street food, another new flavour.