Cool breeze and clean feet

2.45AM on Monday morning must be one of the only time in the week there is no traffic in Jakarta and the taxi driver doesn’t seem to be used to it either. Being used to stopping and accelerating every split second in the chaos of this top ten biggest metropolitan area in the world, he had no idea how to keep his foot still on the gas. Speeding through the night we reach the airport well in time around 3:05, two and a half hours before my international flight to Kota Kinabalu in Malaysian Borneo. The first flights leaving the Indonesian capital are scheduled around 4:15 and Jakarta’s Soekarno Hatta Airport closes its doors overnight. Although these are domestic flights I do wonder if they left in time as by 3:30 there are still about two hundred people lined up outside. When the doors open I start to wonder whether it has been impossible for the ground stewards to enter as well as we then have to wait another fifteen minutes until the check in counters are being manned. A traditional Indonesian chaos is the result when the counters open. When the check in times are getting very close for the flights to Surabaya and Yogyakarta the signs of “International” and “Domestic” departures no longer apply and the passengers are hastily called forward. It must be business as usual, because it can’t be the case that today there were exceptionally early flights. Initially I arrived two and a half hours to early, but when I walk t my gate the speaker is calling all passengers to Kota Kinabalu that the check in for our flight will close in 10 minutes. The same process must have taken place once again and I couldn’t really have made it faster. I hurry to my gate and plan to eat something fast after the security check and realise no ground personnel is present at the gate yet. Why should I worry, eventually we somehow left in time. I hadn’t slept yet and fall vast asleep in the plane to wake up two and a half hours later in a different world.
For those who, just like me, thought Indonesia and Malaysia is pretty much the same: think again.

Admittedly Kota Kinabalu has 600.000 inhabitants and the metropolitan area of Jakarta 20 million, but the differences with any Indonesian city I have visited so far are major. Jakarta was massive. I had a genuine good time in the city although many ought it to be too big, too crowded, too dirty and too loud. Having travelled through other Javanese cities prior to Jakarta will probably have helped in getting used to the city, but I can especially imagine it is a very heavy and overwhelming place when flying in from a western city or more modern city. Nonetheless Kota Kinabalu must feel for every travellers, including myself, like an oasis. I was so surprised and confused when I came through the doors in the arrival hall and I wasn’t asked by a single person if I wanted transport in whichever way possible. Instead there was a cool breeze going through the building and in a relaxed manner I was able to walk to a taxi station where I could get an airport shuttle. I was the only person there. Now that I had my ticket I assumed I would now have to silence the other taxi drivers by showing my prepaid ticket. No such thing. The three taxi drivers were chilling in the open door of their cars, reading the newspaper and having a laugh. The young men driving me to my hostel spoke very good English, something that is probably still so strongly the case because of being a former British colony. When we reach the main road I am no longer surprised, I am flabbergasted. The road is clean, not only around the airport but all the way in to town. There are two lanes and a shoulder and people are obeying the traffic rules and driving in the correct lanes. In Indonesia there would be at least four unofficial lanes on this road and ojeks (motorcycles) crisscrossing through the imaginary lanes. Where am I? What is happening? Is this not Asia? Why is everything so well organised. I can’t process this. But that first day I especially cannot get over the fact how clean it is. This is an oasis. After a small nap in the hostel I make my way into town to buy a Lonely Planet and still there is not a single soul who asks me if I want a taxi. I get into the mall and nobody tries to sell me anything. It takes me some time to realise why the streets look so empty, but then I realise there are no improvised shops on the road and the side walk and nobody is walking on the street because the side walk is actually accessible. There are no massive potholes, no trees that take the space of the entire sidewalk. The mall is a bit old, but well-structured and once again nobody tries to sell you something that you haven’t asked for. Nobody wants to take a picture, nobody stares at you, although you are still one of the only white faces around there. What is going on here! Today I realise how long it has been since I walked through a city in peace. It feels amazing. Don’t get me wrong I love the buzz, the chaos and crowded streets of Java and I could have continued for a long time in that life style, but this is such an unexpected and welcome surprise. Everyone’s English is good. Therefore I reckon the majority of the tourist won’t bother too much in learning Bahasar Malay, basically the same as Bahasar Indonesia. The surprised look and smile on the people’s face when they hear you try to speak their languages is the same as in Indonesia and always pleases me. When I successful have purchased what I needed in the mall I sit down on a terrace on the side of the road filled with locals. The street remind me of lot of ordinary streets in Spain and if there wouldn’t be a lot of Chinese signs, there is a big Chinese community in Kota Kitabalu, and Asian looking faces, one would believe to actually be in a back street of a Spanish coastal town. The only difference is that people are actually working here during the day, while in Spain… I go through the possible itineraries of my last two to three weeks in Asia. The weather is still hot, but it has been long since I felt a breeze like this, and walking down the empty boulevard, that is exactly what you want looking at Pulua Gaya. The island is the only thing standing in between me and the South China Sea. The Lonely Planet states there isn’t too much to do in the town and that they understand you didn’t come to Sabah, the state, for urbanisation, but that you have to stay somewhere. From here you can book your tours and make up your itinerary. According to them the food is great, but other than that the city wants to answer the question: “How many empty malls can you build”. I reckon that they could also say. “Kota Kinabalu doesn’t have much to offer in terms of attraction. However if it is your first stop coming from the crowded Asian metropolis it will feel like a heaven where you can create plans for Borneo while enjoying a gastronomic feast”. Maybe one of the best things was that after having wondered through town all afternoon I expected to have a dark line on my feet where I wore my flip flops. There no such thing, my feet were still spotless clean.
Besides enjoying my trip I will try to answer the questions if and why Malaysia as a whole is better organised and so clean compared to Indonesia. My old friend William Paskell would say,” I don’t know the answer, but I will look it up for you”. Which for him was a cunning way to keep the other person satisfied, but especially a way of assuming the other person would forget and he didn’t have to disappoint the person. Maybe I will find the answer and otherwise I will look it up for you….

(5 days later I notice piles of rubbish along the highway, might have been an exception. Might have been a prove that where nobody watches the Malay toss just as much out of the window as the Indonesian)